“I suspect sleep is going to be harder to achieve tonight than just going to my room and laying down," Danielle said. “Not that I’m not exhausted, I admit.”

  Ranger Hart said, “Do your best to get to sleep, you need the rest,” then proceeded to give Jordan his checkup, and finally Akari. With attentive use of Mana Sense, Danielle could tell that he was checking their Systems in detail, just as he had done with hers. Gideon came back just as Ranger Hart was finishing with Akari, and Jordan took his place.

  “So, um, did you hear anything about the guy Ranger Michael took to the specialist?” Danielle asked, to break the silence while they were waiting.

  “He made it to his destination, and was confirmed in serious but stable condition,” Ranger Hart said. “Which is to say, the specialists he was taken there to see managed to stabilize him. He was definitely not in stable condition when Michael came to the gate.”

  “I really hope he was the only one,” Danielle fretted. “I didn’t get to do the other end of the building, and apparently that means nobody ever did that end of the building on that floor.”

  Ranger Hart sighed, looking towards the door and not at her as he said, “Sometimes it’s just out of our control, Medic. You do your best, but someone refuses treatment or refuses to take care of themselves or does something utterly and obviously reckless, and that’s it. There’s nothing to be done.” His face had gone rather bleak; Danielle could only wonder who he was thinking about – probably someone who died, all things considered. “My people knocked on every door in this camp today, so rest assured that everyone had at least one chance to accept help if they needed it,” he continued. “Whatever else might happen, it isn’t your fault – you did what you could.”

  Danielle looked down, thinking. “I guess that’s true,” she said. “Even when it comes to the Wolf guy. We gave him a chance to realize he was outmatched and back off, but he just kept coming, and eventually it was at the point where we couldn’t let it go on anymore. We’d done what we could, and it was time to do what had to be done, before we ran out of mana for our shield-type Skills.”

  “I obviously haven’t heard the story properly, since I’m out here with you three, but sometimes that does happen. Frankly, if he really tried to attack a group of four like this, I have to wonder if his goal was murder or suicide.” The Ranger shook his head sadly.

  “He said it was kill or be killed; Return or die,” Gideon said. “I think maybe he’d made up his mind that either murder or suicide was going to happen, and he just didn’t care enough which one it was.”

  “He said he got that ‘Return or Die’ thing from one of the army people,” Danielle said. “I really hope that doesn’t mean their whole org is developing the same kind of crazy attitude we saw tonight.”

  “Me too,” Ranger Hart said. “Me too.”

  Eventually it was Danielle’s turn to give her statement. She kept it brief, since she hadn’t really done any fighting. She pointed out how she’d been using her Improved Hearing to track the movement of people she couldn’t see. She told Ranger Juliette what the attacker had said before each round of attacks, and what Gideon had said. She admitted to her contribution to the strategy of the last bout, putting herself in a position where he was likely to hit her Flash Shield and be blinded. “I mean, all he had to do to avoid it was not attack me, you’d think it’d be a pretty safe bet, except he hadn’t figured it out the first three times.” She explained why she’d stayed back and not participated further in the battle, and Ranger Juliette nodded as if she was already familiar with that part; Danielle could only wonder if Akari had mentioned it, or the Ranger Healers had.

  Beyond that, Danielle didn’t have much to add; she hadn’t even seen the body, she just heard the sound of the boy landing and guessed how it would end. “And then I realized we were all a little in shock and encouraged my friends to come up here, where we could visit Nathan’s room and have a set of Room wards between us and any other Wolf Pack members that might have wanted to come out and get into it with us. And then I called you, and then we waited for you, and then you knocked on the door and you know everything beyond that,” she concluded. “I’m so tired I’m starting to sound like Sadie.”

  “Oh? In what sense?” Ranger Juliette asked.

  “Oh, Sadie’s a real stickler for being very literal and specific. She doesn’t like to make assumptions or take things for granted,” Danielle said. “She wouldn’t think it was weird to include ‘and then we waited for you to arrive’ in the report. Listening to myself, though, I felt like I was starting to sound kind of weird.”

