“I can’t believe you touched it!” Aria exclaimed, as they were getting ready for bed that evening.

Exhausted, Lotus unrolled her sleeping bag onto the army cot. “What was I supposed to do, Aria? Let it drop to the ground? I can name a dozen people who would kill me if I did something like that.” She smoothed out her bag with a sharp violent swish of her hand.

“True,” Aria conceded. “Can’t go damaging artifacts,”

“Nope,” Lotus replied, rummaging in her case for her toothbrush and paste. “Can’t. I turned the necklace over to Ji and Lalita for photography, but we don’t know if the necklace is related to the skeleton yet until they finish removing the topsoil in the surrounding grids.”

Aria nodded silently. “What are you going to do?” she asked, sliding into her sleeping bag and resting her head on her elbow.

“Try to sleep, I guess.” Lotus sighed. “Maybe the curse has passed.”