"Thanks, love you, bye," I say, then end the call after Ian echoes my last three words.

"Was that Ian?" Tanner mumbles as he sits up on my bed.

"Yeah," I answer. "You told me I could tell him about your power to see what he knew about training empaths, figured I'd call him first thing after waking."

"What'd he say?" He asks as I climb off my bed and enter the kitchen.

"There are a few things," I answer. "Do you mind if Ali finds out about your ability? She'll keep it a secret."

"She only talks with you."

"For when she stops being a hermit," I pull on an apron, the only thing I'm wearing now, since Tanner and I both slept in the nude. "Ali knows the value of a secret, and she can help you refine it along with me."

Tanner thinks about it as I prepare us a breakfast of biscuits and gravy, with eggs and sausage links on the side. I bring the two plates of food into my room, then return to the kitchen and pour us both milk and orange juice, in separate glasses for each drink and person, of course. Once everything is set, we begin eating.

"I'd rather not let Ali know for now," Tanner informs me after we finish eating breakfast. "I've already had two people find out in the last week when I've never told anyone before, and I'd only just met one of them and haven't met the other. So I want to hold off."

"That's fine," I tell him as we take the dishes to my kitchen and start washing them. "Whether or not Ali knows just changes where we go to do some of the training stuff. I'll tell you what we're doing once we get there."

"Okay," he says.

We finish cleaning the dishes, then he dresses and leaves to change into clean clothes in his own apartment. I pull on a fresh outfit as well, pull on my backpack, then head downstairs and wait for Tanner by the security desk, entering into a staring contest with George, the security guard here on Saturday mornings.

"Having fun?" Tanner approaches us.

"Depends on your definition of 'fun'," I answer. "You blinked."

"Dammit," George mutters, and I look at Tanner.

He's dressed in beige cargo shorts and a light green button-up over a darker green tee, along with a backpack that he's probably put some food into for lunch, since we'll likely be gone all day. I'm in cargo shorts, too, though they're black. Most of my clothes are black or dark grey, with some dark blue or dark green as well.

"I won again."

"How often does that happen?"

"He's never beaten me," it's possible that Ian's the only person in the world who can beat me in a staring contest. In fact, I could probably defeat a snake in one. "Let's go."

Tanner follows me out of the dorm hall and out of town, into the ruins. I lead him away from where Ali sticks to. She doesn't leave there without good reason, so as long as we avoid it, she won't accidentally discover his ability. If she does, then there's probably an emergency. However, if there's an emergency, she'll probably try to contact me using the radio first.

We might not be able to use phones here in the ruins to communicate, but we can still use radios and walkie-talkies. Those don't rely on towers and such.

After about an hour and a half, we reach my target, a small pond fed by a creek, both of which formed during the World Revolt. The pond itself stretches around twenty feet on each side and is about four feet deep at the center, so I guess it's not 'small', but compared to the massive lake nearby, it is. The creek cascades into the pond from a ledge about two feet up, the entire space lower than the surrounding area.

The creek itself runs through a section of road that sank down and is about three feet wide. There are also a few fish swimming in it, though I'm not sure how they got here. The water itself is pretty clear, allowing us to see the small rocks that make up the bottom. Where the pond itself rests used to be part of a grassy yard between a church and the road.

"We're here," I tell Tanner, who looks at the half-fallen church, the broken-up parking lot, and the damaged playground, all of which have begun to be reclaimed by nature. "There's nothing but nature and ruins for the next five hundred miles in this direction, so no one's really ever out this way unless they're lost or trying to get away for a bit. That said, those are rare, so we don't have to worry about them."

Plus, there's a spell on this area to protect it from being accidentally wandered into. I won't go into the details of the spell or how such a thing could exist, but it's rather effective.

"Is that a wolf?" Tanner jumps

"His name is Phantom, and you should ignore him," I pull off my boots before sitting on the edge of the ledge over the pond, letting my feet hang into it.

Since I'm wearing shorts, I don't have to worry about my pants getting wet. The water only goes up about halfway to my knees when I'm in this spot. It's cool and relaxing, and if we weren't here for training, I'd probably strip and go for a dip.

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There are some better ponds for that, though.

"Have a seat," I tell Tanner. "We'll begin the training."

Tanner pulls off his sneakers and socks before sitting next to me, letting his feet dangle into the pond as well.

"So what now?" He asks.

"According to Ian," I say. "There are only three known empaths who work with the Federation and I think two more outside of the Federation, excluding you. You're also the eldest by about three years, and the youngest is six. Most of the training they've figured out for empaths comes from the older two with the Federation.

"What they've figured out so far," I say. "Is first to stretch your ability to your maximum."

"When trying to figure out how to turn it off?" He asks.

"Neither of them have managed it," I tell him, and he groans. "You're also older, and if you were honest about your starting range being around twenty feet when you were little, then you're more powerful than the other three are. So it's possible you might manage it sooner.

"Back to the lesson," I say. "Stretch it out as far as you can. Once you're there, try to focus on every mind you can sense."

