The simple joys in life are to be appreciated. A hard boiled egg consumed out of the shell with a sprinkling of salt. It turns out closing your eyes and humming in appreciation tends to elicit a response from Dejan and Ulrike I want to avoid.

P: We were meditating.

D: I like meditation.

I think that was a lewd remark. But I am not sure. Police training has unexpected use cases.

P: We were meditating. Essence magicians can get better at their abilities by meditating.

U: You said you need stones.

T: It is a quality versus quantity thing. Stones get you more abilities, but there is also a way to improve your existing abilities.

P: In fact I think we should integrate meditation in our teaching.

It had been a lewd remark. I can just imagine what is going through his mind. I like this man for his power of imagination. I just wish he would believe me in certain regards.

P: I am still thinking that if they let us kill and loot monsters again, you two will get the next essences and you are technically students now.

T: Plus we want to be good at this job. And this means training up not just narrow ritualists. I am not ready to test out what happens if we cease to be useful.

P: What are the other police people here thinking?

D: Mainly that the government is ready to lose a lot of police and military to keep transportation and the economy running.

T: Are we looking at a possible revolt?

U: Mostly no. We knew what we were signing up for. And for draftees to be out of basic training it is too early. Most of them have been turned into glorified ushers for the evacuation efforts anyway. Colleagues coming from those convoys have to deal with them.

T: Mostly?

D: You always have malcontents. They are minority and likely to remain. The question, however, is what happens if the government and the Network clash.

P: Didn’t you tell me not to worry about such things.

U: No. We told you not to worry about such things while the war is still in full swing. The numbers are suggesting that it’ll soon end. In fact, that we are here and not convoying suggests that. There is a future now.

D: That reminds me. Darling?

U: Yes. You two are invited to our wedding the day after tomorrow. Wartime exception on waiting periods.

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--

This late morning explains it all. We are getting the other batch. It turns out to be a batch of well mannered, well, at least well educated and doing well daughters of families of civil servants, academics and politicians. And in their case it is clear that they actually graduated from high school. They are members of the Foundation for the Advancement of Preternatural Knowledge in the Public Interest, which just happens to get tax exemption, tax deductability for donations, generous public funding and other advantages, straight from the federal fund for gender equality. And the training assignment is classified as confidential. I admire the cunning. Thomas is miffed.

P: We are going to include meditation in the curriculum. I want those girls to write nice letters home.

T: But …

P: In this case I really have to insist.

--

» Mysteries still surround the „Butterflys of Makassar“ and the hunt for the culprit still continues

» with neither the GDN nor governments confirming that monsters were responsible

» for the necromantic emergency.

» The government has announced a scrapping of land ownership taxes in the B and C zones, to be

» counterfinanced by a two year long surcharge on land taxes in the A zone. Members of the

» conservative party announced insisting on pressing exemption for farmers in the tax bill,

» citing a need to improve the food situation world wide.

» The FAO and WHO are again raising vocal criticism against the decisions of India, China

» and the USA to put legal limits on grain exports

» „The World is fighting this together. It also needs to eat together.“

» Riots over the spike in food prices are reported to continue in Egypt.

» The government has announced plans to keep the state of war in effect until the C zones

» have been resettled. Quoting the chancellor:

» „Our nation is at war as long as citizens are displaced, not just as long as

» new invaders are arriving“

» The Constitutional Court has granted an emergency motion to reinstate the leader

» of the nationalist opposition party, who was forcibly removed from parliament

» in a tumultous scene involving fist fights, after she asked when the Air Force

» would bomb the chancellory, as that is the place that originated

» the „usupatorial decrees“ that have driven so many citizens from their homes.

I like TV with lunch. Well, our terms of enlistment are to be lengthened. Splendid. It could be worse.

--

Lunch was exceptionally good. That should have warned us. Food right before such occasions tends to be better. Souls are real. Who else knows what is real? Suicide is not an option. A special messenger has arrived. We need to write regular, detailed reports on the state of our training efforts.