Lauren jumped as if Danielle had startled her, then headed for the stairs, one of the independent candidates hot on her heels. Lauren made it first, and spent most of her ninety seconds talking about making use of all reliable sources of information, not getting overexcited about rumors, and keeping a healthy balance between “looking out for number one, and being good neighbors to the people around us.” She responded to the 90-second cut off with a polite, “Thank you for your time and attention,” and gave way to the girl behind her, who ‘helpfully’ spent her time ranting just as rabidly as the Game Breakers candidate, just against the ‘military’ parties instead of against the Rangers.

  “Good job, Lauren,” Danielle said quietly when she got back into line. “Light and Reason. Bet that’ll be enough for a lot of one-point votes even from people who have promised their two-pointers to other parties.” Ember gave them a very odd look, but Danielle ignored it. Another of the independent candidates took the next spot at the base of the stairs, and got up to talk for 90 seconds about – well, Danielle wasn’t sure, actually; something about popularity being a good indicator of leadership ability, but it wasn’t a very coherent speech.

  Then the Safety In Order candidate got up and literally told everyone that they should vote for her because she knew what was best for them – in those actual words! – and would make laws to ensure that “everyone in camp” knew “what they should be doing at any given time.”

  “That one just earned my black ball,” Danielle said, and several of the girls in line with her muttered, “yeah,” or “no kidding.” Some of the crowd seemed less put off though.

  The other three independent candidates all got lined up by the end of that one, and all three of them emphasized the need for representatives who would represent the residents of building six, not try to control all of them. Danielle acknowledged it a fair point, but they mostly failed to explain why they were better representatives than any other normal girl in the field. She gathered that one of them was trying to appeal to Systemists to support her over Ember for some reason, but the reason itself was obscure.

  It came down to Danielle and Ember to finish the speeches. “You want to go next?” Ember asked.

  “Feel free; I want to go last,” Danielle said.

  “I kind of do too,” Ember said. “Rock paper scissors?”

  “I will if you still want to after I ask one question: do you really want to go after I try to deal with the Saint rumors? It might get crazy,” Danielle said.

  Ember snorted. “After crazy sounds good to me. On three?”

  Danielle shrugged. “All right. One, two, three!”

  Danielle threw rock, and Ember threw scissors. She gave an annoyed huff and headed for the stairs.

  Danielle followed her and waved at the patrolling rangers for attention, since they were close by. While Ember was saying something about youth leadership training and the approval of the System and the Elements, Danielle whispered to them, “Listen, do either of you have that See System Info Skill high enough to read base level and Skills? There’s some weird rumors going around, and I think at this point nothing but the whole truth will do to shut the rumors down, but the whole truth is kind of unbelievable.”

  “I can do that,” one of the Rangers said cautiously – the more discreet one, Danielle thought; so much the better.

  “All right. Obviously I don’t want to broadcast my whole status, but I need to make a claim about my base level and the level of my highest Skill; if you can just confirm the honesty of that statement, that would be extremely helpful,” Danielle said.

  “If it’s a simple fact-claim, sure,” the Ranger agreed.

  Ember came down the steps. “Go crazy, ‘saint’ girl,” she said.

  Danielle rolled her eyes and stepped up to the microphone/speaker box. “Hello. I am Danielle Falconer, and I prefer to be called Medic Falconer and not Saint Danielle. Politically, I represent the Shade Tree Society. While I am myself a Christian, I believe that matters of faith should be approached by convincing others, not coercing others. I don’t feel the need to include religious laws in our charter any more than there are in the laws of Firmitatem itself. Instead, I advocate for the core laws of our town to be formed around five basic rules: Do not murder. Do not Rape. Do not Steal. Do not engage in slander, libel, or perjury. Do not damage or destroy the property of other people or organizations. These are fundamental rules for a functional society.

  “I would love to talk more about them, but apparently this ‘miracle working saint’ rumor needs to be dealt with. Here’s the true story, short and sweet version: a member of the Wolf Pack sys-org found someone scared and talked him into believing that he could not advance without killing someone, then pointed him specifically at me. That person surprised me in the woods, and I called out to the God I believe in for help. A few seconds later, several normally impossible things had happened, and I was left with what appear to be a few permanent alterations to my System, most notably, a tier-3 Skill which I shouldn’t be able to have, let alone use; yet I do and I can.”

  “WHAT?!” the Ranger she’d asked for help exclaimed. Ranger Anna turned to frown at her.

  “I have invited a Ranger with a sufficiently high-leveled Skill: See System Info (Persons) ability to confirm this claim, because I am fully aware of how unbelievable it is,” Danielle continued, distractedly lowering her Mana Deflector Trait as the Ranger activated the Skill. The feel of the Skill was oddly like someone rifling files in her head, but she ignored it as best she could and continued. “That said, while this impossible happening which saved my life could reasonably be called a miracle, it is not something that I did. I cannot, repeat, cannot perform miracles on my own. I am in no way a miracle worker. I am merely a faithful follower of my religion; that is all that I have ever claimed to be, and the idea that I can work miracles is a misunderstanding perpetuated by the Wolf Pack, as far as I can tell.”

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “SHIELD BURST?!” the Ranger yelled again. Danielle wondered if she was actually this excitable, or if she was yelling because she felt she was supposed to share the information with the crowd.

  “Um, that is the name of the Skill that – “ Danielle began, but the Ranger interrupted her.

  “You can’t have Shield Burst!” she yelled. “You don’t have any of the prerequisites for Shield Burst!”

  “I’m also not level 3. Hence the claim that it’s a miracle,” Danielle said.

