“-vain, Sylvain Johansson. Have you finally had enough sleep, yet?” The answer to that question was an unequivocal no, but apparently, that answer meant nothing. I took a couple of seconds longer to try and enjoy that fleeting feeling of peace that sleep granted, before blearily opening my eyes, looking around a very large and unfamiliar room with only two familiar faces. I wasn’t even sure anymore what should be surprising me the most now.

On one hand, it was very clear that Katherine was a lady of her word, as I had been moved to somewhere that seemed entirely more secure, and I had a feeling that the security wasn’t in case of any more ‘hostile psions’ coming in from the outside. I no longer had even the slightest idea of where I was, back on Earth I could hazard a couple guesses but not anymore…at least this still felt like a hospital room, not a lab. At least, nothing pointed to it.

Also surprising was that Doctor Strenns had been taken to wherever it was we were now, he was competent, sure, but I had no reason to suspect that his credentials earned him such an obvious promotion. Standing beside him, towering above him really, was my unfortunate and illogical victim, the rank five psion Katherine who by rights should have basically vaporized me or at the very least reduced me to a mindless thrall or something equally unsavory. That she hadn’t suggested either serious self-control for someone who probably saw me as a very bitey spider that startled her with the Every-Thing’s little ‘trick’, or that she was somehow unable to do so to begin with.

I wasn’t sure which was the better option, but I wouldn’t take it for granted. I also noted that both of them looked significantly less composed than the last time I’d seen them. Strenns seemed haggard and exhausted, bags under his eyes and a pallid complexion that seemed the result of days without sleep, and yet the slightly manic look in his eyes told me that he wasn’t too unhappy to be here.

Meanwhile, Katherine just seemed grumpy, the very palpable aura around her indicated at least that much, and it was a surreal sight watching someone with enough power to be classified as a minor disaster pout. I ignored the strange man trying to get my attention, rather, I continued to ignore him, in order to study her further. Whatever my little passenger had done to her appeared to be a permanent thing, or I would guess as much from the single evening glove she was wearing on her right arm, made for intense discretion, it seemed, and somehow she made it look just as stunning as without. Otherwise, she was unchanged. Still looking supernaturally attractive, still dressed to the nines, still visibly dangerous, the works.

“Sylvain Henry Camille Johansson! Would you please stop fooling around!” So maybe he wasn’t quite as strange as I thought he was, I didn’t think anyone in the Coalition knew my full name. With great effort, although not nearly as great as it had been the last time I was awake, I managed to turn my head and look at the new arrival.

“Marcus?” Of all the people I had expected to see, Marcus was not one. One of my many cousins, he was one of the few people around my age when I was growing up that I could actually stand being around. He may not have been… like me, an empty, but neither did I feel like he outright despised me for it, even if I always thought his parents did. I never cared too much, though, I was simply glad to have someone to talk to, to hang out with, even to play with before he began training, and I was even a little sad to leave him behind with the rest of the Johansson line.

“What are you doing?” I squeezed out.

“I was informed by the Coalition that I had an injured family member in their care, suffering from some sort of ‘control issues’ on top of it. I was already visiting the Luna branch anyways, so I stopped by. I must admit, I couldn’t think of anyone else in the House who’d joined the Coalition like us two, and I’m still surprised it’s you of all people here, in their ward for ‘anomalies’.” There was a lot to unpack there, some of it good, some of it less than so.

“I’m on the moon?” But that, to me, was the most important question right now.

“Yes, Vane, you’re on the moon. I suppose your second visit is a little bit worse than your first, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, this bed just can’t live up to the one I had back at the estate.” He cracked a small grin at that, which I considered enough of a success. My two observers were just watching on, now, but I could tell Marcus had questions for Katherine, too. I could only hope he had a clue which ones he shouldn’t be asking. Just to be safe, I’d hold him back a moment longer.

“So, Mark, how long’ve you been here? Actually, how long have I been here?” That sentence hurt, my voice cracked at the end there and reminded me that I still needed more water.

Strenns spoke up in Marcus’ stead, though. “You’ve been asleep for about a day and a half, apparently that psychic attack took even more out of you than Miss Katherine originally estimated.” I locked eyes with the psion, and unsurprisingly, her stoic mask didn’t even falter.

“Huh, I guess the beds here do compare after all, Mark. Want to try mine?” I wasn’t looking at him to confirm, but I was fairly certain I heard a chuckle from beside me.

