“By Gaia. That…is a lot to take in.”

Several minutes had gone by while introductions were made, and the story Joey was hearing was even more bizarre than she could have ever believed. And Zameren looked like he was in shock. She was eternally glad that Levine was an old acquaintance of the administrator, otherwise, it might have been just too much to believe. "SAF is this compromised?!”

"I think that would be a polite way to put it, yes," Levine replies with his stoic stance, arms crossed lightly and head tilted down, always looking deep in thought. "We were correct not to trust them, and I'm going to have a field day writing this report, assuming we survive this. These four in particular have already put themselves at grave risk in doing so, and performed far better than anyone their age has any right to." He waves his hand to Drenar, Angela, James, and Julia, all sitting stone-faced. "Zameren, I believe the best course of action at present, something you already started, was to prepare defenses and contingency plans. We should try to evacuate civilians, and maintain only those who volunteer and have some military training. Curtis could have easily planted other contingencies."

"Oh, we're supposed to run? That's a laugh, Dillenger," Claire retorts with a subdued voice. "That’s a truly terrible plan, we still don’t have in our hands what they’re after. And this jackass is still here!” She waves to Lavernius, who knows trying to bolt will get him shot. Joey still has her bolt pistol in a holster, and she makes sure this time, it stays ready.

“Thanks,” Lavernius says sourly. The Arcanlink is on the table, waiting for a call with their enigma. Julia is cracking her knuckles and leering at him. Joey figures this abject betrayal is not being well received. At all. Drenar is also notably pissed off at this idea. But how pissed off is he?

Do I dare to–oh hell with it. I might need to get a peek at his thoughts. I need to know if he plans on killing this fool. She's debating the idea of using her thought sense. This is one of the few times she needs to know all the cards on the table.

“Lavernius, you need to explain yourself,” Julia growls. She slowly rises from her seat. “Why did you work with King?”

“I've already said my bit. The Conclave is dangerous. And it's getting worse. Val may have inadvertently just pushed the Conclave to take drastic actions, martial law is going into effect. It hasn't been used since the Second World War,” he answers calmly.

“No. The other part. How can you do this to Kelly? How dare you do this to your daughter.”

“Excuse me?”

“No, Lavernius,” she says menacingly from her standing position. “We have had enough lies thrown our way to last a lifetime. I've been shot at. Repeatedly. I put my life on the line for a lot of other people, including my friends, and Kelly. And your employer has been butchering people in the streets. How dare you do this to Kelly. When she finds out who you are, I wouldn't be surprised if she kills you on the spot, and I would be hesitant to stop her. The only reason I haven't turned you into a carbonized mass is that you helped out here, in one small redeeming act.” Drenar stands up, and motions to her, trying to dissuade her. She glares at him but eventually relents.

Lavernius slumps in his seat. She can almost feel the regret radiating off of him. He speaks slowly, looking at each of them in turn. “You think Val is bad? The Conclave is also bad. But people are a lot quieter about that subtle oppression, compared to a terrorist threat.”

“Tell me why I shouldn’t beat you to death in that chair, Lavernius,” she snaps. There’s still fight in him, by the way he stares right back.

“You want the truth? I died on the inside a long time ago, Julia. The rest has been an act for the sake of normality for Kelly and Luna. And Mirabelle. You want to know what my breakpoint was?”

“Do tell.” She can almost feel that electric charge in the air from Julia, but also…a sense of apprehension? Where are these feelings coming from? Joey tilts her head, her thought reading isn’t working now. Or at least, she’s not consciously directing it.

“Mirabelle has to take drugs that suppress her draconic form. As a parole condition for…previous transgressions, a long time ago.” He answers slowly, in a low voice. “I don’t expect you to forgive me for this. But you at least deserve to know.” Julia’s eyes widen.

“Lavernius, the last time I saw her a few weeks ago, she looked like death warmed over. Is that…by design?” Julia’s question comes softer than Joey thought it would, and her reaction to Lavernius knocks the aggression out of her.

“A recent legislative effort for law and order,” he states bitterly. “Mirabelle made a mistake a long time ago. She should not continue to be punished for it. That same legislation is being proposed for all dragons. It’s extreme, it won’t pass the legislative chamber…but a watered-down version might. That would include all of you.”

“Is he for real? Because I can’t take any more bullshit this week,” Drenar states candidly, arms folded and peering down at him with contempt. “You’re on thin ice already, Lavernius, so don’t test me. I need to know if the threat is over, or if I’m going to have to put more Talons out of commission, before we go on a mad quest to go get these journals. And that’s assuming I don’t destroy them the second I get my hands on them.”

