Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 57143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
She felt that cut across her own neck, like a searing wire that sliced her carotid. Diana clamped her rage and grief into an iron fist and held herself still.
On the screen, Aleah walked to the cave, picked up Kitty, slid her into a bag, lowered the bag into the metal cabinet, and wheeled the cart away.
“An illusion mage,” Augustine said. “Likely a low-range Significant, possibly an upper-level Notable. Probably a woman.”
Diana blinked. “How did you know?”
On the screen, the assassin pushed the cart out of the enclosure. The view blinked, switching to the outer camera. As she turned the corner, her face blurred for the briefest of moments. She kept walking out, receding from view.
“Ah. So that’s what prompted you to come to me,” Augustine said. “She gave herself away.”
“How did you know?” Diana repeated.
That direct stare again. How interesting. He wasn’t in the habit of revealing secrets of his brand of magic, but he wanted to know her reaction.
“Most people don’t realize how often they subconsciously touch their face. We scratch our chins, brush our lips, rub our eyes… The murder victim touched his face four times. The killer didn’t touch her face once. She didn’t smile or raise her eyebrows. She didn’t emote at all.”
The industry term was “dead face.” It was a sure giveaway.
“An illusion mage in disguise is acutely aware of their face at all times. Holding an illusion over stationary features is one thing. Holding it while your face moves is much harder. Every touch and every contraction of the facial muscles magnify the risk of failure.”
“But why a Significant?” she asked. “I thought only Primes could produce illusions that appeared on camera.”
“That’s what common wisdom says. Common wisdom also states that animal mages are barely able to hold conversations and treat other people like objects.”
“Yes.”
“We both know that neither is exactly accurate. The other guard was important to you.”
A hint of something vicious sparked in her eyes and melted. Her expression was perfectly placid the entire time, and her voice was measured and calm, even distant.
“Kayson had been with our House for ten years. He left behind a wife and an infant child. I’ve known Aleah since she was fourteen. She is the daughter of a long-term employee. Our House paid for her veterinary education and training. We found her in her garden. She was shot twice, in the back and in the head. She is in a medically induced coma. We don’t know if she will survive.”
Diana Harrison was livid. It wasn’t just an insult to the House. No, these people were family, in the traditional sense of the word. She cared about them, and she buried her rage very deep inside herself. Inevitably, it would explode.
He was right to delay the payment. This was deeply personal, and it promised to be messy and brutal. He would need plausible deniability when things turned ugly.
“My condolences,” he offered.
“Thank you.” She faced him. “You are right. It’s not that we are unable to form attachments to people, Augustine. It’s that we are conditioned to reject them.”
The curiosity burned him. He had to know more. But all in good time.
Augustine nodded. “Illusion mages are the same. We take advantage of misconceptions. As does every group of magic users. Our laws require that we identify the nature of our talents, and the economic reality compels us to sort ourselves into tiers of power. Everything else is secret. Now you know one of my talent’s secrets—the dead face. A sure way to identify a lower tier illusion mage in disguise.”
The silence lay heavy between them.
She raised her eyebrows and wagged them.
“Yes?”
“I’m reassuring you that I’m not an illusion mage.”
He almost laughed but caught himself.
“You still haven’t explained your conclusions,” she reminded him.
“Illusion isn’t a single talent but rather a collection of abilities related to disguising oneself. They weave together like threads that make a fabric to create a different appearance. Some people are better at manifesting certain traits than others. The ability to retain an altered appearance on camera is called mirror-masking. Almost all illusion Primes and about thirty percent of Significants have it, but it sporadically occurs in people with lower power levels. Statistically, the duration of the illusion and the fact that the killer held it through the murder suggests someone who is at least a Significant, but the lack of emoting and that blur in the recording puts her in the lower range and possibly drops her down to an upper Notable.”
Diana caught on fast. “And you believe that she is a woman because she would’ve chosen a victim of the same size to make things easier?”
“That, and the way she moved.”
Explaining how he sensed that would take entirely too long. He spent most of his life observing human bodies to better imitate them, and he was rarely wrong.