  “Ah. Well, most people might not include that part, but it does make the report more complete,” Ranger Juliette said. “Did you get any mana from the death?”

  “Yeah, I got 40 from the usual burst-mana thing, and 12 from my Burst Recycling Skill,” Danielle said. “And a Career Skill. Does that count?”

  “Technically, it comes from the mana burst, yes,” Ranger Juliette said. “Did anything level up?”

  “Just a Trait. My active Class isn’t close enough to leveling for 40 mana to put it over the top,” Danielle said. “Trust me, I’m not risking a mutation if I can help it.”

  “Yes, I note for the record that you also said that in your statement about the fight – you avoided participation because you didn’t want to gain mana,” Ranger Juliette said.

  “Yeah – ” Danielle yawned. “Sorry. I really am tired. I was going to say, yes, I’m avoiding mana bursts where possible, because I have this one Wolf Pack member who has killing me as some kind of personal mission, and then there are always thorn thrashers and wildcats and who knows what else. Real wolves, maybe. Ranger Michael thinks things will calm down and I’ll end up leveling real slow after all, but I’m not ready to risk anything on that assumption. Besides, slow is fine, when I’m already ahead like this.”

  “So you’re not racing to be first Inside?” Ranger Juliette asked.

  Danielle shook her head. “Nah. I’m not going to be first Inside, I’m going to be best Inside. I told some people I wanted to go in with as many mana generation Traits as the System would let me stack up on each other, and four separate Classes at a minimum level of 7. I don’t know if that goal will survive, you know, the month – because we’re always learning new stuff, and re-evaluating, you know? So far, though, it still seems like a good goal.”

  Ranger Juilette chuckled. “Wow. That’s quite a goal. I don’t know whether to be more shocked that you want to get four Classes, or more shocked that you actually have a halfway realistic level goal, instead of just saying everything should be level 10.”

  Danielle gave her a tired smile. “I don’t know a ton about what the different levels cost, but it looks like the costs go up every level, so I’m guessing that having a bunch of low-level Classes costs a lot less than having, say, half the number of Classes at twice the level.”

  “Yeah, we can’t give you answers that’ll get you in trouble with Systemists until you’re level 5 – after that, it’s on your own head if you choose to ignore their extra rules – but I can tell you that you’re absolutely right about the trend; every level costs more than the one before it, and all the level-related numbers go up that way, too. A time will come when a tier 1 Skill will start to look cheap – but by then, tier 1 Skills will look weak, too, so most people still don’t choose to start taking a new Skill every day,” Ranger Juliette said.

  Danielle raised her eyebrows. “Every day? You’re saying that would be theoretically possible at some point before base level 10?”

  “Possible, but unwise,” the Ranger said. “High tier Skills are harder to obtain, and have value commensurate with their rarity.”

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  “Value co-what?”

  “Their value matches how hard it is to get them, most of the time. Every level is harder to reach, and more powerful when you do reach it. Every tier of Skills is more expensive to buy outside of level and Class offers,” Ranger Juliette said. “The mana cost to level up the Skills themselves doesn’t change with tier, but again, each level of the Skill costs more than the last, and leveling through use takes thousands upon thousands of uses.”

  “Ah. Hence the value of the mana Traits I mentioned,” Danielle said.

  Ranger Juliette chuckled. “If you can get more than one mana trait in your lifetime, more power to you,” she said.

  “Improved Mana Generation seems to be pretty easy to get,” Danielle said.

  “Sure – so that makes one! Insiders have to avoid it, though, and surface citizens like us usually feel that we need to keep a little mana on hand for emergencies. I hear true Outsiders are even less likely to get more than one or two levels of that Trait; they hate being mana-dry.”

  “It’s not dangerous, though? Getting more than one mana trait?” Danielle prodded.

