“It’s … embedded. Like part of my body.” Maya took Beq’s hand and brought it up to brush against the Thing. Beq hesitated, then explored the little arcana with her fingers, poking gently at the puffy flesh around it.

“How long have you had it?” Beq said. “Where did it come from?”

“Since I was about five, I think,” Maya said. “Not long after the Order took me in. I used to get … sick, all the time. I don’t remember it well, but they tell me I’d have fevers, coughs, and nothing the doctors could do would help. It was getting worse, and my parents worried I was going to die. After the Order came for me, Baselanthus examined me himself. He said I had a … a kind of continuous illness, I guess. I’ve never really understood it. But it would have killed me, for certain. To keep that from happening, he gave me this.” She tapped one of the crystals. “I call it the Thing. Basel and Jaedia know about it—and Marn, I guess—but no one else. And I’m not supposed to tell anyone.”

“I can see why not,” Beq said. Her fingers circled the Thing, raising goose bumps on Maya’s sensitive skin. “Obviously, if Baselanthus did it, it must be all right, but melding arcana and flesh is usually only possible with dhaka. If Tanax and his Dogmatic friends saw this, they might call you a heretic.”

“Fortunately,” Maya said tartly, “the chance of Tanax seeing it is low.”

“Do you know how it works?” Beq tweaked a dial on her lenses. “Does it have an internal power source? Have you ever tried feeding it external power? Are any of the crystals sensitive to—”

“Beq,” Maya said.

Beq blinked. “What?”

Maya gestured. At the two of them, the bed, her bare chest. “Do you think you could be a little less of an arcanist for just a few minutes?”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize.” Maya bent back down for a kiss, her breasts brushing against Beq’s. “Just … try not to get distracted.”

*

And then, later still, a faint gasp.

“Maya.”

“Mmm.”

“Have you tried a standard Darkwatcher diagnostic sequence to see—”

“Beq.”

“I’m sorry! But I think—” And then, as Maya did something with her fingers: “Oh. I’ll just … um … try it out … ah … later.”

“Good.”

Chapter 23