“This is the Skill Sharer who sold me Combat Medic,” Ranger Flo said, gesturing to Danielle.

  “Oh! That sort of business! I definitely would!” Ranger Michael said. “Wait, I’m on duty.”

  “You couldn’t be here if you were off duty,” Ranger Flo reminded him. “My deal with the Skill Sharer was for 450 mana. I admit that this is less than she will be able to get at the trade fair come winter, but it has extra situational value to her now.”

  “Yeah, and like I told Ranger Flo the other day, I also see value in sharing the Skill with people that might end up healing me in an emergency,” Danielle added. “How many Healers do the Rangers have?”

  “Dozens, naturally. Or do you just mean, here in layer 1 Sending territory? Three,” Ranger Michael corrected himself. “Never more than two outside of base at any one time. It would be four, but the oldest one retired last year when we got the news that – that we needed to clear the Sending zone for a new group, and we haven’t found another one willing to join this particular post yet. We’ll probably have more luck in a year or two, when the Sent on layer 5 start hitting level 10.”

  “Huh. I’m not sure I followed all of that,” Danielle admitted.

  “We’re not supposed to talk about the stuff you’re probably not following,” Ranger Flo said with a sigh. “We’d be allowed if you’d already figured it out for yourself of course, because that’s how these stupid rules work.”

  “Ah. Well, feel free to tell the third Healer that if she – he? – wants to buy a token, and can come up with whatever excuse you need to do business, I’m up for making the trade. Call it a local Healer’s special,” Danielle said.

  “Can us Sent Healers get in on it?” Heather asked. “We’re local too!”

  “Well, you can get it even cheaper using the Trusted Party Member special,” Danielle said. “Everyone else, we’ll consider on a case-by-case basis, once I feel safe even just publicly admitting to being able to do this.”

  “Well, if you’re really willing to part with a Combat Medic skill token for only 450, I’m all for it,” Ranger Michael said.

  “All right. I’d like that as three 150s, please, and I’ll need one of them in advance, for obvious reasons,” Danielle replied.

  The Ranger nodded seriously and held out his hand to manifest the first token. Danielle took it and used it to create the Skill token while Ranger Michael made the other two mana tokens, not even glancing at her until he was done. By then, she was already holding the Skill token label-side towards him.

  “Ah, good business practices there,” he said. “Here’s mine!” He showed her the numbers on the two 150-mana tokens, then held them out to trade. Danielle exchanged them for the Skill token, and put them in her pocket.

  “Pleasure doing business with you,” she said.

  “Have you gotten to the Access Point yet?” Ranger Flo asked.

  “No, of course not, it’s only been a couple days,” Danielle said. “The rain’s put a real damper on things – aheh, so to speak – and nobody else is ready to do anything there anyway. I’m not going to have much luck justifying a rush to go find the thing when I’m the only one who can use it, and food is still a priority.”

  “Well, it’s not like it’s a complete waste unless you have tokens to use,” Ranger Michael said. “When you level, it’ll show you things you technically already had unlocked, because you had all the other prerequisites for them last time you were at an access point, and they were only hidden because your level wasn’t high enough; but new Sent tend to unlock tons of new stuff in their first few months. You’re all busily trying new things, experiencing new things, struggling with new things – it’s a good idea to hit an Access Point just to run the Skills-and-Traits search, if you’re getting at all close to a new level.”

  “Hm, really? I’ll have to talk that up to some of our friends and see if anyone wants to go, then,” Danielle said. “Especially since level 2 seems to be able to come for you by surprise.”

  “That’s the spirit,” Ranger Michael said.

  “Don’t forget about Flash Shield,” Ranger Flo said.

  “Don’t worry, I haven’t,” Danielle said. “I was reminded while prepping to go heal-slash-defend-Heather, when someone who only introduced himself as ‘a Wolf’ attacked me. That one was noisy, and he got suckered by a feint. If he’d been quiet and used a bow, I’d have been in trouble, and the town rule didn’t seem to be on his mind, you know? When I finally get where I can take that Skill, I’m going to have it on all the time.”