“If King doesn’t get them, he’ll let Val have her way. You will fight, and you will lose. I don’t want that happening.” Drenar scoffs at that, and Joey winces. He’s got a lot of turmoil going on in his head right now.

There it is again. She can almost hear snippets of his thoughts, and she’s not even focusing on her psionics! What is going on? Is she trying to focus too much on them? They continue to talk about strategy, and whether to just tell King to get stuffed–again–and fend off this horde of Talons minions. She peers at Angela, who has been notably silent, and sits next to Drenar. And she can–

Crystals? That ringing chime is back, but she’s not sure what direction it’s coming from. She swivels in the seat, trying to see if she can echolocate it. No one else seems to notice it, except for Angela, who starts peering around the room, grey-blue eyes glinting with curiosity. She finally settles on Joey.

“Hey, uh, did you hear something just now?” Angela asks quietly.

“I…am not sure.” Joey doesn’t know why she keeps hearing that sound–is that sword calling out again? There are no Valkyries in sight, and certainly not the original owner, who left it behind! That's another odd notion, why had that Valkyrie been carrying around her defunct weapon? “Angela, right? Sorry, we should talk later,” she adds in a lower tone. Angela smiles politely.

“Unless we’re taking machine gun fire again soon, yeah.” Drenar has reached a point of frustration when the discussion goes nowhere, and he taps his dagger anxiously.

That crystalline chime she hears is almost deafening.

“Alright, you know what? I’m calling it. Levine, call that Valkyrie you know. It’s time to send out the SOS, I am done playing around. Val can throw bodies at the toughest warriors of the mage world, because I’ve filled my quota of being shot at for one month.” Levine looks…disturbed.

“I tried that before we came down. She’s not responding.” Drenar stares at him, unable to believe this.

“Are you serious now? Levine, this would have been good news to know about an hour ago!”

“We were in a rush! Now that the threat is defused, temporarily, we need to start thinking about evacuating civilians.” Levine raises a candid point, and Drenar nods.

“We’re mages, not civilians,” Joey contests. “We’re not defenseless.”

“Lass, I appreciate the tenacity, I truly do. But this is the point where we need to direct priorities, we cannot wait for reinforcements. We need to assume this could go bad at any second.”

“I concur. Joey, I didn’t bring any detonators, and I know your expertise,” Nick nods and gestures to her. “I vote we disable the main teleportal. Stop the threat, evacuate civilians, and myself, Levine, and the security team will take a small team to the vault.”

“Excuse me, No. I’m going down there,” Drenar says defiantly. “There is no way in hell we are handing decryption codes to a magical nuclear device to King, let alone Valosterla!”

Hell with this, I need to know what he’s thinking. I don’t know how Drenar of all people ended up calling the shots, this is some strange dynamic they’ve established. He does keep glancing at Julia, and they make small motions with their hands–sign language? They’re signaling something to each other on occasion. Maybe so they’re aligned on the plan without having discourse spill over?

“Psst.” Kyle nudged her and swiveled his head to Drenar before talking in the faintest of whispers. He knew how good her hearing was. “You haven’t taken your eyes off him for more than a few seconds the entire time we’ve been here.”

“I gave him an advanced regen potion. I had to monitor the results,” she replies as quietly as possible. Kyle gives her a look of exasperation. It’s not technically a lie.

“You just came up with that formula. And you test it on him?”

“His shoulder was torn up pretty badly by that Feralaz.” She declines to continue the line of inquiry, though he’s giving that look of disapproval still.

“Fine. What’re they all thinking?” She narrows her eyes at him, and hopes he understands how much contempt she has for the idea. “Joey, seriously, I’m freaking out that we’re outclassed and outmatched. I need something that tells me we got a shot at this.”

Kyle, you keep trying to push me to do stuff that I don’t like doing, she thinks with disgust. She glances back at Drenar, and Zameren and Levine are still talking. She clears her thoughts and feels that slight wash of white noise over her mind. She then focuses on Drenar while glancing at her notes.

We need to get into that Vault Alex. Even if I have to get down there myself.

Yeah, enjoy getting killed down there Drenar, that’s a death wish. Great, so not only is he weird, he’s having conversations in his head!

Do you have a better idea? I swear, every time we try something ‘normal,’ it fails spectacularly.

Drenar, stop stewing. Start thinking like a dragon. We need to be methodical on this one. Joey doesn’t even notice it at first since she’s still trying to read through every bit of notes she's taken in the past few days. Might I recommend something along the lines of ‘this is Helm's deep, and there's a horde of orcs coming, and we've got a fortress with big shortfalls in defense.’

