“Now?”
I smiled. “Why not? Find a comfortable place to sit and we will begin with your mental defenses.”
Settling in the seat that I had just vacated, Zez closed her eyes. I didn’t give her much time to raise her defenses before reaching out with the same energy with which I sent thoughts. With an invisible hand and eyes, I examined her. I was surprised to find a reasonably strong-looking wall erected around her mind. I spotted similarities to Selwyn’s methods, but there were large portions of defense work that I had never seen before.
Pressing against one of those places, I was rebuffed so suddenly that I lost my connection. It was unlike anything I knew of. Opening my eyes, I regarded Zez with a frown. She blinked up at me.
“What was that?”
“An energy burst triggered by your probe,” she replied. My expression slowly registered and worry flickered across her features.
“You have been experimenting.”
“Only under Selwyn. Was that wrong?” When I didn’t respond right away, she explained. “He liked some of my ideas and we worked out a way to incorporate them into the accepted rules. He said it was alright.”
I nodded slowly. “I want a complete log of all the inventions that the two of you have developed.” Ordinarily I would have scolded her and had a very serious talk with Selwyn, but in light of our current situation with the Elitists, their ideas might give us an edge. “I am going in again. Warn me against any more triggers. Neither one of us wants to cause damage.” She nodded and closed her eyes.
Opening my senses up again toward her, I pressed past a more familiar section of defense work and into her externus, the outer rim of her consciousness. As I focused on a familiar-looking technique, her presence slipped into my thoughts, filling my mouth with a rush of mint.
“An antiquus disguise,” she sent.
“I recognize it. How do you form it?”
Her answer came freely and the explanation was clear. I tested her on the theory behind the tactic and found her well versed. Selwyn apparently had trained her well.
“Have you developed a modification of this?” I asked.
She hesitated. It was strange how I knew though. The flicker of fear and uncertainty didn’t come as it usually would from someone who was sending to me, distant and foreign. Instead, it was as though I felt what she felt. As much as I wanted to explore this new development, I knew that now wasn’t the time. “I won’t punish you for it if you have. I am just testing your theory.”
“Using the underlying concept of disguising a new thought as old, we thought we might try disguising a thought as something mundane, below a searcher’s notice.”
“Like what to have for dinner or when to do the laundry?”
“Exactly.”
I refrained from praising the idea, but I couldn’t help appreciating the ingenuity. I moved on to the next defense. An hour passed smoothly as I moved deeper into her mind. She demonstrated everything I could have asked for in a defender applicant, but as much as I didn’t want to admit it, she also offered more. Within the few minutes that I had given her to prepare, she had erected defense tactics that took more energy than most defenders had in their arsenal. Yet, she still had the concentration and control to escort me through the steps that she had taken, explain the modifications, and more than once, stop the reaction that I triggered in my examination.
“Have you ever experienced dizziness or nausea after a lesson or exam?” I asked as I examined her angulus’ outer wall. The angulus was the central and most critical part of the brain. All activity and memories emanated from there. Defending that area was the hardest skill to master, yet she appeared to have hers well protected.
I felt her confusion at my question before her answer flowed through my thoughts. “No. Why?”
“They are some of the symptoms of overuse.” I pushed away the memory of my own first introduction to overuse.
“Is it normal to have overuse?”
“Some talents experience it when they have overextended their talent during a short time period. What is this?” I drew her attention to a thin place in the wall.
“That is a trigger for ConProp. If an assailant presses it, I will ConProp instinctively. Based on the reactions that Selwyn has experienced, the rebuff can throw a man a few feet.”
I raised my eyebrows. “How long does your talent stay silent?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t tried to time how long I can remain blind. I do know I can retune to my amoveo within a few minutes. My sending ability soon follows.”
“It could be something useful to know.”
Zezilia
HE WAS STRUGGLING WITH something. I could feel it as though it was happening within me instead of him, yet I could not discern the reason for his unease. Perhaps it was this new sense of understanding I had toward him. With the first touch of his presence in my head, I had done as I always had with Selwyn and joined my energy with his to communicate and see what he saw. But from that first latching, it felt different than any of the moments with Selwyn. I could almost hear the Sept Son’s thoughts as they flowed beneath the surface of his mind. His emotions coursed through me in a way that felt as though they were my own. Intimate and intriguing, I struggled to hold back my curiosity and concentrate on my exam.
“It seems that Errol is correct again.” Suddenly he withdrew from my thoughts. I blinked in surprise as my eyes adjusted to the dim light of dusk.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I can’t just walk away from you.” Rising to his feet, he took two steps away so that his back was to me. Head bent and arms crossed, he lingered in thought.
“Why?” I couldn’t help
