She does not detect any traps. Or poison, if she tries the other one.

Right.

Right.

Okay.

Well...It didn't detect trapped.  I'm gonna open iiiii--

Detect magic?  Why did I not try that first...

Uh

There's some references to doing it better or more precisely?

I think you're supposed to detect magic naturally

I found something for 'tracking spell traces'?

Oh, if it's supposed to be something I have out of the box I bet I can work that out.  Do gimme the spell trace tracker though please.

Magic Bloodhound.txt

(Appears to be a Druid thing? About falling into tune with all the natural flows of the world, and detecting the one that's out of place, then following it. It 'goes better if you have experience in the terrain you're attempting to track through, or familiarity with the specific location'.)

Hm.  Seems ill-suited to close work.  Doing it live it is, then.

Annnnd she will just be, meditating, for a bit.  Close her eyes, steady her breathing, put calm open music on, listen to the world and its magic and focus from there onto the letter in her hands...

There's a little bit of foreign-ness to the letter? If one were to render it from magic-sense into synaesthesia- A slightly spicy smell. And incense-y, maybe. A hint of old stones and settled earth.

Her own signature is overpowering it, washing it away. It seems to be the equivalent of body heat or scent, not anything structured.

...Huh.  Magicians leave passive traces.  ...Letter seems inert, so, wish me luck.

Time to open what she's only almost certain is just going to be, like, a courtesy call sort of thing, after all that effort.

How many times did you check this before you opened it?

Lol.

Most of my friendly warnings aren't even necessary, it seems. Nice super secret agents metaphor. Don't believe everything you read on the internet, and watch out for the stupid and hungry ones.

Want to meet somewhere (public) and chat about the wonderful world of magic?

W

And a phone number, and there's detailed line art of a smug six tailed fox at the bottom, burned into the paper in a display of pyromantic precision.

Ah.  It seems that my dream visitor does honestly want to chat; she gave me a phone number.

She muses, for a second, over whether she should do something like get a burner phone.

...That seems like far too much effort.  Her threat surface isn't the right shape for that, anyway.  Though she maybe should actually start using Tor.

Texting Foxy Dream Lady Kitsune?:

So I heard you might be the vixen of my dreams.  I can't really take the credit for the Foundation that caught your eye, for all that I did build one, but I can say I'd like to chat, too!  University center's ice cream place sound good?  I feel like I could stand to make up a *little* for the explosive encounter we had; you're hardly some black agency spook like I was worried about when I thought about the people who'd be interested in me.

Fair reaction tbh? I was going to prank you, soz.

Ice cream is fine with me. You'll recognize me since we met at night and sparks flew... Right?

...Be careful

And take notes. Obv.

Is what OS messages her.

To fox lady:

Pranks are a world away from black-bag conscription by personality rewrite or w/e, which is the sort of thing I'd been freaking out about.

And I do bet I could, alright, you have a distinctive signature when I'm looking - but in the interests of not leaving our next meeting to quite as much chance, I'll be wearing a university sweatshirt and this bracelet.

(Attached is a picture of the bracelet (but not her), one of those elastics with round beads; most of them are purple rocks, but it has a full rainbow of pride colors as a sort of accent segment.)

To OS:

OFC.  I'll be as safe as I can; I can only hope that's enough.

Uwu, you like my perfume? *blushy blushy*

C u soon

I'll be there in ~15 mins.

And off she goes.

Alex's contact is...

...Pretty obvious. A full fox head, long claw-like fingers, shoeless paws and a tail visible as she lounges on one of the plastic chairs. Nobody else seems to notice, though.

Wave wave smirk.

Alex waves!

She has a funny feeling she knows what her ward will tell her if she checks it, so she doesn't feel the need to bother.

She swings into the booth seating opposite the fox lady with surprising economy of motion for someone who clearly finds themself spending much more time behind a screen or in a book than out in the field.

"Well, hello there!  Fancy seeing you here - we met last night, but I don't think I caught your name?  Or what you'd prefer to be called."

"I've had a bunch of names. You can call me Wren. How 'bout you? I don't actually know yours. As you might've guessed- Everyone else sees a cute girl instead of a fox, and I can slap down something to make them decide we're obviously talking about a book or something. Yea or nea?"

Alex shrugs.  "That's your prerogative; I've already decided to be relatively open about the magic thing, but you haven't.  You can call me Alex, by the way."

"Then I shall. Don't ask me to do big magic demos though. I don't get it for free, unlike you."

Her metaphor for everything is, apparently, fire. Near invisible blue-white embers trace a wide sphere around the table. Something settles into place.

"Anchored to the table, not us, so we can go order ice cream fine. I think you said you'd treat me~?"

"I did indeed, and I sha'n't back down from my word."  Oh no, she's doing a flirty voice...

Send help, she's too gay for this!

Wren snickers.

"I like cookie dough. Or strawberry."

Alex orders...

Well, let's just say that Death By Chocolate isn't meant to be literal, but she's giving it the ol' college try anyway.

"And I'm covering hers."

Cookie dough AND strawberry, then.

When they sit down again, Wren says, "I imagine you're holding back a lot of questions. You can let it all out."

"So.  Many.  Questions.  Yeah.  Uh.  ...Shit, what were they?"

Alex's palm, meet Alex's face.

"Okay there are at least a couple that're coming to mind.  Probably.  Sometimes I could swear I'd lose my own head if it wasn't so firmly attached...

"So, how'd you find me, anyway?  I'm guessing the ritual?  It felt a lot bigger than anything else I've yet tried and clearly magic leaves traces behind just from the magician existing.  And who, or what, else might be looking?"