The necklace

The only advantage Vivian saw to the situation was that she couldn't do much involuntary spying from lying in that child's crib for most of the day. She had managed to figure out exactly what feeling in the back of her head was associated with the moments Tobias was using her eyes and ears as their own. She had also noticed that they would give a "quick glance" if something in her surroundings sparked her interest. This also happened if she made any kind of active effort to block out sounds or not look at something, in hope of keeping Tobias from being made aware of it. The only way she had to not be a spy was to leave the room or to be sleeping. The first option was limited because nobody in their right mind would leave a two-year-old both alone and with any kind of real liberty of movement. The second option wasn't that much better, because it was the time at which any information Tobias hadn't been "present" for during the day somehow made it to them. She considered informing the "younger ones" about the fact that delaying her bedtime could delay the moment Tobias found out about something if it became crucial to something that would profit her in the future. Otherwise, the fact that the "younger ones" were already operating on the assumption that Tobias could potentially know of anything they did around the body she was currently occupying was enough. The price she had to pay for her involuntary spying being suspended was that Helena and Sune's play-parenting was becoming unbearable:
-But as the years went by, people of the Wonderful Island started feeling lonely, and came to wonder if the Great Sickness had really killed everyone else in the world. So, they sent out a boat. After a few days of sailing, the boat found another one, bearing the flag of the kingdom of Vege. The two boats came closer to each other…
Sune was had been telling her the same handful of children's stories in a tone of voice more suitable for an actual two-year-old for the last couple of days, both passing as a good father to the housekeeper and the occasional visitors while contributing to covering up the sound of whatever everyone else was doing or discussing. Thinking about the housekeeper, Vivian couldn't help wondering once again whether her spilling very hot gravy on her had actually been an accident, of if she knew that sufficiently severe burns were the wound those artificial bodies took the most time to recover from, even with the help of healing magic. Fortunately, one of the friends Prince Emil had sent for, and who was supposed to show up within the week, happened to have enough odd job experience to do most of the housekeeper's tasks. That would get them rid of the sole member of the household whose loyalties were an immediate concern. At the rate at which she was healing, her recovery was going to be complete by the next day. She was going to be disappointed if the "younger ones" didn't use that reprieve wisely.

