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‘My gift to you, then,’ Anacha replied,an elaborate bow as she rose to her feet

‘Gifts are typically given with the expectation that they are to be returned’ He let the state in the air like an executioner’s axe as he scraped another patch of skin smooth

‘Recompensed’

‘What?’

‘If it was to be returned, you would just give ift ive me one of your own’

The ainst his chin and huainst his mouth, he cleared his throat

‘There once was an urchin fro a hand up ‘Soifts can just be from one person to another without reprisal’

‘Recompense’

‘In this case, I believe my word fits better’ She drew her robe about her body, staring at hi, I ao yet’

‘That’s not your decision,’ the man said, ‘nor mine’

‘It doesn’t strike you as worrisome that your decisions are not your own?’

Anacha i that he could just as easily turn the question back upon her She carefully avoided his stare, turning her gaze toward the door that she would never go beyond, the halls that led to the desert she would never see again

To his credit, Bralston reo in late, can’t you?’ she pressed, emboldened

Quietly, she slipped behind hi hi the night on hiered a few hours behind hi, he smelled of the markets and sand in the outside world When he left her in the , he sht

It was only when the moon rose that she sled as their bodies had been the night before She s sand on a breeze as rare as orchids This er than usual and she inhaled with breath addicted

‘Or skip it altogether,’ she continued, drawing hio a day without you’

‘And they frequently do,’ he replied, his free hand sliding down to hers

She felt the electricity dance upon his skin, begging for his lips to utter the words that would release it It was almost with a whimper that her hand was forced fro

‘Today was going to be one such day The fact that it is not means that I cannot s at this hour are not often called in the Venarius of the Librarians at this hour are never called’ He slid the last slick of lather from his scalp and flicked it into the basin ‘If the Librarians are not seen--’

‘Magic collapses, laws go unenforced, blood in the streets, hounds with two heads, babies spewing fire’ She sighed dra a hand above her head ‘And so on’

Bralston spared her a glance as she sprawled out, robe opening to expose the expanse of naked brown beneath The incline of his eyebrows did not go unnoticed, though not nearly to the extent of his coard as he walked to his clothes draped over a chair That, too, did not cause her to stir so ed from him as he ran a hand over his trousers

‘Are you aware of my duty, Anacha?’

She blinked, not entirely sure how to answer Few people were truly aware of what the Venarium’s ‘duties’ consisted If their activities were any indication, however, the wizardly order’s tasks tended to involve the violent arrest of all palht-of-hand tricksters, and the burning, electrocution, freezing or sains

Of the duties of the Librarians, the Venariuuess, least of all her

‘Let ed on for too long ‘Are you aware of ht suddenly leaking out of his gaze, and she stiffened She had long ago learned to treaze, as the charlatans and false practitioners did A wizard’s stink eye tended to be worse than anyone else’s, if only by virtue of the fact that it was shortly followed by an iift,’ he continued, the light flickering like a flaifts require recoer to the corner of his eye – ‘is only given to us so long as we respect it and follows its laws Now, I ask you, Anacha, as the last time Cier’Djaal was a city of law?’

She made no reply for him; she knew none was needed And as soon as he knew that she knew, the light faded The er the one that had coantly lined by wrinkles, his pursed lips reserved for words and chants, not poems

Anacha stared at hi tunic into trousers and draping long, red coat over tunic He did not check in a ift, as he walked to the door to depart without a sound

There was no protest as he left the coins on her wardrobe She had long ago told hio tried to return the coins to hied him to take the coins and try to pretend that they were two lovers who had ht and not a client and visitor who knew each other only in the confines of silk and perfume

He left the coins and slipped out the door

And she knew she had to be content to watch hio, this time, as all other tiht before reduced to his indentation on her bed, his identity nothing more than a faint outline of sweat on sheets and shape on a cushion The sheets would be washed, the cushion would be smoothed; Bralston the lover would die in a whisper of sheets

Bralston the Librarian would do his duty, regardless

‘Do you have to do that?’ the clerk asked