Agent Bea sighed. “All right, listen. If you do this, you need to let them know they can’t spread it around,” she said.

  “Already done. We discussed that when I bought the extra tokens for them on Sunday,” Danielle said.

  “You cannot overemphasize it enough, Miss Falconer,” Agent Bea said severely. “Your Sent status does put you in a different category with regard to the law, and yes, your right to gift your own work to your close friends and relatives is protected anyway – as long as they have the right to use the Skills, but again, right now we’re talking about Sent, so Insider Skill limits don’t apply. That doesn’t change the fact, however, that if you allow the development of jealousy and entitlement, you endanger yourself and them more than if you didn’t give them the Skills!”

  “Don’t misunderstand, we know why you want to share, for example, Body Shield,” Ranger Michael said. “Believe me, we all understand that you have some issues with these things that you can’t do much about. Your org status won’t just go away on its own; neither will that tier 3 Skill.”

  “I can level up to match it, and take its prerequisites,” Danielle said. “Get my System back in balance or whatever you’d call it. I’m planning to work on that. Uh, any recommendations on 'force Skills?' I hear I need one of those for the prerequisites to Shield Burst. I’ve already got a shield Skill, and a speed Trait.”

  “Got a weapon Skill tree? A lot of those include a pair of Skills called ‘Blunted Force’ and ‘Concentrated Force,’ respectively. They’re not the best force Skills for shield users, but they technically check the box,” Ranger Hart said.

  “Oh, yeah, I’ll check them out,” Danielle said. “Heh, next time I’m near an Access Point, anyway.”

  “Just promise us you’ll take the part about working on things the hard way first, seriously,” Ranger Michael said. “If you can teach all your hunting party members something like, say, Force Shield itself? That would be much better for all of you than just handing them Body Shield by itself – in fact, it’s still better even if you then hand them Body Shield also, for the omnidirectional protection.”

  “Can you tell me how to teach them that?” Danielle asked.

  “Hm,” Ranger Michael said thoughtfully, looking up, perhaps trying to remember. “I think the trick with that one is to learn to fight with a shield, then train with trying to use inadequate shields, and ask the System to give you Skills to support or replace them?” he looked questioningly at Ranger Hart and Agent Bea.

  “That’s the easiest method to share without trainers or advanced equipment, as far as I’m aware,” Agent Bea confirmed.

  “I’ll confess, I got Body Shield as a token myself, and never pursued anything more advanced,” Ranger Hart said. “I’m not much of a fighter, though. Heh, for my level anyway.”

  “We’re getting a bit afield of the immediate topic, though,” Agent Bea said. “Which is, what can we do for you to get some mana exchange going in the other direction?”

  “Put me down for three more of those cooler bottles,” Danielle said, “For delivery to the org room. They’re 200 each, right? And I’ll be needing some crystals to experiment with. I can go with what’s in the catalog, but it’d be useful to my research Career if I could get some colored ones. I’m not above playing with the color offcasts, but if color sets are things you could sell me, that’s on the table. Tier 3 crystals, too, since I’m expecting to level up well before Fall Fair. Oh! And training tools for crystal appraising, if that’s a thing.”

  “Ah – it is, in fact, though lab crystals tend to come pre-appraised,” Agent Bea said. “I’ll look into those and get back to you tomorrow. Would you be able to meet at the tent here at about this same time?”

  “Sure. The Rangers can give me the final word on the medication-time messages while I’m here,” Danielle said. “Speaking of medication time, if that’s all of your business for today, I have one more question of my own. I have some mana left to spend on temperature checks and/or helping people sterilize their water bottles; do you Healers have any requests on where I should use it?”

  “Bottom two floors of building seven,” Ranger Michael said immediately.

  “Michael! Don’t tell her that!” Agent Bea exclaimed, aghast. “If the regular Healers aren’t safe there, we have no business letting her go there, let alone asking her to go!”

  “I bet the regular Healers aren’t bringing along three friends to watch their backs, though,” Danielle said. “Besides, Jordan’s room is there, and his three roommates that supposedly barely manage to take care of themselves when they’re well. Someone should definitely check up on them.”

  “Perhaps so, but not you!” Agent Bea insisted.

  “I was promised a System check,” Ranger Hart said, seemingly ignoring the argument.

  “Yes, fine, go ahead,” Danielle said, pulling her Mana Deflector down – which, for the first time, she could properly feel happening. Down, it turned out, might be an appropriate analogy, but did not at all describe the actual motion, which was more like pulling something in, and also a little bit like covering up the spout of a teakettle to keep the steam in. Part of the similarity was that it would certainly get harder the longer she tried to hold it.

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  “I’m going to need something like Sensory Tuning for my other traits eventually, if this keeps leveling up,” Danielle muttered.

  “Hm. You really have absorbed a lot of mana,” Ranger Hart said. “Your new channels are looking much more solid – I’d swear these had to be a full week old, even though I know you just added them Sunday night. It feels like you haven’t really used most of them, though.”

  “Of course I haven’t used most of them – I added over forty Skills in one weekend,” Danielle said, “and then I was so sick I wasn’t even forming memories for three whole days!”

  “Fifty-four,” Ranger Hart said distractedly.

  “What?”

  “The target number was fifty-four. What’s a MedVet Thermometer?” Ranger Hart asked.

  “I renamed Detect Internal Temperature so I could take two versions,” Danielle said. “Don’t bother telling me it’s impossible. I’ve heard. I don’t care anymore.”

