Serenity regretted trying to explain “invisible light”. The idea that heat could be seen wasn’t strange to Hale, but the idea that it was a wider range of vision instead of a special ability didn’t seem to work for him. He was looking for a graceful way to exit the discussion when Katya provided it.

“Is that light thing what you did to show us what happened at the Hall of Healing? I’ve seen some illusion shows, but that wasn’t partly translucent.”

Serenity shook his head. “I’ve been trying to figure that out. I think so; it’s the natural result of the show rune. Neither of the modifiers I applied should have changed that. The odd thing is that I could see it. I shouldn’t have been able to do that, and I still can’t quite figure out how I managed it. It has to have been in the psychometry spell. That would explain how I was able to feed a visible image into the rune.”

Serenity stopped, thinking about it. “I’d really like to know how I did that. A way to be able to see properly-” He’d really like to be able to see normally again. The world simply wasn’t the same without color.

“So your spell was all in the rune?” Katya sounded almost disappointed. “At least that makes sense. Where did you learn runes? And can you teach?”

Serenity chuckled. “No, the rune was only the part to let the three of you see the spell. I’m terrible at illusions. I can sort of do mental ones, but actual visible ones? I’m not an illusionist; I can affect the physical world, but I’m not even close to a good enough artist to draw with light without the Illusion affinity.”

“There’s an illusion Affinity?” Katya sounded almost offended.

“There are all sorts of Affinities. I believe Illusion is a composite of the Light and Sound Affinities but I’m sure there are other ways to get there. You’ve seen illusion shows?”

Katya waved Serenity’s question away. “You said you didn’t use a spell.”

Serenity shrugged. “Magic is intent. I’m sure you were taught that. A spell is a way of focusing intent in a repeatable, reliable manner.”

Katya nodded along as Serenity explained. “Which is why you use spells.”

Serenity shook his head. “No, it’s why you’re taught using spells. There’s a big difference between the two. I’m sure you know the difference between a Mage that just uses Path Spells and a Mage that knows independent spells as well?”

“Path spells are better but having both gives flexibility.” Katya stated it like she was reciting a lesson.

“Better? That’s a matter of definition. For combat, usually, they are. Path Spells are faster and generally more efficient. The main downside is that they don’t use your Affinity as well. Learned spells have a lot of the limitations of Path Spells, but without the advantages. I prefer using my Affinities. It’s harder to learn to do, and you still have to learn a lot of details. Concepts are far more important with direct Affinity use …” Serenity trailed off.

Putting it like that really made the point of why so many people were taught rote spells at low Tier. Rote spells didn’t depend on understanding Concepts. Serenity remembered when he’d become Vengeance. He’d spent the entire Tutorial studying Death in all its forms, and he’d worked out a number of things he wasn’t taught. Extreme focus could do that, and he’d spent his entire time with Death. He’d never had the limitation of a low Concept with Death magic.

It was a bad time.

Someone grabbed Serenity’s arm. He started to shake them off, before he realized it was Raz, telling him they’d arrived and he’d walked past the building.

The Messengers’ House was busy, but everyone other than the four of them seemed to know where they were going. Most of the people leaving had a large bag strapped to their backs, while the ones arriving tended to be carrying less. They looked around, then Hale called out, “This way, follow the signs,” and led them around the corner.

Serenity couldn’t see whatever sign Hale was looking at, so all he could do was trail along behind.

There were a couple more turns, then Serenity saw a short line. Everyone in the line seemed to be carrying a letter or a package; several had more than one. The room itself felt slightly dingy, worn but clean; there was a set of three counters, but only one had anyone standing behind it - a short human woman with her hair pulled back into a bun. Behind her were several baskets filled with packages and letters and past that was a wall with a single opening closed with a cloth hanging instead of a door.

They didn’t have to wait long to get through the line. “Who is your package for?” The woman on the other side of the counter asked Hale.

Hale stumbled a bit as he replied. “It’s not - we’re not sending it. We’re trying to find out who it’s from.”

The woman shook her head. “That should be on the package.” When Hale didn’t move she stuck her hands out. “Hand it over.”

Hale handed her the empty box. She turned it to the side and shook her head. “We didn’t deliver this. It looks like it was probably dropped off at the door; it’s not marked correctly.”

Katya’s voice overrode Hale’s. “It was definitely brought by a messenger. A few days ago, he had a Messenger’s badge on his shoulder. It was delivered directly to Guildmaster Hollis. He had short blond hair?”

“Do you know how many people are in the Guild? That’s not even close to a good enough description. Plus, personal delivery costs extra. That would be noted. I told you, we didn’t deliver it.” The woman handed the box back to Hollis and he took it.

There had to be more information.

