She woke up a bit slowly, and triggered the Now Hear This for the gong-alarm. The System read the text out of her Planner. “Now Hear This: A message from Medic Falconer to all residents of Camp Constanza. It is Fever-Ace time. Remember to drink a full canteen of water with your dose! You also need to eat something. It is evening now! If you are using Boost Recovery, now is a good time. If you can, take a walk around your building; now is a good time. Skill Ends.”

  Danielle got up while it was reading and got her Fever-Ace from the kitchen. Heather joined her, and she held out the pills in her hand, asking “Is this right?”

  Heather checked. “Yes, that’s right. Can you refill your own canteen, too?”

  “Yeah, I’m good,” Danielle said. She took her canteen to the sink and refilled it, then took her pills and sat back down at her bed to drink the rest of the water. As her head cleared a bit more, she sent another message: “Now Hear This: A message from Medic Falconer to all residents of Camp Constanza. After consulting with the Ranger Healers, I will be continuing the Fever-Ace medicine time messages until at least this time tomorrow, possibly one day beyond that. I do apologize to the healthy people who find this inconvenient, but I’m told it’s still helping the sick people a lot. Just one more day,” and she was going to say something about the camp being back on track, but the Skill ended. “Oops, forgot about the word count issue,” Danielle said. “Um, do I need to go again, or did that make sense?”

  “I think it made enough sense,” Sadie said. “It almost sounded like you were just ending it on purpose.”

  “The tone of voice was a little weird for that, at the end,” Akari opined tiredly.

  “The people who don’t like getting Now Hear This messages all the time will probably prefer you to just leave it, if all you wanted to do was finish with a one-line pep talk,” Heather said.

  “All right, well. Dinner next, and then I’m going out to take more temperatures or sterilize more canteens or whatever,” Danielle said.

  “You might want to refill your canteen,” Sadie said. “We’ve been using the big cooler bottle you bought; it’s on the counter next to the cold box.”

  “Oh! I almost forgot about that thing!” Danielle said. “Wow. I have those two strong-boxes too.”

  “Did you really earn so much mana they couldn’t fit it all in one box?” Sadie asked.

  Danielle shook her head. “Not if they packed it more efficiently. It’s just that I promised to make 180 tier 1 tokens for the discount sale, probably through the catalog. One box is just the mana for those tokens, and the other is – what’s the word. Dis- discreet? That’s not right.” She paused to think about it. “I can’t remember. There’s a D word that means ‘not already set aside for something else.’ That’s the mana in the second box. Well, most of it. I should probably figure out if there’s a way to do the tithe thing, again, but I don’t know what to do with it now that the Rangers are on my case not to give stuff away.”

  Heather paused in the act of pouring soup into the pot. “Wasn’t that what charity-priced tokens were for?”

  “What? No. That’s just, um,” Danielle waved a hand vaguely, “civic responsibility or something like that.”

  “How is giving away hundreds of mana worth of Skill tokens supposed to be civic responsibility?” Heather asked incredulously. She remembered the can in her hand and got back to scraping it out into the pot.

  “The goal is making sure our town, such as it is, has enough people with the right Skills to handle doing what needs done. It feels like partly my responsibility because I’m a Skill Sharer and I can actually help. It’s definitely not tithe because first of all, the tithe is supposed to go to helping people do God’s work – like missionaries and churches – and second of all, the tithe isn’t supposed to turn a profit.” Danielle sighed. “I have to get paid for the token sales because of rules, which, OK, I get the rules are for my protection. They let me do the deep discount, so that’s fine. It’s still business, though, and all the mana I use for it will come back to me eventually, so it doesn’t really count as giving tokens away.”

  “There aren’t any churches out here,” Sadie said. “Do you consider the Healers from the prayer meeting to be missionaries?”

  “Well, they’re not the making disciples kind, but God also tells us to care for the sick and the needy and stuff, and I figure if they’re Christians and also Healers, they’ll be doing that. Given the lack of an organized church, it was the closest thing I could come up with.”

  “For what it’s worth, I think it was a good plan,” Akari said. “As far as figuring out what to do with the rest – pray about it and see if something comes up, maybe?”

  “I guess,” Danielle said. “I’m not going to do anything about it today, anyway. I think maybe I will fill up some more canteens with the cold water, though. I bet the guys will like that.”

