Ranger Flo sighed. “Listen, Danielle, you’re sick. You haven’t been eating well – and that’s not a criticism, you’ve been doing better than a lot of new Sent, but you don’t have a ton of reserves right now, and you’re tired and feverish, and if you let Bea feed you a bunch of mana food you’ll make the ‘pox worse. You already generate mana like someone twice your level, which means you’re already going to have a harsher case than most. Bea’s plan will make it worse than that, and we’re not sure it’ll even do any good! I’m fine with you making the sixty tokens that you can, apparently, make right now. Getting mana out of your pool – pools, I mean, will actually be good for you. All those Skills you took may actually be good for you too, even though the taking irritated the disease, but unless you can bring your total new Skills up to one ability for every point of base generation (and you can’t), you don’t have enough to take advantage of the effect Agent Apira is counting on to ensure you weather her plan safely.”

  “She can!” Agent Bea objected. “Look, Danielle, count your new Skills and Traits for us. You said you got Career: Mana Researcher on Thursday, right? When you were at the north Access Point? Start with whatever else you got then, and count all your newer abilities.”

  “Do I have to?” Danielle said. “I kind of like being able to tell Systemists I haven’t counted. Their faces go all – ” Danielle imitated a shocked and horrified Systemist, then added, “you know, disbelieving and stuff.”

  Agent Bea chuckled. “I’m sorry to ruin the fun, but we honestly need to know. If, as I suspect, you’re a lot closer than the Healers believe you are, then we can do this safely, and there’s a real chance you can not only save us money, but actually keep Karen Impera out of the picture entirely. That’s the main goal: make enough tokens that we don’t have to call on Skill Sharer Impera. That’s what they think you can’t accomplish safely, but I think you can.”

  “And you’ll know if I can by how many new Skills and Traits I have?” Danielle asked. “I don’t understand the connection.”

  “When we elect leaders to our state or to the Union, we always infect them with the big three in controlled circumstances,” the man said. (Why was he talking politics?) “There’s a trick we use with them to help give them an easier recovery from mana pox or the speeds. Both of those diseases cause massive increases in mana production; but they can both be mitigated by giving the sufferer enough new mana channels that their System can use up a significant percentage of the extra mana just to build and integrate them. It actually makes the bout longer, but it keeps down the worst risk factors.” (That was useful information, but what did it have to do with politicians?) “The problem you have is, the number of new abilities you need is equal to your mana production, and you do produce mana like someone twice your level. You’ve taken a number of new abilities recently enough that we can count them, but we need to get up to thirty-six, which is frankly an impossible number for a level 2 System user. So. Please make your count, so we can resolve the question of whether this plan is realistic or not.”

  “Oh. Gettin’ tired of bein’ called impossible,” Danielle muttered, but she started counting. “Do ones that came through new Classes count?” she asked. “What about leveling a Class?”

  “Yes, any Trait or Skill that is new to you, starting Thursday,” the unknown Ranger said. Ranger Stranger? Danielle giggled at the thought, but managed not to lose her place.

  “Nine Traits,” she announced. Ranger Flo raised her eyebrows, but wrote it down. “Twenty-six Skills,” Danielle told her a minute later. “I think. I kept losing count with the one that splits its name across a line break. Twenty-five to twenty-seven for sure.”

  Ranger Flo gave her a complicated look; Stranger Ranger actually gave her a drop-jawed stare. Agent Bea folded her arms and gave the two a triumphant stare. “Nine and twenty-six is thirty-five, and she had to take one just to do the job,” Agent Bea said aloud, rubbing it in. “She’s got it. She’s also got five more in her bag as tokens, three more she bargained for from me as part of her payment, and didn’t you tell me she was talking about taking yet another Class yesterday, Flo?”

  “She was,” Ranger Flo answered, sounding a bit dazed. She stepped back from Danielle to lean against the wall. “Five from yesterday’s business, plus three, plus four – twelve out of eighteen needed to get all the way up to the one-and-a-half sweet spot. That’s unbelievable.”

  “It’s so unbelievable that I don’t believe it,” Stranger Ranger said, and Danielle felt a weak Skill bounce off Mana Deflector. “Oh, that is a decent resistance. Please end the Skill though, miss.”

  “It’s a Trait. What are you trying to do?” Danielle asked suspiciously.

  “Double-check your numbers,” Stranger Ranger said bluntly.

  Danielle frowned. “I guess as long as you promise not to tell anyone else the details,” she said reluctantly.

  “That goes without saying, yes,” Stranger Ranger agreed. “That’s one of the reasons this exam room has all those privacy enhancements available.”

  “All right, just a second – ” Danielle pulled at her Mana Deflector again. “Go again. Maybe a little stronger if you can, I’m tired, and this is harder than it used to be.”

