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I felt pain on Revik, too, but I also felt him thinking, worrying really, and looking at his own light where it wrapped too tightly into mine, especially in terms of specific structures we shared through ouraleimi. I felt him worrying about me. I felt him worry what his light might be doing to mine. Revik was remembering how deeply parts of his light had been hooked into Menlim’s, how connections of that kind always went two ways.

I also felt Revik thinking how verylikeMenlim it would be, to use Revik’s light to get to me.

Then I felt a little sick, realizing Menlim had probably watched me and Revik together, likely since the beginning of our marriage.

Revik glanced at me.

I saw pain in his eyes, along with a heavier look, one that bordered on disgust. I realized he agreed with me. He’d even felt himself being watched. He’d felt it for a very long time, for most of his life, really. Anger lived in that understanding, a powerless fury and disgust that only worsened the longer he thought about it.

He’d been in a prison.

Some part of him recognized that prison, but he hadn’t been able to escape it.

As if reading all of this with me, Balidor exhaled angrily.

He gestured at Revik with a flowing hand.

“He knows!” Balidor said, exasperated. He also sounded relieved. “He understands this all too well, Alyson! How is it you can pretend there is no risk of infiltration now? How can you pretend this is a small thing, given how close we are to Dubai?”

I glanced up at Revik.

His mouth firmed as he looked at Balidor. I felt him agree with the other seer, right before he glanced at me.

Realizing I agreed with Balidor, too, I let out a frustrated exhale.

“Okay,” I said. “We’d better look at this now.”

“Now?” Balidor frowned. He glanced around the room, as if to remind me we were already in the middle of a planning meeting.

“Yes,” I said. “Now. Right now. Close this meeting. Open another. Pull whoever you need. Yumi, Wreg, Jon, Tarsi, Loki, Varlan… hell, Dalejem, if he’s any good. Whoever you want there. Then tell us where you want us. Anywhere but the tank. I don’t want to bring Lily into this, and even if you sedate her, her light would be too involved inside the tank. It’s better if we stay out here. In fact, have someone pull her out of class and put into her own room’s construct until we’re done––”

Balidor was already nodding, acknowledging my words with a gesture.

He took himself away before I could think of anything else.

I watched as he motioned sharply to Yumi, who stood on the other side of the room.

Watching the two of them for a moment, I sighed, looking at Revik.

He returned my look, eyes sharp, a faint smile touching his narrow lips.

I could feel he meant the smile to be reassuring, but it wasn’t really.

His light grew increasingly distracting again, the longer we stood there, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to let him go. The fact that Balidor managed to worry me about what was going on between the two of us only made me want to hold him tighter.

He turned around in my embrace, wrapping his arms around me.

“Maybe we shouldn’t be around Lily right now.” I spoke aloud so we wouldn’t be overheard. I bit my lip as pain darted through my chest at my words. “…Just until we get this sorted out. Just to be safe.”

He squeezed me against him.

I felt the same pain slide through him at the thought of being separated from our daughter. Despite all the weirdness in our light, we’d spent as much time with Lily as we possibly could since we got her out of the tank. We hung out with her ever night and afternoon after school. We played with her whenever we could sneak away from planning meetings and intel debriefings and whatever else.

I knew he hated the idea of losing that.

I absolutely hated it, too.

He didn’t answer me, though.