Minerva Talbot sat motionless on the bench, staring blankly at nothing as she contemplated the Vision she had recently seen. The palace cat, who had found her just outside the observation room and tagged along in the hope of the usual attention, had long since become bored with her unresponsiveness, and wandered off to find some other distraction. Min had registered Boots as she had the people she had passed on her way to the Portal Room - enough to avoid walking into them, but not to recognise anyone, even as she greeted them absently.
"Penny for your thoughts," Ellen's cheerful voice broke through Min's reverie. She looked up, and suddenly wished she hadn't. Her friend's smiling face was overlaid with a tearful screaming mask. Behind her, a ghostly candle sparked alight, then burst into a raging inferno that burnt away in the blink of an eye, leaving the candle taller and thicker than before, albeit without a wick.
"Sorry, just something Grandfather often says…" Ellen continued, breaking off as Min abruptly closed her eyes and turned away. "Did you just…? I thought you didn't View friends…"
""I don't normally," Min replied, forcing her Sight back to normal, and turning to face Ellen. "I just… Miles asked me to Look at his prisoner, and the last image was so strange that I guess I forgot to drop the power."
"Yes, I heard about that one. So what did you see? Just now, I mean."
"I shouldn't say…," began Min.
"The future then," Ellen concluded, "and not a good one from your reaction." She sat down beside her friend. "Tell me about it."
"You won't be able to change it."
"I know, but as least I'll be prepared. So, what's in my future?"
"Pain and loss," Min stated sadly. "You're going to be hurt. People you know will die. You're going to lose something you never knew you had, but you'll survive, and be stronger for it."
"That last part is comforting, at least. Anything else?"
"Yes, but I didn't let myself See it. I really don't like Viewing friends. With good reason."
"I know. Any indication of when?" Min shook her head. "Then there's not much point dwelling on it. Especially if I'm going to survive."
"What if one of those people who are going to die is me? I mean I usually know if I'm involved in a Vision, but..."
"It could just as easily be somebody else," Ellen interrupted. "I know more people than just you, Min. Hell, I know most of the ruling courts around the whole world. And there is a war on, you know? So of course people I know are going to die. That's what happens in war." She embraced her friend warmly and then stood. "Anyway, I need to get back to the school. Adam has something new he wants to try out, and I'd rather be there when he does, in case it goes wrong."
"Can I come?" asked Min. "Persephone says she wants to be a Channeller when she grows up, and it would be nice if I could actually tell her something constructive about your school next time she asks."
"Of course you can come," Ellen said, opening to door to the Portal Room. "Didn't she want to be a Psion last month?"
"No, that was Perseus. He wants to be a sky pilot now, though. Next month, it'll be a dimensional explorer or something equally enthralling…." Min followed Ellen around the marked-off area along the edge of the room reserved for personal teleportation to a small stone archway in the corner. "So what does Adam want to try, then? Is it dangerous?"
"With Channelling, everything can be dangerous. Especially for men." Ellen replied, before explaining the process, and dangers, of Channelling. As she spoke, she absently traced an elaborate pattern on a square panel beside the stone archway, causing glowing marks to appear wherever her finger touched. After a brief glance to confirm the sigil's accuracy, she then pressed a raised section below the panel. The glowing symbol flared brighter as a swirling blue vortex filled the archway through which the two women then stepped.
"I notice the Seekers never mention all that when talking about Channelling," Min commented, when Ellen had finished.
"We don't want to scare anyone off." The Shaper replied, shutting off the Gateway. "Some people start to Channel whether they want to or not, and without proper training, the consequences can be equally lethal. As for what Adam's up to, I have no idea. He didn't tell me anything about it." She led her friend out into the mansion's entry hall and introduced her to the young man waiting for them.
"This will have to be quick, Adam," she stated. "I'm expecting a new group of potential students this morning."
"I know," he replied. "I kind of need them here to do what I plan to."
"Oh?"
