You are never master of your talents until you master others’.

Wisdom of the Ancients, book 2

“What is the plan now that you’ve got your books?” Madelynn Nash asked as the expedition was eating breakfast.

“As you said yourself, we’ve got our bags full. And even an Artifact to sell,” Johanna replied.

“I completely forgot yesterday with all that… change.”

“Miles has them.”

“Them?”

“A pair of shoes. I don’t know what they do, not yet. Something related to walking, or running. Or maybe kicking or stomping stuff. Most Artifacts revolve around what they look like.”

“Of course, you’d be an expert. Never found one myself.”

“So, we’ve got what we were looking for, and now we head back.”

“All that walk, and a single day in the ruins,” Madelynn laughed.

“Well, was it a profitable one?”

“You bet,” the Tyrant Fixer replied.

The expedition was a bit livelier. They roughly followed the same tracks they had coming to Grand Rapids, but it was clear everyone was still talking about their new Talents. She let herself slide back a bit from the front of the line, checking with the rest of the team.

“So, how are the other Fixers?” she asked Laura.

“Different, I’d say. You took notes, so you’ve noticed both got Close Wounds and First Aid.”

“True. And First Aid sounds like your ability to fix combat wounds.”

“Just from the name alone, I agree. Close Wounds, I think that’s my basic fixing of surface light stuff. I had both erase some small scars to check and they do it pretty much the same as me, and as fast, as far as I can tell.”

“Anything else? Madelynn got your dread gaze. Sorry, Falter.”

“And Silence. That one’s absolutely weird. You stop talking. It’s not that you can’t be heard or your mouth is shut, or anything, you just… stop talking. Tyrant Fixer… is certainly a descriptive label.”

“Most of them seem to be. And I’ll note it’s not Mind Shaper even if both Falter and Silence are thought to be a form of mind sorcery. Anything else?”

“The Deep Fixer I think has another one of mine, Cleanse Toxins. I’ll have to check later if he can shrug off heavy drinking. Unless we test with the salvaged booze, it will have to wait back in town.”

“I’ll update my notes. Nobody got your instant teleportation?”

“No. I remember when I started intuitively knowing the gravity of a wound even at a distance, and none of the two have that kind of sensation.”

“So, you’re probably still the one the expedition will rely the most upon for real emergencies,” Johanna concluded.

“That. But they can take over some cases in battle. It’s… weird.”

“Not being the only Fixer?”

“That. Oh, and I may have gotten a new Talent myself.”

Johanna almost stopped, before starting again.

“When?”

“Don’t know exactly. But that Deep Fixer had lost a small finger phalange a couple of years ago. He was bummed that First Aid was useless after so long ago, and I told him just to fix the scarring.”

“And?”

“And we both felt things shifting inside when I showed him how best to smooth out the skin. So, I tried to focus, and kept doing it.”

“And?”

“It took me over seven minutes. But he has a new phalange. With a very clean nail.”

Johanna stayed silent for a few seconds.

“You should probably test yourself somewhat. After we found out that we hadn’t enough – power currency – in stock, it’s probably because the Skeleton was really adding a new Talent,” Laura added.

“Maybe.”

“Six Talents. I’m ready to bet you also have six now.”

“I’m not taking a bet that I’d be happy to lose,” Johanna replied. “But I’m not surprised.”

“Why?”

“Tom’s talked with the Guardian. With Gauge Endurance, he’s found Miles the most powerful of the entire expedition, no surprise there. But notably, we’re both slightly more powerful than Tom or Peter.”

“Wait, didn’t Mark…”

“… Note we all had equal power at the time? Yes. So, we gained power since. And now, I just have to find which Talent I got from the Ancient.”

“So, do I thank you for sending me all those new Shapers?” Petra said.

“Errrr. I…”

“Talk about the blind leading the blind. Four Talents, and you sent me an Earth Shaper with five.”

“She’s got Earthbind and Tremor.”

