:No need, I'll do it for free. I do donate to your Society — have I told you that? So consider this my donation.: She smiles.

Durþan, oblivious to the side-talk, gives their permission to have Normalize Body Temperature cast on them in their sleep. Gornet makes a mental note of the fact.

One of the sick kids — although he doesn't look very sick, compared to some of the others — is staring in fascination at Feya and Marina. At the way their faces change expression without any talking, their strange clothing, and now that Durþan has gotten up, at their apparent healing.

He stands and carefully picks his way over, stepping around sleeping people, and stepping aside to let someone pass with a bucket of water.

He stands a few feet away from Feya, wrapped in a blanket like a cloak, and says something incomprehensible.

Feya smiles back. :Thank you. Really, you're already donating a lot simply by being here casting Telepathy for me. You already paid to travel with us.:

He notices Daskal approaching and asks Marina to Telepathy link him.

:Sorry, we don't speak your language. Was there something that you needed?: she sends to him.

:How do you do that?: he asks in wonder. :The talking without words, I mean. Is it something anyone can learn?:

And then he realizes that he's interrupting magic people with healing powers, when they could be helping, and tacks on :If you're not too busy, that is. I can wait. But being sick is really boring.: 

:No, we're waiting for other people from our caravan to arrive with equipment. I'll be busy when they arrive, but not now.

This spell is called Telepathy. It allows people to communicate with each other directly. And not just with words.: She sends the sensation of her hand touching the fabric of her dress, as well as the shop where she bought it from — and the knowledge that that was the shop she bought it from.

They really don't seem to have any practitioners, huh.

:You need to awaken and become a practitioner for it. There are six Ways you can awaken in: the Way of Flowers, the Way of the Open Door, the Way of Fire, the Way of Tranquility, the Way of the True Self, and the Way of the Perfect Self. Telepathy can be learned by a Flowering or Open practitioner. Feya here is Tranquil, so he can't learn it. I'm a Flower.

She sends to Feya that she's teaching the boy about practice, but she's not bothering to relay the conversation. Feya doesn't ask to be relayed, either.

Daskal blinks at the sensation of the shop.

:Is that what it's like in the city?: he asks. :They must do so much weaving ...:

Then he shakes his head. :No, no, no, I can hear about the city later, but I've never heard of Ways. What makes the Ways different? How do you awaken in them? Why can Flowers or Opens have Telepathy but not the others?:

He tucks himself on top of a bale to be out of the way.

:I can't explain the all the differences in the Ways — they're very complex and multifaceted. You can think of each Way as representing...a certain way of relating to the world, of thinking about things, of a set of aesthetics and patterns of behavior. Something like that.

Some people awaken by apprenticing to another and following in their Way, or the Way of their Society. Feya is one of them. They are called Scholars. However, some people awaken spontaneously in them, typically through life-changing events. These people are called Geniuses. I'm one of them. Since none of you have met with any Societies before, I'm not surprised you don't have Scholars, though I'm shocked that you don't have any Geniuses. It's really unusual.

In a place with two gross people, I'd expect about a dozen to be Geniuses.:

She draws a sharp intake of breath. :Sorry, I should get to your actual question. So, the Way of Flowers and the Way of the Open Door are concerned with connection, communication, linking, and senses. Each Way can only enable the effects that are consonant with it, that are pointing in its direction. So the Way of Tranquility, for example, is connected with incorruptibility, unaffectedness, hence, also the deadening of senses. This is why it would be practically impossible to cast Telepathy, that is concerned with senses, with Tranquil energy, and likewise, practically impossible for me and my Flower energy to cast Nullify Pain. Flowers is associated with depth and intensity of sensation. It could only heighten pain, not reduce it.:

Daskal wiggles his nose in thought.

:Two sixes out of two and six six-sixes ... that's one in four sixes,: he calculates. :... yeah, that's really weird. That's more common than being a prophet, I think, and we have plenty of those. And I haven't heard any stories about Ways. Where are you from? And how can you tell if someone's a Genius?:

This last thought comes tinged with a feeling of wanting-to-be-special that he does not fully manage to filter out.

:What's a prophet? Like, a diviner?: The sense coming from it is a practitioner that specializes in scrying or detection or illusion dispelling.

:I'm from...: and she sends a mental map with pictures of her home and city in Sarana Province. She lives in one of the quarters of a two story courtyard house, alongside four other families living in the other rooms (in total, there are a dozen and three other people living in the building with her). The sensation she sends suggests that it's a warmer place than here. :I actually don't know where we are right now. We weren't planning on coming here. We had...an accident...and got transported here.:

:It's possible to tell if someone is a practitioner by seeing how much energy* they have. Practitioners have a lot more of it. I regret to inform you that you're not one, though, you shouldn't be so upset about it. Often, you can tell which people are Geniuses, because they're very traumatized.: She purses her lips. :Awakening as a Scholar is much less mentally and emotionally taxing.:

* Here it's clear that Marina is referring to ecclesiastical energy, not secular energy.

Daskal slumps.

:Oh,: he replies. :Maybe I can be a scholar, though? Or do you have to have some energy for that too?:

And then he remembers that he was asked a question, and that if he's helpful the magic people are more likely to teach him.

