Significance blinked. “Me?” xe said, and looked behind xyr shoulder like xe thought someone else was in the room. “No. I had no idea who you were until you came here.” Orfeus deflated at that for a few different reasons. O’Hallow looked back at her with a grin. “But then you came here, and, well, I knew you were a prime suspect.”

“I hadn’t done anything wrong then,” Orfeus rasped. Her throat felt dry as bones.

Significance stooped down in front of her, then tsked in the back of xyr throat and leaned forward, resting xyr weight and xyr hands earnestly on her knees like they were confidantes. Orfeus tensed her shoulders again. “Prime candidate?” Significance said. “I don’t always think in the language I’m talking in.” Xe smiled. “I’m sure you understand. There’s so many. It’s so messy. I can never talk as fast as I think.”

“Feel like you come pretty close,” Orfeus said.

Significance tapped xyr fingers against the tube in her vein, then unhooked it carefully. The skin of her arm underneath it formed a pallid circle around the puncture wound, an unhealthy colour. How long had she been here?

“Everyone was chasing after you, trying to figure you out,” Significance said. Xe cocked xyr head, staring at her intently. Sky blue eyes. Periwinkle. “Trying to learn how you had such lovely Blood. So I took a sample.” Xe waved a hand. “Took the initiative. No one else would.”

“No one would,” Orfeus agreed. That was almost comforting. Not Rivasoa, not Margaux as far as she knew. Not Faolan and the Wild. Those other people might kill her or scorn her, but only Significance would have done this.

Significance sparked her a grin electric. “But there’s nothing special about you,” xe said. “You’re just a thief! You’re a crawling, miserable thief.”

Orfeus barked a laugh. “All those things, right now,” she agreed.

“If it was a natural deviance, you would have been very helpful,” Significance said sadly. “But you still could. Any broadening of my subject sample is good. There’s never enough time.” Xe huffed out a frustrated breath. “Things went much faster when I had animal subjects.”

Orfeus recoiled.

Significance saw her look of horror and laughed. “Not like that!” xe said, holding xyr hands up in front of xem. “I’m no monster. Not real animals! I mean those poor dumb warriors in the Wild. Augments were one thing, but I would’ve gone so much further …” Xyr smooth, perfect face scrunched into a frown. “Luga would’ve burned so bright. My first lightning bug. But no, he had to be a coward and sever our partnership, acquaintance, alliance.”