Maius stared at it for a moment, then at Jiana. “Did you—?”

Jiana nodded. “Oh yes, I looked through it. I can undergo purification rituals later—and do I ever feel like I’m gonna need them.” She set the storage block down again.

“What did you find?”

“There are two…factions of neuro-users in a war that most of their world doesn’t know about. A group calling itself Aegis thinks of itself as The Protector Of Mankind.” Jiana made sweeping gestures to emphasize the capitals. “The Lordun Protectorate—called the ‘Marauders’ by everyone else—just wants to exploit it, and maybe even kill it off and replace it with machines.”

“And these charming fellows are the ones we assumed to be the rulers of the earth,” Maius said dryly. “Disembodiment psychosis, you think?”

Jiana nodded. “Maybe some on both sides. Messianic complex is just the flip side of megalomania. Or so I’ve been told.” She wrinkled her nose. “Abominators, all of them.”

“And these ‘Marauders’ have our Heartstar,” Maius said, and Jiana nodded grimly.