Tutorial's End

The Precipice of Design by Nuu Osvare

A Living Work

In each universal fiber and thread flows an insistent energy: a demand for order.

An empty vessel wakes, hungry.

Chaos shaped in the facsimile of law shatters.

Involuntary destitution abolished.

Knowing abusers brought ruination.

The eyes of the endless cosmos bear witness.

Naomi

Frazzlen Debriefing Chamber, Farcem City, Motrendi

Eyes closed, Naomi monitored Jonah's emotions. They weren't too far from each other, separated only by two small bare interview rooms and a hallway. Yet, maintaining her link to her mana circulating through his body was difficult.

The room she'd been escorted to was entirely opaque to her mana, not allowing even a single mote of the minuscule specks her cloud was comprised of through. Whether it was some enchantment or the material itself, Naomi was uncertain. She'd only been able to find a single path through which her mana could escape the tight confines of the interview room. A microscopic gap at the top corner of the door's seal was the only chink in the room's exceptional containment.

The tiny passage was only just enough to allow Naomi to maintain her connection with Jonah, and only through a great deal of effort. Thankfully, the door to Jonah's room had a larger break in its own defense. The entire seal between the bottom of the door and the jam was broken, allowing her mana through with no additional trouble.

Unfortunately, due to the tight restriction she wasn't able to exchange incoming and outgoing mana at nearly a high enough rate to filter anything more than a basic stream of emotion. Even then, she knew the emotions she was receiving feedback for were what Jonah had felt up to an entire second before. It was like watching a live-stream back on Earth on 2G: buffered and lacking in quality.

She was glad that she'd learned how to make her mana work as a pass-through by default, rather than having to always give her permission to allow any given emotion through. She'd have to alter the 'rules' of her stream if she wanted to intercept anything, which likely meant by that time it'd be too late, but she had no intention of messing with Jonah's emotions anyway so this was optimal for the situation.

Feeling a sense of relief and decompression, along with the slow fading of a strangely overpowering desire to be helpful, Naomi opened her eyes and readied herself. The feelings almost certainly indicated Jonah's interview was over, given the spike of stress he'd felt and maintained for the last ten minutes or so which was finally relaxing.

Concentrating, Naomi double checked the state of her mana to ensure it was still properly configured. The cloud which permeated the room was still set to be as undetectable as she'd learned how to make it. With the help of some of her crew, she'd had plenty of practice during the week's voyage back to Motrendi.

The rules set for her mana were quite comprehensive at this point. The 'rules' were almost like a set of statements, which she could attach to her mana. Unfortunately, she could only apply the rules to the entire cloud of mana, so far she hadn't been able to modify just pieces of it. Currently her mana was set up in what she was thinking of as 'undetectable mode.'

Do not interact with light.

Do not interact with sound.

Do not interact with smell.

Do not interact with physical matter.

Do not interact with potentia.

Do not interact with thermal energies.

Do not interact with waves or beams.

Do not interact with anything unknown.

Do not consume any energies.

Do not consume aspected mana.

Replace mana which intends to report the existence of other mana back to its base non-reporting state.

Pass a copy of all emotions back to source without altering or slowing them.

Of course, the list was just her mental catalog. There was nothing so convenient as a system which allowed her to check or uncheck boxes. Each 'rule' was more of a specific feeling and mental-state she'd had to learn to hold onto to maintain. At first, holding more than four or five at once had given her headaches. Now she held the full dozen with only a slight feeling of mental strain.

The door cracked slowly open, then swung the rest of the way on silent hinges. A small pulse of bright silver mixed with grey sparkled within her inner world for a brief moment as she recognized one of the men.

"Good…" She glanced at her UICI clock, "…afternoon, Ki'ai'en.'"

The wiry elf's sharp features brightened into a smile, his handsome face marked in parenthesis by deep dimples, "It is a pleasure to meet you again, Ms. Stolffūr. I understand you've had quite an exciting first few months."

"That might be an understatement." She confirmed, flashing a quick smile - the one she'd learned people thought was more genuine than when she tried to hold a big grin. The feeling of satisfaction and relief from the elf confirmed it'd been the right expression to put him at ease. Though, she wasn't certain what he was relieved about.

The smoldering resentment and intention to stir trouble roiling within the second man, some human, was a sharp contrast. Turning her gaze up to meet the stranger's eyes, she found an entirely unimpressive and uninteresting person. He looked like what she'd have pictured if someone said, 'CEO', down to the over-dyed and thinning black hair. His eyes were an uninteresting shade of blue, clean shaven, with as average a facial structure as she could imagine.

