[i]The bastard. He finally did it.[/i] Kire had suspected as much, but to hear the confirmation still weighed heavily on her chest. She sunk her head back against the tree, face twisted in a silent snarl. She had felt that, had the two of them never met, Ikegai would have found some other obsession. Besides, if there was one thing the past half year had finally hammered into her skull, it was that the universe didn’t revolve around her, that there was no such thing as destiny. But still. How could Kire not feel that it had been all her responsibility? The one failure that had defined the rest of her failures since? 

She let out a rueful laugh. “Of course he tried to change the color. Different hair. Different eyes. Right? Attitude adjustment too, if his power’s become that much more sophisticated.” Kire frowned again. “He wants control. He’ll have it, down to the last detail, I suppose.” She rubbed her face, frowning. “He’d probably have put a lot of glamour onto her, too. That’s another specialty of his. I don’t think it would’ve been powerful enough for large groups, like these Kartaians, but he’s good at conjuring that seductive allure. Bastard. Only consolation is that it takes up a lot of resources, a lot of energy, to make the kind of magic he does. Probably another reason why he’d find a perfect alliance with indiscriminate killers.”