“Deal!” Danielle said. “I’ll go first and we’ll alternate, OK?”

  “Sure, why not? Which one are you going to tell me first?” Zephyr asked.

  “Lesser Expand Volume. I got that one in the Dome,” Danielle said. “I’m pretty sure it’s a ‘do it better’ Skill that came from how I packed my necessities store stuff – I took off all the packaging in the store and gave the cashier an envelope of bar codes. I opened up the first aid kit and packed more stuff inside it, wedged everything in until the bag was ready to burst and then found another bag or two in the store and did the same to them. The trick is, though, after all that, it came as part of the Logistics Skill tree, so anything that unlocks logistics should unlock an enhancing Skill too. Your turn.”

  “Oh, OK, so that is valuable information and it works with what I know,” Zephyr said. “See, there’s a bunch of different Skill trees like that, where if you get into them the right way, they’ll come with an enhancement Skill – or you can unlock an enhancement Skill easier because you already have the tree. There are a fair number of Skills where you can get a discount, so to speak, on how much you have to be struggling with the mundane and/or impossible method before the System gives you a Skill for it, if you already have a relevant Career, Class, or Skill tree unlocked. In your case, I’m betting you did more than just pack well to get the Logistics Skill tree, but once you had that, the enhancing Skill came with it.”

  “So here’s what this has to do with general enhancing,” Zephyr explained. “There are enhancer Classes and enhancer Careers, and to unlock either of them, you either need a token, or you need to have three related Skills already.”

  “You mean a Career token, right?” Danielle asked. “Or are Class tokens for specific Classes a thing?”

  “They’re a thing – you have to have someone really high level in the Class to make them, though. I was mostly talking about Career tokens, which are actually easier to get. Anyway, the trick with this one is, not all three of your related Skills have to be enhancing Skills. If you have, say, an Expand Volume Skill since you’ve already unlocked that one, you can unlock the Class and Career by also going for Mana Sight and Mana Shaping, and you’d get both of those from the first level of Basic Mana Caster. Now, out here, saving up the 400 mana for an intermediate Class all by your low-level self is going to be a pain and a half, right? However, it might very easily go faster than trying to identify and unlock three separate Skill trees with enhancement Skills hidden in them, and unlocking those Skills.”

  “What do you get then, Basic Enhancer?” Danielle asked.

  Zephyr laughed. “Basic Classes are ones you can take without having any related Skills first – they go entirely by prior action and proclivities. There is no Basic Enhancer. What there is, are General Enhancer and various field-of-specialization enhancer Classes – like, starting from Lesser Expand Volume, you’ll get Volume Enhancer, which will give you access to other enhancements that go on containers and rooms. People who start from Create Light Source will get Radiant Enhancer, which does enhancements for light, heat, and privacy for some reason.”

  “Ah – creating radiation or stopping radiation, I bet,” Danielle speculated.

  Zephyr paused and blinked at her. “I never thought of it that way,” he said. “If it’s counting heat as radiation, though, wouldn’t it also do insulation?”

  “Does it definitely not do that?” Danielle asked.

  “I, uh. Huh. I guess I’m not sure,” Zephyr admitted.

  “So what happens if I have both Expand Volume and Create Light Source along with, say, See Mana?” Danielle asked. “Is that how you get General Enhancer?”

  “Yep,” Zephyr said cheerfully. “That’s the big one – get that, and the Inside government will throw mana at you so you can unlock all the things. They say General Mana Enhancers usually take the Class twice just so they can do multiple specializations with it.”

  “Wow. That’s, um. That’s really something,” Danielle said. “That’s one of the Big Things they hope a few Sent pick up, then?”

  “Presumably. You could do a lot more with it at level ten than three, that’s for sure,” Zephyr said. “Anyway, your turn.”

  “Right. Time to turn on the privacy bubble,” Danielle said, and activated her Skill. “I won’t have proven this until I get my turn at the Access Point, but I think I’ve probably unlocked Create Light Source. I made a light symbol with my illusion Skill, like I showed you with fire, but I made it inside a crystal. It glowed for more than 12 hours. I think? Pretty close to that, anyway.”

  Zephyr stared at her a long moment, then started laughing. “That illusion trick is so ludicrously overpowered,” he said. “Seriously. How is someone supposed to make fire on the inside of a crystal?”

  “I don’t know,” Danielle said, “but I bet you could do stone if you were someone who knew how to make stone at all.”

  “Huh. Maybe, but what kind of enhancement would a stone rune make?” Zephyr asked.

  “I don’t know, but it would be a separate one from Expand Volume, so even if it didn’t turn out to be particularly useful in everyday life, it might still be useful for opening up the big, extra-special Class,” Danielle said.

  Zephyr gave her a speculative look. “That’s a really good point. I don’t technically know the 3D version of the stone rune, but I’ve seen it made before, and the 2D version is in those books in the rooms, so I could probably figure it out.”

  Danielle nodded. “So. Wind symbol?”