Emil, Daniel and Helena were sitting on the edge of a sandbox meant for practicing drawing large runes located in the mansion's back yard. Daniel was making various simple drawings in the sand as he spoke:
-Magic and wisdom are out of the question, as they both require the person holding the seat to be a mage. You should probably forget national relations, as well. It honestly requires a level of giving priority to Scandi's interests that it's a little hard to keep after living outside the country for as long as you have. It's also best that we play "enemy of my enemy is my friend" with Randi at least until we get the Vivian situation fixed. The foreign relations seat requires to be much more of an international traveler than you have been so far. This is quite easy to fix on paper, but one of the drawbacks is that it may be the easiest way for you to die without anyone in the Council needing to lift a finger. Some of the places you need to have visited at least once are only reachable by boat, and bad weather can show up out of nowhere. Money… actually requires to be a non-mage, and having experience as a merchant helps. The other responsibility that comes with it may not be the best fit for you, however.
Emil raised an eyebrow:
-Why, what's wrong with it?
Helena explained:
-The True Rulers and the illegal markets have always not-so-secretly needed each other. What is and isn't legal to sell or purchase changes with the times, and the illegal things often happen to be greatly appreciated or outright needed by at least one member of the Council at some point in their lives. Both sides make arrangements via a representative. The black-market has the black-market King, the Council has the money councilor. Their biggest source of slaves is Finmi. Fastest way to get slaves who natively speak a language that is very different from Scandi and can be taught only what they need to do what's expected of them.
Emil sighed. Not the second responsibility that would suit him the best, indeed. The next question quickly came:
-What do law and nature have as their other responsibilities?
Helena once again provided the answer:
-Rolf's boils down to dissuading people who have a lot of money from keeping or consuming wild animals and plants from far away as status symbols. Knowing how they think could help with that. Tanja supervises a prisoner rehabilitation center. The main quality needed here is the ability to give a second chance to those the rest of society has given up on. From my own experience, you are able to do a decent job at that.
Emil suddenly realized there had been a misunderstanding:
-If you're talking about befriending you as Stig, it's really you and Sune that I wanted to help. If you had been complete strangers, or even acquaintances with the same allegations against you, I don't think I would have invited you to have a drink at the tavern.
Both Helena and Daniel looked at him like he had grown a second head, briefly looked at each other, then both seemed about to say something without it actually reaching their mouths. Helena crossed her arms and ended up being the first to speak:
-Most people have things they won't tolerate, even coming from close friends or family, though I'll admit some of them are more warranted than others. Others simply care about their reputation within their preferred crowd above everything else, and will cut ties with any friend or family member who becomes "embarrassing", at least publicly, in situations where support from loved ones is needed the most. My own parents and siblings are practically willing to pay me to not seek refuge with them. Sune's family is fine with having me around only because some mix of being kept in the dark and not realizing that even the story the Council told them is messed up.
Once Helena was done, Daniel used the stick to point towards the orphanage, which was visible due to both Daniel and Rolf's yards being decently sized – there was just about enough space between the two large houses to build a third one about the same size – and lacking anything else that could block the view:
-The predecessor of Randi's who handed over her house for extra space did so after realizing that older children and younger adults could get cut off from their families simply for being a challenge to their parents' deeply held beliefs. You probably do have room for improvement, but you'd be wrong to consider where you currently are as something unremarkable.
Emil gave a quick glance at their own house's second floor, which was going to be the closest he was going to get to looking at the room in which Lalli was currently sleeping. Maybe he did have some capacity to accept things many other people didn't. He heard Daniel scribbling some things in the sand, before uttering an "uh-oh". Emil gave a quick look at what Daniel had written, to see it was a list of the names of the True Rulers, starting with Tanja's and ending with his own. In between them, the order of the names was Rolf, Harald, Vivian, Kenneth and Randi. Emil raised an eyebrow:
-What's with the names? And why are you worried?
-I've listed them by relative age. Being chosen to replace a councilor who resigned or died without being personally involved in the circumstances is the only somewhat honest way to get their seat. The trouble is that Tanja and Rolf are the oldest – both of them are over sixty – their resignations for age reasons are going to come sooner than those of everyone else. This means less time for you to catch up with their preferred successors and other people hoping to take over their seats. If those both get taken over by someone other than you, they won't be vacant for a few decades unless the new holder is made to resign early in some way or an "accident" happens.
Emil swallowed. He wasn't quite sure when his mind had caught onto the fact that Niels was among those who had died in the fire caused by Tobias, but it was something he no longer risked forgetting. They would all need to figure out a way to get one of those two seats without getting him killed along the way, and hopefully without getting too much blood on his own hands. Helena interrupted his thoughts:
-I'd suggest you give priority to one of the two, and have the other as your back-up plan. Is there one you would prefer over the other? You'll need to learn a lot of new things no matter which one you choose. Rolf being our next-door neighbor doesn't matter much, we are pretty much in an "if the enemy is in range, so are you" situation with him.
Emil was about to ask if had to answer immediately, when he realized he had an idea of which one he wanted to try first.

xxxx

Even commercial law was much more complicated than Emil expected it to be. He briefly considered giving priority to nature instead, but the sight of Runa being surrounded by as many books as Daniel currently was told him that it would probably be just as much work. To have a chance, he would have to make sense of the contents of the books that Daniel had given him before starting the work he had come to the library to do. The last three years had given Emil a new respect for all sorts of jobs he had considered beneath him prior to the palace fire, but making him a believable working-class refugee-turned-merchant had resulted in him only getting few and far between occasions to truly appreciate what Tuuri had done for him as his scribe. Right next to Emil, Sune was reading the one book he had already finished, and seeming to be going through it faster than he had:
-Are you actually reading this, or just bored?
-Actually reading it. It's quite interesting. Many of those rules look reasonable on their own, but things get a little weird when several of them can apply to the same thing.
Emil let out a sigh of relief:
-Good to know I'm not the only one having trouble with that.
-Shh!
The hushing sound came from both Daniel and Runa, who were sharing the other side of the four-seat table. It was just their luck that the only table in the Royal Library with three free seats had already been occupied by the teenage girl upon their arrival. Both Emil and Sune continued their reading. For a long time, the only sounds coming from the table were pages being turned, books getting put down and Runa taking sips from what seemed to be a stout metal kettle's spout. Daniel had mentioned that even as an actual child, Runa had been able to spend hours at a time reading as long as she had something to drink within her reach, and had found that some kettle designs made good water containers with a reduced chance of spilling on the books. After an amount of time Emil wasn't quite sure of, instead of being put back on the table, the kettle fell on the floor, soon followed by its owner. Daniel got up from his seat, pulling out from under his shirt what Emil could now recognize as a more elaborate version of Helena and Reynir's medical diagnosis talisman, pressed it on her forehead, then looked at the kettle, that was now leaking a little near its lid due to having landed sideways. Emil promptly used a piece of cloth that Daniel has asked every single member of the household to keep on hand for such occasions to pick the kettle up without touching it, then wrap it. Sune's own piece of cloth was used to mop up the little water that had leaked out of out of the kettle, then got "absent-mindedly" placed in his leather belt bag. Any real investigation would be satisfied with the kettle and its remaining contents, and they would have something with which to compare any poison they ran into at a later point. When Emil paid attention to Daniel again, the latter had Runa in a security position and seemed to be tending to her, which told him that she had a chance to make it.