Apparently, the boring man was incensed that she would dare meet his gaze. His resentment instantly exploded in a flame of pure rage. Impressively, his emotions were entirely concealed behind a professional smile as he stepped forward and reached his right hand out to her, "Michael Boznen. I'm here representing the interests of the Frazzlen."

Hesitating just long enough for Michael's anger to turn from a bright red to a bloody crimson, Naomi reached out and shook it. She felt a shock as some kind of mana flashed into her body, though it didn't seem to do anything, its energy apparently used up just in giving that minor physical jolt. She decided not to react in any way to the unexpected sensation, just nodding and releasing the man's hand. When he didn't let go immediately, she pulled her hand firmly from his grip. It was surprising how easy it was to break his hold, her strength clearly being at least twice his own.

"I see, isn't Ki'ai'en also here representing the Frazzlen? I feel a bit outnumbered here." She pulled eyebrows down into an expression of concern, making sure to pout her lips ever-so-slightly and unfocused her vision to affect an expression of innocent distress.

Answering before his controlled but over-emotional colleague, Ki'ai'en answered, "The local chapter's board believes I often put individual concerns ahead of the faction's."

Between the smug satisfaction and the glare Michael shot the elf, it was clear that he took the assessment as a compliment.

"Be that as it may…" Michael spoke in a faux-jovial tone, "We're all part of the same faction, which means we're all family! We all want what's best for each other, and the rest of our big-ol' family, right?" He ended with a bright, toothy, smile. A smile which would have absolutely fooled her, could she not feel the ugly underlying emotion he concealed perfectly. He seemed so genuine, so caring. Was her mana giving her inaccurate information?

The thought gave Naomi pause. Not because she thought it was possible, but because it was errant. She'd tested the limits of her ability to sense, consume, and manipulate emotions for the last three months straight. While she didn't believe it was infallible, she was certain it would not be so far off. Suddenly, Jonah's desperate concern and desire to please made sense.

Pushing her chair back, Naomi made a show of being startled and concerned, "Why are you messing with my mind? I haven't done anything against you! Why would you attack me?!" Unfortunately, she had yet to master breaking into tears on demand. If she had, she'd have immediately burst into a sobbing wreck. She did the next best thing.

Staggering back, she 'tripped' over the chair she'd stood hastily from and sprawled on the ground. Without pausing, she shoved herself backward on her hands and feet into the corner of the room. She stared up at Michael with wide, horrified, eyes. Then she turned those eyes on Ki'ai'en, doing her best to express a sense of betrayal. She wasn't certain she'd achieved it, given her lack of practice with the emotion. She noted the need to shore up the weakness later.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

What she'd accomplished was enough. Michael's fury was still raging, but also colored by confusing and chagrin at being called out. Ki'ai'en, on the other hand, felt heart broken. Righteous anger was quickly stoked and growing as he turned toward his fellow Frazzlen.

"Michael…" He spoke in a soft but clearly upset tone, "What, exactly, did you do to miss Stolffūr?"

"Nothing!" He quickly spouted, before shaking his head and plastering on his bright smile again, "That is, I was trying to calm and comfort her. Just help make her feel more at home, I meant no harm. My apologies, miss." He ended by turning and offering a strained smile. All the while, the crimson anger had gone cold and hard. It'd solidified from whatever prior general ill-will he'd born her to true, directed, hatred.

Pulling her knees up to her chest and pushing her body into the corner, Naomi drew her dress hem around her legs and squeezed herself into the smallest form she could manage. She whispered, "We just escaped that horrible O.F.F. shaman's mind control, and now you want to control me, too."

Lips forming a firm, knife-like edge, Ki'ai'en gestured toward the door, "Michael, please leave us."

"But, the board-"

"Immediately." The elf's gold eyes began to glow, quickly increasing in their luminescence, and Naomi felt as if her body had grown incredibly heavy. Her entire focus and view seemed to be taken up by Ki'ai'en for a moment as he appeared to grow beyond what the room could contain. The shadows around him fled the golden light and Michael stumbled back as if shoved harshly. Cuts began appearing on the human's pristine suit, quickly shredding the clearly expensive garment, though no blood was drawn.

Naomi noted her own dress and Ki'ai'en's suit were unmarked. It's not unintentional, then.

All of the icy rage the pathetic man had been feeling suddenly melted into a pressurized yellow rope of fear which wrapped around his control and broke it. The perfect mask of civility shattered as Michael turned and fled. Petty intentions and emotions as clear on his face as they were to Naomi.

