He has me. He knows that he has me. His lips in a half-smile tell the story. Are essence abilities addictive? Does he know more than I know? But then how can do a unique preternatural ability not be addictive? Is a swift addicted to flight? I’ll try the honesty angle.

P: You know that I want this. Are you seriously saying that you did not have this a few weeks ago?

MC: That would be classified information. Nobody who knows the source of our magical weaponry leaves HQ.

P: That makes sense. But I do have a team.

Does his smile widen? Does he approve of team cohesion as a military man or does he think I am sentimental enough for him to be worth laughing about? I wish I could tell.

MC: It is a rare device but without somebody of your abilities, it is useless. Still we are not going to give a rare and valuable weapon to a totally untested man. Even if you are the only one with your ability now, we could still give stones of awakening to other wizards.

P: You have additional stones?

MC: Yes, frankly I would like to establish a corps of magical soldiers, but the crisis is now and a better guard against future incidents is useless if the country goes under due to the current crisis. We will, however, expect you to sign a willingness to take part in military missions for the duration of this crisis. We are willing to give you a stone of awakening.

P: Very well, I agree.

MC: And one thing more. We will pair you with another participant of your training who can generate and recharge others with the power you use to operate essence abilities.

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P: That is a nice surprise.

MC: Very well, then you all will be transferred to the navy. Your convoy taking you there will form tomorrow.

--

Thomas has met me leaving the room Carstens has occupied as an office and we are going to meet my team. His has been put out of action by one of those frog/duck thing. I am told they have been officially named „speartongued duckfrogs“ – very imaginative.

P: People, this is Thomas my fellow wizard

I always wanted to do an introduction like that

T: Hi, let me introduce myself …

He knows how to do that. I hope that I’ve gotten the message on why we are now assigned to a small fleet of river barges to run a new device for detecting intrusions in a field test. They did understand the concept of doing as one is ordered to, so I didn’t get more than a few good-natured remarks about „signing for the whole crew for a ship leaking like a sieve bound for Shanghai during typhoon season“.

--

Thomas has been ordered to do the rituals for both our stones. Are they thinking they are controlling me that way? Our do they know something I want nobody to know?

Thomas is a toxic person. At least that’s what his new ability says about him. He can poison melee weapons. Unfortunately, if you get close enough for a melee with a monster, you have already failed to use your firearm effectively. He seems resigned to being a supportive wizard.

I’ve hit jackpot. I can conjure multiple forms of a weapon up to an assault rifle. I try to play it down. His feelings must be hurt enough. I am supposed to get the device tomorrow after we will have put in our reports on our new abilities.

After a short expedition to do a simple ritual as a team of four with Ulrike finally acting as a pure commander we have returned to write reports, pack our stuff and say goodbye to people.

The sound of angry voices can be heared outside and the new alarm rings out.