“Alright,” Sam said while squaring up his shoulders, “we rested enough?”

  “Five more minutes,” Erianna said with eyes closed.

  “You can rest when you’re dead.”

  “Spending time with you, wallowing in an early grave, what’s the difference?”

  “I’m host to more dead crowds.”

  She laughed. “Well said. Alright, take another dosage of double pain killers and we can begin.”

  “Is that really necessary?”

  “It couldn’t hurt.”

  “I’m pretty sure it could.”

  “I’m pretty sure you’re made of sterner stuff. Now, stuff those drugs down your gullet.”

  “Bah… you’re making me start to question my insistence that taking a pill for even the minor of ills was a smart policy.” Nevertheless, he got up to do as she said. Sitting back down showed her his empty mouth with a big “Ahh.”

  “Yes, yes, I know you’re proud of your new tooth. Can we please focus?”

  Sam smiled. “Yes, sir, ma’am, Highness.”

  “Good. Now open your Sight, we’re going to start learning to recognize threads. Actually, before that, let’s quickly go over the big three of using the Threadsight: Understanding, differentiating, and consolidating. Recognizing falls under understanding, which is exactly what it sounds like: understanding the information contained in the thread. Differentiating is breaking a single thread into multiple. Consolidating is the opposite. Remember, this doesn’t correspond to what we talked about, ‘big’ and ‘small’ threads. These two are simply the act of changing your perception of threads. And you don’t need to fully understand a thread in order to consolidate or differentiate it. It’ll get clearer as we get going.”

  Sam shrugged. “Seems pretty clear now. The latter two have two do with changing my subjective view of the information presented before me. Like whether I’m arranging it in a graph or in a chart. Understanding is simply… yeah, reading and comprehending the graph or the chart. What I don’t get is… recognizing.”

  “It’s very simple. Recognizing is the first part of understanding a thread, but it gets its own term because it’s distinct enough in practice—both meanings of the word—from the majority of work that goes into ‘understanding’ a thread. Using your analogy, recognizing would be finding the excel document containing the graph and opening it. It’s still a part of understanding, because you’re dealing with the same pool of information, but it’s distinctly not the same thing you’re doing when you’re trying to read and understand the graph.

  “Now, as to what recognizing a thread actually entails? The first part is attributing a thread to the correct interaction, the two connecting entities. Which, as I’m sure you’ve just guessed, isn’t as easy as it sounds. It isn’t the hardest or biggest hurdle of understanding a thread, but it is the most practical aspect of using Threadsight for us soldiers. To use an example, I’m in a fight and suddenly there’s a new thread heading towards my head. I care much more about knowing whether that thread is connected to my enemy’s right or left hand, than understanding whatever information about their hand is contained in that thread.”

  Sam bit his tongue it thought. “Obviously I can’t, because otherwise… like you’ve said, we wouldn’t be talking about this. But can’t I just…” He waved his arms around. “Look?”

  Erianna smiled, as though she were waiting for him to ask. “By all means. Have a look. Tell me what you see.”

  Sam grimaced but held himself short of immediately responding to her bait and activating his Sight. “But that’s not the same thing. My vision is cluttered, filled with all kinds of… unconsolidated threads. I’d have a much harder time than you.”

  “So? A thread is still a thread. Surely you can follow the line extending from you to someone else?”

  “I guess not, then. So, no recourse but to dive deep down again? Give me the order, chief.”

  “Activate your Sight, cadet!” Erianna held a salute.

  Sam saluted her back and opened his sight. Eyes wide this time, first of the day.

  God, he forgot how much worse it was with eyes open.

  “Fuck.” He instinctively closed his Sight. No Web-Web promising doom and gloom to hold them open for him today.

  “Take your time.” Erianna smiled.

  Sam blinked rapidly and gave her a thumbs up. He tried again. Managing to hold it open for a couple of seconds. The third time he managed to hold long enough to actually see, and, if not understand what he was seeing, then understand that he was seeing something. The fourth time he tried doing what Erianna told him to, what he had done before under Web-Web’s orders; take a thread stretching out from him, and follow it along. He ended with his neck craned up to the sky.

  “That doesn’t count,” he huffed as he closed his Sight and looked back at Erianna.

  “I didn’t say anything.”

  “Giving your hoarse voice a well-deserved rest.”

  She mimicked locking her lips. Sam sighed and once again opened his Sight, this time picking a different thread, one that happened to lead to Erianna (along with at least a dozen other threads), which was where he lost it. Once the thread got close enough to her, it… for a luck of a better word, jumbled with the rest. It was unclear which thread was which. Hell, it was unclear where the thread he was following even lead. It was like they were looping in on themselves. He tried following the thread back, but ended up looking upwards once again.

  “Started by following the thread connecting me to you.” He sighed while rubbing his eyes. “Lost it and ended up with a different thread all together.”

  “One of the threads connecting us,” Erianna corrected him. “I’m guessing that you saw a few.”

  “Yeah, about that, I thought there was just one thread connecting you and me. We were talking about it like that. This big thread, with one unencrypted part and two internal parts for each of us. You’re saying what I saw were the… differentiated parts of it?”

  “Only of the external thread. Threads pertaining to personal information like that, and I mean personal in the sense that it relates to personalities and their interactions, are incredibly complex and thus much harder than ordinary threads to break down. The external part of the thread? Your Sight is probably good enough already to break it down into some parts; I can differentiate it into a couple of threads. But it doesn’t matter, because when what we were talking about as the thread connecting you and me is not the only thread connecting us. After all, as two people sitting in the same room and talking to each other, we interact in a variety of ways, do we not?”

