"Alright, I think that's all of us on the same lines about that.  No thanks to myself," she quips wryly.  "Let's tell the squad?  And then Barik and I should speak to the Marshal, presumably."

Verse nods. "Bring 'em in, I guess. You gonna do the talking?"

"Unless you want to," she says, knowing that Verse very probably does not.

(And then she'll stick her head out of the tent to call the others in.)

She shakes her head. "Your show."

They file in.

"Letting us in on some secret?", Phorbas asks.

"Mm.  Yes and no, really, because Archons are the exact opposite of secret by their very nature, and given that the sort of weird shit that happens with Archons has already begun happening with Verse - and possibly Barik for that matter, with his armor being so... well, itself - it's hard to say it's worth trying to keep the broad strokes of Verse having broken the rigid rules of sigil-magic a secret.  But the fact that that not-a-secret-secret allows anyone she has a bond with to work with her as a unit at any distance?  That, we're holding close to our chest."

"Huh. With... Barik?"

"With Barik.  We're not sure why, yet; she had bonds with her prior unit, as well, but they fell in battle."

"Like the Oath-Bound," Colus nods,  "Strange that it's shown up the same way in the Chorus."

"I see how it could be useful," adds Antenor.

She nods.  "So Barik will likely be staying close to the Marshal, for emergency communications.  It's not quite worked out how, because we're still trying to determine what can be communicated, but I expect that we'll be able to figure out something before we leave to find the missing Earthshakers."

"An injury code is dangerous," Antenor says humorlessly, "because it leaves you injured. I think Maric has abandoned it other than a few signals for 'you are about to be under attack' and 'you are betrayed'; the type of message where it is worth sacrificing a scout's life to send it. Those are more complex because they signal the whole squad at the same time and must be interpreted. The simplest is to remove the second and fifth toe from the same foot - nearly impossible to do by accident in a fight, painful but not long-term debilitating even if it doesn't heal."

"It's not injuries alone that can be transmitted, thank goodness.  But that's good to know; thank you, Antenor."

He shakes his head. "Alarm can be conveyed, but is not specific. I understand this to be the primary obstacle to using the Oath-Bond for anything but awareness of your squad's status and location. Precise control of your mental state in intensity which can be felt by others is very difficult, and strong emotional or other mental reactions can overcome it. It is as though you had signal fires but also children in a treehouse right next to your signal tower who might throws sparks onto your kindling at any time at their whim."

"I expect this power, which is not directly derived from the Oath-Bond - because how could it possibly, Verse and Maric have never met - to have different rules, but that is useful information.  ...Hm, come to think of it - Verse, Barik, when we tried the holding-up-fingers experiment, earlier, were you - trying to push or trying to pull, if that makes sense?  It might work differently depending upon the - mental motion."

"Hmm. Try it again?"

She'll do the 'hold up fingers' trick again.  Different numbers from last time, just in case.

"I suggest first we try each of those by itself, then we see if it is more effective if we're both pushing the same 'direction' - I push you pull, then the reverse."

"Sure, that could work. Like five seconds apiece, call 'switch' when we switch. Both push, both pull, then like you said."

"Reasonable."

They try it.

It still doesn't work.

"...Blast.  Alright, then, I'm going to need two of you," she gestures to the Crescent Runners, "to give them - something to communicate - maybe we should be trying less abstract things than numbers - while I try walking them through a meditation; if anything ought to bust through this blockage, the tools I used while I learned to bend the world to my will should well suffice."

(And anyone listening can tell that if they don't initially suffice, she means to set up against the universe itself if necessary to make them.)

Both of them look...

...somewhat skeptical.

But they're willing to try it.

Aethra chuckles and goes over to each to whisper something. ("Storm" to Barik and "Fireplace" to Verse.)

And Ophelia will contemplate her subjects for a moment, before strangling a frustrated expletive in her throat - because, truthfully, while she knows this should work - she's profoundly uncertain how.

She's bone-deeply certain that achieving a flow state will work to enhance the depth of the bond, and hopeful that it will allow actual communication.  She's just not sure how to achieve that with these extremely disparate subjects simultaneously, especially because Verse is positively allergic to her usual style of inducing such.

"Alright.  I should warn you: we reach rather beyond my field of expertise when I try to administer moving meditation.  But.  It will work, to get the two of you in better tune, like battle-focus does."