Touchstone 1 - Stray

swimming training with me. Maze says we might do some of the flooded rotations, and so we swam in our full uniforms with the breathers, and had little races through the underwater obstacles. Underwater battles have whole new levels of complications: talents like Fire and Wind are useless. Telekinesis is still viable, but you handle it differently, since picking up a rock and throwing it has an entirely different effect underwater. Lohn and Mara’s Light powers still work pretty much the same, and there is apparently a water manipulation talent, though no-one on First Squad has it. But most water environments are close-combat, except harder.
    I was so tired afterwards. I keep having afternoon naps, and then waking up in the evening. Hopefully when I’m fitter I’ll be able to handle all this better.
    Sunday, February 24
    Seventh Squad
    I shouldn’t have been surprised that the Seventh Squad captain, Atara Forel, was totally professional. Back when she was being nasty-sweet to Zan I’d already seen that she was the type whose attacks aren’t open, and she definitely wasn’t the sort to show herself in a bad light during an official testing session which was being recorded. So when I reached the testing room, all she did was nod at me and say: “Good, we can get started now. Same routine as Kanato’s squad. We’ll start with you, Mema.”
    Seventh is another of the big-hitter squads, and just like Eighth, were caught up in the sheer excitement of being enhanced to super-destructive levels. It’s spectacular to watch the big-hitter tests, but at the same time kind of dull, so I spent my time studying them instead.
    Forel is like a cat: lithe and slinky, with a pointed chin and big eyes. I can just picture her purring and digging in the claws. Her primary talent is Lightning, and she saved her testing for last. It was important to her, I think, that her overall result was higher than Hasen’s from Eighth. When she’s pleased her eyes go all slitted.
    The other guy who was with her at the pool is Pol Tsennen, primarily an Ena manipulation talent, with a secondary in Fire. He seems mainly interested in watching Forel. Then there’s the smug twins, Mema and Residen. I don’t think they’re really twins – they don’t look precisely alike, and they have different surnames – but their hair is cut the same way and they seem to use the same mannerisms and they’re very pleased with themselves and keep exchanging looks. They had a swag of talents, with a primary of Ice for Mema and a variation of Light manipulation for Residen.
    Dahlen is their Sight talent, with both Gate and Path Sight, along with Telekinesis. She’s tall and strong-looking and I don’t know if it’s just because of her height, but I kept thinking of her as a tree. Cats might sharpen their claws on trees, but they’ve got plenty of bark, and don’t really care.
    The last squad member, Saitel Raph, was the only one who caught me watching them. Him I couldn’t make out at all, other than an impression that he’s smart. He’s also the only one who spoke to me outside Forel’s strictly correct instructions, and then just to say “Thank you,” before heading off.
    Is it really the second level monitoring that makes the younger squads so disinclined to interact with me? Or do they think of me as human machinery, there to perform a task? With the notable exception of Eeli, the younger Setari never seem to consider the possibility of just chatting with me.
    Or – just occurred to me – they’re all competitive with each other, and there’s an advantage in having me assigned to them. Maybe they’re all determined not to be seen ‘pursuing’ me, so to speak. But…no. No-one’s ever acted like any of my assignments will be my decision.
    Speaking of which, when I woke up from my inevitable after-testing nap, I had another bunch of rotations assigned. All with First Squad, so I have something to be happy about.
    Monday, February 25
    Bridges Rotation
    I spotted Zan again, having dinner when I went for breakfast, and wasn’t slow to ask to join her. She had circles under her eyes, but almost sort of smiled at me as I sat down. I asked if she could recommend any novels to read, and tried to explain fantasy to her. I don’t want to read stories about Setari – I was getting more than enough of them in real life and from television – but hadn’t succeeded in finding any good stories which were based on mythology rather than reality,