Agreement

One evening Elthanmoi found her wandering among the cages.

"What are you doing here?" he said.

Toda contemplated telling him that she'd been waiting for him. But that wasn't quite the truth. She had been waiting for him. But she'd been waiting here because it was familiar and therefore comfortable. And something else she didn't have a word for, she chased that esquirrenren trail through tangled jungle underbrush until she found the end. And it led right back to...

"I was waiting for you," she said.

"Oh," he said. He sounded pleased, and ... suspicious, "Was that so hard to say?"

"There were two other answers," she said, "I had to check how to say them in human."

"And how do you say them?"

"I was resting," she said, "and I am waiting for you."

"Was and am?" he said.

"Yes," she said and looked at his eyes.

"Was waiting for me to come?" He said, "And still are waiting for me ... to do what?"

"I'm not exactly sure," she said, "since so many things are done so differently here."

"Could you give me a hint?" he said.

She snickered then frowned, "I'm wishing that you'd start doing all the things that, ... a respectable woman from around here would wish you'd do so that she would not risk her honor or her reputation were she to say something like," and she gave a call.

It was a call that meant something like, "I'm at your nest, but where are you?" it was a call most often given between paired esquirrenren during the nest-building season.

Elthanmoi'n lips twitched, and then he took two steps forward and bowed, "Lady," he said, "may I build you a house."

She blinked and whispered, "Am I supposed to say, 'yes' or 'yes, but let me help' or something else?"

"You're supposed to say 'yes, but let me show you where,' and then take out your machete and guide me there. And I follow behind widening the path because logically we'll need a large path between whichever of our parent's house's or gardens we were at the moment when I ask that and wherever we build. Or you're supposed to say, 'Yes, but I don't know where,' or you're supposed to say 'If you like, but I'd be just as content with a new room on your mother's house.' Or 'no' if you prefer. Or anything else that feels right but those are the common formulas."

"Hmm," she said.

"It is also common to work into the conversation how many brothers you have that might be willing to help. I'm sure you can calculate what that implies about courtships lasting long enough that one's parents and siblings become aware of the possibilities."

"Yes," she said, "I understand. The closest thing I feel to family here is our previous House Avatar. To me he feels like an uncle. Though I don't know if he feels anything more for me than he does toward the rest of the house."

He took a deep breath.

"Oh," she said, "Yes, you may build me a house, but I don't know where."

He stepped forward and hugged her.

"Unless ... up over there," she said, then relaxed and hugged him back.

He turned them around so they could look where she'd pointed.

"That is an excellent choice," he said, "if we are restricted to line of sight from our esquirrenren."

"Our?" she giggled, "esquirrenren?" she pitched her voice slightly differently, the way they'd taken to mean that they were quoting an esquirrenren call without bothering to actually go through the work of giving the call at full volume and exact pitch.

Our 'this is my thing that I'd fight for!' is what she's twisted his words to mean.

She felt his cheeks work against her hair and cap. And then he quipped, "Which is your thing?" he said.

"If you can't figure out what I'm holding onto," she wiggled her fingers deeper into his sides.

"Eia's mercy," he said.

She stopped but didn't let go. She looked up into his face.

He frowned, "which of the owners do you pray to?"

"I'm not sure," she said, "we talked of the unbroken stone."

"The what?"

"Umm," she said, "the mind that changed itself into the space and all the rocks that exist in it. In order to give us a place to inhabit."

"Do you need me to tell you how offensively strange that sounds?"

"Where I come from," she said, "none of the animals has minds big enough to see, but most of the rocks have surfaces that reflect mindness, some of the biggest seem to be minds. Because they had enough facets to reflect enough bits from enough minds around it that actual thoughts seem to be visible."

"Interesting," he said, "Are our teachings as offensive to you?"

"So many of the teachings behind the words are the same," she said, "but the ways of saying them are so very different."

"Hmm," he said, "how can the culture be so different?"

Toda shrugged, "There were no trees, there were very few who weren't ... what we had instead of emoi. Everyone could feel the rocks the ground was made out of, some people could reach up far enough to feel the rock the moon was made of."

He nodded, "And here we have three moons and four Gods, and your mind can reach thousands of times farther than our strongest emoi, but not in the correct directions to feel the Gods watching us?"

"I don't understand," she said, "show me."

"I'm not one of the emoi," he said, "I've just had so much practice dealing with them that I can deal with esquirrenren too. And you are different again, but it's a very subtle difference except when I bring your attention to it."