  Ranger Hart gave Danielle a long, level look. She wondered if it was taking as much effort for him to keep his face impassive as it was taking her to do the same; she thought she was managing it, though.

  “That’s a bit of a dangerous attitude,” he finally said. “Isn’t that exactly what the return-by-winter crowd is saying?”

  “You have explained what prevents returning by winter, and I believe you,” Danielle said. “There’s even evidence to prove you correct, in the form of witnesses who have seen the mutation on the only known level 3 Sent in town. I have taken action in accordance with the warning and advice given me by Healers Flo and Michael, for this and for the matter of preparing myself to deal with religiously motivated violence. I’m not saying I don’t care about warnings, I’m saying I don’t care about how unbelievable people find the factual things I have already done. Oh horror, I’m a Skill Sharer and an Enhancer and I have more Skills than I know what to do with and I make mana like I was level 4, it’s impossible Danielle! Well tough beans, Mister Ranger ‘too good to introduce myself.’ My Status is what it is, miracle and all, so swallow or starve, the beans are still beans.”

  Ranger Hart sat back down with a snort. “I thought you didn’t remember the last three days,” he said.

  “I remember you coming into the exam room on Sunday, asking to use one Skill on me and then using two without warning, let alone asking, and laying down the law over me like I was a child, and never once telling me your actual name,” Danielle said. “Well it’s not your fault the SA decided to advance me at 14 but it happened, so I’m still a legal adult, I’m still the one who gets to decide what Skills are and are not used on me, and just because I’ve figured out your name since then doesn’t mean I didn’t deserve some basic courtesy.”

  “The SA would like the record to show that we don’t decide who gets Sent,” Agent Bea said. “We may collect and present the information that goes into the decision, and we may handle all the details once a decision is made, but we don’t get to make the decision. That happens at the very highest levels of government.”

  Danielle rolled her eyes. “Thank you, I’m sure that’s relevant to the conversation. I’ll try to keep it in mind, though. May I leave now? I have doors to knock on before dark.”

  “You’ve just spent plenty of mana, I think it would be better if you go home, now,” Ranger Hart said.

  “I think I’ll just check on Jordan’s roommates first. Goodnight, gentlemen.” Danielle gave them all a respectful nod and left the tent, fuming.

  “ – and he says, ‘if you call it the noodle incident again, I’ll smack you so hard your mustache will fall off!’ so the next day I shave my mustache. Ah, there she is! All done?” the guard Healer outside the tent asked.

  “I’ll never be done, the problem is inherent to – ugh. Let’s just say it’s a chronic condition,” Danielle said.

  “What’s wrong?” Jordan asked.

  “Besides the fact that I’m a fourteen-year-old adult with an ‘impossible’ System?” Danielle asked snippily.

  “Well, um – ” Jordan gave Akari a slightly desperate look.

  “You were already those things when you went in, but you didn’t seem mad about it,” Akari said. “What changed?”

  “That Ranger Hart – I mean, I presume it’s Ranger Hart! There is a small but legitimate possibility I’ve got his name wrong, because he still hasn’t introduced himself, even though I reminded him!” Danielle fumed. “He thinks it’s just fine to activate Skills on people as long as they don’t notice, like being rude doesn’t matter unless you get caught, and he thinks he can tell me what to do like a kid just because he’s older. Well, he probably could tell me what to do, but if he won’t give a good reason why, it’s his own fault if I don’t obey him out of his reach, because I’m an adult, and I’m not turning back into a kid for some guy that can’t be bothered to be polite!”

  “What terrible thing did he tell you to do?” the Healer guarding the opening asked skeptically.

  “He told me to go home and not even try to help people that probably need a med check,” Danielle said. “Come on, guys, we’re going to building seven.”

  “Oh no we are not,” Akari said; but Danielle started walking around the tent towards building seven anyway. “Danielle! Stop! Have you gone crazy?”

  “Nope!” Danielle declared. “I’m going to building seven with at least two, maybe three bodyguards. Perfectly sane behavior. Gonna check up on Jordan’s helpless roommates and if they don’t use up my mana, then we’ll see who else needs checking on.”

  “Oh. When you put it that way, yeah,” Jordan said. “Man, you don’t even know how worried I’ve been, but I was afraid to go alone, and before today I wasn’t really well enough anyhow.”

  “See? You go home if you want, Akari, that was the deal. Jordan and Gideon will stay with me.” Danielle marched directly towards the front stairs of the building, covertly activating Flash Shield. She glanced up at the balconies, but if anyone in that building had come out to walk, they were back inside already. No one troubled them as they descended into the ground floor walkway.

  “What’s your room number, again?” Danielle asked.

  Jordan gestured to their left. “7005.”

  Danielle nodded and proceeded left. 7005 was a bit more than halfway from the stairs to the corner. She knocked on the door.

  There was a garbled shout, then Jordan cracked the door and knocked again. “Go ‘way and let us die!” someone called from inside, punctuated by a load groan that Danielle thought was a different voice.

  She turned to Jordan, and whispered, “Do you want to take the lead on going inside?”

  Jordan nodded, and called in, “It’s Jordan! I’m coming in with guests. Do you guys need a minute, or shall we just come?”

  “Go away, abandoner,” a different voice replied. This speaker had less energy than the shouter.

  “That’s not happening,” Jordan said, rolling his eyes. “Here we come; three, two, one.” He opened the door. “Pfew, it smells in here,” he said. “What’ve you guys been doing to the room?!”