"It's something Marcus noticed the last couple of times we showed off for the newbies," Adam began. Ellen's eyes narrowed as a vague suspicion crossed her mind, but she decided not to voice it as her student continued. "While we were demonstrating Channelling to the visitors, Marcus would feel some sort of … echo, coming from one or more of the boys watching us. Usually the ones that the Seekers sent here, but he also felt it from Simon."
"The boy who came just to keep his brother company?" Ellen's suspicion grew more certain. "The one who started to Channel last week?" Adam nodded.
"Right, the one the Seekers had decided wasn't old enough to have manifested a psionic Talent yet, so they didn't bother testing."
"As I recall, he didn't exhibit any reaction to Lucy's Channelling."
"He does now," Adam replied, "and stronger than his brother."
"So you want to test this new group to see if you feel the same echo that Marcus did?" Adam nodded again. "If it works, it might be a better method for locating potential Channellers than the one the Seekers currently use."
"That's the idea."
"I approve," Ellen smiled, as a knock on the main doors announced the arrival of their visitors. As Adam opened the door to greet them, the psionicist established a Mindlink with him, as she usually did when a student tried something new. She gave the usual speech of welcome and introduced them to Adam and Lucy, who appeared from a side door. After a brief explanation of Channelling, Adam created a few small balls of Fire and started juggling them, sending them round the heads of the awed onlookers as Lucy wandered through them almost idly, reassuring the younger ones with a few words or a hug.
Curious, Min shifted her Sight to View the group before her. It was hard to See specific futures, especially if you didn't know exactly what to look for, but she soon learned to recognise what she was seeking. Taking a pencil and notepad from a pocket, she wrote a few lines, before tearing off the sheet, folding it and handing it to Ellen, who was concentrating on the sensations she was feeling from her Mindlink. Suddenly she felt what Marcus must have sensed, coming from four of the five boys among the newcomers, the sole exception being the youngest. She sent a quick mental question to Adam, who simply nodded, and released his Power. Lucy emerged from the group with the three girls the Seekers had suggested could learn to Channel, as well as a younger one who looked somewhat uncertain.
"Michelle has the Talent too, Miss Ellen," she stated, indicating the youngest, "although not as strong as the others." That announcement caused an avalanche of questions from the children's parents, which Lucy and Adam answered calmly and concisely, as Ellen glanced at the paper Min had placed in her hand. Eight descriptions were written on it, matching the ones Lucy and Adam had sensed.
"Maybe you should join our Seekers, Min," Ellen murmured to her friend. "You picked out the same ones the kids did."
"Thank you, but no. I have other demands on my time. A hyperactive five-year old, for one..." She managed to conceal the sadness she felt at some of the Visions she had seen from the group. "Although I do have time today for a tour of the place. When you're done here."
"You can wait in my study," Ellen pointed to a door opposite the main entrance. "I shouldn't be long," she said, as she turned back to the new arrivals.
Hours later, Ellen sat alone in her study, noting down the second of the day's notable events. In the early evening, two of the boys had been sparring with blades of Air when one of them had slipped, cutting deep into the other's leg. Ellen had instantly sent a call to the school's Egoist as she ran forward to try and slow the bleeding, but young Dan had got there before either she or his brother did. Both psionicists watched stunned as Simon's leg Healed at Dan's touch. His brother Peter knelt by Simon and started to examine him as Ellen turned to Dan.
"Do you know what you just did?" she asked. "More importantly, can you do it again?"
"I, I think so…," he replied, uncertainly.
"Try." Ellen drew her belt knife and scored a long cut along her forearm, Mindlinking the student as she did so.
"Ellen!" Peter reached for her, stopping as she gestured to stay back.
"Try," she repeated to Dan, more calmly than she felt. "Exactly as you did before." The young Channeller leant forward and reached for the Power, Channelling it into the self-inflicted wound. Psionicist and students alike watched as the cut stopped bleeding and closed up without a scar.
