Memorises info

“This mill here—Ostrok’s? See it? Order for four panels, nine days before
the breach.”

Strovi looked positively alarmed to have Ana invade his space so
thoroughly, her head hovering over his knees as she pressed her index
finger into the papers atop his crotch. “Ahh. Y-yes, ma’am,” he said. “I see
it.”

“And then this one here.” She jabbed at the paper, hard. Strovi twitched.
“Rakmon. Six fernpaper panels, ordered five days before the breach.”

“Y-yes, an—”

“And then this one.” Another jab, this one very hard. Strovi yelped
slightly.

“Ana!” I said.

“Mm?” she said. “What is it, Din?”

“I rather think he believes you. Yes, Captain?”

Strovi nodded vigorously. “Y-yes. Very much so. Totally do, ma’am.”

“Oh,” she said mildly. She slid out from his lap and waved the papers
about, yawning. “Anyways. These are the first three options that fit the
timeline that Din has so helpfully provided. But I don’t think any of them
are the best candidates.”

“But…are you suggesting, ma’am,” said Strovi, still shaken, “that you
can remember all of the fernpaper orders I just gave to you? And you can
just summon up any one of them in your memory as you please?”

Ana grinned. “I remember and analyze all things interesting, Captain.
And this has kept me interested. Thus far, at least.”

I smirked, for I was familiar with this line. But I wondered—was Ana
actually an engraver? Was that her augmentation? Was she now mentally
summoning all the words she’d read with her fingers as she’d lain on that
floor? Yet that didn’t seem right. Though engravers like myself could
instantly recall huge amounts of information, we couldn’t make the wild
jumps of intuition that Ana seemed so prone to.

“I will say I am more interested in what’s not on these lists,” Ana
continued, “than what is. There are a few shops, Strovi, that did not respond
to your inquiries. Despite you sending some goddamn Legionnaires to their
doorstep. Including this shop,” she said. A finger stabbed out, nearly
piercing one parchment on the floor. “The fernpaper miller Yonas Suberek.
This man did not answer your summons and was marked absent.”

Strovi looked bewildered. “Ah…I was not there for that inquiry,
ma’am, so I will have to take your word for that. But all we can do is
inquire. We can’t compel people to be present and answe—”

“And yet!” she said. She ripped another parchment out from the pile
and slapped it with the back of her hand. “His neighbor was another miller.
Fellow by the name of Linz Kestip. Now, Kestip dutifully gave you all of
his most recent fernpaper orders…including one order that actually came
from his neighbor, this absent Suberek! A transfer of inventory, in a way,
from Kestip to Suberek. For six fernpaper panels! That’s quite a lot. This is
the fourth order I mentioned. And this is our best candidate.”

Strovi, mystified by this rush of names and dates and numbers, looked
to me for help.

- The Tainted Cup, Chapter 19 pgs. 174-175