“You want me to pay you?” Nick asked Nero over the link, while his psyche radiated confusion.
“Well, you already owe me a few things for not doing that thing, remember? So how about this. You can be my sponsor. You give me room and board somewhere, access to books on magic, and all that I need to learn about this place. Oh… Also get me combat lessons. In return, once a week, I’ll stand on a platform and let you pelt me with lights to your heart’s content. What do you say?” asked Nero.
As Nero was having this conversation in his mind, Vera was sitting in her chair watching one side of the conversation. Nero was speaking his half of the exchange out loud, rather than just thinking it to Nick through the link. Alarmed at what she heard Nero proposing, she pinged Nick herself.
“Are you serious?” Nick said, then felt Vera’s ping. Realizing the stupidity of ignoring his wife right now, he linked her to his conversation with Nero.
Feeling the new addition to the conversation, Nero looked over at Vera. ‘Wow, she has one hell of a mental presence,’ he thought. As Nero could feel her attention was completely locked on Nick, he felt like a kid hiding in the garage from an angry mother.
“Nicholas Marcus Salvatore! You know there are procedures for human testing. You have to submit a proposal to the Center Research ethics board for approval. Then request funding from the research council, which you LEAD! Then assign a team to manage the experiment. You can NOT just hire people as lab rats and do whatever you think is interesting. There. Are. Procedures.” She finished with a mental growl, which was mirrored in the room with a huff.
Nick flinched, and replied “I didn’t do any experiments, well not really. And I’m not going to hire him as a lab rat. But... him being around could be useful to observe.” He sounded reluctantly hopeful. “Obviously, the cost of what he is talking about is ridiculous, and we won’t be doing any of it. But we could maybe hire him as a worker-associate in the labs? He could still go to classes on his days off, and on the days he works here, we can have him do janitorial stuff; cleaning and such.”
As Nero listened to them go back and forth, he felt it was time to reassert control. Still out loud, he said, “I’m not cleaning anything. I’ll join the labs as a worker-associate to get access to all the learning stuff from the Center. But on the days I’m ‘working’ at the lab, I’ll be studying to catch up. I’ll help out with stuff, but no crap labor,” he said decisively.
Nick replied quickly, “That’s fine with me. Mostly you’ll just be in the way, considering you don’t know anything of any real use and I’ll only be putting you back in the Essence Forge when you use a star.”
Vera mentally shrieked, “You put him in the Essence Forge?!?”
Nick said quickly, “I didn’t actively run it or anything. I just wanted to take a look at how his soul effected the ambient essence. Then I had the idea that I could record the essence pattern of his star usage like Franklin Archer did over in Batherton. He did that study on soul confluence interaction with stress, you remember? Doesn’t matter… The boy was fine, and I got some interesting data that could shed some light on how environmental essence factors interact with the soul’s confluence on this plane of reality.”
Nero was enjoying feeling the minds of the two as he listened to their exchange. It was interesting to feel people emotions on a psychic level. He always liked emotionally poking people, and this medium seemed well suited for it.
Taking the opportunity, Nero interjected, “That wasn’t how I was supposed to be tested? What was supposed to happen Mrs. Salvatore?”
A red faced Vera replied, “He was SUPPOSED to use a soul-scope to verify that your soul signature was different than Mr. Tipsman. Then he should have checked to see if there were any signs of undeath by examining your body/mind tether. And lastly he should have measured your psychic field to ensure that your mind isn’t damaged, which would constitute a danger to those around you.”
“Wow Nick, that ONE machine you put me in could do all that?” Nero asked innocently.
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“Technically, the Essence Forge would have highlighted any issue with your soul signature, and the body/mind tether, if you tune it correctly. Which I did! As for the psychic profile, my mental acuity is high enough that I just had to look at you and realize your psychic field is fine. Weird, but fine,” Nick replied.
‘Here it comes,’ Nero thought with anticipation. Nero then asked, “Then what was the point of me using stars while I was in the lights?”
Vera’s mouth dropped open. “Stars! As in multiple Stars! Did you recreate that lunatic’s experiment with him?” Her attention turned to Nero, “Didn’t you use your stars when you got them? Why would you hold onto them?”
“I didn’t know how to use them, so I just held onto them. Nick explained it to me.” Nero said while smiling sweetly to Vera.
Vera’s attention pivoted to Nick, “What does he mean you explained it? Did you tell him you were running an experiment on him, or what that machine could do to a human that was in it while it was manipulating essence? How many stars did you have him spend?” Without pausing, she kept blasting, “Answer me Nick! How did you get him up out of bed, did you cast something on him to hide his pain? Do we need to get him to the Med-Center?”
