At first, Peter couldn’t tell what Naomi was doing with the Tome in her lap. From the looks of it, she was drawing a second book within the pages of her own, like a matryoshka doll. The picture looked vaguely familiar, but it was only when Naomi started drawing roses on the cover that he realized it was a spot-on replica of Beth’s own Tome. Considering that Naomi had never seen Beth’s Tome before, Peter was more than a little impressed.

As soon as Naomi completed her drawing, she dismissed the charcoal pencil and made a series of intricate hand movements that caused the depiction of Beth’s Tome to glow with a faint orange light. Then, much to Peter’s surprise, Naomi placed her fingers on the edge of the drawing and opened it.

“What on earth…” he muttered; jaw wide open as he watched Naomi flip through the pages. At first, he was again worried that this woman might be able to see the entirety of Beth’s Tome, but it soon became apparent that most of the pages were blank—hopefully indicating that she only had access to a limited subset of information.

Eventually, one of the few pages with text caught Naomi’s interest, but instead of reading the contents directly, she somehow dragged the text from the drawing of Beth’s Tome and into an area of empty space elsewhere on the page. The picture of Beth’s Tome then abruptly disappeared, and Naomi began to slowly pull apart the information she had extracted from the page. It was an odd process, like pulling taffy, with more details being revealed based on how she pulled and twisted the contents; the colour and form of the words changing in response to some unknown criteria, contorting into unintelligible symbols and patterns.

Whatever Naomi was doing was far beyond reading a few simple words off the page.

“No, no…that’s not a good idea,” Naomi muttered as she sifted through the unintelligible mess. “You don’t want to do that…sure, okay…no, why would you…oh.” She began rapidly pulling the contents around the page, searching for something. “No. How is that possible? You’re not….” She pulled something back in front of her that she’d skimmed over earlier, pulling it apart rapidly. When she found what she was looking for, her shoulders sagged and she looked up at Beth. “I see it now. You poor, poor woman.”

“Why? What happened?” Peter said anxiously.

Naomi didn’t answer, simply returning her mournful gaze back down to her Tome. She halfheartedly pulled a few more pieces of information around but soon gave up and dismissed her Tome entirely. Rising to her feet, she met Peter’s gaze.

“Someone tried to kill your wife. She killed them instead. I imagine that her current state is the product of that trauma.”

The bluntness of Naomi’s statement rocked Peter back, Angela’s stabilizing arm the only thing stopping him from falling. She gripped him tightly and looked at Naomi like she was going to start shouting, with Mark not far behind in denouncing Naomi’s claims.

Only for Beth’s quiet tears to confirm the truth of Naomi’s words.

“Mom?” Angela said, her voice laden with confusion.

Naomi crouched and placed a hand on Beth’s shoulder. “This world suffers from a lack of pacifists, and I am truly sorry it forced you to betray those ideals.” Standing up, she looked at Mark.

“I’m going to leave, but I would like to come back and help you further with your magic if that is acceptable?” she asked.

Mark nodded mutely, looking as numb as Peter felt.

The woman hesitated, taking in the state of the family. Then her demeanour shifted, growing commanding as she grabbed Mark by the chin and forced him to look at her. “Promise me: Whatever you do, do not get caught using your magic in the city. Don’t use it at all, if possible.

“Sure, whatever,” Mark mumbled, eyes down.

“I am being serious,” she commanded, shaking him to regain his focus. “Remember what I told you. The college has a habit of making unknown mages disappear. Using your magic is the quickest way to join the ranks of those poor souls.

“However,” she continued, “remember that the college does not have the legal right to murder other mages. If you do have to use magic, and you do think you’re going to get caught, make sure it is big, public, and worth it. I don’t want to see more ill fall upon your family, and if the college knows who you are, it’s better to be a public figure than a private one.”

That got Mark’s attention. “That sounds like a horrible idea.”

“Palmyre can be a horrible place,” she said, looking at Beth.

Mark looked at his mom and nodded halfheartedly. It was clearly the most she was going to get from him, so she begged leave of the family and grabbed her cloak from the ground. As she did so, the fabric unfolded, revealing an elaborately embroidered pattern.

“YOU!” Beth suddenly shouted, surging to her feet and causing everyone to take a step back in alarm. She charged over to Naomi, shaking off Peter’s arm as she stabbed a finger into Naomi’s chest. “You have the GALL to come into my house? To come around MY family?”

Naomi took a step back in confusion. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what you mean?”

“You don’t know what I mean?” Beth seethed. She yanked the cloak out of Naomi’s hands, stretching the fabric between white-knuckled fists as she thrust the embroidery in Naomi’s face—a pattern that encircled a central, stylized stencil of a cube.

Peter had no idea why Beth was reacting the way she was. What he did know was the meaning of the symbol, thanks to some idle talk during his luncheon. And its presence on Naomi’s cloak made him realize that the stakes of this encounter had just gone through the roof.

“Do you see this?” Beth said, turning to the family as she pointed to the symbol. “This…this woman is a member of the gang who attacked me, and here she is in my own fucking house!”

Peter looked at Angela, ready to stop her from commenting on her mother’s swearing, but the girl was too dumbstruck to say anything.

Naomi, however, looked utterly confused. “You think I’m part of a gang?”

