Percy didn't know whether to be happy to meet Hugo again. It hadn't even been that long since he sent the former assassin to deliver a message to his mother and find out what House Eurides was planning.

But even then he gave Hugo a careful smile and shook the man like nothing was wrong. His hands were dry and rugged, calloused from handling a blade all his life.

Hugo had the same grey hair and young face that confused Percy. His sunken eyes and the shadows under them were as unsettling as usual, but Percy never seemed unsettled by anything.

"As tough as ever, huh?" Hugo chuckled. "It's a pleasure to meet you again, Lord Perseus."

"Good job not dying out there," Percy returned. "Did you see anything interesting on your way back?"

"Yes, plenty… very strange things."

Barty clapped Percy on the shoulder, interrupting them. His wrinkled face cracked into a grin.

"You've grown taller, brat."

Percy put a hand on his head and measured it to Barty's.

"Yep, not too long before I can look down on you."

"You grow too fast," Barty said, cleaning an imaginary tear. "How's your stay in Sonea been? I hope you and Thalos didn't push yourselves too hard."

He shook his head in response to the question. It was a rather nice stay if you forgot about the times he almost died.

They were all at a table in a restaurant not too far from the inn they stayed in. Well, actually there were three tables joined together because of the giant Ramlos family.

The rest of the restaurant gave them a couple looks. On the table, the only person that looked very unassuming was the old man and the only woman.

The others included ten redheaded people, mostly children who were very loud and constantly fighting over food and little things, and their equally loud father.

Then there was the grey-haired man that looked both young and old, and the young, black-haired swordsman whose arm was covered in scars.

Last but certainly not least was the boy with half-white, half-black hair, whose eyes were shifting pools of grey and purple.

Percy glanced at one of the people watching him and they quickly looked away.

"This isn't really the best company for a clandestine discussion."

"Yes, we'll have to wait till later to avoid being overheard," Hugo said. "After all, your work from a couple days ago reached many ears. They'll be watching."

"We also came here to enjoy the soup and baked rolls," Thalos added casually. "We can talk about all that stressful stuff later."

"Or we can do both at the same time," Percy said, smirking as they stared at him. He reached under the table and pulled an object from his bag.

It was an amalgamation of Silksong moth silk, Ashfang lizard teeth, feathers from the Golden shrike, and some metal pieces.

"This is a Guiding eye."

Barty raised an eyebrow while chewing on a bread roll.

"Doesn't look like an eye. It looks like… a monstrosity?"

"Forget that, we can streamline design and material preparation when I'm back in Dema with Terra. For now it works and it can do this."

He laid the Guiding eye at the center of their three tables and said carefully. "Lights."

The magic tool pulsed with red and green energy as it drew power from the Spellcore at its center. The metal pieces moved, realigning the gears he made with customizable rewards.

This allowed it to reorder its magic circles and only pass power through the desired lines. It first used the levitation circle he copied from a textbook, rising above their heads.

Many people in the room gasped, some of the Ramlos kids climbed their chairs and reached up. Even Hugo was a bit surprised. But it wasn't even done.

The restaurant wasn't properly lit, making the place a bit dark. But the Guiding eye pulsed with a soft golden light that filled every corner of the room.

People squinted at first but soon found the sudden light didn't bother their eyes. Others in the dark corners lowered their heads as the light revealed them.

Percy shook his head and said. "Silence."

The gears clicked once again, rearranging the eye, and casting another spell using its changing circles. A dome of pulsing air spread over their table, cutting off all the noise from the other patrons of the restaurant.

At the same time, no one could hear what was being said inside the dome of silence. The people in the corners grimaced but remained patient.

Hugo stared at Percy in disbelief.

"It can use two different spells at the same time?"

"Yes, but the gears will automatically shift back and forth between Light and Silence to recast and keep the spells going." Percy said excitedly, "And there's no chance of explosive Misalignment or Spirit draw. There are still small misalignments, but I really don't understand what's causing that yet."

"That's still impressive," Thalos marvelled at the eye above them. "How long did it take to put all that together? We hunted all these monsters on the journey, so you got the idea then?"

Percy shook his head.

"I've actually been planning to make one of these for a long time. I had the circles already patterned out with Terra when we were in Dema. I've been testing out combinations every night. But I only had the idea to use the gears when I was thinking about clocks."

"What's a clock?" Hugo asked, confused.

"I haven't made that one yet. But yeah, the gears move to change the shape of the circle instead of using a Branch circle to choose what circle is activated in a multi-layered circle."

Using a multi-layered model allows you to save space by drawing circles over each other and letting them complete each other. But it also meant there was often spirit energy left in unused lines, causing small Misalignments that stopped spells from activating.

There was also the fact that you couldn't use two spells at once with multi-layered circles, because the two spells used some of the same lines. If they were activated at the same time… well, you'd be very blown up.

"So no one can hear us?" Hugo asked, looking around. "And I can see some gentlemen that might be interested in our conversation. Should I follow them later?"

"If you think it's important," Percy shrugged. "Anyway, tell me what Sion is planning. We've learnt some important things here."

Hugo put his hands on the table.

"Well, I found them exchanging letters with someone named Sebas Basker. And it seems your suspicions were correct, House Eurides has been in communication with Makari Dyrakis, the Stormsword."

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