Since Nora hadn’t actually told Dyasen where or when to meet her, he took his time getting up and eating breakfast before he found the server he’d met the day before.

“What was your name again?” he asked them as he handed them a few coins to pay for his room and the meal.

“Teslan, Sir.”

“Great. Teslan. Do you know where and when Nora starts work in the morning?” Only after it left his mouth and Teslan’s brow furrowed did he realize he probably sounded a bit creepy, asking exactly where a girl he’d met the day before was working.

“Why couldn’t you ask her yourself?” they challenged.

“When she left yesterday, she told me to meet her while she was doing farm work. She wanted me to help out, but she forgot to say exactly where the farm is.”

Teslan nodded in understanding. “It’s just… all around the town. I think they’re sowing the Eastern side today.”

“Awesome, thanks.” He’d been prepared to use his ERA, but they actually seemed not to be too suspicious of him. He probably had to thank first impressions for that. People tended to remember what they’d initially thought of someone, so if he used his ERA when meeting someone, that first bit of influence would stick. Sometimes it was helpful. Sometimes it caused a lot of inconvenience. But right now, at least, it seemed to be working in his favor.

They paused, as if considering whether or not to say something. “They also started at least a few hours ago, so you’re probably quite late.”

“Oh. Whoops,” Dyasen said halfheartedly. He’d figured they started early in the morning, but had no desire to get up before sunrise just so he could stand in the cold doing farm labor. I’m already doing enough just providing free work in the first place. Free work and free information.

Come to think of it, why was he giving so much free time and effort in the interest of talking to this girl? She wasn’t particularly smart or friendly, and didn’t have any information he might need to learn.

But she had an ERA that could potentially be very useful or very dangerous, and so he had to get to know her. To get himself — and by extension, the Sheer and her mercenaries — on her good side, and to figure out just what she could do and just how useful or dangerous she really was. She could cause a lot of trouble if she got with the wrong people, but at the same time, having someone with her ability on the team could save them all a great deal of effort.

And he supposed that was it. If she could prove that she was dedicated, loyal, and willing, she would make an excellent teammate. At least ERA-wise. He just wasn’t completely sure yet whether he wanted to recruit her.

There are other things needed to make a person a good teammate. And even more specific things needed to make them a good mercenary.

“Ooh, did you meet a mercenary or something? That sounds exciting.”

“Something like that,” he thought. “So… I’m going to need you to leave me alone for a bit again. I’ll let you know when I can talk.”

“Gotcha. I know the drill.”

“Great, thanks.”

Dyasen stood, adjusted his sword on his back, nodded to Teslan, and set off to find the Eastern fields and the next potential addition to Miracca’s team.

The next potential addition to Miracca’s team did not look amused. She and about ten other young adults were spaced throughout the field, hacking at the coarse and dry earth with wood-handled hoes. Nora stopped when she saw him, standing straight for a second. He waved cheerfully, picking his way over to her and trying not to step on anything that looked like a finished product.

“Were you not aware that work usually starts at sunrise?” she demanded.

“Oh. Whoops,” he said for the second time, even less convincingly.

She gave him a long look, then pointed at another hoe lying on the ground. “You can use that.”

Shrugging, Dyasen walked over and picked up the tool. It was surprisingly heavy, but the wooden handle was smooth and sturdy. Glancing at the girl and trying to figure out what he was supposed to be doing, he faced an un-sowed patch of ground, raising the hoe.

“So, why exactly are we meeting again?” he asked, figuring it was best to start the conversation — and hopefully distract her from his clear lack of farming experience. He swung the hoe down uncertainly, causing the metal head to bounce off of the hard, dry ground and send a shock into his hand. It felt rather like when his sword rang against something — just less satisfying.

“Uh…” Nora frowned. “I thought there was more you were going to tell me about. And that’s not how you use that.”

He grumbled something unintelligible, looking at her again to mimic her form. She raised her eyebrows, then swung her hoe again with both hands, putting her weight behind it so the metal sunk into the dirt and turned it up.

“Okay, well, do you want to learn more?” he asked as he did his best to mirror her movements, swinging with a lot more force this time. As the hoe sank into the earth, it sent a much softer throb into his hand, and he took that to mean he’d done it right.

“Well…” She wiped her brow with one arm. Given that she’d been out here for hours already, he was surprised she only looked mildly tired. “I mean, yeah, you told me some things that could be very helpful, and it seems like you know a lot more. Especially given your line of work.”

Dyasen glanced around habitually, but the nearest people were a ways away. “True.” He adjusted his grip on the hoe, trying to find a comfortable way for his hands to wrap around the smooth wood. It was a lot different from the leather-wrapped hilt of his sword. “Well…” He tried to think of some more things to tell her, but anything he came up with was either irrelevant or not something he particularly felt like sharing. “What questions do you have, specifically?” he asked finally.

“I thought you told me not to ask questions.”

“Right. Glad you remembered.” He scratched his head. “What things are you wondering about or wanting to learn more of, specifically?”

Nora swung her hoe again, grunting as it impacted the earth. “ERAs,” she panted. As she caught her breath, she elaborated, “You implied that there are a lot of different ones. Which everyone knows, but I don’t know exactly how different they are, and you also said something about yours being internal. In a way that implied others aren’t.”

He nodded thoughtfully. “Well, all ERAs are unique. As everyone knows,” he added in the same tone she had. “It’s estimated — by some very official estimators — that about a third of the population has them, although many are so trivial that the person doesn’t even know they have it. Take something that would let you… slightly redirect energy between your two hands, specifically,” he suggested, trying to think of a good example. “You might just think one hand is stronger than the other. But now I’m going on a tangent.”