xxxx

Runa was now in a bed in a hospital's recovery ward and in the care of professionals, but Emil, Daniel and Sune couldn't leave yet. When someone was brought in for poisoning, anyone who had been in position to see what had happened had to be temporarily detained, due to their potential both as witnesses and culprits. The only reason they were in a separate room was that someone had recognized both Daniel and Sune and realized it would be best for them to be kept separate from the other detainees, alongside their "attendant". The first person who came to see them after they were moved wasn't one Emil was expecting:
-Randi? What are you doing here?
Daniel, Sune and Randi all shot him looks that told him that she was probably in that hospital because it was the one she was running.
-I could ask the three of you the same thing, honestly. I understand you probably needed to check a few books for work and decided to put some under those two's noses while you were at it, but the fact that you were all sitting at the same table as her isn't going to look good. Even the fact that you saved her life is going to look suspicious to some and her being lucky to others.
Daniel replied, putting a hand on his hip:
-I came into the library in the middle of the afternoon with two companions. There was nowhere else for all three of us to sit. This is all there is to it.
Randi crossed her arms:
-This means that you would have possibly been able to sit somewhere else if you had taken only one person with you. People are going to wonder why both of them came along.
-My tea server is considering starting a business here in Mora, but I advised him to get familiar with the local law before he did so. Prince Sune has spent the past few days being a very attentive father. "Stig" and I happened to be leaving for the library right when another member of the household offered to watch his daughter for a few hours and suggested him to do something for himself during that time.
Due to regularly getting news of Vivian via Daniel's "ghost trick", Randi knew about the gravy incident, and the reason someone would want Sune to relax a little. Randi spoke:
-I'm going to see what I can do about having the three of you allowed to go back to your home. The last things I need to deal with are Helena and the members of your household who use their blades more than they use their brains. This reminds me: what, exactly, does your brother know about Janine?
-Markus inquired about her when he first saw her because he had never seen her among the orphanage children, and Helena mentioned the fact that from her own perspective, she never had had any children, but that magical filiation tests will say otherwise. Anything else probably emerged while he was chatting with his friends. I'm not up to date on the status of that piece of information otherwise.
Randi let out a light, but frustrated sigh:
-According to my sources, the rumor according to which a sufficiently talented mage can alter the results of magical readings – filiation tests in particular – has been making a big come-back. There are now all sorts of theories about who Janine really is, and far too few people seem willing to consider the possibility that she's just yet another unwanted child born of two people of no particular interest.
Daniel's expression turned sympathetic:
-Let me guess. People are now digging up the names of just about any notable different-sex couple that was either suspected or known to have an affair around the time at which she would have been conceived, and everyone is now remembering the half possessing the proper organs to have either started gaining weight or stopped appearing in public during the handful of months before her supposed birth? Humm… How much longer did you and Kenneth last after I left for the Isle?
Emil held back an expression of surprise as Randi answered:
-Good catch. Timing has it so that we broke things off during the supposed beginning or early stages of the pregnancy, and I started spending time with Vivian outside of the Council room not that long after the time at which the birth would have happened. Now, add the fact that some servant has overheard you giving me "Janine's" news.
Daniel let go of his hip to start scratching his chin:
-I see the problem. But I would assume you would be the first to know that coverups can be double-edged.
Randi pinched the ridge of her nose and close her eyes:
-It's not the only reason I'm about to ask you a favor. Those spells you put on my room didn't completely keep "Vivian" out for very long. I'm considering having a guard in my rooms, but I'm having trouble finding someone who's willing to both to believe there is a threat and is not terrified of the consequences of willingly getting in "Vivian's" way. But if Janine was my daughter rather than Helena's, I would have a good reason to visit your house on a regular basis, and maybe fall asleep there from time to time.
Daniel was clearly taken aback, but scratched his chin for a few moments before answering:
-I'll need to ask the other members of the household about this, and think it over.

