07-26-2016, 10:27 PM
The tension left after Will and Margot explained in so many words (fewer understood than spoken, but the gist got across) that they knew magic could be cut with a knife. Margot was actually holding her breath while Will was parsing through gender pronouns to assign to a mostly inanimate object.
When the man began to laugh she exhaled, and only in that moment realized how long she'd been refusing to breathe for. Relief only had just enough time to start to seep into her scalp when the lecture began.
What were you two thinking?
Margot's body language spoke rightfully of shame. Her mouth twisted to the side and she looked down, suddenly interested in the cleanliness of her fingernails and rather focused on getting a particularly stubborn smudge of dirt loose. He warned about lab tables and government agencies and the safety of their loved ones. Said that for all they knew he could go about reporting them to any number of agencies that they ought to be chilled by. He wanted to know more directly, after explaining these possible terrible outcomes, what they were thinking. Margot's eyes only raised enough to flicker toward William, to find his gaze, and to portray some kind of a silent apology before she spoke.
"When a man and his collection make enough of an impact that a stranger offers you more money than you've seen to help lift something, you know whatever that man knows must be mighty valuable." She looked around, found the knife with the bone hilt that she'd spied when she'd first come into the office, and with a somewhat more determined set to her mouth pressed on. "We wanted to scope things out. Honestly, I wanted to see if this apparently valuable weapon-- something that someone would come to one of us for help with, specifically-- was in the right hands. If you could keep something of that kind of worth out of the right hands... maybe out of any hands at all."
She looked back to Arturo now, at the lack of a smile he wore now as well as how his fingers liked to steeple, and concluded, "Frankly, I wasn't sure what to expect, or what plans we'd have by the time we left today. I don't think there's much chance of getting in and out of this library with anything you weren't supposed to take, and I don't think that you've got nothing to do with that, sir. At this point? I was just thinking to offer you word of warning and that we could then be on our way."
When the man began to laugh she exhaled, and only in that moment realized how long she'd been refusing to breathe for. Relief only had just enough time to start to seep into her scalp when the lecture began.
What were you two thinking?
Margot's body language spoke rightfully of shame. Her mouth twisted to the side and she looked down, suddenly interested in the cleanliness of her fingernails and rather focused on getting a particularly stubborn smudge of dirt loose. He warned about lab tables and government agencies and the safety of their loved ones. Said that for all they knew he could go about reporting them to any number of agencies that they ought to be chilled by. He wanted to know more directly, after explaining these possible terrible outcomes, what they were thinking. Margot's eyes only raised enough to flicker toward William, to find his gaze, and to portray some kind of a silent apology before she spoke.
"When a man and his collection make enough of an impact that a stranger offers you more money than you've seen to help lift something, you know whatever that man knows must be mighty valuable." She looked around, found the knife with the bone hilt that she'd spied when she'd first come into the office, and with a somewhat more determined set to her mouth pressed on. "We wanted to scope things out. Honestly, I wanted to see if this apparently valuable weapon-- something that someone would come to one of us for help with, specifically-- was in the right hands. If you could keep something of that kind of worth out of the right hands... maybe out of any hands at all."
She looked back to Arturo now, at the lack of a smile he wore now as well as how his fingers liked to steeple, and concluded, "Frankly, I wasn't sure what to expect, or what plans we'd have by the time we left today. I don't think there's much chance of getting in and out of this library with anything you weren't supposed to take, and I don't think that you've got nothing to do with that, sir. At this point? I was just thinking to offer you word of warning and that we could then be on our way."