“I thought you said he was going to just stay with him, not torture him for information.” The scene clearly being misunderstood by the counter girl.

“Ma’am, I assure you that my brother didn’t harm Mr. Wolfe in any way.”

In a feat I would like to describe as heroic, I manage to steady myself and my nerves. As the kids say, I was ‘getting my shit together’ “He didn’t torture me. I had some skeletons to de-closet. Ghosts to air out. Stains to resolve…” No one got the joke. I, with sadness at ‘kids these days’, moved forward. “I believe you wanted something from me...Ms.?” I try to nonchalantly manage as I wipe across my eyes.

“Ms. Knight. You can call me Erin.”

“Erin? Well. Erin. I think we need to do some kind of test? You appear to have the apparatus? I think?” genuinely confused by the suitcase like contraption and odd looking peripherals. These looked seriously nonstandard.

“Ah, yes. I just need a few things from you. We can set up on the table.” Directing Suit 1 to place some peripherals on the table next to me. “First we need a palm scan from your engraph unit. That should speed things up considerably. If your information is to be believed. You would've had to have that thing installed in one of the first batches.” She rattles off without considering the gravity of what she just said. In typical nerded out tech specialist fashion. “Here you go.” She abruptly grabs my wrist and plugs a round palm-sized device into my hand, that clicks and sockets into place. “Your firmware is at least 2 years out of date. Let's just update that to better categorize the feeds.” Clicking away madly on what looks like an archaic mechanical keyboard. “I realize this might cause some discomfort.” My arm locks up into its default position suddenly and without warning. Her fingers sound like rain on a tin roof as she continues to hammer out codes and inputs. My arm then abruptly splits open and I find myself screaming again.

“Ooooowgahholyfuckinghellshitballsmotherofallthatisthecatastropheofmen’slives”

“Oops. Sorry. I didn’t realize your arm lacks the safety nerve disconnect on maintenance mode. Whooa. That means this is super old. Like ancient. Where'd you even get this? Did you get this at an aftermarket? Holy crap that's.” Her mouth suddenly shuts. She stops. Slowly turns her head towards me like a horror movie. “I...I, um,” She brings her hands together in a pleading pose and snaps her head down so fast she hits my open ‘in maintenance’ mode arm. “I’m so sorry. I’msosorry. I’msosorry. Oh, god, he is going to kill me” she mumbles her fears at the end.

“OHMYFUCKINGGODIWISHTHISWOULDREALLYSTOPHAPPENINGFORTHE UHHHH.”

“Eek! I’m sorry. Again. Let me fix that. She hits a few keystrokes and suddenly the pain subsides. “I didn’t know I was working on original military hardware. Please don’t kill me. I have to do hundreds of these a day, and I never thought I would ever even see one, let alone work on one, I should have been sooooo much more careful. Pleeeease, forgive me. Pretty please. I don’t want to die.”

Having my head not splitting open from the pain. I notice the shit eating grin on both of my Suits faces. “Ha, Ha, You think it’s soooo funny.” I turn to her and try to manage a soft expression, and an even speaking voice. “Erin, it’s mostly okay. I am one of literally dozens with a device like this, and most of them don’t even step outside their homes.”

“Oh god, I thought you were a specials unit. Your numbers are so high, albeit a little weird.” She breathes a sigh of relief. “Soooooo you are just some old man? Whew.”

“I find myself suddenly more annoyed,” I add with a stoney dad glare.

“Eek. I’msorry.” She strikes her keys a few more times and then turns her screen towards me. “See you have two specializations, but they are polar. Which is SUPER weird. Especially this one as it has two forks. Then your general scores are really high. This isn’t the best array I have seen, but other than a few young prodigies I haven’t seen an array this great. Oh crap. You’re on an accelerated plan. There isn’t going to be enough time for all of your courses. I will have to file for an extension right away. Do you have and adverse reactions to time dilations? Have you experienced 2 times, 4 times, or even 8 times?” She rambled on giving me no time to respond.

“Whoa. Hold on there, uh Erin. May I answer one of those? I haven’t had any adverse reactions, but I have only experienced 2x, but it was in early tests. Not sure if that affects outcomes and baselines though.”

“You should be fine.” Although she sounded distracted as she plucked away on the keys.”I think we might even be able to get clearance for 8 times.” A few more strokes of her keys. She fist pumps in celebration. “Yes! I have you cleared to attempt 8 times and we have at least a one-week extension. Up to two if you suck.” Finally taking a moment to look up at me, but the realization that she has been prattling on again without thinking strikes her, and she proceeds to blush. “Sorry. Doing it again.” She straightens up again clearly marshalling her spine. “Good news. We don’t need to do the other tests. Those are long and boring anyway. I really hate the questionnaire. Those results are always so iffy. Not even sure why we do them.” She shakes her head a little, an obvious gesture she uses to try and keep her on track. “Your specialized fields are Destruction, Alteration, and Peragomancy. Peragomancy, that's a pretty rare one. That’s probably some Celtic heritage and what not. White isn’t just white you know. We still haven’t figured out how much they knew about Aether. The Stonehenge once restored showed up as a ley line focus. It pulled in ambient Aether and fed it into the Leyline, dramatically increasing the available Aether to people in the region. Like...Hmm. How did they know?” She kind of drifted in thought, probably brimming with theories and conjectures. Her head shook again, clearly clearing the reverie. “Did you know the ‘Russian’ white tends to have increased benefits in alteration and general resistances? Like up to 2.5 times the efficiency. Anyway. Peragomancy is one of the special ones. It has to with the dimensions, portals, and transit. There is usually some specialization in there, but your branch is in this area.” pointing vaguely at her screen.” It covers a lot of Peragomancy and spreads into Alteration. You might even be a bender.” She, yet again, realized she was nattering on. I found this whole thing amusing, if I didn’t I think I would have just been spacing out and staring. She was definitely cute. She reminds me of my wife. Departed wife. The Wildling incidents were nothing if not messy...bloody even. I visibly shudder. “Wolfe…” she muttered to herself. “Wolfe… hmmm. Where have I heard that.” She starts tapping on her chin. She pauses. Starts tapping on her keyboard. She picks up speed. A flurry of typing overtaking her, seeming to possess her. She stops abruptly. Pauses. I always thought it was a trope for animated shows, but honest truth, her skin blanched. Visibly paled. “You are Nikolai Wolfe. The story about the kid... You’re the survivor ...of one of the most publicized wildling events. You’re a bender because you...you were there.” Her lip visibly trembles. Her hands curl up into soft fists as she tries to marshal herself. Tears start streaming down her face. “You spent months. Tracking him down. Your wife died at the event horizon. You…” She faltered again. “You are going after him. Aren’t you? Why else would you get a VALENT now? That was...six months ago...”

