“Can we just see the bodies now?” Gavain asked. His aura showed red and grey.

Aria felt the same, but of course, she saw little of it in her own aura. She stood behind Gavain. She never took her seat. Neither had Sotir. Soffigen didn’t want Scaldin arcanes to sit at the table with them.

The Soffigen Ambassador Orsola pushed back her chair. “Yes, let’s. Follow me. You’ll see the bodies, and then, you can be on your way. No more accusations about what we’ve done with them.” Her aura looked red. It sparkled more than glowed, typical for a Soffigen.

Gavain got up as well. His aura showed more subdued red. “I’m sorry you feel we’ve made accusations, but these bodies have been held on to for almost fifty years. See it from our point of view. We can’t just dismiss the concern that you’ve done more than kept them in storage.”

“We stored them. That’s all. We stored them, until it became clear that we could have a civilized discussion to return them and avoid another war.” Orsola beckoned them and led them out of the room. “You only believe we studied them because Scaldin are the only species with arcane heroes.”

Gavain walked ahead. He stood beside Orsola. “You have to admit. Soffigen have been caught studying the bodies of other species before. We just want the same treatment they got. A record of what happened and an apology – if you’ll offer it. These people never gave their consent to be studied.”

Orsola got quiet. “I can get you an apology for the length of time it took us to return the bodies, but there’s no record.”

Aria walked behind Orsola. She couldn’t see the woman’s face, but she saw Orsola’s aura. Orsola’s uncertainty swirled in shades of grey and sickly yellow. Orsola wasn’t sure if such a record existed. It figured. The Soffigen would pick an ambassador who didn’t know. That’s how they would fool Aria. But, Orsola had her own suspicions about her people, and those suspicions became Aria’s.

“What do you need from me anyway? You brought two arcanes along. Let them tell you what you want to know.” Orsola keyed a door.

It ground open, and cold air rushed out. It had an aura of grey.

Aria’s eyes widened. She saw bags, people-sized bags.

“Can we have some time to ourselves please?” Gavain waited to go in.

Orsola gestured to the room. “Go right ahead. They’re Scaldin bodies. Just know that there are cameras in the room, so we’ll catch any tampering that might be meant to frame us.” Orsola stepped back.

“That’s fine.” Gavain stepped inside. He waved Sotir and Aria after.

When all three Scaldin got inside, the door groaned shut. Aria jumped.

“They’re giving us privacy,” Sotir said. “Or the illusion of it.” Sotir began to walk between the rows. He moved slow and paused at each body.

Gavain gave Aria a gentle nudge. “If you would…”

Aria nodded. She followed Sotir down the rows. She moved slow too. She looked at each body. The living auras had long left. Aria saw anxiety, indifference, and fear from those who had handled the body bags. Of course, the colors glittered, a signal that Soffigen had touched the bags.

Aria could find nothing suspicious. Even Pan, the messenger of the dead, displayed fear around a body. Aria couldn’t interpret the anxiety and fear as worries that someone would discover a great Soffigen plot. She had to interpret the colors in the simplest way possible. Handling bodies scared and unsettled the Soffigen, just as it would any Scaldin.

Aria didn’t doubt that the Soffigen had studied the bodies. But, that situation, too, had to be judged from the simplest view. The only person who could discover the truth happened to be Sotir. Aria hoped he could carry her through this one.

Aria glanced over. Sotir began his walk down a new row. His aura glowed all in white as he moved between the deceased persons.

Aria looked back at the bodies she moved between. One bag clung close to a face, and Aria could make out the peak of the nose. Her breath became shallow.

Aria began her walk down the second row. It would also be the last. They had four columns of bodies. They just had to walk between the two unique sets.

Aria looked ahead. She would find nothing of value, just grey, but the closer she looked, the more details she saw of the bags themselves. She saw imperfections in the plastic, frost clustered here and there. She saw feet pointed upwards and narrow shoulders. It reminded her of the last days of her great uncle. He’d looked almost dead at the end.

Almost dead. I suppose that’s how you get to dead.

Sotir reached the door. His aura remained white. He stared into space and didn’t speak.

Gavain stood beside Sotir. He stared at Aria and waited.