xxxx

The three of them headed back to the house as soon as they were allowed to. Daniel promptly asked Emil and Sune about their thoughts about having Randi in the house on a regular basis. Sune was the one currently answering:
-I'm still mad at her for her part in my situation and Helena's… but I don't want her to get hurt the same way Helena and I did because of it. If coming to the house is really her only solution, I'd be okay with it. But I'm wondering… if "Vivian" leaves her alone, and starts hurting someone else… do we let them come to the house from time to time also? And the person after that? Whoever comes after Randi is probably going to deserve that treatment even less than her, so the less bad option may be to…
Daniel answered:
-I see where you are going with this, and you would have had a point if we weren't already harboring someone who cares about Randi's well-being on a personal level. This is the reason I even bothered putting a few spells on her rooms the other day. If we decide to help Randi, whoever ends up in "Vivian's" hands next will unfortunately have to be the "punching bag" until we get everyone back in their proper place.
-And what if they pick Markus? Or one of your younger siblings? The oldest pair must be around fifteen by now. And the next down must be ten. What about your siblings' friends inside the orphanage? How many people do we need to make sure are safe before whoever "Vivian" picks next is certain to be someone we won't care enough about to help?
-Excellent question, considering they may also decide to pick a Royal.
The worryingly neutral tone both Daniel and Sune had slipped into by that point made Emil wonder if they both really being that heartless about the subject matter, or making great efforts to avoid shouting at each other or bursting into tears. After a few moments of shutting off the conversation to think a little, he realized that those scenarios weren't necessarily mutually exclusive to each other… and that it did nothing to make the conversation he was witnessing any better. He ended up asking Daniel about the least disturbing part of the conversation he could think of:
-Excuse me, but what is that thing about you having siblings? I thought you grew up in the orphanage until you became Niels' student.
Both Daniel and Sune's first response was to be stopped on their tracks, while having a look of relief. The following moment, Daniel looked bemused:
-Didn't I…
Sune voiced the situation faster than Emil's mind could fetch for it:
-You told him "come have dinner with us, we'll be waiting for you" from across the street, we let him in when he showed up, and the two of you started catching up almost immediately. I don't think the members of the household who didn't know of him beforehand picked up on more than friendship between the two of you.
They all resumed walking as Daniel explained:
-The councilor of wisdom's orphanage tries to both keep orphaned siblings together and give orphans with no other ties a surrogate family unit. The bedrooms sleep six. In the surrogate families, children are moved into the room sometime after they turn three, and move out of them when they turn eighteen. A new pair of three-year-olds is moved into the room every five years. Children who shared a room for any amount of time are considered siblings. I moved in with Niels before my thirteenth birthday, so I tend to consider I only really have two brothers and one sister still living there. That's still three people who… oops, your question had the merit of getting me out of a quite gloomy line of thought, and I'm diving right back into it.
Before Emil could think of a way to continue the conversation, a couple of thin arms wrapped themselves around him from behind, and a sharp-chinned face came to rest on his right shoulder:
-The loud ones are worried because you are all late. Can you get home a little faster?
Both Daniel and Sune were wide-eyed. Come to think of it, this was probably the first time both of them witnessed the extent to which Lalli could show up out of nowhere when he wanted to. Daniel from the little time he had known him, Sune from the fact that they had very rarely been in the same place before they had ended up both being part of the same group travelling back to Scandi. A quick look at the horizon and a growl from his stomach reminded Emil that the whole incident had indeed made them head back to the house much later than they had originally intended to. He knew a likely other reason Lalli had grown impatient; differences in sleeping hours made the evening and early morning precious times to them.

