The Assassins of Altis by Jack Campbell Page B

desire for Mage Alain.”
    Mari stared at Asha. Mari’s face was so hot now that it felt like it was on fire. With nowhere to hide, she buried her face in her hands, wishing with all her might that a hole would appear beneath her and allow her to fall deep into the Earth.
    “Master Mechanic Mari.” Asha’s voice was very low, and very close. The female Mage must be kneeling beside her. “I saw nothing. I will see nothing. Yet I have done something to cause you to conceal yourself. I do not know what should be done now.”
    That probably was the closest a Mage could come to an apology. In fact, it was a remarkable act for a Mage. Mari concentrated fiercely on what Asha had said and managed to lower her hands enough to see Asha. “Can you imagine how I feel right now?”
    Asha stared back blankly. “How…you…feel? You?”
    “Me.”
    “Shadows…feel?” Asha looked over to Alain for confirmation and must have received some. “But it is usual to imagine having physical relations with others. Why does this distress you?”
    Mari shook her head. “We really need to talk, Mage Asha.”
    “We are talking.”
    “No. Alone. Without Alain here.”
    “Why?” Those beautiful blue eyes in that beautiful face looked back at Mari with no trace of feeling or understanding. “Is this a secret from Mage Alain?”
    “No.” Mari forced her hands back into her lap, though she still couldn’t look toward Alain. “It’s just…some things are very private. Not to be shared.”
    “Like Guild secrets?”
    “Um…yes. Sort of. But just for each person. Personal secrets.”
    Mage Asha was thinking so hard that a slight furrow appeared on her brow. “Why does it matter what others know? They are but shadows.”
    “It matters,” Alain said. “I still do not know why, but it does matter. Mari calls it having social skills. I have never before heard of a Mage being able to track someone who is not a Mage, except for the thread I sense that connects Mari with me."
    "A thread?" Asha asked, her Mage tones making her sound uninterested in the answer.
    "It does not exist, but it does exist, running invisibly between us. I do not know what it is. Could you sense Mari even more strongly than I do?”
    “I do not know,” Asha said. “I asked careful questions of elders, but saw their suspicions rise quickly and could gain no answers. It seems some tie exists between me and Mechanic Mari now. As the feelings I cannot admit to have become stronger inside—a sense of…wanting to…share…life, of not being the only real thing in a world of illusion populated by shadows—I am able to sense her more strongly.”
    Mari buried her face in both hands again. “Just one big happy threesome,” she mumbled. “Alain, we need to talk.”
    “We are talk — ”
    “ Alone ! Do you Mages always have to do that ? ”
    His hand touched her shoulder very gently, so Mari lowered her hands and glared at him as Alain spoke with great care. “There is no other for me but you.”
    “Me and my blazing bonfire of love, you mean?” Mari glanced over at Asha, who to Mari’s surprise was betraying discomfort and confusion. “Mage Asha? Is something wrong?”
    “Mechanic Mari,” Asha said, “it is hard to explain. I have…a brother and a sister. I saw them when I left Ihris. They saw me. I could say nothing, show nothing. I was taught they…mean nothing. They showed…what other shadows reveal when they look upon Mages.” Asha paused for a long moment. “I saw their expressions, and I told myself they did not matter, but I lied. Then I met you, and for the first time since I left the Guild Hall as a Mage, for the first time since I became an acolyte, someone looked at me and…and…smiled. No one smiles on a Mage, Mechanic Mari. I had not known how much I missed seeing a smile when another looked upon me, shadow or not.”
    Mari’s embarrassment vanished as the female Mage’s words hit home. She reached to grasp Asha’s hands, barely