The world tilted around Rain as he toppled like a tree, making no effort to arrest his fall before his face slammed into the fluffy pillow atop his bed. He didn’t feel the impact, only the sudden appearance of scratchy sand grains between his toes. His avatar was right where he’d left it, standing and staring out at an ocean of essence, the horizon quite visibly curved.

Letting himself topple again, backward this time, Rain landed flat on the sand to stare up at the puffy clouds. He had a bed in here somewhere, too, but he was well, well past caring about that. The sun had dipped below the horizon hours ago, marking the third consecutive sunset since he’d last slept. Temerity was floating somewhere off the coast of Ekrustia between Barstone and Fioe, anchored in shallow water after half a day of infuriatingly-slow travel. He’d also just finished giving a pair of eulogies.

He was beyond drained, mentally, physically, and emotionally.

The next eight hours, though, were his, and he intended to use every last one of them.

He closed his eyes.

“Have a good nap, Custodian?”

“AHHH!”

Rain spasmed, sending sand flying as he flailed, tearing his eyes open. The wrinkled face of the Warden hovered over him, her mouth twisted into a rictus of sadistic glee. Any fleeting hope that it was just a dream vanished as his vision only became clearer, the Warden taking a step after him as he crabbed backward, coarse granules scratching at his back as they worked their way in through the collar of his t-shirt.

“Nice reaction,” the Warden said, smirking at him.

Rain continued scuttling away as he checked his HUD. He’d been asleep for over eleven hours by his personal clock, but less than two in objective reality. Despite the hammering of his heart and the haziness of his mind, he forced himself to think rationally.

Something is wrong here.

Detection

In the real world, his body had been moved to lie better on the bed, and Ameliah was lying in it beside him. Velika was still in the room in which they’d stashed her.

Nobody was missing. Nobody new had turned up either.

Looking up, he addressed the grinning woman who wasn’t there. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to teach you to brain good,” Vatreece answered.

“Come again?”

The Warden didn’t respond, simply staring at him with an unsettling grin.

Getting to his feet, Rain fought not to shiver as the Warden’s head swiveled to track his motion, her grin unchanging. It wasn’t long before he couldn’t take it anymore. “No, really, why are you here?”

“I’m here to teach you to brain good,” the Warden repeated, still with that horrible smile.

Rain narrowed his eyes. “Okay, how are you here?”

“Magic!” the Warden replied, her smile widening briefly before it returned to how it had been.

Exactly how it had been.

Rain took a deep breath, steeled his nerves, then waved his hand back and forth in front of the Warden’s eyes. Her smile didn’t change by an iota, so he did it again, just to be sure.

She’s a recording...

The fake Warden didn’t respond to the thought, so he spoke aloud.

“You’re a recording.”

“A memory construct,” Vatreece corrected, adopting a neutral stance, her leer replaced with a disappointed frown. “Took you long enough.” Her expression shifted again, becoming flat as she crossed her arms behind her back. “You might call me an NPC. You’re going to suck at what I’m here to teach you, which means a full copy was out of the question. Wouldn’t last long enough. This construct isn’t aware, but it will respond to your words, actions, and progress, should you manage to make any.” She sniffed. “Are you ready to start?”

“Start what?” Rain asked.

“I’m here to teach you to brain good,” the Warden said, the horrible grin returning.

“Gah!” he cursed, holding up a hand, “Stop that!”

The Warden shifted again, her expression becoming truly serious for the first time. “Refusal is not an option, Custodian. I am offering you instruction that others would kill to receive. To earn the trust I’m showing you, I ask only that you defend the secrets you’ve crammed inside your skull like so much luggage.” She waved a hand. “You have doubtless discovered the Thought Shell, but like all constructs, that is a temporary measure. Under no circumstances should you try to breach it. The moment it falls, whether punctured, or because you slack off until it runs out of power, I will puree your brain so thoroughly it will come dripping out your ears like soup.”

“What!?”

Vatreece snorted, but her smile vanished as quickly as it had come. “It’s nothing personal, I assure you. Quite the opposite, in fact. Had I not seen your potential, I would have wiped your mind already.”

Rain sat down hard on the sand. He needed time to think.

The Warden, though, seemed to have anticipated this.

After only ten seconds, she clapped her hands sharply twice. “Chop chop, Custodian. You’re wasting power. What’s it gonna be?”

“I...” Rain said, scrunching up his eyes. “How long do I have?”

“I can’t say for sure how long they will last,” the NPC Warden replied, responding to a subtly different question. “Every mind is different, and so is every soul. Maybe three months for the Thought Shell, real time.” She gestured to herself. “This could fall apart within a week if you keep asking stupid questions. Every interaction takes energy, even if I’m just waiting for you to untie your tongue.”

“Can I recharge you? You know I’m a Dynamo, so—”

“Theoretically, you could take ownership of the constructs, but you’ll never manage it in time,” the Warden interrupted. “You don’t even understand your own spell patterns. To understand those of the greatest Mentalist the world has seen for a thousand years?” She scoffed. “Don’t even think about asking anyone else for help, either, no matter how good they claim to be. They’d have to get through my Thought Shell first, and supposing there’s someone alive that can manage it, well...” The Warden raised her fingers to her temples, then mouthed a silent explosion as she spread them wide.

Shit.