She passed between the final bodies and reached the men.

“All set?” Gavain asked.

Aria nodded. Sotir did as well.

“Alright. I’m sending you two back to the ship. I’ll supervise the shipment of the bodies.”

Aria breathed deeper at the news.

 

Aria had no interpretation work to do. She’d seen what she saw and could explain it all in a moment. Sotir, on the other hand, had a lot of work. He spent hours at a table. He consulted his cards; he consulted a gazing ball, and he drew up dozens of time trees. Aria wished she could help, but arcane powers didn’t work that way.

Sotir placed his last time tree on the table. Then, he crossed the lounge and joined Aria on the couch.

Aria slouched with her head nearly dangling off one side. Sotir laid his head back on the rest. His fingers tapped his staff.

“All done?” she asked.

“Yes, I am.” Sotir closed his eyes.

“Anything?” she sat up.

“Oh, yes. The bodies have been tampered with. Fluids have been removed. Their genetics have been studied. One body received an autopsy, but the Soffigen have sealed it closed with a special repair tool. We wouldn’t know it if I hadn’t seen it.” Sotir released a long breath.

“Orsola suspects things were done, but she doesn’t know.” Aria looked at her hands. “I guess it’s easier to hide things from me. That’s the most useful information I have.”

Sotir opened his eyes. “It’s good Aria. I wouldn’t worry if I were you. We do our best.”

Aria nodded. “Any big changes to come?” she asked.

“I’m too far to get a good read.” Sotir closed his eyes again.

Aria stared at him. “What do you mean? We’re right here? If you can’t get a read, then your time trees aren’t all that good.”

“Sorry. I didn’t think about what you were asking. The time trees for this job are just fine, but I can’t see exactly what they did with the fluids and materials. All that work got done far from the bodies.” Sotir shifted his head but kept his eyes closed. “When I answered you, I thought you meant Pan. It’s been bothering me.”

Aria frowned. They had no idea what the Soffigen had learned from the bodies, and they still didn’t know anything about Pan’s new danger.

“We’ll get done, and then, we’ll get back,” Aria promised.

Sotir sat forward. He looked at her. “Tell me. Do you ever spend a day without your power?”

Aria straightened. “No, I always have an aura to see. Why?”

“You know…I get a day here and there away from my power. When I get overworked, and my power rests, I can sometimes get two days off. Being too far to read a specific situation is a little like that.” Sotir looked up at the ceiling. He rested his head on the back of the couch. “You would think I like it, but I’m not sure I do.”

Aria wondered if she would like a day without auras. She’d come to rely on them so much that she wasn’t sure. She’d find herself more blind, without the sight for Gavain’s every little emotion and Pan’s aural prelude to schemes.

Then again, a life without auras might be acceptable. She would trade auras for healing in a heartbeat, but if she couldn’t have a trade, she would take nothing at all. She could adapt to it, have a home and family, and never again interpret the colors.

Aria lied, “I would hate to be without my power.”

“Exactly,” Sotir said. “I’ve gotten so used to knowing, asking and getting an answer, that I worry when I can’t do that. I’m worried about Pan.” Yellow threads wove themselves through Sotir’s aura. “Then again, there are rare days where I have nothing I want to see, and it’s nice to get no information about the future.” Sotir sighed. “I guess if I woke up without my power, I wouldn’t know what to feel.”

“That’s okay.” Aria put her hand on Sotir’s arm.

What wasn’t okay was Sotir’s implication of affection for Pan. Aria could not condone it. He needed to look outside the arcanes for a partner, not within. If Aria gave up that hope, Sotir and Pan should too.

Aria took a deep breath. “Sotir…”

The door swung open. Aria removed her hand from Sotir’s arm, just before Gavain stepped through.

“I’ve got good news and bad news,” Gavain said. “We have the bodies, and they’ve been inspected. We found some minor traces of tampering, and Orsola couldn’t deny it. She’s going to try to get our records for us. I think that intimidating officer Alban really helped.” Gavain grabbed a glass and poured himself some water. “Now, the bad news – We have to stay here a while longer. No one is too happy about that. Me or the Soffigen.” Gavain drank. He faced Aria and Sotir. “What do you two have for me?”