Once the door snapped shut, Ki'ai'en turned back around and raised a thin eyebrow at Naomi. "Are you done with the theatrics now? I applaud the performance, I doubt I'd be able to justify chasing that man out otherwise. I believe you'd prefer a frank conversation rather than one where we dance around the subjects we wish to discuss?"

Picking herself up, Naomi dusted her dress off as her mind spun in a haze of bright silver. Ki'ai'en's emotions had flipped from righteous indignation to a complicated kind of amusement as soon as the door had shut. Was he faking his emotions somehow? Maybe my ability really was misleading me? No, Michael confirmed he'd done something when he tried to explain…

"While my colleague, Michael, is an ambitious and talented social climber, he lacks a certain amount of… Attention to detail. Noticing those details are my specialty. Your acting skills are admirable, but not perfect. I can also feel the path of The Empty Nothing within you, which leads me to believe you weren't quite so afraid as you let on."

Taking a moment to think through everything, Naomi couldn't figure out what she'd failed to mask, "How can you sense that path from me?"

"My soul sense. It's a common ability, though beings at my rank and below have rarely bothered to develop it enough to see clearly enough to make out another's path. Not to mention, one has to be familiar enough to recognize the path in the first place. I'm quite old and experienced." His soft smile mirrored the weirdly protective fondness he was feeling. "I wouldn't worry over it too much, once you develop your own soul sense it is possible to learn to obfuscate, conceal, or even display false versions of your soul, if deception is a key component of your path."

Deciding to probe, but carefully, Naomi started with an easy question. "So… Are you acting, too? Were you just acting angry?"

"Ah, no. I'm afraid the extent of my acting is a good deal of self control when it's appropriate. Finding out Michael had used his ability on you was quite upsetting… I assume you weren't lying about that?"

"I was not."

"I thought as much. I've suspected he's been using it too freely for a while, though I've never had any true evidence." He trailed off, looking to be in thought.

"Isn't he like… Your boss or something?"

Letting out a quick, sharp, laugh, the elf shook his head and moved to take his seat in front of the table, "Certainly not. While the board sent him to report on me if I was 'overly generous', they also asked me to keep an eye on him in turn. They asked me to evaluate whether he was misusing his ability. Mental manipulation powers are…" He tapped his fingers on the surface of the table for a moment, clearly thinking for the right way to phrase what they were.

While he thought, Naomi made her way to sit across from him. After a moment his tapping fingers stopped and he snapped, "…They're suspect. That's the best way to put it. They aren't banned, or even feared - per se - but anyone in power is suspicious of those below them who might have the capability to manipulate them. Michael's ability in particular has a built-in tell, at least, so it would be much harder for him to manipulate anyone aware of his capabilities."

"The electric zap?" Naomi guessed.

With a nod, Ki'ai'en agreed, "Just so. The jolt isn't actually a necessary part of the ability, but something the designer built in before transcribing it for faction members to learn."

"I couldn't sense anything after the shock. I just knew he'd done something because I was thinking favorably about him for no reason, after just meeting him. I try to reserve judgement a bit longer than that."

"An admirable realization. I suspect combating the shaman's influence also did make you more sensitive to such psychic intrusion, even if you didn't actually sense the ability take hold directly. I would be quite surprised if you had, actually, as it's highly specialized and a good deal of its mana cost goes into suppressing the target's ability to notice its manipulative affects." After a brief moment of thought, he continued, "May I assume then that you were able to notice when the shaman tried to manipulate you similarly, then?"

"Yeah, she used this mana that felt like spores…" She launched into an explanation, which lead to backtracking and providing context. Before she even realized it, Naomi had told Ki'ai'en most of her story from the time they'd followed Willow through the portal to now. She sat, blinking at him, and wondered if he'd also used some form of mental ability on her.

Seeing his earnest expression and feeling his true interest, though, she knew he hadn't. He'd never prodded for anything sensitive. He never tried to force her, or even trick her, to share anything she'd consider sensitive or private. She'd avoided talking about her mana, Jonah's abilities, and most of the other details. Instead spending time talking about the overarching events, and some small anecdotes about some of the more interesting people she and Jonah had joined forces with.

The main area Ki'ai'en did press for additional information was in regards to Chaven and his role in the entire coup. In particular, learning he'd helped them get people out of bad contracts seemed to satisfy the elf.

After a solid minute of silence passed between them, Ki'ai'en asked, "Do you believe Chaven acted out of compassion, or duty?"

