That rang a bell. “Wait,” I said. “It’s a signature lock?”

“The very same!”

“Okay,” Caldera said to me. “You know what he’s talking about, right? Any chance you could say it in English?”

Landis watched with interest, steepling his fingers, and gave me an approving sort of nod. “It’s a type of security system,” I said. “I’ve read about them, but . . . oh.” Suddenly it all made sense. “That’s why the thing didn’t respond. I mean, I was looking for a password, but if it’s signature-based—”

“Then no more use than common pebbles!” Landis looked very happy. “So nice not to have to explain everything, you wouldn’t believe how slow these young fellows can get.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t get it,” Caldera said, “so if you don’t mind slowing down for the benefit of those of us who don’t spend their free time messing around with magic items, maybe you could spell it out?”

“It’s a data focus,” I said. Now I understood how the thing worked. “Mind magic core, you channel a bit of energy in and access the information telepathically—you guys use them, right?”

Caldera frowned. “Those things? We stopped using them years ago. Capacity’s great but you can’t transfer the data, and finding anything is a pain in the arse.”

“But those were the regular kind, right?” I said. “Anyone could use them?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Because these are signature locked,” I said. “That’s their selling point. They’re made in a morphic state, can’t hold anything to begin with. Once a mage uses them, they shape to that specific magical signature and they won’t react to anyone else. Kind of the magical equivalent of a DNA lock.” I glanced at Landis. “Right?”

“Seven out of ten!” Landis said. “This particular design is set to two signatures, not one.”

“Does that mean we can read it?” Caldera asked.

“’Fraid not, dear girl. Set, locked in, and unchanging for ever.”

“Any way to break the encryption?”

“None whatsoever. Otherwise they’d hardly keep using the things, given that searching for any one particular piece of data inside them is, as you so succinctly observed, a pain in the arse.”

“So it’s useless,” Caldera muttered, and rose to her feet. “Damn it.”

“Just a second,” I said. “What was that you said about Council politics?”

“Well, Council are the only ones that use ’em, aren’t they? The old-fashioned isolationist types. Dull buggers, the lot of them, but if you’re going fishing for the owner, that’s where I’d try. Here you go!”

Landis tossed the focus to Caldera, who caught it and shook her head. “Yeah, that’s not really an option. Thanks for the help.”

Caldera and Landis said their good-byes, and Caldera disappeared downstairs with Variam following. I was about to go after them when I heard Landis say, “Oh, Verus?”

I stopped in the door and turned.

“You might be getting into deep waters.” All of a sudden, Landis’s voice was serious. “I’d be careful who you trust the next few days if I were you.”