Touchstone 1 - Stray

close to that level. But a selected extract of your record was appended to Tsee Ruuel’s report on your recovery, showing your attempt to open a gate into your world.”
    “Monitoring used criminals?”
    Zan was looking distracted, but nodded. “Or children considered at risk.”
    Or conscripted strays, I thought. In a way I’m almost glad, because every time I start to think about being heroically self-sacrificing, the words “second level monitoring” are going to help me immensely.
    I looked up as Maze put a tray on the table next to me and sat down, his mouth set. I was willing to bet he was the reason Zan had been distracted, that they’d been having a silent conversation about what I’d asked and how she’d answered.
    “Do Tare have saying here,” I asked, before he could say anything, “‘Who watches watchers’?”
    He blinked, then gave me one of those tired, super-nice smiles: “I think I’ve heard some variation of that. But the restrictions on monitoring are very tight.”
    “Is ever likely be less monitored?”
    “I don’t know. Perhaps if we gain a proper understanding of your talent set. And you stop nearly dying.”
    I felt like arguing, demanding that I be taken off, but I could see by the way he was steeling himself that there was no hope so I held my tongue. “When everyone talk using surnames, that when official recording, right?”
    “Usually. Or habit. Formality is a discipline.” He glanced across at Zan, who was being super quiet and proper while she finished her dinner. “Unnecessary, I suppose, but the competitive atmosphere fosters it.”
    “During rotation, consistent naming is common sense,” Zan said. She paused, then stood up, lifting her tray. “Good luck today, Cassandra.” With a nod to Maze she left.
    A first time for everything. And she’d pronounced it correctly. Pleased, I made myself forget about starring in my own reality show, and concentrate on eating my breakfast. And toyed with the idea of asking Maze if he knew or cared that half the younger Setari had the hots for him. Or why they bullied Zan. But it would be unfair, since Zan was really bothered by Maze, to go talking about her with him.
    After we’d eaten, Maze gave me a lesson on extra equipment we would take while on a mission. A little food and water, a very tiny medical pack, and the breather, in case we encountered a flooded zone. Zee joined us, and reminded me practically to go to the bathroom, and then we went down and met the others at another of the sealed-up gates. I could tell by the way Zee was watching me that she and Maze had discussed second level monitoring before she arrived, but by that time I’d moved through annoyed to resigned, and switched back to being worried about gallivanting through the Ena killing monsters.
    “Is all spaces okay atmosphere?” I asked, making a pocket for my breather.
    “Usually,” Ketzaren said. “Sometimes the air is not very pleasant, but we’ve yet to encounter one which was toxic. The theory is that only certain atmosphere types create a truly living world. Or that we are not truly breathing.”
    “Why this easy rotation?”
    “Because it’s short, there’s nothing smart, and it never changes,” Lohn said, grimacing in the middle of some slow stretches. “And it leads to Unara, as at least a quarter of all rotations do, so there’s usually not much going on in near-space either.”
    Maze took over talking, in captain-mode. “In addition to Tare’s near-space, we will be travelling through four spaces. The first is always bare. The second will be insects – small, and in swarms. We are not likely to allow any to get close to us, but if one strikes you, the antidote to their poison is in your medpack. After the second space we will return to Tare’s near-space and search for any Ionoth which have reached it from neighbouring spaces. The first space on the return trip is only occasionally inhabited, and the Ionoth which spawn there are large and quite slow. The last space contains three winged Ionoth. Spel will move you if necessary. Ready?”
    I nodded, though my breakfast was considering not coming along. That sick feeling stayed with me the entire time, for all the mission itself went exactly the way Maze said. We crossed through near-space to a baked and dying field of plants, then to a meadow crawling with over-sized bugs which made the mistake of gathering into groups and coming at us. Lohn touched my elbow and fried them