Page 100 of Iron Unicorn

“I can, but not to the degree Terrance can.”

“Excellent. Thank you. Would you mind texting a copy of your latest evaluations to your son’s phone for my review?”

“Sure, that won’t be a problem. Are you adjusting his rank?”

“He’s Royal,” Brenda informed us without a hint of doubt in her voice. “We’re officiating it, and we need to figure out how he ranks among the other royals, but I am confident of my initial findings. The question will be how many talents he has that are of Royal level. His generalized empathy has grown in strength to the point I will have to put a stronger suppressor on him when he exerts and can’t block properly. I am telling you this because I am booking you both in for an evaluation.”

“Have fun with that, Dad.”

“You are a brat. I hope you are forced to take care of two squirrels at one time. May they both scream if they are separated from you.”

Would anyone notice two screaming squirrels in New York? Probably not. To distract him, I said, “Your granddaughter’s name is Jane, and I bought her a pony to go along with her service pony. Her service pony is likely too small to be ridden. Her riding pony is tall for a pony, but I wanted her to be able to ride for longer.”

“I see you are having yourself a good time if you’re trying to pull that stunt on me. Where is your Montana princess, anyway?”

“She’s fleeing from the talent evaluators, as she has been for a few days now. I’ve been reading books and resting like the doctor ordered. When I haven’t been resting, I’ve been working with my new horses. But mostly, I’ve been reading.”

“I see. Your princess is where you can keep an eye on her, you have books, and you’re probably getting some peace and quiet. Good. Brenda, I’m not sure how much this will help, but we barely classify as elites. Our evaluations are done every few years due to how strong and rare Terrance’s talent is. Honestly, we’re not sure why his talent grew like it did. Most of us barely qualify as elite.”

“Stranger things have happened,” Brenda replied, and the woman smiled. “He is motivated, and he enjoys art. Artistic usage of talents like his require a great deal of refined control. Control generally equates to developed strength. Still, I will send a specific list of tests to have done for the evaluation. I appreciate your cooperation.”

“Glad to help. I know this is a big ask, but do try to keep Terrance out of trouble.”

“I will do my best. He’s on a light schedule for the next two weeks, so I don’t anticipate any issues.”

“Terrance, don’t you go terrorizing those talent evaluators, you hear?”

“I’m not going to terrorize Brenda, Dad.”

“Good. Behave.” My father hung up, and I shook my head and rolled my eyes.

“Well, the laws of genetics and talents state that if all four types are present in the bloodline, it’s absolutely possible that all four will show up at one time. There is a popular belief that mixing too many talents will result in the whole line being weakened. In your case, it seems your talents are working together and becoming stronger as a result. Let’s put that to the test, shall we?”

“I’m going to regret cooperating, aren’t I?”

“I’d count on it.”

* * *

In the spanof twenty minutes, I got drenched, scalded, singed, zapped, and otherwise abused by my own magic. Suppressing only one element resulted in the rest of them going wild, and every attempt to create a figurine created some new and interesting—for Brenda—effect.

The ‘getting zapped’ portion of my evaluation made a mess of my day. In good news, the shock didn’t kill me, but I’d suffer from random twitching for a day or two. After some trial and error, Brenda identified the ability as a true lightningweaving ability versus a mutated waveweaving ability.

My earthweaving nullified the talent.

The waterweaving test resulted in a flooded arena, and the flameweaving test turned the water into steam in a hurry, proving her theory my talents worked together.

She’d been smart enough to sit on the wooden fence for that experiment.

After six times of getting roasted, zapped, and otherwise run through the wringer, I considered informing the woman I did not need to be put through any more punishment.

Brenda laughed at me and said, “I’m sorry, Terry. I really am. But it’s important we do the tests to know what talents you have running under the hood. You’ve already surprised me with the lightningweaving. That’s rare. Queen Jessica’s is a mutation off her waveweaving, the same ability that allows her to dampen storms. You have true lightningweaving. It is a completely independent talent and is only suppressed by the general suppressors or the specialized one. And this is why Montana does as it does; it has a lot of talents in its royal line—and frankly, should you have children with your princess, you will need to take the same precautions they do, and it won’t be because ofher.”

Great. “Isn’t this when sensible people suggest against having children?”

“No. I’ve read your file, Agent Pattens. You love children as much as your princess does. Add in your bond, and you two are going to have at least one or two. Worse, add in the Montana family line abilities, and it’s entirely possible contraceptives won’t work. She’s one of the elder children of the line, and while most of the women don’t have huge herds of children like the men do, at least one of Olivia’s sisters is up to six now.”

I did the math: we ran an abnormally high chance of having children every few years until menopause caught up with Olivia. “I know the protocols and will take care.”

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