"I haven't. What do you mean with," he signs 'surface sparks' back,"?"

"She can do an effect where the lightning stays close to her skin, or spreads onto someone else if she's grappling them. It takes more concentration than the regular sort, though, and it hurts her if she loses control of it."

"I can do something like that, but not very reliably during combat, cool effect."

"Mmhmm. Anyway, if you wanted to spar with her sometime that might help."

"Cool!"

As it turns out, having to keep a fraction of her attention on continuing to breathe doesn't slow her down very much. And her aim is excellent.

Trevor ass is thoroughly kicked.

Afterward, she has tips!

And an attentive student!

(Sometimes two! Felix is not as a frequent presence, but he takes the lessons seriously.)

She has plenty to teach, about technique and strategy and tactics. (They can only practice on alternating days, though; if they ask, she'll admit that she's only eating that often, and can't spar when she needs to be paying attention to digesting.)

She also has powers to share: first the blur effect (a long arch of horizontal diamonds made of thin black wire, with various sorts of clouded and warped glass suspended in each section, to be walked through; the recipient can turn the effect on and off and optionally allow allies to see through it), and then one that lets the recipient sleep, or not, at will (a small stained-glass greenhouse in shades of midday-sky blue, populated with two bushy clumps of artificial tall grass in bright green durasteel that are cleverly articulated to mimic the movement of the real thing; taking a nap on the pad between them bestows the power), and then the healing power (a dome of silver rods with strips of very fine silver chainmail woven through them; it can be activated by sitting on top, for a personal healing power, or sitting inside, for a power that affects others; in either case the chainmail has to be in its proper woven position, so the recipient has to be very careful climbing into or onto it, or they can fix it afterward if they're climbing in, or someone else can help them.)

They are okay with an alternating days schedule. They are extremely okay with the new powers to share and go about acquiring them.

(Thunder preemptively acquires the sleep control power despite not being a dreamshaper yet.)

Dusk takes the blur and sleep effects, too; the latter lets her work - and heal - more efficiently, and the former is quick to charge and handy enough. The healing statue takes nearly a week to charge between uses, though, so it takes a month for both Dalkaila to collect both of its powers. By then, she's comfortably out of danger of dying of distraction, and her 'saber burn is long since healed; Felix takes care of it immediately on receiving the healing power.

(Near the end of the month, she takes a couple days off, and Daisy turns up with a trio of tiger eye cabochons set along her collarbone.)

The dreamshard and the new dreamshapers both seem largely contented by the end of the month; the latter have mostly settled into the much nicer permanent apartments elsewhere in the compound, though a couple of families have opted to build houses in the forest and a few people have moved into their pocket dimensions instead. They seem to have reached a consensus that Anintu will be the one to talk to the Dalkalia or Pradnakt, and she lets them know about the building materials the families making houses want and the sports gear and hobby supplies and meal ingredients that everyone else wants, and asks them what they're planning on doing for a government - she's been handling dispute resolution, and for a group this small that's fine, but if they're getting more people they'll need something formalized eventually - and for education for Runil and Wetret.

The new droids are doing a little less well. With Daisy suddenly unavailable, Nine and Green stepped in to get them settled and organized, but without her experience at logistics or her knowledge of the group's plans, they weren't able to do a very good job, and now she has the complicated task of arranging them sensibly without disrupting burgeoning friendships or nascent preferences. They are making progress on the surveillance system, though, and Daisy also sends a group off to check the downed spaceship for survivors (none) and report back on what's needed to hide the crash site from orbital observation.

They researched various forms of governmental structure, including ones meant for conditions of secrecy. Most are problematic because "conditions of secrecy" doesn't lend itself to most forms of fair non-militaristic governance, or even publicly available records that they can check to compare between policy and results. But they have candidates, their favorite is basically: a simple code of law, plus direct democracy with someone elected to resolve disputes (pretty much what they have been doing, but formalized) which is then scaled into indirect democracy as the population grows. Being able to detect lies should reduce the work load a lot.

(When are they going to announce that granted powers are a available?)

Is anyone around interested in teaching them? Is this something they can get droids to do the work? If nothing else they could aim to get tutors in the next batches.

Speaking of droids, Felix thinks he might be able to copy whatever information was in their system and "resurrect" them, is this enough of a priority he should try?

Nobody has any serious complaints about democracy; they do want to know what the laws will be to start. One of the other ex-managers might run against Anintu, if they have an election.

Some of the ex-slaves are familiar with childcare, but not with teaching per se, but she can find someone to fill in until they can get a proper teacher. (Teaching droids probably exist? She supposes a teaching droid would be okay.)

The power announcement can happen kind of whenever; Dusk was expecting to wait until she had some powers ready to give out first, but if they'd prefer not to, that's fine. (She's currently working on Trevor's shield power; it's coming along nicely.)

Teaching droids do exist, but they're rare and not really intended for teaching children; they can check for one next time they're out getting droids, but it's probably better to find a biological to do it.

Resurrecting droids doesn't seem like a huge priority - it would be nice to have, but they haven't had any casualties, and Dusk is planning on eventually making a general-purpose resurrection power that should work fine.

Okay, the teaching problem doesn't look urgent enough that they can't try to aim for a teacher in the next slave batch. It would likely be if they couldn't find someone by the third slave batch. ...As a back-up they are going to figure out ways to hire people-for-secret-projects-without-being-conspicuous. That is going to be necessary eventually anyway, so they should come up with channels to address specialized personnel problems.

They have a document on the laws, it's purposefully meant to be simple and straightforward. Violence is punished so and so, theft is punished so and so, with some additions to take account the use of magic. Dreamshapers are allowed to lock people out of their own dimensions but not lock people in unless they are being a risk to someone else (which must then be reported at earliest convenience). Plus some directives of where to place portals and how to use magical powers.

Also, granting magical powers is a thing. Ultimately, who gets it is Dusk's jurisdiction but they can field requests through the Dalkaila or a representative. Here are the current options.

Specifically getting a teacher will look a little suspicious, especially if they want one they can actually trust around the kids, but yeah, that's important enough; she'll include one in the next batch, probably in a few months.

She announces that five people can get the sleep control power now, and that requests for powers can go through Anintu or Daisy; a few of them take her up on it, and she gets a request for a flight power.

Word comes back about the mission to free Anintu's daughter; there were a few casualties, but the daughter is fine and has been delivered to Kreka as specified.

The laws seem fine. (It's still unclear whether Anintu would tell them if they weren't.)

Runil's parents are complaining that he's spending all his time in Wetret's dimension, which they're locked out of, and coming home bruised up; he isn't injured, and says she's teaching him to fight, but they'd like this to be stopped.

They of course would like input if people are willing to offer. They can even have an anonymous suggestion box.

What Runil and Wetret have to say about this?

...they aren't doing anything wrong? Runil's parents need to lighten up.

And Runil?