"Enrique!" I shouted, smacking my son out of the way to rush down the monster goring my husband. Blood coated the ground from the dozens of innocents Enrique hadn't been able to protect from the rushing beast. Instead of running, I grabbed the bloody rifle and started unloading on the creature's ursine face even as the blood started to turn into iridescent dust that flowed into me. The iridescent dust that had been my husband.

An unnatural gust of wind filled my lungs as I yelled at the remains of the beast I'd slain, its filthy essence mixing with the purity and strength that my husband had filled me with at the end of his life. It was all Dyonte could do to hold me as we both sobbed amidst the many other injured.

--+--

I strode through a small field of dead forest animals, watching as frost crawled up the side of trees all radiating from a pond that was more slushy than swamp. The shouts of my family echoed through the woods as they searched for me, but all my ears could hear was the roar of a waterfall louder than any I'd ever heard. The moment I stepped into the frigid waters, they stilled and a glistening flagstone skipped along the surface before bowling me over into the water. The two of us, one a human and the other a confused semi-ethereal gathering of energy, wrestled in the muck. By the time my family found me, I was panting on the shore while ice melted all around me and the flat stone glowed a deep blue from under the rough stick I'd used to whack it into submission. With a triumphant huff, I wedged the thing into the end of the stick to use as a torch to guide our hunting party back home.

--+--

The hurricane was unlike anything that had come before, and I'd seen some monstrous storms in my long life. In fact, that seemed to be the problem. Life coursed through the mega storm as if it was nothing but a pond in spawning season. The thrashing of young Elementals overseen by stronger creatures that brought lightning to the earth and pelting rain against the remains of our city. My family had insisted I stay inside, fought me at every turn, really. But what was I but a breakwater? The staff in my hand squirted water on my already soaking face, and I flicked a finger on the magical crystal to set it ringing even as the hippocampus complained about the sensation.

With a chuckle, I finished my escape from where my family had holed up at the local hospital. Things had been going okay, great even, but if nothing was done about the rampaging storm all the city's progress would be reset. Before, if someone had told me that I could do something about a storm-- a thing birthed by nature with all its majesty and fury-- I would have laughed in their face. After touching on the magic some of my grandchildren were starting to play around with thanks to my staff... well, things could be different.

A howling beast, more tornado than anything solid, made a beeline for me the moment I had the hippocampus flare its power. Then I had the Totem trample it to dust. It only took a fraction of the energy I'd stored within the crystal and some was even replenished as the energy transferred to the hippocampus. However, I was certain the storm had taken notice as the taste of the winds changed. I inhaled deeply, my once decrepit lungs savoring their new mutated potential before I bellowed a challenge into the void... until the void answered back. The heart of the storm turned, regarding me with one glimmering eye of shining selenite that glowed with the same intensity as my own crystal. A breathless moment, like getting punched in the gut, and a breathful moment like when you stick your head out of a car window or dare your friend to go sky diving with you, overlapped in my mind. It was all the confirmation that I needed. Only one word escaped my lips. "Gimme!"

--+--

Reality crashed back into place with stark relief. The spheres of the Arcane Sinks were visible even as they retracted and even the warbled one Fievil had started to form in an attempt to protect me. I swayed, a strange tinnitus ringing in my ears that grew quieter the more I moved away from where Sharon had fallen. It didn't disappear for a few solid minutes, and my brain struggled with the combined might of memories and what seemed to be Sharon's unique Skill. That connection grounded my thoughts, and questions were answered, and formed, within seconds.

was unique as far as I was aware, even amidst those with Gifts. From Sharon's description, her ability was too somehow connected with the way her blood worked or interacted with magic. Of course, that could be a Trait of hers... But now I have the memories that go with the powers. A chill crawled down my spine as I remembered the pain of loss intermingled with the excitement of challenge and determination of survival all cramped into a few seconds worth of contact. Even with those, the way the power worked for her was entirely alien in a way I hadn't felt from anyone else. Out of the hundreds of memory snips rattling around my head, Sharon's was the only one that transmitted power however short lived. I didn't even want to think about what the implications of that were, should the Aberrants get a hold of her.

Or me... The idea of Aberrants shortcutting their corrupting rituals using me set my stomach roiling. Memories of the corrupted Infusion, of the Aberrant we'd caged however briefly and the despair the Wild Guard trainees had felt while being afflicted... being propagated through me? It made me wish wasn't an option on my Status for all the good it had managed. If only--

My head snapped to the side as a palm struck me. Almost instinctively, I shuffled back from the offender to prevent her from receiving the blowback from Tremor Frame. "None of this self pitying crap."

"How did you know?"

"You think the thought didn't cross my mind ever since this thing happened to me?" Sharon said, flicking her saggy earlobe. "They don't call us 'wise women' for nothing, boy. Your face was about as clear as a book can get. I don't know what your natural power is, but mine forced yours to trigger and you thought about something dark, dangerous, weird or appalling. My guess was all of those together, just for the record."