  Ranger Juliette shrugged. “I don’t know anyone who managed to get close enough to worry about it,” she said. “Ranger Hart might know; you can ask him. For now, I’m going to close this witness statement and help escort you home. One stupid death is enough for tonight.”

  “Agreed,” Danielle said grimly.

  “End skill,” Ranger Juliette told her System, releasing Danielle’s hand, and walked back into the main room with Danielle. “I heard four perspectives on a fight so one-sided, I kind of want to call it death secondary to insanity,” she told Ranger Hart. “No evidence of story collaboration or withholding details; significant evidence that they could use that eight hours of trauma counseling for themselves. I don’t suppose I can give them mine?”

  “We still work for a bureaucracy,” Ranger Hart said dryly. He was standing by Nathan’s bed; she wondered if he’d been giving the Sent Healer another med check while he had time.

  Range Juliette sighed. “Well, we’ll never really know what the other party was thinking, but what these four heard him saying was in line with an intent to kill, as were his actions. Did you find anything interesting?”

  Ranger Hart shook his head. “One person newly levelled, two that took the mana burst to base and had enough space to fully soak it, and of course even Medic Falconer got a Skill out of it, because what does Medic Falconer do that doesn’t end with her gaining Skills?”

  “Building herself a broad base, is she?” Ranger Juliette asked. “Speaking of which, she asked me a question you’re more likely to be able to answer: is there a limit to how many mana Traits it’s safe to stack up in one System?”

  Ranger Hart snorted. “As far as we’re aware, the only dangerous limit to base-generation modification Traits is if they get so far ahead of base level that they become a risk of excessively rapid advancement. If you ever get into that situation, the solution is more Classes, and rotating them to slow down the base advancement rate. I believe that may actually be related to the System-directed unlock for Payment Plan, but no one in Firmitatem has had the chance to confirm that since 2113, when Alexandro Passerini of Samalayuca offered his services to the rest of the Unified States as part of his state’s unification treaty deal, and made the first Firmitatem Citizen and Firmitatem Exile Advancement tokens. Like all the advancement token templates he made, they included the Trait, and we’ve been using his patterns ever since. And now you’ve had your high school history lesson for the day.”

  Off to one side, Gonzo muttered something about “the Samalayuca conspiracy.”

  “No, it wasn’t a conspiracy to control the union,” Ranger Hart said, rolling his eyes. “As demonstrated by the fact that every state still controls their own Citizen’s Advancement tokens and token-manifestation patterns to this very day. It was just one of the last System Mechanics, doing things nobody today remembers how to do. Now, whatever’s kept any more System Mechanics from arising for over a hundred years – that might be a conspiracy.”

  “What’s a System Mechanic?” Gonzo asked.

  “It’s someone with a certain Class and a Career of the same name, and every nation on the globe would love to figure out how to unlock them, but the individuals who accomplished it once upon a time never left us any realistic instructions,” Ranger Hart said. “Check out the history book they gave you, it should have a chapter on the rise and disappearance of the System Mechanics.”

  “Keep your saltshaker on hand if you do, though,” Ron said. “System Mechanics are legendary figures for Systemists, which means all the stories about them are probably exaggerated or religiously sanitized or both. A lot of Element Guides will tell you they disappeared because they tried to take the honor of the System for themselves, and it shut them out in fury.”

  “Did they leave unrealistic instructions for unlocking their Class?” Nathan asked curiously.

  Ranger Hart snorted. “Yeah. They apparently used to say, “Talk to the System about it.” If it was that easy, though, we’d have thousands. Still, any educator worth the title, Inside or Outside, passes on what information we still have to their students, in hopes that someone, somewhere, somehow, will figure out what we’re missing.”

  “Well right now, what these young people are missing is a chance to get some rest,” Ranger Juliette said. “If you didn’t find anything incriminating, we should get them back to their own buildings and rooms and let them try to wind down as best they can.”

  “True. And to the gentlemen whom this room actually belongs to, I would like to add the thanks of the Rangers for letting these four get out of harm’s way while we dealt with the body. We’ll head off now, and let you get your rest, too.”

