Kaede seems to be rather late.

At least this is interesting reading.

Okay, this is extremely late. She stops reading and composes a spell - she learned how to convert lifeforce to mana. Is Kaede anywhere in town? She was certain that they were meant to meet at the library, but maybe she forgot.

No Kaede in town, so either they're not there or they're blocking her magic.

Which raises the question: why? Why would Kaede not be in town? Why would Kaede block her magic?

Well, she doesn't think there is a way to answer the second question with the information she's got. She could speculate that Kaede is watching her as a test of character or something... but that sounds far-fetched. And if this is some sort of manipulation it's one meant for her to believe that Kaede is not in town.

And to the first question. Well, the most likely thing was that something came up. Something that prevented Kaede from sending back a message even thought that sounded fairly trivial with that absurd well of power.

And with that much power at her disposal, Temperance can't conceive of anything that could keep her occupied for too long. She could just ask to use the restroom, send another message and have enough time to spare to actually use the restroom. In theory it isn't inconceivable that Kaede is busy in a fight or preventing a disaster that they can't solve with enormous amounts of magic, but... Kaede is hours late, in that time it would be easy to improvise something and the idea isn't likely in the first place.

This leaves a handful of grim possibilites. The most likely involve Kaede being outed as a metamancer. One in a thousand looks small, but less so if you have enough people, even less so when you remember that it isn't just a matter of pure chance. Temperance met Kaede because she was in a place that attracts mages and the High Consulate would have mages, lots of them.

The library is closing. Temperance says goodbye to the librarians and leaves. She doesn't go back to her hotel; instead she takes flight.

Maybe it's nothing. But if it isn't then there is a lot of power at risk here.

Temperance carefully composes the best defensive magic she can think of along the way.

The High Consulate of Bezanab isn't in the capital, but it's in a close enough city called Mapont. She can see the walls surrounding it and the palace from a distance. It is very pretty, and very imposing.

She can also see the invisible magic field surrounding it. That's unusual.

That is concerning.

Well, can she discern anything through it? Does it block scrying? Temperance checks if Kaede is inside the field (she is very careful to not set off any alarms) and is ready to teleport away if necessary.

It does in fact block any direct forms of scrying, so she cannot detect whether Kaede is inside the field. She does see a bit of magic trying to travel from the metaphorical spot where she tried to scry to somewhere—probably an alarm—but she manages to catch it and prevent it from going anywhere.

Temperance debates the pros and cons of figuring out if there is useful word on the street, but she isn't entirely sure how to go about doing that.

She is going to study the shield for a long, long while. Triple checks on everything.

...this is one complex magic field. It doesn't keep anyone out, it's not that kind of field, but it effectively blocks all incoming magic while permitting outgoing magic just fine. Furthermore, it has several layers of alarms built into it, and keeps track of everyone within it. Temperance will take several hours to start getting the full gist of it and then a few more hours to be certain there's nothing there that will surprise her.

She should perhaps not be staring at empty air in public in the meantime.

Staring at empty air? Who? Her? No, no. She is sketching. Or maybe composing poetry. It's a beautiful night and she got out to think about a bad relationship.

Temperance has practice at this and she knows how to pick an unobtrusive spot and not call too much attention.

It's midmorning by the time she's reasonably sure this field isn't hiding anything more from her.

And if she adds another hour to be beyond reasonably sure?

She is beyond reasonably sure. Nothing new emerges.

Okay, she has been thinking what to do in the back of her head. She picks the weakest point in the shield and tugs it just enough to get a scry in. Carefully and mindful of all the alarms - she is ready to bolt at first sign of trouble.

Any signs of Kaede or other metamancers or anything unusual?

Well she can't really identify metamancers now any more than she could before. But yep, there's Kaede, snuggling someone who's presumably her boyfriend, while they write a book.

Can she take a look at what they are writing?

Something about vaccines!

Temperance thinks. Well, she already has a way out prepared.

She sends Kaede a paper airplane message. Free?

Kaede briefly looks at it, then continues to act as if it weren't there.

...

Paper airplane can crumple itself and go in the trashcan.

...

Temperance decides not to do any mind tampering. Gods know if it wouldn't trip an alarm. And reverting the effect definitely would trip the alarm.

She retreats. This is too close to danger and she needs to come up with a plan to solve the situation.

The scry immediately stops working once the field settles down.

That was expected. She probably lost some measure of surprise here, but maybe not all of it.

Okay, she is going to calm down first and maybe eat something because she actually forgot about breakfast and it's nearing noon.

Well, if she goes in the city to eat whoever set this field up will know she did, if not necessarily that she's a metamancer depending on how she handles her stupidly huge amount of mana and lifeforce.

Of course she is going to give a wide berth to whoever might find her. She is going to another village, grab the first thing that looks edible and then sit somewhere quiet to plan.

Here's a small village and a bakery.