A hand on her shoulder. Deerskin glove, smooth through broadcloth and leather and linen and her own flesh. If you close your hand with all your strength, Baru thought, I will crumble into ash. Nothing will remain. What have I done? What have I done? She stood in utter stillness, unable to advance, unwilling to withdraw, the charge of Tain Hu’s touch galvanic, annihilating. Everything she most wanted in this instant would destroy everything she had most wanted for all the rest of her life. Your Grace, she began to say. Tain Hu. I— Contact broke. Tain Hu released a ragged breath and drew away.
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