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she was done for the day.
    She nodded to Rimash. “Done.”
    He inclined his head and signalled the guards.
    “Do you need help?”
    She got to her feet on her own, and there was only a slight rush of weakness. “I am good. I won’t win any races, but I think I can make the walk back to my quarters.”
    She finished her tea and left her cup in the cupboard where she was to hide it.
    She walked up to Rimash and put her hand on his wrist. A weird curl of heat ran through her.
    The heat reminded her of the strange dreams she had had in the night. Despite her exhaustion, she had felt wildness swirling around her anytime her mind surfaced close to waking. The feeling of wildness had brought with it curls of heat that ran through her limbs and started to stir something inside her.
    Rimash walked her back to her quarters and made sure she had her evening meal.
    “Join me.”
    He paused. “Are you sure?”
    “Yes, I have questions, and I think you might be able to answer them.”
    He inclined his head. “I would be happy to.”
    “Good. Please, order your food, and I will wait for you.”
    He went to her well-stocked food unit and ordered his meal and then another.
    She sipped at her water and waited, lifting her eating implement when he sat down. It took him a few seconds to settle his wings, but when he began to eat, she started with the questions.
    “How did the previous Contract Archive die?”
    He slurped in some noodles. “Old age. He was two hundred and forty-three.”
    “How was he recruited?”
    Rimash quirked his lips. “When the previous Contract Archive died, he was her successor. He had the implants, as you do, but yours are much faster and more elaborate.”
    “So, the next one isn’t chosen until the previous one dies?”
    “Correct.”
    “How are the new archives chosen?”
    He appeared to realize that she was serious about the questions. He changed his position slightly to one less relaxed, and he answered.
    “As far as I know, you must have a mind that can handle the connection with the Great Archive. The criteria are known only to the Archive itself.”
    “You speak about the Archive as if it is alive.” She snorted and kept eating.
    He looked at her in surprise. “It is.”
    She stopped eating. “What?”
    “The Great Archive is a living world. It has no Avatar; it simply loves knowledge, so it offered itself as the repository of all information.”
    “That can’t be right.”
    “Of course it can. That is why it is so difficult to find the archivists to replace the ones who have fallen. It is only when there is an opening that they are told what to look for. As the archive has expanded, so has the need for a certain type of interface in the archivist.”
    Jill sat back and tried to remember the first discussion that she had had with the recruiter. He had asked her if she would authorize a scan of her brain output, and she had agreed. It didn’t hurt and had taken three minutes. When it was over, the recruiter had looked at her with calm sadness in his eyes. He told her they would be in touch, and they had been.
    Everything that had happened after that fateful meeting had led her to this place and this time.
    “So, they scanned me for suitability, and when my brain matched the pattern they were looking for, they hooked me up to the data-retrieval system.”
    “Correct.”
    She nodded and looked down at her plate, picking up her eating implement and continuing her meal. “Right. So, what do you like to read?”
    He grinned, and they had a normal conversation while her mind grappled with the thought that she had been selected because a planet wanted to talk to her.
    She needed dessert.
     

Chapter Five
     
     
    A week and two rest days later, she was finally in the swing of things.
    Lunch was taken in the archivist dining room and each department master had their bodyguard with them at all times. Jill would not say that she was making friends with the other archivists, but their