Alex glanced toward Vesa.
"We can hear you."
"I was relying on it."
For an instant, Vesa almost smiled. Thepes pulled at his shoulder again, and the rune flashed between them. He did not appear to appreciate the joke.
Vesa looked toward the trace beneath his chest.
Master had asked her to preserve the artifact until he could examine what had been done to it. She had held to that answer through the fight. Now he had heard how the body lived around it, and he was leaving it inside the creature that had nearly killed the pair.
"You said we would look at removing it," she said.
"And now I am telling you what removing it would do."
Thepes watched her hand.
She wanted the artifact back. She wanted the thing they had built around it gone. But Master could hear Thepes speaking, and he had refused to ask for him to be taken apart.
Vesa folded her small hands against her chest.
"For now," she said. "While he stays behind those marks."
