Вилорп

→"It's uninhabited apart from one hermit."

→"So it's not really uninhabited?"

→"That's right."

→"On the isle of Evoli?"

→"In a manner of speaking. No one knew about it till recently but apparently there's another shell called the Ocean Storm. A Turanian captain came across it on the uninhabited isle of Evoli last autumn. Or so he claims. It hasn't really been confirmed by anyone else. He sent a message to the Sorcerers Guild, saying he'd bought it from some ancient Elvish hermit."

→"The Storm Calmer has a brother?"

→"No. It's safe. But its brother has gone missing."

→"Last time you mentioned one of these important items of national security," I say, "it had been lost. Has the Storm Calmer gone missing?"

→"It's too important for that," explains Lisutaris. "The Storm Calmer is part of our national defence, like the green jewel I use for far-seeing. It's kept secret, for use only if a hostile Sorcerer tries to batter down our sea walls by conjuring up a storm."

→"Sounds like a useful item," I say. "Particularly in this part of the world. How come it's never used? We lose a lot of ships every year to the weather."

→"It was made by the Grand Sorcerer Elistratis about eight hundred years ago and brought to Turai by her daughter after Elistratis was killed in a sea battle far down to the south. Elistratis's daughter sailed here through the winter storms, using the conch shell to calm the seas. Or so the story goes."

→Lisutaris explains that the Storm Calmer is a conch shell imbued with powers to quieten the seas.

→"Right."

→"It calms storms."

→"What's it do?"

→"A sorcerous item. One of the items I inherited when I became head of the Guild."

→"No. What is it?"

→"Have you heard of the Storm Calmer?"

→Lisutaris inhales deeply from her thazis stick.

→"You could afford to lose some weight," says Lisutaris. "Anyway I'm not here to hire you. Senator Samilius is in charge of the investigation and he's got agents all over Twelve Seas already. I'm just looking for advice."