  “You’re not spending mana, are you?” Agent Bea asked anxiously.

  “No, just energy,” Danielle said.

  Ranger Flo gave Agent Bea a significant Look. “And she doesn’t have a lot of energy,” she said. Danielle was sure that tone of voice meant there was subtext, but she wasn’t catching it.

  Danielle felt the file-flipping sensation of See System Info being used on her, then it was joined by a supplementary Skill that was harder to describe; something gently prodding, checking for – something. Proper shape? It didn’t hurt, nor did it feel hostile, so she let Stranger Ranger off with an annoyed glare.

  Finally, he shook his head and said, “Thirty-five is correct, including a Skill so new I’m forced to assume it’s a pox-pop Career Skill.”

  Danielle giggled, and when everyone looked her askance, she explained, “Pox-pop is such a funny way of describing it! He does mean a Career Skill that comes up because of the extra mana gen from the disease, right? I think that happened while I was taking a nap.”

  “How long ago?” Agent Bea asked.

  “The nap you woke me up from when you knocked,” Danielle told her.

  “Ah. That is recent. Well! It still counts! Let’s get her to the Dome with her tokens, and I’ll prepare, ah,” Agent Bea leaned over and looked at Ranger Flo’s notebook. “Hm. 84 ounces of cheese?”

  “You most certainly will not,” Ranger Flo said. “Get some stinking tomatoes, Bea, I will not allow you to give her constipation on top of mana inflammation of a hyperproduction disease!”

  “Do you think I’ll get the goat Skill?” Danielle asked bemusedly.

  “I’m really uncomfortable with how out of it she seems, Bea,” Ranger Flo said. “She’s usually not this – well, random.”

  “It’s a reasonable question for someone who just read the catalog entry for Gretel’s cheese, yesterday,” Agent Bea said. “And frankly, even if we limit it to, say, 32 ounces, that’s actually a pretty solid chance.”

  “It’s about one in three,” Stranger Ranger said. “Station Manager, listen up, I’m about to lay down the official policy of the Firmitatem Rangers Layer 1 Healer’s Corps on the matter of requesting large numbers of Boost Recovery Skill tokens from Sent Skill Sharer Falconer today.”

  Agent Bea sighed, but gave him her attention and said respectfully, “Healer Hart, Sending Authority Layer 1 Outstation is listening.”

  Stranger Ranger nodded, and began laying down the law. “You will provide her with six additional tokens of her choice out of the supplies our services keep for fairs. You may charge her normal prices for them in accordance with the regulations we have all been so aggressively reminded of recently, but you will provide them up front. You will feed her a balanced dinner with salad and those chicken tenders up front, and some crackers to go with all that cheese and cherry tomatoes. She has somehow managed not to be dehydrated, and you will ensure she continues to stay hydrated while she works. You will not encourage nor allow her to eat more than eight mana’s worth of pool foods at a time – “

  “Are we seriously bringing superstition into it now?!” Agent Bea interrupted.

  “This is not a negotiation!” the Ranger boomed, not precisely yelling, but lowering his voice a half-octave and projecting to a degree entirely unnecessary for such a small room. He paused a long moment, staring at Agent Bea, almost daring her to say something else. She merely pressed her lips together into a thin frown, and he returned to his normal tone. “No more than eight mana at a time, pausing to check on supply versus need after every eight. No exceptions. If the remaining need is ever less than she can produce with the next eight mana, she drops to eating one bite at a time. No extras. All deals you make with her will be overseen by Flo or myself to ensure that you’re not taking advantage of her slightly compromised mental state; likewise, any deal the Rangers offer in regard to tokens or what have you will be overseen by yourself or your quartermaster, for the same reason. Is all this understood?”

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  “Understood,” Agent Bea said tightly. “No objections.”

  “What is the state of negotiations regarding payment?” Stranger Ranger asked.

  “I get paid in mana this time,” Danielle said promptly. “I am allowed to buy an extra token for each member of my hunting party, from the set of four Skills currently being offered, at the price of 150 mana. I agree not to make more tokens for discount sale around the town than the total number I’m making for the SA tonight. Uh, let’s say, I’m limited to that number between now and the catalog fair, right Agent Bea? These tokens will be from the set of under-represented Skills from this same 4-Skill set, and will be sold by the Sending Authority and/or Rangers, also for 150 mana, as need and opportunity come together or in the final catalog in two weeks, to offset the town’s serious lack of Healers, Medics, and sterilizers. I will be sold a copy each of the four – no wait. I noticed on the way here, I have one unlocked. I will be sold a copy each of the three Skills offered today that I haven’t already unlocked on my own. I have to pay full price, because Ka – because of Skill Sharer Impera. That’s 900 mana, to be deducted from my pay, along with the 150 times nine for my hunting party’s extra tokens, and nobody better announce that total to them and freak them out. Um, plus I guess I’m also buying six more, you said? To make the disease less somehow? Deduct their normal full cost too. I think that’s everything.”