She sighed and nodded, "That makes sense."

"Are you sure you want a professional alien for a house builder?" he said.

"Are you sure you want an actual alien for your nest mate?"

He smiled and leaned closer until his forehead rested on hers. For a moment she thought he was going to kiss her. But she'd never seen these people kiss. Instead, the iron discipline of his mind relaxed and her travelsight anchored on him firmly for the first time.

"Oh," she gasped.

"You don't borrow sight and taste like I assumed," He said, "nor smell and memory I don't think. Do you borrow sound and ...balance?"

"Thought and spatial awareness," she said.

"Spatial awareness," he murmured, "and whatever social awareness comes with it?"

"Yes," she said.

"How esoteric," he said, "you're even more exotic than I dreamed."

That was the desirable way of saying I am alien. She smiled, Maybe this wasn't such a horrible idea after all.

The esquirrenren were chattering away about something. She didn't have the travelsight free to check what about. She didn't have her travelsight free at all, he was ... holding on to it somehow. Perhaps the opposite skill of keeping dozens of esquirrenren from anchoring their minds on his. She knew what it would take to break free without his relaxing. And he might have the strength of will to keep her from visiting, just as he was now keeping her from letting go.

"Are there promises that after we make, it will be appropriate for me to explain to you my duties to the house, even if ... you must keep them secret from everyone else?"

He straightened and released her mind, and cast his solid again to keep any esquirrenren from monopolising him, "Yes, and no. You meant breeding-related promises, and ... there aren't, but there are house-related and estate-related promises that we could make, such that I could be counted your assistant, or you mine, and then we could share duties as well as planning efforts about keeping duties fulfilled."

"How do those go?" she said.

"I, Elthanmoi, promise on my mind to aid you in your obligations, to the Gods, to yourself, and to the house of Phrintha. Keeping your secrets, and warning you of dangers, real and honorable, so help me Ädon."

"So do I promise the same thing back, or do I need to promise something in acceptance first?"

He smiled, "You don't have to promise anything at all, but you might need to verify with your elders whether that is the correct and sufficient promise before you share which house secrets with me."

"Alright," she agreed, "I wasn't wanting to share any house secrets with you at all, except exactly what my duties are."

"Are you part of the house breeding program?" he said.

She shivered, "I've been assured that there is no such thing."

He grinned, "There's not, and yet, there is. And then right in the middle of discussing the honorability of various ways we could claim each other, you back up and start talking about house secrets and duties to the house. So I ask again, do you have duties to the house, regarding breeding?"

"I must breed," she said, "and it must be with someone loyal to the house."

He nodded, then shivered, "I probably qualify, but again you should clarify with your elder,"

"And I must do my best to raise my children honourable and loyal to the house."

He nodded, "But no one is choosing for you? And no one is ... You're not coming to me for the comfort you deserve but is not being provided by wherever you're getting your children?"

"Nothing like that," she said, "I was told I could choose for myself. I was told I'm valuable enough that I may choose anyone available and might be able to get Speaker or Chairman to help with negotiations. But ... I had the feeling that your duties are ... unusual enough that you could say 'no,' if you wanted and they wouldn't push you."

"You can borrow spatial awareness. Directly, not through borrowing sight and sound of a dozen nearby minds and correlating their perspectives." he said, "That is a very rare sense to be able to borrow, of course, the emoi want their grandchildren to be possessed of it."

She nodded. He didn't know the half of it.

"Yes, my duties have ... unusual requirements, but nothing about my duties or capabilities is secret. Now that I think about it, I might have one of the safest minds for you to store secrets in. Everyone in the Reader's family might be able to mount similar defences or even more aggressive defences, but I don't expect they can keep them up full force for nearly as long per day as I do. Many of the Chairman's siblings are almost as strong."

"Ah," she said. And given that the Chairman and the Reader were together, perhaps there was a breeding program, but perhaps it mostly involved a few well-meaning matchmakers manipulating several of the most desirable gene groups each generation. Or merely the officers of the house offering to negotiate or smooth the way whenever particularly desirable matches formed naturally.

She began to wonder just how many of the messages the Speakers had sent the Chairman recently were related to letting her spend her downtime in Phrintha town instead of in the Capitol.

"If I said, I suddenly suspect that the Chairman's family has been pushing us together ever since I made that embarrassing call at the party."

