Page 101 of The Fifth Heir

We examined the cabinet for nearly an hour.

Working beside her required almost no explanation. When I reached for a tool, she had already moved it within range. When she paused over a line, I angled the light before she asked. Twice our shoulders touched over the cabinet, and twice the wall runes brightened as if recording the contact among our findings.

The protective lines extended into the floor, where they joined the same hidden network connecting the rest of the Fifth Wing. Talia found the first return channel beneath the baseboard. I located the second inside a carved border around the ceiling.

Neither of us found the third.

Without it, introducing Shadow carried a measurable risk of activating every seal in the study.

I would have accepted that risk.

Talia would not.

“We need concentrated rune light,” she said. “The same kind we use to examine layered inscriptions in the Hall.”

“Can you retrieve one?”

“Master Orin won’t release a lamp without written authorization.”

“You’re an heir.”

“I’m also a junior keeper who wants employment if the academy sends me back.”

“Would you prefer I request it?”

“He’ll assume I encouraged you.”

“You did.”

“I asked for your help examining the cabinet. I did not encourage you to steal relic equipment.”

“I wasn’t planning to steal it.”

“What were you planning?”

“To return it after we finished.”

The runes shifted to orange.

I stopped myself from smiling this time.

The headmaster authorized the lamp.

Master Orin delivered it himself less than thirty minutes later and remained long enough to explain the handling procedure twice. He directed the second explanation at me, though Talia was the person setting the lamp on the study table.

It consisted of a silver base, a clear focusing lens, and five adjustable rune plates designed to separate overlapping layers of magic. The device had no flame. When Talia touched the activation mark, a narrow column of white light appeared above the lens.

She slid the lamp toward the cabinet.

“Angle the second plate,” she told me.

I adjusted it.

Light struck the cabinet runes and divided around their edges. The first protective layer turned blue, the second gold. A third appeared beneath both, too faint to identify.

“The return channel,” Talia said.

She leaned across the table and reached for the final plate.