“No,” I admitted.

Arachne made a movement, something like a shrug. “Well then.”

“I guess that does simplify things, doesn’t it?” I got up and walked absentmindedly over to one of the tables, moving a pile of clothes aside to pull something out from underneath.

“Can’t we do something about Levistus?” Luna said. “I mean, he’s trying to subvert the Keepers. That’s kind of like treason.”

“It is treason,” Variam said. “Problem is, all the rest of the Council do it too.”

“But it’s still illegal. Couldn’t Alex go to the Council and tell them what he told us?”

“Levistus would just deny it.”

“Well, what if Alex recorded him? Wear a wire, like they do on those police shows?”

“You ever heard of a Council case getting decided by audio recordings?” Variam said.

“What do you mean?”

“You know how sound mages can reproduce any voice they like?” Variam said. “That’s why. No Council court’s going to admit it.”

“Well, what if—?”

“Um . . .” Anne said. “Alex? What’s that?”

Variam and Luna turned to look at me. I’d returned to the sofa and I was tossing a pale green sphere back and forth from hand to hand. “Data focus,” I said.

Anne looked puzzled. “It looks like the same one from before.”

“That’s because it is.”

“Wait,” Luna said. “Didn’t you say you gave it to Haken?”

“I gave a data focus to Haken.”

Variam stared for a second, then his eyebrows rose. “You seriously—?”

“Yep.”

“Are you nuts?”

“Somehow I don’t think they’re going to take me to court over it,” I said. “Besides, how are they going to know the difference?”

Luna was looking between me and Variam. “Wait. You gave Haken a duplicate?”

“Alex came to me yesterday and asked for my help,” Arachne said in her clicking voice. She was still working away on the pattern of thread between her legs: it was beginning to take shape, looking like a dress of some kind. “Those old focuses are quite simple to duplicate when you know the trick. You can’t copy the information inside, of course, but other than that there’s no easy way to tell the difference.”

“And what are you going to do when they do look inside?” Variam said.

“The only way they’d be able to look inside would be if they were the intended recipient,” I said. “How exactly would a Council mage explain that they were receiving a private message from White Rose? And how would they explain how they’d got their hands on it when it was supposed to have been in a Keeper evidence locker? They can’t go public either.”

“But won’t they know it was you?” Anne said.

“Maybe. Or they might just blame White Rose.”

“Wait a second,” Luna said. “Wasn’t it Haken who asked for that focus?”

“Yup.”

“You think . . . ?”

“I’ve been getting a bit suspicious of Haken over the last day or so,” I said. “I don’t know exactly who he’s working for, but it’s not just the Council. What I’d really have liked would have been to trace that focus he took and figure out where it ended up, but . . .”