If you are a guild, take care of your friends.

Pre-Fall artist.

At least this time, they could move out of their former home properly and orderly rather than be run away. Pack, and move the handful of furniture that had not come with Rhyland Wade’s apartments.

“No refunds,” he said, before laughing. “Cousin says you can afford that now.”

“He’s not entirely wrong,” Johanna admitted.

The top of the Talent House headquarters was large enough to make separate big apartments. Technically, she and Tom could even have separate toilets and bedrooms, which practically meant they had room for guests if it came to that.

“You know what? It is a real business now,” Laura noted. “We even live in our own store.”

“Not quite what I would have guessed when we started scavenging,” Johanna had to admit.

“At least we’re moving within the same city this time,” Peter noted.

“Miles thinks that our presence might make it grow,” she replied, adding, “Probably expand the headquarters a lot too.”

“We should have a training ground too, for newly Talented to get their bearings after they get their new ones,” Peter added.

“Not enough room inside the walls,” Tom countered.

“Maybe one day they won’t be necessary, like most of the central states. But that’s for the future,” Johanna said. “Let’s deal with today first. Who beyond Ulrich has a Talent that lets them carry more?”

Georgy North came to see them that afternoon, as Johanna and the rest were starting to unpack their meager belongings, and Miles was helping them set up the ground floor.

“So, your company is a go now?”

“Not entirely. But we’re making progress. Don’t worry about your money, it will come in time.”

“Goody. I tested the set you gave me, by the way.”

“Maker, if I remember correctly?”

“Found someone. He could get four of the six Talents. And boy, does it work. Just Smooth Planes on its own is game-changing for an artisan. If he had it, Ewan Clarke wouldn’t have gone under and his work would be widely praised. And, well, you wouldn’t have that fine place.”

“That’s what it is for?”

“The names were evocative enough. Smooth Planes is for making perfect planes on metal or wood or stone or basically any non-living material.”

“Wood?”

“Needs to be dried and treated. Raw wood doesn’t work or badly so, but cured and aged wood does. Making perfect planes on steel for a spearhead or even just a knife… you get edges that cut through almost anything. Not Artifact-level, but better than anything since André Goro. Which I would not have been surprised if he had been a Maker now that you know there are those Talents around.”

“Good to know. We can use all information about each Talent we can get. For most, all we get is a name, and what specialization – like Maker – it fits.”

“Most?”

“There are 411 Talents. At least 411 that we know of,” she immediately corrected herself, thinking back to her last vision from the Ancient.

“How do you know who can get what?”

“We now have a way.”

“So, you got a Professor from Nashville to design a method for selecting Talents?” Georgy asked as they went through the reception area.

“Here’s an example,” Miles said, unfolding a single sheet from his pocket.

Miles Bertram

Metal Master

Level: ☒☒☒☒☒☒☒☒☐☐

☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

Agility: ☒☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

Mirror

Empathy: ☒☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

Chill Metal

Authority: ☒☒☒☒☒☐☐☐☐☐

Call Lightning

Fusion

Perception: ☒☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

Detect Metal

Dexterity: ☒☒☒☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

Ember Chains

Strength: ☒☒☒☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

Metal Skin

“Professor Gomez designed these to keep track of what you can expect as Talents and plan for them. We’ll probably have to get a lot of them printed,” he said.

“So… you fill out those as you use parchments?” Georgy asked.

“Correct. The trick is that we now have a way of measuring the initial values for most people before they start using any. So, you fill those details in, then update as you gain more qualities or Levels, and pick Talents. For people like us, you work backward based on known minimum requirements. If there’s a discrepancy between what you should have and what you can use, it means you’ve missed something,” Johanna said.

“You put a checkmark whenever you add one quality or Level. What about those Talents?”

“One of the things Gomez figured out, and will confirm once he’s done more studies, is that you need to have one Level available per Talent per quality. Miles’s second in Authority requires two. This sheet card lets you check what you can pick at a glance.”

“Yeah. Like I won’t get a Talent with my next Level, because I’m full right now and I need at least two Levels regardless of the category I pick. And if I wanted to get a third classified as an Authority Talent, I would need to wait for level 11 instead of 10,” Miles explained.

“Clever. So that’s why my friend couldn’t get every Talent from your set?”

