It’s always the small people who change things.

Pre-Fall filmmaker.

“Sir, there is someone who wants to see you for something about Talents,” the mayor’s aide said.

Robert Mansfield, the Mayor of Cheat, looked up from the paper spread all over his desk.

“What is it with Talents that everyone comes to see us about that? Another Mooneyed?”

“No, sir. It’s a normal-sized person. Human, nothing obviously Changed. His name is Miles Bertram, from an outfit called the Talent House.”

“Well, get him in then.”

The man the aide introduced was indeed ordinary-looking. Mansfield guessed someone in his mid or late forties, with the weathering of an outdoorsman of sorts. They shook hands, and he gestured for him to take a seat. Bertram started talking, and Mansfield quickly realized it was a sales pitch.

“We’ve found that Talented individuals are a better match against many forms of Changed beasts than most guards. Some, you need artillery-level weapons against. Well, some Talents do provide that level of combat ability.”

“You seem to imply you can provide Talented people?”

“That’s what the Talent House is about. But we don’t provide Talented people – you do. You pick the right persons for that job, the most reliable in your guard. What we do is provide the Talents themselves. We can help you build a significant force for your defense at a reasonable cost compared to that safety. Cheat is at the edge of the East Coast zone, and it’s widely known you still have serious problems regularly and come under siege from Changed beast incursions.”

“You know, usually, I would be very skeptical about people saying they can provide Talents…” Mansfield started.

“I know, and I can provide demonstrations,” Bertram immediately replied.

“… but you’re not the first person to imply such a thing is possible. So I wonder how that can be, and we’re just hearing about it.”

“Not the first? As far as I know, the Talent House is only starting its operations, and… there should be no alternative ways of doing what we can do.”

“No, that other person was not offering Talents; it was about asking us to provide Talents. She was pretty sure we could and didn’t understand when we told her what she requested was completely impossible, that nobody could do that. She insisted she’d seen it being done, and that’s how she got her own Talents.”

“She?”

“She’s a Mooneyed. A Changed species… a new one. I know; that sounds almost as bizarre as that Talent stuff. They claim to live in the East Coast zone itself, which also sounds impossible. They followed some kind of expedition across the zone and only found Cheat now because they didn’t know people still lived west of the Appalachians…”

“Wait, she said she followed the expedition to Washington DC?”

“You know something about that? There was a scavenger expedition to the mana zone that passed through Cheat this summer, but…”

“That was us. I was on that expedition.”

Mansfield started to realize that coincidences probably weren’t.

“She’s talking with a diplomat from the State. Arrived from Vernon yesterday, they’re meeting right here.”

The Mayor’s head bobbed in thought as a smile appeared on his face. He stood up and waved to the door.

“Maybe we can make heads and tails and connect the facts if you know what it’s all about.”

When Miles entered the room, the second thing he noticed was the obviously Changed woman seated on a slightly too-large chair. Someone had found a chair for a Dwarf, he guessed, but that wasn’t quite the correct size. He was familiar with Keegan Vakanson back when the old team was together, and the 4’5” dwarf was considered slightly above average for the species. This woman seemed to be barely over three feet herself and was perched at the edge of the chair.

What immediately raised his internal alarm was the gigantic dog-like shape slumped at her side. A specimen of that size had to be a Changed Canid. Yet it was lying there, head over crossed paws, eyes closed as if it was a domestic sheepdog of sorts. His eyes never left the Canid as the Mayor started talking.

“Mr. Versant, I thought I would interrupt. The gentleman here, Mr. Bertram, seems to have information pertinent to the discussion with the Mooneyed.”

The woman cocked her head, and Miles got the impression she was sort of squinting behind the heavy, darkened glasses she wore.

“Wait, you look familiar… you were in the expedition…” she snapped her fingers, “name’s Miles?”

“That’s right. Miles Bertram.”

“The one with lightning and metal skin and chains.”

