hundred suspected heathens. The collar came on at once without a sound.

His trance was broken. He found himself back in the atrium, staring into her eyes and watching as the vibrancy bled out of them. Greyness swept over her irises, extinguishing the fire that lay behind them and erasing every last hint of green. Her expression changed. Her eyes lost focus and she looked away into the distance as though slipping into reverie. Sadness washed over her features so intensely that Nathaniel could almost feel the coldness of it on his skin, and he found himself feeling a faint glimmer of pity.

Pushing this feeling aside, he tore his eyes away from her and retrieved the scanner from its holder on his backpack, directing it towards her to see whether the collar was doing its job. At this short distance, th...

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