Lilijoy was alarmed to hear that the Dean of her new cohort was a medusa. Before the expedition to Averdale, the plan had been for her to level into the third cohort, that for roughly levels ten to fourteen, so she had spent a few minutes of precious time learning about its Dean, one Silades Fasnew, a possumkin legendary for his coarse language and irreverent attitude. She had been rather looking forward to that assembly.

Well, I guess Skria and Jessila will let me know what I missed, she thought. It was night on the Outside and the winds were raging, so she had decided to come and see what the second cohort was all about.

Now, she was seated at the top of the bleachers of the second to largest outdoor arena, the same where she had watched Attaboy compete in the fifth cohort tournament just two days previous. It was a cool day, and low slung clouds crept across the sky, outpaced by lower white wisps of vapor swept by the breeze.

She thought back to the tournament. Perhaps compete wasn’t the best word to describe what Attaboy was able to do to his unfortunate opponents.

Crush? Humiliate?

How Attaboy had managed to come out of his Trial with such a low level was still a bit of a mystery to Lilijoy, particularly once she saw him fight. He was reluctant to tell her about his Trial experience, from which Lilijoy concluded it was embarrassing, or possibly contained secrets of the sort with which she was all too familiar. Watching him fight, she could see that his stats and fighting skills were quite high, even if his level, a paltry six, was low. Her working theory was that Atticus’ memories had somehow skewed the results, reducing his experience gain even as it advantaged him in other ways.

Whatever the explanation, the others in the fifth cohort were no match. Very few of them had a source they could use, and it was only in the final round, where Attaboy’s opponent was some kind of vegetatious swamp creature, that he met an opponent he couldn’t dispatch with just a few moves.

It had been Lilijoy’s first tournament viewing experience, and it brought with it more than a few mixed feelings. Tournaments had seemed to her somehow… childish, she guessed. Or at least a waste of time, a diversion from more important priorities. She hadn’t expected it to be so exciting to watch, or so entertaining, and to her surprise she felt a little envious of the participants.

In some ways, Attaboy’s matches were the least entertaining, with very little suspense as to the outcome. Instead, it was the closely matched battles between kids she didn’t even know that she found herself compelled to watch. She couldn’t help but put herself in their place, to resonate with the combatants’ fierce focus and determination, even as they moved clumsily about the sectioned arena, wielding weapons without much finesse. She could tell some of them had received training Outside, but even those were far from accomplished. It was enjoyable trying to guess who would prevail, who would choke, and who would surpass their limits.

The audience for the fifth cohort tournament was surprisingly large, which she learned was because the clans were scouting, learning who would be future competitors, and keeping an eye out for which unaffiliated newcomers might be worth recruiting.

Attaboy is going to get a lot of attention, she realized. I hope he knows what he’s getting into.

She knew that Attaboy would be in far over his head with all the clans fighting over him, but Atticus, on the other hand… well, he might be able to turn it to his advantage. So she hoped, anyway.

She turned her attention back to the second cohort assembly, looking around the audience for anyone she knew. She recognized many of the five hundred and twenty six beings, the majority human, sitting in the stands, but that was from passing them in the halls. Some of the insiders she had seen during her lunches with Jess and Skria, but there were none to whom she had said more than a passing hello.

It wasn’t that surprising to her, as almost every Outsider seemed to be in their mid teens. These were people who had been at the academy for at least a year or two, or more. Their days in the introductory classes were long behind them, and that was where she had made most of her small pool of friends and acquaintances.

Then she saw a new arrival, and was seen in turn. Rana Bhat, scion of the Hindutva clan’s second branch, whatever that meant, was walking toward her along the top of the stands. The older girl was wearing a sky-blue sari fringed in gold, and for a moment Lilijoy felt under-dressed, or maybe just poorly dressed. She had never felt any need to dress any way other than practically, and had even come to find it a bit manipulative when she saw those who did take great care to present a pleasing appearance.

Seeing Rana, or Ranitri as she liked to be called Inside, didn’t give her that feeling though. The flowing gauze of her dress looked like internal elegance manifested in a colorful aura naturally, a field of wildflowers or a flock of bright birds.

Is there a Sartorialism skill? she wondered. Or maybe it’s magically crafted clothing?