“There are probably other factors going in, but almost everyone got Talents that go in different qualities because that’s what is easy. There were only three in the expedition who got dual Talents, but we think it’s mostly because their initial qualities made picking others too complicated,” Miles said.

“As for your friend, it’s likely he did not have enough Level or qualities for the last two,” Johanna completed. “In fact, you should probably have him come over. We’ll try to figure out what’s missing and maybe trade the two parchments he did not activate for ones he can use. Oh, and fill up one of those. We need to make official ones.”

“And you probably should keep a copy in the office,” Miles added. “Registration forms.”

“That sounds like… bureaucracy,” Georgy said.

“As a banker, you should probably like that,” Miles replied.

“The Society of Mages was doing that kind of thing… is probably still doing that kind of thing,” Johanna added.

They still lacked a proper office, so they all went upstairs into Johanna’s main room.

“I’ve spent months, before and after you left, drafting all forms of scenarios. Depending on how your company wants to go at it, Mrs. Milton,” the banker started.

“You’re right, we didn’t share our plans.”

She started to expand on the principles she’d envisioned with the Talent House. How she wanted to provide a Talented guard for all “frontier cities” that still had problems with Changed beasts, like New Sandusky, even her home Valetta.

“No individuals then? New Sandusky is your first customer?”

“It’s safer that way. The first person we empowered warned us against people trying to take advantage of that. If we provide powerful parchments to all sorts of individuals, it’s going to be a mess. But if we work with cities for well-defined purposes, they all have the incentive to work with us and keep working with us. If someone wants a monopoly, no one is going to let this stand… and those cities will have Talented to call upon.”

“That’s also why we want to go fast,” Peter added. “Once we have a large number of cities behind us, it’s hard to put pressure on us.”

The banker looked thoughtful.

“Well, at least I can work something with the Burgher of New Sandusky and the City Council. I’m sitting on it, as the bank, and I know everyone.”

“The sooner, the better.”

The banker looked toward Johanna’s stack of notes from Gomez.

“I know you just said no individuals, but…”

“Not yet,” Johanna countered. “Best I can offer is to get your… Talent profile measured.”

Cameron Scott himself was lounging on the first floor.

“No one’s making a run for it,” he said.

Johanna merely shrugged. Everyone in the expedition had an extra bonus of whatever parchment they wanted. They might want to get something made – Cameron wanted his son to get a leg up with the scavenger business, for instance – but they all knew who made the parchments.

“You’d sword dance around them if they did. But not many people know yet.”

The Swordbringer emitted a short bark of laughter.

“What worried more is… Have you thought about what someone with your Talent could do?” he said, looking at Peter.

The small man nodded.

“Even guard dogs won’t work. I’m not noticed, regardless of what sense it is, unless I make a fuss. A dog wouldn’t notice my smell. Maybe if I’m unwashed for a couple of weeks. You need… non-sentient devices.”

“Traps, in other words. A trove of… parchments, like you have there, is damn dangerous to have around.”

“The way I’ve imagined it is dual doors, with a tiny space between them,” a woman’s voice from behind said.

“Hey, Jorieke. Already there to relieve me?”

“You bet, boss. So? How close can you get before someone has to notice you, no matter what?” she asked.

“Very close. I can stand two feet from you, and unless I poke you or move deliberately in front of you, you usually don’t notice me. That’s how good I am at this Reconnaissance now,” Peter smiled.

“You should talk with your architect, then,” the Earth Shaper replied.

“Although, with the right talent, you’d cut through the doors,” he noted.

“If that comes to that, then it’s not Reconnaissance you’re worried about,” Cameron injected.

Johanna looked as the three plunged into a discussion about proofing and trapping the parchment room, then exchanged looks with Laura, who simply raised her hands in mock impotence.

“Stock Minister is the best specialization we want,” Miles noted as he looked at the copies of Gomez’s lists.

“Why?”

“Both Detect Lies and Gauge Stamina. That’s what you want for a vetting officer, doing interviews. Just having Detect Lies should be… well, insanely useful, if it works as it sounds. If the guy tells you he doesn’t want to steal Talents, you can check that.”

“It’s a hybrid pair, though,” Johanna replied.

“Uh?”