“OF COURSE YOU ARE!” she shouted. “This symbol? The one you have so prominently displayed on your…your…cape thing? It’s the same symbol that the people who attacked me wore. All four of them had this symbol on their arm. And you, with your fancy clothes? You’re probably responsible in some way!”

“Beth…” Peter warned her, trying to avert disaster.

Unfortunately, Beth was past paying attention to him. “So what is it? Are you a leader? Some sort of contact? Maybe somebody’s mistress?”

Oh shit, Peter thought, his mind whirring. Putting a hand on his wife’s shoulder, he anxiously said, “Beth, you have to stop.”

“No! I want to know. I want to know why this woman thinks that she can come into my house and ingratiate herself with my family when what she really is is a—”

“BETH!” Peter shouted, finally getting his wife’s attention. “That is not a gang insignia. That is the symbol of House Glass. Which makes her Naomi del Storr de Glass, first daughter of Gabriel Glass, the head of the del Storr Family—aka the fifth most powerful Family in Palmyre.”

Peter hadn’t asked many questions during lunch, but he had tried to learn everything he could about the Families, their leaders, and their power structures. It turned out that House Glass was a bit of an anomaly, Naomi even more so, which is why he had filed that knowledge away in the back of his mind. He just hadn’t expected to draw upon it quite so soon.

Everyone’s gaze swung to Naomi. Even Beth had the presence of mind to stop talking, but whether that was due to Peter’s words or the fury radiating off the eṉakkumancer was anyone’s guess.

“Fourth most powerful Family, actually,” Naomi said, her tone dark.

The power radiating off the woman at that moment was palpable, and it dawned on Peter that he had never inspected the woman. He suspected he wouldn’t like what he saw.

Name: Naomi del Storr de Glass

Species: Aerix

Renown: Level 27 Eṉakkumancer (Tome Mage)

Base Stat Average: 28.9

His eyes widened at her Level and Stat average. Shit. Forget her Family ties—this woman could tear them to shreds on her own.

To Peter’s surprise, Naomi’s rage wasn’t directed at them.

“However, the power of my Family is not germane at the moment,” she continued, her voice almost shaking with rage. “What does matter is that you are saying you were assaulted by thugs wearing my Family’s insignia? Thugs who felt so insulated from consequences that they saw no need to cover those insignia up?”

“That is exactly what I am saying,” Beth said. His wife’s words had lost much of their fire, but they still carried enough bite to show that she wasn’t going to back down if Naomi challenged the authenticity of her claim.

In almost all instances, this was precisely why Peter loved his wife. For that quiet core of steel that was lost on most people because of her sunny disposition. At this very moment, however, he was really hoping she wouldn’t push too hard against a woman who could literally destroy them with a sweep of her hand.

Fortunately, Naomi didn’t question the authenticity of Beth’s story.

“Then I personally apologize for what happened to you,” the mage said, her words curt and businesslike but with an undercurrent of anger. “You will be compensated, and I promise you: I will root out every grain of rot that has made its way into our holdings.” There was a brief flicker of parchment in front of the woman, but its presence was obscured by the act of her throwing her cloak around her shoulders, embroidery side facing in. “As for my identity, you now know who I am. Despite that, I would like to continue working with Mark, as I am his best chance at controlling his magic. However, my family has enemies who might target him for no more reason than because I have shown interest, which is why I hid my identity during this visit. You must decide if that risk is worth it going forward.”

“It is,” Mark said without hesitation.

Everyone nodded, even Beth. Peter was concerned his wife would resist, but Mark’s pleading expression was all it took for her to acquiesce.

“Good,” Naomi said. Then she calmed, but only fractionally. “Beth, I know you will be mad at my Family for quite some time. As the owner of this home, you can use your Tome to deny me entry until you see fit to grant me permission to enter. If you never choose to do so, I will not take offence. The behaviour of our employees is, ultimately, our responsibility, and in that we have clearly failed.”

She gritted her teeth and shook her head. “We have a saying in House Glass: ‘The cullet can always be melted.’ It means that nothing can be broken so badly that it cannot be remade into something better. Hopefully, that holds true for my relationship with you four.”

“Five,” Beth said quietly.

Naomi nodded. She looked unsurprised by Beth’s correction, causing Peter to frown. Apparently, Mark had made the questionable decision of telling her about Jack, something Peter wasn’t happy about. He’d have to talk with the kid about not spouting all of their secrets to the first pretty face that walked into the room.

“I should go,” Naomi continued. “Should you decide that I am once again welcome in your home, you may inform me through an invitation via your Tome. It won’t grant me access, but it will let me know that you would like me to visit. Not only is it convenient, it is entirely private. Even to a mage of my specialty.”

She nodded farewell, and Mark escorted her to the door. When he returned, everyone stood in silence. Beth pressed herself into Peter’s side, and he hugged her tight, kissing the top of her head. Tears ran down her cheeks, but she seemed to have shaken off the catatonia.

Angela frowned, staring down the hallway. “That was concerning.”

“I’ll say,” Peter agreed. He shook his head. “It looks like things just got a lot more complicated.”

Mark frowned, picking up on the subtext. “Am I missing something?”

Peter looked at his son. “Those were very helpful instructions she just gave us about using our Tomes. Which begs the question: Why would we need instruction on using our Tomes if she thought we’d spent our whole lives on Arenia?”