I am being demoted. That is, offially you cannot demote me. The pay will stay the same, meagre as it is. But I am sent to the looting teams being formed for the anticipated big mop up operations. I must assume that it is now known that I can produce loot without rituals.
Lisa is promoted. Again, inofficially. In her case the promotion is foremost physical, then occupational and then symbolic. The latest convoy has brought in an armoured box containing an essence of the Foot. The politicians have her replace Thomas and Thomas replace me. And I thought myself clever in showing off our abilities to make magical materials. That means that tomorrow I’ll be free to do whatever I want and the day after tomorrow we’ll sail. Literally sail, as in boarding a river freighter. We in this case meaning the old team Dejan, Ulrike and I. I have technically remained a civillian. Hence my guards are supposed to be civillian, too. Their actual ability to protect me does not matter to a bureaucratic mind.
I have been thinking about the future a lot those last days. Here, in this country, the government will never leave me alone in peace. I can work remotely and make money on the side turning a few ordinary materials into magical materials. I think I’ll go to the Adriatic coast.
Provided the Network leaves me alone and the people I have made a deal with don’t send me to Patagonia or the Gobi. Can they shield me from the Network? Maybe. You cannot predict the future. But you can prepare. Tomorrow the last items, considerable sums of cash in three currencies will go into my inventory. For me, packing a lot of stuff has become redundant, so I don’t have to think how to get at certain medications for example. But a spare gun, now available to any citizen without a criminal record, and ammo will go into my inventory. Just in case I need to kill or fight in a manner that does not point to an essence magician. I am ready to give up on the idea of manipulating people. There are always so many options that you don’t see, that it is bound to backfire.
Lisa proposed to let her introduce herself to the students without us. Thomas and I plan to use today and tomorrow for aura experimentation. For some reason the help entries on that in my tricorder suck.
--
T: I have changed my mind about the nature of aura perception.
P: Why?
T: When you dim yourself your perception range goes down.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
P: So you pour less „juice“ into the dection parts and they work worse.
T: But do you feel like dimming yourself takes less work?
P: Actually, no. So you think it works like radar where you actively have to seek out other auras?
T: Yes. If I am right, parts of our effort were always doomed.
P: You cannot expect to study a totally new class of phenomena and all your working hypotheses to pan out.
T: True, so we should look at other aspects. You can truly switch off the telekinetic aspect of your aura, can’t you?
P: Yes, I do it by default and save th emana it costs.
T: Does running your aura cost mana?
P: Yes. I get information about movability in exchange for mana.
He does move a single eyebrow. He can do it.
T: Getting a little … tactile information?
P: No. For things with an aura, which are very hard to move, by the way - it tested it on a fly and a dog, if I push you the force is partially on your whole body and partially on a flat surface perfectly moulded to your body projected onto a plan orthogonal to the vector of force.
T: No force choking?
P: Nope. I can fling muggles against walls or the ground though, I think. So aside from my personal satisfaction, I am good.
T:My aura does not give me information. How can I tell wheter I am using its effect?
P: You do realize that this question at this state is the question of what your aura does? Maybe you are a baker and dough needs less time to rise?
T: Very, very funny. OK, probe me.
He is looking genuinely nervous.
[Poison Bug]
Poison attacks you and your allies make within your aura have increased effect.
P: I am not letting you put cyanide into my tea to test this. Not even for science.
T: Luddite!
We are dedicating the rest of this morning to meditation.
--
That should be obvious to any essence magician.
P: Lisa has reached Iron rank.
T: What do you think her powers will be?
P: Light infantry I’d say.
There is shouting in the house. We are heading down.
--
The doctors insist on drawing blood and taking probes of other body fluids, which are readily available and leaving the heart monitor connected. One of the blessings of being in a military base in war time is the ready availability of gas masks.
I have actually forgotten to add filters and gas masks to my virtual ready bag.
L: Did you let me run into this unprepared just for fun?
T: No, when we suffered from this we had been subjected to large doses of radiation and considered it a form of radiation sickness specific to essence magicians. We need to tell you our story so far, it seems to me.
It turned into a long afternoon and am still wondering how they cleaned the room. They did not bother with anything in it. The furniture went out through the windows.