Nat was more tired than he thought he'd be, so soon after the attack, or ambush or whatever that was. They'd been riding in the dark now for at least a couple of hours — he supposed he could ask Moira if he cared to know the exact number, but it didn't seem particularly relevant. It was dark, late, and getting chilly enough that he thought about doing an inventory of what blankets or other gear was left after they'd abandoned so much of it.

  Lyn, for their part, had been napping quietly after the conversation had ended with Ellie's pronouncement. Or at least had been curled up quietly on the bench — Nat wasn't sure and certainly didn't want to disturb them. He was a bit jealous, though — there was no way he could sleep with how much the coach was jostling on this less maintained road.

  Ellie had slowed the coach to mitigate the bouncing once they'd gotten on the smaller, rougher roads past the mill, but even with the reduced speed the ride kept getting rougher as they headed further northwest. It was harder on the horses as well, and they began to visibly flag soon thereafter, being both tired and hungry, the same as the occupants of the coach. Only unlike said occupants, they'd been working hard this whole time — whereas Nat was only exhausted due to the hour and the constant vigilance.

  Half an hour or so later, Nat heard Novek and Ellie exchanging a few words quietly, and shortly thereafter Ellie brought the coach to a halt right in the middle of the road, “Okay everyone, take ten. The horses need a quick rest and some food. I'll keep an eye out till someone else is set.”

  Nat almost ran behind a nearby tree before sighing audibly with relief, then headed back towards the coach where Ellie was reassuring the horses with gentle tones and neck pats.

  She started filling two feed bags from one of the sacks as she kept an eye on the road. “Nat, I need to find a tree to lean against urgently as well. There are a couple apples in the sack here — if you'd like to feed them before I bag them. The sugar will do them good — no more than two each though. Keep an eye out — I'll be right back.”

  “Will do.”

  He grabbed four apples from the sack and walked to the front of horses with them in hand. They both surged forward towards him, pulling against their harness, and almost dragged the coach — despite the brake — in their eagerness. Lyn yelped from the cabin — apparently they'd gotten back inside. Whoops. He called out, “Sorry!”

  A few minutes later Ellie came back from out of the dark and gently corrected him, “I should have warned you they'd be over-eager. That's why, when they're hitched, you always approach from the side — where the blinders hide you — talking calmly while you approach so you don't spook them. And don't forget — keep your hand flat, or you might lose a finger.” With that she hooked on the feed bags and bit into an apple of her own.

  Shortly thereafter, they were back on the road. Novek traded with Lyn, and came to sit in the coach with Nat. It became decidedly less roomy with the Brin inside — with Lyn, it felt like he had the whole coach to himself.

  Nat had been curious about Novek's Talent, so since the Brin was leaning out the window staring into the darkness, he decided to ask. “How does the whole mechanic Talent work — that seems a strange one for a mercenary to have.”

  “Ah, I was wondering when you'd ask. Combat Mechanic has broad applicability — though it's not as utility focused as a general Mechanic Talent. I have a paired Trait that gives increased hand strength and dexterity, and the Talent itself provides the ability to store and direct force into aethonic mass. It's surprisingly small amounts of force being applied to simple machines that are doing the real work. The more aethonic mass, the more force that can be applied; but that force is released as soon as the charge drops below a threshold — ready or not.”

  “How does that work in practice? I've seen you make things more durable.”

  “Well, unlike how Ceress works, for instance — I am not temporarily increasing the density by adding effective mass. I might apply an inward force to make a mortar tube less likely to rupture due to weakness or damage. There are limits though, and exceeding them really puts the spectacle in spectacular failure.”

  “But I thought aethons could only add or subtract atomic mass temporarily, and therons have no mass — only energy. How do you add force?”

  “You'd have to ask an expert — try Lyn, maybe — if you want the overly technical explanation, but the short version of it is that everything is in constant motion. My Talent lessens the motion of atoms in one direction, which results in a net increase in the other. The hotter the object, the faster it stores. It's very hard for me to work with very cold things, but there are Talents that specialize in that, too.”

  Novek put his paw up to forestall the next question. “Hang tight, Nat. Ellie? I think I see a spot to camp for the night. Moira? Can you look around with your… whatever it is you do, please? The three boulders with the tree growing on top of the tallest one, over there — about sixty meters north of the road.”

  Sure, Novek. One moment while I see what's moving.

  Novek banged twice on the lip of the coach to get Ellie's attention — her voice came from outside, easily heard with the window open. “I heard you, I just can't see what you're talking about yet.” Nevertheless, she reined in the horses and the coach came to a halt, though everyone stayed in position this time.

