Amaryllis by Jayne Castle

way. Thanks for the coff-tea.”
    “You’re welcome.”
    He smiled wryly. “And the sympathy.”
    Amaryllis softened. “I know it must have been a difficult evening for you.”
    “I’ve had worse.” He scooped his jacket off the stool and started for the door.
    Amaryllis trailed after him. “Lucas, there’s something I wanted to ask you.”
    He turned around with unexpected swiftness. “Yeah?”
    “That other talent you detected tonight,” she began slowly.
    Something that could have been disappointment flashed in his eyes. The next instant it was gone. “What about him?”
    “When I sensed him through you, I realized that he was very powerful. But I couldn’t identify the type of talent he was focusing. I’ve never come in contact with any psychic energy of that nature. It was very subtle but very strong.”
    “He was good,” Lucas agreed without much interest.
    “Well, you’re the great detector,” she challenged. “Could you tell what sort of psychic power the person was focusing?”
    Lucas looked amused. “You didn’t realize who the talent was?”
    “No.”
    “I can’t be absolutely certain, but given the situation, I’d stake next year’s profits that it was Madison Sheffield.”
    “Sheffield.” Amaryllis was astounded. “Senator Sheffield?”
    “The next governor of our fair city-state, or so everyone claims. I guess you could say he was working the room.”
    “Are you serious?”
    Lucas eyed her thoughtfully. “You really didn’t understand what was going on, did you?”
    “No, I did not. When I work with a talent, I can sense what he or she senses. You have the ability to detect other talents, so naturally I picked up the other talent in the room at the same time you did. As I told you, I also picked up the echoes of the other prism.”
    “You said the prism’s style of working felt familiar.”
    “It was. I would swear that whoever it was trained at the same place I did, the Department of Focus Studies at the university. I could feel Professor Landreth’s influence.”
    “Who is Landreth?”
    “He was the head of the department for years.”
    “The name sounds familiar.”
    “Probably because of the newspaper articles that were written about him after he was killed in a hiking accident last month. It was a terrible tragedy.”
    Lucas nodded. “I remember something about it now.”
    “He was a brilliant man.” Amaryllis spoke forcefully because Lucas did not seem overly impressed with just who and what Professor Jonathan Landreth had been. “He contributed enormously to our understanding of the focus link and how it works. More importantly, he wrote the Code of Focus Ethics. His death was a great loss to the profession and to research.”
    “Uh huh.”
    “It was a great personal loss for me, as well.” Amaryllis’s teeth clamped together again. “He was my mentor. I admired him enormously. I miss him.”
    “I’m sorry.” Lucas looked as if he didn’t know what else to say. “Well, I should be on my way.”
    “Wait, you didn’t tell me what sort of talent Senator Sheffield was focusing.”
    “From what little I got before he burned out his prism, I’d say that he was generating pure bat-snake oil and charm. In other words, charisma.”
    “Charisma?” Amaryllis repeated, uncomprehending.
    “It’s a politician’s stock-in-trade.”
    “But charisma is not a psychic power.”
    “What would you call it?”
    “I don’t know.” Amaryllis waved one hand in a small, vague gesture. “A personality trait or something, I suppose. But not a psychic talent.”
    “Power is power.” A smile came and went at the edge of Lucas’s mouth. “Regardless of whether or not it’s been documented and studied by the experts.”
    Amaryllis pursed her lips. “I’m not sure about this. I don’t think that it would be ethical to focus charisma, assuming it’s a form of psychic energy. Especially if the talent was a politician.”
    “Don’t worry about it. It’s not