Caiaphas gave the mage a helpless shrug. "The watcher is never on the same face each day, and his illusions are quite good. He likely stacked an aura masking spell on top of them, so even a good detect mage ward wouldn't react unless he was on top of it. That is if I understand the magic theories correctly."<br/><br/>He watched the noble turn it over, and gave another shrug. "I report to several people, and when I mentioned the golden bird possibly having something inside, they reacted. However, me coming here is not part of their plan, they wanted me to replace the original with that one without bothering to obtain your permission and by force if required, and destroy the statue to get whatever is inside it. I told them that would dishonor both the Court, themselves, their patron, and the Queen, and I would take direct action to prevent it. However, that does mean that I am not able to come back without it, and I have been given a deadline to get back. Hence why I am here."<br/><br/>He leaned forward. "What I want to do is make sure something is inside the original bird, and if nothing is there, then you get the second, the first gets repaired, and nothing else happens. If what I suspect IS, in fact, inside it, then I cut a section of the bird out, and carefully remove the item, before replacing the piece and repairing it with magic."