  “Yeah, but it’s going to be pretty obvious if I do it here and now. Can it wait until we have some privacy? Say, no more people than you and your Party, and you have to make it one of those party secrets,” Zephyr bargained.

  “The symbol is going to be a party secret?” Danielle asked skeptically. “It’s not something every Systemist in camp could work out from the right book and seeing it in meetings?”

  “Um, well, your Skill’s still up, right?” Zephyr hedged.

  “It might need refreshing soon,” Danielle admitted. “Want me to just do that now?”

  “If you don’t mind,” Zephyr said.

  Danielle nodded and reactivated her Skill. Like her Illusion Skill, it continued without a blip; but if it continued to be the same, it would go its normal duration starting from now. Any extra time that had been on it would be wasted, but it wouldn’t cut out on them this way.

  “OK, we’re good. What’s the actual secret?” Danielle asked.

  “It’s how I could teach it to you,” Zephyr said. “See, all the pious Systemists still think that only the related elements can make each other, but I’ve proven for sure that it’s not true. I want you to know I was very careful with how I did these experiments, by the way! Anyway, it’s easier to make an element using a Skill that’s related, presumably because of that resonance with the Skill’s own underlying mana shapes, like you said; but, if you have any Skill at all that draws shapes with mana – like, say, my fire writing or your extremely overpowered illusion Skill? – then if you draw an actual mana rune with that Skill, it will create the element or effect of that rune. I can make wind with fire-writing.”

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  “Does it actually produce that effect that lets you tune it into the required perfect form, though?” Danielle asked. “I would have thought that was coming from the resonance.”

  “I would have too, and it is a lot fainter, but I think if you get close enough then the mana kind of, I don’t know, wants to pull your almost-rune into an actual-rune. You can feel it, very faintly. I ran myself out of mana a few times, getting my fire-writing to do wind, because it’s not the best Skill for the job and it was super tricky to follow such faint cues; but in the end, it worked.” Zepher leaned back on his hands in the grass. “That tip is your payback for teaching me to use fire writing to make more fire in the first place, by the way. Keep it under your hat, though; leave aside that I don’t really want to share that kind of awesomeness with just anyone, there’s also a tiny little blasphemy issue.”

  “As in, if I go around saying that, then Systemists will stop calling me denier and go straight for blasphemer?” Danielle asked with a sinking heart.

  “Well, not all of them, but some of them, yeah. Me, I’m planning to keep it super enigmatic how I unlocked everything,” Zephyr said. “Robin might be on to me – or he might have figured it out for himself by the same kind of trial and error, maybe, not sure – but nobody else needs to know.”

  “Huh. Well, I can understand that, really. I’ll keep it discreet, only share it with someone if I have reason to believe they can act on it, and if I’m reasonably confident they are not themselves Systemists or gossip-mongers,” Danielle said. “So the reason you wanted it to be a secret how you teach me the wind symbol is that you’re going to be showing me with fire writing and you know it’ll make wind?”

  “Yeah, and if the kind of guy who thinks that’d be blasphemy sees it happen? Well, I don’t know what would happen then, but everyone’s kind of really armed, out here.” Zephyr said. “Besides, wind and fire are a tricky combination even without adding trees.”

  Danielle looked around the camp again and shivered. The majority of the camp had swords, and practically everyone had bows. Staves were in between the two in numbers, but after all – walking sticks. “Every once in a while, it hits me how fast I’ve gotten used to everyone wandering around daily life with multiple weapons,” she said. “It’s not a great feeling.”

  “Noticing the weapons? Or realizing you’re used to them?” Zephyr asked

  “The second part, mostly,” Danielle said. “I mean, I get why everyone’s armed. They need to be, what if – ah, dropping the Skill, and Brooke’s coming over,” Danielle interrupted herself. With the Skill down, she continued, “What if we ran into one of those big wildcats, right? I wouldn’t want anyone to be unarmed if we tripped over another cougar. It’s just realizing how much I’ve already gotten used to being in such a radically different, um, I’m not sure if I want to say place or situation, but do you see what I mean?”

  “I guess I do,” Zephyr said, eyeing Brooke. “It’s like when I went off to Awakening school, at first I was so thrilled to be out and away from my dad and his friends and everything, but then every so often I’d realize that I hadn’t seen my cat for weeks and I wasn’t going to see her for a lot more weeks, and I’d have this terrible bout of homesickness that didn’t even make sense to me, you know?”

  “Yeah, it’s not exactly the same, because I would actually love to be back home, but it’s the same kind of thing in terms of going for days without even thinking about it and then bam! something smacks you over the head with a reminder that This is Not What Normal Was,” Danielle said. “And I get this dissonance between the old sense of normal and the new sense of normal.”

  “Yeah – yeah! Exactly! Even if you don’t exactly miss school, you can still have dissonance between the old, accepted normal and this new, kind of hostile normal,” Zephyr said.

  “What are you talking about?” Brooke said, walking up to them and giving Zephyr an odd look.

