Hogg motioned for Brin to follow, and then casually stepped off the roof to fall five stories to the garden courtyard below. Brin only hesitated a half-second before following. He couldn't drop that far without serious injury or death; even without his Vitality curse it was too far. But he trusted Hogg.The first second of the drop was spent in abject terror as he wondered if maybe he should've thought this through, but then he felt something pressing against his feet--a platform of hard light. It gradually took on more of his weight, and when he hit the ground it was hardly more jarring than a somewhat quick elevator.Brin also noticed the sound magic that Hogg cast when they hit the ground. He couldn't sense sound magic with the same precision as light, but from what he could tell Hogg was freezing the ground in place. Not only was he preventing sounds, he was stopping the subtle vibrations in the floor that a particularly sensitive person might be able to feel.Hogg stepped over to a stone bench and sat down. Brin sat next to him, glad that the invisibility was masking the trembling in his legs. The fall hadn't been painful, but it had caused a spike in his adrenaline. That was great for ignoring pain or pushing through exhaustion, but it could make him a bit clumsy in a delicate spy operation like this, so he was glad for the chance to calm down."This is probably the safest place to talk. The wind and the trees will help disperse any of the things that a Life or Wind [Mage] would use to track us. Not that we'll have to worry about either one unless we leave some clue that we were here," said Hogg.Even though he communicated in Silent Voice and they were both invisible, Brin couldn't help but feel oddly exposed. The garden wasn't empty. Vitor had left, but servants and others crossed through here and there, and he saw several people lounging on the balconies above. But magical spying operated on another set of rules, and the (...)