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Sophie would like it on the record that, when she accepted the job, she didn't know that the Librarian had to do so much bloody politics. She could be out healing the sick, like Natan in his day. She would love to be out healing the sick. Instead, she's in one of the innumerable studies of Hush House, searching for a book for Hokobald, even though she wishes dearly that she could toss him out on his shiny arse. She doesn't mind helping out Yvette, or Arun, or really most of the others. It's just Hokobald in particular who should really go fuck himself. But it is her duty to remain strictly neutral, and she takes that duty seriously. So she'll find his damned book, and watch like a hawk while he reads it. And should he happen to violate that neutrality himself, well, she might have a few things in her pockets to introduce him to. (Swaddled Thunder isn't casual to make, nor the Rubywise Ruin in case of violence. But she's made them enough to feel they're replaceable, at least.)
"Oh! Right, yes." Ridaya's brain obidiently switches tracks to Shiny New Topic.
She points to the creepy hand. "That is a Hand of the Mage. If you wear it around your neck, it lets you use the spell Mage Hand whenever you like, allowing you to pick up and move light objects from up to twenty five feet away."
Point at the gloves. "These are Gloves of Shaping. The let you sculpt stone, wood, or anything else that's about that sturdy or less like you were working with clay."
Luto is noot sure if they should talk more about Sophie's Whole Big Thing, but... she was the one who changed the topic. (Maybe she should bring it up later, though? She misses Vakt so much.)
Sophie puts on the gloves immediately. "The hand sounds quite useful, but... under the circumstances I'm used to, wearing it would mark me as a freak at best. Are these so common that people would recognize it as a general-purpose tool? ...is it not really someone's hand, that would be nice."
She winces. "...It is a real hand, yeah. They're definitely not uncommon, I feel like half the magic item shops I've been in have one?"
"I think that's the kind of magic item nobles love buying, right? For the taste of magical power without any hard work or risk involved."
"Hands of all things. Still, if I won't give people the wrong idea I'll wear it. Tuck it into my neckline, maybe." She does so; it mostly works.
Then something occurs to her, and she brings the ring she found out of her pocket. "I found this among the treasure, while we were recovering the personal effects. It didn't seem like one of yours, but – I liked the look of it, and I could feel some power coming off it, so I pocketed it. Do you know what it might be?"
She peers at it for a second, and then smiles and holds up her hand, showing off an identical ring.
"That's a Ring of Feather Falling! While you're wearing it, you'll float gently to the ground if you ever fall from a dangerous height."
"Oh, that's quite nice." She fits it on her left hand. (Under the glove.) "With that I think I'm fine to set to exploring this... place. You should try to let me know if something we face is dangerous enough that I should give you an assist, Luto, I can help guide your sword-hand for a bit."
She smiles, (though her eyes flick to Ridaya, who nods).
"-Ridaya is going to be a better judge of how worried we should be about what we're fighting, but we'll definitely keep it in mind, thank you. Is it like -" and then she turns to Ridaya because she doesn't quite know how to word the thing she wants to ask.
"- so our magic has different ways of making people better at using a sword, and they work in different ways: some of them draw out the courage of the heart to make it easier to strike true, others give what is best described as an increase in skill (as though the wielder were more practiced with the blade than they actually are), still others by manipulating probability in the target's favor -" she interrupts herself, shaking her head.
"...I should not list them all right now, there's a bunch of weird small categories and I suspect you get the point!"
"Anyways, these things all feel different and can interact with each other in interesting ways, which is why it can be nice to know what to expect. How would you describe yours?"
"...closest to the last. It's as if, for a brief period of time, you can... decide how your battle went, in advance, and the world will oblige."
She thinks and then nods. "Okay, got it. And - is it the kind of thing you can use once every so often? Is it consuming some finite resource? Other constraints?"
"I can't do it all day, no – I can straightforwardly replenish my stocks of anything I use up in making it, but I have to exercise my soul for the 'final product,' so to speak. Maybe three times per day, or two if I want to leave open the option of healing someone."
Huh, neat. "At some point I would love to talk to you more about how your powers work! But now is not the time."
She smiles. "I will be aiming to leave open the healing option, Luto is very deadly and I am very good at setting things up for her, but neither of us can heal."
Hee.
"It's a good option to have; it's how I saved you both, when I arrived. ...incidentally, I've got something that should help if your wounds flare back up, and you should probably rinse them with it anyway next time we stop for the night. I almost forgot it."
She nods, inspecting her wounds at the mention. (They're healing what seems to be a basically-unsurprising rate.)
Ridaya's wounds, on the other hand, are - a surprising amount better than they were when she went to sleep? Certainly not all better, but it's a lot faster than normal humans heal, by Sophie's experience.
(Neither her nor Luto seems at all surprised by this.)
Somewhat unusual, but Ridaya is also the one who barely needs sleep and doesn't eat, so Sophie's more or less set aside her biological assumptions.
"Shall we?"
The door opens onto a short descending staircase that empties into a semicircular chamber, about thirty feet across.
The flat wall opposite the stairs is dominated by a massive stone double door, almost three times Ridaya's height. It's carved with the profile of a hawk-headed figure holding a crook and flail. Warm amber light glows through the seams.
The air in here is warmer.