Is he having conversations in his head? Joey finally tunes in a little closer. Great. So the messy haired teen is suffering from multiple personalities. Just what I needed! She does, however, start focusing a little tighter.

Alex, suppose for a second that we help King. An idea of hers that she still can’t believe she would have agreed to, after telling King to go screw off at first. And even Drenar is entertaining it now?

Tell me you’re not thinking about it! The second voice sounds panicked.

No. We trade information. I want to know who killed my mom. We will be operating from a position of strength. Whoever killed her, still has influence in the Talons, or some other super-powerful organization. Someone leaked her name or targeted her, that’s what Levine’s theory is. And it’s a solid one.

It might not have anything to do with–

Alex? Trust me on this one. I don’t trust King in the long term, but he knows things. Things I want to know. Finding out who killed my mom, is one of them. Maybe I won’t have to break his legs if he just tells me.

And hand the keys of godhood to him? You’re cracked.

I have a theory. I think someone killed her because she or other powerful Valkyries presented a massive threat to their plans. People who we might not be aware of yet.

This is a stupid idea, Drenar. Do you think King won’t just hand over the information to Val?

Maybe we don’t. Maybe we just make him think we did. I’m still working on that part.

Joey narrows her eyes. Why are there two distinct voices? She’s only focused on Drenar.

Drenar, from one dragon to another, this is a bad plan that will end badly for everyone here. I don’t know why you’re agreeing with Joey. You’re starstruck! You’re not thinking with your brain!

Oy, I’m not that shallow, you feather duster! She saved our lives at the school, and pulled me out of a bind with a giant murder bird. From what I know of her, she’s as sharp as they come, flushed out two saboteurs inside two days, and killed one. Still…processing that, I don’t know how she’s not shaken up by that.

Joey’s eyes widen slightly when it finally clicks together.

She wasn’t hearing just Drenar talking internally. He's talking to his drakensoul.

She could hear both of them at once! This is an unexpected discovery. She focuses on them more. This is something she didn’t think her psionics could do–the little experimentation she'd tried on her own. Her mom and dad had some version of it, and used to much effect when she'd been caught stealing from the cookie jar when she was a young kit. There was no hiding her thoughts from them.

By Gaia, I never would have believed that this was a real thing, and yet I'm hearing the voice of a dragon who left this world and spent seven hundred years in limbo. He's holding coherent, intelligent discussion, his linguistics match the host–I mean, Drenar, she self-corrects internally. His memory appears to be intact, he's recalling things from his past. Now, how do I focus on just him? This presented a challenge, as she kept focusing on just Alex, was he speaking, or thinking? But she couldn't tune one or the other out. She could hear both of them.

Okay. How do I pull these thoughts strings apart? She can feel a mental tug. Like a phantom string connecting them. What is this? It feels like a current of energy, very faint. Faint enough that if she wasn't focused on it, she wouldn't even know it was there, and that feeling runs down her spine. Drenar rubs his neck, and glances around.

What is this thing? She can't see this thread, but it feels like a strand of spiderweb, sticky, tethering her to something. She lets go of her psionics, and the rest of the ambient sound returns. But it's still there.

Whoa, Drenar, what did you do? Alex asks suddenly. Drenar peers around the room, looking puzzled. He's searching for something. He shakes his head after a few seconds. Julia gives him an irked look, like she knows what's going on.

“Hey, is your plus one giving you good ideas, or bad ideas?” she says quietly to Drenar. He shakes his head, but doesn’t respond verbally.

I didn’t do jack, Alex. I’ve been sitting in this chair that feels like its bargain surplus from the worst office supply company in the world.

You mean you didn’t feel that? Joey gets the feeling that this dragon soul is constantly talking to Drenar, based on their back-and-forth.

Alex, what do you mean you ‘felt’ something?

Like someone stepped on my ghost.

The what now?

Like someone else is in here with the two of us.

What? He’s alert now, and searching around the table. Joey looks down and pretends to be consulting her notes, but her heart rate spikes. Alex, you and I are a little stressed.

No, I felt something, Drenar! Back in my day, I got a taste of psionics and their applications from one of my team members. I think. The memory is a little fuzzy, but the feeling of that ability–that I didn’t forget.

Alright, what do you mean by psionics? Like mind readers? Mind manipulators?

