The Budding Metalinguist

XXIX

Lillian carefully opened the door of her dorm room, stepping quietly inside. She was relieved to see that the desk had been moved across the room to its original position. Leslie, she decided, would at least not be alarmed when she returned.

Daria was leaning up against the wall. She sat on her bed listlessly, her feet dangling off the edge. She stared out the translucently grubby window with a completely absent expression. When she heard Lillian's footsteps, she half-turned until she caught sight of her roommate. Daria didn't react, only stared emptily.

"I'm not supposed to tell anyone," Lillian explained, almost pleadingly. "Don't tell anyone. Please."

Daria nodded, her expression as empty as ever, and returned to staring out the window. Lillian didn't move. Instead, she scrutinized the details of Daria's face, looking for even a scintilla of an indication that Daria was going to do as she had promised. After a few minutes, she decided that Daria was unlikely to say anything.

Daria and Lillian didn't really have any close friends in common, with the exception of Leslie. And Lillian honestly didn't think that Daria would be talking to Leslie behind her back- especially because Leslie was really more of Lillian's friend than Daria's.

She knew the best thing for Daria would be to simply let her calm down. And so Lillian stepped away and carefully closed the door behind her.

Barely half an hour had passed, and she was already on her way back to Dakota Kern's office.

❧☙

Dakota let Lillian in. As he gestured toward the mirror she had a feeling she was about to learn something important. Her first taste of something beyond just the abilities of thaumaturgy.

As soon as they both arrived in the Alin Gap, he began his explanation with a simple statement. "I knocked Galena unconscious."

Lillian nodded subtly. Dakota noticed that apparently she didn't approve of this. He sighed. "I needed to escape or I would have starved. And I made sure she was all right. I woke her up on purpose."

Lillian seemed pacified by this, and Dakota took it as an invitation to continue. "There isn't really a word for what this Idea is. It kind of means controlling life. You can use it to influence the growth and health of plants, animals, and people. I usually call it the Idea of Healing."

Dakota grimaced. "I'm sorry for this part. I'm going to use the Idea of Healing to make sure I have no pain first." He concentrated, pushing his use of metalanguage out in Lillian's direction to ensure she could feel it, and subtly blocked off the nerve which transmitted the feeling in his arm. Then, before he could change his mind, he pulled a knife out of his pocket with his sensing arm, flipped it open, and sliced a wide gash against his now-painless forearm. He winced- cutting himself was accompanied by an odd feeling of psychological pain.

He held out his numb arm in Lillian's direction, watching nervously as a stream of blood snaked through his fingertips. "Can you heal it?"

Lillian looked more nervous than usual, which seemed fairly expected given that Dakota had just slashed his arm open. She stared in concentration at his arm, and the wound began to close at a remarkable speed. Within less than a minute, Dakota's arm was smooth and unblemished once more. He withdrew it and carefully restored the sensation in his arm.

"That's very good," he encouraged. "Don't try that on yourself until you figure out how to cut off sensation. First, you should probably practice by controlling the growth of plants."

"Is that how you still look young?" Lillian asked unexpectedly. Dakota was taken aback for a few moments before he was able to formulate an answer.

He sighed. "Don't try to change your age. Only people who are very experienced should try anything like that."

Lillian's eyes narrowed. She had clearly noticed that he hadn't actually answered the question, but had skirted around it strategically.

"Practice," Dakota insisted. "Then come back. I want to see what you can do."

Lillian nodded dutifully and left through the mirror, its surface closing over her back without so much as a ripple. Dakota stared after her admiringly for a minute before following.

❧☙

Galena's attention was diverted from her computer when Evan abruptly banged into the room, holding her keyboard. "Only fingerprints on this was yours," Evan explained. "The others still haven't been identified."

Galena stopped to consider. She supposed this made sense; after all, Rolf's existence had been pretty much erased at the DIAO, what with all her belongings being moved to the Director's office and Vanessa's appointment as Assistant Director.

Evan stood still in the doorway holding her keyboard, with an even more awkward and annoyed expression on his face. Galena quickly stood up to take it from him before returning to her desk and placing it back in its original position.

Whoever had been trying to erase Rolf- for Galena was now sure that someone had actively tried- had blundered. They had missed several pockets of information. First of all, Rolf's illusion near the DIAO doorway on the day he disappeared. Secondly, his cat Sandy, who was the only remaining physical proof.

They had also missed Galena.

Even though Galena now felt completely validated in her memories of Rolf, she couldn't help but feel isolated being the only person who remembered something. Especially something big like this. Galena desperately wished at least someone else remembered that Rolf had existed, that he wasn't simply dead to time.

But Galena was at a disadvantage. Because in order to talk to people about Rolf, she would have to contact them. And that was something that she had completely failed to do over the past two weeks.