  The Rangers sighed, almost in unison. “This Sending has not gotten off to a good start,” Ranger Michael said. “Attracting level-boundary predators and starting murder clubs before the first week is even done, town governance barely even touched on – I don’t know what they expected, Sending 14-year-olds and mixing schools on top of it, but it’s still hard to watch it happen.”

  “So this all really isn’t normal, then,” Sadie said from back in the bedroom.

  “Nope. Fifteen deaths in the first month, maybe, given the size of the group, but not in the first week,” Ranger Michael said.

  “Is – is that an official number?” Danielle asked.

  “Yeah, the guy the cougar killed will be number fifteen,” Ranger Flo said. “Not that it matters, except to rub the Authority’s nose in how bad they’re stinking this up. Please remember, the Sending Authority knows this is dangerous and it’s a risk they’re willing to take, but the goal truly is not to kill people out here. If all 1238 of you had managed to stay alive and reach level ten? They’d have been ecstatic to welcome back 1238 Returned Citizens in five to ten years.”

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  “Is that an actual organizational status? Returned Citizen?” Akari asked.

  “Yeah, that’s what my parents have,” Cassy confirmed.

  “Yes. It carries a few extra privileges above plain citizenship, like the right to respond to mana bursts Inside, and a security clearance for certain kinds of information that they try not to let out into general knowledge,” Ranger Flo said. “That and the chance to reach higher levels are part of how they justify telling people it’s an honor to be Sent.”

  “Easier authorization to get their kids in home-tutoring programs, too,” Ranger Michael said. “Sending kids that don’t have school groups to support them is not doing the government any favors in terms of public perception. I know it doesn’t help you all much out here, but for what it’s worth? Practically everyone Inside knows this is a travesty, and the politicians who OK’d it aren’t having as much luck as they expected to with convincing people that it was necessary and worthwhile.”

  “Do you think they’ll be able to get us brought back inside?” Heather asked hopefully.

  The Rangers both shook their heads. “Not a chance,” Ranger Flo said. “You’re Advanced now, and some of you are even level 2 already. Nobody here is coming back Inside until they hit ten and get Aura Control.”

  “Lots of people Inside are level 2,” Heather argued.

  “Yeah, but not a lot are Advanced before finishing school, and it’d be a massive legal nightmare trying to untangle that for all twelve hundred and however many of you,” Ranger Michael said. “And if you’re level 2 at age 14 – or 15 even – you’ll definitely hit level three way before schedule, and that’s a legal and logistical nightmare.”

  “The Sending Advancement isn’t the same as normal, basic Advancement, either,” Ranger Flo said. “They will eventually explain more of this, or at least make the information quietly available. The short version is, the more complex your System gets, the better you personally can handle the mana coming at you, whether from bursts or from the background; but at the same time, the more complex your System is, the more mana you are adding to the background levels around you. Outside, it doesn’t matter – you can stack up Skills and Traits for miles and it’ll barely make a blip. What’s the whole point of living Inside though?”

  “Low mana density.” Sadie said immediately.

  “Exactly. If the mana density doesn’t stay low, then people start getting extra Career Skills and Traits; those Skills and Traits let them process more mana without mutation, but also cause them to produce more mana, which raises the local density and unless something happens to change the balance, it can spiral out of control. With the special Advancement Token we use for Sendings,” Ranger Flo continued, “we optimize for handling the higher mana density outside; but partly because of that, by the morning after Decision Day you were all producing mana like the more basic level three Insiders, and with every mana burst that gives you a Career Skill or Trait, it gets worse.”

  “Then why didn’t you warn us about that?!?” Heather demanded.

