“Because I can create tumors,” Hesychast said. “I can implant pellets of a particular chemical into human flesh and induce a tumor. I worked in Aurdwynn when I was young, testing my methods on the cancer-prone Stakhieczoid lines. And my reputation … grew.”

Apparitor goggled at Baru: can you believe this shit?

Farrier took Cosgrad’s glass to refresh. “Cosgrad’s various failures have led him into an obsession with cancer. No, Cosgrad, please don’t protest, we both know it’s true. You see—” Farrier poured from two feet above the glass, a sparkling red arc, and he didn’t miss a drop. “Hesychast here wants to breed perfect citizens. The Clarified are his great triumph, wouldn’t you agree, Cosgrad?”

“I would, Cairdine.”

“But I am afraid his successes have come too slowly. Please don’t take this as insult to my colleague’s skill! After decades of eugenic failure in the Metademe, it’s credit to Hesychast’s brilliance that he was able to salvage anything at all.” Farrier drank. His beard guarded his throat. She couldn’t see him swallow. “Ah. But too many of the Clarified wash out. People breed too slow for Hesychast to get the results he needs in his lifetime. And with a great reckoning approaching, with enormous and varied new populations entering our great Republic, Hesychast needs more radical solutions.”

Farrier saluted his colleague with the wineglass. “So Cosgrad has begun to explore mutable flesh.”

Hesychast’s hands were hidden from Baru but she could hear the goose bumps in his voice. “I believe that it’s possible to extract behaviors and values from one person’s body and introduce them into another. I believe I can splice a model citizen’s virtue into the behavior of a newly jacketed federati … by the medium of flesh.”

Xate Yawa, with a tint of curiosity in her voice. “But the adult body doesn’t grow new flesh…”

“No. No new flesh.” Hesychast held up one strong surgeon’s hand to show them. “The only growth in an adult human body is fat, muscle, hair, and tumor.”

Farrier repeated this in silent amazement, shaking his head.

Hesychast continued. “Tumors are the only viable medium for noocanic transfer. If a tumor could be moved from one body to another, and convinced to take root, it might be possible to move discipline, experience, and knowledge from one body into another. A child, for example, could be given a savant’s attention to school.”

Yawa was very studiously not looking at her brother. “You think the Cancrioth possesses the secret you need.”

“I think,” Hesychast said, “that the Cancrioth are tumors. Souls passed from one body to another by the medium of cancer. Immortal puppeteers of Oriati Mbo.”