"I am weak, far too weak," Sonder said, and Aronia frowned.
The word did not seem to fit. She was speaking to an immortal banshee. A sorceress.
Nothing about Blackbird Sonder appeared weak. Yet she had said it without self-pity.
Without exaggeration. As though she were merely stating another observable fact.
She wanted to understand her feelings, but seeing how alien the sorceress was, it was challenging.
She didn't think she had many comparable moments in life except for the mundane.
But wanting to become stronger?
That part was hardly unusual.
Every week the Archives acquired another object from someone who had reached for power because they believed they had no other choice.
Some to save their family or a loved one or to repair the world, their villages, kingdoms, or some such.
Some simply feared growing old.
The reasons changed. The outcome was usually disappointing.
"I sympathize," Aronia said at last. "I do. I can even believe that your intentions are exactly as noble as you say. I can believe that you think you need power. But that doesn't make you unique. I've cataloged enough dangerous artifacts to know that almost everyone who reaches for forbidden power believes they're doing it for the right reason."
There was a pause, and she pointed toward the staff with her pencil.
"It still doesn't mean they should have it. They're rarely right. I don't know what these things are capable of. I don't know this Endrith or what this 'mask' did for him, and I don't know what they'll do to you if left unchecked. But you cannot leave here carrying them. If your goal truly is as altruistic as you believe..."
She shook her head.
"...then you'll find another solution."
"I'm not looking for permission," Sonder said in a quiet and gentle voice.
Aronia felt herself straighten. Now that was dangerous.
"I already felt like I had little time, and I've wasted enough of it talking to you. I hoped you would simply lead me where I needed to go. We're already very close."
Sonder looked down briefly at Sireacht, now asleep once more against her shoulder.
Aronia sighed. "I hoped that this would go differently."
"So had I."
Sonder lifted her staff again, and immediately the wards around Vault Twenty-One brightened. Runes flared across the walls, and the air hummed with magic.
Aronia took an involuntary step backward.
She trusted that the vault would hold, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
The staff touched the stone floor once. Just a soft one that gave a 'clank.'
Nothing seemed to happen. The walls didn't break, nor did they blast apart, nor were the wards dispelled.
Sonder simply walked forward.
She stepped into the stone as though it were nothing.
For a single moment, half her body occupied the vault wall.
The runes blazed brilliantly.
Then dimmed again.
Sonder disappeared.
Containment wards were designed to prevent magical escape.