He closed his eyes, and then laughed for a long time, then he stood up and stared into the treetops. "I suspect they've been ... a little more comprehensively responsible than just 'pushing us together'," he said, "they've also been observing us to check whether we like spending time together and whether we seem healthier for it."

"Oh," she said, "and ... if we weren't, would they have ... started trying to separate us?"

"Yes," he said, "or started pushing us to notice other people."

"Ah," she said, "So, can we at this point take their permission for granted?"

"Permission to breed, yes, permission for you to share your oh-so-secret duties, perhaps not."

"Hmm," she said, "That gives me a lot more confidence to ask for what I want."

He smiled, "Good. What do you want?"

"You," she smiled.

He smiled, "Is that all?"

"You, in my arms," she said.

"You have that," he said.

"In my arms, in my nest," she said.

He smiled wider, "Likewise, Little Toda."

"I'm not particularly little," she said, at least not compared to the people around here.

"No," he agreed, "but your name is so abrupt, slips by so quickly, like your mind—

And he doesn't know the half of it.

"—gobbling down a seed of information, and before I catch my breath from explaining, it has already grown halfway into a tree. And your next words fall from the heights like new leaves and sunbeams, as it bursts through the canopy to join the rest of your knowledge."

"Hmm," she said, "Flatterer."

"I really think not," he said, and turned away, though he didn't shield his mind so she wasn't sure what point there was in hiding his expression.

"Really?" she said.

"Really," he breathed.

She stepped up behind him but didn't force another hug on him while he dealt with his emotions.

"Are you sure you want an anomaly like me?" he said.

It wasn't clear if he meant he had emoi genes, and they hadn't expressed yet, and everyone was shunning him until the other shoe dropped and he forgot everything and everyone who'd ever loved him as his mind reorganized to make use of the new senses it was being flooded with. Or it meant everyone suspected he might be a bastard but wasn't saying that.

Or it meant that he'd gotten the mental discipline from growing up protecting his privacy from emoi siblings, and now protecting his autonomy from the herd of esquirrenren he cared for.

"Yes," she said, "a professional foreigner is exactly the kind of anomaly that I am most comfortable around, and is likely to be most comfortable around me."

He turned around and stared into her eyes. His reluctance and fear slowly fading.

"Alright," he said, "all joking and word lessons aside."

Uh oh, what now? "What?" she said.

He knelt.

What?

"Lady Toda of secret service to House Phritha," he said, "may I build you a house?"

"Yes," she said, "Yes you may. Please do."

"Do you care where?" he said.

"I assume you want to be in earshot of 'our' esquirrenren?"

"Yes," he sighed.

"Can we be upwind?"

"Of course!" he said.

"That's where your house already is," she said.

"The thing I live in hardly counts as a house."

She motioned to his left, "Like ... an adolescent's nest instead instead of a breeding nest?"

He stared into the canopy in thought, "Yes," he said, "basically."

She relaxed, "Would you want to expand it? Or start fresh?"

"Start fresh," he said, "but ... that can happen after the spring rains if you're ... barbarous enough to move in with me right away."

She smirked, "should I be?"

He stood up fast and took her hands, "Toda, please don't say things like that, unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Unless you mean them."

She sighed, "I might mean them, or I might not, I'm not clear what the local customs are. Everyone but you seems reticent to tell me."

He grimaced, as if he knew exactly why, and didn't quite disagree. Or he did disagree but wasn't quite willing to buck tradition. He smiled, "Why don't we go sit on my porch, and discuss what the local customs you are used to? And which of them do you mean? And perhaps that will help me translate a bit better."

It was the first time he'd offered her that option. Usually, he kept his sights within the borders of the Ethenoin way of life and that of his esquirrenren. If he was suddenly willing to learn her background, instead of only helping her fit in... If he was willing to sacrifice his specialisation in 'esquirrenren instincts and mentation only' and he was volunteering the sacrifice to ... protect her honour?

"I'd appreciate that very much, Elthanmoi."

He turned and trotted off, giving an esquirrenren call that mostly translated as, 'my stockpile of those is this way, follow me and I'll bring you a worthwhile trade.' It was generally only heard from adolescents to their siblings. Though sometimes from parents to their children.

In reply, Toda quoted the call that meant both, 'following' and 'I'd like to jump to the next tree, hold tight!' or sometimes 'get off the branch I want to land on.'

On his porch, he unstrapped his machete and shoes, then disappeared inside only to return with some dried food he spread before her.

