The soldier nods, then exchanges some more whispers with the mage. 

:- So you're Adept-potential? Or, er, stronger than the others, can channel more energy? It might be worth seeing if you can pull from the node directly, even if the others can't: 

Is a node a kind of mal. "I don't know how."

:Have you ever done concert rapport before? He thinks he might be able to show you: 

"I didn't even take introduction to circle casting."

...That earns him a brief confused look, and then some more mutters with the mage. 

:- He thinks it sounds like your entire education was very different, but - I can try to pull both of you into rapport so you can see what he's doing?: 

"...okay?" Orion would really like to drink a lake of mana about now. He was pulling in plenty in the graduation hall but he was dumping it into the sharer on the expectation that he would continue to get more at a steady clip.

:I'm going to try to pull you in first, since you're not a Mindspeaker: He's never actually...done...this before, with someone who wasn't Gifted, but in some sense it should actually be easier than holding a Mindspeech link. Or, well, simpler at least. 

:This is going to feel odd, probably, but - try not to fight it or flinch, you want to just sort of relax into it: 

- and then it feels like he's falling, except not literally, more like some small part of him - maybe the sense of where-thinking-is located roughly behind his eyes - is sliding outward, and it feels disorienting and uncontrolled but something is trying to stay in control, and then there's a very uncanny sense of...doubled vision, of having a second set of senses half overlaid on his own... 

This is FREAKY?! Where in this process does he get a lake of mana.

:All right - I'm going to pull in Ebrich, and then you should be able to piggyback on his mage-sight and see the node and ley line: 

...And then there's another mind there, and the soldier with telepathy is pulling it closer, so that the third set of senses is brighter and louder, and...in fact, it's not just ordinary senses, there's another kind of 'seeing' happening and the mage is mostly focused on that - it's pretty complicated and hard to interpret but he can tell that all the people in the room are glowing, and his own power-sharer is - not bright exactly, but salient, somehow, as though it's a vibrant color, but 'color' isn't exactly the thing... 

...and then the mage refocuses his attention and it feels a little bit like falling toward something far away and then there's a very very bright nexus of - something - streams of brightness flow into it from several directions and combine in a nub of turbulence and then, yep, seem to sort of pool there... 

...okay, let's pretend like this is a mal he just killed and - yoink?

He can do that! 

It doesn't feel exactly like mana from a mal he just killed. It's a little more like the first time he pulled from a New York power-sharer, except that it's - less cooperative than that? It feels 'hot', in some metaphorical sense, and also sort of pressurized, and there's a sense of it being something that could hurt. But doesn't. Not for him. 

"- cool! Weird, but cool. Okay, I'm full up, who needs a handout?" he says, when it's all slurped up.

The mage and the Mindspeaker are both staring at him in awe and something akin to horror. 

"I'd take some, then I can boost Shannon or Rebecca." 

Shannon is busy reciting a spell and doesn't even notice the offer. 

Orion handclasps Raleigh and hands over as much mana as Raleigh wants!

Sort of concerning that those people are looking like that at Orion! Was this or was this not exactly what they were trying to get him to do??

The mage recovers first. That was, in fact, what he was suggesting Orion do! It's just not supposed to be possible to hold all the power of a node in your reserves, even leaving aside channeling it that fast! 

:....Maybe try to only take part of it next time: he manages, faintly. :If you drain the whole thing at once, it destabilizes all the local ley-line flows and we get a thunderstorm: 

That's more than enough mana to boost Rebecca and Shannon! 

"Oh. I don't think any of us know any weather spells. ...I'm... not sure I can take only part of it."

What IS this kid. :O....kay. I suppose we can take care of the weather magic. Will that amount of mage-energy be enough to last all of you a while?: 

"Probably, yeah!"

:Good. ...Anyway, we'll have some food and water brought over for all of you, and - hmm, are you the leader here?: 

"...I don't think so? They're an alliance group, I'm just also here. I know Rebecca because she's dating my clavemate and not so much her allies."

Nod. :Which of them can speak for their alliance, then? It's starting to seem like we have a lot to talk about, and - I think we owe you an explanation of what you've walked into: