bewitched armor

[thaumobabble]

There are plenty of things to do. Bella orders a carpet to enchant so she can commute to and from Reformist Wizards efficiently and move house. She starts combing through the castle library to find background material on her Minor Technical Issue.

Sometimes she watches Sherlock cook.

Sometimes she watches Tony forge. (Nnnnf.)

Comments

[thaumobabble]

Bella stops a few steps away and puts her specs on for lack of anything helpful to offer.

[calendarofcrime]

She is surrounded by threads of royal magic, and there is some kind of communication going on between her and them. Nothing beyond that is clear.

[thaumobabble]

Bella flicks between lenses but gets no further detail. She puts her specs away. She waits.

[calendarofcrime]

Eventually, she drops her hands and reports.

"I traced her route from the castle to the edge of the forest. She encountered a small party of wizards at the fringe. They left together. No more detail is available, but one can assume she did not go willingly."

[thaumobabble]

Bella swallows.

[calendarofcrime]

Sherlock puts on her armour.

"Are you coming?"

[thaumobabble]

"We should tell your mother, or at least leave a note, I didn't see her anywhere when I was fetching the armor. But yes, I'm coming."

[calendarofcrime]

"I've told the forest," says Sherlock. "She'll know."

[thaumobabble]

"...Okay. Should I get the flying carpet?"

[calendarofcrime]

"Yes, please," says Sherlock. "We will need it when we leave the forest."

[thaumobabble]

Bella runs back into the castle - the armor, unlike her moccasins, can handle running - and comes out with the carpet. It won't fit in her sleeve; she props it on her shoulder.

[calendarofcrime]

Sherlock can't use the monarch's transport spell, but she can walk into the forest and have it spit her out of the desired edge a few minutes later.

[thaumobabble]

Bella follows closely, preoccupied, thinking about what could have made her window explode.

[calendarofcrime]

"What sorts of things make magic windows explode?" she asks as they emerge from between the trees.

[thaumobabble]

"Looking at locations that are unfriendly to divination. Some places have that naturally - there are spells that will do it, almost certainly including wizard spells. It's also possible that I was caught looking and the explosion was someone deliberately reacting to it." Bella rubs at her cheek; bits of dried blood flake off.

[calendarofcrime]

"No one likes to waste," Sherlock remarks. "If they had a location with that property available, they may well have put her there to avoid the expenditure of having to bespell it themselves."

[thaumobabble]

"Quite possibly. I don't know this area, though, and even though I could heal myself I'm not fond of the idea of having my specs explode while I wear them to look for it..."

[calendarofcrime]

"That should not be necessary," says Sherlock. "We can follow them until we find either a wizard or the residue of a transport spell. The former will yield answers to me, the latter to you."

[thaumobabble]

"I've - I think I told you I'm good with glass - I don't have a lot of non-spec-based divining options. If you can point me at the exact location of some transport spell residue I can put it through my marble and have a look at it that way, but I don't have a good method for finding it in the first place unless we want to spend hours sitting here while I think of something."

[calendarofcrime]

"I will easily be able to pinpoint the exact location of the transport spell residue, if we come upon it."

[thaumobabble]

"Okay then."

[calendarofcrime]

"In the meantime: this way."

[thaumobabble]

Bella follows solemnly.

[calendarofcrime]

Sherlock seems very sure of where she is going, despite a lack of obvious signs.

[thaumobabble]

Bella starts murmuring to her marble. Something about whatever she's doing makes her look tired.