  Zephyr shrugged and gave her an easy grin. “We’re talking about how weird it feels to be Sent. What’s up?”

  “We just noticed you were sitting over here alone, and wanted to invite you to come talk with us,” Brooke said, gesturing to the campfire most of the Systemists were sitting around. Danielle noticed Melanie there, to her surprise.

  “Huh. Is Melanie a Systemist, or did she get pulled into your circle by a friend?” Danielle asked.

  “She’s one of us,” Brooke said. “Didn’t you know that? She said you were from her school.”

  “Well, yeah we went to school together, but we didn’t get along and we certainly didn’t talk about religion,” Danielle said. “I had no idea.”

  “How unfortunate for you,” Brook said, and turned back to Zephyr. “So what do you say – want some company?”

  “I have enough company,” Zephyr said.

  “You don’t have to wait right here with her to use her privacy Skill service – nobody else is!” Brooke objected.

  “I’m waiting here because I thought if I could get in a conversation with her between interruptions, I might learn something interesting,” Zephyr said.

  “OK, well, you’ve tried that, so – “

  “Really, Brooke?” Zephyr said impatiently. “Not even going to ask me if I actually learned anything?”

  “She’s a denier, what does she know?” Brooke asked rhetorically. “She passed on a message from the Rangers, who are properly our seniors; fine, message delivered, task complete. Unless she’s learned something new from them – and how could she? – there’s nothing else to say.”

  “Actually, before you interrupted us this morning, I think she was talking about having met the Ranger Healers again,” Zephyr said dryly.

  “Wha- already? How is that even possible?” Brooke demanded – still ignoring Danielle.

  One of the boys from her fire circle came up and tapped on her shoulder. “Um, Brooke?” he said, looking nervously at Danielle. “Can I have a word?”

  Brooke favored him with an annoyed glare. “What is it, Birch?” she asked.

  “You remember that lecture the elders gave us before we came out here, about not pushing away other people just because they hadn’t seen the light of the System yet, and living in peace with other religions and showing them how reasonable belief in the System’s holiness is by first showing how reasonable we are and all that stuff?” the boy (Birch, presumably) asked.

  “Yes I remember, what about it?” Brooke asked.

  “Well, um, this clearing isn’t that big, and you’re not that quiet, and from the fire circle we can actually hear other people talking about how rude you’re being,” Birch said.

  “How rude I’m being?!” Brooke asked, apparently offended. “She’s the one who’s monopolizing the McPherson scion!”

  “There it is,” Zephyr said. “It’s not just Danielle she doesn’t think of as a person, it’s me too. Nice of you to reveal your base element, Brooke!”

  “I never said she wasn’t a person!” Brooke objected.

  “You said Zephyr was alone while he was talking to her,” Brich pointed out.

  “I – that’s not what I meant!” Brooke sputtered.

  “Forget this, I’m going scouting,” Zephyr said. “Sorry to cut it short, Danielle. I’ll be back before everyone’s done to take my turn.” So saying, he got up and disappeared through the trees to the south, moving so quickly that Brooke couldn’t recover her wits enough to call after him until he was already out of sight.

  “Wait! Zephyr!!” she called fruitlessly, nonetheless. “Argh, why is he so difficult?” she asked no one in particular.

  “Well, so much for casual conversation,” Danielle said, standing and dusting herself off. “I guess it’s back to Skill practice until the line goes down again. I think I’m going to work on Identify Plant. Are either of you interested?”

  “NO!” Brooke exclaimed and stomped off.

  Birch gave Danielle a surprised look. “Do you have a reliable unlock method for that Skill?” he asked.

  “Well, nothing official, but several members of my party have been working on it, and two of us have already picked it up from mana bursts while hunting – so we must be doing something right!” Danielle told him.

  “If that was a serious offer, I might actually take you up on it,” Birch said tentatively.

  “Sure! I may not think the System is holy, but I still think unlocking more Outside Skills is good for everyone,” Danielle said. “Let’s see if anyone else in and around my party is interested in a round of identification training.”

  Danielle convinced Cassy, Jordan, and Tom to join her and Birch in going around the fringe of the clearing and trying to identify plants based on the notes in Danielle and Heather’s notebooks (the latter being lent to Cassy for the task). Some they identified without trouble; others they disagreed on; and still others were entirely unknown to the group, so Danielle collected samples to compare against the guidebook later.

  When the line was down to one person in the circle and one person waiting, Danielle declared “hard mode!” and took the group to the edge of the circle to identify purple plants. The Access Point gave them all the same introduction when they stepped out of the tree line, but they ignored it and stayed near the edge so as not to crowd the person at the pillar.

  Leaf shape was the same even though the plant was mana-lavender in color, as was flower shape, so they were reasonably confident in identifying dandelions. A lot of wildflowers had the same basic flower shape as daisies, however, and they were less sure about the leaf shape, so they weren’t sure in the end what the flower they were working on was, when Lauren called for Danielle and anyone signed up to take advantage of her privacy Skill.

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