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"I..." My words caught in my throat. It hadn't been long since I'd revealed to the rest of my squad and here I was getting ready to tell some random old lady. Yet... she understood. The nightmares from receiving memories from people didn't fade no matter how much I tried. It wasn't like there wasn't a shortage of misery on the surface to trigger them. Even when I looked at Jolene... well, it was improving.

While her power didn't seem to fall in the same direction as mine, it clearly haunted her if that was how strongly her memories were tinged by it.

I gave Sharon an abbreviated description of , focusing on impressions and the magic of the connection to assist Afflicted as the main aspect rather than the 'mental visitation' of memories that came with it. I definitely didn't need to spread around that it seemed to work like a facet of what the Entity Clusters did to grant Skills, or the fact that I suspected her own sensory ability likely had overlap with the way the Entities sensed the world. The more about magic I learned, the more I realized things overlapped in new ways and that was how changes manifested. The Shards and Totems were already enough of a parallel to the Entities for me to realize anyone could tap into the 'nature' of magic if they had the knack for it-- artificially created or not.

"Hmmmm. Two senses of reality then. The eyes and the hands," Sharon mumbled to herself while leaning back in her chair. After our... brush she'd looked worn out despite the light in her eyes.

"How do we move forward from here?"

"How?" Sharon asked, tilting her head in confusion. "Same as we were. It just means I won't have to baby you like I thought."

"Excuse me?"

"Two days more," Sharon said, making a shooing motion. "That is when I expect the elementals to pounce. The Faction leaders have been made aware, and they will stand in as good as they can in my absence. Go protect your outpost, I'm sure they could use the help even with a Crystal Ward of their own. Be back by the end of the second day, and hopefully we can finally put down a pain in my ass down."

"I have questions?" I said, stunned as Sharon stood to start ushering me out the door.

"And I do and don't have the answers that you seek. Complicated bit, being so intertwined with nature. Necessitates mystery and misdirection, you understand."

"What? No I don't! What was the whole point of this? Why did you make me glimpse into your mind if you were just going to throw me to the side? Why did you batter me and Fievil? What was the point of this whole endeavor!?" I planted my foot, unmoving despite the old woman's insistent tugging.

The room chilled, and the wind whistled past my ears as Sharon's Totems stirred the moment I opposed their master. Now somewhat awake, and fed, Fievil mustered a response as my Arcane Sink threw sand into the mix. The permafrost sludge circled the air for a moment before Sharon chucked her staff over her shoulder only for it to hover in the air not too far. The magical field stopped overlapping, and Fievil's Domain sunk back into the hammerhead. Sharon poked me in the stomach, almost head height for her.

"Listen here you overgrown meat slab. I think you know this, but I'm going to repeat it slow-like. Power comes at a cost. The cost is sometimes cheap, and sometimes it is expensive. How much it is going to take depends entirely on how much effort you frontload it with. Internalize the lessons. Do your homework. Pass the tests. Nothing I tell you now will help you as much as flexing those impressive muscles you got, physical and magical. You are on the cusp of something, and it needs to come from you or it won't be yours. I think you know what I am telling you is true even if it tastes sour."

Unfortunately, I couldn't exactly disagree with the woman. While I think it was overly dismissive of what she could actually provide, it was true that every process with magic I'd developed myself always felt stronger. More... to make a play on the word, Attuned, to my self. If and whatever Sharon's were strong due to how innately they were tied to us, then the same would go for any improvements I made working with Fievil. Even with that realization, it burned to see the smug expression on the woman's face. Getting read like a book was not a pastime I was enjoying.

"I don't like you," I said, my voice flat as the woman cackled.

"Yes you do, boy. You just don't like it when you aren't the smartest person in the room. Though, to be fair, I think some of your friends just indulge you."

"Hey!" My complaint fell on deaf ears, as Sharon finally managed to nudge me out of her office before shutting the door in my face. I could hear her cackling through the door for several seconds before I huffed and walked towards the stairs. Just as she was getting out of vibrosense range, I felt her stagger forward into her chair. My whole body froze at the strange quiet that followed the motion. She didn't move for almost twenty seconds, and just when I was getting ready to check back in on her, she adjusted her position in the chair and reclined in a more normal posture. I waited for another minute, monitoring her for the micro movements that people make even when resting and relaxed when her ripples grew steady.

"I was worried she croaked," I grumbled, turning to Blobby as the slime rolled down the stairs beside me. While it was just as silent as always, its camouflage had taken a hit thanks to the saddle sticking right out of its middle. However, it wouldn't be long before it would have enough bulk to hide it within. "I felt even more out of my depth than when I tried to talk to Alan about something non-research related. Are old people supposed to be this cryptic? I don't think Elias was ever that circumspect... then again, the man did lie by omission better than anyone I know together with a thick case of gaslighting until we confronted the entire bunker with the existence of the surface."

Blobby squelched beside me, forming arms on its body just to shrug at me.

"Yeah, it checks out. Old people are strange," I said, sighing as I started the process of parsing just what I had actually learned from my time with the Nash Shaman.