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Zenia picked up each trinket and began handing them to Desmond. "These are a set. You must keep them on at all times."

Desmond fiddled with each one as he donned them. "A set in what sense?"

"They will alter your soul signature," said Zenia, offering him the metal orb last. "If any hostile reapers there are familiar with you, they will not recognize you."

He held up the orb to examine it against the sky, squinting. "What're the odds of that? I'm not very well known. I assume that's why I was picked for this gig in the first place."

She stared at him a moment. "Would you prefer not to have this added layer of protection?"

He smacked his lips and gave her a smile. "I'm just curious. I appreciate the help, of course." The real question was if there was some other function to these things. If they helped conceal him from the Vanguard, perhaps they did the opposite from Abolish.

From the sound of things, the only upside to this mission was going to be that he wouldn't have anyone breathing down his neck for a change, but maybe these damn trinkets were going to change that.

Voicing his complaints, however, was not something that Desmond planned on doing. He'd seen that go poorly for his peers far too many times.

"The orb contains the unique soul signature," said the secretary. "If your cover is blown, then enemy reapers will still be able to memorize that, too. In which case, you may be able to replace the orb's signature with a new one, thereby regaining your concealment."

Ooh. "Impressive. But... how difficult would the replacement process be?"

"Almost impossible," she said flatly. "I did say you may be able to replace it."

He kinda figured as much. If his cover was truly blown, then that would also mean would actively be hunted by enemy reapers. Even if the replacement itself was simple, doing it while being hunted down would make it challenging.

It probably wasn't simple, either, was it?

He held back a sigh as she continued to explain.

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Karkash looked over the objects strewn across the table. Lozaro stood on the other side, addressing the representatives of numerous sects, of which Karkash was merely one.

"Great strides have been made," said Lozaro, his voice sounding oddly unsteady to Karkash's ears. "But do not expect miracles. These are all effectively prototypes, still."