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the height of Victoria’s reign, a truly marvellous time of innovation and expansion. For those of us who could afford it, of course. I began studying the arcane arts as a young man. When we develop our skill we also develop an unusual longevity. The magic tends to preserve us.’
    Alex sat stunned, still reeling from what he had been able to do to Welby as well as the revelations that kept coming. He knew now what he hadn’t been able to see before. Welby’s everyday shades were a construction, a mask of normality placed over the real colours the man bore, concealing all the truths about him. Alex had torn everything away and seen deep inside.
    ‘It really is all right,’ Welby said. ‘You’ll have to face me again eventually. I’ve never been laid quite so naked before in my life, but at least you know beyond a doubt now that my intentions are as I stated them.’
    Alex swallowed hard. ‘Your intentions are also a bit crude.’
    ‘Well, forgive an old man his desires. But I would never have let on about those feelings, much less acted on them. More’s the pity.’
    Alex could hear a measure of mirth in Welby’s voice and couldn’t help smiling himself. Some of the tension, the shock, lifted from the room. ‘I guess I should be careful what I search for.’
    ‘Just be careful how hard you look. You said yourself not long ago that it was easier not to learn too much about people.’
    ‘I had no idea how much I could know.’
    ‘Now you do.’
    Alex was unable still to turn around. He knew Welby’s mind, his intentions, desires, fears and elations, almost as well as he knew his own. He had looked into the very soul of the man and absorbed nearly one hundred and forty years of life experience and emotion in an instant. He felt as though he had run full speed into a solid wall, his mind and body battered by the experience. But more than that, he bore an incredible sense of guilt, of sorrow. He had committed an unforgivable invasion of privacy. He didn’t know what to say.
    Welby moved around the table to stand in front of him, forcing him to look. ‘Let it go, Alex. It’s all right, really. This will be harder for you to reconcile than for me to forgive.’
    He looked into Welby’s eyes and knew him in minute detail. He refused to focus on the shades, but he could see peripherally that Welby meant it when he said it was all right. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said again, quietly.
    ‘I probably shouldn’t have been quite so theatrical. I rather tempted you to pull against me. Of course, I had no idea how easily and deeply you would be able to go.’
    Alex realised he had learned something else. ‘I know how to do that now, how to mask.’ He willed his own shades, his presence, his personality, to draw within the confines of his skin and wrapped it down with the intention that no one would be able to see his true aura. He created a sheen of normality — a shield — so that no one would know he was anything but a normal man.
    Welby looked him up and down, eyebrows rising as he did so. ‘Very good. I honestly can’t see a thing.’ He felt Welby’s mind probe over him, like the stroke of a ghostly hand. The old man barked a short laugh. ‘Not a thing. Good lords, boy, your talents are manifold! You appear as mundane as a post box.’
    ‘I can stay like this too. It doesn’t feel like it would take any effort to remain like this as a … well, as a sort of default position.’
    Welby nodded. ‘And so you should. You’ll attract much less attention that way. So what now?’
    Alex pulled his phone from his pocket. ‘I need to make a call.’
    ‘I’ll give you some privacy.’
    Welby left the kitchen and Alex dialled a number. After a few rings a voice said, ‘Alex, you dog! Long time, my brother.’
    Alex felt immediately reassured at the sound of something normal, familiar. ‘Hey, Amir. How’s things?’
    ‘Oh, you know, fucken.’
    As if Amir would ever tell him what was really going on. ‘I need