  “It’s impossible!” the Ranger yelled. “You’re only level 2, you don’t have any other shield Skill, you don’t have any other force Skill at all, you – you don’t have the underpinnings you need to support this!”

  “Um, yes. Correct. It’s impossible,” Danielle said.

  The Ranger stared at her. “Use it!” she challenged angrily.

  “I – um, not up here,” Danielle said. “I can demonstrate after the speeches are – “

  “Yes, right here, right now!” the Ranger insisted.

  “That’s easy for you to say from down there,” Danielle said, “but Ranger Anna’s standing right next to me on an elevated platform. Plus, it’d be bad for your equipment and the tent right there, and – ”

  “You’re just trying to delay because you can’t!!” the Ranger yelled. Danielle realized she was angry. Did she think it was a trick?”

  “Look, make me a clear space big enough to demonstrate safely, and I’ll demonstrate,” Danielle said. “I’m not throwing people off of platforms just because you don’t believe in miracles. ANYway, I don’t actually feel the need to be a building representative; I endorse candidate Lauren Benbow for anyone who wants to know. Just please stop sharing around lies about me. I have been the beneficiary of a miracle, yes; but I cannot perform miracles, which is very different. I do not claim to be able to perform miracles. Please do not vote for me based on that rumor.”

  The angry Ranger was clearing out space in front of the platform, and the girls in the crowd were moving back willingly enough. “Is this enough space for you?” the Ranger challenged, as Danielle was about to step down.

  Danielle leaned back to the microphone to say, “Ranger, have you ever seen Shield Burst in action? It needs to be three times that big. Maybe four times, for safety. The Skill has no friend-recognition, it just throws everything.”

  “OF COURSE I HAVEN’T SEEN IT IN ACTION!!” the angry Ranger shouted, and got to work moving more people back.

  Ranger Anna stepped up to the microphone, looking unnerved, and said, “For those who might be confused right now, Shield Burst is not only a tier 3 Skill, it is an incredibly rare tier 3 Skill, which hasn’t been unlocked naturally in many decades – at least, not around here. It has four prerequisites, one of which is an experience that is frankly very hard to survive.”

  “Huh. I didn’t actually know that,” Danielle said.

  “I suppose you’d have chosen a different tier 3 Skill if you did,” Ranger Anna said.

  “Um, I didn’t get to choose,” Danielle replied awkwardly. “I’m only tier 2, I didn’t even know it had been a Skill until it was all over.”

  “Happy now?” the angry Ranger yelled. “Get out here and prove it or shut up!”

  Danielle looked out at the massive open circle in the crowd, and shrugged. She stepped down the platform stairs and out into the circle without another word, centering herself as best she could. As she was positioning herself, her staff suddenly flashed with a blinding light, and a rock thudded at Danielle’s feet. She immediately re-infused her staff, and looked around – at a circle of shocked and awed faces. “Please calm down!” she said immediately. “That wasn’t a miracle, it was just a tier 2 Skill that responds to attacks. Please don’t throw any more rocks in here, though, the Shield Burst will throw them back, and I don’t want anyone to get hurt over a demonstration.”

  She drew the rock towards herself with her foot, then stood on it to ensure it couldn’t go flying back. “OK, I guess with everything dangerous out of the way, this is mostly going to be visible on the grass, so – ” she heard a strange sound, and looked around to see another Ranger woman pouring out a box of something loose in the circle behind her. “ – look at the grass or whatever that is, I guess,” she finished. “Set primary interface to verbal! Skill in Three! Two! One! Activate Shield Burst!”

  The pile of whatever-it-was exploded out and up with a fwump and Danielle looked up and held out a hand to catch a piece of whatever was falling. It turned out to be chamomile tea bag packets, which made her laugh, until she heard a groan and turned around to see the angry Ranger had apparently been too close, and gotten thrown back into the crowd.

  “Oh no – were you standing inside the safety zone?!” Danielle exclaimed. “Why would you do that?!”

  The Ranger groaned out, “Identify Foreign Skill.”

  “Really? You chose to get hit by it just because you didn’t trust your See System Info?” Danielle said. She shook her head. “You know, I was hoping you’d go ‘oh, that’s weird,’ and we could get on with life. I get that it’s a big deal, but I’ll level in another few weeks and it won’t be as big a deal anymore, except for the history of how I got it.”

  “Since you put yourself on the line for it, at least tell us what result you got,” Ranger Anna said from the platform. Danielle was relieved at the confirmation that she hadn’t damaged the electronic equipment.

  The angry Ranger frowned, looked down, then away, before finally turning to Ranger Anna and admitting, “It still reads as Shield Burst. Tier 3, level 2. How have you had time to get it up to level 2?”

  “It happened during the miracle, actually,” Danielle said. “I’ve never seen it at level 1.”

  “HOW?” the Ranger yelled again.

  “How should I know?!” Danielle yelled back in exasperation. “I keep telling you, I don’t do miracles! God did something for me, without my input, one time! I’m not an expert on this stuff just because it happened to me once! All I know is a thing happened, and now I have this Skill that costs six points to activate!”

  “HAH! She’s dry – throw ‘em now!” someone else yelled.

  Danielle whirled to see at least four large rocks sailing towards her. She almost instinctively activated Shield Burst again, and they all went shooting back away from her at even higher speeds. “DUCK AND COVER!” she shouted, realizing she’d just created several high-speed projectiles of her own. Girls all over the field ducked or ran or raised satchels over their heads.

  “Will someone contain the stinking rock-throwers?” Ranger Anna demanded over the speaker, and several Rangers moved to do so, while two girls started running in earnest towards the now-empty breakfast serving line and the trees beyond.

  https://www.patreon.com/c/NarrowRuled

  https://discord.gg/u5dtzpShv2 ;