The rattling of the carriage wheels on the cobblestones was loud in Seth's ears as his hands tightened in Mau's fur. She still hadn't shown any signs of waking.

Benjamin watched Seth for his reaction.

"The person who murdered my mother?" Seth repeated, dumbfounded. "My mother died ages ago, when I was still a baby."

Benjamin snorted. "Brat," he said jokingly, "it wasn't that long ago."

"It's been like ten years. I don't remember her at all." Seth had been given a memento of her by his father, a necklace. He lost that two years ago. While he'd been upset to lose something precious that had belonged to his mother, at the time he'd been more concerned at how upset his father would be at it being lost, so Seth never told him.

To Seth, his mother was more of an idea than a person. Something he always wanted, but would never have. Someone who loved him, but he would never feel that love. His father had been his only parent, and the one he missed and needed.

Neither Saben nor his father talked about her.

Benjamin chuckled grimly. "You might not remember her, but your father never forgot. And that person killed someone dear to me, too."

"So, you're looking for a murderer, and to find the murderer you're stealing magic powers. This doesn't make sense."

Benjamin shrugged. "The problem is, we don't know who we're looking for. I think the killer is a woman, but there's no way to be sure."

"A murderer could be anyone. If you need to find out who did something, don't you investigate the event?"

"We did that. Extensively."

"Then how do you not know who it was? Or have a list of suspects? What does this have to do with stealing powers?"

"I'm not going to explain everything, but I know a lot about the nature of the killer. She–or he– has certain interests. The ability to acquire power from others is definitely something she will want to know more about."

"It's bait," Seth said. "Does that mean I'm bait, too?"

"I told you I wouldn't lie to you, so, yes. In a way, you're bait too."

"Doesn't that go against what you just said about promising my dad that you'd keep Saben and me safe?"

"Not really. I don't think she'd harm you. If anything, I think she'd be more likely to try to make friends or win you over somehow. It would amuse her, I think, to have the son of one of her victims as a voluntary supporter. Then she'll likely work to make you completely dependent on her. At that point she'll reveal who she is and force you to continue serving her. "

"That's…that's horrible. Who would do something like that?"

Benjamin gazed out the carriage window into the night. "She's done it before."

Seth wondered if this killer had done something like that to his dad. Or his mom. Maybe the killer was the person making things hard for Saben.

"How do you know, if you don't know who she is? You said you're not sure it's a woman, either."

"There are quite a few things I'm not going to tell you. Knowing them will change your behavior, and might put you at greater risk."

If Seth knew the groups the killer might be involved with, he would investigate them. He realized that was probably exactly what Saben had done. Dad had probably told Saben a lot more than he'd told Seth. Seth really needed to have a conversation with his brother.

Seth suddenly realized he could be used as leverage against Saben. The killer could make Saben do whatever she wanted if Seth was careless and she got control of him.

Maybe Benjamin wasn't wrong to get Saben out of the city. Yet, stealing his brother's power was still unforgivable.

"So, you want me to find this person for you." How could he do that while keeping himself and Saben safe?

"No. I think this person will find you. Just keep doing what you're doing. Don't worry about messing up my plans or interfering with what I've got going on. There's nothing you can do that'll damage me."

Seth blinked. That was not at all what he thought Benjamin would want from him. "You don't mind what happened in Laureli? Or that we're looking into Hellena or Thurstan?"

Benjamin shook his head. "Those are Thurstan's projects. I don't actually care about them."

"Is he the one doing all the power thefts then? What about the Skulls?"

Benjamin shrugged. "As far as I know, talent thefts are Thurstan."

"Then why don't we go to the authorities! He should be arrested!"

"No, Seth. I explained this. Not only that, but the Palace isn't going to solve this for you. The power thefts won't go away or stop. Someone else will do it. People want power, and they'll do whatever they need to do to get it. Thurstan is at least small enough that I'm not worried about him upsetting the power structure of the region."

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"Small enough. You think there are more dangerous people?"

"Of course there are. Thurstan is a bigot and relatively stupid. That's what makes it easy to use him. The killer will either recruit him or kill him. I don't care which, so long as I can figure out who she is."

Seth thought about that. "You and Dad thought the killer was Thurstan's wife, Jonetta."

"Yes. I really thought so. Instead, well, you know."

Yeah. Seth's father died. "Jonetta's dead, too. How do you know it wasn't her?"

Benjamin smiled grimly. "I'm certain. Let's leave it at that."

"How about Gavin, then? Could he have been working for the killer? Or been the killer? He's the one who killed Dad."

"No, he wasn't the killer. She's still out there."

There had to be a reason they thought it was Jonetta, and why Benjamin was still working with Thurstan. Did he think Thurstan was still connected to the killer? If so, that would make sense why Benjamin didn't care if Seth interfered with Thurstan's plans. It would mess up the mysterious killer's plans, too.

"Did you give Thurstan the artifact he uses to steal powers?" Seth asked. He realized his fists were clenched tightly in Mau's fur, and moved her to the seat beside him. He brushed loose strands of fur from his fingers.

"No. It was already in Jonetta's manor, likely something left from an ancestor. I don't recommend you looking for it. That might get you into trouble too deep for you to handle."

"Where is it now?"

"You don't think I'm going to answer that, do you?"

Fair. He had to ask though. "You said you were fine with me doing whatever I'm doing. How is this different from what Saben was doing?"