She could tell there was a magical component to Ranitri’s appearance, as her system was weeding out mild subliminal suggestions, and resisting a subtle neurochemical rebalancing. There was no malice in the effect, but it was powerful nonetheless. It was manipulation at a higher level, but Lilijoy couldn’t help but enjoy it somehow, even as she was immune to most of its power.

“Greetings, Emily,” Ranitri said when she was close enough to speak easily. “My congratulations on your rapid ascension. Might I sit?”

“Thanks,” Lilijoy replied. “And sure, have a seat.”

She wasn’t entirely sure what Ranitri’s angle was, though she assumed it was not coincidence that brought the young woman to her side. She braced herself for either a recruiting pitch or further questions about her relationship with Nandi.

Ranitri gestured to the stands. “It’s a good turnout today. Many of my family members don’t bother to come to these assemblies, but I never tire of seeing the Insiders and the faculty together. So many different forms of life, such a richness of creation always inspires me.”

As she spoke, the faculty of the second cohort was emerging onto the arena sands, and as Ranitri said, it was truly striking to see the diverse assemblage of races. While Lilijoy could identify many of the beast-kin types and of course the human-like Insiders, there were many species that she did not recognize. She was about to ask Ranitri about an intriguing being that looked something like a crystal sea anemone, though its bottom half mirrored its top half, when the girl beside her made a soft exclamation.

“Ah! Now Golden Arpentra is arriving.”

Lilijoy turned to see her looking skyward, and followed her gaze to a rich golden light just breaking through the lowest clouds, followed by hanging ropes by the dozens, and then hundreds, and it was only as the first signs of the great glowing half-moon of a body emerged that her mind shed her initial misconception.

Oh. That kind of medusa.

Arpentra, Dean of the second cohort, was an enormous sea jelly.

Sky-jelly, I guess. I wonder what part of the Garden he or she is from? Or is it he and she?

Arpentra descended upon the arena, hovering over the center of the sands like some alien space ship from a twentieth century movie, tendrils reaching out to the faculty and first few rows of students and caressing them with golden currents. Lilijoy could see that the energy was akin to Prana, and its recipients seemed to enjoy the attention, smiling and visibly relaxing.

Ranitri’s hushed voice brought Lilijoy out of her reverie. “This is the main reason I come though. Amazing, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Lilijoy whispered. Arpentra glowed in normal vision, but in mana sight it was like watching fireworks in slow motion, spiraling bursts of color pinwheeling around within her translucent form. It looked to Lilijoy somewhat like her own mana spindles. If she looked closely, she could see the ambient mana of the arena being sucked into the sky-jelly, which made her wonder just how high a Mana Gathering stat Arpentra could possibly have.

After a minute or two, the great floating form began to move over the stands, and soon, golden tentacles made their way to where Lilijoy and Ranitri sat. Given her past history with tentacles, Lilijoy felt a bit uneasy, though thankfully Arpentra’s tentacles did not twist and squirm. Instead, they draped, their movements minimal and gentle. One thin strand descended to Lilijoy’s shoulder and she felt the golden mana on her skin, bringing with it a soothing sensation and a voice.

“Hello, Emily,” she heard. “Welcome. I can sense that you are uneasy with foreign energies, and I understand. I would like to evaluate your health and learn about you as an individual so that I might better assist your development. May I have your permission to do so?”

Well, that’s a refreshing change.

She could see that similar interactions were going on all around her, which made her wonder just how many conversations Arpentra could carry on simultaneously. It made her think she might be able to learn more about dividing her consciousness from the giant being.

She gave her consent, and then followed Arpentra’s golden mana as it permeated through her body, soothing and invigorating as it went. She sped her mind up to its current maximum where external senses were involved, and then marveled at the way the sky-jelly separated her mana into thousands of tiny strands. The degree of precision and control was staggering, as was the thought that the great being was repeating the same process with dozens of others at the same time.

“My, your thoughts move fast,” Arpentra observed. Lilijoy jumped a little in surprise at the statement, as she had never communicated with anyone capable, or at least willing, of matching her processing speed. “Don’t be alarmed. Your thoughts are your own. I have simply observed their speed and matched my own to that. I also noticed you watching my mana. Are you interested in the healing arts?”

Lilijoy took a moment to consider the question. The easy answer was yes; after all, she was interested in practically everything. She was interested on a practical level, being able to heal herself and others in and after a fight. She was especially interested in the actual mechanics of healing, how the mana was created, shaped and applied, which was more an offshoot of her general fascination with the strange energies of the Inside than a true interest in the result itself. And given a choice between studying healing and learning how to use Nandi’s boon, or getting a source and learning to use that… well, healing would certainly take second place.

