“Are you sorry you did it, now?” Akari asked.

  “Hm? What, checked up on people and sent four guys that needed it to the clinic?” Danielle asked.

  “Less that part, I guess, and more sterilizing everyone’s canteens and things,” Akari said.

  Danielle thought about it, even though her thoughts felt like they were running slower every minute. “Nah,” she finally said, “I’m not sorry I helped people that needed helping. It’s just a little more mana, not the end of life as I know it. That already happened, anyway! I’ll handle the speeds when they come – or you guys’ll handle it, if I’m delirious again. Thanks for taking good care of me, the last few days, I’m not even better yet and I’m already doing better than some of the people we saw today. You guys are good friends. I’ll make my emergency box and put it somewhere you can get at it if I get loopy before we realize I need to use it, and we’ll all take care of each other again, and God will protect us, and we’ll be OK in the end.”

  “Did they really need their canteens sterilized, though?” Sadie asked.

  “It’s to prevent secondary infections,” Heather said. “They told us about it at the Healer’s meeting yesterday. So yeah, it’s important.”

  “There you go,” Danielle said, then paused to yawn. “Medically necessary.”

  “OK, then. Good job,” Sadie said. “Just so you know, though, I’m down to zero for the third day in a row, too.”

  “Really? What have you been doing?” Akari asked.

  “I spent a point or two on Class stuff earlier,” Sadie said, “and I’ve done some itch-stopping the last few days, but most evenings and especially this evening it was all Purify Food, making our meat last until we have the energy to use it properly.”

  “Mm. I still need to nap extra, but lets try and make our own soup tomorrow,” Danielle said. “Um, maybe for lunch and dinner but not breakfast? That sounds doable. Do you guys think that’s doable?”

  “If Akari will help me plan and get the recipe settled on, I can cook lunch while you all do your rounds in the morning,” Sadie volunteered.

  “That would be amazing,” Heather said.

  “Thank you, Sadie,” Danielle said. “See you guys at midnight. Are you still even taking meds?”

  “Nobody but you had a temperature this morning, so no,” Heather said.

  “In that case, just go back to sleep after the Now Hear This, and I’ll use Infrasight so I don’t have to turn on the lights,” Danielle said. “Pretty sure I can handle the checklist by m’self now. Sleep well.”

  “Thanks. Goodnight Danielle,” Heather replied.

  “Goodnight Danielle,” Akari echoed. “It was worth it. I won’t complain when you inevitably want to do the first floor tomorrow.”

  Danielle smiled in the dark. “It was. Thanks.”

  A system message came up. “Career Search Complete. Result: Medical Assistant.”

  “What?!” Danielle was almost surprised enough to sit up again, but not quite.

  “What? What now?” Akari asked.

  “Uh, sorry, nothing bad. Just another surprise System notification. At least I was awake and paying attention this time. Sorry to startle everyone,” Danielle said.

  “Well, don’t keep us in suspense,” Heather said, sounding less excited than resigned.

  “Remember how I started a Career search last Saturday night?” Danielle asked.

  “The weird answer to prayer thing?” Akari asked back.

  “Yeah, that. I just got the results. Career: Medical Assistant. I never would’ve predicted that a week ago,” Danielle said. “I was terrified it was going to be a politics thing, and now look. I guess it’s going mostly on the medication time messages, and whatever Local Antihistamine stuff you had me doing to use up mana, and the rounds today.”

  “Ugh, that is so unfair,” Heather said. “I’ve been doing proper medical care stuff all week, and I didn’t get a Career out of it!”

  “You didn’t have the search going,” Sadie said.

  Danielle laughed. “Score one for God,” she said, “I never would’ve seen that one coming. I guess you can pay attention to what comes out of it, Heather, and if you decide it’s a Career you really want, when the Speeds does come up, the first thing you do that week is start the search.”

  “That’s a good point,” Heather said. “Are you going out tomorrow anyway?”

  “Of course I am. I didn’t go out because of the Career search; I had forgotten about that until just now. I went out to help people, and I’m doing it again tomorrow and the next day too, if there’s still people that need it.”

  “Good for you. Sleep now?” Sadie asked.

  “Right, right. Sorry again,” Danielle said, accompanied by Akari’s laughter.

