Analysis on Both Sides

Not like the old me?

Audrey froze. She swallowed the words on the tip of her tongue and gave Susie, the golden retriever she had supplied with a Potion and who had since become a Mid Sequence Beyonder, a strange look.

You're a dog. What do you know about human behavior? She wanted to ask Susie that—ask the pet who had refused before Audrey had even made her request.

But wouldn't that be too hurtful? No, too hurtful to a dog... a soft voice protested in her mind.

It was her own voice.

As though a bucket of ice water had been dumped over her head, Audrey shuddered. She slowly stood and looked down at Susie, yet felt as if Susie were the one looking down at her.

A moment later, she crouched in front of Susie again and asked hesitantly:

"Why do you say that?"

She tried to force another smile, but the muscles in her face had gone stiff, almost beyond her control.

"You asked Mr. Howard to help find information on those people because you wanted to learn everything about them. And just now, you were going to ask me to follow one of them and tell you everything I saw, weren't you?"

Susie seemed unaccustomed to vibrating her vocal cords for so long to speak. When she finished, she stuck out her tongue and panted, hardly looking dignified as she waited for her owner's reply.

Audrey was silent for a moment, then nodded.

"What's wrong with that? As long as I don't break the law or let them get hurt, I think it's the best way."

"But you weren't like this before, Audrey," Susie continued, furrowing her brow and bunching up the skin on her face. "You said we should give friends enough privacy and not