  In terms of aether usage, there's the usual insects, a bunch of lizard shapes on the north side of the rocks away from us, and five fist-sized Ber roosting in the tree on top of the tall rock. A few small fliers out hunting as well. Nothing else of note. I can look for more than aether usage as Nat gets closer.

  “Hold on, let me hop off to scout the area, and I'll lead you in if it's all clear. Nat, If you want to keep talking, you're with me for recon duty.”

  Novek opened the door and leapt down and stalked off into the darkness, crossbow at the ready. “Watch your step, it's rocky here.”

  Nat followed suit and closed the door behind him. He kept his eyes on the ground; counter-intuitively it became easier to see once he was away from the lanterns. “So the crossbow bolts — what is it you're doing with them?”

  He held up a crossbow bolt in one paw which shimmered faintly with his characteristic yellow-orange. The bolt then glowed, only instead of all at once, bits of it started glowing in sequence as he talked. “So, here is what I usually do, only slower. The tip gets strengthened in the center to punch through armor, or weakened for soft targets. Vanes are made to resist bending or deformation so it flies straight. The shaft is just generally made more durable. And here on the back end I add a slight amount of force pushing it forward — but only as it's about to fly, else it would just flop out of the crossbow — which I also strengthen and adjust to add speed and force to the bolt — otherwise bolts are fairly slow.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “That is fascinatingly complex. How did you learn all that?”

  “Ask me again some other time.”

  “Fair enough. So your Talent lets you use that heavy crossbow?”

  “The Talent only helps me use it better. Most of the difference between a Human and me is the advantage in leverage that comes with having longer limbs and the muscle to back it up. Which isn't to say I don't have some aether tricks, but I mostly use them to strengthen my tools and constructions to keep maintenance and chances of catastrophic failure down. Efficiency and flexibility over capability, I suppose.”

  Rather than move directly towards the rocks, Novek had taken a circuitous route, to avoid approaching before he'd seen all the sides. He dropped his voice as they began to circle in closer, scanning the rocks, but also outwards as he peered into the night.

  “Okay, but that would seem to be more powerful than what I can do, right? I can't move things much — it's a struggle just to get through air.”

  “Air's a lot heavier than you'd think. Also, lower your voice a bit and watch your step here.”

  Nat did as instructed, then continued, “Got it. Yeah, Moira taught me that earlier tonight, actually.”

  “The point though is that you are moving the air. It just takes you a lot of effort — that air compresses, which generates heat. When you do that, you create a vacuum where the air used to be — you don't see how much things get thrown around since you're frozen. The thing to keep in mind is that if you can move air, well, then nothing is stopping you from throwing a rock, activating the Talent and then pushing, gently, on that rock to add force. Same thing if you wanted to mimic a punch — you'd push on them — the world's most boring punch to you maybe, but you could toss around something weighing tons, given enough time. Just be careful to practice beforehand, or you could end up pulping someone.”

  “Oh gross. I had not considered that.”

  “Well, it's been what, a week? I've spent years — decades, learning to use my Talent effectively. But let me show you what I mean. Pick up a palm sized rock.”

  Nat looked down and selected a few, then looked back to Novek, who had stopped moving.

  “Okay, now what I'd like you to do is just toss it from your hand lightly so it's in the air. Then activate your Talent the moment it leaves your hand, so you can push on it. Give it a little push, to get some distance. We want it to make noise somewhere out there — away from us and the coach, so anything listening is distracted as we move in for our final check. Got it? Go.”

  Nat tossed the rock lightly and…

  [Slip]

  Novek became a statue next to him. Nat wasn't sure if he'd ever get used to that — it was… disconcerting.

  Hey, Moira? How long do you think I should push on this — and how hard?

  Hmm. That depends on the dilation ratio. I suppose you could start lightly and then push it more if necessary. I should be able to calculate based on the movement of it, actually.

  Really? I can't see things move in here.

  They do, it's just so slow that you can't see the difference. If you brought a ruler or something you could actually measure the dilation ratio yourself. Give it a try, start lightly — let's see how it goes.

  Sure thing. He put his hand flat against the side of the rock and started to press lightly.

  A few seconds later, Moira chimed back in, I think you'll need to push a little harder than that. The Talent negates light pressure. Otherwise you'd probably crush the ground you're standing on when you walked.