"You are still messing with small-time thugs and low tier nobles barely worthy of the title. Dangerous, sure, but if you're not stupid, you should be fine."

Seth rocked back in shock. Thurstan and the Skull Gang were nearly more than he and his friends could handle. If these were small-time opponents...

"I will recommend you be more careful in your plans to raid the Skull Gang's house," Benjamin continued. He shifted in his seat and stretched out his legs, crossing them at the ankle. "Matthius is angry and vengeful, and probably the most dangerous person in your orbit right now. If you feel things are too dangerous, you might want to stick around school for a while, until they calm down. It should be safe enough. Beyond that, I'm sure that if I tell you to stop or back off something, you will. Saben wouldn't. He'd go after anything I told him to leave alone."

That was true. Saben hated being told he couldn't do something.

"I want to return Saben's power to him, and I don't want to die to do it. How can we do that?"

"Well," Benjamin thought it over for a moment. "I'm not going to let that happen. Not yet. Saben's trouble hasn't calmed down enough. I do have some avenues open, so when I feel it is safe to do so, we can see what can be done."

That's right; Benjamin had told him whoever was using the artifact hadn't mastered it yet. They were still testing and studying it. That reminded him of other study efforts. "The Circle Tower. You have people there, don't you?"

"I think you should leave the Tower be. It won't help you to know, and will cause you unnecessary trouble."

"So you are behind the sabotage." Seth sighed. "Why make that so much harder for everyone?"

"There are certain people I don't want interfering. If that nonsense keeps them busy for a while, it'll give me more time to find who I'm looking for."

Seth studied Benjamin. "How are you not worried about getting caught? If I went to the authorities, you could be thrown in jail for years. Someone else could catch on to what you're doing."

Benjamin's smile was sly. "Don't worry about that, Seth. Let's just say I've got that part handled."

If he had people in the Circle Tower, he could easily have other connections.

"I'm not your only bait."

"Of course not. I've been hunting this person for a long, long time. I've come so close to catching her multiple times. You are just one of many plans and options."

Seth remembered the note in the chest from the cave. The note from 'Mom'. He nearly asked how many children she had before he remembered that Benjamin didn't know who she was, so he wouldn't know if she had children. That bit was probably more related to Thurstan and his hunt for talents and the regalia. Seth realized he didn't know anything about Thurstan's family. It was worth looking into.

"What do you want from me?"

"Just be yourself, Seth. Keep doing what you're doing. Let me know about people who contact you or want things from you. Keep doing school."

"Is that really it?"

"Well, I wasn't going to ask for this right now, but there is something else I've been looking for. A specific talent. I need the school records of all students. Copies are fine. As I recall the security on the Administration Building isn't that tight. How about you get those records for me?"

Benjamin having records of all the talents the students had would make it easier for him to target and steal specific talents, or rather to let Thurstan do that. Sure, he might have a reason, but not enough for Seth to be comfortable selling out fellow students like that.

"What are you looking for? I could look and find it for you."

"No, I'd want all of them. What I'm looking for isn't something easy to see or spot. It's not like I can say 'take all sym maps with blue arms and variegated yellow feathers.' "

"Sym maps? Do you mean the tree images?"

Benjamin looked surprised for an instant before his expression smoothed. "Yes. That is what they are, I suppose. The names of things change based on who you're talking to. Tree images."

The carriage rocked to a stop.

"We can discuss this later," Benjamin said. "I'll have your friend brought to your room. He can sleep off the venom in Saben's bed, and I'll have you both brought back to school in the morning."

"Are you leaving?" Seth didn't know why that worried him.

"Yes. It's not a good idea for me to be in the city for any length of time right now. This issue should be resolved in a few weeks though, so don't be concerned. Ah yes, before I forget, ask John for your mail. Saben had told me he sent you a letter recently."

"You've spoken to Saben?"

"Of course."

So much of Seth's anxiety calmed at that simple statement. He realized he'd been worried something bad had happened to Saben, and he would never find out. But if Saben had talked to Benjamin and written a letter, then he had to be fine.

"He's in Vernar at the Below entrance there. He's been spending a fair bit of time down Below, but we did have an opportunity to catch up," Benjamin explained.

He hopped out of the carriage and Seth followed, carrying Mau. The footman gestured him inside Benjamin's townhouse and then he and the coachman carried the unconscious Owen into the house and up the kitchen stairs to the small servants room.

Seth was left alone in the kitchen with a bowl of soup. Benjamin and both the footman and coachman had gone upstairs to the office.

John, Benjamin's butler, met briefly with Benjamin and then was seated on a chair at the top of the stairs with a single candle burning. Seth got the feeling he was there to prevent Seth from roaming the house. It didn't matter. He had so many things to think about, so many things to sort through, that he didn't care about searching for more secrets.

Seth was washing up the bowl a short while later when Benjamin and his servants left. Seth realized he had no idea what had happened to Ned's body.

He didn't notice the sealed sack being brought inside. Benjamin hadn't said anything about it, and Seth knew he shouldn't ask John about it.

It made Seth nervous that he had no idea how that was being handled.

He headed to the little room. Owen was sleeping on the bed Saben usually used. They had taken his shoes off and put a sheet over him.

Seth lay down on his narrow bed, pulled Mau close, and waited for her to wake up.

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