"I think you have some reasons to be, sweetheart." He sighs. "You had some good reasons to be scared the day I got here, and that wasn't a new problem, and it hasn't really gone away yet. And when it does, what you've been through will still be a reason; it takes people a while to figure out how to be okay after something like this."

Scyelen is confused.

"After something like... what?"

"You were expecting them to exile you, sweetheart."

"That had nothing to do with taking away my sexual choices."

Scyelen knows how disingenuous this is as a rebuttal, but she doesn't... can't... think about what she would do if stripped of her noble status. That whole region of thought is just covered in no-entry signs.

"No, but it hurts people in the same kind of way. The hurt comes from not being in control of something important, it doesn't matter what." Squeeze. "It's okay that that scares you, it's a scary kind of thing."

Scyelen shakes her head, and says in a small voice, "No one's ever in control of all their important things. No one."

He gives her a squeeze and doesn't say anything for a minute.

"We should see what this book is, before we get there."

"That's... probably a good idea? Mott didn't say anything about delivering it, um, unopened, or anything."

"Yeah. All right, I'm going to cast a magic detection spell - don't interrupt me, I'll lose it before I have a chance to see everything."

And - Detect Magic?

Something magical was used in the curing process on the leather. Otherwise, it's just leather. The lock and key are mundane metal as well.

"So far nothing very interesting-" he opens the case and looks inside.

As promised, inside the case is: a book. A book that Raafi will recognize.

Not the specific book, but the general type - gnomish make, with the characteristic detailing and obvious magical signature of a moving-picture book. It's titled The Book of Erotic Fantasy, in the common tongue of his world.

"...huh. Well, there's no problem giving it to him, at least."

"Oh, good."

Scyelen can't read the title.

"What is it?"

"It's - illusion magic, my world's type. The title is in one of my world's languages, too. It's pornography, most likely, I'm not going to check - it'll have moving pictures on the pages."

Moving pictures of-

Scyelen wants dearly to ask if she can look inside, but that's way too embarrassing actually and instead she just blushes.

Wait, "this is from your world?"

Yeah, if he'd been able to check it last night he might've left her alone with it, but as is, the carriage isn't that big.

"Mmhmm. I have no idea how it got here - I mean, we have magic for going between planes, but I've never heard of a second one like the material plane before, and I would expect to have if anyone knew about it at all."

"That's... how long have the Zerbst had this? It... can't have gotten here the way you did... right?"

"She said thirty years. I guess if someone was summoned carrying it? But I haven't heard of that, either, here or there."

"That can't be... if there were other human familiars... that would mean there were other secret Void mages, in non-Brimic countries no less, and that would mean... I mean, that has to be impossible, right? Someone would've been discovered before..."

"I don't even know enough to guess. What's it like where Kirche is from?"

"Germania? I've never been there. Our families are technically in some kind of feud, actually, but Kirche... I mean, I didn't really... notice... that she'd stopped until Miss Vaux pointed it out, but when we first started at the Academy I think she was... expecting me to be her rival, or something. Now that I think back... I think she assumed she'd 'won' after, like, the first week? And after that she was just... being herself at me."

This gets a little squeeze. "That doesn't tell me much about what kinds of magic they might be doing there. Maybe I'll have to go and check."

That idea makes Scyelen nervous but she can't think of an actual reason not to, besides the feud she already mentioned. She just nods.

"I'll be careful, sweetheart. It really is safe for me to do most things, if we don't mind people seeing me teleport away from them if they go bad."