Rhea, Eris, and Clo remained on the other side of the glass.

“Don’t melt your face off,” Eris muttered. “Kyla will kill me.”

“We’re taking proper precautions,” Ariadne said.

“Hopefully,” Eris said into the speaker from behind the glass.

“You worry too much,” Ariadne sang. “We’ll be fine. Josephine won’t hurt us.”

Eris rolled her eyes behind the partition before speaking into the microphone. “Josephine is an inanimate object of questionable origin. She can’t make the decision. She can’t make a decision.” A pause, then: “And I can’t believe you have me calling a rock Josephine.”

“Alrighty, here we go,” Ariadne said, putting on an affected accent. Nyx rolled her eyes, but Ariadne just grinned at her.

Ariadne sealed off the room and removed the rock from its protective glove. She turned it this way and that. She couldn’t feel it, of course, but it looked completely unassuming.

“Josephine,” she crooned, and then she picked up a low-heat Mors blade.

She started with the smallest cut, to ensure the interior was stable. There was a faint glow, the barest glimmer of startling topaz. She held it away, but the rock still felt cool and stable. She worked to carve a larger hole, but the Mors blade was having difficulty.

“Avern,” Ariadne murmured. “This is going to take a while. The heat input on this is barely cutting it. The Mors blades back at the Temple are built for higher power consumption.”

Next to her, Nyx shifted to get a better look at the microscope. “What are those?” she asked, pointing to the oblong shapes on the monitor.

“They’re endospores releasing with the impact of the Mors blade,” Ariadne explained.

“Anything we should be concerned about?”

Ariadne shrugged. “Possibly. They don’t release with easy handling, but I wouldn’t suggest doing this without a helmet.”

For a few more minutes, she worked at carving into the rock, pausing only when the interior light increased. Through the glass, Rhea pressed her hands against the partition.

“Everyone all right?” Ariadne asked. Her question was pointed to Rhea, who had gone entirely still.

Rhea gave a small nod.

“So, if that thing is dangerous,” Clo said into the mic, “what would happen to us?”

“Oh, who knows?” Ariadne gave a dismissive wave of a gloved hand. “But some substances can make you really sick from organ and bone marrow damage. Or you might start hemorrhaging. Or you can become incapacitated and eventually die. It’s like a surprise! Only the surprise is your death and how quickly it happens.”

“I shouldn’t have asked.”

After a check of the hazard meter on Clo’s borrowed mech cuff—still stable—Ariadne only had eyes for the rock in front of her.