“Maybe later, Vane. I’m a little more curious about what you were up to that left you in such a bad way. I was about to start looking for you, you know. Tell you I’d left the family like you, got a job in the Coalition, maybe have lunch or something. Instead, here you go, getting your brain fried and your energy all scrambled again.” I hadn’t realized I was so nervous about what he might say until he said that, I’ll have to fill him in a little more later if I ever get out. So, with the smallest sigh of relief I could manage, I replied.

“Congratulations, then, glad you could come to your senses. Long story, though, I need more water for long stories.” I also needed a lot more than water, but I’d manage. With a hearty groan, I pulled myself into a sitting position, looking down at my arms when the sheet I’d wrapped myself in fell off and was surprised to see hardly even a mark, much less the borderline unbelievable bruises I’d seen a day and a half before. Neat.

Strenns seemed about ready to push me back into bed, seeing me sit up like that, but the other two were fine, and I looked around the room wondering who’d banish the silence we had fallen into. It seemed Marcus would once more have the honors, finally speaking to Katherine, surprisingly nonchalantly, too. He’d only been at the second rank when last we spoke, and he was probably still there, but if he had a personal summons to one of the main branches then perhaps he’d broken into the third? If so, he’d almost be important now.

“I’m still surprised that Vane here warranted someone like you… Katherine, was it?” And then, we were back to silence, Katherine merely stared at my cousin, failing to so much blink at him, and he awkwardly stared back, probably trying to hold eye contact with her, and most likely failing spectacularly. I missed the helpless fool more than I’d thought.

“I see… Well, Katherine, I wasn’t aware my cousin could stir up enough trouble to earn the personal care of a psion of your caliber. Any chance you’d let me in on any gossip you found in there?” He asked, the faux seriousness of my tone enough to have me rolling my eyes, and Strenns looking almost horrified at the suggestion. Katherine, though, kept that same attitude that I’d always thought a rank five should have. That being emotionless, cold, and more than vaguely menacing for no discernible reason while she bored into Marcus’ soul with her eyes, very obviously peeved for some reason. I was starting to be able to hazard a guess, but the good doctor proved himself surprisingly adept at dealing with the situation and spoke up before Mark could make too big a fool of himself.

“Mister Marcus, I know I’d asked this of you when you first arrived and I suppose it was wrong of me then when you were so obviously worried for your cousin, but perhaps you and I should go speak elsewhere? Perhaps you’d be able to tell me a little more about Sylvain’s history, it might help get him on track to controlling his gifts once more.” I nodded at him but made sure to give him a look that told him everything I possibly could without words. He looked reluctant, whether it was due to needing to come up with something on the spot, or needing to leave behind a pretty woman, I couldn’t tell, he’d never been much good at either of them. At least Strenns took that look to mean that he’d actually worry leaving my side, which made the doctor soften up to him just a bit.

I took a deep breath as the pair walked towards the door, knowing that I’d probably need it as soon as it was shut. And, to nobody’s surprise, it took less than three seconds between the soft thump of the door shutting, and the pressure inside the room skyrocketing. I could tell she had done something, probably blocked out the noise in the room and messed with the cameras, but I couldn’t be certain.

“Tell me.” Was all she said, boring holes into my skull with her indescribably vibrant eyes. I think they were orange, actually, but it was still hard to tell. Still, between the violence in those eyes and the borderline petulant tone she’d had, it was hard not to say something. Even if it was the wrong answer.

“I don’t know either.” Her mild scowl was practically oozing skepticism now, on top of the promise of injury if I didn’t comply. And honestly, I probably should have. Compliance was the only tool I had for nearly a quarter of a century, the only way I managed to work my way up the totem pole of powers was by scraping every bit of favor that I could. Being a yes-man was awful because it was so hard to simply stop saying yes.

“I genuinely don’t, I hardly even know how it happened. You probably know just as much as I do what happened. You probably know more.” And there was her ‘yes,’ me telling her everything I knew. It was absolutely in my best interest to do so, but I still resented having to answer questions more than I would be having those answers actively pulled out of me. At least before I’d get away with simply not talking, after all, my body just couldn’t handle it, but now I had no excuse.

“Obviously not. I recall you seeming a lot less surprised than I was when that thing in your head started screaming at me! I couldn’t even control myself; I couldn’t even leave! What sort of brain worm did you pick up out there? How did it even do this?” She ripped off the glove, proving my earlier guess right as she waved around the unnaturally unicolored arm and the inhumanly bendy joints.