Aria averted her eyes. Gavain was good stuff – a good catch. She wished she could provide him with more. “Nothing much. The bodies had traces of Soffigen handling – anxiety and fear. That’s normal though. Orsola seems unsure, but you know that already too.”

“I wouldn’t have known a thing, if Alban didn’t insist on looking at each body in her presence.” Gavain’s aura reached for Aria. It crept over the floor in shoots of pink.

Aria took heart. She had never seen such a consistent display of affection. She failed, and still, he sought her.

Sotir rose from his seat. “I have a more detailed record of what has been done with the bodies.” Sotir gestured to the table. “I have a time tree for each one. They’ve been extensively studied. I can’t say what the results were. The Soffigen were wise enough to test things away from the bodies. The only thing I might have is something about a certain fluid removed from each one. It seemed to hold the most importance to the Soffigen.”

Gavain tapped his fingers to his lips. “Hmmmm. We’ll ask about that. Aria can you accompany me? Sotir, you can rest a bit.”

Sotir nodded.

Aria rose and went to Gavain’s side.

He promised, “We’re going to get someone who handled the bodies for you to question. You’ll see a lot more then.”

 

Aria sat between Gavain and a youngish officer by the name of Alban. They stayed aboard the Ischyros while the Soffigen ship drifted not too far in space. A second Soffigen vessel brought a doctor from one of the body’s studies. The Soffigen produced him in hours, eager to conclude the proceedings. He sat across from them now, and Aria finally had someone she could read.

“Can you give us a summary of what you did?” Gavain’s aura sent feelers of yellow and blue.

The Soffigen doctor spread his hands. “Well, we ran some genetic tests. The results weren’t very informative.” He shook his head. His aura splashed chaotically, with yellow, some red, and some deep blue. He lied.

Aria tapped Gavain’s leg.

Gavain narrowed his eyes. “Really? Because we find our own genetic tests to be quite informative.”

“Well of course, there are the usual mysteries to unravel, but I’m telling you we didn’t figure out arcanehood.” The doctor’s aura lost its red. The yellow faded to the background, washed out by several shades of blue from dark to light.

Aria frowned. This man did some hard thinking. What did he have to think about? Certainly not the usual mysteries. Aria looked at Gavain and opened her mouth a touch, asking if it was okay for her to speak.

Gavain nodded.

“What was the most important test to run on each of the bodies?” Aria asked.

The doctor’s aura flashed yellow, and the glitter inside made it seem to spark. “I don’t know what you mean…”

Aria was about to speak.

But, Alban leaned forward. “Listen. We had our arcanes take a good look at those bodies. One of them said you extracted a fluid from every one. What was it? What was it used for?”

The doctor glanced at Aria.

“She’s not the arcane.” Alban dismissed the man’s concerns with a wave. “Just tell us what we want to know. If you figured nothing out, then you have nothing to worry about.”

Aria regarded Alban. He had an intense manner, coupled with an intense aura. Deep blue and sharp red made up his base colors – logic and quick temper. He rarely showed other colors. Aria guessed he didn’t have need of them.

“Alright. First of all, it’s not a fluid. It was bone marrow. We took it from every arcane just to compare. We know that the arcanemorphosis seems to affect your nerves and immune system, so we started there.” The doctor shrugged. “We studied it. I don’t know all of the details. It didn’t get us the results we wanted.”

Alban glared. “And what would those be? Soffigen arcanes?”

“Frankly yes.” The doctor sat back. “I’ve told you all I can.”

For once, Aria believed him. She didn’t tap Gavain.

Gavain sighed.

Alban spoke, “You’ve told us all you can, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get us the results on these bone marrow tests. We want those.”

The doctor glanced at Ambassador Orsola. His aura reached for hers.

“I’ll see what we can do,” she said.

“We just want the test results.” Gavain nodded. “We just want to see the results of these studies. Then, we can put this all behind us.”

Orsola sighed. “We’ll get it.”

Her aura showed disgust, but Aria didn’t think it had anything to do with them. It had to do with Orsola’s faith in her own people.