I set my presswrite on the bed, finally done with the preliminary research. Excitement buzzes in the back of my head. What started as a simple inquiry has turned into the first truly interesting thing I've picked up since before the Blistering Death. I glance out the window, no idea what time it is. It's dark, but it does get dark early now—so would she be in her room or downstairs?

As I turn to check, someone knocks on my door. "Sean, are you in here?"

"Leavi! Perfect timing." I usher her in. "I just finished analyzing some things." Waving her to follow me, I sit on my bed with my test results.

"Sean, there's something else going on—"

"Can't it wait? You'll want to see this. Here." I pull the paper from my presswrite and hand it to her. "The data is there."

She glances at it but hands it back. "Sean, I can't look through all this right now. There's important things going—"

"Didn't you say this was important too? I found things."

She stops, appearing to finally listen to me. "What do you mean? What did you find?"

My mind whirs at where to start. The marker in her blood, for one. The trace amounts of radion-poison in the powder. Aster acting shady when I asked for his book.

I decide to start with the simple stuff. "There's an element to your blood that I've never seen before. I checked mine, and it wasn't there. Took Aster's, and it was. So, there's that. Plus... well, I'd be careful with that powder."

Fear shoots across her expression, and she steps closer, voice lowered. "There wasn't a hallucinogen in it after all, was there?"

Ignoring her oddly intense reaction, I forge on. This is too interesting to get sidetracked from. "Not that I could find, but multiple prolonged exposures could significantly shorten your life."

She looks startled. "What?"

"There's trace amounts of radion-poison in it."

"When you say trace amounts—"

"I mean enough that if you're consistently exposed to this stuff, it could definitely take a decade or so off your life. Not enough to give you radion poisoning, but still."

"How many parts per thousand?"

"Less than a tenth. But you're not getting my point, Leavi. It's radious."

"I understand that, Sean!" She pushes her hair back from her eyes, then sits on my bed. Calmer now, she says, "I'm done with the stuff anyway."

I pause, flummoxed. "Okay, hold on. I would normally just go on and not question it, but—" I'm so baffled that I don't think of the words falling from my mouth. "You're telling me that Leavi Riveirre is just 'done with' something that she hasn't figured out and conquered?"

She gives a short laugh, but it's confusingly mirthless. "Done using it at least. We can figure out the science behind it later. Right now—"

"But I have figured it out. The beginning, at least. Like I said earlier, there's a marker in your and Aster's blood that's not in mine. I'm not sure what it means, exactly; I've never seen it before."

"A genetic marker?"

I nod, and she cocks her head at me. "How did you get all this with just some magni-crystals and my hematester?"

"I took your blood, separated it—like you do—"

"I figured that much, Sean."

Annoyed at her interruption, I continue. "Removed each net, then scraped the cell-layers into a glass of water. Held a collector-string in the liquid after stirring the mixture around. Once the genetic material had gathered on the string, I removed it and examined it with the crystals."

She's nodding as if she figured out where I was going with that. "Any hypotheses as to what it signifies?"

"I've not figured it out yet. But if I had the ability to test it and the willing subjects, I'd want to see if it was connected to whatever allows you to do the"—I search for something to call it other than 'magic'—"currently unexplained things."

"It's not a hoax, Sean." She rubs the bridge of her nose.

My brow furrows. "I didn't say it was. If I thought it was a hoax, then I wouldn't think that it was somehow linked to your genes."

A weary grin ghosts to her lips. "There are things going on here that we are wildly out of our element trying to explain."

"Nothing is unexplainable, and thinking that you can't be the one to do it only increases the odds that your assessment is true."

The smile widens a little, still tinged with tiredness. "You're right."

I nod. "I haven't figured everything out, and Aster wouldn't let me examine his book. But I'm certain it's all explainable. I hypothesize that what he's calling 'magic' is a subset of science that we haven't run across yet. People here might have figured out how to use it to their advantage, but that doesn't mean they know how it works. Science has always been like that."

She nods but stands up. "That's not priority number one right now, though. We have another problem."

I sigh, letting her talk now that she's humored me.

"Lady Veradeaux may have found us."

My eyes go wide, and I stand as well. "Leavi, that's the kind of thing that you talk over me to bring up. What happened?"

"The Man from the East showed up. And tried to kill me," she adds.

For once, shock and panic overwhelm me to the point that I can't even think of something to say. My mouth gapes, moving without sound.

"I'm okay. Obviously. Just tired. But Aster has a plan."

I manage to reel in the net of words that I cast out a moment ago. "Which is?" Startled incredulity fills my voice.

"We're going to kidnap Veradeaux."

"What?" The shock packed into the one word pitches it about two octaves higher than normal.

"But we need your help."

"I already helped you steal one person from that manor! And we almost died doing it. I would rather brave the not-plotting-against-us snow and high-tail it out of here than go back there."

"Aster says she can find us if we leave and that she won't let up. She's going to hunt us down."

"Are you sure you trust him? I'm still not convinced he's not a lunatic."

"He saved my life twice tonight, Sean."

"Why are you trying to die?" I demand. "Considering all the terrible situations I've seen you in, I'm almost sure you have a thing for trying to cheat death."

"That's hardly fair!"

"I think it's very fair. And you always drag me along with you, and for some reason, I don't know how to stop you!" My jaw manages to shut. I didn't mean to say that much.

She draws back. "If you're so tired of me dragging you around—"

"I—skies." Frustrated, my hands rise in front of me like I'm grasping at air. "Leavi, I'm not yelling because I'm mad!"

"Then why are you yelling!"

"I don't know! I just—" My arms drop, and I start pacing. My voice calms. "I just don't want either of us dying."

She puts a hand on my shoulder, stopping me. Her eyes catch mine, strangely steady. "That's why we have to do this. Okay?"

Her face is closer to me, I think, than it's ever been before. I swallow, pulling in a shaky breath. "Um." My fingers tap. "Not really, but fine."

She nods, dropping her hand. "Let's go talk to Aster. We'll catch you up."