As Sophie continued to describe the many magical and fantastic things stowed in Fyrton’s vaults, Claire felt memories settle around the picnic blanket. This felt just like all those times before, when Sophie had outlined which Experience they were about to do next. But those stories had all been carved from Sophie’s imagination, and what her sister was describing now—a waterfall of steaming silver; gowns of woven platinum—was real. Sophie had actually seen and done what she was describing; these weren’t just descriptions of a wish.

“Yes, yes,” Sena slipped in while Sophie paused to take a breath. “We saw a lot of things—but no unicorn.” The Forger girl was sitting on a stool next to a cluster of candlesticks and the brighter light of Nett’s marimo, a mossy plant that grew in a ball that had once belonged to his mother, before she’d died in a wraith attack. In the bright light, Claire saw Sena’s hand drift uselessly over Fireblood’s hilt, her fingers locked in place by the golden gauntlet.

“And all those treasures,” Sena continued, “were shiny, which meant this one”—she jerked her head toward the high shelf where Gryphin was perched, happily lapping a saucer of vegetable oil—“couldn’t keep his beak to himself.”

“It was terrifying,” Nett said, his brown eyes darkening for a moment. “Gryphin angered a suit of armor, and so Sena had to duel it to save his tail. But she slipped and accidentally grabbed onto the gauntlet, which immediately clamped onto her. After that, she couldn’t touch anything that didn’t belong to her without the gauntlet turning red-hot—you know, making her caught red-handed. But Sena did manage to rescue Gryphin.”

“It wasn’t worth it,” Sena muttered as she glared up at the shelf.

“Ignore her,” Nett said, taking a bite of biscuit. “She luffs Gryffffin.”

“I do not!”

Nett swallowed. “Whatever you say,” he said amicably, but as soon as Sena looked back at her hand, Nett mouthed, she does.

Realizing she was losing her audience, Sophie quickly summed up the rest of the tale. “We were a bit loud, but luckily, Scythe was already on the lookout for us and he was the one who found us trapped in the Hall of Mirrors. He got us out, and brought us back here to see if any of his keys could unlock the gauntlet. We figured out pretty quickly it probably wasn’t going to work, and Scythe said that if Sena wanted to be able to use her sword hand again, the gold would have to be scraped off. He left us here to keep trying out the keys while he went to barter for a File Away, and then—well.” Sophie shrugged. “He returned with you.” She patted Claire’s knee, then took a sip from her own goblet.