"There are so many."

"My request was very general," Venarra explained. "Once you decide which topics seem the most promising, you can use the Mirror to narrow the search."

The shei'dalin reached for one of the scrolls at the top of the first stack just as Ellysetta reached for one nearby. Their hands brushed. Venarra jerked back as if she'd been burned—or, rather, as if Ellysetta's Mage Marks were a contagion that could be spread by simple contact.

"Sieks'ta." Venarra clasped her hand tightly at her side. Ellysetta could see her fighting to cover her emotions, to hide her revulsion behind a mask of studied politeness. "As I was saying…" She cleared her throat. "You needn't worry about putting the documents back. When you leave, the Mirror will automatically return everything to its proper place."

"Venarra…"

The shei'dalin continued as if Ellie hadn't spoken. "The hall is warded to prevent any of the original texts from leaving the grounds, so if you find a document you want to take with you, ask the Mirror to make a copy."

"Venarra…" She started to reach out to the other woman, then caught herself as the shei'dalin flinched away. "Please. Don't shut me out. Talk to me. I need your help."

"There's nothing to say. If you don't have any other questions, I'll leave you to your reading."

Ellysetta persisted. "I know that what happened with the Eye was very upsetting. I understand how you must feel." She could put herself in Venarra's shoes all too easily. She'd felt exactly the same when Gaelen first revealed the truth of her Mage Marks. "Even Rain fled from me in revulsion when he first learned the truth. He loathes the Eld—almost more than he now loves me—and when he learned I was Mage Marked, he was ready to choose death rather than risk the safety of the Fey by bringing me back to the Fading Lands."

Venarra's black eyes, shuttered and suspicious, fixed on Ellysetta. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you need to know. In truth, part of me is relieved the Eye revealed what it did. As Rain and Steli have told me, the tairen do not keep secrets from their pride. Rain could have left me in Celieria after learning about my Mage Marks. He wanted to at first. He feared what the Mages would do if they successfully completed their claiming—he still fears it, as do I—but the tairen stopped him. They believe I am the one who can save them—the only one who can."

Venarra looked down at her own tightly clasped hands. "That may be, Feyreisa—and I do pray it is so—but I saw the vision in the Eye. I saw the future it foretold. I saw the heads on the pikes behind your throne." Venarra's voice began to shake. Not with fear, Ellysetta realized, but with an almost tairen fierceness. "My shei'tan's was among them." Her eyes flashed up. The black irises had turned to fiery gold suns, and the piles of books and scrolls on the desk began to quake and rattle. "I'll call for your death myself before I let you harm him."

Ellysetta's mouth went dry.

The stack of documents toppled and scrolls clattered to the floor.

The sound seemed to snap Venarra out of the fury that had gripped her. She spun away, putting distance between them, and bent over as if in pain.

Ellysetta knelt and, with shaking hands, began to pick up the scattered scrolls.

A moment later, Venarra knelt beside her to help. Her emotions were once more locked tightly away, her face an impenetrable mask of aloof calm, and she was careful not to let her hands brush Ellie's again.

When they were finished, they stood in tense silence on opposite sides of the reading desk. The physical distance was but a fraction of the great, invisible gulf that truly lay between them.

"Venarra, I—"

"Teska, Feyreisa. Forgive my outburst." Venarra kept her head high. "I realize you are not to blame for the circumstances set upon you. As a shei'dalin, I am not without compassion, but I cannot pretend a warm welcome for the woman who may well become the destroyer of the one I love most." She took a breath. "I realize the tairen commanded Rain to bring you, even knowing the taint you bear, because they believe you are the only one who can save them. Tenn fears that you've already done all you were meant to do, but your shei'tan refuses to even consider the possibility. Let's hope for all our sakes that Rain and the tairen are right, and that you find the solution before the other prophecy of the Eye comes true."

Ellysetta bit her lip. How could she blame the woman for wanting so desperately to protect her shei'tan? She would have reacted just as fiercely if someone were threatening Rain. Still, that didn't make the wound of Venarra's distrust hurt any less.

"Well," Ellysetta said, turning to the enormous stack of books and scrolls, "I suppose I should get started right away then." She glanced back at Venarra. "Is there anything else I should know before you go?"

After a brief, tense silence, the shei'dalin said, "Nei. If you have any other questions, consult the Mirror, or ask it to locate Tealah or myself."

Once Venarra was gone, Ellysetta stood there, fighting off the tears that threatened to fall. She told herself Venarra's reaction wasn't any different from what she'd faced all her life. Countless times as a child, she'd faced the suspicion and outright hostility of neighbors after one of her seizures. Railing against it had never changed anything before, and it wasn't going to change anything now.