Vera’s mind was vibrating like a real-housewives neck massager. Nero raised his hand to his face and hid his chuckle. Nick’s mind was in full retreat, and waving the white flag.
“No dear. It’s not like that,” Nick pleaded as Vera had him on the ropes. “He wasn’t feeling any discomfort from holding 3 stars, and I just figured that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for scientific advancement. He didn’t suffer any negative repercussions.”
Nero helpfully added, “Aside from the nausea and vomiting, you mean. Other than that I was fine.”
Vera was like a rottweiler on a chew toy. She said, “You and I are going to have a long talk tonight mister. There are limits to my patience, and I’ve been too kind lately; allowing you to do whatever you want in that lab. I know everyone on that research committee that you THINK you run. We’ll be having a comprehensive review of this incident, and I don’t want to hear any complaints, you hear me?”
Nick said, “Please Vera, calm down. Can’t you see that Nero is messing with you. He’s just trying to rile you up.”
Nero winced. ‘That was a mistake. NEVER tell an angry woman to calm down,’ he thought while trying to shrink his mental presence in the link.
“Of course I know he’s using the situation to see me get angry. I AM standing right next to him. If you can feel his amusement over the link, how do you think it feels in the same room with him. He’s just a 14 year old boy with a two day old identity. YOU are an 87 year old leader in your field. You help shape policy for a living! Be better Nick. Not informing him what you were doing was abusing your position. I am furious right now.” She paused and took a breath, “We will talk more about this later.” Her attention then turned to Nero and she said, “Mr. Walker, please close the link with Mr. Salvatore.”
Nero looked like he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He closed the link and returned to his seat. He glanced up with a half smile, shrugged his shoulders with an ‘eh, what can you do?’ look on his face, and said, “I figured you should know what happened, but I got a free link and he owes me some magic books for agreeing not to say anything about it. This way, you find out and I get free stuff. Sorry, not sorry.”
Vera broke into a full blown laugh. “You’re two days old and you tricked us into getting you a job where you don’t have to do any work, get the center to feed and clothe you, all while focusing on acquiring magic training. You Mr. Walker, are a very dangerous young man.”
‘See. I told Nick that I was dangerous,’ Nero thought while smiling like a bandit.
“In all honesty, Nick was heading for trouble anyway. Every 10 years or so, he starts getting loose with the rules. Even so, he is a brilliant man that pushes the boundaries of what we know more than any other man in Dorchester. Yet, for all his intelligence, he lacks wisdom.” Vera said.
“Yeah, those two virtues rarely meet,” Nero replied. “You don’t seem that angry right now, was that all show?” he asked.
Vera stood up to pour herself a glass of water. “Not at all. I’m not skilled enough in mental techniques that can mirror emotions. I was, and am angry. Maybe not as much as I led him to believe. He also didn’t do anything illegal, using an Essence Forge to test you like that was stupid, not against the law. It’s the equivalent of using an entire branch of the military to march a basket of produce across the city, rather than just use a messenger. Really, my anger comes from him just being very rude to ask you to use your stars for his research. That, and I’m always a little angry with him. That’s just a side effect of living with someone,” she said with a fond smile.
As she sat back down, she smoothed her robes and double checked the placement of everything on her desk with her eyes. “Now Mr. Walker, are you on board with joining the center as a work-associate? I’m sure we can hire you as a lab attendant for Nick. He already has two of them, but they mostly work on their own projects and do his paperwork. Occasionally they help him do whatever experiment he is focusing on.”
“Yes, that’s fine. I get everything I want, and only have to put up with his floating lights. I heard what you said about him having to go in front of an ethics board if he wants to do any testing on a human lab-rat. I’m sure those people will do everything they can to ensure my safety. I’m guessing it would harm their path, or whatever, if they went against their reason for having a job.” Nero said.
“Very well said, Mr. Walker. I assure you that your rights and path will be protected. I’ll get the paperwork started today, and everything should be ready by tomorrow afternoon. Any time this week, you can fill out the forms through the link, and your file will be updated. In the meantime, feel free to use the facilities in the dorms to the best of your ability. I’d also recommend signing up for a combat class tonight since you are staying on with the Center. Ms. Averett has already contacted me as she noticed during her lunch break that you haven’t scheduled any combat classes.” Vera said while shaking her head. She then stood up and held her hand toward the door as if gesturing for him to leave.
Nero stood up, and said “Thank you for everything Mrs. Salvatore. I’m sure I’ll keep in touch. Hopefully we can get lunch or something.” He then bowed a little, and headed toward the door. Softly closing it behind him, he shook off how weird it was that they don’t shake hands or have any ritual to signify the end of a meeting. People here just kind of agree ‘oh… we’re done? OK’, then walk off.
‘Savages, every one of them,’ he thought with amusement.