Touchstone 1 - Stray

differently to aether from everyone else. Which means I spent this morning getting drunk.
    Since they’re wary of setting off my interface, and are trying to work out why it started growing again, they only gave me enough aether for a minor buzz. So I was bored but cheerful. I swear I must have had more brain scans than anyone on any planet. At least I had the warning signs in the containment room to entertain me. “Danger – toxic substances!” plastered everywhere, in and out of the interface.
    They released me around lunch time, but I was in no mood for school work. Mildly defiant, or perhaps still a little drunk, I went swimming. Nothing too strenuous, just to get the kinks out, and I think I’ll keep going unless someone remembers I’m supposed to have an escort.
    While I was floating about pretending that was exercise, I abruptly gained a brand new level of access, accompanied by an email from Isten Notra directing me to a huge collection of files. “Your assignment while you’re in testing and recovery is to review the information we’ve collected on Muina and to notify me of any possible relevant parallel with your world.”
    Homework! I haven’t the foggiest idea if I’ll find anything useful, but it’s definitely something new and tangible for me to do.
    The Muina collection, however, was not nearly so interesting to me at first glance as everything else this access level let me look at. They’ve reclassified me as a Setari, and now I can see things like everyone’s calendar, the space, rotation and Ionoth libraries, squad profiles and a general noticeboard. After months of being a mushroom, this is a serious adjustment.
    I have to admit the first thing I wanted to do was indulge my increasing curiosity about Ruuel. It was only the recollection of playing “Browser History of Shame” over at friends’ houses which held me back. Instead I checked out First Squad’s profile, opening Zee’s details first. Talent set and ratings, mission history. No doubt plenty of stuff I couldn’t see. Next I methodically opened and read the details of each squad captain in order, and if I lingered a little longer over Ruuel then that might be excused by the fact that he has eleven talents. All the Sights and Speed rated high, then low ratings in Ena Manipulation, Telekinesis, Levitation and Light.
    That pointless piece of self-indulgence over with, I turned to the Ionoth library (the Bestiary!) to look up cats. And found out that Ghost has escaped. Yay Ghost! I hope she comes to visit me again, but I expect that she won’t be trusting me any more.
    After browsing randomly for a while, quite overwhelmed by how much information there was, I glanced over the Muina collection. And pounced on a report from a few months ago. An expedition to Muina to investigate a Ddura detected in the planet’s near-space.
    I was in ‘Additional Notes’. “Displaced person, young female, recovered from secondary site. Uninjured, condition poor. Stickie scan negative. Not from known language group. Submitted for processing.”
    My so momentous rescue. The attached log was fascinating though, giving me some idea of how the Sight talents operate. After arriving at the town, Fourth Squad started out near my wool-boiling operation, which made it obvious straight away that someone was there. Those with Place Sight could see glowing footprints everywhere: mine and those of different animals, and even my handprints all over the bowls. The squad split into pairs, apparently confident there was no major danger nearby.
    Watching my Muinan town through Ruuel’s eyes made me feel both stalker-ish and hypocritical, and really brought home to me why the Setari are so damn proper most of the time. I expect it’s a rare thing for anyone to review entire mission logs, but you sure as hell wouldn’t want to spend your time checking out a squad member’s butt while out on mission, or gossiping about other teams.
    It was also beyond confusing seeing as Ruuel does. Auras everywhere, and strange patterns where patterns shouldn’t be: art nouveau heat hazes. And that was only visual input. Most of the Sights are far more than visual, so I hate to think how much information someone with six Sights is processing, and can better understand why Ruuel nearly collapsed staring at the Ddura while enhanced. I don’t think all the Sights are on all the time, though, since there were times when my Muinan town looked entirely normal. Perhaps it’s