...

Hang on a second, though. Did she say Thought Shell? She must have some hidden metamagic or other platinum-grade bullshit to let her cast it on other people.

...

I have an opportunity here, don’t I? Her response trees seem pretty good. I could try to pump her for information. Was she serious about how quickly the construct would degrade, or was she just exaggerating to stop me from doing precisely what I’m thinking about doing?

...

“Chop chop, Custodian. You’re wasting power. What’s it gonna be?”

Rain clicked his tongue.

This isn’t a game. I can’t risk it.

He got to his feet, dusting himself off. “I accept the training.”

“Finally!” the Warden said, snapping her fingers, then pointing at him. “Now, you’re not a Mentalist, so your class won’t help you visualize your mind in the slightest. That’s a problem.” She clasped her arms behind her back, walking to the side as she spoke. “It is an ass-backwards way of going at things, but we can work around your blindness. The mind shapes the soul, and the soul shapes the body, as they say.” She turned, pacing back the other way. “Fortunately for you, the reverse is also true. I once offered to teach you to mend your paling in exchange for your memories. You’ve paid your side. Now I’ll pay mine, if only as a stepping stone to what I really need to teach you.” She brought one of her arms around as she again reversed direction, holding a finger up in front of her. “To begin, you’ll need much finer senses. You need to SEE what you are doing before you can KNOW what you are doing, heh. Bumbling around on instinct has worked astonishingly well for you, but it will only get you so far. Thus, your first lesson: Learn to Read.” She spun on a dime to face him. “Tell me, did little Sana decide to go with you?”

Rain blinked. Sana did say the Warden wanted her to do something, but Ameliah cut her off before she could say what it was, and I never got a chance to ask her about it later.

“Chop chop, Custodian. You’re wasting power. What’s it gonna be?”

Damn, that’s annoying. That wasn’t even ten seconds, that time.

Rain met the NPC Warden’s eyes, then nodded.

Apparently, this was enough. “Good, I hoped she would,” Vatreece said, resuming her pacing. “I’ve already restored her memory of her own training. She will teach you what you need to know. I warn you, though, be careful. You won’t be able to stop yourself from blabbing to Tallheart and Ameliah, no matter what I say, but know that you’ll be playing with fire. I have some wiggle room when it comes to you, but if it gets out that a trusted Custodian is training Guilders to Read, well... Once I’ve kicked it, there’ll be nobody to stop my Guardians from stringing you up by your nostrils. Before that, if you make yourself into a nuisance, I’ll be inclined to help them do so, so watch yourself, Little Mouse. I’m not going to be busy with the Empire forever.”

Stopping sharply again, the Warden met his eyes. “Right. I’m guilty of being old, but not of being a windbag, so I’m shutting myself down to save power. You’ll be ready for lesson two once you’ve managed to beat Sana at Nine Dice, so do that, then call me back.” She smiled and tapped her chest over her heart. “Just say ‘Grannybrain’ three times. I tried to tell that slime of yours that I never had kids, but he’s not too bright, is he?” The Warden chuckled, then vanished, but her voice carried on. “Good luck, Custodian. You’ll need it.”

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Once Rain had calmed down—which took surprisingly little time, depressingly used as he was growing to the constant downpour of other shoes—he collapsed onto the same boulder he’d used in his first conversation with the Warden hours ago. As he sat considering, though, he discovered that he actually felt...

Relieved.

The threat of having his brain put on blend was horrifying, to be sure, but it was less horrifying than the thought of having his mind literally changed. A memory construct sounded like a lot of work, which implied Vatreece was either unable or unwilling to mess with his memories directly. If she could have simply downloaded the knowledge into him, Matrix style, she’d have done so. It would have been far quicker. Her seeming interest in his training was also further confirmation that she wasn’t his enemy.

Of course, that was exactly what she wanted him to think.

...

Rain looked down at his hands, then balled them into fists.

Either I can keep sitting here, second-guessing myself until I rot away, or I can get to work.

He stood. [Dozer, wake up.]

Unlike last time, the king-link had been present in the back of Rain’s mind for the whole conversation. Dozer was just asleep. Thoroughly. It took a few more mental proddings, but eventually the sleepy slime stirred, oozing up from the nest of stones he’d built for himself. He threw a bit of a tantrum when he learned he’d missed a visit from ‘Grannybrain,’ but it was easy enough to distract him by pointing out just how much filth there was to deal with up in orbit.

Catapulting the slime upward and leaving him to it, Rain began working on some cleanup of his own, starting by mending the broken trees. The way Vatreece had phrased things, her instruction would take more than an afternoon, and it was zero-dark-hundred in the physical world. A few hours would make little difference. Priority one would be to visit Officer Sana as soon as she woke, obviously, but until then, there were other, lower-priority things he’d been putting off for far too long.

[Essence exchange, Dozer.]

[K!]

Progress Report

marker_1: getaway [3061 Seedlings 29 01:45]

marker_2: grannybrain [3061 Seedlings 31 00:32]

Span: 1.9 days

Skills

Ethereal Aura: +39,024 exp, 7 -> 9 (+2)

Anchor Aura: +300 exp, 0 -> 1 (+1)

Prismatic Intent: +2 exp

Synchronization

Endurance: 29.2 -> 29.5 (+0.3)