:Prophets are people who get visitors from the other place,: he explains. :Sometimes they're unhappy, but sometimes they just happen, and either way the fair folk come and live in their body with them and help with things, like chores or languages or remembering stories. Mama's fishing-partner's mothers are a prophet,: he continues, pointing at one of the sleeping figures. :And one of them is a really good storyteller; he leads the singing at the festivals sometimes.:

Oh my stars, they have people getting literally possessed. Or something. She initially thought it was Greater Marriage, but it doesn't sound that way. Or maybe they keep it from him because he's a child? Greater Marriage does require the participants to have sex. Wow. Okay. Um.

She tries to school her expression back into something neutral.

She's not very good at it.

Daskal peers at her when she doesn't respond, but he's feverish, she's foreign, and the barn lighting hasn't improved, so he doesn't come to any particular conclusions.

:... so is it possible for me to learn to be a Scholar?: he prods, after a moment.

She is going to talk about this with Feya later. She's not about to deprive the curious child of his precious magical exposition.

:...yes. If you're a good fit in a Way, it's possible to awaken in it as a Scholar. It typically requires several niyang* of preparations to awaken as a Scholar. Although see, while nonpractitioners cannot lead in casting, they can help in casting. Indirectly by getting and setting up props and ingredients, but also in participating in it themselves. When I cast Golden Fields of Grain, a plant growth boosting ritual, I do it along with all the farmers, which makes it stronger. I wouldn't have enough energy otherwise.:

She sends a vision of the ritual, her and seven other people dancing in a circle in the middle of a field that has just been sown. She includes her magical senses in the vision — although it's not exactly comparable to normal vision — of how the Flower energy moves and flows across the air and into the soil and seeds, and how she has to control the energy not to go into their bodies, and to minimize the amount that would go to weeds or random animals in the soil, and hence be wasted.

* 432 days

He makes a face at the idea of it taking several years to awaken. But he also drinks in the description of how the magic works.

:What is it like for the farmers, when you do the ritual?: he asks. :Do they see stuff like that too? Or ... only because you share it with them? Or does it feel like anything?:

:If one does it correctly, it doesn't feel like anything for the assistants. And they don't sense anything like that, at least, not to the degree I do. I don't share my energy senses with them, since it's difficult to focus on more than one thing at a time. Every caster, including the assistant, has to keep in their mind certain thoughts to make sure the ritual goes as planned. This is called the prompt. The prompt is one of the components of the formulation, which is everything that has to be done for the ritual. Props, method, ingredients, incantations. That kind of thing.:

Marina will share the prompt for the spell: abundance — overflowing bounty of the earth — a full field and a full storehouse — want for nothing — joy and anticipation for the harvest — every plant growing as big as it can — exponential growth — love for one's crops like love for one's children

Daskal thinks about that description for a while, turning it over in his head.

:Does every ritual have a prompt? Or props or incantations?: he asks. :What happens if someone doesn't think through it right?:

:Yes, no, no. If someone doesn't think it through right, then the ritual can fail and cause side effects. Like cancer.: She returns to her earlier thought, of her concern that the energy not enter their bodies, and then to another thought, explaining cancer as a disease characterized by tumors or growth around the body that can obstruct organs and vessels. There's a brief thought that gives context: the Way of Flowers is the Way of growth, so improperly applied, it will cause growths on the body.

:Sorry, the other people with the supplies are about to arrive. I'll be busy for...I'm not sure how long this will take. But it will probably be several hours. I recommend you go back and rest.:

Marina has resigned herself to her fate as Telepathy node operator, and is willing to sacrifice herself upon this altar for the good of Southern Fishing Village.

Two pairs will arrive carrying large boxes of supplies and medical paraphernalia, which they'll put on an open spot near the door.

They start taking out large slates with holes in the corners, through which rope has been threaded through. They start putting them beside each person, or hanging them on a bedpost, if the patient is on a raised bed.

Feya turns to Gornet. :This is going to be a little awkward because we don't share a language. But our practice is to record information about each patient so nothing gets forgotten. Could you help me with filling them out? My aim is to have someone with Telepathy available here at all times, so that both your team and mine can update and query each record.:

He uses the old logographs in charting — they are traditional, and also shorter. He'll ask about age, diet, last meal, last urination and defecation, and amount and quality of both, symptoms, pain areas, pulse, medications and when they were administered (which also includes ecclesiastic effects), and time since admission. He'll record the current ones and ask Gornet of his memory about the past information, if he can remember it. 

The slates have already been scored with lines so that recording is easier. Feya fills out the column titles with the speed of long practice.

Gornet blinks.

:I ... suppose it frees me up from having to tell everyone things repeatedly,: he allows. :Is it really worth teaching everyone to read, just for that?:

He recites vital facts and figures for the various patients, incidentally demonstrating a grasp on mnemonics most people only develop in a society where only a handful of people can take notes.

:Do most people in the village not know how to read?: He thought that like, Gornet had dyslexia or something. :Does your spoken language have a written version?:

:We used to use mnemonics too, along with memory boosting workings, in the past. But now they've been supplanted with writing.:

Feya will record the vital facts and figures! He writes small enough and with enough logographic abbreviation that it manages to fit on the slates. It would be better to use paper and clipboards, but it would get expensive to use paper constantly for this purpose.