“And I can’t shield either,” Luna said. “So none of us can really. Though I guess Anne can do the ‘healer’s shield.’”

“Healer’s shield?”

“You let them shoot you, then you heal yourself.”

“I’d rather not,” Anne said mildly. “It still hurts.”

Anne had made enough for about six normal people, which was just as well since I was starving—one of the side effects of life magic healing. I wasn’t the only one, either. “I wish I could eat that much and stay that thin,” Luna told Anne.

“I don’t really have a choice, you know.”

“Yeah, but you still get to pick how much goes into body fat. That would be so—”

“Okay,” Variam said. “I’m preemptively cutting you both off before you start talking about your diets. What are we going to do about this assassin guy?”

Luna and Anne turned to me. “Right now, not much,” I said. “He’s long gone and we don’t have any way to trace him. I’m going to call Caldera in the morning.”

“What if he traces you?” Luna asked.

“Then we’ll just have to see who finds who first.”

“Do you still have it?” Anne said.

I went to my desk and took out the focus, returning to the dinner table to put it down in the centre. “So that’s the thing you nearly got killed for?” Luna asked, studying the green marble with interest.

“Looks that way. You guys seen one of these before?”

“If I had, it would have been on your shelves,” Luna said.

Anne had picked the focus up and was studying it curiously. She shook her head. “I don’t recognise it.”

“I do,” Variam said.

Luna and I looked at Variam in surprise. “Really?” Luna said.

“You don’t need to sound so bloody shocked.”

“You’ve seen one?” I asked.

“It was a different colour, but yeah, I think so. My master was doing something with it.”

“Doing what?”

“Dunno,” Variam admitted. “Wasn’t paying attention.”

“You and Luna have a lot in common, don’t you?”

“Hey,” Luna said to me, then looked at Variam. “Could you show it to him?”

Variam shrugged. “Got a lesson tomorrow. I can ask him then.”

Anne glanced at me. “Is that okay?”

I thought about it for a second. Variam can look after himself pretty well, and having the focus up in Scotland with his master would probably be safer than keeping it here. It did mean trusting Variam’s master with the information, but it wasn’t like the thing was doing any good sitting in my desk. “All right. Call us when you know anything?”

“No problem.”

| | | | | | | | |

We talked a little longer, but it was past midnight and it wasn’t long before everyone was yawning. Anne decided to stay over (she said she wanted to keep an eye on me). Luna wanted to go home but didn’t want to cycle back this late, so Variam gave her a lift. By the time I went to bed, the aftereffects of the healing had sunk in, and I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.