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"Then what am I identifying?" I ask.

"That is what we are testing." She places it before me. "Touch the glass."

I do. Fear. The chamber disappears. Not visually. Emotionally. My lungs seize around someone else's breath. Stone presses against my back. Darkness. A hand covers my mouth. Not my hand. Footsteps cross somewhere above. Slow. Searching. I am hiding. No— She is hiding. A woman. Young. Terrified. The fear is not memory in the way I remember my own life. It is an imprint. Raw. Unfinished. Someone whispers nearby. Not words. A warning too quiet to understand. The footsteps stop. Directly overhead.

The vial falls from my hand. Protective magic catches it before it strikes the floor. The chamber returns. I stumble backward. My heart pounds in my chest. My hands shake. My head hurts.

Professor Neris does not move toward me. She watches. "What did you sense?"

I press one hand against my chest. "Fear."

"Yours?"

"No." The answer comes immediately.

Her gaze sharpens. "From the blood?"

"I don't know."

"Describe it."

"I can't." I look at her.

"Try."

Stone. Darkness. A hand over someone's mouth. Footsteps. "It felt like someone hiding."

Professor Neris remains still. "Did you see them?"

"No." I answer quietly.

"Did you hear them?"

"Not exactly."

"Then how did you know?"

I look toward the vial suspended in protective light. "I felt what she felt." I answer honestly.

"She?" The word exposes more than I intended.

"I think it belonged to a woman."

Professor Neris retrieves the vial. Nothing in her face changes. That is somehow worse. "This blood has been preserved for nearly two centuries."

I stare. "Emotional traces should be gone." I reply. "Yes." She nods.

"Then what happened?"

"That is why you are here."

Not comforting. She replaces the sample with another vial. "Again."

I touch it. Nothing. No fear. No imprint. Only old blood. A third vial. Nothing. A fourth. A faint warmth. Not an emotion. Possibly my imagination.

Professor Neris takes them away. "Only the first?"

"Yes."