Wait. If the information wasn’t on the box because it was done outside channels, that made finding the person who delivered it even more important. He’d delivered two things; the other was a letter, and surely the Guildmaster of the Mercenary Guild would go through the Messengers Guild for deliveries? “Show her the letter.”

Hale turned towards Serenity. “What?”

Serenity took a step forward and spoke quietly to avoid being overheard. “The letter that was delivered at the same time. You have it, don’t you? Show it to her.”

“Oh, the one from-” Hale stopped and reached into the pocket he’d put the letter in. “This was delivered at the same time, by the same person.”

She seemed a bit reluctant, but looked down. “Yes, we delivered that. It’s marked correctly, and here-” She tapped a spot that looked the same as the rest of the surface to Serenity, “Rush delivery direct to the Guildmaster. That’s what should be on the other one too.”

“Do you know who did the delivery? We know he delivered both at the same time, so maybe he can help us.”

The woman gave Serenity a look he could only interpret as “if that’s what it’ll take to get you to get out of the way and let me do my job,” before she turned around. “Dezan! Any idea who’s on the route that includes the Healing Hall? Probably about four days ago?”

A man’s voice floated towards them from the back. “Rakyn always has the Hall. He’ll do extra work to get that route, even works it on his off days. I think he goes by every day even though their route’s normally only run every three days. Pretty sure he’s got a sweet thing that works there.”

She turned to look at the group, but before Serenity could ask the next obvious question, she called back to the back, “And where would he be right now?”

A tall man with long hair brushed the curtain out of the way. “Why do you care? You don’t-Oh. Customers.”

“They say he delivered something off the books, and they want to know where it came from.”

The man nodded. “That happens, and yeah, that’d be the only way to find out. Send ‘em back here, we’ll talk until Rakyn’s back. Shouldn’t be too long; he tries to get home for dinner each night, so he generally hurries the morning route.”

The woman tipped the counter in front of her on end, making a passageway Serenity hadn’t realized was there, then ushered the group through and into the back room. As they left, he herd her call out, “Come on up!”

Dexan was sorting packages when a portal appeared in part of the open area in the room. Serenity’s first impression of what stepped through was that it was a ball with legs. It shed a pair of packs - one on the front and one on the back - and Serenity could tell it was a tall woman. “Dezan. You’re on tonight?”

“Yep. Traded for it, I have an anniversary dinner with my wife tomorrow. Anything unusual today?”

The woman shook her head and paced over to a pile in a nearby basket. She started stuffing them into the bag that was on top of the basket. “Nope. Not even anything urgent. Is this all you’ve got for me?”

“Portal fees went up again,” Dezan stated. “So a lot of people aren’t shipping things offworld right now. They’re hoping they’ll go back down, or at least waiting until what they have is more valuable.”

“As if.” The woman snorted. “Portal fees aren’t going down any time soon. Stramin went and got himself killed - angry husband, can you believe it? - and that means we’re short a portal mage. The others are demanding overtime pay and additional mana potions. Wouldn’t be surprised if they go up again. Word is they want to cut the number of portals overall, but no idea how that’s going to work.”

“They can’t borrow a mage from another sector?”

“Probably will if they can’t get one out of the Academy next month.”

Serenity listened to the two coworkers gossip as they sorted packages and packed bags for the next half hour, then a portal appeared in the same spot and the woman grabbed the first bag she’d packed and hurried through it.

Several people arrived and dropped off packages; Serenity was able to figure out which area was the “to be sorted” area.

The place seemed like a mess, with packages everywhere, but Serenity noticed that Dezan was able to easily keep up with the packages that came in, sorting them and depositing them into the baskets they went in before the next person arrived. He usually had a bag ready for them to take, as well; the only ones he didn’t have ready were people who headed out for a quick lunch break, and theirs were ready by the time they were back.

The place looked busy, but Serenity realized that far less was flowing through than he’d have expected of a city post office. One person was enough to do all the sorting; yes, he was efficient and knew when to have what ready, but the fact that he could do it alone told the story of how busy they really were.

Almost everyone went out on foot with only what they could carry. It took a lot of people to move a surprisingly small amount of packages and mail. Serenity leaned over and asked Hale, “Why aren’t they using storage devices to hold all the stuff?”

Hale looked at Serenity with an expression of disbelief. “More people is much cheaper than a storage device. There’s only so far they can get on foot anyway.”

Serenity was pretty sure wagons or something was used for mail delivery and pickup before automobiles were available, but on thinking about it, he realized that he hadn’t seen any vehicles at all on the streets, beyond small man-powered carts and the gryphons. Maybe big stuff was flown or portaled in?

Eventually, Serenity heard Dezan call out, “Hey, Rakyn! Got some people here for you, they want to ask about a package you delivered.”

Rakyn dropped off his bag and looked at the four of them. “A package, huh? Why don’t you come with me, the least you can do is buy me lunch.”