Page 101 of Iron Unicorn

“That’s all I would even think of asking you. So, the next test is going to be a little rough, and chances are, it’s going to hurt like hell, you’re going to get dropped on your ass, and your princess is going to come running. Should she come running, I’m officiating the empathy bond in writing. Someone else can explain to her what’s going on, but there you have it.”

“All right. What are we testing for?”

“Mending. And the way I’m running the test, I suspect you’re going to end up activating every pain receptor in your hand and arm right up to your elbow. The higher the pain receptors activate, the stronger the talent. This… is not how we usually test for this, but I’m going to be suppressing the mutation talents for mending so we can find out if you have the actual mending talent underneath everything else. You’re negative for the variants of mending off waveweaving and earthweaving, but thereareother forms of it, which would be useful in an emergency. And no, you’re not a leech. I tested for that already. That was one of the tests where exactly nothing happened.”

“I like those tests,” I admitted. “There have been far fewer of those than I appreciate, however.”

“Just wait until we do the lightweaving and illumination tests. I suspect you have a truth sensing talent working with your empathy when you check in on your charges. By the time I’m done with you, you’ll wish you had run. Assuming you maintain consciousness, I’ll switch your suppressors and test those next.”

In good news, if there was another incident, I was on sand. The fall wouldn’t hurt much. Unfortunately, I’d manifested enough water to turn the sand into a mess prone to sucking at my feet. Sighing, I lifted my foot. “I’ve ruined this arena.”

“They were going to redo it anyway. It’ll be done next week, and they have other arenas for use. This one isn’t liked because it needed to be redone. Stop fussing, Terry.”

“I do not want to participate in this evaluation.” Rather than run, I held out my arm so she could subject me to the next combination of suppressors. “Why are we testing this again?”

“We’re testing this because the Montana RPS puts oddities in agent records, including when there are victims of murder attempts and accidents who survive when they shouldn’t have. All agents in close proximity are tracked. You have a higher number than average of survivors. Part of that is due to the presence of the Vampire of Montana. However, all she could do was provide oxygenation. That helped. But the surgeons think there was something more than her working. That leaves you and a few other agents, but you have the highest number of incidents, and if you eliminate the incidents where you were present, you become the common denominator. Then there is the issue of your queen.”

“Her health was poor,” I conceded.

“She’s significantly ahead of schedule, and nobody knows why. You’re exerted, and I don’t think it’s yourempathythat’s exerted. I think you’ve been trying to use an unknown mending talent on your queen and your princess. Then you would have been trying to use it on yourself. That is a theory I’m actually satisfied with. But this test will tell us either way. And if I’m wrong, then I’ll start digging at other options.” Brenda removed all the suppressors and secured a new one around my wrist. “Please do not break this suppressor. I had to borrow this from Maine. It’s so expensive they sent a member of the royal family over with it—and if I break this, I’ll be the one having a shoe surgically removed from my ass.”

“Please tell me how to not break this suppressor, then. Because there aren’t many threats that worry me, but the Kismoff family determined to force surgical removal of shoes is one of them.” I eyed the suppressor. “And all I need to do is close my eyes and try to manifest a figurine?”

“I’m going to have you try four different things, because I’m honestly not sure if attempting to manifest will work. But we’ll start with that.”

After being zapped, I hesitated to kneel in the watery sand. However, with the evaluation having already gone sideways several times and accepting the risk of knocking myself out in the test, I dealt with it. “Is it going to ruin your evaluation if I’m hesitant about this one?”

“Not at all. With how I suspect your talent works, it’s going to be difficult to train at best. Ideally, we know it’s there, you keep doing as you always do, and you’re monitored for exertion. Unlike the Vampire, you won’t be a god in the emergency room. Your talent is likely reactionary, and it likely functions based on immediate need until professional medical personnel can get to the victim. All the cases in your file have the patient unexpectedly stabilized until emergency responders could arrive. I’d have to talk with Princess Melody, but I’m not sure how easy it’ll be to train you beyond making sure you’re up to date on your first responder skills. Your mending talent is likely working with you when you’re trying to help somebody. This is really a case of making sure we know that youhavethe talent. Don’t break what isn’t broken comes to mind, and if you’re the one responsible for these incidents, there’s zero need to change what’s going on. You’re saving lives in the parameters of your job, and you’re most valuable where you’re at now. It just explains why Queen Rachel recovered as quickly as she has—and why you contracted pneumonia.”

“Stress combined with exertion?” I guessed.

“Precisely. So, this isn’t about finding how strong you are. It’s to identify if you have it. The first methodmightjust have your talent go to work repairing your lost muscles. Fortunately, Icanmonitor that with my talent.”

“All right. Close my eyes and attempt to manifest a figurine?”

“Yes. I recommend that you work on a unicorn. Those are your best and most refined pieces. Mending talents tend to require refinement.”

There were two good reasons for that: my queen and Olivia.

Still, I could see why my talent might be able to do as Brenda believed possible; the human body did contain stores of iron, located primarily in the hemoglobin in the blood. Without hemoglobin, oxygenation couldn’t happen.

As delaying wouldn’t help matters any, I concentrated as always, deciding on a unicorn splashing through the waves as the subject of my next figurine. While aware that my talent wouldn’t manifest iron, I worked on planning the finest details so when I did unleash my talent, it would top my other creations.

I wanted the piece to represent the joy of freedom, and little expressed that more than a horse running wild and free through the surf. Like during the other exercises, the sensation of doing something physically intensive warned mesomethinghappened, although I couldn’t tell what. I tensed in anticipation of nerves firing as warned, but I relaxed at the lack of anything obvious.

“All right. You can stop.”

I breathed a relieved sigh and opened my eyes. “I’m grateful that it was a fail, honestly.”

“It wasn’t a fail. It just didn’t trigger your nerves firing off as such experiments often do when mending talents are activated without direction. Your talent put out feelers looking for something to do. As I suspected, from the feel of it, you check for bleeding first when you’re responding to a crisis. As I didn’t want to go to the next stage, which might have involved activating nerves, I asked you to stop. You’ve definitely got a buried mending ability, however. And that is where we’re going to be putting an end to your torture session for the day, as your princess is here looking rather alarmed.”

I shook my head, stood, and sighed at my sandy, drenched, and singed apparel. “Well, I’m glad she’s insisted on casual clothes, because this is beyond repair.”

“Terry?” Olivia called, and she climbed over the fence, landing in the sand with a splash and a squeal. “What’s going on? Are you all right?”

I glanced at Brenda.

“I’ll confirm the bond in writing as soon as I send you off to get changed,” the woman whispered to me before turning to Olivia. “Terry is fine. Since you ran away, Princess Melody confirmed we could do some light talent evaluations. We had some unexpected results.”

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