Both the Mayor and the diplomat turned their heads to look at him. Miles smiled and briefly flexed the Talent, silver shine creeping out from under his clothes to briefly cover his entire skin, turning him into a metallic statue before he relaxed and let the Metal Skin vanish.

“Level 8 Metal Master, that’s correct. So you really were following us? I never saw you?” he noted.

“Me and the two others were careful. We’re small compared to Tallers like you. Some beasts tend to overlook small things and… well…”

Miles laughed.

“Moving unseen like you’re Peter.”

“That was the one you can’t see if you look away. I remember him. We were always worried he would sneak around and catch us because we couldn’t spot him and might be too exposed.”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“That’s Peter, all right. Reconnaissance does that kind of trick.”

“I know. I have that one and Mists, too. Not as good as him, I think…”

“Wait, how did you get…” Miles suddenly realized, “You picked parchments, did you?”

“You were making lots of those. You did not even notice some went missing.”

“That’s not done, Miss?”

“Silvers. Monica Silvers, of the side line.”

She immediately added, “But we needed those mount-skills. You had plenty, and we had none, and the Camp desperately needs those. I was talking with Elder Versant about that.”

Miles sat as Monica explained why she was there. The Mayor seemed to have heard it all before, but Vernon’s envoy paid rapt attention. Miles assumed the man was still trying to learn as much as possible if he’d just arrived. Or maybe it was about being a diplomat, possibly.

“That is the kind of thing I came to Cheat to do: Establish a branch and provide Talents. Except you seem to have an even bigger need for the Talent House than the town. Well, we can do both if necessary,” Miles immediately added, looking at the Mayor to reassure him. “After all, as you saw, Ms. Silvers, we have plenty to go.”

“We’re not numerous compared to you, and a good year is one where none of the scouts die. We’ve always been the guards of the camp with our mounts like Mists here. They’re the ones with the skills that work against Changed Beasts. Except when you came, and we learned we could get more, not just one or two per mount.”

“Mists is… a Changed beast,” Miles asked as a confirmation.

“We bring them to the Valleys of Change when we graduate from the Rowley. We spend time there, where the plants twist and change even more than anywhere else, and stay until they get their mount-skill and final name. Mists got his fog breath there, good for tiptoeing, so to speak, around. Wandering beasts know there’s something going on, but not what, and they don’t notice us.”

That’s ingenious, Miles realized. Using what she described had to be a denser mana pocket to empower tame Changed beasts, to give them powers. People always suspected it was the mana zones that turned wild Changed beasts into Elemental Beasts, giving them their various monstrous powers. And the “Mooneyed” had the right size to use a Canid as a mount. Although, compared to the diminutive Changed person, the huge beast might be pretty challenging to stay on.

“That’s a very good idea. We don’t have Changed Beasts as mounts, and Talents, at least until last year, were rare among us. I suppose among you as well.”

“No one has ever had a mount-skill before. We did not know people could have them until we saw your expedition.”

“Then you stole some parchments and found out better,” Miles tssked.

“At first, we did not understand because none of us could use the ones we’d picked, and they worked only on our mounts.”

“Wait, what?” Miles blurted.

“Yes. When we were trying to store the squares, they flashed light and turned to ash…”

“Beasts can gain Talents like that?”

“Yes. The only one that did not work on Mists was the Fog Cloud or the one with double skill, and we thought it was maybe something about the pages. But Mists gained all the others… eight new skills so far.”

Miles had to sit down.

Miles finished leafing on his copy of the Talent House’s reference list.

“I don’t even understand how your mount can have that many Talents. Just the four in Empathy break down most of what we – people, that is – can do. And you say he can use them all proficiently? Reconnaissance is not even compatible with the Water Shaper Talent set.”

“I remember that last one. It was one of the mount skill names on the double skill parchment that did not work on Mists. One of the Elders at the Camp was able to use it, though.”

“It’s not a Talent, it’s a specialization. It’s what enhances Talents to usefulness, or even better levels. It doesn’t make sense unless he already had it somehow.”

