9.9

The arcane remnant of youth clung still to the thin frame sitting in front of me. Long since lost, it spoke through her teeth, as though pushed through a sieve. "I had desire, once. Heat! Ha! I remember it. But the warmth of it still dries the damp days in this cobwebbed cloister." I rocked forward in my chair, anxious. It sounded like the beginning of an unbelievable story.