  “Thank you, that sounds right,” Agent Bea said. “See, she’s tracking with us. She may be a little off, but she’s not delirious.”

  “That comes later,” Danielle said. “I’m gonna be hallucinating. I’m not sure how I know that, but I’m very sure it’s true.”

  “Any idea what Skills you want?” Stranger Ranger asked.

  “I want – “ Danielle paused. “Hm. I want Skills that can open new Skill trees to me. Something crafting. Something to help start off that training chain for Displacement. Um, Spear Apprentice or Sling Apprentice would be good, I’m already studying those with a friend who got taught properly. It sounds like I’m very likely to get a highly random Mana Researcher Career Skill soon, even though it’s not my active Career anymore, so maybe whatever leads to a training chain for hiding my System from casual spies; I hear Systemists can freak out about Mana Researcher type Skills.”

  “You’re already on the training path for that,” Ranger Flo said. “I told you, level your stealth Skills and your resistance Trait and keep mentioning you need it. That’s how it usually goes. Oh, and leveling your own See System Info Skills will help too.”

  “What about taking See System Info: Creatures?” Danielle asked. “Can I substitute that for one of the tokens I’d have to buy? If it will help, that is.”

  “It will, and it will also be helpful to you in other ways, so I’ll allow it,” Stranger Ranger said. “Agent Apira, do you want to offer on any of those other requests?”

  “I can supply a Spear Apprentice token, yes, and any of a selection of basic crafting Skills. Do you have a preference for what material you want to work with?” Agent Bea asked.

  “I was thinking bone and clay, but Jordan has bone,” Danielle said. “I dunno, I might stick with doing those the hard way. Gotta do some stuff the hard way or I’ll end up weak. What’s good for enhancing support?”

  “Everything’s good for enhancing support,” Agent Bea said. “Every mundane craft, I mean. You can enhance practically anything.”

  “I recommend Filter Clay, if you want to do pottery,” Stranger Ranger said. “It’ll save you a lot of time, and the effort of trying to make sieves without proper meshes. Is that available, Agent Apira?”

  “Regrettably, it is not,” Agent Bea said. “I’m hoping to restock soon, but it’s dependent on one of our embassy Skill Sharers having free mana.”

  “What about an animal care Skill she can actually use?” Ranger Flo asked. “Since she’s quite possibly going to end up with Goat Husbandry burning a hole in her System, as it were.”

  “Oh please no,” Agent Bea said. “You know how much trouble companion animals cause in the Rooms, Flo! Besides, she’s still in a quad, where’s she going to put it?”

  “I was thinking of a falconer’s roost,” Ranger Flo said. Stranger Ranger suddenly looked enlightened, though he covered his mouth rather than speaking up as Flo continued. “Mainly because I happen to know there’s a falcon available – we’ve been hearing about it in the barracks. The agreed-upon buyer went Inside and dropped everything out here like it had never existed. Aren’t the Falcon Mews upgrade packs designed to go over the falconer’s bed like an upper bunk?”

  “And I suppose you think she needs another responsibility?” Agent Bea asked.

  Ranger Flo shrugged. “I think a well-raised cloud falcon would ultimately be of more use to her than a spear Skill, given that she’s already properly trained in staff; it would open up new areas of the System to her as requested, it would be a productive use of the unbelievable amount of mana you’ve apparently agreed to dump on her tonight, and both the token and supplies to make use of it are fully available.”

  “I think I’d need to ask my roommates about that one,” Danielle said. “I like the idea, though. If the falcon gets a rabbit, does it take the mana instead of me?”

  “You generally share it, actually, but it does eat away your casual mana absorption from hunting a little,” Ranger Flo admitted.

  “You make it sound like a bad thing. I’m already producing mana like someone twice my level, though, remember? Ranger Dolina pointed out, that hits my daily absorption too. Sharing my hunting mana sounds like a great idea,” Danielle said.

  “How about this: Danielle takes her own See System Info - Creatures, the Rangers provide Falconry Apprentice (for something new) and Manadepth Perception (for the path to Displacement), and the Authority provides Spear Apprentice and Wood Carving, a versatile crafting Skill with readily available materials that can supplement the crafting Skills she’s already working on the old-fashioned way out of a very reasonable and mature desire not to cut too many corners?” Stranger Ranger proposed.

  “The mews kit and animal deposit is 600 mana per station,” Agent Bea said.

