Balm Read Free

first.”
    She nodded and threaded one hand through his thick, dark hair.
    He breathed her in for a few moments, and they returned to their slow walk to the clothing repository with his arm around her waist and hers around his.
    It seemed the most natural thing in the world, which made Quinn smile because the world was precisely where she was not.

Chapter Three
    “Is this really appropriate?” Quinn turned from side to side, staring at her reflection. The purple, strapless gown was quite pretty but nothing that she had worn in service to the Alliance.
    “I think you should dress like that all the time.” He was wearing his own change of clothing—a tight smoke grey leather vest with a pair of charcoal trousers and black boots.
    “Not fair that you are still prettier than me.”
    His grin would have done justice to a six-year-old boy. He was practically preening when he offered her his hand.
    She noted a belt and dagger that blended with his outfit. “What is that?”
    “The mark of the Nameless. It is our only weapon.” He stroked his fingers down her throat.
    The pain of the remembered impact sent her stumbling back. She held her hand up to fend him off.
    “What is it?” He went from seductive to concerned in a heartbeat.
    “I just felt…” She didn’t know how to explain that the pain of the final attack was still fresh.
    “What?”
    She reached up and touched his shoulder to calm him. He was agitated. “When you touched my neck, I felt the knife strike all over again.”
    He frowned. “That isn’t supposed to happen after healing. Would you like to see someone?”
    Quinn shook her head. “No. I am fine for now. If it happens again, I will let you know.”
    He kept the look of concern on his face but accepted her touch. “You had better. The pain of death is usually one of the first things to fade.”
    “I guess it is just being difficult.”
    “You always had to do things the hard way, Lios.” He gestured for her to leave the changing room.
    The requisition station was bustling when they left. A short walk up a bridge and they approached an elegant building that looked precisely in place in the peculiar assembly of structures that made up their city.
    “How does this work?”
    “We walk into the council hall, and you meet the seven. The speaker will talk for the gathering, and you will be walked into the hall of the Orb where you will stand on the centre of the spiral and you meet the Orb of Time.”
    She snorted. “It sounds simple.”
    “It will be. I will be with you the entire time. Just like the plains of Argethor. We will meet this together.”
    She laughed. “If I recall, you were fighting off the women of the opposing army and their peculiar tactic of charging at you nude, and I was with the rest of our unit, blasting at the incoming horde.”
    He shrugged. “Did you see those women? They were horrifying.”
    She winced at the memory. “I seem to recall that. I still have nightmares.”
    He laughed as they entered the building, and she braced herself to have her body and life changed forever.
    When the light surged up to meet her, Quinn held her breath. It didn’t work. The light still wrapped around her and seeped into her skin, pouring into her eyes.
    Welcome Home, Quinn.
    Um, thank you?
    A bright laugh rippled through her mind. It is strange at first to have me within you, but having Iskanu with you will ease your transition.
    Quinn wasn’t sure that her mind could blush, but she thought it was doing a good job of it. Really? We can stay together?
    Of course, it will make your assignments easier, and you will have him to lean on when you need it.
    What kind of assignments?
    I know it pains you, but you will be easing those in pain.
    I am to deliver people into death in my afterlife?
    No. I am giving you the ability to ease those who live in psychic agony back into a more productive reality. Is that something you can work with?
    Delight spiraled through her thoughts, and the Orb