“I have a real disease, and so does the other councilor, and both of our entire buildings, at least, have been exposed,” Danielle concluded.

  “Oh, no. Because of the way the elections worked,” Angela said. She was looking a bit less pale, but Danielle could see the dawning understanding of how serious it could be on her face.

  “Correct,” Danielle said. “So. Here’s where I need you to be discreet, and not ask me too many questions. Having been paid for my work, and having decided to tithe my pay, I have come to offer you a Skill token for a Skill known to be useful to Healers. Can you accept, keep it secret, not ask me more questions about how I got my hands on it, and remember to use it if the Sending Authority suddenly starts asking Healers to up their game?”

  Angela searched Danielle’s face. Danielle kept her own gaze steadily on Angela’s own face, waiting for her to come to a conclusion. “How does tithe come into it?” she finally asked.

  “Since we don’t have a church, I’m giving to God’s work in our camp by expressing my tithe as tier 1 Skill tokens and giving them to Healers that are also Christians,” Danielle said.

  “More than one Skill token,” Angela said, not quite a question, but seeking confirmation.

  Danielle nodded. “Correct. And yes, I know what Skill tokens are worth, and no, I won’t explain further.”

  “My mom is a nurse, inside,” Angela said. “She went on a waiting list for four years just to get Local Anesthetic.”

  Danielle shuddered involuntarily. “Beats the stink off of unlocking it the hard way,” she said.

  Angela gave her a very concerned look. “What do you know about the hard way?” she asked.

  “My hunting party fought a thorn thrasher. It’s like a rosebush crossed with a venus fly trap, and it gets lots of infection-causing bacteria all over its thorns. I’m a Medic, I tried my best to close up all the cuts, but – yeah. It was bad, and then in the end, we had to call the Rangers to cure all the infections anyway.” Danielle shivered again. “It was less than a week ago, I’m still having nightmares. More about the first aid than the fight, believe it or not.”

  “How are your roommates sleeping?” Angela asked, a disturbed look on her face.

  Danielle shook her head, not to refuse the question but because she didn’t really know. “They’re the ones that wake me up from the nightmares,” she admitted. “I guess either they’re having trouble sleeping, or they’re having trouble sleeping through my noise. I dunno if they’re having their own nightmares much; they obviously know I’m feeling bad about it, and they don’t want to make it worse, so I don’t know if they’d tell me.”

  “Is that the Skill you got tokens of, then?” Angela asked.

  “No,” Danielle said. “Although I guess I could. You should have that unlocked, though, shouldn’t you? As a classed Healer?”

  “Yeah, unlocked, but not advanced,” Angela said. “Because, you know. It’s helpful but not as helpful as actual healing Skills, if that makes sense.”

  “It’s not like Close Wound, no, I understand. The tokens I have are for a Skill on a less common Skill Tree, though. It’s called Regen Burst, and it lets you recover your pool mana faster. You have to be careful, there’s a safe daily limit of three times your base mana production, and it applies to mana from Skills like Regen Burst and also foods like that mana cheese in the catalog – you have to add them together, you understand? The foods are faster if you have them, but Regen Burst doesn’t run out like a food. It’s the Skill a busy and slightly overwhelmed Healer needs when an epidemic hits and there are suddenly a lot of patients.”

  “Oh. Wow. That sounds – that sounds like more than four years on a waiting list, Danielle. Are you sure you can give that to me?” Angela said.

  “It’s mine right now, I can give it away if I want,” Danielle said. “It might annoy a certain Skill Sharer if she ever found out, or get me in trouble if the Wolf Pack takes exception to it for some reason, or if the Systemists object to it for some reason, or if someone just gets violently jealous – what I’m saying is, yes I can give it to you, but I need you to keep it secret. Just quietly stash it with the tokens from the care packages, and if I’m right, and there is an epidemic and the Rangers or the SA react by calling on Healers to step up and take care of the camp, and there you are heading for an Access Point, then take it with you and slip it in with the other stuff.”

  “That’s a lot of ifs,” Angela said. “What if there is no epidemic?”

  “Take it anyway. You’re a Healer, you’ll end up using it. You’ll be adding those care package tokens sooner or later anyway, right?”

  “I don’t know, I don’t think I really want to put in the work to learn the shield. I’m busy learning to gut fish. (Bleah.)” Angela glanced towards the picnic blanket with her roommates. Danielle followed her gaze and saw them eating familiar-looking strips of venison.

  “Would it help if I told you Career: Food Processing might help you preserve food for winter?” Danielle said. “It sounds a little random, but apparently it was thoughtfully chosen. It’ll collect up its little bit of mana every time you gag your way through dealing with a raw fish, and eventually, you’ll have skills that make it a less gag-inducing process.”

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  Angela looked back to her. “That is a happy thought,” she said. “Listen, even if there is an epidemic, my Skills aren’t that great for it.”

  “Maybe not today, but if the SA expects the camp to be able to handle this stuff ourselves, then either the System will boost you as you try to handle it, or they’ll help it along somehow. They probably won’t hand you a mana Skill to help you stretch your Healing Skills further, though. What’ll it be? Do you want it? Are you willing to keep the secret if I give it to you?”

  “Heh, well yeah I want it,” Angela said. “I just think you’re crazy for giving it away.”

  Danielle pulled it out of her pocket and handed it over. Angela took a quick glance at it, and shoved it into her own pocket.

  “No backsies, crazy lady,” she teased.

  Daniellie chuckled. “Obviously. You’re supposed to get it into your System as soon as possible. Tomorrow, even. A bunch of council people will probably be going to the Access Point to use the tokens the SA gave the council, so I’m sure there will be a group to go with.”

