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boneless heap.
    Amly could feel the thuds of feet on the ground, and she turned to the first arrivals, holding her hands out.
    They looked at her in confusion.
    “I killed him.” She looked at her hands, and they were the same yellow scales as her victim. With a sigh, she shifted back to herself.
    A familiar face appeared and pushed through the crowd.
    “Keezik. I have killed someone.”
    He looked at her and then at the body behind her. “Are you Amly?”
    She blinked and turned toward the creature on the ground.
    It looked at her. “I am Amly; it tried to kill me.”
    She blinked and stood still. It stood next to her.
    Keezik remained steady and near her. “Which one is which?”
    They both said, “I am Amly.”
    He pointed at the fake her. “Tell me something only Amly would know.”
    Amly had to watch as her gaze got all watery and the mouth that wasn’t hers said, “I love you.”
    Amly snorted. “Like I would tell you that in public. Coffee, Keezik.”
    He raised his hand and fired a small weapon at the fake, firing at it until it was on the ground and twitching violently.
    “That answers that.”
    She nodded and slid down the wall, bracing her head on her arms and breathing slowly. “That was scary.”
    “It still is. We have to restrain it if it isn’t dead. The ability to read a mind and morph is dangerous.”
    She gave him a dark look. “I am well aware of that. It is a good thing that it tried not to make contact with me. Once I touched it, I knew it wasn’t you.”
    “What did it say?” He put his hand on her knee. The knowledge that it was the right him was a relief.
    “That it was time for my appointment at the base.”
    “Nothing more?”
    “That was it.”
    He nodded. “That will narrow it down. There were only a few folk around when I said that last night.”
    A Citadel student came running, and with help, he put some bands on the creature on the ground.
    “What are those?” She blinked curiously, distracted for the moment.
    “Null bands. They dampen the talent for a short amount of time, until the body learns to compensate. We have been using them with more powerful talents who can take them on and off as they wish.”
    “Will he be able to take them off?”
    Turnari appeared with his hair tousled around his horns. “No. These are locked with a pass code. Now that he has been nulled, we will use regular restraints and get him into a holding cell.”
    She looked up at him and winced. “I am sorry I screamed so loud.”
    He grinned. “I am glad you did. You proved that, in an emergency, the shielding here can let through a panicked psychic scream.”
    A chuckle ran through the crowd that had filled the hallway and stairwell.
    “It was all that I could think to do. He is really fast and I am pretty sure he is venomous.”
    She shuddered again as they hauled away her assassin.
    Keezik narrowed his eyes. “When he was me, he only said the one sentence. What did he say afterward?”
    “He wanted to push me down the stairs and break my neck. He said my death would be quick, but now, it was going to be painful and messy.”
    Her body rocked with the shock of the close call.
    Keezik helped her upright and walked her down the stairs.
    He settled her on a couch in the common space and brought her a cup of something that smelled amazing. It was a creamy brown and smelled of toast, nuts and warmth.
    “Drink it.”
    She sipped at it, and while the flavour was not all that the scent had promised, she continued until she had consumed half of it. “That is pretty good.”
    “That is coffee, with honey and cream.”
    Amly smiled weakly. “All right. I concede it is a worthy goal.”
    Her nerves were soothed and the shock was wearing off with the warmth of the coffee inside her.
    Turnari came and sat next to them. Keezik explained that the duplicator had been within earshot of the table where she was having dinner with Wekiat. Wekiat herself was beyond suspicion, as she had been under the