Still, she hated to lose a chance to work with Arpentra, which she suspected might be a possibility, considering the other knowledge she might pick up from a subset unconstrained by acting ‘human’.

“Yes, though I’m most interested in the mechanics,” she said, trying to answer truthfully. “More how than what, I guess.”

“You are very young,” said Arpentra. “Still seeking the air. Means and ends have not converged, which is only proper. Bring your Healing skill to an Expert level, and I will hold you within my shade. To do that, you need to understand your Skills better, or it will take you far too long. Be well.”

With that, the golden tendril left her shoulder.

Well, I guess that’s the sky-jelly way of saying ‘take you under my wing’? But what did she mean about understanding my skills better?

Lilijoy had a sinking feeling that Rosemallow had neglected to mention yet another fundamental aspect of Inside mechanics. Either that or Arpentra was hinting at some aspect of skill use that wasn’t yet apparent to someone of her level. She watched as the golden sky-jelly floated away into the cloud bank, the frilled edges of its body waving gently against the air, and thought of the contrast between this assembly and the fourth cohort’s.

No mention of rules, or tournaments or any of that stuff that Dean Reunification likes so much. This is so much better, even if it really was just a bunch of simultaneous individual meetings.

She turned to Ranitri, who was watching Arpentra recede with something like longing in her eyes.

“I didn’t want to use Scan, it just seemed rude. Can you tell me the name of Arpentra’s race? It feels like calling…” she fumbled for a second over what pronoun to employ, “… her? a sky-jelly is a bit undignified.”

“She is a Haneupali,” Ranitri replied, “which is, as I understand it, pretty close to what you were thinking. Arpentra is one of the only Haneupali medusae in the Garden, and doesn’t care if you call her he or she, since technically she’s both.” Her tone was distant and her eyes never left the slowly shrinking patch of golden light still percolating through the clouds.

Lilijoy had a small revelation at that point. “Did she like your sari?”

Ranitri sighed and shook her head. “Arpentra wouldn’t notice such a thing. I wear it for myself, to represent my own devotion to her teaching.”

“It’s really lovely. Do you mind if I look at it closely?”

When Ranitri gave her approval, Lilijoy used Scan.

Sari of Celestial Peace

Fashioned by an Expert Tailor from silk

made by a Master Weaver

Attributes: Hidden

I wonder what the cost for hiding attributes is? Such beautiful things can be crafted Inside.

She admired the nearly invisible weave of the silk, the evenness and vibrancy of the color, and the intricate construction of the golden fringe.

I wish the clans didn’t work so hard to keep it all to themselves. How different would it be if all the Outsiders were free to craft as they wished without clan interference? What do the clans get out of it anyway?

She supposed it was just a way to funnel anyone with talent into a clan, something akin to the way the old nation-states controlled their borders. The Corp contained the remnants of humanity with a fence of debt, custom and supervision. She knew that if she ever wanted to break their hold on the Inside, she would need to replace them on the Outside too.

And replace them with what? Democracy? That didn’t work out very well before, though now Guardian is around to curtail some of the worst tendencies. Still, it seems like there is an inevitable flow of power to those best able to manipulate a system, no matter what form it takes. In choosing a system aren’t we really just choosing the form of manipulation used by those in power?

Every time she considered the subject, it seemed to her that the real solution would be to change the constituents, rather than the system. Enlightened self interest depended on enlightenment after all. But it wouldn’t be so simple as giving everyone the Tao system, that she knew. She feared that might be akin to arming the entire population with nuclear weapons and hoping that mutually assured destruction kept the peace.

Lilijoy sighed as she pulled her eyes from Ranitri’s garb and brought them to her face.

She has green eyes, she observed. Ranitri seemed like a genuinely good person. Perhaps her Hindutva clan was a force for good in the world, as she seemed to believe. Or perhaps she was too blinded by tradition and privilege to notice how the people her clan supported were kept dependent by the same clan helping them. She thought about asking, but feared the answers. Plus, the last thing she wanted now was a conversation about equality and inherent rights.

“Do you study under Dean Arpentra?” she asked instead.