Nora glanced up from giving the ground another hard stroke. “Yeah, you are. And have you decided you’re done?” she demanded, nodding to the hoe hanging loosely in Dyasen’s hand.

“Well, yeah, I was thinking so-” he began, then snorted at her slightly incredulous look. “Sorry, sorry.” He raised the tool, awkwardly swinging it down, and it bounced off the ground just like the first time. “Dammit.” He tried again, concentrating this time, and managed to get it right.

“Anyway, you were saying?”

He gave her a flat look until she rolled her eyes and turned back to her work.

“Well, everyone’s Energy Redirection Abilities are different, but they can still be grouped into categories, based on where exactly the energy you’re redirecting — hence the name — is coming from.”

Nora paused her work and looked at him, seeming more interested.

Oh, I am so going to call her out if she pauses for any more than three seconds.

“There are two main types,” he continued. “Well, no, actually… no, yeah, let’s start with the two.” He shook his head, chuckling. “Internal ERAs involve using your own energy, and External ERAs involve manipulating external energy. Although, even the definition of ‘energy’ gets stretched a lot with some of them.”

“And you said yours is internal?”

“You’re asking questions again,” he reminded her.

“Right, sorry.”

“It’s alright, just a reminder. And yep.” He nodded. “I feed myself a line of bullshit, then direct my own energy into the feeling I gave myself, which amplifies how it appears and lets others pick up on it more than they otherwise would.”

Nora furrowed her brow. “But if you have to convince yourself of whatever you’re using your power for, and you want people to think you’re not worth talking to…”

“Yes, I actually have to feel like I’m not worth talking to, and yes, it feels like shit.”

She made a face. “Well, that sucks.”

Dyasen chuckled. “Yeah. But it’s pretty useful, so I try not to complain. And you should know firsthand about ERAs making your life harder.”

“True, that. So is my- So my ERA is external,” she corrected herself with a statement.

It’s probably been long enough. “Have you decided you’re done?” he asked her, smiling brightly.

She glared at him. “Says the one who showed up multiple hours late and has taken two strokes total.”

“Okay, okay.” He laughed, turning away and taking another hard stroke at the ground. He made a few more directly after to show that he was putting in some effort, then answered her question. “My best guess is that it is. You’re not putting any sort of energy into your question as you ask it, are you?”

She pursed her lips, thinking. “I don’t think so. It feels more like I’m pulling something from you when I ask, like it’s encouraging something out of you.”

He nodded thoughtfully. “Definitely sounds like an External Positive.”

“Positive?” she asked before turning and going to work on the dirt again.

“That’s the other categorization. Well, aside from the in-between ones… which we’ll get to. But yeah, External powers are further divided into Positive and Negative. Negative ones involve interaction with a bubble of your surroundings, moving energy from everything or anything around you. They usually have a range limit, but are pretty versatile within it.”

He took a deep breath, saw the look she was starting to give him, and drove his hoe into the dirt again before continuing. “External Positive ERAs, on the other hand, are directly linked to humans. They usually don’t have a range limit, but only affect or draw from people. Like yours.”

“Cool,” she puffed, pausing her work, and Dyasen took the opportunity to start again, hoping to at least appear a tiny bit helpful. “What are in-between ERAs, though?”

He stopped again. She can’t yell at me if I’m answering her questions. Which she shouldn’t be asking as questions at all. “There are two other categories — aside from Internal and External — although they’re often incorrectly grouped as one. They’re called Mix and Multi. First, Mix abilities involve combining aspects of Internal and External ones. For example, take…” He paused, instinctively not wanting to give any information on his teammates. “Well, my teammate Hexis has a Mix Negative one. You can ask them about it if you meet them.” He grinned. “They’re the one I said I could introduce you to.”

“The assassin.”

“Well… yeah, but they’re a lot more than that.”

She shrugged as if she didn’t quite believe him. “Anyway, what about… Multi or whatever?”

“I’ll get to those, but I think it’d be easier to explain Neutral first.”

She blinked, starting to look a little incredulous at how many categories there were in his two-category system. Eh. Nobody ever said ERAs were straightforward.

“It’s like the Mix for Positive and Negative,” he told her. “So if you have an External power that draws off of people specifically as well as your ambient surroundings, it’d be Neutral.”

“Okay… I think I follow,” she said hesitantly.

“Great.” He clapped a hand against the handle of his hoe. “Last — and I promise it’s last — is Multi. Multi ERAs are like Mix, but they have multiple steps or different functions, each of which might draw from a different source. So take my teammate Jade. Her ERA would be labeled Internal/External Negative.”

“And there’s no shorter way to say that?”

“Well, most people would just label it Mix Negative, but they’d be wrong.”

“Huh.” She bit her lip. “I think it would’ve been easier if you’d just explained it as that first, though.”

“But then you would have been wrong,” he insisted.

“Okay, fine, you can do it your way. I was just saying.”

He huffed. “Okay. And you can also have Multies involving the Positive/Negative aspect, which are also different from Neutral-”

“Stop, stop,” Nora interrupted, raising her hands. “I think I have enough to process right now. Can you just… wait on any more? I’m already going to need to hear all this a second time anyway.”

On, right, it probably does sound like a lot to remember.

Dyasen nodded, hefting his hoe again, and got back to work. Nora did as well, and they worked in silence for a few minutes, before Dyasen spoke again on complete impulse. “So are you just going to keep working here for the rest of your life?”

She blinked, looking confused. “I mean… I probably won’t be a farm hand forever, but more or less. What else would I do?”

“Well, you could always… come to ZeSaryn with me. I could introduce you to the Sheer. With an ERA like yours…” He swallowed, meeting her eyes. I guess I’m doing it. “If you wanted to, you could even become one of my teammates.”