"If I could see you," Heboric muttered, "I'd conclude you've improved some."
"I have, Destriant of Treach, though I would have thought those feline eyes of yours could pierce every veil."
He grunted. "It's more that you no longer slur your words, Scillara."
"What do we do now?" she asked after a moment.
"Dusk will soon arrive. I would go out to find L'oric, and I would that you accompany me."
"Then, I would lead you to Felisin Younger."
"Sha'ik's adopted daughter."
Scillara glanced away, meditative as she drew deep on the rust-leaf.
She shrugged, "As old as I have to be. If I am to take Felisin Younger's orders, so be it. Resentment is pointless."
An awkward conversation, progressing in leaps that left Heboric scrambling. Sha'ik was much the same. Perhaps, he reflected with a grimace, this talent for intuitive thinking was a woman's alone - he admittedly had little experience upon which he could draw, despite his advanced years. Fener's temple was predominantly male, when it came to the holy order itself, and Heboric's life as a thief had, of necessity, included only a handful of close associations. He was, once more, out of his depth. "Felisin Younger has, I believe, little interest in commanding anyone. This is not an exchange of one cult for another, Scillara - not in the way you seem to think it is, at any rate. No-one will seek to manipulate you here."
House of Chains, by Steven Erikson (Malazan Book of the Fallen #4)