I tried to scoot further away from the madwoman, genuinely afraid for my safety now that she seemed to be getting truly angry. That was the wrong answer, though, and she only stormed closer.

“I want to know; I want to fix this.” That was when I noticed, though, that even when she was seething, she wouldn’t touch me. That grotesque hand was right in my face, true, probably pointing a finger but I couldn’t be certain looking at that angle, not when all I saw was a tan circle, but even then, she didn’t touch me. She probably wasn’t even very close, actually, but again, depth was impossible to measure. She was afraid, too. And knowing that felt really, really good.

“Then why haven’t you just taken the answer. Make it easy for both of us and rip my ‘brain worm’ right out?” It was hard, truly hard, not to flinch after hearing my own words, but I managed, keeping my tone level and my gaze steady. To my credit, after delivering that line, she looked about ready to do just that, and I found it getting hard to breathe. She looked strained, though, and I realized that the entire building was probably built to keep people like her, maybe not quite so strong but still, from flinging around power so freely, and especially in a ward designed for ‘anomalies’ as Marcus said. I was still terrified, but after that realization, I was able to really look into those violently vermillion eyes and see her looking back.

“Is that really what you want?” Her lips parted in a grin, the first real emotion that could crack that flawless mask. Even in her rage, her face was utterly impassive, besides those eyes. “For me to rip it out? That’s very different than how I babied you last time, and your bosses aren’t going to be able to call someone to fix you.”

Needless to say, this was not at all what I wanted, but it was too late now. The pressure was almost unbearable now, but that was when I realized that it wasn’t coming from outside anymore. My head felt swollen like a balloon ready to burst, and I had a few ideas why. I matched her gorgeous smile with my own pained scowl, before tilting my head forward. She was still wary of touching me, though, and I watched her slip the glove back on. It was probably some special material she got for an indulgent sum while she waits for something even more expensive, but some part of me doubted that it was indulgent enough.

She slammed her palm into my head, once more making me wonder how it was even intact, now, and I felt her once more. There was no gentle awareness, this time. No unknown guest in the room, nothing like that. Instead, it was closer to having an elephant come by and kick down the door, having a trained crew disassemble the entire structure while I sat on the couch helplessly, and being violently assaulted during it all. But almost just as quickly as she kicked in the door and raided the room, the entire building kicked back.

“Of in power match on truth worse voice would.”

Once again, pointed gibberish, but this time it wasn’t meant for me at all. And I’m glad it wasn’t; I wasn’t even sure how something with that much force could be contained in something like a fleshy human brain, but when the Every-Thing lashed out in retaliation to the intrusion I wasn’t sure I wanted to. I just wanted to hope it’d never point something like that at me.

The room itself froze at that moment, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t feel my heart beating and through the thin material separating her skin from mine, I couldn’t feel Katherine’s either. Our eyes met again, my one eye she wasn’t covering with the palm of her hand anyway, and I could see her eyes widen and pupils dilating in seemingly slow motion. She had probably been about to say something, her lips slightly parted for a word she hadn’t been able to get out before she felt it too.

That was when I went blind, for a second or two, the lights just simply went out in my mind and I felt whatever was in my head give a great shove that felt like a bomb going off through the connection she’d forcefully opened. That wasn’t even the end, though, because after feeling like an entire military had been paraded out through my head, I felt it grab again, and pull it all back in. The bridge between our minds snapped after that, it was simply not built to stand up to the raging tsunami of information and pure thought getting shunted across, nor was it ready for that all to be brought right back over to my side, taking all of that uncontrolled energy and a bit more, too.

And yet, despite feeling like the entire world was flipped on its head and given a rough shake, only to be turned inside out right after, there was no fanfare, no theatrics, no screaming or shouting or gasping for breath. Instead, those gorgeous eyes staring back into mine just blinked. Once, then twice, before the pressure in the room disappeared like it had never existed to begin with, and the jelly fingered not-quite-arm on my head dropped to her side. She jerked upright and turned sharply around, marching towards the door with all the grace of a pre-magic wind-up doll. I wasn’t sure what it had done to her as I watched her stomping away from the room before the door shut.

“What did you do? What did I do?” I moaned, slapping my hands to my face and dragging them down in defeat.

“Saw yet kindness too replying whatever karivanne. Behaviour new set existence dashwoods.”

“What does that even mean?”

“Thank.”