  “Just remember to refill the cooler bottle afterward, please,” Heather said.

  Danielle filled canteens for the boys while Heather finished heating up the soup, then everyone ate their mug-full of supper. When they were done, and the mugs were washed, she asked, “So do you all want to come visit the guys before I go looking for temperatures to take? We could even pick up Cassy and have a proper party meeting. It’s been a whole week since the guys joined, and I think maybe we haven’t told them any of the stuff we promised to tell them the next day.”

  “Can it wait for tomorrow, please? I’ve been using up all my mana twice a day for three days running, not to mention washing mugs and spoons for half the floor yesterday, and I’m just – I’m tired, and we made it all the way around the floor today, and most people are doing a lot better, and I just want to enjoy the fact that the emergency is finally under control and take a rest,” Heather said. “If you want to go out looking for more work, and you’re feeling well enough for it, you go, but I’m staying in tonight.”

  “Ah. That’s a fair choice. Um, Akari, are you OK with coming with me?” Danielle asked.

  “To see the guys, sure. To go wandering around other buildings? Not so much,” Akari said. She frowned at Danielle. “And I don’t want you pulling Heather’s trick and just going out by yourself, either!” she added. “When we’re done checking on the guys, we come back here!”

  “On come on – I wasn’t thinking of wandering building seven all by myself, Akari!” Danielle protested. “I was thinking of asking the guys to take over for you.”

  “They’ve been out taking temperatures all day the last couple of days, too!” Akari protested.

  Danielle held up her hands; she wasn’t sure herself if it was more surrender or just warding off Akari’s intensity. “Look, I solemnly promise I will not go around camp without backup from at least one person who is well enough to be solid backup in a fight, OK? If the guys are too exhausted for it, then – ”

  “Now Hear This: A message to Medic Falconer from the Ranger Healer Michael via Firmitatem Rangers Layer 1 message relay. Please come to the healer’s tent in the center of town next time you’re feeling well enough to take a short walk, we need to talk about that deal you arranged. Message Ends; Skill Ends.”

  “Then what?” Akari asked suspiciously.

  “The Ranger Healers just messaged me to come to the tent. How about we check in with the guys, then go to the tent and see what they need, and if that takes up all my time and/or mana for the evening, then your problem is solved,” Danielle proposed.

  “Did Healer Flo say what she needed you for?” Akari asked.

  Danielle shook her head. “It was declared as coming from Healer Michael, and he just said, “to talk about that deal I arranged.” That could mean anything from ‘hey can we set up the last door for you’ to ‘we have something we’d like to sell you’ to a request for tokens.”

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  “I hope we can all agree that the answer to that one would be no,” Heather said severely.

  “It wasn’t the token making that made me extra sick, it was eating so much mana food when I was already sick with the mana-related disease,” Danielle said.

  “And you’re still sick with the mana pox, and shouldn’t be overdoing it!” Heather protested. “Tell ‘em no!”

  “Well, I can’t send a Now Hear This to anyone that isn’t a resident of Camp Constanza, so I still have to go to the tent to tell them. They didn’t make it sound like it was an emergency, so they can wait until after we check in with the guys. If they want me for longer than a few minutes after that – say, half an hour? – then they can provide me a bodyguard so Akari can take a break.”

  “All right, all right. Let’s go see the guys,” Akari said. “Maybe after we walk over there and have a good conversation, you’ll remember that you’re still tired, too, and talk yourself out of this.”

  “Great!” Danielle added her first aid kit and token purse to the other volume-enhanced bag she’d apparently made while delirious, along with the five insulated canteens she’d filled for the boys. She belatedly remembered that they didn’t know, yet, about the extras her room had scavenged from Geardump Hill. “Hm. Well, they’re going to find out soon enough regardless,” she muttered as she shouldered the bag.

  The walk to the front side of building one carrying 5 metal bottles and two and a half liters of water was enough to prove Akari’s point about Danielle not being back to full energy levels, but it still felt a lot easier than, say, the walk home from the prayer meeting on Sunday, even though she had a heavier load with her. She might have even managed to hide her discomfort from Akari; at the very least, she didn’t say anything about it, and Akari didn’t comment either.

