five | dictated.

[kethedammit]

[His voice is high-pitched and excited, with each word spoken strongly and clearly. It's the voice of a young boy, one whose voice hasn't yet broken, though it's beginning to; it cracks several times during the span of the post.]

Nikah told me a story about a haunted book, once; he said that's what happens to hocuses when they read too much and then they die in their libraries and nobody finds the body for days and days. And then their ghosts get trapped in the books, see, and the books all start talking and shit, and that's why the Mirador declares a-po-sta-sy sometimes, because then a hocus'll read the haunted books, and his head'll all get turned around. But I think I'm okay, because I ain't reading none of this and I ain't no hocus and my head's too empty to get turned around by magic anyhow.

Zephyr says... oh, um, nevermind about that shit.

So anyways, this one time, Jeanne-Mer told me about her momma, who she said was a princess, but I don't believe her, though she swears it by the Septad Gate and Mélusine’s cunt all the same. Anyway, she said that her momma lived in a big castle, with all the nice wallpaper and paintings and vases, and pretty people in nice clothes all going about their business. I wonder if that's like this.

[A pause.] Okay, bye.

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Comments

[thraxios]

No, I suppose you don't.

Is he a friend of yours?

[kethedammit]

Uh. I 'spose he is. He's real clever.

[thraxios]

People with secrets usually are. [They are, after all, the ones clever enough to keep them.]

[kethedammit]

Uh, yeah. Guess you're right.

He says most of Nikah's stories're [Mildmay says the words slowly, trying to get it correctly, just as Zephyr would say it:] sensationalist pablum, and also how books can't be magicked the way they is in Nikah's stories.

[thraxios]

You're right - Zephyr sounds clever.

It might be possible to trap a soul in a book, but it would take more than dying near it. Dozens of the books in the Mirador would be haunted in that case.

[kethedammit]

Really? [TELL HIM A GHOST STORY, GIDEON-- wait no that isn't cool gotta stay cool and clever and not scared.] I- I mean, uh. How'd you know? You seen it?

[thraxios]

I haven't personally, no - but from what I've read, I doubt it's outside the realm of possibility. It would just require a wizard with a great deal of imagination, time, and cruelty.

[kethedammit]

So, a Mirador hocus.

[thraxios]

[OH, MILDMAY. Gideon might be snickering silently to himself. Luckily, he's alone in a room and writing in a book, so no one will ever know.]

I think it would be beyond their usual malevolence, but - essentially.

[He won't deny they have enough time, after all.]

[kethedammit]

What's that mean?

[thraxios]

Wanting to do wicked things out of spite, essentially.

[kethedammit]

Huh. Yeah, I wouldn't say that's just the Mirador hocuses.

[thraxios]

I'm afraid malevolence isn't in short supply, especially among wizards.

[kethedammit]

Where you from? [You talk funny.]

[thraxios]

Most recently, Mélusine.

[kethedammit]

Lighthill or higher?

[thraxios]

Yes.

[Gideon could lie, he supposes, but he only sees pitfalls coming of trying.]

[kethedammit]

[...Oh, shit.]

Higher north, or higher... up?

[thraxios]

I lived in the Mirador. I spent some time in the Lower City, however.

[kethedammit]

...Why?

[thraxios]

[...There's an answer that would take far too much time and result in little good. Gideon decides not to use it.]

A friend needed help.

[kethedammit]

You gotta get better friends.

[thraxios]

Do you think so?

[kethedammit]

I dunno, do all your friends take you places where you'll get robbed?

[thraxios]

Only when they know where they're going.