“I will if it’s not illegal or anything,” he said nervously.

  “It’s not like that,” Danielle said. “I have a rare Skill, and I did some work for the Rangers and the Sending Authority yesterday. You know how they have to let Sent do anything we can do, if it has to do with us or our town or whatever?”

  “I think you told me that before,” Lucas said. “Something about using your roommate to heal people after a fight because of that rule?”

  “Yeah. Well, I have this Skill, so they can use me, therefore they have to use me. It’s a whole thing. I don’t want just anyone to know about this yet, though – I’ve got enough chaos with the ‘saint’ rumors and the town council and the Society and I’m in over my head so far why did I let myself get caught up in all this stuff?” Danielle finished, leaning back against the wall and closing her eyes, all the overwhelmed feelings from the night before rushing back.

  “Oh, um, I see. I think.” Lucas paused, then admitted, “I don’t see. How does any of that end up with you just handing me a Skill token?”

  “Well, they can’t just make me slave for them, they have to pay me,” Danielle said. “Plus there was that stuff I overheard about the epidemic and how new Sent have three bad epidemics their first year, when everyone is catching the Big Three for the first time. I don’t know what the Big Three are. The token, though – I had the mana for it, them, and the Skill is useful to Healers and I asked if it was a good plan and she said yeah, go for it. Besides, I did a ton of paying work, so I should tithe, right? You’re a Christian. I entrust this tithed resource to you for purposes of doing God’s work.”

  “Do you have any idea how much Skill tokens are actually worth, Danielle? This isn’t worth five or ten mana,” Lucas said.

  “Mana tokens cost three to five times the base cost of the Skill, depending on supply and demand, and while you can barter for them, you usually have to include at least one times the base cost in actual mana tokens, which the Skill Sharer uses to actually create the token,” Danielle recited. “Yes. I know the value of that token, Lucas. It’s a tier one mana Skill, with potential to open the mana Skill tree to you if you use it a lot, eventually even one or more mana Traits. I also know, deep in my heart, that you are going to need it.”

  “Uh,” Lucas tried to take a step back from her intensity, and backed against the door.

  “Sorry,” Danielle said. She stepped back herself, giving him some space. “Look, if I’m wrong and there’s no epidemic this month, it’s still a useful Skill and as a Healer that I trust, I still want you to have it. Put it with the Skill and Career tokens from your care package, and next time you go to an Access Point – like, for example, if you go along with Peter tomorrow when he wants to apply his shiny new communication Skill that the government gave him as a, ahehe, a token gift yesterday when we upgraded the charter and took our oaths of office? Then use all three, OK?”

  “Well, I was planning to do that,” Lucas admitted. “I still say this is way too much for a couple uses of Weaken Disease, though.”

  Danielle shrugged. “I told you, it’s not just payment; it’s also tithe and also helping a Healer who definitely has the right Skill to be prepared if the epidemic turns out to be really coming. If that’s just me being sick and loopy, fine, my bad. I didn’t get three of these because I just wanted to hoard them, though.”

  “Why did you get three? I mean, even if it was something they offered in exchange for whatever you did, why three of them?” Lucas asked.

  “You, Angela, and Heather,” Danielle said, holding up a finger as she counted them off. “Heather’s not Christian, but she is the Healer most likely to work on me, personally, so that’s more of a selfish gift than a tithe thing, I guess. Anyway, it was a convenient number for the amount of mana I had in hand.”

  “Listen to you. You’re implying you had – five time base cost, right? – fifteen hundred mana to spend on speculative tokens? I’m not sure I believe that, Danielle,” Lucas said.

  “There’s a reason I don’t want it getting around,” Danielle said. “Can you imagine if the people who overheard the Wolves arguing about me were to overhear this conversation? I’m not telling you all the details because I’m afraid to say them even inside a privacy Skill! Just keep it quiet, and slip in that token next time you’re by an access point, and – and you’ll probably get the details eventually, because it was never the plan to keep it secret forever, but it’s not time to make it public yet. I hope.”

  Lucas looked down at the token in his hand. “You’re really into something big, aren’t you? I – don’t blame you for being scared. If you’re coming to the prayer meeting, you better get your uniform on,” he said. “It’s outside, so you can keep your distance from people a little, and Angela will be there.”

  Danielle looked down at herself. “Oh, yeah. I hope easing up the headache will also keep back the fog in my brain. I swear, between the exhaustion and the sensorium adjustment thing and the mental fog, it gets really hard to think straight, let alone talk straight.”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Lucas shook his head, still frowning worriedly. “I would tell you to say home again, but like you said, you’re the saint and the town councilor and the Society leader, and you have tokens to pass out,” he said. “Might be a good idea to stick close to your roommates, though, and try not to do too much.”

  Danielle laughed. “I’ll try!” she promised. “I dunno if it’ll do me much good, but I’ll try.”

  Lucas pocketed the token and left, giving her one last troubled look over his shoulder as he stepped out the door. Danielle couldn’t blame him; she had a feeling that she still basically sounded crazy to him. Without explaining properly about Skill Sharer and her visit to the Dome and the whole discussion between Agent Bea and Agent Mike and Ranger Flo, it was hard to make the important part sound sensible. Besides, he had a point – she could be jumping to conclusions. Maybe she was allergic to – to green duffel bags, and this was just some weird rash.

