3rd person P.O.V

Tally focus:

Raelle had recovered quickly and the trio were back in lessons the very next day. Ready to learn linking from General Wick, Raelle thought that it was going to be like her fixing and given she was the only one of the trio that had so far needed to see the fixers, they took her word for it. Tally hoped that she would be able to successfully link, unlike fixing it was a necessary skill and was classed under mandatory first aid which all soldiers were expected to know. From the rumors she had overheard from some war college cadets the linking class was going to be something they would never forget and something about a substitute, she wasn't sure exactly. They filed into the rough room for linking class, Colonel Wick wasn't there yet, which was apparently unusual, she was supposed to always be punctual, so when the door opened and Izadora walked in instead, Sergeant instead of Colonel. Tally was confused, as was the rest of the class, especially when she said that Colonel Wick was unavailable

Izadora focus:

The linking class was always one of the Master Necro's favorite day of the year, second only to the anniversary of the day she got Truffles, her miniature lab partner, aptly named for the truffles she brought with her on her first day on base. It was a well known and well kept secret that she would take the linking lesson for the basic's class General Wick had been sick the first time that Izadora had taken over, that had not been a lie. The next year, General Wick had taken the class and the privates had taken longer to learn what they needed to, it had been decided that Izadora would take over as a substitute for the linking class, as she now had done for the last 6 years.

"Morning, Soldiers, I'll be filling in for Colonel Wick today. She may be the best fixer in the country but I should be able to handle a little first aid in her absence" she said walking into the room, letting the door swing closed behind her, Truffles and Truffles' security unit, which stood at the back of the room away from the demonstration area. "I need a volunteer." She said without introducing herself she knew that they would find out who she was at a later time, he was not worried about formalities at this point in time, she beckoned one of the girls forwards, the first person to raise their hand. She turned the girl around to face the rest of the class before pulling a knife from a sheath on the small of her back and slicing the girl's throat, careful to avoid the carotid artery. The rest of the class gasped in shock. This was her favorite part. "Let me be clear, you can blast clean through a mountain and know the whisper of an oncoming gale. But without a Fixer you'll likely end up in the ground just the same. Today, we learn Linking, an essential combat skill. Bearing, if you listen closely enough, is kind of like a song. Our heart beats a rhythm. Master this music and you can become attuned to your target's life force, blood flow, organ function and even cellular composition. Linking is the touchstone of Fixing, and soldiers, as you can see, it often means life or death." She ended the speech, the volunteer kneeling on the floor choking from the blood, she placed her hands on the girls' head and linked with her to heal the cut, before helping her to stand and thanking her and encouraging her to take a rest at the side of the room.

Truffles decided that this would be the perfect time to help to clean up the blood on the floor by licking it up, she could hear the security team chuckle as she looked at all the shocked faces of the privates, this lesson would stick with them for life. She gave them all the same beginner exercise to Link and synchronise heartbeats with somebody else. Noting the looks that the bellweather until passed between them when she mentioned that linking sometimes allowed others to see memories of another, Clearly Raelle had seen some of Porter's memories when she tried to save him. Linking with another before knowing what it was and how to do it properly was rare and usually marked a great Fixer.

Almost instantly there were problems with pairings, she never paired people up with witches from their own unit, and as such Collar was with Treefine, whose family was known to be very strict on rules and regulations similar to the Bellweathers. She had moved away to check on her volunteer from earlier when she heard Collar shouting and then the sounds of dozens of bodies hitting the floor, the girl in front of her included. "Since I'm still awake I'm guessing you didn't learn sleep induction in the military." she said, walking over to the confused blonde.

"What did I just do?" Collar asked

"Forced everyone to take a little nap." She said, Collar was powerful, and she just didn't know it yet "Listen to me. Right now you are a slave to your emotions, Raelle and in combat that's disastrous. Master your feelings and you will be free. Lean on us, our Canon will not fail you." she said, choosing to reassure the girl instead of reprimand.

