Once Scarlet felt that they were far enough from everything to be safe, she turned to Keera.

“Now, I promised I would train and shape you. I guess I should apologize in advance.” she said, mustering Keera. “The first lesson you need to learn is that your mind is more powerful than you think. You were taught to stay in safe limits, to back off when you start feeling pain, but there are moments when you have to push through the pain.” Scarlet explained, before going into an explanation of techniques she had been taught and a few of her own expansions of them, allowing to push on, even if the mind wanted to back off. A scholar on the subject of psionic power development would have been incensed, hearing her recklessness, but deep in the forest, there was nobody to protest.

It took Keera a little to understand what was required of her and she started the exercises that would allow her to push herself further and soon, she was starting to get a headache and nosebleed, at which point she would have ceased to strain herself before but now, she forced herself on, using the mental disciplines to keep her mind on track, not wasting any power. She almost blacked out from the pain, as if barbed wire was pulled through her brain and she tasted blood. Her mind wanted to back off, away from the pain but suddenly, she felt a presence, pushing, prodding at her mental defenses. Out of reflex, she tried to mount a defense and felt herself entangled, forced to keep defending, despite the pain and her suffering. She thought her mind would break, shattered from the unrelenting onslaught, when the presence backed off, letting her sink into blessed unconsciousness.

Next to her, Scarlet wiped off the blood from her nose, pushing into another psion’s mind and engaging them on their turf, without damaging them, was supremely difficult and nothing she would normally do. But it had allowed her to prod Keera some more, showing her just how far her mind could go without breaking. It also had the advantage that she had a good idea how Keera’s mental defenses were structured, something she instantly used, delving into the others memories. Without Keera’s exhausted state, both mentally and physically, her plan would be nigh impossible, at least without excessive and obvious mental attacks, but in the collapsed state her victim was in, she could manage.

Like before, when Keera had collapsed on the path, Scarlet slipped into her mind, only this time she didn’t just look at the surface, conscious mind, she went deeper. There, she was amongst the arcane and barely understood concepts that made up who Keera was, most of them too alien and complex to understand but she suspected, or maybe hoped, that there would be something signifying the decision to follow Scarlet. Scarlet had no concept of time, delving into another's mind as she was doing, but she managed to find what she was searching, tangled together with other parts that made up Keera’s character, but it was there. Using more instinct and carefully applied force than anything else, she gently pushed that submission, that desire to follow Scarlet, into prominence, strengthening it, not by much, only to the point that it might grow from there, becoming a deep-rooted and important part of Keera’s psyche.

Retreating from Keera’s mind, she considered what she had just done. She had thought quite some time about the best way to ensure Keera’s loyalty but had failed to come up with a way that would do so, reliably. But with Keera’s willing submission, she had hoped that there might be an opening, a small sapling that could be nourished into something bigger. Time would tell if it had worked as she thought it might.

After waiting for a moment or two, she got some water from the brook next to them and splashed it into Keera’s face, quickly waking her.

Keera sputtered for a bit, shaking her head to clear it, of both the pain and the water.

“That was the first lesson. We will try again in an hour.” Scarlet announced, causing Keera to wince. “Get up, we continue on our way.” Scarlet ordered, grabbing Keera’s hand and pulling her to her feet.

“You want me to continue, now?!” Keera asked, looking a little horrified.

“Let me put it like this: Do you want to continue living in town, after the two weeks of grace period are up? You have a single credit right now, or did you manage to get more?” Scarlet asked, already knowing the answer from Keera’s story.

“No, I didn’t get any more, I already told you that.” Keera answered, quickly deflating.

“So, get moving.”

The two of them continued on their path, Scarlet keeping Keera from stumbling too much, even if her mind was hardly at full power. At the same time, she looked for the traces left behind by crystal monsters, not telling Keera what she was doing.

Soon, she found a trace, quickly following it, causing Keera to stumble from the sudden change in terrain. Before, they had stuck to the relatively even ground next to the bubbling brook, but when Scarlet veered off into the brush, that changed.

“Where are you going?” Keera asked from behind.

“Just follow me, you will see.” Scarlet answered, continuing to focus on the trace she was following.

Once Scarlet had the monster on her mental radar, she looked to Keera, “Do you feel ready to fight with your crystal monster?” she asked, causing Keera to blanch but she pulled her crystal from her pouch, dropping it. Badgy flickered into being and instantly, Keera started to hold her hand, swaying, as if in great pain. Moments later, she sunk to her knees and Badgy vanished back into the crystal, stunned.

“I guess not.” Scarlet looked on, letting Cyca surge forward to meet the wild crystal monster that had noticed them. When she realised that it was another of those nutty squirrels, she smiled a little, knowing their tactics. Cyca managed to dodge out of the squirrels attacks, thanks to Scarlet’s mental commands, striking back with lightning bolts, until the squirrel dropped. She picked the crystal up, walking over to the still kneeling Keera.

“You will have to train that, your monster is your lifeline after all.” Scarlet told her, pulling her to her knees, once again.

Keera kept her eyes down when she answered. “I know. It’s just that Badgy started to resist my control, pushing back whenever he’s free.”

That made Scarlet mentally take notice, wondering why Keera’s monster was getting uppity, while her own were only getting more mellow, their connection strengthening and allowing her to control them even better.

“Oh? That’s interesting.” she said, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes, I’m not quite sure when it started. I heard from Holgur, that’s one of the guards in Albertina, that most people switched their monsters every two month, euthanizing the old one because they get too difficult to control after a few months. But I already feel him pushing back now, after just two weeks.” Keera explained, sounding very annoyed.

“Don’t worry about it, your training will help with that.” Scarlet pushed away her concerns, thinking about possible reasons why it was different for her. There was that small voice, telling her that she deserved it, that she was the chosen one. It made her giggle, even thinking, in her own mind, that she was that very special snowflake seemed utter hubris. No, there had to be something that set her apart, either in her mental make-up or in her actions. Or maybe both.

Understanding, it came all down to understanding. She had once heard the saying that to know oneself and know one’s enemy was the key to win a hundred battles. Knowing herself was difficult, especially because she would have to take the alien influence of the crystal monsters into account, both the influence they might have on her and the influence they had as part of her powers.

Knowing the enemy, that was easier to do, she just needed to quiz Keera who seemed to have gathered some knowledge during the ten days she had been stuck in Albertina.

“What else do you know, about the customary actions of the other psions?” Scarlet asked as she turned back, towards the small brook they had followed before.

Keera scratched her head, thinking back to the conversations she had held and the actions she had seen.

“Mhm, what I’ve seen is that they don’t let their monsters out in the city.” she looked over to the cat-shaped crystal monster, “And Telram didn’t let his monster out, unless it was fighting.”

“Oh? What kind of monster was it?” Scarlet asked, curious what might hunt them.

“It looked like a wolf, only more ferocious and clad in a rocky armour. He mentioned that it was becoming problematic and that he’d take it down soon.” Keera explained, causing Scarlet to shudder a little. The description sounded very much like a more powerful version of the rock-dogs she had fought, maybe after going through the strange change the Doctor had mentioned.

Pushing those thoughts away, she asked a few more questions, how many monsters the different psions Keera had talked to had, had she noticed them training, things like that. The more knowledge she had, the better. After all, knowledge was a type of power.