"I don't know how to think about that," Scyelen admits.

"It does take some practice, yeah. You can start with just what actually happened, as if you'd known everything ahead of time - if you'd known she was going to use the princess like that, would you have done anything different?"

"...no."

"Fouquet wanted me to break open the Vault. She. I already said I would save Henrietta first. I couldn't have done anything differently because Fouquet would've just forced me to Dispel the Vault anyway."

He nods. "If I'd known everything that I know now, I would have tried throwing a knife at her before that first teleport. I'm not sure it would have worked, and I don't know if it would have helped even if it did, but it might have. And even if I'm not sure it would have worked, I think it was a better move to try it."

Scyelen perks up a little, looking up at him.

"That's right. Your runes. You used them, and they worked. Maybe you could've hit her with a knife."

"Maybe! I wasn't expecting them to do that much but it feels like they're really good."

Scyelen nods.

"I guess you haven't really needed to fight for me before now. Do you think you could get them to work again, for, like, practice? They're also supposed to let us see through each other's eyes, but that's true of most familiar bonds, actually..."

"I have no idea, but we should try it. With the knife and with a couple of my walking sticks, too, I have some that are meant for fighting with."

Scyelen nods in agreement. Fidgets.

"The, um, it's supposed to be 'any weapon', right?"

"Mmhmm. Why?"

Scyelen blinks at this sudden swerve in the conversation. "Why what?"

"Why do you ask, I mean."

"Ask? I was... You were talking about trying weapons."

"And you asked if any weapon would work, I wanted to know if you had something in mind." Squeeze. "It's fine, I have a few. I'm already pretty good with a staff, I wonder if that'll make a difference."

"It's supposed to work with any weapon," she amends. "As far as we know? So, it. You have... It doesn't matter what you use as long as it's a weapon? But we don't know exactly what counts as a weapon..."

"Well, I can try it with one of my sticks that isn't meant to be a staff, that seems like it'd tell us something. If it works outside of an emergency at all, I mean, we don't know that, either."

"Do you still have the, um, divination? From... the day we met. Or you could, um, just try."

"I do, but it won't work unless trying will too, and I'm going to want to see. We don't have to do it in front of everyone; it might even just work here." He reaches into his belt for the knife he had earlier, to check that.

Scyelen gives him a confused stare. "If you still have it, why can't we just read it again?"

Just holding the knife doesn't seem to do anything.

"Oh, the - I didn't write it down, I don't think." He gets out a notebook to check, setting the knife down beside him to do so. "No, I didn't. It wasn't very specific, anyway. It did say something about defending your life or pursuing your goals, but it looks like wanting to test it out for you isn't enough, I didn't get anything from holding the knife this time."

"Oh."

Scyelen looks at the knife thoughtfully.

"You're not... defending my life right now. But the other part, pursuing my goals? Um... Maybe the problem is that I don't really have any goals right now?"

"Mmhmm. It did seem like you wanted to know, but maybe it wants more than that."

Scyelen tries to think of something immediate she wants that she can actually have. She fails.

"Um, maybe I can, like..."

She slips out of Raafi's arms and goes to pick a book off her shelf. She turns around and crouches down, then she pushes the book under the bed until she can't reach it anymore.

"So, um, now I can't reach it, can you help me get it back?"

He picks up the knife with the intention of going and doing that.

The moment he forms the intention to act on Scyelen's behalf (in a way that doesn't recurse on the runes themselves) strength and prowess floods into him, more than enough to lift Scyelen's massive bed up on one side effortlessly.

And there's something else, too. Something laying dormant, like a closed door in his mind. Scyelen feels the same door appear in her own mind, subtle, but present.