As they finished their walk home, Emil started explaining what had happened to Lalli, and sounding like he thought their detention was an overreaction on the part of the library and hospital's personnel. Sune had trouble telling whether Lalli was actually listening or not. Once the news of "Stig's" real identity had worn off, it had been easy to see the reason for which so many people had admitted to not missing Emil much while he had been assumed to be dead. And again, he had been much worse before the palace fire if Helena and Daniel were to be believed. What had made Emil fun to be around when Sune had been a child now made him come across as ill-suited to the very world his was trying to take part in. Because of that, over the past few days, Sune had ended up dedicating a corner of his mind to wondering who of Emil and Lalli had ended up stuck with the other in the marriage, hoping he would eventually witness an interaction between them that would give him an answer. According to Emil's own words, doing something unnecessary only for the sake of proving to others that he could do it "just wasn't Lalli's thing". At the time at which Emil had said this during a conversation that had randomly drifted towards the subject, Sune had taken it to mean that Lalli simply had no talent that was worth showing off, and was modest enough to realize it. What had just happened gave Sune second thoughts about the way he had interpreted those words. He remembered that Lalli had been introduced to him as minor mage when they had met in his home, and decided to walk a little closer to Daniel to ask him a few questions:
-Was that some kind of magic "ghost trick"?
-No, plain old regular stealth.
-Could he have picked this up working as a night guard for his family?
-It's possible. But if he got trained for this before getting sent to the palace with Tuuri, it would explain a lot.
It did give credence to the story according to which Lalli and Reynir had been able to get Emil away from the palace without anyone else noticing, if anything.

xxxx

Helena still didn't believe she had agreed to do this. However, the circumstances made all the other plans she could think of almost certain to have an even worse outcome, or gave them too many unknowns to her taste. And since one of the people present in the dining room knew much less than everyone else, they were the perfect test subject for the new official story:
-She looks nothing like Randi. Or Kenneth. They also both have hair far lighter than hers, and I'm quite sure things don't work that way.
Helena briefly considered that Markus could be put to better use to the world if he left the building security business and got hired by some higher-ranked official to point out any holes in their cover stories that were easy to spot from the outside.
-This isn't her real appearance, of course.
-That could explain why I've never seen her before… but not why nobody just told me that the first time I asked. I get that you visited memories you didn't want to visit that day and had to leave the table, but it looks like something anyone who knew could have just told me over the past week. So either nobody else knew in spite of having had a week to get an answer to any of their own questions about the girl, or the truth is so convoluted that at least two members of the Council would rather become part of the cover story than let it come out.
-Or maybe Randi wanted to see what would happen during the week after letting you know partial information before you were allowed to know the full story.
Markus let out a resigned sigh:
-That would make sense. I'm still keeping the "truth too convoluted to come out" possibility on a low flame in case all this really is a cover story and it starts getting cracks someday.
As far as Helena was concerned, Markus' approach to the information was a sound strategy for someone who was as close as family to a councilor, but was best kept out of as many of the actual conspiracies as possible. Sigrun, who happened to have Janine within arm's reach, ruffled the child's hair a little more than she usually did when she was pretend-doting:
-Now she looks a little more like her mother, doesn't she?
Markus let out a laugh:
-You're right, I can see the resemblance at little better, now.
Helena sighed and transferred Janine from her lap to the empty sitting cushion next to Sune, who was much better versed in the art of fixing hair without any kind of tool than she was. She was actually starting to feel a little sorry for Vivian at this point; this was the other reason she was ready to let Randi visit from time to time in spite of the drawbacks, both potential and immediate.

xxxx

The next morning, Rolf showed up early enough to join the household for breakfast. The morning routine had managed to organize itself enough for Daniel to be already dressed and cleaned up. A tea recipe from Finmi whose ingredients were easily purchasable in the Mora market had turned out to do wonders for properly waking him up. The catch was that Daniel needed to actually drink it for that to happen, and that had become a daily struggle for Emil, who was currently still working on that particular detail. After he answered the obligatory questions about Runa's current health status and explained she would need to rest for a few days to completely recover, Sune was surprised to see Rolf turn to him:
-This brings me to the fact that I have come here to ask you a favor. Your brother has been clamoring for a small monkey like the one he saw in the possession of a foreign animal trainer for weeks, probably a couple months at this point. Such animals come from very, very, far away, and few people have any idea on how to keep them alive on a long journey. Ten will probably die in transit for one to even make it inside the country, let alone to Mora. And if your brother gets one, a bunch of other people who can afford the purchase are going to want one. Before Tobias' untimely death, Vivian was quite good at understanding why it was best to not let your brother have that monkey and stalling in hope that his enthusiasm will fade. Over the past few days, her stance seems to have moved to "let him have it if it will make him shut up". I gave Runa the task to change your brother's mind a little more promptly, and she was supposed to meet him this morning for that purpose. If you know of a way to sway him on this particular subject, I would be very grateful.
Sune decided to think about it a little, just in case he did come up with an idea. One of the things he had done while everyone else was distracted had been giving a quick look at what Runa had been reading, and had noticed that her book had been left open at the page about the behavior a specific type of small monkey. An idea did, indeed, cross his mind.