  “Well for one thing, because the Rangers don’t have any real contact with Sent until after they go through the Dome,” Ranger Michael said dryly. “But for another thing, because if this stuff gets around too early, we get people thinking what you are – why can’t they just go back Inside, while they’re still low level? If we don’t take new Skills, is there a chance? But there’s not, for reasons both practical and political, and you need those Skills and Traits to handle the mana out here.”

  “Aura Control lets you make it so you’re not pouring mana into the atmosphere,” Cassy said. “That’s why the Trait is the real requirement to go back inside. A level 10 Returned with Trait: Aura Control adds less to the mana density of their neighborhood than a level 3 office worker without the Trait. If they can add on a couple of other System abilities that are useful for the process, Returned can even lower the mana density around them. My parents used to get hired by the government to just go sit certain places for certain amounts of time, because they have the whole set, and they can draw down the local mana density.”

  “And that’s where Skill Sharers come in,” Ranger Flo said. “They can give people the whole set – or sell them the prerequisites, anyway. Some of the Skills are like Combat Medic; hard to come by naturally, but incredibly valuable, so we use Skill tokens to spread them around. Skill Sharing needs to be high level to work the way most people want it to work, though – level 8 is the minimum Skill level for the critical effect, which means Skill Sharers need to get to base level 8, which means they have to spend time Outside and level up to 10 to get Aura Control.”

  “So Skill Sharers are all Sent then? Or Returned, anyway?” Danielle asked.

  “Some of them come out of Sending drafts, like you,” Ranger Flo said. “Others unlock the Skill Inside and either go as volunteer Sent or, since they’re a special case, join the Rangers directly and work out here with us for however many years. The government likes that solution because it lets them start buying select Skill tokens right away; the Sending Authority likes it because it means they don’t have to be responsible for whether or not the Skill Sharer survives; and of course, the Skill Sharer likes it because being required to take an Outside job is still better than being Sent.”

  “It takes them longer to get back inside, though,” Ranger Michael said. “Sent pretty reliably Return in five to ten years – if they survive, and don’t just defect to Outsider communities, of course. Outside workers who didn’t start off as Sent have an average return time of ten to twelve years.”

  “Just for the sake of, well, knowing the whole story,” Heather began, then hesitated.

  “Go ahead and ask,” Ranger Michael said patiently. “The worst I can do is tell you we’re not allowed to answer, right?”

  “I just wondered if the people who think they’re going to kill their way inside by the end of the month can really – I mean, hypothetically, you know – ” Heather cut off again, seemingly unable to actually finish the question.

  “Oh – that. No, not a chance,” Ranger Flo said again. “Leave aside that they’d be killed trying, ten levels in less than a month would cause mutations for sure. We haven’t managed to get eyes on these alleged level threes in your camp yet, but if it’s true that one person killed enough of the fifteen to get to level 3? Chances are really good it’ll be visible.”

  “And mutants can’t come inside?” Sadie asked.

  “Depends, but usually no,” Ranger Flo said. “Actual genetic mutations we can sometimes treat in a way that keeps them from spreading; but most of what we call mutations are more properly called “non-Systemic mana traits” and the problem with those is, they can spread to people that aren’t genetically related to the person that has them. Firmitatem has occasionally let in people with safe or helpful traits, but only if they’re not too obvious, because if they’re obvious then the people who come Inside with them tend to have short lifespans.”

  “What kills them?” Heather asked. “Do they start to need the denser mana or - ?”

  “Neighbors who don’t want their kids to be born with obvious mutations kill them,” Ranger Flo said grimly. “It’s not fair or right, but the fear of being changed by the mana is a powerful force, Inside.”

  “Oh.” Heather looked down.

  how did you manage to work as a Healer around Sending camps for this many years without unlocking Combat Medic for yourself? I know how Flo and your boss did it, but how did you manage??

  before I start healing. Among other benefits, it means I'm not distracted by my Healer diagnostics in combat."

  https://discord.gg/u5dtzpShv2