“And I wasn’t about to compare how big ours were. At least not in the middle of those ruins. But we compared Earthbind’s range.”

“And?”

“It turns out to be exactly the same. I would have expected her to be slightly more powerful than me. But no. If we took one step back, neither of us could lock the other in place anymore.”

“You’re not immune?”

“Neither of us.”

“Strange. Usually, sorcerers – well, Shapers – are immune or at least very resistant to their abilities.”

“Really?”

“Like you could stay upright in Tremor? I don’t think anyone else could have done that.”

“That doesn’t seem like immunity to me.”

“Okay, resistance. But yes, it’s weird you can’t resist an Earthbind.”

“All rules have exceptions. Even that one.”

“I’m thinking that, if you have the same range… maybe you can get a fifth Talent?”

“That Level parchment’s effect, you mean.”

“I’m not sure again that Level has something to do with the number of Talents, because Miles got only one Level, and then seven Talents when Ulrich got two Levels, but six only. And then there is the Shaper who will get Fire Shaper once he can get a Level. Ask that Guardian how you measure in terms of power compared to the other Earth Shaper, it’s probably more accurate.”

“Well, if you had not consumed all those books for our expedition members…”

“We should find more. Then we’ll see.”

“I hope so.”

Johanna sighed. The worst case was buying expensive collector books on the market if they could find some. Or waiting until Washington.

“And the Water Shaper?”

“Can you tell your boss to make me back into one?” she laughed.

“Truly?”

“I’m half-joking. But the difference in speed in Frostbite is insane. He tried on a small glass of water. He got it frozen solid in like six seconds. You were not kidding about the jump in power between being adept and sorcerer. Let alone a specialist, like he seems to be.”

“So, Tom told me all about the Quick Battler and Guardian. What about you?” Johanna asked Peter.

“You know, just because I use Swordcutter doesn’t make me an expert on… Swordbringing?”

“Well, the Talent sets we got seem to be balanced. Five sorcerous ones for four heroic ones.”

“Right. And we’re two for two. Anyway, Ranger, based on the Talent names, seems pretty much similar to what Mark had. The big difference being that Strout – that new Ranger – has never used a bow. He’s more of a pike man.”

“That’s curious. You’d think the Talents would reflect something of the person,” she noted.

“Were you a pyromaniac before?”

“Okay, no. Point taken,” she had to laugh.

“Swordbringer is very obviously about close combat, true, but not quite the same way I do. The only one in common, I think, is that deep wound ability we both have, but I have no idea what the name is among Scott’s set. He’s got five skills, but only two seem immediately obvious.”

“Deep wound?”

“When I cut something… and Scott too, we cut slightly deeper than the blade should be able to.”

“You didn’t…”

“As if I wouldn’t get my head slapped by Laura instantly as she teleported to me. No, we tested on softwood.”

“Anything else?”

“Obvious ones like Fast Draw seems close, but not as good as my instant weapon switching. The advantage is that you can draw a weapon very fast even with the other hand occupied. Or even with both hands at the same time. But stuff like Passes? No idea whatsoever.”

“To think we used to know Talents, but not their names. And now, it’s the reverse,” she mused.

Johanna started noting down mentally all those pieces of information. At the next break, she’d write down everything. Her notebook was starting to fill somewhat fast. She still had lots of room for other specializations, but each Talent added to her store of knowledge.

One particular point was that, despite what looked like specializations in specific aspects, there were overlapping Talents. By experience, she knew that one could have Talents entirely outside of your sphere of specialization, but you were a weak adept in that case. But they were finding Talents that spanned multiple specializations.

The beast was something she’d never seen before. It shuffled out from behind a lip of the ground and stopped as it found itself suddenly against a large pack of bipeds trudging toward it.

The creature hissed and Johanna saw a flash of manalight as lines of red spread over the leathery skin of the Changed beast. She had immediately a flashback of her very first encounter after being granted powers.

“Fire Changed. Don’t go too close,” she warned.

The creature started ambling toward them before stopping, then trying to shift on the spot. Johanna raised her hand as her team started.

