Page 29 (1/2)

"What the hell?" I shouted, as I foundabove me I’d somehow ended up flat on my back "I was you!" I accused her "In a cave! What the fuck just happened?" I de up as she sank down next toa hand up her ar to slits for a second

"Yeah, u my face flush with heat

"They’re not just ink," she said "They’re my memories"

"What does that mean?"

"I is fro I lived"

I blinked at her "Wohy?"

She snorted a laugh, and thenside-by-side, her e to touch another tattoo

"You’ve seen what happens to the really ancient Eventually they stop living and just survive"

"So, to combat that, you put all your best memories in your tats?"

"Not justI enjoyed or hated I tried to choose memories that made me who I am The memories that really made me feel"

I looked up into her clear blue eyes "That’s ah Alfar A of her energy--her life "No You’re not like them"

"You can touch, if you want," she said, her voice soft, inviting

"But they’re your memories Isn’t that… tooto our world late I’ve seen what can happen to people like you who don’t knohat they’re in for I’ve no doubt you’ve noticed things that give you pause, because you’re someone atches and thinks But still Near-iht of the cold Alfar and their preternatural calm; the sadism of creatures like Graeme, bored over the millennia into monsters; hell, even the kindly selfishness of Ryu I saw as an extension of his long life Although short by Alfar standards, he’d lived long enough to beco entirely unaware that he’d beco where to start When I paused, she drew herself up to pull her shirt over her head Then she guidedmy hand over her muscular stomach When my palm ca right beside her navel, I was suddenly standing onboard a ship plunging through rough waters, foam and water all aboutcommands,for the storlish merchant ship was only a fewin such seas even worse than we…

"You were a pirate?" I gasped, coI wanted to ask her h she’d moved my hand to where a woman’s head, her hair bobbed like a flapper, stared out froainst ues entwined Her breast ers and she hly My own body greetter at the sound of her pleasure I loved her, even knowing she didn’t feel the same for me I’d learned it didn’t matter For, love or no love, they all died and left me alone…

Tears pricked my own eyes as Irazed over what looked suspiciously like a…

I stood, unable to containwhite porcelain coht it art had I not already had its function explained to me Unable to believe it really did what my hosts said, I reached out a hand toward the wooden handle hanging froht the water did, indeed, swirl away…

"You tattooed the invention of toilets?" I asked, only to see Blondie shrug