  Everyone was quiet after that. Danielle prayed silently, Thank you God, that’s a pretty nice Career and I wouldn’t have gotten it if you hadn’t told me to start the search when you did. There’s still a lot of overwhelming stuff out there in my life; please help me figure out how to do the right thing each step of the way. She meant to simply listen for an answer after that, but predictably enough, she fell asleep.

  Some unknowable time later, she dreamed. It was a nightmare; angry Sent chased her between the buildings, chanting “Now Hear This” and beating her with sticks – not staves, for whatever reason, just fallen tree bits. She was able to fend off some of it with her staff, which was her right and proper staff, complete with Flash Shield, which strobed as she activated it and it threw off an attack and activated it again. There were too many angry people and too many sticks, and no doors opened to let her in to safety, not even the doors that belonged to her. She was vaguely aware that it was, in fact, a dream; but she couldn’t figure out how to wake up.

  The messenger stepped around the corner of a building, raised his eyebrows at the angry crowd, and said, “That is quite enough of that. Begone. You too – shoo.” The crowd faded out of existence, then the building, and the world tilted; Danielle was on her back on some yielding surface. It was fairly comfortable, all things considered, but completely dark. The messenger’s dream-avatar crouched above her, the last thing visible in the darkness; he reached out and touched her head.

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  “Much better,” he said. “You did well today, and the Career came in strong. The Trait too; I didn’t know if your instance would use the Career mana reservoir for that, but it seems it did. Let’s see now, did it index the Next Career marker? Hm. Yes, looks like General Dehydrate went as Academic because it’s good for books – hah, and so it is, good thought – and Improved Mana Generation went as Survival, which I suppose is also fair. Let’s see if I can get the next one on my list for you to slot in as a Mana Research Skill.”

  He didn’t seem to need a response; he was talking in mana again, and then he was using mana in some other, more Skill-like way. Danielle still couldn’t speak in mana, and she didn’t want to wake her roommates again, so she held her peace and tried to figure out where she was. She might not be able to see, but hearing and mana sense and even scent were still available to her. The messenger didn’t rustle much, like normal people did, but Danielle herself could move just a bit and see what came of it.

  She listened to small sounds and listen/felt the mana and took notice of the fact that she was on a cloth-covered surface, and could still feel her staff in hand. Moving the staff produced a faint clunk as it contacted a wall, and she could hear/feel mana in that wall too. It stretched around a room, she thought, longer than it was wide, just a bit echoey for its size – all hard surfaces, by the sound of it. There were three other mana sources in there with them; one hard to see, because it was mostly behind the messenger, but –

  She was in her bedroom, and she couldn’t see because her eyes were closed. “Well, I feel silly,” she whispered.

  “Oh? Why so?” the messenger asked.

  “I was trying to figure out where I was, like I was still in the dream, but I was just sensing my real room. I’m in bed, like a sane person. I should be asleep.” Danielle sighed softly.

  “You needed to wake up enough to remember the message,” said the messenger. “I believe you’re ready now.”

  “The thing about which Career goes with which Skill? Or, um, the other way around?” Danielle asked.

  “Oh, that was just some small talk while I delivered a message to your Instance,” the messenger said. “What you need to remember is a message to you. Are you prepared to listen?”

  “I am listening,” Danielle whispered.

  “Hear the word of the Lord: You have done well. I have given you the grace of great gifts within the place and situation in which you find yourself, and you have used them in accordance with your understanding of the principles I ask you to live by, and you have obeyed my commands. I have seen your efforts to keep the Sabbath and to deliver the tithe into the hands of my servants. I have seen and approved your choice to honor my will in the forest, when I preserved the enemies that sought your life, and you also bestowed mercy upon the one within your reach.

  “I hold this against you: you have harbored anger and unforgiveness towards Vanessa. Forgive as you have been forgiven. You must also cultivate forgiveness towards the boy you know as Vince. Know that just as he will not be allowed to kill you, you also may not kill him. He will come for you again, and you may take his weapons or strike him back from you, but you may not kill him. I still have plans for him. This is the word of the Lord.” The messenger paused to let that sink in.

  “I hear the message: I may not kill Vince,” Danielle said. “The forgiveness stuff might take, um, work. I don’t suppose it would be OK to ask about the plans?”

  “The answer to that was not included in the message,” the messenger said. “There is more, though.”

  “I’m listening,” Danielle whispered again.