A lump forms in my throat. If only she wasn’t so socially inept. She was a walking plot exposé. Kids never seem to know when it’s too much to say. I’m feeling choked up, on the lump in my throat. Keeping together never seemed this hard before. Just an innocent girl that can’t keep from rambling, just spewing it all out there. “Uh, Erin.” I manage after clearing my throat. I attempt to change directions. “I need to get to my courses.” Pulling myself up as new aches assert themselves in new places. Apparently, I crumpled due to Aether shock as it hit my system. “Could you help me with that?”

Something sparked in her eyes. Concern hit me like a ton of bricks. A little manic gleam took root in her eyes. She madly started banging out keystrokes. A fury… a storm whipped behind those eyes. “Aaaaaand. Done. Your courses start tomorrow. A general day at 8 times compression and testing will start today.” I have installed myself as your personal tutor, and we will…” she hesitated with a flair the dramatic, “have you ready!” She made a grasping fist gesture. Chuunibyou...

“Wait?!? What?” God, that’s getting old. I knew that my best-laid plans weren’t going to hold up with so many variables in play, but I was getting really tired of the surprises. It’s almost like someone was playing my song. I know they say that a story is only interesting if there is coincidence but man, it sure feels like someone is writing a book about this.

“I happen to be one of the state-sponsored tutors for special cases.” She is now standing with immaculate posture and making a grand gesture with her hand on her chest like a cheesy early 21st-century anime villain. “I have personally assigned myself to this auspicious occasion.” She flings back an imaginary cape.

My mouth hangs agape...for just a moment, I assure you. I find myself breathing out in disbelief, “Where did my cute little counter girl go?”

“I stake my name as one of the Knight household on your success.”

“Uh, should I have heard about the Knight household?”

“Uh...no? It um… It has to start... somewhere. I assure you that my surname will be on everyone’s lips after this!” She falters a little in starting but builds to a rousing statement.

A sigh escapes my lips. This seems to deflate her a little bit. Apparently, she is a little too drunk on the Anime of early 21st-century. “I will be in your care, I guess.” She falters at my lack of enthusiasm. “I assume that you are proctoring my general assessments and testing?”

“Yes, we will begin within the hour. I will need you to head down to the Rig room to get fitted for the test Coffins. They will need to de dock your engraph there. Lemme place a nerve disconnect safety into your engraph with software coding. It should trigger anytime it is removed or switched to maintenance mode. I apologize in advance, but it will get a little uncomfortable... again... as it adjusts to the buffer.” She sheepishly informs me a little on the late side.

“Uh, okay?” I mutter a little nervous. Hoping it doesn’t feel as bad as my arm feeling split open. I cross my fingers.

She begins to rapidly type away. I feel my engraph go numb up to the wrist, then the elbow, and finally to the socket. Just as it reaches the device socket. I feel ice creep up my spine. I feel the equivalent of an ice cream headache and a sinus burn from eating wasabi or horseradish. Then it stops. Feeling returns to my engraph. “There we go. That will provide a buffer so that if there are any major disruptions in the engraph unit it will cut off the signals. You might experience some initial numbness when you reconnect or initialize your engraph after a disconnect, as it wakes up. This old school shit is super sturdy, but they totally ignored all of the Q-O-L.” She looks a little sheepish. “Quality of Life. Sorry. I tend to think in tech most of the time. Having conversations is not my specialty.”

The Mr. Thomas’ 1 and 2 chuckle. Stifling further laughter. “No way. Ma’am, we didn’t notice anything.”

“You guys are the worst!” She sticks her tongue out while pulling her right eyelid down. Seriously. Entirely... too much early 21st-century Anime. I swear if she ever says ‘Notice me, senpai’ I will never let her live it down.

“Forgive me for being new here, but where do I need to go to get fitted for a test Rig?” I try to steer things back on topic.

“You go to the 4th floor for fitting, just follow the signs, and we should be able to use the general shafts to do your first dive. They can go up to 8x, but we will have to check your stability.”

Mr. Thomas 1 motions for me to follow. “We will get you there.” He chuckles to himself as he clearly found something amusing. “You know, in case you keep passing out. How many times is this? Four?” He chuckles again. “Come on damsel, we’ll carry you if you need us to.”

This calls for revenge.