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“When?” Dancer asks

“After Quicksilver’s birthday”

“Sadly, I know the date” His lips ht line beneath his beard “That explains a few…irregularities So you and Darroould have found out after Venus…” Sevro just watches, so I nod “And he still went to Mercury”

“Apex asshole, right?” Sevro chimes

“Please stop,” I say

Dancer doesn’t let it go either “Going back to his s he’s done in the last year, Sevro Which is lares and looks down the hall to the sitting rooer on the hearth where Deanna knits It broke my heart, but not my expectations, that some Reds saw my boy as a perversion Dancer never did, no matter what he thinks ofhis pipe as e where he’d be the one to fall asleep, and Pax would put the pipe out for hirizzled chin Dancer is thinking of the passage of ti where they all went I know because the saht monopolizes so many of my own hours

“So Tell me How badly are you compromised?” he asks

“I’m not the one who is compromised,” I say He frowns as I pull the datadrop fro suspected that the Syndicate Queen orking for or in conjunction with another party—possibly one within our governation, I’ve uncovered evidence”

“You knoho she is?” he asks warily

“No Unfortunately, she doesn’t even trust her Dukes with that information But…there have been revelations”

“Show him,” Sevro says

I tell the datadrop to play Sevro scoots forward so he’s within the three-dimensional perimeter of the holo Memories are iments of his life The Duke is at the beach onein a shuttle, speaking to his Queen; her face is obscured with a mask that writhes hat looks like locusts It was too et one soon enough We have her location But first ill make sure our own house is in order

Finally, a hotel suite expands around us, faded where the Duke of Hands’ peripheral vision ends The ceiling is the clearest, carved with cupids and forest creatures Candles float, beneath the ceiling, dripping doax Heavy breathing comes from the memory The sound of sheets clenched as the breath quickens to agonizing clirow larger than the closer candles Spas their bodies They drift for what must b

e a ether Focus pulses out, then in Breath eases out, and akisses on the Duke’s chest until Dancer’s face fills the memory as he closes his eyes to kiss the Duke on the mouth

“It seems reveries are imperfect,” I say “Auditory recall is extreuilt and sometimes alter to seeotten The colors are often different depending upon the tinetic or colder A brain is not a hardrive The spaces between—that juuess no one has ever called the before Let’s name them fissures The fissures are the ti to make a reconnaissance Some span minutes, some weeks Most reveries are laced with fissures I only found this one because it was entirely intact He cherished this ra the ” I tapit I assure you, it is quite strange”