Miles looked at the still-sleeping Canid.

“Or it cannot. With Water Shaper, Reconnaissance would be useless. Maybe… maybe your mounts work differently. They have to. Nine Talent is close to impossible for people.”

“So, that’s why I got only three Talents from the sheets?” Monica asked.

“I have no idea. But otherwise, people in general, including Changed people like you, Ulrich, or others, work the same way. We have very specific limits. But we can figure out your qualities and see what type of Talents you could otherwise add to the ones you have.”

“You can do that?” Versant asked.

Miles nodded at the diplomat, then at the Mayor.

“It’s why it’s a bit more involved than just slapping together Talents. You don’t qualify for every Talent or specialization to bring out the best in those. We have a calibration set for that. I was going to demonstrate it at one point; I might as well do it now.”

Miles brought out his box with the parchment set and started to pull the pages out, spreading them on the low table between the people in the room. Monica recognized them immediately.

“That’s the ones you were making in the ruins.”

“Well, you’ve seen those before. This is the standard measurement set designed by Professor Gomez.”

“I remember one Elder Gomez. The same one?” she asked.

“The same one. First, we verify that you can activate qualities.”

The two men looked at the demonstration. Monica Silvers activated every basic parchment, save, for an odd reason, the Level one.

“Have you taken Levels?” he asked.

“Once. The Discreet paper had it listed.”

“So you’ve gained Levels. Might explain why you do not have enough talent energy.”

“What’s talent energy?” Monica asked.

“A quantity you accumulate and can use to increase your qualities and level. Those are required to obtain Talents.”

“Is that why we could not use most of the papers?”

“Probably. That’s why we have this to measure things first.”

The measuring went on relatively smoothly despite the impossibility of picking a Level for some combinations. The one that required improvisation was Dexterity. Miles realized immediately that Monica having Discreet and Reconnaissance invalidated the normal measurement process since the standard scale was based on those, and she couldn't pick them again. But Ambidextrous activated, so the Mooneyed had to have +3 Dexterity since Skip with its +4 requirement did not work.

Marc Versant was fascinated by the process.

“And some of those parchments represent actual Talents?”

“Yes. All we lack is a precise measurement of Ms. Silvers’s Level. We need a specific Talent for that, but I do not have it; we’ll just go by deduction for now, unlike the qualities that are accurately tested by our method.”

“And I could…” the man from Vernon asked.

“We can do anyone. You need at least Level 4 for the full scale to work, but you seem old enough for that.”

“So I’m level 4?” Monica asked.

“I am going to guess that you have more levels. You can acquire Talents in all qualities, and you said you already have three. So you’re at a minimum of level 5. Don’t worry about it. I’ve learned a lot about guessing. In practice, that means you can potentially add one or two Talents, if not more. And you can probably improve your specialization.”

He had to explain what he meant by that.

“So I can improve my Reconnaissance?”

Miles pulled his reference book again.

“Got all the important data here. Since you have +2 in both Agility and Empathy, there are two entirely different ways of going forward. It changes how efficient you are with different Talents. You can get Improviser – that’s the one path Peter followed – or Trickster.”

He checked before confirming.

“Both improve Reconnaissance, by the way.”

“What do you want for that?” she asked before looking aside at Versant as the diplomat started.

“Sorry, Elder, but if those Talent House people are the ones who can offer us this…”

Monica Silvers

Female Mooneyed, 20 years, 10 months

Discreet

Level: 6 (8000 XP needed)

105/105 stamina (+15 per hour)

3 unallocated skill points

XP: 4383

STR: 15 (2000 XP needed)

AUT: 13

AGI: 17 (880 XP needed)

Fast Draw (40)

PER: 15

DEX: 18 (2310 XP needed)

Reconnaissance (42)

EMP: 17 (1296 XP needed)

Precise Hand (23)

+4.2 Perception for skill checks

Unshakable grip on a weapon under 40 pounds

+2.3 Dexterity for skill checks