“Of a kind,” Daemon replied as he used Craft to set the frame holding the tangled web on air where it couldn’t easily be seen by other people attending the play. Behind the tangled web, he set a faceted, oval crystal. “I started with the kind of web the Hourglass uses to see dreams and visions and adapted it for a specific purpose.”

“Which is?”

He grinned, but there was an acknowledgment in his eyes of why she was asking the question—and why she was wary of the answer. Daemon rarely announced his intentions when he went hunting, and she’d often wondered how many of the Blood he’d destroyed in the Terreillean courts were aware of what had killed them until the last moment when that slash of Black power burned out their own power, finishing the kill.

“By using a spell I worked out and channeling through the web, I can retain the play in the crystal so that it can be played again.”

“Like the spelled music crystals retain a musical performance?”

Daemon nodded. “But this one holds what is seen as well as what is heard.”

Surreal studied the web and crystal again, this time with keen interest. “That’s brilliant! But . . . why?”

He hesitated. “Jaenelle is still too fragile to come to Amdarh to see a play . . . so I bring the plays to her.”

Emotion that felt appallingly sentimental welled up in her. She punched it down. “Does she enjoy the plays?”

Now he smiled ruefully. “I hadn’t quite worked out all the snags in the spell the last time I tried it. There was a . . . lag . . . between when the actor said his lines and the words were heard. She found it entertaining, but not in the way I’d intended.”

Surreal laughed. “Anything I can do to help?”

“This spell doesn’t work independently. At least not yet. So I need to stay focused on the play.”

She heard the warning under the words. “That explains why you Black-locked the door.” And why he’d told her he preferred to attend the theater alone when she’d asked him earlier if he ever invited anyone to join him as a guest. She’d been thinking of Marian, Lucivar’s wife, but the chill in the air when he’d replied made her wonder how many offers he’d had for company whenever he came to Amdarh.

It also told her how much of a concession he’d made by inviting her to join him tonight. And how he trusted her to let him do what he’d come here to do.

As the house lights went down, Daemon made himself comfortable and focused his eyes on the stage.