In quintet a deviant
Age 19 / 424 words
"You called me back off my lunch break for this?" Grace asked.
"Yep!" said Dennis.
They all looked at the five statues, five exactly, perfectly, identical statues, great big Easter Island-esque heads on short, squat bodies.
"It's a bunch of statues," Grace said.
"It's the Rachniof Stone Quartet," Emmett said.
"...there are five of them." Grace counted. "One, two, three, four, five. That's a quintet."
"That's the problem," Emmett said.
"One deviates!" Dennis put in. "It's a fake!"
"So just finite it," Grace sighed, raising her wand.
Emmett and Dennis both jumped in the way. "No!"
"The originals are transfigured, charmed, and warded," Emmett added. "It's part of the artist's signature, apparently; he creates statues from things with pre-existing magical properties."
"And he uses Brightfeld's priori reduction methods so his own magical signature isn't recorded as part of the process!" Dennis put in. "It's not just art -- it's alchemy! The transfiguration of magic!"
"Four are real -- and four are the prize of the Minister's collection -- and one just showed up in a lot of stolen gear the Aurors seized a few days back. But," Emmett said when Grace started to speak, "we have no way of knowing if the one just found is a fake, or one of the Minister's four was a fake and we've just found the real one. The Aurors lost the thief so we can't just veritas him."
"They all analyse differently because they're made from slightly different materials, and none of them match the artist, because the artist made them that way, and all five look exactly the same -- I took photos and did overlap projections and everything!"
"And the Minister's pissed because he thinks he's going to be made a laughing stock, and he's breathing down our necks. I'm not joking, he was down here in person just now, standing behind us while we worked. Creepy!"
"And we're stuck!" Dennis concluded.
"We're not stuck," Emmett said, "we've just exhausted all the obvious possible avenues of -- no, yeah, we're totally stuck."
"Hmm," said Grace. She dropped her wand. "Oops, clumsy me." She leaned over slowly to get it, waving her chest and wiggling her arse on the way down.
Four of the statues stared impassively ahead. The fifth (and second from the right) swivelled to look. Grace hit it between the eyes with a casual stunning spell.
"There's your deviant," she said. "Thief too. I'm going back to lunch."
Emmett and Dennis watched her sweep away.
"Huh!" said Dennis eventually. "When I tried that, they all looked!"
"You called me back off my lunch break for this?" Grace asked.
"Yep!" said Dennis.
They all looked at the five statues, five exactly, perfectly, identical statues, great big Easter Island-esque heads on short, squat bodies.
"It's a bunch of statues," Grace said.
"It's the Rachniof Stone Quartet," Emmett said.
"...there are five of them." Grace counted. "One, two, three, four, five. That's a quintet."
"That's the problem," Emmett said.
"One deviates!" Dennis put in. "It's a fake!"
"So just finite it," Grace sighed, raising her wand.
Emmett and Dennis both jumped in the way. "No!"
"The originals are transfigured, charmed, and warded," Emmett added. "It's part of the artist's signature, apparently; he creates statues from things with pre-existing magical properties."
"And he uses Brightfeld's priori reduction methods so his own magical signature isn't recorded as part of the process!" Dennis put in. "It's not just art -- it's alchemy! The transfiguration of magic!"
"Four are real -- and four are the prize of the Minister's collection -- and one just showed up in a lot of stolen gear the Aurors seized a few days back. But," Emmett said when Grace started to speak, "we have no way of knowing if the one just found is a fake, or one of the Minister's four was a fake and we've just found the real one. The Aurors lost the thief so we can't just veritas him."
"They all analyse differently because they're made from slightly different materials, and none of them match the artist, because the artist made them that way, and all five look exactly the same -- I took photos and did overlap projections and everything!"
"And the Minister's pissed because he thinks he's going to be made a laughing stock, and he's breathing down our necks. I'm not joking, he was down here in person just now, standing behind us while we worked. Creepy!"
"And we're stuck!" Dennis concluded.
"We're not stuck," Emmett said, "we've just exhausted all the obvious possible avenues of -- no, yeah, we're totally stuck."
"Hmm," said Grace. She dropped her wand. "Oops, clumsy me." She leaned over slowly to get it, waving her chest and wiggling her arse on the way down.
Four of the statues stared impassively ahead. The fifth (and second from the right) swivelled to look. Grace hit it between the eyes with a casual stunning spell.
"There's your deviant," she said. "Thief too. I'm going back to lunch."
Emmett and Dennis watched her sweep away.
"Huh!" said Dennis eventually. "When I tried that, they all looked!"