"Attitude aside," Galf said, "I'd say it's time we compared notes."
"I've told you, this is--"
"Yeah, we've heard you say all those things before, and they're just as stupid now."
The blue-haired man glared at him.
"I don't appreciate interference in my business," he snapped angrily.
"You'd rather we let the rat pack kill you?" Galf jerked his thumb at one of the fallen thugs.
"And let's not forget your great job on the beach, rescuing the bad guy from us," Alys chimed in.
The tech-user looked from one hunter to the other, then down to the dead man.
"All right, then. If you've come this far, you aren't going to go away quietly, so I'd might as well tell you some of what's going on so I'm not tripping over you every time I turn around."
"How gracious."
No one seemed interested in calling in the law to deal with the bodies.
The tech-user took them back to his inn room, which was as private a place to talk as any. He refused to say anything until they reached it, which annoyed Alys to no end, but she saw the reason for it.
"First things first," he declared once the door was closed and locked. "My name is Rune Walsh."
"Charmed, I'm sure," Galf said, then provided his name and Alys's. "We're from the Guild, as you know."
"Then it's money behind your persistence."
"That, plus professional pride. If a hunter takes a job, they'd better do that job, or at least give it their best in trying. Warnings from strangers with no authority and no facts to back up the words won't cut it."
"I see. Obviously I underestimated the two of you. I should have known better, since you'd caught the holder of the stone." Alys figured that was as close to an apology as they'd get from Rune.
"So you know what the stolen crystal is?" she asked.
"I do. It's a Cormar Stone. It has the power to absorb and store magic for later release."
"That tallies with what we know," said Galf.
"Blast it! If the two of you know that much, the facts could get out generally."
"Hey, we hunters don't go around telling everyone about the details of our cases."
"He didn't mean us, Alys. We've figured things out, and that means other people could do the same if they got to see the same evidence. I've got to agree with Rune on this one, besides. It's bad enough rival tech-users are fighting over this stone and the power it's got. Adding anyone else into the mix is just asking for trouble."
"And you wonder why I wanted you out of this?" Rune said.
"The difference is that it's our business to be involved. We're not in this for ourselves but to do a legitimate job. We aren't in it for power."
"Neither am I," Rune said flatly.
"Really?" Galf asked. "A technique user who has mastered at least two techs I've never heard of?"
"That isn't the point."
"Why not?"
Rune made a sound that was somewhere between a tongue-cluck and a growl.
"Look, just take it slowly and use small words," Alys said. She knew that look. It was the same one that Galf got when he was trying to explain something to her and she just wasn't getting it.
"Deep breaths, boy," Galf added.
"All right. The simple answer? You remember what happened when Alys used Foi in the alley? Large explosion all out of proportion to the power of the technique? I'm trying to prevent that from happening."
"Is that why your techniques didn't get out of control?"
"Not quite, Galf, but it is why I chose to use powers that wouldn't react to the fragmented energies."
"Fragmented energies," Alys mused. "I guess it's time for us to suck it up and let you switch to big words."
"Yeah, I'd say so," agreed Galf.
"At least you're both technique users, so you have a head start on understanding this. There is a kind of energy, or maybe energy is a bad word for it, so I'll call it a 'power' for lack of anything useful. It exists throughout the Algo system, in the air and the water, in the earth and in the spaces between the planets. It apparently doesn't exist outside of Algo."
How the devil does he know that? Alys thought.
"This power is what fuels techniques. When you use a technique, your mind reaches out, gathers in some of the power from the environment around you, and shapes it into an effect which reacts in the physical world. People's minds are different, offering access to more or fewer techniques and to different kinds of techniques. More precisely, heredity seems to determine the extent of one's technique aptitude, while psychology governs the precise types of techniques accessible. Training and practice is necessary to bring forth the potential, because techniques are a system of manipulating power. Concentrate in this way, say this word and this effect happens."
"Do you know, I actually followed that," Galf murmured.
"Will wonders never cease. You're a swordsman. Can you airslash?" This was a sword skill by which a master could send a cutting wave out through the air with a sweep of the sword. Alys had seen her mentor perform it more than once.
"Yes."
"Ever wonder where the power comes from? You're not actually cutting the air with the edge of your sword, after all."