While she ate, she explained how her parents had explained the stages of romance, he sharpened his machete.

While she explained the variations of the theme that she'd witnessed in other parts of her native kingdom, he sharpened another machete she hadn't known he had.

When she wound down, he sighed, "Can you hear the esquirrenren from here?"

"When they bother to call, I can. I can't hear their cooing and chirps without cresting the ridge." She pointed.

He pointed up, "What about echoing off the canopy?"

"No," she said.

"Hmm, alright," he said, "When you're off duty, How far away from the Chairman and Speaker are you allowed to travel?"

"That's a secret," she said.

He sighed, "You don't carry a machete, it's a very badly kept secret that you don't go very far alone."

She shivered, "what exactly do people think about me?"

"That you're some kind of slow, and not allowed outside of Phrintha town. Or aren't paid very much, perhaps that you are a beggar and can't afford a machete."

"I don't think anyone has told me not to buy one," she said, "I just haven't felt the need since I arrived."

He nodded, "Do you even know how to assess quality? Make sure you get your money's worth?"

"No idea," she said, "if I had to I might skim the smith's mind."

"This is Phrintha town," said Elthanmoi, "what are the chances the smith might be immune to emoi?"

"Oh," she said, "I hadn't thought of that."

He nodded, "would you be offended if I offered you one of mine?"

"It depends on ... if the gesture would mean anything significant."

"It means an adult has recognised you as old enough to find your way around without following well-maintained trails. That you carry it, means that you're prepared to do your part for the community to keep the trails maintained."

"Oh," she said, "Yes, I'll ... start carrying one. Is that all they mean?"

"As a relatively ubiquitous but not inexpensive accessory, the rich and the proud will have several, probably engraved or enamelled, easy to tell apart, so that it is evident that they can afford more than one."

"And you have more than one."

"I do, but I don't rotate through them every day or every time I leave home, in hopes of being noticed for how many I have."

She nodded.

"Having an extra in case one breaks is wise. Keeping them both sharp is wise. Having someone sharpen whichever one you aren't using is a decedent luxury. Though politeness allows exceptions for merchants (who spend all their time on the road and probably carry more than one at a time) and in some places there are professional trail maintainers. Many believe that one should sharpen one's own. At least, everyone who lives in a house away from their parents should probably sharpen their own."

"Are you volunteering to teach me that too?"

"No," he said, "buy your own, and ask the smith for sharpening lessons while you have him thankful for your business."

"Alright," she said.

"You can afford to buy your own?"

"Sort of," she said, "If a normal person would consider owning two a reasonable living expense, the house will buy them for me if I so demand, perhaps not both at once."

"Demand?"

"I am under the impression that the house cannot actually afford my services. Nor can I afford the protection that the house has extended to me."

He shuddered and stared at her, "With the result that you are a very well-kept pet, just like all the most powerful emoi and esquirrenren?"

Her eyes widened.

"I should have guessed," he said, "you were always remarkably unconcerned with money and status, and only concerned with honour and unusually nervous about privacy from emoi of other clans."

She nodded, "where do those seeds lead you?"

"You don't play the games of the normal people because you've already won," he said, "you don't parade around with a name like Reader or Avatar, but to the house you are just as important."

She shook her head, "I know nothing important and I am dispensable, it is only my services that are indispensable."

He swallowed, "then how many rooms for how many children should we be designing in our house?"

"I don't know," she said.

"If you were male instead of female," he swallowed again and looked away, "if we were Thriss or Parf instead of Phrintha, would you be one of those that receive an allotment of the wild ekshi to breed with?"

"What are ekshi?"

He looked farther away, "you know that we a very careful to find and teach our emoi how to be emoi, because otherwise the change might startle them and then they forget everything, at least once, some once per sense talent."

"Yes, and those who can't afford tutors are encouraged to visit the esquirrenren colony in case one will attach and teach the unawakened emoi to deal with having foreign noise in their mind and to focus anyway."

"Exactly," said Elthanmoi, "What do you think happens if they are away from home when they forget? Or run away shortly after because their city is too dense with minds and they cannot focus."

"No idea?"

