As expected, learning to unlock this device proved terribly time-consuming. Hours went by with little progress, punctuated by the sound of chimes in the background, much like the one I had heard during my conversation with Nouel. At some point, Loann came back to bring me food. By then, I understood the general principle of the thing: apply a light torque where the key should be, then push each pin in the correct order, locking them into place. Simple. Getting everything to stay in place turned out to be where all the difficulty laid. It did not help that the learning device appeared to be using a different type of spring for each pin. Some were easy to get a feel for, while others gave virtually no feedback.

“Still in the cell?” Loann remarked, sounding surprised. “Should I put the food on the table to motivate you?”

All too focused on what I was doing, I had paid his arrival no mind. Looking up to see what food he was bringing made me ease on the torque, freeing all the pins and ruining my efforts.

“It is getting somewhat frustrating.” I grumbled. “I still cannot get even half of the pins properly locked in place.”

“Oh. Half of ‘em, eh? Haven’t given the cell door a try, have you?” Loann said, a smile on his face.

The meal he brought today was nothing like yesterday’s bread and water. This time, I was being offered cooked meat and some strange-looking cereal. The smell, only now reaching me, would be hard to ignore.

“The thing’s here to teach you,” the man remarked. “It ain’t meant to be easy.”

Damn it.

It made sense now that he said it. Perhaps being too focused on solving this puzzle had prevented me from realizing the obvious: the pins were sorted by order of difficulty. It seemed they had never expected me to complete the whole thing to begin with.

Sighing, I disengaged the glass lock, letting it fall on my bed, and put the picks back in the satchel.

“I believe being hungry will make it much less likely that I succeed,” I argued, hoping Loann would abandon his idea.

“Yeah? Might prepare you for more stressful jobs, though,” he countered.

I had to admit; he had a point.

Instead of debating him further, I went ahead and tried to unlock the cell door. Not having the ability to see the pins was disconcerting, but I understood why Loann judged it to be easy. Telling when I properly set a pin proved to be no challenge. The lock’s size and its rigid metal frame transmitted all vibrations and even gave audible cues.

It still took me a while, though how long proved hard to gauge while concentrating. It felt very satisfying to manage the feat, despite how simple Loann had judged the lock to be. He was long gone by now, but the food did not have time to grow cold. It came with a wooden spoon, its meat cut preemptively, an obvious reminder that I was not yet trusted.

Once sated, I found myself with nothing to do other than practicing further. The thought occurred to me that all my successes so far involved being a thief. Not a pleasant realization, but I rationalized it was a matter of opportunities: I had yet to be given the chance to attempt anything else. Perhaps Nouel would be amenable to teaching me his pebble magic. His specialty might similarly lie in the retrieval part of that field, but it had to be a transferable skill. That, and he seemed to be a fountain of knowledge and quite willing to talk.

Motivated by my plans for the future, I placed myself in front of the exit door and tried picking the lock.

I carefully angled the pick and felt... nothing. Damn it! I was not even sure I had not just unset some of the pins I believed to be locked in. I sighed in frustration and removed the tools to reset everything. Loann had implied this was the next step after the cell door, but I was growing doubtful.

Time for a break.

A knock at the door startled me. That was confusing, because as far as I knew, people always entered this room unprompted.

I took a couple of seconds to recover.

“Who is it?” I asked, unsure of protocol in this situation.

“I have been told to make my presence known before entering,” an amused feminine voice said. “It seems they expected you to be in the door's way, for some reason.”

I failed to recognize who was speaking. Not Yaelle, I was sure of it.

“Oh. Right. Well, thank you for the warning. I am quite clear of the door,” I informed her. “It is locked, however, and I cannot open it.”

I did not hear any key being inserted, but the door opened nonetheless. To my surprise, it revealed a man. A guard! Well, maybe not a city guard, but some kind of armed official, given the uniform. It evoked the skin of a snake, its scales a metallic dark green. Even to my neophyte eyes, it looked too ostentatious to not be ceremonious. A black and gold baldric with a strange repeating pattern confirmed that impression. In fact, I remembered having seen that pattern on that strange statue yesterday. Its meaning still escaped me. A large sword hanged at the man’s side, which I understood to be expected regardless of his functions. He looked young, perhaps not even adult. Red marks on his pale ivory skin showed he was not yet accustomed to standing guard under the suns for too long.

It surprised me to notice that while his face made no effort at hiding his displeasure; there were no signs of uncontrolled aggressiveness. Perhaps he had been forewarned of my situation.

As the intruder warily advanced toward me, I recalled Loann’s instructions and tossed my satchel out of the way before raising my hands and backing away. It was the most sensible thing to do, after all.

An old woman entered next. She wore a similar armor to her bodyguard, although hers included a long black cape held by a fancy golden pauldron. The mysterious pattern, but more stylized, as if formed by the roots of a tree. Could it simply be the sigil of a family?

The most puzzling element turned out to be her lack of weapon. Everyone had a weapon. Except me. Well, I did have a dagger before, yes, but that was different. Or was it not?

I stopped my wandering train of thoughts to focus on her. The lady was scrutinizing me while rubbing her chin, clearly intrigued.

The attire left no doubt that she held a high station, and since the correct form of address was unknown to me, I chose a safe one, lowering my hands and bowing respectfully.

They were both still staring at me, but the guard had not drawn, only crossed his arms. No way to tell if what I did was a faux-pas.