  She didn’t believe it for a second.

  She did put on the denim layer of her uniform, stashing the other two Regen Burst tokens in her pocket instead of the special token pouch or her foot locker. She also did a paranoid check of her System Interface, and sure enough, there was another message to dismiss – a “skill added” message for something called Librarian’s Whisper. Danielle had no idea where it had come from, but then, she’d been pretty out of it at the end of her session at the Dome of Decision yesterday, and then she’d been focused on cleaning up the open choices. She dismissed it and got her weapons, bag, and boots on. Sadie and Heather returned while Danielle was tying her boots.

  “Are you ready to go?” Sadie asked.

  Danielle nodded and tried to look stable. “I’m good. Part of the problem was in my interface, and I got it fixed. Then Lucas came by and gave me a dose of Weaken Disease, which is really helping too. Oh – but that reminds me, Heather, I have something for you. You’re probably just going to want to stash it in your footlocker, but I want to get it in your hands before I forget.”

  Heather grinned. “Well, far be it from me to refuse a present,” she said. “What is it?”

  “It’s Regen Burst,” Danielle said, handing her the second token, “and a warning. I overheard the Sending Authority talking about how new Sent like us usually have three major diseases we all catch for the first time during the first year, and it’s particularly rough because nobody in camp is immune yet so everyone catches it from each other. They’re worried that one of them might be about to come down on us – like, quarantining the delivery guys before they go back Inside to make sure they don’t spread it there, worried. It could be an epidemic, in camp.”

  Heather’s grin faded. “That’s not the kind of exciting I like with my presents,” she joked a bit lamely.

  “Sorry. On the plus side, this is an official present now – I’m not waiting for you to be able to pay for it. I think you’re about to need it, so here it is. Just remember, if you’re using Regen Burst and purple tomatoes, you have to count both sources towards your max safe limit,” Danielle reminded her.

  “I appreciate the thought, but my Skills so far aren’t exactly designed to help with epidemics,” Heather said. “I mean, Active Immune System will help, but that’s a Trait; it doesn’t cost pool mana.”

  Danielle closed her eyes, not wanting Heather to think the exasperated expression doubtless taking over Danielle’s face was aimed at her. “That is a good point and I’m embarrassed I didn’t think of it,” she admitted.

  “Do you want it back? So you can find another Healer with Weaken Disease and give it to her?” Heather asked.

  Danielle thought about it a moment. Logically, she should say yes, but something inside was insisting on no. “Keep it,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s something I overheard but can’t quite put my finger on, or if it’s just the mana-dizzy issue and being sick, but I don’t think that you’re going to get away with not using Healer Skills during an epidemic just because you don’t have a useful one yet. Keep the token with the two from the care packages, and if you end up rushing to an Access Point to take a Skill for dealing with epidemics, take that one too and slip it in while you’re there.”

  “Hm. OK, if you’re sure then,” Heather said, and quickly stashed it in her footlocker. Danielle got the impression Heather was getting it out of sight before she changed her mind and asked for it back after all.

  “I’m sure. I have one more, and for that matter, I can make another if I need to. You’re my friend and my roommate, that would be reason enough to give it to you right now, if I’m giving them to any Healers right now,” Danielle said. “Moving right along, I think I’m ready to go. I’ve got my canteens and everything.”

  “You didn’t eat your breakfast,” Sadie said, nodding to some meat set out on a camp plate on the counter. She walked into the kitchen and started getting venison jerky out of the cold box.

  “Oh – I didn’t notice it. I’m not real hungry, but I’ll probably get hungry on the way. I’ll bring it with me,” Danielle said.

  Sadie nodded, and reached for the open package of hard tack. “We’re planning venison, tomato, and hard tack stew for lunch,” she said. “Maybe some onions if we find them along the way.”

  “Better remember the spice shakers, then,” Danielle said. “I’ll grab those if you want.”

  Sadie packed away the food in her enhanced satchel. “Yes please.”

  Danielle nodded and got the spice shaker set tucked into her bag. Heather, meanwhile, was getting all her weapons on and settled. “You should bring your hatchet,” she said, “we’re planning to chop wood for the fire down there.”

  Danielle didn’t think she was up to much chopping, but she shrugged and got her hatchet in its belt sheath anyway. “You should’ve seen the junior Sending Authority guy’s face when the agent I was making tokens for told him to keep an eye on me,” Danielle said. “He just about had a panic attack because I was wearing my sword.”

  “Did you tell him your staff is way deadlier?” Heather asked with a smirk.

  Danielle laughed and sat back down on the edge of her bed. “Nah, I was trying to calm him down, not send him running,” she said.

  Akari and Cassy came in a minute later. Akari grabbed her bag from her bed, and asked, “Are we ready to go?”

  Sadie nodded, picking up her own bag. “We got lunch stuff, Danielle’s good to go, everything’s set.”

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