"They go into the jungle to find peace, some find solitude, some are found by esquirrenren and are forced to learn strong focus in self-defense, and at least have a partner that believes in property and in maintaining proper bodily function, and each can tell that their partner is not the same shape mind as their own. Which helps the emoi prefer human society whenever it is that the esquirrenren grows bored and releases them. Some find or are found by Euamma, and either return very calm and very wise, or turn deep drinker and never leave the side of the stronger mind they have found. And some find ekshi, the little monkeys, and may or may not still be sane and able to learn language when they are found."

"And if they cannot be ... tamed again?"

"In some places, they are hunted or ignored until they pick up the habit of raiding gardens, the same as the monkeys. Some places such raiders are trapped the same as the monkeys and tamed and trained usually by inducing the altruism addiction, until and unless they differentiate themselves by learning language and higher planning skills."

"Deep drinkers that cannot even speak?" She'd heard of deep drinkers. The emoi that were addicted to the joy that they could cause in others. Village slaves basically. Some places fed them and were proud of their sizeable and willing workforce, some places mostly didn't feed them. Some places didn't feed them and were proud that they helped them work themselves to death, because 'removing the temptation for others to exploit them,' was somehow beneficial to the moral fibre of the village. Toda was certain that 'exploiting them to keep others from exploiting them' was not valid ethics, but she still felt herself too much a foreigner to argue that with anyone except perhaps present company. She'd learned that in parts of the country, no one tried to keep the emoi from being deep drinkers, the emoi headband was less warning about eavesdropping more a badge of willing slave labour.

"Yes,"

"And these are called wild ekshi?"

"No," he shrugged, "just deep drinkers, wild ekshi are those that even the addiction cannot tame."

"Killed?" asked Toda.

He shuddered again, "Here, yes. Most places, yes. We are not rich enough to give them a long time to try to learn. Most families can afford for a pre-trained emoi to recluse and malinger for a month or two. Very few, without the support of a house richer than ours, can afford to re-raise an infant that is as strong and hungry as 6 to 12 years old and mean and scared of every mind that comes inside its range."

"I understand," said Toda,

"Those that cannot be tamed must be kept caged, or taken far into the jungle and released which (except in legend) amounts to the same thing," said Elthanmoi, "there is no work for them."

"And a 'breeding program' is what it is called when ..."

"When ... work is found for them anyway."

Elthanmoi nodded and looked as though rather than discuss the taboo, he'd really prefer to repeat all nine strategies that are used in preference to killing or breeding, the children that could not handle becoming emoi, or could not recover from meeting the wrong kind of monkeys at an impressionable point in their redevelopment.

"Alright," sighed Toda, "now that I understand what everyone means by the breeding program that we emphatically don't have. I think, yes, I've even been told, yes, that my talents are valued that way. But loyalty is an even more prised secondary trait, if I were male, perhaps all the most successful and loyal females that didn't mind might be encouraged to have one child by me. I don't think I'd be paired with ..."

"Questionable sanity?"

"Yeah."

"Your secret talents are beginning to sound more ominous,"

"I think just rare, and amusingly good for Phrintha specifically, especially to the extent that our rivals don't know I exist."

"Ah,"

"Fortunately I'm female, and I cannot bare very many more children by racing, than I can by just being happy. So they tell me they wish for me to be happy, they tell me they will buy whatever I need. But they do not give me a title, and they do not tell me to buy whatever I want."

"Hmm," he said, "then yes, 'demand' one machete. And until they deliver," he slid the second machete across the planks toward her, "The preparedness of having a second machete ready is an expense that can be spared because I have an extra and I've already permitted you to borrow it whenever you wish."

"Alright, thank you."

He met her eyes and smiled, "It is my great happiness to entrust you with the honour of your first machete."

"Thanks," she said again, "umm, what did you just call me?"

"Old enough to walk from your parents' house to your parents' garden without supervision," he said, "somewhere between eight and twelve, depending on the distance involved. Someone really should have given or lent you one long ago. But perhaps there was no one who considered themselves close enough family. Or those who know of your talent do not dare pretend they are worthy to bestow such an honour."

Or they understood that a machete is somewhat redundant as a means of travel in my case, though not as an expression of adult responsibility to keep the jungle out of the way. Aloud she said, "Or they could see that I was still too much a foreigner to understand the honour, and didn't feel like exercising the patience to teach me."

He smiled wider, "speaking of teaching," he nodded to the nearby undergrowth, "shall we explore where around here we'd like to put a house?"

"Yes!" she said.

She soon had blisters, and understood exactly why such an exploration counted as 'teaching'.

.