“I have been told of your situation,” the old lady remarked, “but it is something else to see it in person.” She sighed. “Unfortunately, I am already late in my duties and cannot stay, but this needs to be done.”

A look of realization dawned on her face.

“Oh… I forgot. I rarely get to meet people still unaware of my role,” she explained with a smile. “I am Lady Azeline, official representative for the Lord of Honor.”

There was silence for a few seconds, then she frowned.

“This is not enough for you to understand, is it?” she asked rhetorically. “But I truly have too little time to expand on the implications. Simply put, consider that silence will not be held against you, but that no one can lie to me.”

I found myself utterly confused by her attempt at an explanation. Was she telling me I would suffer consequences for trying to lie, or was she being literal about it being impossible?

“Truth be told, you might very well be exempted from this rule,” she unhelpfully added. “It is, after all, what I am here to find out.” Lady Azeline explained. “If would you be so kind as to utter an obvious lie for me?”

Still perplexed by what she said, I tried to oblige. An obvious lie. It was simple, yet indecision gripped me as I hesitated about what lie to give. It had to be unimportant and innocent enough not to offend anyone. She had said multiple times that she was in a hurry, so I stopped thinking and went for the obvious.

“You appear not to be carrying any weapon.” I declared, changing my mind about what to say at the very last moment. This had not been a reasonable request. Lying would have been a mistake, I was now sure of it.

“Ah.” Lady Azeline sounded disappointed. “Not as interesting as I hoped. No matter, I have confirmed all I needed to. Thank you for your time.” And indeed, she was already departing.

Once she was outside the room, her guard nodded at me, then left as well. He closed the door and, as a quick tug confirmed, locked me in.

I did not care. My mind was still trying to untangle the implications of Lady Azeline’s test. I saw the whole exercise as flawed. I could have lied. It just made no sense to do so. Furthermore, how was Lady Azeline to know whether I had tried to lie and failed or purposefully misled her by telling the truth? In fact, was this not what I had done? Simply stating the truth was enough to break the test. Nothing had disproved my ability to lie to her.

I went for a chair, thinking all the while.

This meeting had not confirmed anything at all! We needed to check again. How could she consider the matter closed?

I was still pondering whether the lying test made any sense when the door opened again, revealing a smiling Loann with a cloak in his hands.

“Well, you’re still here! Guess you’re not immune to Concept manipulation, after all! Good. That would have meant trouble,” he said.

“I will admit: I am not convinced either way,” I told him, still baffled.

“Yeah, don’t worry about it. Concept manipulation is just too confusing,” he agreed. “Anyway, I know you aren’t done with your training, but we’ve got a job for you. Interested?”

He presented the cloak to me and I took it while nodding. This had to be the enchanted coverall solution Nouel had first proposed to make me less conspicuous. How that helped with a lack of soul, I had no idea, but I trusted the expert’s judgment.

I put on the cloak, retrieved the lock pick satchel, and followed Loann out.

The night sky was perfectly dark, showing no stars despite the scarce ambient light. I stopped looking up as this view of a giant void provoked unease, and focused instead on the old house we were standing in front of. It looked no different from the others I had seen. A chaos of differently sized stone bricks, the colors of which had faded long ago. A few pieces of wood extruding from the walls. Black shutters covering the windows. I would not have been able to give anyone a description that did not also match most of the neighborhood. There was not even a store in sight to refer to.

I had expected to see all of my new companions, but only Yaelle and her creature ended up joining us. Nouel’s absence was disappointing. I would have loved to discuss with him the conclusions of Lady Azeline’s strange test. I was sure he could shed some light on the matter, since he had also mentioned Concept manipulation.

Except for us, the streets were empty. People had to be sleeping at this hour. That, or the closed shutters marked this area as deserted. Not even a light peering out of them, either, and a silence that made the tiniest sound resonate. We were ready to begin.

Only… I knew nothing of the plan. Possibly because I was still not trusted. In fact, they had not given me my dagger back, making me the only one without a weapon. Well, one could argue that the beast was similarly unarmed, but I took no solace in that.

Yaelle made a sign. Time for us to pay attention, which I took to mean she was in charge. She had a serious expression, showing none of the flippancy from yesterday. Perhaps a consequence of the increased pressure on her shoulders.

“Loann and I will stay outside and make sure no one bothers you.” She explained to me. “Your job is to find a letter meant for Lord Neventer. We know it hasn’t been sent yet, so it should still be in the study room, somewhere.”

I expected further instructions, and indeed, after a pause, she continued.

“Oh, and the cloak stays with me.”

Loann nodded and walked away in silence.

I removed and presented the enchanted cloth to Yaelle. She took it, but kept looking at me, as if expecting something. That was fine, because I did have questions.

“What does the letter look like?”

“We don’t know,” she answered.

That meant I might have to go through stacks of the stuff. Not good.

“How much time do I have?”

“All night, probably.”

At least they were not being unreasonable on that point.

“What should I do if someone sees me? Or if I can’t find the letter?” I could not help but feel anxious.

“There’s no one inside,” she assured me, but started frowning. Maybe she was not so sure. “Whatever. If you see someone, just run. Now stop asking stupid questions and go.”

Still feeling woefully unprepared, I went to the door and pulled on the knob.

It did not budge.

Locked, obviously. I heard Yaelle chuckle as I got my tools out.

It was a sign of the door’s bad craftsmanship that, despite my nervousness making it much harder, it took me no more than ten minutes to get it to open. Hoping nothing inside would prove more challenging, I added illegal entry to the growing list of my misdeeds.