xxxx

Håkan half-suspected Sune to have secretly swapped the placid child he and Helena had shown up with at the masquerade ball with a much more energetic, unruly and survival instinct lacking one who bore an uncanny resemblance to her. The audience he was expecting to have with Runa had turned into having to watch the child with the help of a single servant while Sune ran an unexpectedly long errand he had suddenly remembered needing to take care of. It had quickly turned out to be impossible to both fix the mess the child made and keep her from making more of one. If she wasn't making a mess, she was trying to climb on things, including the windowsill and the elaborately sculpted posts of his canopy bed. Fortunately, by the time Sune was back, she had found satisfaction in playing with the piece of Moon marble Håkan was wearing as a necklace. The larger silver medallion to which the coin-size piece of marble was attached also seemed to make it much less tasty to her than his other jewelry, which meant she had quickly given up on chewing on it. Håkan gladly gave Sune the child back, only to discover she now refused to let go of the necklace:
-Sorry, but you can't have it. I need it to keep bad mages from casting spells on me.
Sune spoke as he was trying to pry the necklace out of his daughter's hands:
-This isn't going to ward off anything.
Was Sune stupid, or what?
-I thought Helena was supposed to be an extremely knowledgeable mage. I would expect you to know that jails in which they put mages who break the law in the Great Isle of Icy Wonders are made of the same stone.
-It's true, but claiming that this little thing will protect you from spells is like claiming that I'll make my daughter bald if I pull ten hairs off her head. Another thing you may be interested in knowing is that I saw a little of the book Runa was reading when she collapsed from the poison, and it mentioned that monkeys like the one you want act a lot like a child around her age for their entire lifetime.

xxxx

Sune looked at the section of the market holding the most expensive stalls alongside guards who kept whoever seemed unable to afford their contents out, unless they came with someone who clearly could. He addressed Rolf, who was standing next to him:
-I thought councilors of nature were supposed to be against people using their money on that kind of stuff.
-If it's already in the capital and on a legal market, you're doing much less damage to the world than procuring your brother that monkey would have. Seeing to that is part of my job.
Sune looked at him skeptically.
-If you pick something that I may have been a little lenient on because I owed Harald or Kenneth a favor, I'll tell you. Now go pick something. Even if you've lost your own taste for nice things, there must be at least one person in your household who misses having easy access to them.
Sune put Janine on his shoulders, and started browsing the stalls, in case he ran into something that could actually be useful. Helena frequently reminded him that many currently widespread items had once been luxuries. He was suddenly stopped when Janine took hold of the canvas of what turned out to be a stall selling jewelry consisting of small pieces of marble mounted on larger metal medallions, often with matching chains. The selection included silver-mounted Moon marble similar to Håkan's necklace. Sune put on his best doting father face and took her off his shoulders to get her closer to the display:
-You did do most of the work, after all. How about you choose what Rolf is buying for us?
She picked one of the Moon marble and silver necklaces.
-Come on, Rolf is paying, we can get something with a little gold in it.
Right when he finished the sentence, Sune realized Håkan could afford to have a solid gold one. The silver one, it was.

Daniel came back to the carriage from his own errands right when they did. As soon as the carriage started running, Rolf spoke:
-I thought that this child was supposed to be…
Sune remembered that Rolf was among those who knew of Janine's true origins according to Randi. Fortunately, Daniel stepped in to explain:
-She may have been when Tobias introduced her to you all, but he seems to have made her into something much closer to an actual child before she was put into Helena's hands. By the way, what did you end up getting?
Sune took the necklace out of his belt bag and showed it to Daniel. Leaving the market with the necklace actually around anyone's neck would have gotten plenty of people mistaken on the amount of money he actually had at his disposal.
-Nice. Honestly, I think it looks much better on silver. And that it's too bad that you get odd looks for wearing jewelry made of the stuff or anything of a similar color if you're a mage, even if the quantities involved are usually too small to actually do anything.
Sune vaguely remembered Helena telling him about this at some point, as well.
-Would you mind giving it a quick closer look? "Janine" was the one who chose it, and it looks a lot like a necklace Håkan was wearing.
Daniel took the necklace and started examining it:
-A Royal who settles for something less than gold? Your brother may not be too far gone after all. Uh… I think I see where that "don't wear Moon marble jewelry if you're a mage" thing may have come from. Keep going without me, I need to have a word with Harald.
Daniel vanished out of the carriage.