On the other hand, blisters, and medicine for blisters turned out to be a good excuse for him to spend a long time touching her hands after.

Epilogue

Elthanmoi?

"... Toda?"

He opened his mind a bit more and she anchored. Yes, it's me. They gave me the blessing both to tell you my secret and to move into any house you say is big enough for both of us.

Is that exactly what they said?

Yes, it is exactly what they said. I take it that it means something odd.

It means they want you to breed four months earlier than I can build a real house, but they are carefully not demanding it.

So should we be offended? Or should we do what they wish but do not ask aloud?

They did not ask aloud, we cannot be offended. However ... do you wish to help build your house like a strong independent woman? Or are you content to seem the girl who cannot help because she is pregnant and whose brothers must come and help in her place?

My brother is not ... in sight of our moons.

I'm very aware of that fact. Do you want to go somewhere private to discuss this?

Please.

Where are you?

Avatar's house in the capital. Where are you? Is anyone around?

I'd forgotten your emoi range was that far. And no, only esquirrenren and you are tasting my mind at the moment.

So may I visit?

Any time.

Can you open your mind a tiny bit wider so that I can see your balance?

Umm? Like so?

"Yes, thank you."

"Toda! What?"

"This is what I do for Phritha," said Toda, "I carry things instead of just sensations from Council to Avatar and back."

"This is ... as impossible as it is ... explanatory," he stared at her, "all your stories of your ... other place, all the secrecy about your talent. No one gave you a machete."

Toda nodded.

He took a deep breath, "Where have you been sleeping?"

"Either in Phrintha Council guest house or in Avatar guest wing. Whichever seems closest to the next message I'd need to carry."

"And as long as you check in a bit before breakfast time, it wouldn't slow down anything important if you slept in my house instead."

"Exactly,"

"Go get your things, I'll make room for them right away, brothers and house sizes disregarding."

"Elthanmoi,"

"Hm?"

"Elthanmoi, I own two sets of clothes and a machete."

"And a purse?"

She shook her head, "The council's treasury is my purse, I have no money of my own."

"You can't bother them every time you want to buy a fruit or some bread and meat to wrap in it."

"Usually I eat at Council house and bring the leftovers to Avatar, do you have any idea how much food costs in the capital? Sometimes I eat in the capital, the rest of the time I eat with you."

Elthanmoi snorted, "And they haven't started giving you crates and crates of merchandise to move around?"

"It would be too obvious that we were working without boats, and anyway Avatar doesn't have time to open up a shop."

Elthanmoi smiled, "No, I wouldn't expect she does ... anyway ... The council pays for about half my food also, so they shouldn't mind terribly if you start eating with me instead of with them."

.

"Toda, you're pregnant, you really don't need to help with this."

"I've helped from the exploring and clearing at the beginning, I'm not going to quit now, anyway. I'm only three months along, it hardly counts."

"I could really use a mother-in-law right now. Do you think the Reader would tell you to sit down for me?"

"No, and anyway she's in the capital today."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I dropped her off this morning,"

"Hmph,"

.

"What should we name him?"

"Anything we want, but ... does your culture encourage naming after relatives?"

"Yes, mildly, but only living relatives. Here?"

"Only dead relatives," he said.

"Hmm, that doesn't leave very much overlap, also I no longer have any idea which of my relatives are still alive."

"How about Eumaeus, from my brother,"

"I don't think I've met your brother,"

Elthanmoi was silent.

"Not even in your stories, is he dead then?"

"He's not dead, but ... it's not his name anymore,"

"Emoi?"

He nodded, "he's a deep drinker, technically, though fairly sane and a ... healthier sense of consequences than people normally expect from someone with the addiction."

"Oh, I didn't know."

"It's alright. He still lives with Mom, is her hands and eyes."

"It runs in families, right?"

"Yes, definitely,"

"Just how close to the surface are your talents?"

"I should have awoken slightly younger than he did, but somehow I was lucky enough to meet esquirrenren two years running. I learned a tremendous amount of focus, when the awakening came instead of looking for quiet by running away I found the curtains and pulled them closed."

"Oh. Oh my."

"So ... I have talent enough when I hate myself enough to use it, but I haven't, I don't spend enough time with all the windows open at the same time for it to reorganize my brain."

"Alright,"

"Though usually when I use it I focus on one or two minds at a time, not unfocused on everything within range."

"Right, so more like what I can do?"

"Yes,"

"Alright,"

.

{End Excerpt Story}