  To their surprise, Danielle and Akari found all five of their male party members in Tom's room. Gideon sat on a stool in the kitchen, leaning on the counter with both elbows. Tom sat cross-legged on his bed, the one in the corner between the wall and the counter, the same relative position as Danielle's bed in 6024. Jordan had taken the bed in the opposite corner, where he also sat cross-legged on the center of the mattress, a partially-whittled stick in one hand. Zephyr returned to the bed nearest the door and the opening from the kitchen, but slid down to sit with his back supported by the side of the headboard, an open book peeking out from under the bed attesting to what he'd been doing when they knocked. Ezra sat next to the bookshelf at the back of the room, slouched and pouting, a sketchbook sitting open but ignored in his lap. His Decision Day canteen, identical to the ones in Danielle’s bag, sat by one knee. He barely even glanced up at their arrival.

  “I’m so excited to see you I almost forgot I was tired for a minute or two!” Zephyr joked. “Seriously though, it’s really good to see you. Heather’s been telling us you were so delirious you didn’t know up from down.”

  “Well, I haven’t heard anything about trying to walk on the ceiling,” Danielle joked back, “but some of what I found written in my Planner is about as realistic as taking a stroll across the underside of the clouds. Also, I kind of don’t remember much of the last three days, and Sunday night gets a little fuzzy toward the end.”

  “Yikes,” Tom said. “That’s pretty crazy. Jordan got a little tired and loopy, but I wouldn’t say he got delirious.”

  “Yeah, I don’t have any holes in my memory either,” Jordan said. “I’ve been using my new Skill a lot though – I even went out as much as I could handle when I was feeling really bad, and I think it paid off! I got Medic’s Diagnostics as a Career Skill from the mana pox, just this morning! Do you think that’s a normal Camper Skill?”

  “Oh, I don’t know, but that’s definitely a Medic Skill – I wonder if you opened the whole Skill Tree already?” Danielle speculated. “I should tell you about Combat Medic – do you have a speed-related Skill or Trait?”

  “Yeah! I got that one Monday,” Jordan said. “Trait: Speed Improvement.”

  “Wait, Medic’s Diagnostics was your second Career Skill?” Danielle asked. “Isn’t Camper your active Career?”

  “It’s actually my third, why?” Jordan asked. He cocked his head at her in mild confusion.

  Danielle shook her head bemusedly. “Mana pox mana rolls through your Career list like a bad mana burst does, just in slow motion. It doesn’t give you multiple Skills in a row from the same Career. I mean, maybe unless you only had one, but we’ve all got at least three now, right? Academy Student, whatever the Dome gave us, and Food Processing. Your active Career should’ve gone first, but then – I mean, it makes even less sense; you had to have gotten Medic’s Diagnostics from either your academic career or the food one, or else something just plain went strange.”

  “Oh. Huh. Well, it was the speed trait first – is that a normal Camper thing?” Jordan asked. When Danielle just shrugged, he continued, “Then I got Purify Food, which was one of the things the Now Hear This said we could get from Food Processing, and then this morning it was Medic’s Diagnostics.”

  “Wow. That really sounds like it came through Academy Student, then. It is a lore Skill, so maybe it makes some sense from that angle?” Danielle shook her head again. “Well. Having the speed improvement as a Trait is a good thing. Once you’re level 2, I can show you how to unlock a rare Skill that boosts all Healer, Medic and combat Skills. The experience requirement is a little rough, but long story short, it’s something you’ll want to do anyway once you know how it works.”

  “Can’t do it until level 2, though?” Gideon asked.

  “Well you can do it, you just can’t take the Skill until level 2,” Danielle said.

  “May as well tell us, then, because I got it too,” Gideon said. “Medic’s Diagnostics, I mean.”

  Danielle’s eyebrows rose. “Well, that can’t be a coincidence,” she said. “Either that’s a really common break-in to the Medic Skill Tree, or something’s going on.”

  “Yeah, we thought so too, what with ‘The Choice Is’ and all. I didn’t get a speed thing, but I already had Trait: Speed Improvement from my Class, so if it has to do with this Combat Medic Skill – ” he spread his hands and made a ‘well, then,’ sort of face.

  “It might be a little early to jump to conclusions, but it might be related,” Danielle said. “What else did you all get from the pox?”

  “My other mana pox Skills were System Blazes and Body Shield,” Gideon said.