  “They just gave tokens to the council? Wait, not these – ” Angela began, startled.

  “No, no, not these. The council was given Now Hear This,” Danielle said. “I’m still on the fence about whether that was a good idea or not, but apparently it’s tradition with the first leaders of a Sent town. Anyway, I’m taking down the privacy now.”

  The two of them started moving back towards Angela’s roommates. “That last thing isn’t secret, though, right? About the council?”

  “Not as far as I know,” Danielle said. “I mean, how could it be? As soon as anyone uses it, people will know. The tricky part is, it’ll only let you send messages to people lower than or equal to your rank in a given system organization in which you have a ‘position of authority.’ The upsides are, one, if anyone abuses it, just vote them out next year and that problem’s solved; and two, if anyone has it, and is in multiple organizations, they can use it for all of them. Just for example, I can use it for the whole Shade Tree Society (Gideon and Zephyr can too). I have a lot of testing to do, once things settle down a little – like, can I write a list and ask to message anyone in town that is on the list? If so, Gideon and I could make a list of people who want updates on plans for the prayer meeting, and we wouldn’t even have to make a separate org as long as at least one of us stayed on the council.”

  Angela laughed. “That would be kind of cool, but at some point the term limit thing would be a problem.”

  “True. The Skill won’t go away when we step down, though, and it’ll keep working for other orgs, so there are still options,” Danielle said as they reached the beach towel again. “The town could even make a town crier position that was technically equal to the council but instead of having legal duties they only have communication duties. I should suggest that, see what people say.”

  “That would be so cool! What would a town crier say though?” Tina asked. “Would it be like an audio news stream? Ooh, would there be a gossip column?”

  “Not if I have any say in it,” Danielle said. “It would mostly be for council members elected later, who don’t have Now Hear This, to get official messages broadcast to the town.”

  “What council members would even have Now Hear This?” Tina asked. “That’s such a weird Skill.”

  “They gave it to everyone on the new town council,” Danielle said. “I’m betting there’s going to be a lot of traffic to the Access Point today and tomorrow, between people applying their care package Career tokens and the council applying their new Skill, and presumably people will throw in Shield Apprentice since they’ve got it, so why not?”

  “I dunno, why take it when I’m not really planning to use it?” Tina shrugged. “It might be worth more if I hold onto it for a while and sell it back. Assuming everyone else in camp doesn’t have the same idea.”

  Danielle looked around the field, wondering where Gideon had gotten to. “The Systemists will all use theirs, for sure,” she said absently. “They have a whole thing about their number of advanced Skills. A competitive thing, even. Unlocked but not advanced Skill numbers matter to them too; the ones I know get so annoyed when I tell them I haven’t counted mine.”

  She spotted Gideon approaching with three other people – one was Nathan, a tall red-headed boy with a bulky athletic look was presumably Louis Cork, and Danielle also recognized Ainoa Wood, a girl from the older class who occasionally joined her in the back corners or the library, the odd nooks of the school gardens, or the unpopular hours in the student lounges – in short, the places middle school students went when they were avoiding other middle school students.

  She waved and went to meet them. “That didn’t take you long, Gideon,” she said. “Nathan, hello. I have no idea if you’re going to be into this.”

  “Me either,” Nathan joked. “Gideon won’t tell us what’s going on.”

  “It’s a secret,” Danielle said seriously, “and if I tell any of you three, you’ll need to keep it a secret too. Fortunately, it should be easier for you; you can just not mention things and quietly let other people miss a few details. If you just plain don’t want to have to keep secrets, though, I understand; feel free to just walk away, I won’t be offended. I know I’m being weird about this.”

  “Can you give us a hint? Like what category of secret?” Ainoa asked nervously, fidgeting a little with the ends her dark hair.

  “I know I can explain it to you, Ainoa,” Danielle said. “Remember last year when you were hiding in the back of the library practically every day, and I asked if you were OK?”

  “Yeeees,” Ainoa said slowly. “Please don’t say any more about that in public, though.”

  “Well, it’s like that, except shareable,” Danielle said.

  Ainoa’s eyes widened. “I’m in.”

  The three boys all gave her surprised looks. “Just like that?” said presumable-Louis.

  “Just like that,” Ainoa said with a decisive nod. “Saint Danielle kept that secret well for me, I can do this for her.”

  “I really strongly prefer Medic Falconer to Saint Danielle, if you feel the need to be formal,” Danielle said. “Just my name works too, I’m not picky.”

  “Saint Falconer?” Ainoa tried.

  “Do it and I’ll start calling you Saint Wood,” Danielle – joked? threatened? She wasn’t sure, herself.

  Ainoa just looked confused. “But I can’t do any miracles,” she said.

  “Exactly. Neither can I.” Danielle gave her a firm nod, as if that was all the explanation needed. Ainoa looked unconvinced, but she moved on anyway. “Let’s complete the introductions, shall we? I know Nathan from our hunting parties working together, and I know Ainoa a little from school, but that leaves one name to confirm here.”

  “Ah, right,” Gideon said. “Danielle Falconer, meet Louis Cork, classed Healer. Louis, Danielle. I’d list her relevant titles, but it’s a long list, and it’d probably annoy her.”

  “Pleased to meet you,” Louis said with an undertone of irony, and held out hand to her.

  Danielle shook it. “Likewise. For the record, titles I consider relevant are classed Field Medic and Organizing Member of the Shade Tree Society.”

  Gideon added, “Town council member.”

  Danielle shrugged. “And that, but it’s not relevant to this issue.”

  “I suppose I’m willing to keep the secret as long as it is ethical to do so,” Louis said, rather formally.

  “OK, then, let me put up my privacy Skill again,” Danielle said.

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