News spreads pretty quickly about the knife's new location at the bottom of the ocean. Aldaras and Sintre become celebrities, along with being rich. Sintre is nigh-impossible to find in his hermithood. Aldaras - is not. The necklace is his. The mission to go encase the knife in concrete was organized by him. He's now deemed to be an important person, and as bewildering as that is, he works to roll with it.
He ends up invited to a party. It's the type of party with lots of important, famous people attending. He can bring one guest with him.
Right, he knows who he wants to bring, but first he has to ask her. Time to go find Annie.
And off he goes.
He needs to go shopping, too, it's not like he owns anything quite fancy enough for the party, but that's easy enough to fix. Shopping. For something that is dark purple. It's uneventful and gains him some new clothes.
Then it's time to pick Annie up, which he goes to do. Knock, knock.
She looks like the night sky.
It's past sunset and she's not one of those people who tries to navigate the climate of Noregr in skin-showing garments, so from neck to floor is soft purple fabric so dark it looks black except in the more directly lamplit areas, and she's spangled with little white beads and pale embroidered stars, swirling across the skirt. Her gloves, which go up nearly to her shoulder, match but are a thinner fabric, and there's a comet sewn on the back of her right hand. She's acquired a set of silver and amethyst jewelry, a crescent moon comb in her twisted-up hair and twin bracelets shaggy with dangling stones on her wrists and stars clipped to her ears and an abstract pendant hanging from her neck. Either her mother helped or she has hitherto unexplored makeup skills of her own; there's a little purple on the lids of her dark-lined eyes and more stars drawn in silver at their corners.
She smiles tentatively.
"Thanks. There's also a little cape it comes with -" She reaches, and comes up with a thing of purple-dyed fur that goes over her shoulders. It clips at her throat with a silver clasp. "I was thinking of something more understated, but Mom said this one, and I brought her along for a reason, I'm glad you like it."
The next day is less wonderful.
It starts with a phone call, followed by, "We're terribly sorry, but the artifact you left with us has been stolen." Then, even better, "The thimble, too."
Shit.
Aldaras says he has to go before the receptionist can go on her tangent about how they 'Have the best minds' looking for it. Because he needs to call Annie. This is information she needs to know. Not just because it's important, but because it's the thimble, and his necklace.
He hangs up on the receptionist with only a necessary explanation (he can throw the 'keeper' excuse to make her go away: it's even true) and then calls Annie.
"Shit. On campus I can just - keep well away from any walls thick enough that I wouldn't hear the tic, but if it's been stolen - it could be anywhere, they could be gagging themselves or stuffing their mouths with caramel if they're willing to steal the damn thing in the first place -"
"Yes! Actually that was part of why I was calling. I don't just want to throw the necklace at - literally anyone that wants it, because of the whole 'in love irrevocably' part. I realize that some people can do some excessively nasty things in the name of what they think's love, and - I want to be careful. You're smart, and you have a different perspective than me and know the problem. Want to help?"
"Well, there's those, but if you need more people - if any of the necklaced people have already found the objects of their affections you could necklace them without it spiraling out of control, if they agreed - and if you need to involve completely new people I'd say find single ones and find out why they're single. And avoid respondents whose answer is of the form, like - 'people just don't like me' or whatever. 'Focusing on my career' is probably fine, breakup stories that don't vilify the ex are likely fine, I mean as a first pass - but not - you know what I mean?"
"Thanks. Another problem I foresee is - couples that are afraid of mind reading and certain that they'll fall in love with each other. I'm not sure how to handle those, I - if I could give everyone immunity to mind reading I would, but I also think it would cause a great deal of heartache if their guesses were wrong."
"Mm. None yet, but I don't think the Dean had time to check for what level of compatibility was required. The compatibility levels to go on a few dates with someone without issue versus the compatibility levels required by the necklace might be very different."
There's not a huge wave of interest in touching the necklace; Annie's discomfort with mindreading is on the extreme side. Until there's a bank robbery that is widely suspected to be the work of at least one mind-reader. Then there are people. They talk to Aldaras; they talk to Annie; they rule themselves in or out on the basis of these interviews and do or don't touch the necklace.
There's a second robbery, this one of a museum. There are several items taken, but the most worrying one is a tapestry that sharply improves one's sensory discernment - including, in a few long-ago but well-documented trials, senses granted by other artifacts - at the cost of muteness.
The potential benefits of combining this with the thimble have been speculated on but dismissed for ethical reasons.
Annie is knocking on Aldaras's door the next morning, shaking.
"The - offer to live somewhere in the middle of nowhere is still open. I'll pay for it, even, if you're not sure."
"If it's infinite," he points out, "I think the strain would kill him or drive him insane. So it's not that. We'd need to check some history texts and see by what percentage a touched person's senses are changed, and then multiply the ordinary range of the mind reading from there."
He gets up, opens the door to Zevaia's room, and calls, "Zevaia, can you - shoo for -" Pause. He looks at Annie. "... A while?"
For a few delicious, wonderful seconds, all he does is kiss her the hell back. And then his head is annoying and gets in the way. He carefully extracts himself from the kiss, breathing heavily, and murmurs, "How - close are your preferences and thoughts now in comparison to before...?"
Right. Mental morality checklist?
- She said before she was touched to just - roll with what she wants after.
- Her personality and preferences are 'mostly intact' aside from being in love with him.
- He offered other options and she went with this one despite his genuine efforts to convince her otherwise.
- She kissed him before she was necklaced.
- He is not, actually, capable of breaking up with her and trying would only cause pain and torment to them both.
- She is right there, she just kissed him, and between the two of them he's pretty sure he technically has less consent than she does, considering.
Fuck it. He's good.
He kisses her. Like he's drowning and she's his air, like he's starving and she's his sustenance, like he is fucking touched by a really thorough love necklace and he's been resisting it for ages and doesn't have to anymore.
And she finishes her cereal and puts the bowl aside and flops on him. "Something transportational or maybe stealth-related. And maybe the original owner can be convinced to take the thing home so the thief's not risking an assault on the university again when they're expecting it."
It turns out that the Dean has determined (while the necklace and its higher-priority investigation have been unavailable to him) that the chalice actually enables its touched to make controllable visual illusions within a one-foot radius of themselves. But they haven't disseminated this information. They agree to cooperate with setting the trap - they release the chalice's real side effect, and a lie about its primary effect saying that it enables telekinesis. It is announced that it will be stored somewhere besides the university, and it is leaked to a few un-necklaced people when it will be loaded onto a car and driven away.
Zevaia's found (after a bit of trouble, considering they didn't know which hotel she was in) and asked to help. She agrees. She's kind enough to not make much comment of Aldaras and Annie's - whatever they have. Permanent creepy love necklace voodoo relationship. But they're cute and happy together, so - she's letting it slide.
A thief makes an attempt on the cup and is caught by a cunning arrangement of traps and carried away. The thimble and the tapestry are both retrieved after he's been in custody a few days. He confesses to the existence of no accomplices; there are no more high-profile thefts to put the lie to his (written) statements, but there is lingering wariness of mute people in the public consciousness.
But necklaced people have nothing to worry about.
Annie has opinions on how to celebrate.