“Urodel. You see those near the Lake, rarely inland like this,” Ulrich noted.

“Time to test. Let the rest of the expedition deal with it.”

Petra shouted to the other Earth Shaper, “Take over, I’m releasing Earthbind in five seconds,” not letting her gaze stray from the beast.

“Madelynn, keep it suppressed just in case with Falter. Ranged attacks only,” Johanna ordered.

“It’s going to be fire resistant too, just like you,” she added as the Shaper raised a small pike whose end was already burning.

The man grimaced but stood his ground. He was one of the few who would be immune to the Urodel’s bodily fire effect, just as she had been with that first Canid.

“This would be a perfect time to have a cloud around,” Miles complained next to Johanna.

The Ranger had been lent a bow by one of Nash’s team, but he wasn’t a trained archer yet. Johanna assumed the Talents would compensate for his inexperience. The Water Shaper moved next to him, trying to focus. The Ice Dart flew, but it was a bit too small to inflict true damage unless it hit a vulnerable part. In response, the Urodel hissed and its mouth sparked manalight, spewing a hot smoking cloud in a cone in front of it. Johanna immediately recognized it as a version of her breath, used by the Changed beast.

It took a few more tries until an arrow managed to lodge itself into the eye, penetrating straight into the skull.

Miles clapped, and everyone suddenly cheered.

“Looks good. But having an Earth Shaper is cheating,” he said.

“Every Talent is a cheat in itself. But one Earth Shaper can only hold one beast at a time, remember.”

“Do we pass muster, Mrs. Milton?” Scott said, smiling.

She snorted in repressed laughter.

“You’ll do. Well, next one – if there is one, that is – we’ll try to see how well people do in melee range. We’ve now got three people who can fix any non-lethal problem, after all. It’s just bad luck to get an elemental Changed that’s dangerous at close range.”

“We could have tried to spear it or something. As you said, we three can heal in an emergency,” Madelynn said.

“There are also enough of us we don’t need everyone to kill those poor Changed beasts,” Johanna replied.

“I never thought I’d hear those words uttered,” Cameron said as he joined them, looking at the fallen salamander-like monster.

“There has never been such a concentration of Talents before,” Miles noted.

“True. And now you see why we needed to come here before the East.”

“Is it going to be that easy?” Cameron asked.

“I don’t know. We may have to turn back, as Miles did. But worst case?”

Johanna smiled thinly.

“Worst case, we raise an army, book by book.”

The expedition fought a few more Changed beasts near the town that bordered the river to Toledo, with little difficulty and increasing confidence. The only thing that had worried Johanna a little bit and caused her to intervene was a pair of Corvids. But the gigantic crows were not as dangerous as the one they’d faced in the Dakota, and the raiders had clustered together, melee Heroes ready to catch and wound the flying monsters if they got near. And once on the ground, the birds were stuck there thanks to Petra and Jorieke.

The big surprise was the Shaper suddenly lighting his special parchment. He wasted no time using it and reported to Johanna the same sudden feeling of emptiness and weakness that had accompanied her increase in power. His Flaming Blade was hotter now as well, confirming the magnitude of improvement of the elemental version of Shaper.

He also insisted on checking the existing parchments to see if there was one set aside for him. Surprisingly, three lit up under his touch, but none looked like they were fire-themed based on the name. Johanna had to caution him against picking a parchment that didn’t fit his specialization.

“It’s possible to get Talents that you have no real ability for. Like I had Earthbind while a Fire Shaper, but it was weak, nearly useless.”

She didn’t mention she should have thought about keeping a spare book for that type of event. Alas, she had not expected Lloyd to be able to gain a Level so soon.

And now, the Gates of New Sandusky welcomed all of them. Miles called out to everyone.

“It’s getting late, so I think we can all head home. We’ll meet tomorrow at Macintosh for the loot split.”

Shouts of “aye” came back, and Johanna realized that, somehow, she was now home. In a way.