Toil and Trouble: 10

                                    

                                              
            
                          
The next couple of hours got pretty exciting.
                          
Indira and I hurried through the House to Jay's room. All the dorms are on the upper floors, and while there's space set aside for families (Miranda and Orlando, for example, have a suite of rooms they share with their daughter), the singles amongst us are housed in separate wings: one for the ladies, one for the gents.

                          
What can I say. No one will be surprised to hear that Milady can be old-fashioned.
                          
I'd had a bit of trouble finding Jay's room earlier in the day, and I wish I could say that the prior experience rendered it simple for me to find it again. It did not. I dithered and doubted and we wandered back and forth, but eventually found our way through the rabbit-warren of dormitories to the white-painted door which bore Jay's name. I unlocked it with a touch and in we went.
                          
Or, in I went. Indira hovered in the doorway, trying not to look at anything. She need not have scrupled. Jay has only been with us for a few weeks, so he has not yet had time to personalise his room very much. It looks more or less as it was issued: a plain, white-painted chamber with a comfyish bed, chest of drawers, wardrobe, window overlooking the grounds. There were no pictures anywhere, few possessions strewn about; little, in short, to incriminate the owner in any fashion that might trouble either his sister or himself.
                          
'He isn't going to mind,' I said to Indira, feeling mildly exasperated.
                          
'If he wanted me in here he would have given me access.'
                          
It was hard to argue with that, so I didn't try. I went straight to the jacket laid upon the bed and began a hasty riffle through its pockets; for all my stout words I would not feel entirely comfortable until I was safely on the right side of Jay's door again. 
                          
I found the booklet, withdrew it with hands that only slightly trembled, and flipped it open.
                          
There inside were neat rows of translucent jellyish circles, glinting with magic. 
                          
'We've got them,' I told Indira, who sagged with relief. I put the booklet directly into her hands as I withdrew, and locked the door again behind me.
                          
'Now what?' I said.
                          
'I'll take this to Development. They aren't tuned to me, so they'll have to be cracked, and I'm only just learning—'
                          
'Get it to Orlando.'
                          
Indira blanched. 'Orlando? But he's—'
                          
'Dauntingly important, and eccentric to boot. I know. But he invented these things; nobody knows better than he how they work, and no one will get the job done faster. We have no time to waste.'
                          
Indira looked ready to die of fright, but to her credit she mastered herself, and gave me what was probably meant to be an assured nod. 'Right.'
                          
'I'd go with you,' I said, relenting a bit. 'But in this you have the advantage of me. I'm not allowed anywhere near Orlando's lab.'
                          
She gave a lopsided, scared-looking smile, as though the prospect of her own relative importance to mine alarmed more than appeased her. 'Right,' she said again.
                          
Away she went.
                          
I was a little puzzled by her serene manner of talking about cracking Jay's tracking charms, but I was rapidly learning that Indira had a rather complicated sense of honour. Wresting the secrets from her brother's utility spells in order to rescue him from dire peril was one thing; going into his room without permission in order to secure the charms in the first place was quite another.