Aronia folded her arms. "All right, Sorceress Sonder. You've traveled a long way."
"Yes."
"And you know about these shards."
"Yes."
"You have an entire collection of them attached to a staff."
"Also yes."
"So… What do you want?"
The sorceress looked down at the staff in her hand.
Then back at Aronia.
"I was hoping to see the two shards you had in your archives."
Sonder's gaze was fixed on Aronia.
"I would like to see them."
There it was. Not that she was surprised.
People rarely traveled across kingdoms, mountain ranges, and whatever other obstacles had existed between here and there simply to exchange pleasantries.
She had a few shards and now wanted more.
Aronia considered her for a moment. As if she were really giving it a thought.
Then she nodded.
"All right."
One of the wardens immediately looked alarmed.
A reasonable reaction because it was obviously the right one, but he had to trust that Aronia knew what she was doing.
Aronia ignored him even if she wanted him to arrest the sorceress.
"Lead me to them," Sonder said.
"Of course."
The sorceress studied her face. Apparently she had expected resistance, something else entirely, instead of things going so smoothly.
It was unusual for Aronia in any case. She was often told that she was difficult. But not stupid.
Anyway, she preferred practical.
The woman clearly knew something about the shards.
Possibly quite a lot.
And if Aronia wanted answers, the fastest way to obtain them was usually to place the questions directly in front of the person who could answer them.
With or without coercion, threats, or bribes.
Those complicated situations quite often.
"Follow me."
She turned and began walking.
The wardens exchanged glances. One opened his mouth.
Aronia pointed at him without looking. "Don't."
The journey began. Through the corridors and past offices and down staircases and down some more and more. The Moony Archives possessed an unreasonable number of stairs.
Aronia had long suspected that the architects had been paid by the step.
Sonder followed without complaint.
Many people had comments on the structure of the archives or wanted to talk about something while walking. They just weren't comfortable with a silent journey.
Eventually the brighter corridors gave way to darker ones.
The familiar hum of containment wards became audible.
Sonder's eyes drifted toward the walls as she saw the protective runes and such etched into them; all the layers and layers of them.
"You keep dangerous things here."
"That is the general idea."
The sorceress nodded.
"I can feel them."
"That's also the general idea."
They continued downward.
Aronia remained outwardly calm.
Internally, however, she was already arranging possibilities.
The archives existed to contain dangerous things.
People occasionally forgot that the definition of things was remarkably flexible.
Containment cells held artifacts.
Creatures.
Curses.
Books.
Weapons.
Entire sections of haunted architecture.
Once, for approximately six weeks, an extremely argumentative cloud.
The point was containment. People could be contained.
And if someone arrived carrying dozens of mentally influential shards embedded into a staff...
Well.
The archives had procedures for unusual situations.
Several of them.