Question: What sigil thing are you doing first?
Response: Bother Lex for an experiment.
You spend the next morning condensing the last reports into your notebook, and scrawl a note to start on condescending them further for Hafiza.
You pocket Dessa's letter, heft the box of reports under your arm, and head off to the town hall.
The clerk you meet, Linh, pulls up an itemised list of what was lent out and looks between it and the box. Her eyes dart up at you. 'Take a seat if you like. Might take a while.' She starts to sift through the papers, carefully checking against the list to confirm you've returned everything.
'I'll drop by the post office,' you say, and excuse yourself to post Dessa's letter.
Linh is still sifting through the papers when you return. 'You worked through these pretty fast,' she says.
She shrugs, and once she's satisfied everything's returned, lets you go.
Though Lex is a witch, they're not a weather witch and wouldn't have any influence over weather sigils. You peer down at the beach from the viewing platform and see them sitting by the boulders to your right. You check for your notebook and pencil then start down the stairs.
You whistle when you reach the bottom, and they turn and wave.
'How's the water?' you ask.
'Same as ever... meaning it's always changing. Just getting a feel for it today.' They swish their bare feet under the lapping waves.
They're clearly lying, but you don't push it. Buddying is a good way to get out of a funk.
'Care to do me a favour?'
They raise their eyebrows.
'Trying to figure out something with sigils.'
'Ah. Rookie mistake. We don't use those.'
'No, that's perfect. I want to figure out if completing one needs to be done by a weather or not.' You draw two partial sigils in your notebook - one missing part of the outer circle, the other missing part of the centre motif - and have Lex complete them.
Nothing activates. You check over the work, ensuring there are no gaps and they're drawn correctly.
Lex watches you in amusement. 'Why are you doing this?'
'Community garden. Trying to figure out if we can build ones for them to deconstruct and reconstruct as needed.'
'Then you're doing this wrong. I should be completing a sigil you've already done and partially deconstructed.'
They're of course right, and because you don't have anything to erase your pencil, you find a sandy area and trace a heat sigil in with your finger. You hold your hands to confirm it works, and when you feel heat rising off it, erase part of the outer circle. It stops generating heat, as expected. Lex leans forward and completes the arc.
'Couldn't have guessed that,' Lex says sarcastically. 'But I think we're still doing it wrong.'
'Are you, like… going to chalk it in every morning or something? Because that seems like a bad way to go about this.'
'No, the plan's to construct something that can be built, dismantled, and stored.'
'Oh, there we go. You need to actually make something, then.' They look up and down the beach then point to seaweed along the wrack line.
You run through the experiment again - arranging the seaweed into a heat sigil, then removing some of the outer circle again, and having Lex put it back under your instruction. It doesn't work, and it also doesn't work when you try again by deconstructing the central motif.
'Mystery solved?' the ask once you've finished inspecting the seaweed. They gather it up and put it back.
'Solved. Going back to the boulders?'
What do you say?
Do you want to go to the garden?
How are you feeling?
Voting ended onMay 29
