The queen stood, and broke the engraving of silence that held the room. Cecil sighed in relief. Then quickly turned to Eriss. “Could you wait a second?”

  She turned with a smile, “Of course. What do you need?”

  “I want to start carving, can I have one of your knives?”

  She shook her head slightly, “sorry, but none of my knives are for carving. You might ask Arron though. It’s one of his hobbies.”

  Huh. He had thought Arron only did fighting stuff. Cecil turned around and jogged to the door, grabbed his bag from the guard, then chased after Arron who had just left the room.

  “Arron, wait!”

  He turned with a frown. “What?”

  “Can I borrow one of your carving knives?”

  “No.” he turned and kept walking.

  Cecil followed, “Please?”

  “No”

  “What if I just borrowed it and took good car-”

  “Still no”

  “Fine! Where’d you get them at least?”

  “Don’t remember. Figure it out yourself if you want it that badly. I'm busy.”

  Cecil stopped following Arron and repressed the great urge for violence. He pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes, took a deep breath, then dropped his arms.

  Looked like his initial plans on getting a carving knife were not successful. But it’s not like it was essential. Once Talmage got his friend to teach him, he would have a list of things that were absolutely necessary. Or even provide it. He was patient. He could wait. Yes, he was a patient person and could wait this one time. It’s not like his youth and potential talent were diminishing by the moment.

  Cecil forced a smile on his face and walked briskly in the opposite direction. There were plenty of other things he needed to work on. Like writing down a summary of the meeting to recite to Talmage later.

  In the next meeting there had been a lot of yelling about how to respond to the rebellion in Inatol, what the response of Yskua, Istania, and other countries might be, and some wonderings about the supply chains. And a bunch of repeated arguments from the first two meetings. He pitied Erris and Arron. They were required to go to considerably more meetings than he was, and might even need to go on diplomatic missions to those countries in a few years.

  Normally, he would have loved the break in routine, but he had not seen Talmage outside of meetings all week and couldn't ask him about the engraving tutor because he had started to leave the meetings in the company of the king and queen. So, when he saw the big man turn a corner, Cecil chased after him.

  “Talmage, wait!”

  He turned, a look of concern quickly erased from his face and was replaced with a grimace.

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  “Ah, Cecil. I knew you would find me sooner or later. You want to ask about my friend, correct?”

  “Yes!”

  He sighed and looked at the ceiling. “I talked to him the day after you asked, and at the time said yes.”

  “At the time?”

  He looked Cecil in the eye, “yes. Last night the King and Queen passed that ban on almost all engraved goods coming from outside. You were in the meeting where we discussed it,” he pulled out the engraved square stone necklace, “Only I, the captain of the guard, and members of your family have the keys. Which means at the very least, it was a terrorist attack, and at most, an assassination attempt.”

  Cecil furrowed his brows. There had been some close calls here and there, but none of them had seemed this serious. And while he had been in the meetings, he knew Pro Xeon to be a man who loved theatrics. Whenever he taught a class he always said ten beautiful words when two would do. Cecil just hadn’t taken the man’s word at face value.

  “This means that there was an inside person to get the key codes from these necklaces, and input them into the device. This is why the council decided that the best course of action would be to cut off most imports, and restrict who can make engravings and where they can make them using these,” he pulled out a small box from his pocket and opened it.

  Cecil frowned. “A brick? What can a lousy brick do?”

  Talmage chuckled as he closed the box with the nub of his right hand before putting it back. “Alone, the lousy brick does nothing. But together they work in tandem, creating a barrier that prevents the making of new engravings. Each of these has to be engraved, then put into place. And they are going to need every engraver they can get to implement this new protection.”

  “But I had assumed that your friend is too old for that kind of thing.”

  Talmage chuckled, “The old fart might protest, but the thing that makes him a great teacher also makes him a great supervisor. And since he was in the war, he is familiar with standard operations. He was selected to be the engravings coordinator and overseer. He leaves tomorrow to start his new job.”

  “Oh. What about someone else?”

  “Everyone is busy with the effort to get these protections in place. And by the time they are done, you will have either broken into the talent or not.” he pocketed his box and started walking away, “That's enough questions for now, i'll be late for my meeting at this rate. See you when class starts again.”

  Then he picked up his pace.

  Cecil called, “But how does the system prevent people from making new ones throughout a whole country? And what about the engravings already here? And the leak?”

  “You’re smart. Figure it out.” he called back just as he rounded the corner.

  Cecil stood still as he processed the information he had just received. He could figure it out on his own huh? But only if he had the information for it. He sighed and turned to go to the library.

  He ignored the snores that the librarian filled the air with, and headed straight into the stacks. Over the last few days he had come to be familiar with the section on engravings. And he had a feeling he knew which book he needed. It was called “area of effect” or something like that and…

  His heart dropped out of his chest as a gaping hole in the shelves greeted his eyes. They were gone. All of them.

  He ran back to Pro Ostrion and woke him up with a yell.

  His lids fluttered slowly as the wrinkles lifted to reveal hazy blue eyes hidden behind thick glasses.

  “Hmm? What is this all about?”

  Cecil gestured behind himself, “they’re all gone!”

  The old man sat up straighter and adjusted his glasses, “I know that my eyes aren’t what they used to be, but everything seems to be in order.”

  He sighed, “No. The engraving section. It’s all gone.”

  “Ahh. Yes. The new law has caused all of the books on engraving to be locked up or sent to Wint Academy for the safety of the country.”

  “Why?” Cecil said in despair.

  “Well, I don’t personally agree with it. Information should be allowed to be free. Only a very few pieces of information should be hidden from most people. But even those are known to some, so that we are not blindsided by lost powers.” he shook his head, “but I digress. The books you seek are now at Wint academy. If you want to continue your education on the subject, you will need to find another way.”

  Unbidden, his head turned over his shoulder, where the staircase to the second floor of the library was. And near the top, one unassuming marble stair step.