“Good morning, Elurra,” Lira said as she sat across from her at breakfast the next morning.
“Good morning, Lira.”
Lira almost dropped her coffee.
“You have been talking to my daughter, I see,” the queen replied aloud, regaining her composure. “I was going to start teaching you about communication next, but I see Raeya beat me to it. I hope she did not distract you too much from your assignment. Who did you come up with?”
“All five noble houses, the baker’s apprentice, Duke—”
Lira held up her hand and shook her head.
“Please do not do that. It gives me a headache, and Raeya does it incessantly.” Lira rubbed her temples.
Elurra apologized and spoke the rest of her list.
“Wonderful. Do you have any questions?”
“How do you turn this scan thing off?”
“You know, I will not always be here to tell you everything. What is the command for ‘scan off?’” Lira reproached with a raised eyebrow.
Elurra thought about it for a second.
“Contė va!”[i]
Color flooded back into her vision, and she blinked rapidly. It overwhelmed her, and for a few seconds she could do nothing but bask in the beauty of a saturated world after an entire day in grayscale.
“Thank you. What else can I do?”
“You are part of something bigger than yourself. You are connected to Magic, and because of this, you can locate any other nanite user. The problem comes with telling them apart. Because most of them barely know how to use their abilities, they are not registered. The computer only knows there is someone of Guardian descent in the area. You can use this like the scan. Try it.”
Elurra closed her eyes and searched for the command, which floated to the front of her mind when she presented what she desired to do.
“Getȅ lo ńai,"[ii]
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Elurra suddenly felt outside of herself, looking down on a transparent map of the castle. She could see different dots scattered throughout its rings. Some were stationary, while others walked across the bridges or crossed the courtyards. There were about twenty glowing, golden dots and thousands of gray ones. All of the golden dots were dim, except two exceptionally bright ones. Of the two, she hastily identified herself, and the other was Raeya. Every dot had four numbers floating above it.
“Do you see the numbers?” Lira asked.
“Yes. My number is 2235,” Elurra noted.
“Those are the nanite codes. Every person’s nanites have a built-in code to identify them. The gray dots are life signs without nanites. The computer does not recognize them as Guardian soldiers, so it does not differentiate between them. Do you see the code 6595?”
Elurra hastily located the number in the second outer ring of the castle.
“Yes. Who is it?”
“Lord Garen. A command can be used to transport to a person’s location. Of course, the command differs from teleportation using a mental picture or geological location.”
“Ťo wen reċ 6595 miş?"[iii] Elurra blurted out.
Lira’s eyes bulged in dismay. Elurra realized her mistake when the world began to phase around her. She opened her eyes and found herself standing a few feet away from a perplexed Garen.
“Greetings, Lord Almasi. Fancy meeting you here.”
“You appeared out of nowhere,” Garen said slowly, as if he was trying to make the fact more reasonable by saying it out loud.
“Nonsense! I was just eating breakfast and made a slight miscalculation, and here I am.”
Garen stared blankly at her.
“A…miscalculation?”
Elurra could hear his doubt-laden thoughts and wished Raeya hadn’t taught her to be so aware. Whereas before she had always had a blurry sense of his emotions, like seeing the outline of the moons on a cloudy night, her new keen perception felt akin to a cloudless sunny day.
“How are you this fine morning?” Elurra asked, trying to change the subject.
“Actually, I was looking for you. I was wondering if you were up to a bit of swordplay.”
It seemed he was trying to ignore her sudden appearance. In his mind, she heard him rationalizing that she must’ve just walked around the corner. Elurra grimaced. She was starting to regret spending the day before with Raeya.
“Even after what happened?” she asked, glancing at his leg.
She was afraid of bonding with the sword again. She didn’t want to lose control, and the thought of accidentally hurting or even killing Garen made her want to throw up her breakfast. He grinned, though.
“You will not be able best me again so easily.”
Elurra rose to the bait, her misgivings quieted for the moment.
“I would not get too confident, Lord Almasi.”
“I wish she would just call me Garen,” she heard him think.
Raeya’s lesson was so simple. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t accidentally stumbled on the ability ages ago.
But, maybe I did. I have always been good at sensing what people were thinking, she thought. It was simply unfocused before, and not everyone has nanites.
“We will have to see, Princess. As for our sparring, meet me in the inner courtyard in an hour?” Garen suggested.
“Perfect.”
Elurra felt relieved when they parted ways. She hated how uncomfortable she felt in the presence of anyone who didn’t know how to guard their thoughts.
I need to find a way to stop hearing them, she decided, putting her mind to rest.
However, she had a feeling solving her problem wouldn’t be as simple as flipping a switch.