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When Vanyel is ready for the mad science tour, he shows him the monkeys. "They're monkeys," she feels it necessary to clarify. "I know they look very human at this point, because the whole point of them is that I'm going to move into one if I ever die, but they're not people, and I have forbidden the staff to name them. I could move into one now if I had to but I'd like to get one actually looking like me in particular first, and I want to stick more Gifts into them, I got Fetching out of some Changesquirrels but further work is needed." She shows him the mice, too. "Do you suppose Jisa'd like a winged mouse? What's her favorite color?" She shows him all her microbiology eggs. "That's a flu sample from the recent plague! I remembered to take one. Those there are other flus. The white eggs have more-alive microbes and the brown eggs have less-alive kinds - there's a cold one of the staff mages had a few months ago, there's food poisoning, there's the most common kind from healthy intestines - you could get your Sight this fine, you know, I don't do heavy Healing-Gift use apart from Sight for this work."
Can she awaken existing potential? This Fetcher says he has mage-gift in potential and that might be easier, but if not, this other Fetcher will take her up on urgently becoming a mage.
"Most of my practice has been on monkeys, potential might under these conditions make it harder."
Fair enough. The Fetcher without existing potential will volunteer, while their current mage teams up with the others to make sure Belrun will be the safest one among them.
The floor is not currently shaking. "It's not done but we have a few minutes, I think," the Foreseer says, not sounding that sure of it. "- Then it might get worse than this, unfortunately."
"Yeah." And she and the mage with Amshalan helping can stare at the volunteer and implant magery.
The volunteer is nervous and tries not to fidget.
Around fifteen minutes later, Amshalan waits for a good moment to interrupt Belrun when it won't make her screw up something horribly in the poor soon-to-be-mage's brain. :Two minute estimate to next shocks, from Foreseer, I'm sensing it too though less specific:
The next round of earthquake shocks is, in fact, more violent than the previous one. There are some terrified shrieks, and crashing sounds from the various bedrooms. The ceiling stays up but its structural integrity is starting to look rather dubious.
Belrun is wearing all her shield talismans. She takes the one with the longest chain and puts it on Amshalan and then goes back to sitting under her. She waits for the all-clear from the Foreseers in the room and resumes work.
This time the earth remains stable and non-shaking until she's done.
"I...think we might be all right for a while," the Foreseer says, still unsure. "If there's more coming it's out of range of my Foresight - I can't generally see more than a candlemark ahead at most."
"Okay. Then I should maybe start on another. On myself, I think - that way if we need more I can boost my Healing. And then you," she addresses the preexisting mage, "can teach us to do those shield barriers, and then if the ceiling comes down we can hold it a while, between us, till help comes."
"All right - I can work with him while you're doing yourself," the anxious mage says. "Any idea how powerful a Gift you gave him? That affects what exercises are most important to practice."
"They don't start out great but they can stretch a little, because they're new, I don't know where he'll wind up."
"All right, good to know, we'll get started. Er, be careful, if you break your head somehow we're in trouble here."
"Yep. I'll be careful. Show Amshalan again -"
And she Looks at herself, and is very careful.
The new mage-Fetcher goes through some extremely basic control exercises while the existing mage is mostly focused on lending his Sight, Amshalan relaying it.
:That's it. You're doing great: Amshalan continuously sends calm and reassurance to Belrun along their bond.
"Looks mage-y to me," her helper agrees. "Can you feel it there, next to your other Gifts?"
It comes in flickers at first, fading in and out, but stabilizes as she finds the right mental motion. It's a little like Healing-Sight, she can see flows of energy, but not just in the people, it's everywhere. The nearest node and diverging ley-lines, a quarter-mile off, are nonetheless very bright at the edge of her senses. All the humans give off auras of fainter mage-energy; the Gifted ones, especially the other two mages, are brightest. Amshalan is positively vibrant; Companions, it turns out, are very magical. Her shield-talismans are also very noticeable, and she can sense the ones worn by other people as well, despite being tucked under their clothes.
"Did you give yourself an Adept Gift? I, um, can't actually tap nodes, I'm only Master-potential - can show you ley-lines, but probably shields first. I can explain, or if it's easier I can demonstrate and your Companion can relay it again, so you know what it should feel like...?"
"That would probably be best. I can hope it gets that good but I can't be sure. - Amshalan, Companions maybe bring out Gift potential, right, can you do that on purpose. Possibly faster than usual."