Barrowby's School for Psychic Girls

Any Rainy Tuesday, Scene 3

All in all, Fenwick thought he was doing rather well so far. Trina had been rather critical of how he handled his first outing with Tallison, and while he still believed the Filliard murder had been a good introduction to the Spirit Division, thank-you-very-much, not to mention a perfect demonstration of how Tallison's unique skill set would assist them--  and really, she would be invaluable to the team-- while he still believed all that, Trina did tend to be right when it came to dealing with people. It was why he had made her the liaison with the rest of the police department.

So he was taking her suggestions and taking a step back from the crime to focus on the calmer aspects of their business. He had also been informed by the crew, after recounting his first conversation with Tal, that he may have come off as a little, well, Yvon had described it as "psycho-killer," but he personally thought abrupt was a more accurate and useful in terms of constructive criticism. He had tried to be more personable this time around, meeting her in the hall instead of having her summoned to the office and emphasizing the relative non-dangerous and pleasant aspects of his plan for the day.

He had even tried to keep quiet during the aerocycle ride instead of trying to learn more about how his school was being run, though he had cracked towards the end. He couldn't help it; he had been kept away from his school for far too long and she was such an interesting specimen.

And now it was time to keep testing her limits. He knew her test scores, her achievements, even something of her daily schedule; what he didn't know was how she would hold up in the field, though he had his hopes. Last week she had performed admirably, finding the murder room before the evidence was destroyed, but he needed more than that; his team needed more than that.

So! It was time to see how she worked with spirits. School records said she was proficient, but also noted a certain hesitancy in her. Vague. Was she too gentle, too slow? He doubted there was any revulsion in her, but perhaps she had had a traumatic experience as a kid. Maybe she had run into one of the-

Well, probably not. Hopefully she never would.

***

Tallison's fingers weren't as cramped this time around, though she did stumble a bit coming off the aerocycle. They had landed on a wide expanse of rugged grass and rocky outcroppings that jutted out from and into the cliffside, and even though she was a few yards away from the edge, her knees were a bit wobbly at the dizzying height.

She couldn't see him, but she knew Evren was already there from the aerocycle parked a few feet away from theirs. It was a different model, a little less sleek and a little more ragged, but with mostly the same colored stripes on its frame. She wasn't sure how she felt about Evren; at the very least, he wasn't the confusing whirlwind Fenwick was, but she wasn't sure she could deal with his own brand of high-energy chatter either.

There was a slight pressure on Tal's skin, reminiscent of the mist from the Veil, so she closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, shedding off a layer of the shields she had built up over the weekend. Immediately she could sense more vividly the spirits nearby, floating above her, around her, and just past the first layer of reality. Slowly, she unfurled her arms, her hand reaching out the sky and her fingers starting to hum with excess psychic energy. Not crackling, not yet, not too much too soon. She didn't want to scare them, nor bribe them. She was just offering.

And soon a spirit, striped like a tabby cat but shaped like a chubby snake, pulled itself more into their world and curled up around her arm, resting its head in her hand and soaking in the warmth. Then the others came, floating about her as she stood perfectly still. She had missed this, feeling the brushing of their emotions against her, the slight buzzing of their spirit-flesh against her skin.

How long she stood there, she wasn't sure. But at some point Evren came wandering out of the cave in the cliffside with a well-articulated bird-shaped spirit on his arm, and the spirits around Tal fluttered and headed towards Evren, butting their heads and sides up against him and singing in their odd spirit chirps and whistles. Though losing their touch was like a sudden cold breeze, it was heartening to see their honest love for Evren, who was laughing and snapping out sparks for them to eat.

"He's our resident spirit expert," Barrowby said, suddenly standing close behind Tallison. "He's great at handling them on cases, and we're working on training up a few to be guard dogs and tails of sorts."

Tallison kept her eyes on Evren, who was now on his back on the ground covered in playful spirits. "I didn't realize that was something the police did."

Barrowby grinned; Tal couldn't see it, but she could feel the sudden rhubarb snap to it. "It isn't. It's an innovation of the Callindra Spirit Division. We're going to revolutionize crime-solving, just you wait and see."

Tal didn't reply that it seemed, like it or not, that she had a front row seat to their whole mad endeavor. Had she known that the front row seat would soon be literal-- strapped onto the aerocycle during a daring aerial chase-- she might have objected more vehemently to her unwilling participation in the whole affair.