"Every mind?" He asks.

"Not at once," I tell him. "Just go from mind to mind. Feel the difference between them, study them. There's more than just people and fish here. You can do this in town, too, but since I'm explaining things…"

"It's better to do it out here to avoid the chances of someone overhearing us," he nods. "Okay. Give me a few minutes."

As Tanner focuses on doing this, I watch him. Since the Sigils and the powers have only been around for eighteen and a half years, there's a lot of studying that needs to be done in regards to how to train the abilities. While some abilities are easier to figure out due to higher numbers of Sigil-Bearers with them, some abilities are rarer, and that makes it more difficult. Less people trying different things.

However, they did manage to figure out a couple of things regarding empath training. Tanner told me yesterday that he can really only sense emotions, and he's able to tell what they are, even without training or studying. Ian said that the other empaths have that instinctual knowledge as well.

This is one of those things they figured out. By studying the minds, an empath can expand what it is they're sensing. With training, Tanner will be able to differentiate between male and female, young and old. He'll be able to filter out weaker minds.

Not just ignore them, like he's been doing, but actually filter them out. So far, none of the other known empaths have managed to filter out non-human minds, but if Tanner can master at least this part of it, he'll lighten his load. Being more powerful than the others, it's even possible he'll manage to filter out human minds with enough training.

Another thing this training does is it allows him to more strongly sense weaker minds. Part of why they're so easy to ignore is because their presence isn't that strong. They might be akin to a box fan blowing air in a room in terms of distraction level, only overwhelming him if there are too many.

So a room full of mosquitoes? He'll probably just start smacking things without any effect on his mind from theirs. But a litter of hyper puppies? They'd probably overwhelm him.

All of that can change with training, though, and that's why we're here.

Movement catches my attention, and I look past Tanner to watch Phantom, who moved onto a section of road raised above the rest. He's out of Tanner's range and behind his visual sight, so the empath likely hasn't noticed.

Phantom is a pure white wolf, though his mate, Shadow, is a pure-black wolf. They have a litter of grey wolves, which is confusing as hell, considering it's a different species of wolf entirely. All of them have golden eyes, like most wolves.

For a few moments, Phantom watches us, then he turns and leaves, disappearing from sight within moments.

"Your mind has a touch of aggravation," Tanner says.

"Don't worry about it," I tell him as I pull my feet out of the water and stand. "It's a beautiful day."

"Yeah," he turns his attention down to the pond. "What's aggravating you? Did you see something?"

"There are some people nearby," I tell him. "I'll go handle them in a few minutes."

"Okay."

I let my feet dry off before I pull my boots back on, then I head off in the direction Phantom was in. There's no trace of him anymore, though that doesn't surprise me. I named him that for a reason. If someone takes their eyes off of him while he's on the move, he has a tendency to vanish.

Humans aren't the only ones who obtained abilities, though most people haven't realized this yet. Groups like the Federation are keeping it a secret as much as they can for now, too, since it doesn't really pose much of a danger.

It only takes me about five minutes to reach the building where they're at. It's just a group of kids from school, and it looks like they're here to paintball. When I enter the building they're in, they all look at me. Eight of them. My guess is they were going to buddy up during their game, just in case something happened.

"First," I say. "It's better to work in quartets. If someone gets hurt, one can stay behind with them while the other two go for help. Second, phones don't work out here because there aren't any cell towers nearby. Third, this area is haunted by wolves. Fourth-"

I pull out my very real gun and shoot the ground near one corner of the room. Where the bullet strikes, the entire floor falls away, and part of the wall collapses as well. The group of students all freeze, staring at the damage.

"Get out of the ruins," I say. "They aren't safe, and you idiots don't know how to tell where it's safe and where it's not. You idiots also don't know if there are dangerous people here. The 'training exercise' the Federation was doing on Tuesday? Involved the Goddess of Chaos killing an Immortal Sigil from the Klen. You're all normies. If you came across the Klen, you'd be given two choices. The first is join them, and you'd all probably end up getting brainwashed if you did. The second is die. Seriously, get out."

I turn and leave the building, then watch as the kids from school gather up their stuff and leave, clearly shaken up by both the gunshot and the reveal that they probably could have collapsed the building on themselves.

For about ten minutes, I wait, then Phantom makes an appearance again, giving me confirmation that they've headed out. If they change their minds, he'll show himself again.

Now that that's taken care of, I return to Tanner, who gives me a horrified look.

"Did you shoot them?"

"What?" I ask as I pull off my boots and sit on the ledge once more, letting my feet dangle in the cold water again.

"I heard a gunshot!"

"Oh, that," I say. "No. I shot the floor to cause it and part of a building to collapse. I've found that doing that tends to let idiots know to leave and not try to move somewhere else. They were going to paintball, and even if their stuff was normal, it could still cause a building to collapse. Or the ground could give way under them."

"Now I'm starting to understand some of the rumors," he mutters, then shakes his head. "How did you know they were here?"

"A man's got to have his secrets."