He held her wrist for a moment and confirmed the pulse, which was steady and slightly elevated, the expected profile for someone who had just had a stressful afternoon and was now unconscious in a forest.
The leaves in her hair had gone completely still, which was the most settled he had seen them all day.
Rex sat back on his heels and looked at her face.
Her expression in unconsciousness had none of the management that her waking expression required. She looked younger than she did when she was working.
The amber at the leaf tips had faded to a pale gold that caught the afternoon light through the canopy in a way that was, objectively speaking, somewhat inconvenient.
"That's the issue with you," Rex thought, feeling a familiar professional annoyance. "You're too genuine, too easy to read, and you lack any sense of operational discretion."
He straightened up and turned his attention inward. "Hear me out, system."
"Give me a skill that could help me enter her dream."
