Chapter 145

The food arrived, and Zoey enjoyed a conversation and a meal with Maddy, keeping topics light while learning more about her. She gave what she could about her own past, as she had with Delta and Rosalie, but there wasn’t much—mostly because Zoey purposefully steered her thoughts away from those topics. Even without knowing who her family was, she could feel homesickness creeping up. If she tried and succeeded to unearth her past, she was scared of how it might affect her. Besides, she ought to be focused on her task in this world.

Eventually, with their plates cleaned and dinner coming to an end, the conversation returned to where it had gone at the start. Maddy joining the team. The most relevant subject of tonight, from a bigger-picture perspective.

“So,” Zoey said. “The barrier’s still up, right?”

“Of course.”

“About you joining, then. Us bonding. We should talk about that.”

“Yeah. We should.” Maddy coughed. “Just, um, I guess it’s a bit weird, out in public.”

Zoey raised an eyebrow. “Is it? I was under the impression you’ve gotten up to much worse while out and about.”

“What?” Maddy asked, eyes widening. “Rosalie told you?”

Zoey paused. “Rosalie? What?”

“She didn’t?”

“You told me,” Zoey said. “Or I teased you about it, and you were really obvious.” Back when Maddy had insisted that Zoey didn’t leave the training room to ‘recharge’. “What happened with Rosalie?”

“N-Never mind. It doesn’t matter.”

“Actually, she mentioned something about it, last night,” Zoey said. “You two got up to something?”

“We didn’t get up to anything,” Maddy said. “Just—I ran into her. Um. It’s—it’s really something I shouldn’t talk about. Ask her.”

“Okay?”

“We weren’t involved. I came to her rescue.”

“Her rescue?”

Maddy shook her head rapidly, blushing as she did. “Really. Not my story to tell.”

Zoey was doubly interested, now. What did it mean that Maddy had ‘come to Rosalie’s rescue’?

“Okay,” Zoey said slowly, “Anyway, you joining us. You’ve made your mind up?”

“If you’ll have me, then yes.”

“Then we need to work out the details.”

Maddy wrinkled her nose. “Yeah. The details,” she said reluctantly.

Zoey paused. The response was more reserved than she’d expected. “Not looking forward to it? Us bonding, or...?”

Maddy’s eyes widened. “Oh, no, I mean more, the shard. That’s the part I’m worried about. Us two is—um. Fine. How is that working, anyway?”

Zoey leaned back in her chair, studying the blushing petite girl. At the scrutiny, Maddy’s face went even redder, and Zoey smiled. She looked around the busy restaurant, an idea forming.

“Those illusions of yours,” Zoey said. “How do they work?”

“Sorry?”

“Do you make an image that overlays what’s actually happening? Or does it work some other way?”

“That’s the simplest method. Not what I typically use.”

“What’s the complicated one?”

“More of a mind-influencing effect than an illusion. I can make an ‘image’ or ‘default’ that people will try to fill in. It’s safer, because it holds up better.”

“Sorry?”

“So, like, imagine I was naked—”

Zoey’s eyebrows shot up.

“I—I don’t know why I went there,” Maddy stammered out. “You brought it up. My mind’s on the topic. But, whatever, just imagine that situation.”

“I have been all day.”

Maddy went even redder. “Stop teasing me when I’m trying to explain. Anyway, imagine I was naked, but put a raw illusion—the simplest kind—of clothing over myself. In that case, people could see through small details, like the wind not affecting it right, or not contouring to objects when I sit, and so on. I’d have to manage all of that manually. For the most part. Even raw illusions can be handled with some instinct. But the point is—a ‘suggestion’ is better.”

“Suggestion?”

“The complicated kind, where it’s half illusion, half mental effect. Put one of those overtop me, that simply says ‘I’m clothed’, and people will look at me—and the spell will fill in the details however they please. If something strange happens, like, water is thrown at me, then the situation is handled automatically—either they’ll see my ‘dress’ get wet, or they’ll imagine the water missed, or whatever. The downside is that what each person imagines can change by the person, so they could, technically, collaborate and discover that details don’t line up.”