"Water, Air and Spirit. I wonder if it's the same for women," Ellen murmured quietly, as Peter looked at her arm with the expression she had come to recognise as being part of a diagnosis power. "So, am I healthy?" She asked the Egoist.
"Right as rain," he replied. "And so is Simon. He's tired, but other than that, perfectly healthy. Hell, Dan even cured his cold with that power. Looks like you get to be a Healer after all, little brother." Dan had always wanted to be an Egoist, but his lack of psionic ability had killed that dream. From the look on his face, this new Talent had rekindled it.
Putting the journal away, she turned off the light and headed up to her bedroom. A faint sobbing stopped her, and she opened her mind to feel where it was coming from. One of the single rooms. The one where Angela had been staying, which answered the question of who it was. Ellen quietly made her way to the door.
"You should go back to your own room, Terri," she said softly, startling the girl. "It's not good for you to hide yourself away in here."
"I'm sorry, Miss Ellen," Terri replied between sobs. "It's just…"
"Shh, I know," Ellen sat beside her on the bed and put an arm around her. "I lost a sister too, when I was young. Younger than you."
"Were you the one who killed her?" Terri asked tearfully. "I'm the one who gave her the mirror. I swear I didn't know what she was going to do, but…" She trailed off, sadly.
"I'm sure you didn't. But even if you hadn't given her the mirror, I don't think she would have lived long anyway. Channelling was everything to her. Without it, she just gave up. Nothing my grandfather or I did seemed to help." The girl leant into Ellen and curled her legs up beneath her. As she did so, something dropped from her lap onto the floor. Ellen reached down to pick it up. The object was a small figurine of a woman, no larger than her hand. Turning it over, she saw the smiling face of Terri's sister Angela.
"That's pretty," she commented. "Did you make this?" Terri looked at it, and nodded.
"I wanted something to remember her from before. When she first left to come here."
Ellen turned it over again, examining the fine details, before tensing up.
"This was Shaped psionically!" she exclaimed. "You didn't Channel this."
"I must have done," Terri protested, confused. "I don't have psionic talent. You can't have both, right?"
"My dear, I'm a Grandmaster Shaper. I know the products of my own Discipline when I see them. But a permanent Shaping like this takes more energy than a Natural talent should have…" She looked down at the girl. "Where did you find this?" she asked, lifting the rose-shaped pendant she hadn't noticed before.
"It was by the bed," Terri said. "I thought it was Angie's." Ellen shook her head, lifting the pendant off over the girl's head.
"It's an heirloom of my family, called Ilona's Rose. It was created for an ancestor of mine to help focus her power in certain Disciplines. Ones in which she herself was weak. Shaping was one of them."
"Focus her power?"
"It multiplies the psionic energy channelled through it. It will work for any Discipline, but it's strongest with Shaping and Healing. I was trying to use it to help Angela. I forgot to put it away, obviously." A thought occurred to her. "If you can use psionics as well as Channelling, maybe others can too..."
"Is that important?"
"It means there may be far more Channellers out there than we realise, but that's my concern. You need to learn about your Shaping. Now, I'm going to have to take Ilona's Rose back, but I'll see if I can get you something similar."
"You can make me one just like it?" Terri asked, wiping her eyes.
"Not me, but I know the man who made this," she held up the Rose. "I'm sure he'll make you one if I ask him. Assuming I can drag him away from his precious Project Jehuty."
"Project Jehuty?"
"One of Grandfather's top secret construction projects over in Neo Tokyo, that I'm not really cleared to know about. All I know is the name, and that the location is 'ironically appropriate,' whatever that means." Ellen sighed, shaking her head before continuing. "Most of his private jokes relate back to before the Fall, so I likely wouldn't appreciate it anyway." She looked down at the figurine in her hand. "You know, I think I'll get him to Empower this for you. I think Angela would have liked that, don't you?"
"She would have," Terri said, taking the figurine from the Shaper, before standing. "I should get to my own room. Thank you." She embraced the older woman and left, leaving Ellen alone, with a multitude of questions buzzing around in her head.