Ceress had been up for a number of hours by the time the rest of the camp had started to rouse themselves. She didn't really sleep much, and night was the only time she could really find to overthink. Daily life was just too busy to get properly anxious about things.

  Soot had moved away from the camp — at Ceress's prompting — to crunch loudly on the logs from Nat's practice session. Hekkan had then in turn grudgingly moved to his second favorite spot — dozing among the embers of the dwindling campfire.

  The little vodat kit — Siya — was sleeping just outside the pile of ash, too close for Hekkan, who kept opening an eye warily, unhappy about sharing the remnant heat but too lazy to do anything about it.

  Her pickup had signalled an hour ago, and would be here soon; she had a few things to take care of before she left.

  Ceress groaned a bit as she stood — her ribs were probably no longer broken, but they'd be sore for days yet.

  Grabbing a half-meter log from the small pile she quickly split it with the snap of an index and thumb claw. She placed the logs down between the two felinids, nudging Hekkan to make room, then scratched him behind the ears for a minute. With the combination of attention and isolating barrier in place, Hekkan relaxed and started thrumming — the logs immediately caught fire. She continued idly stroking him till he fell into a true sleep, and the fire abated.

  Next came a quick gear and harness check — she kept everything well maintained, but you didn't go back up into the air without an inspection, no matter how sure you were. Not if you wanted to stay in the air.

  While she did that, Novek uncurled from his place on the ground just past the kit, though further away from the fire. He might like the heat more than most, but he was no Ber; much as she forgot that sometimes. He stood, stretched, and looked over at the kit. Their eyes met for a moment, before he strode off into the distant scrub with some urgency. Was that a bit of a limp? Well, he'd had a busy day yesterday and could easily have pulled something.

  Now that more than one person was up and moving, suddenly everyone who had been laying quietly awake was sitting up and starting to move around — which was everyone. She was apparently not the only overthinker.

  Nat and Lyn had both immediately put some food and a kettle on the fire to warm. Well, really it was more on Hekkan. He was awkwardly placed, but remained sleeping despite the activity; he really could sleep through almost anything — except sharing his sleeping spot with the vodat kit.

  Which brought dawn to mind — and with it, something else she'd need to do. She waited for Novek to return to the campfire.

  “Lyn, since I'll be leaving soon, at least for a couple of days; I think there's an aether trick I can show Moira that might help with your kit and the schisms.”

  “Command trick, eh? You seem sure it will reoccur.”

  “I'm almost positive it will. You felt it, didn't you?”

  “I did the second time, though I was a little busy dealing with a scrav to pay much attention.”

  “Every Ber'Duun in camp was half out of their mind, and you ‘were a little busy’. We're going to have to talk about silverpaw aether sensitivity some time. There's got to be a use for that.”

  “If you find another, by all means — ask. I take it you'll need Nat? Just ask him yourself.”

  “Actually, I think this is a whole team effort, at least to start. Ellie excepted — sorry, Ellie!”

  Ellie responded with a light tone from where she was tending to the horses, “The less I'm involved, the better!”

  Ceress turned to Novek, who had immediately resumed whatever tool work he'd been at since yesterday. “Can you bring Siya along for the dawn preparations, and your crossbow? There'll most likely be some opportunity for easy hunting.”

  Novek looked up from his work; some specialty bolts were still in progress. “Easy? When has it ever been hard?”

  Ceress rolled her eyes. “Do you want to get some fresh Ber for the kit, or not?”

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  “Yeah, yeah. Let me put a couple of things away and wake up the kit, then. Ground or air targets?”

  “Your choice.”

  “Mmm, ground then. I don't feel like searching around for bolts, and I'd like to try some things. Gather the others and I'll be along shortly.”

  Ceress addressed both Lyn and Novek, “Sure, I'm going to go see what's nearby. Just come find me over in the field when you're all ready.”

  Novek had been hard at work replacing his spent munitions from the prior day, as well as crafting more. Without his usual arsenal available, and with bandits or others potentially interested in him or the kit, he had figured it was time to spend some time arming up.

  The failed spring surprises had given him some interesting ideas, both for weapons and distractions — so into his quiver they went.

  He took a few minutes to wake Siya, then offered him a paw to hop up onto. Accepting the ride, the two then wandered out to where the rest of the group was standing.

  Ceress was already mid-explanation. “The real trick is that you have to imagine yourself as you are, then yourself as calm, and then broadcast the… difference between those two. If that makes any sense.”

