The guardian did not bring the key to the meeting.
Eli noticed the empty space before her hands because he had expected something to look at: metal, a lock, a shape he could compare with the fragment. Instead there was a plain table and a lamp turned low enough to leave the walls in shadow. The hunter remained at the door. Juno set her case on the floor, unopened.
The guardian asked Eli to describe the inheritance he carried.
He named the six stored talents and distinguished them from souls held captive in the reservoir. The imprints were not people speaking inside him. Three were presently equipped, all unactivated under the complete stop imposed after his overload. The other three remained stored. Nothing in that arrangement put a fourth safe place within reach.
“Can you surrender them?” she asked.
“I can remove a talent from the equipped set.”
“That isn’t my question.”
She placed Mira’s warning beside the lamp. This copy had a different fold from the hunter’s. More than one person had read it closely.