“Detect Lies is a mana-based Talent, like most of the Fixer type. Gauge Stamina… well, it says what it is. Gomez’s model is that each type feeds and improves the others of the same type. That’s why seven-Talents Masters like me or you have such an insane endurance on all of our Talents compared to old-style tiers. Each Talent adds to mana – or stamina – capacity, it seems.”

“Ah. So, you need more mana Talents just to be able to use Detect Lies continuously…”

“But almost all specializations with Gauge are Heroic-type and their Talents mostly revolve around stamina. While it seems that Gauge works continuously, and probably doesn’t depend too much on having much stamina, you’re also putting two Talents in the same Perception category,” she added. “Plus, you need a minimum of level 8, which requires older people, usually.”

“Not for you.”

“Well, we are not typical, I’d say,” Johanna said.

“The other options work out too.”

“Yes, but they’re also lesser. Gauge drops a category for each lesser specialization. And besides, the specialization is very narrow. You need someone with very high Empathy and Perception to begin with.”

“It depends,” Miles said. “Do you need your interviewing officer to be combat-ready? Why not expend that Talent energy to force those, and pick whatever Talents remaining that boosts the mana?”

Johanna stopped there to think. She had to remind herself to keep her perspective open. Their stock of parchments probably included more than a hundred copies of Detect Lies. Or ones like Restoration, which Georgy had explained, and she recognized it as the Talent behind the Montana army’s Hammer of Fixing. None of these was applicable to combat.

For now, they were focused on getting out the Power the World needs, but who was she to say that people who did not want to fight beasts should be denied having suitable Talents? It was like that oxen driver, who did not want to shoulder the responsibility of having to use his Talents. Of… having to serve.

The Ancient had made quite a lot of Armorsmith and similar-sounding specializations after all, and not just enough for the catalog. She supposed that the Talent House was going to open up to those people at one point.

“Never thought I’d retire to that kind of job,” the man said.

“Never say never, Norton,” Miles replied. “I did too, once.”

“We’re looking for management help, general organization, and particularly vetting of prospective Talented,” Johanna said.

“And you start by recruiting former – or almost former – salvagers?” Norton Wooley asked.

“And I start by having Miles tell me who I can rely on. Just like I did for those two expeditions, in the Lakes…”

“… and the Coast. I heard about them. Depending on the conditions, you may have to beat them off with a stick. Safety when dealing with ruins?”

“Right.”

“So, does this means I get Talents, like Scott’s team?”

“Probably. But first, we have to figure you out.”

“You’re okay with him?” Miles asked.

“Good enough to move to the next recruitment phase,” she replied. “The trick part is getting the level.”

“Ahead of you. Got Cyrus to check, he reports a… level 7.”

“Not a problem with measurements, then,” she replied.

The man raised his hand.

“Maybe you can tell me what you mean with level 7?”

Norton Wooley

Settled Explorer

Level: ☒☒☒☒☒☒☒☒☒☐

☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

Agility: ☒☒☒☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

Jolt of Endurance

Empathy: ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

-1

Authority: ☒☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

Draw Focus

Perception: ☒☒☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

Gauge Stamina

Dexterity: ☒☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

Sharpen

Strength: ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

The newest desk manager looked up from the card Johanna had slid to him after finishing filling the copy for the Talent House’s burgeoning registry. Norton Wooley might not have the proper profile for Miles’s idea, but at least he would have one “receptionist” Talent. They needed someone with Detect Lies later.

“So, half of these, you have no idea what they do?”

“No. Sharpen, well, it’s anything that needs sharpening, according to Georgy,” she replied. “Knives, pens, same thing. We’ll get you more once we know what goes with a desk job. At least you can see who’s powerful, or at least potentially so, and if they try to use a heroic Talent while in here.”

“Three more Talents, then?”

“First, we’ll need to raise Agility and Perception and upgrade you to Settled Rover. Then, once you can raise that Strength or double Empathy. Too bad you didn’t seem to be able to do any of that now. But that talent energy seems to come faster, at least once you’re Talented. At least I can say that you’re the first level 9 we’ve seen. Even Miles hasn’t unlocked that one.”

“Age, right?”

“Presumably. Next, the recruitment of guards for the Talent House. Scott’s team isn’t going to stand watch forever…”