Ranitri shook her head. “No. Of the thousand in our cohort, perhaps three are so honored. There are a handful of others from the other cohorts as well. Instead, every assembly, I ask her one question, and she is kind enough to grant me an answer.”

“A question a month then? What did you ask her this time?”

Ranitri’s eyes narrowed for a split second, then relaxed. With a small laugh, she said, “I suppose it is of no great importance. This time I asked her if there was any way to gift Prana to a warrior before a battle, such that their wounds would be lessened immediately after their occurrence.” She gave Lilijoy a teasing look. “I might tell you what I learned if you tell me something of Nandi’s favor, or how you came to acquire it.”

That was a bit of a sore subject for Lilijoy at the moment. She had sought out the water Source at the location Magpie had described two days earlier, using her sight through the Boon to find the deep pool located in the forest about a thirty minute walk from the path. It hadn’t been easy to find, as she had never been there, so when she saw the clear waters nestled against a stone outcrop she had felt a thrill of excitement.

Trying not to get ahead of herself, she had taken her vision deep into the waters, far beyond the reach of the sun. She was a little disappointed not to see any of the skeletal dwellers as she went, but then she saw it, the Source, a faceted gem just as Magpie had described, glowing blue on the rocky bottom.

Fingers trembling with excitement, she reached for it and took it into her grasp. The feeling of elation that passed through her was only matched by the disappointment that followed as the gem evaporated when she tried to bring it out of the Trial space.

I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy. Nothing ever is.

She had replayed that moment in her head many times over the past day, the feeling of substance giving way between her fingers in a stream of faded blue. She had only allowed herself to truly wallow in her emotions for a minute or two, but the image kept returning nonetheless.

“I danced,” she said. “It wasn’t very good, but I was just so excited to be there.” She left out the part about her arm and teeth. “I guess Nandi liked it for some reason.”

Now I’ve done it. Nandi’s going to have more dancing Hindutva clan members crossing his threshold than he can shake a stick at. Hope he enjoys it.

Ranitri pursed her lips. “Dancing...” she said to herself.

“I might have sung a little too,” Lilijoy added. At this point, she was almost feeling a little bad for Ranitri and any young Hindutvas who might be impacted by what she would relay back to the clan, but not bad enough to stop.

Should I show her the specific steps? Maybe spice it up a little? She stifled a giggle. I bet Professor Anaskafius would appreciate this.

She wasn’t sure exactly what her magic mentor cultivated, but he certainly had a strong sense of mischief hiding beneath his proper demeanor.

“Well, it’s only fair I tell you what I learned,” Ranitri said

Now Lilijoy felt a little guilty for giving her such useless information. All the singing and dancing in the world wouldn’t help if they didn’t have her system, or so she believed.

“It turns out,” Ranitri continued “That there is a way to apply Enhancement effects to mana other than with a Source spell. Unfortunately, she left it up to me to research just how that might be accomplished.”

Okay, now I don’t feel guilty anymore. Maybe I will once I figure out what an Enhancement effect is. It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one expected to figure out most of this stuff myself though.

Once again, she kicked herself for ruining the water Source. Without a conventional Source, she had no way to learn about magic in any meaningful way. Even if she could find the other Sources Magpie had discovered, she had no way to bring them out.

Maybe I’ll need to find a way in.

There were only a few people left on the arena stands at this point, and Lilijoy got to her feet, which brought her head just about level with Ranitri’s. She couldn’t help but think Attaboy might have the right idea, growing his Inside form. It didn’t seem like the right move for her though. In a year or two she would be taller in both worlds, and that would be enough.

If I’m still around by then. I know I told Anda I’d take it slow, but I’ve got so much to do before whatever happens at the next Great Unity. I don’t want to disappear without so much as a ripple in the world, and I refuse to let that happen to Attaboy either.

She had gotten the strong sense from Rosemallow that Attaboy was the one most likely to be eaten, or used up, or whatever it was that was going to happen. In many ways, that was more motivating to her than her own self-preservation.

“Typical,” Lilijoy said, rejoining the conversation. “I wish they would just give us the answers once in a while.”

Ranitri nodded slowly. “Yes, I understand. But I think of it this way. Beyond each answer are only more questions, progressing to eternity. Thus a single answer is a gift with no value, infinitesimal in its importance, experienced like an earthly pleasure and ultimately unsatisfying. A problem on the other hand… that is where true happiness lies.”

Well, thought Lilijoy, I guess I’m the happiest girl on earth.