Bastion

them, because they got whisked away for the Archivists to try to match up with drawings in the records. You say this one is dead, though? You’re sure?”
    :Dallen?: he called, instead of answering.
    :I’m following. It’s just a bit of agate. Nothing special about it except that it is rather pretty, and the carving is exceptionally well executed.:
    “Dallen says it’s harmless,” he reported.
    “It’s a very handsome piece, and the carving is exceptional,” mused Lita, echoing Dallen’s words. “If this is a piece from the hands of your blood relatives, they are remarkable craftsmen.”
    “Well, I wish they’d use that skill for somethin’ else,” he said dryly.
    “I’d like it eventually if you don’t want it,” Lita told him, “But I think you should keep it for now. It might unlock some more memories for you.”
    She handed it and a bit of cloth to him; he wrapped it in the cloth and thrust it in a pocket. She might be right, but he wanted to be absolutely certain that what seemed inert wasn’t actually sleeping before he mucked about with it. Or that it wasn’t going to form some sort of channel that a bad spirit could come through.
    On the other hand, the only way this piece could have come here was through his parents. So at long last, he really, truly, had something of theirs.
    “I can understand if you decide you want to keep it,” Lita continued, and smiled at him. “It’s the first thing you’ve ever gotten that was from your parents. If you only want to lend it to me so I can have it copied, that would be fine.”
    “Aye,” he said, slowly. “I think that’s what I’d like to do.”
    “Can I see that?” Jakyr had come up behind him while they spoke. Lita frowned fiercely and looked as if she would like to tell him to go away, but Mags handed him the bit of agate. Jakyr turned it this way and that, studying it. “I can copy it now, if you like. The carving, at least. I’ll do some rubbings and some wet-paper pouncings. That would be quite clear, and it would be easy for you to study. If that is acceptable.”
    He spoke stiffly, as if there were something behind his words that he was absolutely adamant about not saying aloud. Lita eyed him and slowly lifted an eyebrow. Mags was afraid she was going to say something sharp, but instead she said “That would be most helpful, thank you.”
    “Mags?” Jakyr asked.
    Mags shrugged. “Go ahead.”
    The Herald took the bit of stone off to the van, where most of the supplies for writing were kept. Mags tilted his head to one side and gave Lita an inquiring look. She was twisting a strand of hair around one finger.
    “Well,” she said, finally, “stiff-necked bastard that he is, that’s the closest I’m going to get to an apology from him, so I expect I had better take it.”
    •   •   •
    “...and I coulda sworn someone was watching me,” Mags concluded, as they all dined on smoked-venison soup and flatbread. “I ain’t never gotten that kinda feeling afore, except way back when . . . when that half-crazed assassin turned up in the blizzard, only we didn’t know he was at the Collegium at all. And when there was something just watching me, down at the pawnshop. But the thing at the pawnshop never moved from where it was, and this moves all the time. Sometimes it’s there when I’m alone in the back caves here, and sometimes it’s over at the treasury cave.”
    “It might be just that you associated the blizzard with a feeling of being watched, so since there’s a blizzard, you feel like you’re being watched,” Lita said reasonably. Then she frowned. “Except . . .”
    “Except what?” Mags asked, sharply.
    “Except I’ve gotten that feeling myself, recently,” she admitted reluctantly. “Under the same circumstances, when I am alone in the back caves. I almost wish now that talisman you found did have some trace of a spirit in it, because then I could put it all down to the presence of that.”
    “Well, it’s not just like the feeling I had at the Collegium,” Mags amended. “None of them talisman spirits liked me. At all. This don’t give me any feeling of bein’ hated. Just . . . watchin’.”
    “Well . . .” Bear flushed a little. “Make that me, too. Only when I’m alone. I just put it down to that I’d rather not be living in a cave. But . . . aye. Never when we’re out of here, only when we’re in here. It’s been going on for a while for me, since before