"Right. But it might be something I could use as leverage, make useful. The odds are against me. Every little thing I can get my hands on could help."

"Indeed."

"I don't suppose you could give me a list of abductees that are still alive that might be willing to help? If they're not Majokko, they'll have a lifespan that hits double digits."

"I don't have such a list, unfortunately. But the compass would let you locate 'the nearest Kukla.'"

"Yeah, I'm getting the compass," says Blair. "No doubt about it. It's too useful."

"I agree. The intelligence it grants is invaluable."

"It's valuable enough that - is there a way I could keep from losing it? Magically via Majokko spells, with one of the fifths of the magic, et cetera?"

"I could make it a power inherent to your mind for no extra price, but then you would not be able to lend it to another. Perhaps you could purchase both an internal and an external compass?"

He considers.

"How useful would the mana battery be?"

"An insulating cushion of extra mana is a luxury few Majokko have. That extra capacity could very well save your life in a desperate situation. From day to day? Perhaps not the most useful of gifts. But when you need it, it will be in an emergency."

"And it's not possible to make the compass - I don't know, tied to me, so I can retrieve it if I focus?"

"If I could do that for the compass, the same enchantment would be more useful on the spear. Which you already asked about. So no, I cannot."

"Worth a shot," shrugs Blair. "I don't know how any of this divine magic works."

"It was a good thought, however unfortunately flawed."

The angel stretches her wings and runs a hand through her metallic hair.

"Any powers available to anyone that lets them retrieve lost objects?"

"Nothing springs immediately to mind. Some Kukla can view things from a distance, but that's of no help if you can't identify where the object is."

"Pretty much." Sigh. "I don't want to have an internal compass, because it's incredibly obvious that I am incredibly likely to be dead in a decade. It'd be lost, and that's one less useful thing against the shadows floating around in the world. How good are shadows at burglary?"

"Decent, but some Kukla have the ability to flawlessly perceive everything within their auras. In the right hands, it might be exceedingly difficult to steal."

"Mm, but I can't guarantee finding a Kukla that could offer that like I can guarantee demonic blood for the spear," he muses. "And I do not want them to have the compass. Ever."

"We could build a self-destruct into it such that if a Shadow ever holds it for more than ten seconds, it will explode?"

"... Okay, that helps. Maybe make it longer, though, so it can potentially be retrieved, and built so you can't game the system by only holding it briefly - it being touched by a Shadow starts a twenty four hour timer to self destruction that stops when picked up by a non-Shadow? .... Hm, but then if there's ever a non-Shadow that is evil, we have a problem..."

"I feel that it's better to risk an accidental destruction than the compass falling into the hands of the shadows. If we make the timer that short, it will prevent explosions from casual contact, while still making possible handling time short enough that the shadows cannot discover the self-destruct until it's too late."

"They can discover the self-destruct? Okay then. Ten seconds of uninterrupted contact with a Shadow."

"I wouldn't put it past some of the Masters to inspect it minutely. They are accustomed to assassination attempts."

Nod. "Fair enough. All right then. How big of an explosion can we manage?"