Galf scratched at his beard.
"Never worried about that, really. If it works, I'm happy."
Rune groaned.
"I should have guessed. Those skills are rudimentary forms of techniques. Some early practitioners stumbled on a way to use that part of the brain during the sword battle and all of a sudden sword masters were flinging cutting waves around. But I also bet you can't do it a lot, can you? Far less that the amount of techniques you can use without rest?"
Galf nodded.
"That's because of two things. One is that the power comes from you, not from the environment around you. You can improve your efficiency with training and practice, but you only have so much to use. The other is that those skills were developed by trial and error. They don't manipulate your power as efficiently as possible."
"Like if I'm lifting a heavy box?" Alys fished for an analogy in terms she could understand. "I can bend from the waist and lift the box, and it'll put a lot of stress on my spine, or I can bend from the knees and not give myself a backache. Bending at the waist will still lift the box using my body, but it's harder on me and I can't do it as often."
"That isn't a bad way of putting it," Rune admitted grudgingly.
"So techniques are like bending at the knees?"
"No, techniques are more like hoisting the box with a block and tackle. You get something outside yourself to do most of the work for you so you only exert yourself slightly."
"Or like if I ask you to pick up the box," Galf told her, grinning. "I work my jaw muscles, while you do the rest."
"Very good," Rune agreed. "You are following this."
"Thank you. So let's take it to the next step. What does this have to do with the Cormar Stone or Stones and what happened to Alys's Foi in the alley?"
"All right, then, imagine, imagine a faucet."
"A what?"
The tech-user snarled angrily, but not at Galf, more an aside to himself.
"No, of course you wouldn't. Imagine a waterfall, then. A very small, gentle one. You could stick a cup in it without any trouble and fill the cup with water. That's what technique use is like. You fill the 'cup' with the power around you, in order to make the technique work. But imagine if you tried to fill the same cup in the waterfall near Birth Valley in Zema. By sticking the cup in the rushing water, you'd splash all over yourself. It's moving too fast to just be caught. Whatever the one using the Cormar Stones is doing, it's disturbing the lattice of power so that it becomes that roaring waterfall. Power leaks into the area any time a technique is used, or even just manifests on its own without a guiding mind."
"Neiryuka," Alys murmured, remembering the detonation on the beach after Derek's escape. "That explosion was just...a side effect of the teleportation?"
"Exactly, and if we had continued our fight, and you or Galf had used a technique, there might have been another incident like the one in the alley."
"No wonder you were so quick to shrug it off."
"No one had used one of the new techniques in the alley, though," Rune said. "That's because there's been so much experimentation with them locally that the lattice is becoming unstable. Any technique use in Valhalla will have those results, namely chaotic, unpredictable, and violent disaster. How long it will take for the power flows to return to normal--or if they'll return to normal--I don't know, but we have to stop the person who's creating and using these Nei techniques now, before things get any worse."
"How much worse?" Someone always had to ask that, and Alys was mildly disgusted to find it being herself this time.
"This system lost Parma nearly a thousand years ago. I don't want to see another planet go up on my watch."
"And just why is it your 'watch'?" Galf asked. End-of-the-world hyperbole never fazed him.
"Because I have the power to sense what's happening. I can feel the lattice of power around me and how damaged it is. It's the job of those of us who can identify problems to fix them."
"Wait a second." Galf held up a hand. "You can feel what's wrong with techniques just by sitting there? Who the heck are you, and how is it your techniques work just fine?"
"My 'techniques' aren't techniques at all," Rune responded.
"Skills like my airslash?"
"Vaguely, but Flaeli and Hewn are not merely accidental creations. They are the product of years of study by experts and practitioners in the field to be as efficient and productive as possible. To use Alys's simile, they are the equivalent of bending at the knees. Like techniques they are part of an orderly system, but one crafted to maximize the effects of the power within rather than the power without." He spoke with obvious pride, both in himself and in the design of the skill system that he practiced.
"An orderly system, like techniques, but not? That sounds like--"
"Magic," Rune smugly finished Galf's statement.
"Magic? That was supposed to have vanished a thousand years ago!" Alys exclaimed. "Are you claiming to be..."
If possible, Rune's smile became even more arrogant.
"Of course," he said. "An Esper."