"That's what Scylla said. To let the army make me strong." Raelle replied adding anger to her confusion

"She was right, and smart." she said as the class and security unit started to stir. "I'm going to have to reprimand you" she said before the first few started sitting up, winking at the young witch. "Work outside of Canon is strictly forbidden. What Raelle did was very dangerous and could have hurt someone." she said, walking away from the group of stirring soldiers, bickering, starting back up again from Treefine, with Bellweather coming to Raelle's defense. She put them back on task to resume linking practice with her volunteer Kade with Treefine and one of truffles' security unit with collar to hopefully prevent any more accidents and luckily the lesson continued without any more mishaps.

Alder focus:

The Witchfather and male cadets had returned to the main base in preparation for City Drop, they would help make the weapons used as mines in the exercise as well as create backup weaponry for the privates. There were still a few days before the Basics class' first Salva lesson, but days were short and time would pass quickly. "Walk with me?" the Witchfather asked her, gesturing towards the green opposite the workshops where the boys would be working for the foreseeable future. Alder did not like this current witchfather but in the grand scheme of things and her life he would be replaced in a few years which unfortunately to her was only a blip on her timeline. He wanted to talk to her about their new guests, the two Tarim people, one of which was still unconscious and was unable to be healed. The best Fixers in the country had no idea what it was or how to help the young girl other than keeping her stable and as comfortable as possible. She hoped that the Witchfather and Adil would be willing to meet and the Witchfather might be able to introduce him to some of his men, to provide Adil with a friendly face that he might see as less threatening.

Unfortunately the Witchfather was not agreeable to meeting the Tarim people, and quickly left to supervise his men in the workshop. This left her at an impasse, where she needed to connect to at least Adil in some way to best help him and his people. She was very nearly about to just give Adil free reign of the training portion of base and see if he would connect with any of the privates or cadets on base, he had already spoken to a few in the dining halls at the meal services, gossip travels fast. She was now on her way to observe a new treatment the fixers had for Khalida, they had been experimenting with seeds the last few days and had said that they had found a combination that might help. Unfortunately the combination of seeds did not work and only worsened Khalida's condition as well as injuring one of the fixers.

There was little more that they could do, apart from keep her comfortable, and it was up to Alder to notify Adil who was sitting waiting in the next room. He did not take the news well, cursing in Mothertongue before leaving the building, she had shared enough bad news to recognise that he wanted and needed time away from authority figures or anyone involved in his sister's care. She hurried back to her office for a telephone meeting with the Kiev, US military base, they had a suspected location of a spree cell and work mine manufacturing plant near the outskirts of Kiev and would be informing her of the broad strokes of the plan, for a strike that would happen next week.

The next few days passed by rather quickly she was kept updated on all of the basics' units in preparation for City Drop, not that they knew when it was happening, as well as working with Izadora to find out more about the people who attacked the Bellweather wedding, bit she and Tally were kept too busy to see each other. It wasn't until the second and final day of city drop that there was communication between one of her aides and Anacostia, there had been several injuries and they would be returning soon. That was when she made quite possibly the worst mistake of the decade. They had found out from Scylla Ramshorn that there was a spree facility near to the mall where the conscription day massacre had taken place. Which coincidentally happened to also be near to where that year's city drop was.

There were scouts in the area that confirmed the building as a Spree plant, and through forced linking Scylla's memories confirmed that large amounts of Work mines were being produced there for use on the civilian population. That confirmation was all she needed before she contacted Anacostia to load up the privates into the bats and intercept the mines, the scouts reported two trucks headed out of state, both on the same route. She sent the privates to intercept and destroy the trucks before they reached any populated area. This was their first official mission and it was not without casualties, reports came in confirming the destruction of the two rucks and the mines as well as the deaths of suspected hostages, according to Anacostia Tally Craven reporte seeing hostages tied up in the back of both of the trucks, with no way of knowing if this was true or of setting them go without setting off a work mine, their deaths would be an unfortunately necessary consequence in the war against the Spree. The reports also spoke of injured privates and one dead, a Libba Swythe, the second last of her line.