Aldwin fixed his grey eyes on the emperor's face. "You want me to find something in the mud that you missed when you looked at it."
"I want another man's eyes on it," Soren said, his jaw tightening as he remembered the smell of the dungeon. "I was too angry to look at the lines properly. I was just watching her suffer."
The old man gave him a long, steady look, the sort of look an old captain gives a soldier who is honest about where his strength ends. "Very well."
Aldwin laid the silver flat against his right palm, then covered it with his left, his thumbs locking together over the chain.
He closed his eyes, and a slow, blue light began to seep out from between his old knuckles.
His magic was old and thick, but he moved it into the silver with the slow care of a locksmith sliding an iron pick into a rusted keyhole, feeling for the small brass pins until they clicked.
The study went completely still.
