21

It took months to set up the ward schemes around the Titan. Enough people lived there full time, and considered the fortress their home that it had a threshold, albeit an extremely weak one. It took time to anchor the wards to it, I had experimented with wards a lot while teaching Molly and Maggie, but I still had a long way to go before claiming expertise. I knew the Merlin was able to place them in arbitrary places with incredible power, but he didn't get on the Senior Council by collecting bottle caps. I still needed something to attach them to, a threshold, and had to be careful to layer the wards on slowly enough that it didn't collapse. Warding was tedious and difficult work, any mistake could have caused the entire magical structure to fail and trying again would be harder with the ruptured and even weaker threshold. It was also a little awkward that no one but Maggie could tell I was doing anything. Syrio had followed me around the first few days, but there's only so much rune carving and meditation you can watch before it gets boring. He assigned one of the crippled guards from the temple raid as my minder, he started whenever I spoke, and tried to keep as far from me in a room as possible. I managed to learn he had a family, and Syrio gave him the sinecure since he had been wounded in service to the city. I made a note to introduce pensions, and tried to avoid troubling him as much as possible.

I could do nothing for the Arsenal, and told the Admiral that, but touring it was incredible. I knew Venice had something similar in the Middle Ages, but knowing something, and seeing the acres of shipbuilding space and industry on one of the barrier islands was different. The foreman, Oliva, a cousin of the mapmaker as it turned out, was excited to show me around. Galleys and cogs were constructed from prefabricated parts, and he claimed they could build one ship a day, while supplies lasted. I had never really grasped how much went into making a ship before, the wood was obvious, but rope, sails, and tar were also used in huge quantities. I didn't really know how mass production started on Earth, but here the Arsenal would probably be the model.

He proudly showed me the base room, where all of the Braavosi anchor blocks for the naval ships were kept, and the compass room next door where the ships were tracked. The Titan apparently housed the other set of compasses, and every night the bearings on the two compasses would be compared giving a location for every ship at sea. After almost an entire year of making multiple compasses everyday, I was much less excited about them, and barely managed to get through without offending him.

The last and most exciting part of the tour was the warehouse they had set aside for engine research. The city was running its own project in parallel with Mangini's work, with a particular focus on the navy. They had developed the paddle wheel concept on their own, it was an easy leap from water wheels, but Oliva was quite excited about the propeller when I described it.

All together though, I was glad to be done with government contracts. They had paid extremely well, but one of the things I liked best about being a detective was being free to set my own schedule, and to do a variety of things. Spending four hours everyday enchanting. and then another three getting to the Titan and erecting wards got boring after about a week. Demand for the compasses was finally tapering down, at their current price I had worked through my backlog, and hopefully I'd only have to supply the new ones for the Arsenal.

The first day I was free in what felt like years, I slept in and refused to wake up even when Maggie knocked. It was a beautiful day, and sleeping through half the extremely rare sunny morning felt even more indulgent. I had nothing that needed to be done, it was such an excellent feeling that I contemplated just staying in bed all day. Eventually my body protested, and I was forced to get up, although I resolved to be as lazy as possible all day.

I went out to eat, the waiter gave me a strange look for showing up at lunch time and requesting breakfast, but one of my favorite parts about being rich kicked in, anything out of the ordinary I did was no longer strange, or weird, but eccentric. Eating an omelette on the rooftop patio in the sun was the only thing better than lazing around in bed and I mentally congratulated myself on a perfect idea. Naturally Noho Dimittis and Viserys Targaryen decided to join me.

I looked askance at the two who had just invaded my table, and Viserys at least shifted uneasily. "What brings you fine gentlemen out this morning?" Noho had the poker face that seemed mandatory at higher levels of the Iron Bank and resisted my disapproval.

"Viserys and I were touring the city as part of his education, when he saw you, he insisted on saying hello." I was a little impressed by how effortlessly Noho threw him under the bus for interrupting my brunch, and turned back to Viserys who seemed to have found his spine.

"Your powers, the magic you showed at the ball and when you rescued us. Can you teach me it?" Viserys waited, looking excited, and I couldn't decide how to crush his hopes. I extended my senses, I couldn't feel any power from him but that hardly proved anything. The Targaryens were of old Valryia, and I knew they had powerful sorcery, enough to leave roads of melted rock untouched for four hundred years after their fall. I reached out and grabbed his hand, when nothing happened I knew.

"I can't teach you, you need to be born with the power that I have." I looked to Noho, he should have known that, and I was surprised he let the boy's hopes get so high. Viserys was despondent, he must have dreamed of somehow regaining his family's throne by wielding a special power like his ancestors. I had looked into the Targaryens after my last encounter. Viserys and Daenerys were the last remnants of Westeros's former royal family. Their father had gone mad, along with their brother, leading to a revolt that ended with Ser Darry smuggling them out of a besieged fortress. It beat execution, but from a prince to an exiled pretender was a long fall, and I didn't doubt he would do quite a lot to rise again.

Magic of my variety would have been terrible for him, anyone motivated like that ran a heavy risk of breaking a law of magic. If Viserys had it, and went untrained I didn't doubt he would turn into to a warlock, even the noblest intentions couldn't stop the corruption of black magic.

While I thought, Viserys was visibly drooping. It might have been the last remnants of my morning's good mood, but I might be able to do something. "You may not be able to learn my magic, but there are other forms in the world. I've been putting together a library of all that is recorded, with your guardian's permission", Viserys turned his beseeching eyes on Noho, "you can study what I have. I'm not sure how useful most of it will be, and there is knowledge I will forbid you from learning, but if you truly desire it I will help."

Noho looked somewhat troubled by the idea. He had known that my magic couldn't be taught, perhaps he was hoping a flat rejection would turn Viserys away from the idea. Rumors about sorcery and black magic had swept the city after the purge of the temple, and I was sure he thought I was responsible. Giving his charge access to the sort of power that had killed almost twenty guardsmen, not that I'd let him learn that, had to be a worrying decision. On the other hand, in three years Viserys would be of age, and a valued client to the Iron Bank. "Perhaps one night a week? Two bells no more?"

I nodded, that time commitment was fine, especially since he would just be reading for most of it. "Sounds good, shall we say the first one will be five days from now, at six bells at night?" The two agreed, Viserys much more enthusiastically, and got up to leave. I grabbed Viserys's arm right before he left. "If you truly mean to regain your throne I think you'd be better off studying people, wars, and what Noho says, than sorcery, but magic has brought me enough joy in my life that I don't want to take away anyone's chance to learn."

He stood for a moment, I hoped my words would have some impact, before nodding sharply and hurrying after Noho. I looked down at my half finished plate and decided to eat the rest of the omelette. Maybe the day, and my pledge of laziness weren't completely ruined.