“That’s the part you’re not supposed to say out loud,” Serralyn told her, eyes once again close to their normal green.

“It’s why she isn’t seconded to any investigation of the various caste courts,” Teela said. “She tends to speak before thinking. I will say, however, that her exposure to the Barrani High Court—and Sedarias—has made the incidences of that far less frequent.”

Because Sedarias, within Helen, said whatever she was thinking. Most of it angry.

“I can see what Terrano sees,” the Avatar replied. “There is a reason Terrano was able to escape Hallionne Alsanis. His attenuated connection to his name allowed a flexibility that most Barrani do not possess, and he utilized it.”

“He has a name, though.”

“Indeed—but what he became did not change. His vision is flexible in ways that even I find astonishing. What he sees—what was done here—would evade my notice. But Azoria was not, when I was at the peak of my power, like Terrano.”

“She was probably more subtle about it,” Kaylin offered.

“She was indeed. Yes,” he added, although no one had asked him a question. “I am prepared. I can see the shape of the containment—I cannot see what it contains.”

Terrano said, “Neither can I.”

Serralyn inhaled breath on a hiss, and stepped forward instantly; she placed both hands, palm flat, against his shoulder blades, as if to shore him up. The effect was disturbing; her hands passed through his shirt, vanishing beneath its folds as a wave of...transparency flowed up her arms.

Kaylin started forward and ran into Teela’s outstretched arm. “Just watch with Hope’s aid. Touch nothing.”

“But Serralyn—”

“This is not the first time they’ve done something like this,” Teela replied. “I would help but I am not nearly as adept or flexible as they; I lack experience. I do not want to develop that experience, either.”

“Can you even see what he’s doing?” Kaylin asked her familiar.

Don’t talk. I am concentrating.

Kaylin took that as a no. Or as a maybe—Hope didn’t really care for uncertainty, or at least not his own. Through his wing, however, she could see the shadows...billow. She could see them both darken and brighten, and realized that Terrano was somehow unwinding things, and as he did, the dark filaments had become more solid, more visible.

Those filaments were centered around the paintings that hung on the wall; he had chosen one at random, ignoring the two she had forbidden him to mess with. This painting was of a well-heeled Barrani woman. Her hair wasn’t braided, her eyes were a martial blue, and the corners of her lips were turned up in what would, on a different face, be a smile.

“Do you recognize her?” she asked the Avatar.