He... he knew?
Charlotte startled, her back tensing instantly. Her hands instinctively reached toward the dagger and pistol hidden beneath her cloak at her waist. She was about to strike the dual-wielding pose she had thought looked so cool, aim at the old lawyer before her, and find out whether a gun or a blade was faster within seven paces.
Fortunately, before the image in her head could turn into action, she recovered from her fright and remembered that the man before her was a Beyonder far stronger than she was. She smoothly lowered her hands onto her thighs and assumed a prim, obedient posture, as though she had merely shifted in her seat.
Even so, the questions in her mind remained unanswered, and she could not help asking:
"May I ask how you knew I had taken another potion and advanced?"
"A newly advanced Beyonder's spirituality leaks out a little. It usually needs to be controlled through meditation. I suspect you forgot that step," Morvan answered with a smile, glancing at the bulges around Charlotte's waist. "And you probably haven't noticed that your eyes change color in this state. Someone observant will pick up on it."
So he noticed through little details like that. Does this kind of scrutiny without malicious intent not trigger a Sheriff's spirituality? Or can too great a difference in sequence cause the same thing... Charlotte immediately recalled how, after she had taken the potion upstairs in Saint Roch Cathedral and become a Beyonder, Viève had explained a great deal of basic mysticism and the rules of secrecy, only letting her go home after teaching her meditation. Thoughtfully, she said:
"I did mix the Sheriff potion myself ten minutes ago and become a Sequence 8 Beyonder."
"So it's the Justiciar pathway. Given your identity, that