News spreads pretty quickly about the knife's new location at the bottom of the ocean. Aldaras and Sintre become celebrities, along with being rich. Sintre is nigh-impossible to find in his hermithood. Aldaras - is not. The necklace is his. The mission to go encase the knife in concrete was organized by him. He's now deemed to be an important person, and as bewildering as that is, he works to roll with it.
He ends up invited to a party. It's the type of party with lots of important, famous people attending. He can bring one guest with him.
Right, he knows who he wants to bring, but first he has to ask her. Time to go find Annie.
"I'll drop them off in a little while. I'll call you later if there are any updates, okay?"
And the call is concluded and Annie goes to sit in the exact center of the top floor of her house.
Aldaras retrieves Annie's homework with minimal explanation, drops it off at her house, and goes to retrieve his sister to start looking for the artifact-stealing thief. Zevaia comes along without fuss.
To the phone, to call Annie.
"Pour some kind of solvent into the vase, let it sit, have someone with gloves on dump it out?"
"I haven't asked how they're getting it out, that might be it, I just got a note about them finding it. I'll give them that advice, though. It's clever."
"Well, it's unlikely to harm the artifacts - they're sure the thimble's not in the same place, making this a prank more than a theft?"
"You'll be the first person I tell. Maybe we'll get lucky and find out it hasn't left the building at all."
"It'd still mean there was probably an unethical mindreader wandering around, but not likely a gang of them..."
"Thanks. I'll keep looking for it. Vai's helping, and I think there are some other trackers that want to touch the necklace so they can sneak up on any mindreaders."