“It must be a dreadful situation indeed, sir,” said Ana, “if the king is
proving resilient to even your talents.”

Kardas smiled, puzzled. “Talents? What might you mean?”

“I assume, sir,” Ana said, “that you are a Sublime? Specifically, an
emitias?”

The prificto regarded her warily. As he did, I glanced at his heralds but
could not spy the symbol of the pear within the oval in the center: the sign of
the emitias Sublimes, who were preternaturally skilled at reading human
emotion, so much so that it was rumored they could smell and react to human
pheromones.

“What makes you say such a thing, Dolabra?” he asked mildly.

“Well, I have met all manner of Sublimes in my day,” Ana said. “But only
four have ever kissed my hand upon greeting me—and they have all been
emitiasi. It’s a gesture I always respond so well to, but most others don’t have
the gall! Yet they sense I desire it, as if they read my very mind.”

“You assume so much,” said Kardas, “simply because I kissed your
hand?”

“Well, there is that, and I hear absolutely no surprise in your voice at the
sight of my blindfold, nor the rest of my appearance. You seem an unusually
socially deft officer, in other words! Suspiciously so. And such an augment
would make sense, sir, you being a diplomat.”

- A Drop of Corruption, Chapter 10 pgs. 81-82