  “Nathan, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry I caused you trouble, even though it was an accident; I owe you one,” Danielle said. “We’ll talk more later, OK?”

  “You don’t owe me anything, including the apology – I found out the risk early enough to make an informed decision, and I went for it anyway,” Nathan said. “Hey, our parties are still planning to get together for dinner tomorrow, right? We’ll talk more then.”

  “All right. Goodnight, then,” Danielle said. “And thank you all for letting us in.”

  “You’re welcome,” John said, giving Gonzo a challenging look. Gonzo returned him a thin-lipped glare but didn’t reply aloud.

  The Rangers led Danielle’s group outside, then Ranger Juliette fell in at the rear while Ranger Hart led the way around the building and down the stairs. The door that they had skipped due to Hostility Sense was propped open by another Ranger. Danielle didn’t pause to look inside, but she heard a young, angry voice arguing with someone older and quieter. The quieter voice sounded angry in a different way; wrathful but controlled in the face of a teenager’s temper tantrum.

  The six of them went briefly to the truck that was still parked outside building three, where they paused “just a moment to be properly out of sight of building seven,” while Ranger Juliette activated a Skill that felt like listening. Then they stopped by building one to drop off Jordan and pick up Ezra, then drop off Gideon and Ezra.

  “Goodnight, Danielle,” Gideon said, hesitating at his door. “Akari, I just want to say that we really worked well together today, and I’m glad you came with us.” He paused, as if on the verge of adding something or asking something, then simply said, “Goodnight. See you in the morning.”

  The Rangers walked Danielle and Akari the rest of the way to their room in building six, where they found the other girls ready for bed. Akari immediately got in the shower, leaving Danielle to explain what had happened, a bit like Heather after the fight in Tom’s room the first week. She explained briefly about both the boy who Ranger Michael had literally run to the specialists, and about the fight.

  “I’m tired, but also so very much not ready to sleep,” Danielle said. “Where are the tomatoes? I think I’ll cut tomatoes until the next medication message, and maybe get ahead on my water drinking so I can hopefully get properly bored and ready to sleep by then, and not have anything keeping me awake after I send out the message.”

  Heather was reluctant to let Danielle cut tomatoes while exhausted, but Sadie gave her a bag of red cherry tomatoes, a clean pot, and a drying rack, and told her to be careful with the knife. Danielle nodded gratefully and got to work. She took a break to shower when Akari was done, and switched to her Riverine mana pool to continue her work using Infravision. She kept a canteen by her and sipped from it periodically, working on the full bottle of water to go with her Fever-Ace. When the Midnight chime finally rang from her watch enhancement, she started the Now Hear This message using the list, used Dehydrate (Food) on the contents of the pot, and took her fever ace. Then she belatedly remembered the other set of names, from the boys in the lower part of building seven, and had to send the message separately for them.

  The repetitive task had soothed her somewhat, and she was certainly tired enough to want to sleep when midnight came. Nonetheless, she found herself tossing and turning. She prayed silently, in disjointed snippets; Why God? Why even let him come out for us? alternating with Oh God, thank you for protecting all of us against that lunatic, and What am I supposed to do next? Her brain even found time to dwell on questions like Who is the fourth defender? Why haven’t they revealed themselves yet? Why couldn’t it just be Akari? Why did it have to be me? Finally, she whispered aloud, “Lord God, help me just trust you and sleep. I can barely tell my own prayers from my own stressy intrusive thoughts right now, and I know that some of those things probably aren’t for me to know anyway. Just please help me sleep and help me do what is right for your plan when the moment comes.”

  She fell asleep soon after that, and the only dream she remembered was of the messenger standing guard over her and telling a long line of sword-wielding assassins to “go away, the Skill Sharer isn’t available to respond to you right now.” One by one, they were denied and sent out of the room, until her awareness of the dream dissolved away, back into dreamless sleep, and she knew nothing once again.

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