  He roughly doubled the pressure. Better, a bit more. And again. It felt like leaning against a wall more than anything. In fact — he dropped his hand and simply leaned against the rock with his shoulder, instead. That was far easier — keeping his arm up had started to get tiring.

  Well, that's one way to take leaning into it literally, I suppose. That's working, by the way. Though push up a bit or it's going to hit the ground close by.

  He adjusted his posture. Better?

  Yep. I think that's enough. Let's see how this works. I think I can even highlight the projected trajectory. Let me light that up for you.

  Moira's aether light sprang into existence, a thin line showing where the rock was going to impact — much further away than he'd expected. Let me push backwards on that a bit, I think that's too far.

  A few adjustments later and Nat was happy. Okay, ending now.

  []

  Nat couldn't see the rock shoot off into the distance, but he did unfreeze in time to hear it clatter into other stones in the distance. The world around them went suddenly, profoundly silent — it was like he had re-entered his Talent's void. All the little sounds that had come back as he unfroze, the drone of insects, some faint buzzing, and quiet clacking noises from the tree above had stopped.

  Novek scanned intently as it did — but apparently saw nothing of interest as his posture relaxed somewhat. “Anything new, Moira?”

  Nothing. You scared off a few smaller animals, but almost everything in range started hiding.

  Nat's voice came out a bit louder than he meant it to, “That was pretty cool. Still less powerful than a crossbow bolt though, and I could only maybe do a couple of those. Compared to a gun, it's even less impressive. But still neat.”

  “Ah, but you see — you didn't need to have any of that — no bow, no gun, no training. You could have used sand, dirt, anything. And as for guns? You could outrun a hail of bullets — though admittedly the timing to do that would be difficult. But even if you mistimed it, your statue phase would likely protect you.”

  Novek raised his voice, “It's clear, Ellie! We're coming back. There's a horseshoe gap back here with a long-dead campfire that should obscure the coach with a couple strategically placed branches.” He turned to head back to the road and the waiting coach.

  Nat followed behind, looking to the sides or at the ground to avoid looking at the coach lights, “So flexibility and adaptability over capability?”

  “Well, yes, but no. You have capability, too. Frankly, I'm envious — you get the most important thing of all.”

  “I do? What's that?”

  “Time. Time to think — to plan. You have the luxury of always being able to choose to act, instead of react.”

  “Well, without Moira to talk to and light up the Talent I don't think I'd ever have felt comfortable experimenting with it. Otherwise, it's a lot of standing around, alone in the dark.”

  “I don't believe that for a second. It might have taken you some time, but you're far too curious, and I'm not sure that you have a healthy fear response.”

  You should talk. But I agree — that's going to get him into trouble.

  They guided the coach into position and then Novek went to collect some shrub foliage and whatever branches could be found for cover. Ellie took care of the horses, while Lyn had grabbed whatever food was good cold and laid out a small spread — they'd all agreed that the smoke and light of a fire was a bad idea.

  Nat wasn't sure what to do with himself, so he found a stone and asked Moira if she could heat the rock up so they could at least have some hot berry tea before they bedded down for the second time that night. Lyn, Ellie, and Nat would share the two benches and the floor inside, Novek said he'd manage on the roof, where he could keep watch.

  Shortly thereafter, sheltered from the wind by the rock formation, bundled in some extra clothing — they'd run out of blankets — and with warm tea in hand, Nat fell asleep leaning against the rock.

  Nat. Nat! Wake up!

  Nat awoke suddenly to the sound of Moira, and now Lyn's voice followed — loud, but calm, and with a serious tone. “Nat — don't move. Take no hostile action if you want to be safe underneath the open skies ever again in your life.”

  He was much warmer than he expected to be, for having fallen asleep outside — but he was covered in a number of small black and white, fuzzy… birds? That were perched on him — no, they were sort of hanging, instead. One had its beak in his teacup, still in his hand.

  Another was sitting on the rock in front of him, leaning against the kettle — that Moira had warmed in preparation for morning tea. It was utterly adorable — like a googly-eyed owl, but with a longer beak that sounded like two small rocks being clapped together. No, wait, it was nudging the kettle — indicating?

  Making sure not to move suddenly and disturb them, Nat asked, quietly, “What are they? Are they dangerous — some sort of retaliatory hive mind or something?”

  Lyn's expression remained serious as they leaned out the door of the coach to look down at him. “Worse than that — a hive mind you could placate or potentially defeat.”

  “How could they be worse than a Ber hive mind?”

  “Once you've angered a wing of Clackaw there's no taking it back — they travel the world, and are absolutely terrible gossips.”