00 FROST 120
Thysbae carded a hand through the light ring of fur around his neck. With the set of Frost in full effect, so too was his coat coming in in places where he resembled his mother’s kin. Thick tufts of hair that would keep him warm, even despite the presence of clothes that would keep him warm. He’d been able to groom himself more thoroughly for the first time when he’d arrived at the estate. The change had been nice, but the trip they were taking now was a reminder of why he’d been brought to the estate in the first place.
All of the nice new clothes in his wardrobe and the spacious room had only been a surface distraction from his purpose. He was meant to assist in Order business, tied to the reconciliator he’d been assigned to. Dreyfus Monteliyet, a man of repute to match the family he was borne from. Thysbae could not be sure if he was meant to do anything along the lines of magic, but he understood there was a weight to the work the other did.
Mages were frowned upon. That much, the half-breed had been aware of. Perhaps moreso than his kin, but that might have been a bit of stretch. And there were varying degrees to how much they were disliked by the populace. There were magicks that were acceptable, and then there were those that tread the line far too close for society’s liking. He’d read something along those lines in one of the records kept in the estate library. A great, big room filled with books that climbed up the walls. He blinked, dizzy with the memory of having looked around it for the first time.
But what they might be doing was different from reading it in a book. This was — it was an investigation. He’d gleaned a little bit of information about it from the other records. There were more than a few reconciliators among the Monteliyet family, as he’d learned on that first day. Sitting beside one now on the way to one such investigation.
The half-breed glanced over at Dreyfus, the little report file in his hands. There was some space between them on the seat, and that made reading the words in small print hard. Enough that he scooted closer, squinted down at the page. Slightly easier, but he didn’t quite understand the words being used. Abbreviations to make for an easier read, perhaps? Or words very specific to the case that he had no prior knowledge of. He continued to scoot closer, until, finally it came to the point that he didn’t much care for boundaries with the burning curiosity that furrowed his brows.
He was practically in the other’s lap when he looked up. “What does it say? Is this about what you’re going to investigate?”