"Duty." She immediately answered, having read the avron's emotions enough times during contract loop-hole searching sessions to be certain. "He's obsessed with following the exact wording of contracts. I think the idea of having a contract with exploitable loop-holes which can be used to break them is enough for him to feel like he has to help use them. It's almost like a compulsion."

Nodding along, it seemed the answer wasn't a surprise.

"Thank you, I was very interested to hear about your adventure. Unfortunately, we should likely turn to the actual debrief now."

He smiled slightly, "I turned our conversation with Jonah away from the topic of the actual events leading to your acquisition, in case there was anything private there which you two might not wish Michael to be aware of."

The double meaning of 'not wanting Michael' to be aware of something was clear, and a flash of silver-blue sparked through Naomi. Once she'd nodded in response, he continued, "So let's talk about your claim to ownership of the spacecraft known as the SF-2634 WSCTB."

"We're calling it Phoenix's Nest."

"Noted, assuming your claim is fully legitimized I will file for the name to be officially changed and recognized as such."

Narrowing her eyes, Naomi leaned back in her chair, sitting as tall and straight as she could. She spoke with the imperious tone the crew responded best to when she wanted a topic to be definitively closed, "As I understand, there is no 'if'. Jonah and I defeated the previous owner through conquest and claim it as our own."

Lips twitching ever-so-slightly, Ki'ai'en felt a sensation of happiness toward something cute. Clearly her tone wasn't in the least intimidating to him, but amusing instead. Not wanting to give away that she could see through his efforts to not show the condescending emotion, she maintained his gaze and waited for a reply.

"That is in line with what Jonah claims as well, let's talk specifics…"

Jonah

Frazzlen Debriefing Chamber, Farcem City, Motrendi

Jonah sighed, bored, as he watched Ki'ai'en and Naomi talking in the room across from his own. It'd been interesting to see the mini-drama that had played out between the elf and Michael. That guy had been nice. Way too nice, just like some of the sharks who had tried to take advantage of him back on Earth. They thought because he couldn't walk and had bad eyesight he was stupid, for some reason. The irony that he often managed to turn the tables, which was the main way he managed to run his small business well enough to stay afloat on his own for so long, still brought a smile to his lips.

He thought he'd managed something similar this time. While he'd felt an odd need to help Michael out with whatever he wanted or needed, that'd just led to Jonah deciding to treat him the same way he'd treated any of those Charismatic fortune 500 guys who owned shares in his company. Carefully, politely, appearing subservient, and never giving them a single inch of actually useful information. Just what they needed to know to advance his own ends.

With a sigh, Jonah ran another simulation. This one where he left his interrogation room and joined Naomi and Ki'ai'en in the room across the way. He didn't want to think about that past, those stresses. It seemed Naomi had manipulated Ki'ai'en into getting rid of the annoyance who had dredged up those memories anyway, so no need to dwell. It was concerning just how good Naomi was getting at twisting people and events to her ends. But… Their goals were the same, so Jonah wasn't in a position to complain. If they ever had conflicting ideas about what needed to be done, though…

Shaking his head of the unproductive thoughts, Jonah stood and made his way to the door. Having seen the results of the simulation were fine, he decided to just go for it. Waiting half a minute, he tapped the door in a specific pattern he'd seen a few others in similar cells use. A oozing mass of tentacles passing by hesitated, then opened the door for him.

"Thanks! My partner left to get a drink a while ago, I think he decided locking me in there was a good way to haze the new guy. I think that-" The being waved a few pseudopods and continued on its way, clearly not wanting to get stuck listening to some chatty human.

Grinning, Jonah walked across the hall and entered the opposite room. Naomi smiled slightly, showing she approved of his choice, and Ki'ai'en just asked him curiously how he'd gotten out of the other room. When he answered that he just knocked and some slimy creature let him out without questioning it, the elf just shook his head.

As it happened, the conversation had been coming to a close anyway. Naomi and Ki'ai'en had been hammering out some details about the ownership of their ship. Thankfully, Chaven had already reviewed the documents they had filled out and put together to make sure they were air tight, and it seemed the bird-man had been honest as always. Ki'ai'en approved the bundle and just like that, their 'technical' ownership became an 'acknowledged' ownership.

Better still, Ki'ai'en offered to treat them to dinner and discuss what their next moves were going to be. All with the ultimate goal to help Willow, of course.

Though, the way Naomi and Ki'ai'en exchanged glances was enough to make it clear, even to Jonah, that the 'ultimate goal' would only be the public motivation of their next steps.