  Okay, so I'm going to imagine two tiny, representative versions of myself, calculate the delta, and transmit that?

  Moira's voice came from a small flame hovering above Nat's hand — not Lyn's, and it sounded richer — not the tinny tone he'd heard earlier. It almost sounded as if she were here, this way.

  Ceress continued, “That's how I do it. You can watch — you should be able to see the patterns. Note, that I don't have to do this with my claws — but since you're using Nat as a medium, I don't know what's necessary.”

  Lighting both of her index claws aflame with her blue fire, Ceress brought them slowly together. It just looked like little flames to Novek, but Nat seemed enthralled, and Lyn was paying rapt attention, so he figured he just couldn't see what was actually being shown.

  Ceress then pulled the two claws slightly apart, and a thin line remained between the two. “This is the delta. See how it's a thin filament?”

  Siya, still in his paw, was similarly focused — but on Nat's hand, where the flame floated. The kit had only glanced at Ceress's flames for a moment as they lit, but did seem less anxious.

  Lyn audibly sighed and seemed more at ease. “I forget how nice this feels. This is very much like my healing field, but far more flexible. Ceress can do a number of emotional states, but also simple instructions.”

  Ceress went on, “Yeah this isn't exactly calm, it's closer to contentment. I would suggest you stick with calm for your practice — it's a simpler pattern, as contentment is both personal, and mutable.”

  “Imagine a child suffers an injury in an accident. As any parent would tell you, you can't order the child to calm down. But if you act calm, the child will tend to mirror you. Even if you're panicking on the inside, if you act well enough, the act becomes real, even for you.”

  Novek added, “Same works for smiles.” Then he turned towards Nat, and the hand holding Moira's voice. “Voice upgrade Moira? You sound different.”

  Moira responded, A different method. This one's… less common. Please don't mention it.

  “Done. Already forgotten.”

  Alright. I'm ready to give this a try. How shall we proceed?

  “Well, there's a number of smaller, passive Ber here that you can practice on.”

  Well, wait, if I'm trying to exude calm, how will I tell if it's working, if they're already passive?

  “Oh, simple. You're going to get it very wrong, and they're going to run away or otherwise flee to start.”

  Ah. Genius.

  Ceress dropped the joking tone for a moment. “In all seriousness, that's not a commentary on you, but taking into account that I have no idea how to explain this to someone that doesn't share the same physiology. I'm going to keep my field up while you practice, since I don't want to disturb Siya unnecessarily.”

  “I also want to be very clear here, this is not a trivial thing to attempt. Lyn's an expert in aetheric field manipulation, and can't do this. It took me a decade of practice, and I can't begin to rival some Ber who are built to perform this task, but they're not here.”

  Turning to Novek, she indicated his crossbow, and kept talking. “I figure this will startle some Ber out of hiding, and Novek can take some pot shots. We're entirely out of scrav at this point, and Lyn and Siya could use some provisions. Cheese is wonderful, but it's not going to grow a foot back in a week. Ready for some target practice, Novek?”

  “Hah. Funny. Sure, let me show you some things, while you kids have your fun.”

  Okay, I'm going to start. I'm not sure if I need Nat to do this or not, but let's try it that way first, okay, Nat?

  “Sure, just tell me what you want me to do.”

  Imitate the positioning, first. I have to use you to show me where to target. You may need to let go of my voice for this, I'm not sure. So, two fingers up, then pull them apart slowly. I'll invoke a field on each of your fingers.

  “Okay, I'm starting now.”

  Each of Nat's index fingers light with a visible glow of aether, which brightened significantly when he brought them together. The voice flame remained attached to his palm.

  Alright. I've got two images. Now to create the delta. Pull apart when ready.

  Nat pulled his fingers apart a few centimeters, and a thick arcing band appears and coursed between them.

  Novek had his crossbow at the ready, expecting some Ber to scurry, unburrow, or take flight in response.

  It was at this point that Lyn and Ceress's eyes went very wide.

  Both Ceress and Lyn screamed in unison, “STOP!”

  Siya jerked suddenly in his paws, then looked up to him — for reassurance? Novek held the kit close; he'd not drop a scared child — no matter the danger the scared kit might pose.

  Lyn was shouting something like, “Turn it off! Turn it off!” but Novek couldn't quite make it out over the sound of every Ber in a hundred meters suddenly going berserk.