  “System Blazes?” Danielle asked.

  “Yeah, like for blazing a trail? Um, it occurs to me I might’ve never told you my Class,” Gideon admitted. “I’m a Basic Scout, like Zephyr.”

  “Oh! That sounds really useful then,” Danielle said. “What did you get, Zephyr?”

  “I only got one, and can I just say that Mana Improvement is utterly unfair?” Zephyr said. His tone of voice was more teasing than complaining, but Danielle suspected his humor covered some real envy.

  “Heather said you were really excited about whatever you did get, though?” she prodded.

  “We-ell, it might not be that exciting to you, Miss Skill Sharer, but I am pretty excited about it for myself,” Zephyr admitted. “See, my active Career right now is still Mana Researcher, in spite of certain unsubtle hints from the Rangers, soooo – ” he paused for dramatic effect. Danielle tried to suppress a smirk at his theatrics. “I got Mana Sight as a Career Skill!” he finally exclaimed.

  “Oh, that’s awesome!” Danielle said. “Hah, how utterly appropriate, too! Now you can see what you’re researching!”

  “I know – I’m so, what word do I even want – sparked? Excited just doesn’t cover it!” Zephyr said.

  Danielle laughed. Akari suggested, “Bolted? Like lighting bolts?”

  “Charged!” Jordan said

  “Ooh, yeah – charged! I’m totally charged,” Zephyr asserted, looking pleased with himself. Jordan did too, for that matter.

  Danielle laughed. “Well, congratulations! What about you Tom? Ezra?”

  “I got Trait: Internal Compass,” Tom said. “I guess I always know where north is, now? It might be something that can be fooled by magnets and electricity, like a real compass, though.”

  “I look forward to trying to find out,” Zephyr teased.

  “That’d be cool in its own way, though,” Danielle said. “You might be able to use it to get to a full on magnetism sense. Or maybe if you level it up, it’ll basically be a full on magnetism sense!”

  “Do you ever just use an Ability just for what it says in its name?” Akari asked.

  “You’ve known me as long as I’ve had the System,” Danielle reminded her. “So, I mean – you tell me?”

  “I don’t know anymore. Is Illusions supposed to be able to do all the stuff you do with it? The moving pictures and stuff?” Akari asked.

  “I don’t know – I never heard anything to the contrary, anyway,” Danielle said. “Oh! Deflect Notice, that’s always been just what it says on the label.”

  “So, useless if someone’s actively looking for you?” Zephyr asked.

  “Well, useless if someone actually knows where I am already,” Danielle said. “If I was running from someone and I could get into a crowded area and make it even a little bit ambiguous which way I’d gone, they usually couldn’t pick me out of the crowd again.”

  “Her roommates from school were saying it was perfectly normal for her to seem to appear out of nowhere right at the door of her room,” Akari said. “I think she’d maybe been stretching it into discount invisibility for a while before we got Sent.”

  “And now I have a better discount invisibility,” Danielle said with a shrug. “Look, all Skills have their limits, but they also all have their quirks and edge cases and stuff. Pushing those is how I got General Dehydrate!”

  “You said you got it by arguing with the System,” Akari accused.

  “Well, that’s how you push, sometimes!” Danielle exclaimed. “My System said the Skill worked on organics, it wasn’t unreasonable to ask it to work on organics even if I wasn’t planning to eat them! The original description didn’t say anything about food!”

  Zephyr started laughing. “Leave it to Danielle to ‘argue with the System’ like it was just another kid,” he said.

  “We thought she was going delirious again,” Akari muttered. “It literally sounded like she was having an argument.”

  “Hmph. It was refusing to do what its own description said it should do. It’s not like I got that one from someone else’s Skill Token either. The really bizarre – no, refuting its own description was already bizarre. The other bizarre thing is, either it made that my next Academy Student Career Skill, or it actually added General Dehydrate outside the Career Skills system.” Danielle fumed for a moment, then remembered where she was. “But now we’re getting all hung up on impossible me, again. Enough about me. We were talking about Tom’s cool trait! Magnetic north and stuff! Woo!”

  The boys all chuckled. “I for one am glad to have someone around who can help me find the awesome in my Skills when I’m not sure what they’re good for,” Tom said with a reluctant grin.

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