  “And I believe the falcon is 400,” Ranger Flo said. “That transaction would have to wait for the fair, though.”

  “What about gear? Feed? Whatever falcons do for litter boxes?” Danielle asked.

  “They go all over their floors, is what they do,” Agent Bea muttered.

  “Included, I think,” Ranger Flo said, ignoring Agent Bea. “Again, though, you’ll have to discuss it with Ranger Khan in two weeks. We can arrange for him to come around if you’re set up with the Skill and the Room permit. Anyway, considering you’re committing to make tens of thousands of mana worth of tokens tonight, do you really need to worry about the incidentals and minor add-ons?”

  “I was worrying about recurring costs. Besides, don’t forget I’m also committed to using half my profits from tonight to make discount tokens for sale to the rest of the Sending,” Danielle said. “So, um. How many thousands of mana do you think that realistically leaves me to work with?”

  “Assume you’re making at least a hundred tokens, at 300 mana each. You spend 100 on the token, and reserve 100 for a later token to be made for your community; that’s still 100 mana profit. On 100 tokens, you have 10,000 mana to work with.”

  “Are any of the tokens you’re selling me the 500 mana kind?” Danielle asked.

  “Manadepth Perception is tier 2 and fivefold price, so it’s 750 – like Combat Medic,” Stranger Ranger said. “Falconry Apprentice will run you 300 for the token.”

  “How much for a bigger bag like the token purse you sold me earlier? It just hit me that 100 or more 100-mana tokens is a lot to carry around,” Danielle said. “Even just to have around. I won’t be carrying them much.”

  “Tell me about this token purse?” Agent Bea asked.

  “It’s cut resistant, bonded, and highly expanded,” Ranger Flo said. “It’s still only suitable for about 20 tokens, though, it’s tiny.”

  “I’m thinking I can do without the expansion as long as it’s large enough to hold my token-making mana, but the bonded and cut resistant parts might be, you know. Necessary,” Danielle said.

  “We don’t have that on hand,” Stranger Ranger said. “We sourced the small one specifically for you, considering the circumstances in which we were buying tokens at the time.”

  “Yeah, it’s been helpful,” Danielle said. “I’m just – ten thousand mana. Or more?”

  “Definitely more, if the plan works,” Agent Bea said. “I don’t have a bag, but I can sell you a strong box that meets the intrusion resistant and bonded criteria, and can hold the required mana.”

  “That sounds like a worthwhile investment,” Danielle said. “Also, I’m thinking of a canteen with a cooling enhancement. That might be the fever talking though. I’m thirsty.”

  Agent Bea pulled out her data pad and tapped at it, then flicked through what Danielle thought must be a search and a list, judging by her gestures. “300 and 200 mana, respectively, for those enhanced items.”

  “300 is what our strong boxes cost,” Stranger Ranger agreed. “Come to think of it, I guess you source them for us, don’t you?”

  “We do,” Agent Bea agreed, tapping at her data pad. “Adding up everything so far, and assuming the falconry supply prices are reasonably close – well, even if they’re not, really. You’re well under half of your discretionary mana, Danielle.”

  “Does discretionary mean, not including the mana reserved for town tokens?” Danielle asked.

  “It means, ‘not reserved for another use,’ so yes. Out of the ten thousand we said was available for this sort of thing, you have not yet used even five thousand. Shall we go get this all moving, though? The tokens were the critical decision to make right away,” Agent Bea reminded them.

  “Yeah, I think I have to eat salad first, right?” Danielle said. “It would be good if my roommates could get those bag dinners, too.”

  “OK, yes, salad first while we pull the tokens, then you go to the Dome,” Ranger Flo said. “Then you make Boost Recovery tokens until you get dizzy – which still feels so wrong – and we see how far things get.”

  “Agreed,” Danielle said, and the Rangers and Agent Bea echoed, “Agreed.”

  They returned to the quartermaster’s counter, where Danielle found the rest of the boys had arrived and were clustered around the counter. “It looks like I have business to do,” Agent Bea said. “Flo, can you draw four bag dinners and a salad for Miss Falconer and her roommates? I’ll put her in the book shop again, I think.”

  “I’ll grab something from the cafeteria. It’s going on your account, though,” Ranger Flo said.

  “Yes, yes, have an auth card,” Agent Bea said, drawing a small card case out of a pocket and extracting a card from it. She scrawled a few words and initialed it, then handed it to Ranger Flo and headed for the counter.

  Ranger Flo saluted her with the card, and headed for the nearest set of stairs. Stranger Ranger went back in at the door behind the stairs, towards the exam room, saying “I think I’ll check in with our other patients.” Danielle followed Agent Bea.

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