Nearly time to go into the Ena.
Under Observation
Maze introduced me to the new squad members (both First’s and Fourth’s) before we went into the Ena. They were all around my age and being extremely correct and proper, as you’d expect for Kalrani who’d suddenly found themselves joining senior squads.
Kian Farn, joining First, was too guarded for me to get any real impression of him. He’s around average height (given that most people here are tall), he said practically nothing, and he was very watchful and expressionless, measuring everything that was happening around him. Az Norivan has a wonderful curling smile, and although not nearly at Eeli-level seems to be a fairly up type of person.
Rada Dae, Fourth’s new Fire (plus Telekinesis) talent, and Sael Toren with a primary of Ice, are absolute stereotypical fire and ice personalities, except Dae has dyed his hair dark blue with frosted white tips, which is a complete failure to conform to the Fire colour scheme. But Dae is all energetic and enthusiastic, outgoing and chatty, while Toren is coldly reserved and very down-to-business, so otherwise they slot right into their pigeonholes. Toren will probably appreciate being in Fourth because Kaoren’s so very focused and efficient. Oddly, he doesn’t remind me of Kaoren at all – Kaoren is more detached than cold, while Toren was definitely of the coolly superior and does not think much of you cold.
Though none of the new squad members were being nasty or grouchy, I didn’t get the impression any of them were at all pleased to be placed in First and Fourth, which confused the hell out of me for a while. I don’t usually ask Kaoren about staffing, since gossiping about the people he supervises isn’t something he’s likely to do, but interrupted his report writing just now to say: "New people all captain candidates? Appointments to First and Fourth only temporary?"
"It will be interesting to see how long it takes them to reach the same conclusion," Kaoren said. "We’re not ready to form additional squads, let alone send them out raw to face the increasing numbers we’re having to deal with. After a year working actively in the Ena, most of the additional squad members will be considered for reformation into Fifteenth and Sixteenth. Some will remain, and perhaps become part of Seventeenth and Eighteenth in turn. Eight-strength squads give us an opportunity for advanced training."
"Why not tell them that beforehand?"
"Nothing has been firmly decided. And all captains must learn to follow the lead of their seniors." He shifted me a little closer to his side before going back to his report writing. He isn’t at all keen on me being out of reach just now, and that’s the Nurans' fault. If I end up having a permanent guard assigned to me even while I’m in KOTIS, I’m going to be severely annoyed.
The testing session itself was very interesting. Maze brought a drone and a scan-chair along, and both squads went up to the roof to a spot where they’d apparently stuck a drone in real-space as well. Zee, Alay and Halla stayed with me while First and Fourth separated and went hunting over the massive-pile-of-blocks expanse of Konna. They rarely have to hunt out over the water, since the Ionoth tend to drown if they come through out there. Even the flying Ionoth gravitate toward the land masses, which only makes sense because Tare’s storms helpfully rip them apart if they don’t find some level of shelter.
Zee had me start out making projections from memory. And that was so much easier than it is in real-space I could scarcely believe it. I did a few minutes of the first episode of a favourite of Mum’s, a BBC documentary called Planet Earth, and then took a break, but was nowhere near to passing out as I would have been in real-space. A quick sprint, stop for a rest, then fine to go on.
"Try an object now," Zee said, putting her breather down in front of me.
This was harder to achieve. Projecting images takes a bit of mental effort to start off, but it does work a lot like pressing play. Making the breather is different in ways it’s really hard to put into words – kind of like those magic eye puzzles where you have to sort of unfocus your eyes, but I needed to unfocus my mind. I find it easier when I close my eyes and someone starts reading out a long description, guiding what I’ll project.
Still, after a bit of frowning – and nearly making a mug of hot chocolate – I produced a breather which Zee could pick up, but which went away as soon as I stopped concentrating on it. And yet my origami cranes are still going strong. My talents seem to me very contradictory.
Since I was still feeling fine – no headache, just a bit of an elevated heartbeat which went away after a rest – Zee had me go on to visualising a room she described. This was a restaurant, a fancy one which seemed to be at shift change – closed for a half-kasse for a thorough clean and refresh. Five people were moving about, whisking fresh cloths over tables, setting out table spices and long blue heated centrepieces where platters of food would be set to keep warm. Two of them were chatting about whether one of the girls should go out with someone, briskly continuing their work all the time. They didn’t seem able to see us, but when Halla picked up a glass they noticed that immediately, and pointed, then asked each other which of them was the Telekinetic. But they could more or less see Halla’s shadow, now they were looking directly at her, and came and crowded around her, talking excitedly.
I let the projection lapse then (to Halla’s relief, I suspect), and shrugged when Zee asked me how I was feeling. "Could do with a bit of a rest," I said, then opened a private channel to her, and Maze and Kaoren, who were distant but within range thanks to the drone’s relay.
"There’s someone watching us," I said. "On the roof just above. They came during the last projection."
"The Nuran?" Maze asked, while Zee looked down to stop herself from looking up.
"Not Inisar," I said. "It’s no-one I know. I looked right at where they’re standing but I couldn’t see them."
"Does not register with Combat Sight," Zee said, moving so she was standing within touching distance of me. I took out my water flask, though I could tell by the way Alay was frowning at me that I wasn’t acting particularly naturally.
"Warn Annan the moment you detect any movement," Maze said crisply. "Ruuel, your squad is closer. We’ll hang back in case this is an opening of communication." He brought us all into the one channel, saying: "There’s an unknown at the test site. We’re returning, but do not attack unless signalled."
"Halla, enhance and scan the roof above with Place," Kaoren said, voice as calmly even as if we were all in one of the training rooms preparing for a test session.
Halla, with just the faintest hint of confusion, moved close enough to brush my arm with her fingertips, then stood gazing upward. I was watching her face, and saw her lips part slightly, then she said, "Streaming," over the interface, and we all got to look at the barest blurry echo of a shape of a shape standing gazing down at us.
It was pretty hard to tell, but I thought it was a woman. There was a bump by one leg which could have been the hilts of two swords worn in the same way as Inisar’s.
"Is invisibility a talent all on its own?" I asked Zee, since everyone staring upward made pretending we didn’t know the woman was there pretty pointless.
"It’s Illusion-casting," Zee replied, not shifting her attention away from the place the watcher occupied. "Very few Illusionists can manage it."
I was briefly distracted wondering if Nils could, and if he crept about being invisible, but found I was annoyed and said flatly: "Nurans don’t have very good manners."