There's a lot more to it than just mind reading. Joey feels a bit nervous, no one has ever picked up on her listening in, certainly not to this level with no previous prompts. She’s tempted to tune Drenar and his drakensoul out, but she’s convinced there’s something to learn here. This is a potential discovery she’d never expected!

Okay. Assuming someone is listening in, who is it?

Look for someone making eye contact. A professional psionic can maintain a link without it, but amateur ones can’t, they need the visual reference. Drenar starts looking around the table, and Joey quickly cuts the connection. He’s still looking around, puzzled. She taps her pen against her notepad and allows herself a measured breath.

Ah, it’s gone again. I know I felt something, Drenar.

No, I felt something too. Like someone panicked and turned off the adult video on TV just as the parents walked in the door.

…That is an oddly specific analogy, do I really want to know where that one came from? Joey has to clasp her mouth from giggling and pretends to cough. She’s impressed, and terrified. She’d cut the psionic ability, but she could still hear them!

This can’t be right, I severed the ability. Why can I still hear both of them? It took a moderate focus for her ability to work, and now, it was like she couldn’t shut it off! Great. The one time I eavesdrop, and I find the one guy who can pick up on it! Alex however, still thinks something is up.

I still think they’re there Drenar. But it’s strange. I swore I could hear something just now, too.

You don’t have ears!

You know what I meant, Drenar. Meaning, that connection went both ways! There’s an empath in this room–they’re rare! Drenar glances around the table again, and Joey pretends to keep reading her notes. She does note he makes a series of motions to Julia, who looks at him irritably. He keeps signing something, and her eyes narrow, and she nods slowly after motioning something back.

How rare is rare?

Rarer than a virgin princess, Alex answers back. Drenar has to stifle his laughter at this, and Julia rolls her eyes. It’s like she knows he’s talking to Alex, just by the facial expression.

“As soon as I find a magical fox girl to read your mind, Alex is so toast,” she growls under her breath. Joey can’t help but keep the tiniest smirk. Julia is shockingly close to the truth on this one, even if she doesn’t know it.

"Psst." She glares forcefully at Kyle who is wearing his concerns on his sleeve, and he keeps fidgeting with his seat. "Well?"

“Later.” The last thing she wants to do is tip off anyone to her psionics, and what that would imply about her directly. She does however, take one last listen to Drenar, who looks at her.

Alex, she’s doing that thing that crazy women do when they see me. Why’s my fight or flight instinct kicking in?

I think that’s called assessing a future mate, in modern lingo. Drenar glances upwards, and taps his fingers edgily on the table. Joey is still taking notes and trying not to force her pen through the page.

Yeah Alex, I already have a now ex-girlfriend with the tendency of a berserker, and the dark haired, life-long female friend who can roundhouse kick a dragon to low earth orbit. Nah, I’m full up on crazy.

He does glance at Joey briefly, and then back to the screen, where Levine is showing as much of the data they’d been able to comb through in the past few days. I mean, I wouldn’t say never, but…there’s something about her that I can’t put my finger on. I dunno what it is, but…I trust her. Okay, so she’s got a little bit of a mad scientist vibe, but she's knowledgeable. She healed my shoulder like it was nothing. And I think she was flirting with me? Maybe?

No. Please no. Pick someone else. Anyone else. I was having a laugh earlier, seriously not her. Every redhead I've known has either tried to kill me or set me on fire. Or both. Joey felt just a little offended by that statement, and she tapped her pen irritably against her notebook.

Oh, so you're saying it's a brilliant idea?

No, what part of that wasn't clear, Drenar? Redheads. Set. Me. On. FIRE. Drenar rolls his eyes and Joey suddenly feels like setting him on fire. She even has a vial of alchemic solution just for that purpose.

Look, this is all very entertaining Alex, but we've been sitting here wasting shared brainpower on something that's probably not going to matter. I could be dead by the end of the week. He does steal a glance at her, and she gives him a puzzled look. Besides Alex, I think you're right. I think the psionic has been listening in, and she's nonplussed with you.

Joey recoils in shock and bangs her knee on the table in the process. The sound is very loud in the otherwise fairly quiet room, and she winces.

"Everything alright?" Zameren asks, looking at her with concern.

"Yes, fine, everything is fine, forgot the low-hanging table! Drenar, can I borrow you a minute?”

“Huh?” It’s like he thinks he can play coy after deducing that particular bombshell.

“Just for a minute.” She’s already bracing for a conversation that is going to suck.

She’s about to have to trust someone she’s known all of three days with this secret, and he’s a little bit crazy, by her accounting. And it’s still not the craziest thing to happen all week.