  “Concerning the matter of the tithe on the mana you received Sunday evening, I bring instructions. You have 3,600 mana in your ten percent. Early on Sunday morning, take 2,400 mana from the mana you have set aside for the tithe. Take 2,400 exactly and no more, and go to the Access Point. You are to invite only three people to go with you: Zephyr and Gideon shall go, and Marc from the Lemonade party may also go if he volunteers. These three have the speed and the silence to go with you. You shall go on Sunday morning, and go swiftly and silently. When you and your companions have all entered into the circle of the Access Point, ask to make Fourfold Gift tokens. These are the Skills to include in the Fourfold Gifts: Flash Shield, Defend Another, Combat Medic, and Burst Recycling. You require three of these tokens. If you make them from the Access Point proper, they will take up 1,950 mana; but since this is the first time you have made them, it is possible the System will offer to make a deal with you. In that case, offer the whole 2,400 in exchange for three of the Fourfold Gift tokens, and whatever else she cares to offer to you. Then return swiftly home, doing no further business in that visit.

  “Do not carry around the tokens, but store them in your footlocker until the time is right to deliver them – you will recognize the right time, because God will send your three allies the mana they required to raise their base level so that they may receive the gifts in the normal way of the System. After they level, deliver the gifts quickly, for by that sign you will also know that the time is short. This is the word of the Lord.”

  “That was very specific,” Danielle said. “Let me open my Planner and recite it back to you, so you can correct me if I miss any details.”

  “That is wise,” the messenger said. He waited patiently while Danielle flicked her eyes at her System and set up a new document in her planner.

  “OK, this is what I have understood from the message tonight,” Danielle said, and the Planner document recorded her words. “First, I may not kill Vince, even though he will attack me again; I may take his weapons and shove him away, but not kill him, because God still has plans for him. Also, I’m supposed to practice forgiveness on him, even though he is still going to attack me again.”

  The messenger nodded solemnly.

  “Second, I am to make a type of token called a Fourfold Gift token. I am instructed to go to the Constanza North Access Point early Sunday morning, using stealth and speed as I am able; I must take Gideon and Zephyr and may take Marc if he volunteers to go – these three are chosen, at least in part, because they can match my speed and use sufficient stealth. Silence? Speed and silence. I am to take exactly 2,400 mana, no more and no less; we are to move quickly and do no other business there on Sunday morning. I am to make Fourfold Gift tokens with Flash Shield, Defend Another, Combat Medic, and Burst Recycling. Should I be concerned about the fact that I don’t have Burst Recycling?”

  “You will have it by Sunday morning,” the messenger said.

  “All right, I am told I will have Burst Recycling available to use for this purpose by Sunday morning. I am to make three copies of this Fourfold Gift. If the System offers me a deal, I am to give all 2,400 mana in exchange for the three Fourfold Gift tokens and whatever else the System cares to offer. If no deal is offered, I am to pay the cost of the three tokens and return the remaining mana to the tithe supply.

  “Third, I am to keep the tokens in my footlocker (not my token purse) until the three people they are supposed to go to have reached base level 2. When that happens, it will be important to distribute them quickly, because that is also a sign that the time is short.”

  “Very good,” the messenger said. “I do not know if you will see me again after this, but know that when the time comes, I will fight alongside you.”

  “That’s encouraging. Thank you,” Danielle said. “Um, is the message complete, or was there anything about what to do with the rest of the tithe mana?”

  “The message is complete.” The messenger cocked his head, as if listening to a voice out of Danielle’s earshot. “Your question is heard, however, and I may tell you that continuing to deliver Skill tokens to classed Healers that call upon the name of Jesus is an acceptable use. It will take time for you to find other proper uses; for now, make twelve Numeric MedVet Thermometer tokens and eight of Regen Burst and bring them with you to the gathering on Sunday.”

  “Bring eight Regen Burst and twelve Numeric MedVet Thermometer tokens to the Sunday prayer meeting. Close document. Close Planner,” Danielle whispered. “Thank you, messenger.”

  “You are welcome. Are we not fellow-servants of the same master?” the messenger asked with a smile. “I look forward to the day when you may see us all, unveiled. For now, I suggest you activate Infrasight and ready your water and medication. Your alarm will ring momentarily.” He stood up, and Danielle realized he had been perched on the footboards of her and Heather’s beds again.

  Danielle was trying to decide if she was supposed to say goodbye when it sounded like he was less going away and more going invisible, when he was suddenly gone without a sound or hint of transition.

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