“I can’t find a damn thing,” said Kalista around her pipe. Her breath
shivered with smoke as she spoke. “This is a professional, surely. They
removed everything of note. From the look of it, I almost doubt if Suberek
knew how to write.”

Ana rocked forward, her hands still probing the workshop table. “No,”
she said softly. “He knew how to write. And he did a lot of it right here.”
There was a long silence as everyone turned to look at her, her hands
placed on the slab of wood like a reedwitch telling fortunes at a canton fair.

“You…” Kalista laughed, incredulous. “You aren’t suggesting you
can…You can, what, feel what was written there?”

“I can feel many things,” said Ana quietly. “He was a very hard writer,
you see. Pressed his ashpen with tremendous force…The tricky thing is
identifying what was recent.” Her index finger paused on one spot of the
scarred table. “Here, for example…Wrote down an order for two panels…
Dated sometime in the month of Hajnal. I think. Tricky to read this…”
Uhad looked to Nusis. “Is this really possible?”

“Of course,” said Nusis. “I know some sensitivity grafts help sculptors
and surgeons find the weaknesses in many materials.”

“If we get a length of ashpen,” said Ana, “and a sheet of thin fernpaper,
I can discover more.”

- The Tainted Cup, Chapter 22 pg. 197