  Sam frowned. “Like what?”

  “Like talking. An exchange of information. Sure, a part of it falls under the thread corresponding to our relationship, i.e. the big one we were talking about, or the broken down external parts of it. But not all of it does. There is still information being exchanged that doesn’t relate to personal-tinted information like that. Not to mention the physical interaction that, because we are two magically potent entities, is filled to the brim with magic compared to talking to the wall. We’re breathing the same air, for example.

  “Besides that, there are other types of personal information threads—that we won’t get into now. There’s the fact that we’re both passively gathering in the same vicinity; records of physical interactions. You get the picture. Because we both ‘taint’ the physical interactions, resulting from our mere existence as being with magical energy. And we’re both present close enough to one another for that magical energy to persist long enough in the interaction. We have a lot of magical interactions going on, meaning a lot of threads corresponding to those interactions.”

  Sam nodded. Cracking his knuckles, he asked, “How… short is the magical energy’s lifespan? Or distance? After all, you stressed the point that we can’t externalize magic. That’s what makes internal threads into internal threads. So how come there’s so much outside stuff going on?”

  “Great question. Took me a long time to stumble on that one.”

  “Don’t patronize me.”

  Erianna smiled. “I’m not! I’m being completely honest. It’s not like a thirteen-years-old thinks about this kind of stuff with the same suspicion that you do. Now, to answer your question, yes, we can’t externalize magic, but as we’ve just discussed, there are of interactions between our own magical energy and the outside world. Gathering, for example. There’s actually a really big debate about how gathering works and what differentiates magical energy inside and outside of our bodies, or between bodies, but that’s not relevant for now.”

  “Yeah… I heard about that. Doesn’t seem like something I’d be interested in.”

  “Really? After all of your questions?”

  “It’s a lot of math.” Sam shrugged.

  “Fair enough. The point is that just because we can’t externalize our own magical energy, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t externalize itself. Both resistance and dissipation are forms of externalization, after all. And any action that we take using magic, that has an effect on the outside world, is an external interaction, as far as threads are concerned.”

  Stolen story; please report.

  “What I’m getting from this is that while my question was hard to come up with, it’s pretty dumb, considering all the stuff I already know.”

  “There are no dumb questions. Only dumb students.”

  “Yo.” Sam raised his thumb.

  “Back on topic: recognizing threads. As you just saw, there are a lot of threads out there. Now, sure, ultimately, you could bunch most of them up by consolidating, and you will train your Sight to do that by instinct, but that won’t always work. Especially with the Epiraks, and especially with Rulers. But that’s beside the point, because you don’t particularly want to consolidate all the threads into one.

  “After all, if you group all of an enemy’s physical threads as just their single physical body, and if you can’t understand that single thread, how will you know if the enemy is planning to attack you with their left hand or their right? Not to mention, that grouped up threads are harder to read. Not necessarily more complex, mind you, for reasons we’ve talked about, but more time consuming, and with less reward overall.”

  Sam nodded. “More details to parse, I guess?”

  “Exactly. It’s a bigger excel file; all the information is still there. It’s just harder to find and harder to comprehend.”

  “So it’s a trade-off. Each option has its advantages.”

  “Indeed. Consolidating results in less clutter, but also less immediately apparent detail. Of course, in practice, it won’t be a binary choice between two extremes. The ideal you’re striving for is one where you can control your perception of threads at will, and instantly. So that you’ll always be able to reach for, recognize, the threads holding the information you seek. Consolidating and differentiating at moment’s notice depending on your goal. And, it’s not an all-or-nothing kind of deal. You can consolidate nine out of ten threads, leaving the tenth by itself, and vice versa with differentiating; take out a single thread out of an amalgamation of others. But, we were talking about recognizing threads. Let’s not get ahead of ourself.”

  Sam leaned back with a sigh. Pointing at his eyes, he asked, “Back to the headache?”

  Erianna held up a hand. “Not quite yet. Let’s go over what it actually means to recognize a thread.”

  She smiled and reached for her glass of water. Apparently, Sam was supposed to lead the opening volley of that discussion. He gave her an annoyed stare, which she pretended not to notice. He, she, and Farris, were going to have to hold a heart to heart about what Erianna’s teaching style should be vis-à-vis Sam not liking leading questions.

  “Come on…” she whined after he kept staring at her, “accommodate me.”

  “Fine,” Sam groaned. “So, I’m guessing there’s more to recognizing threads that just knowing which two interacting entities they connect.”

  “Perfectly astute! As expected from my chosen student.”

  “Don’t be annoying.”

  “Sorry. I’m just trying to lighten the mood to distract you from the mental pain.”

  “Hm…” Sam considered her words before barking a laugh. “Alright, I’ll thank you for doing that. But only once. From now on, we’re leaving this kind of humor by the wayside.”

  “Just for today, I hope?”

  “Oh of course. I’ll never take any subject completely off the table when it comes to comedy. But for today… I just want to get this first threads lesson over with.”

  “It’s hardly the first lesson. We’re moving at lightning pace compared to how I did.”

  “Yeah, but you’re not the baseline. That’s those lucky eighteen-years-old who go to study at the Royal Academy after spending six or so years with no one telling them anything about threads.”

  Erianna grimaced. “It’s not as drastic. But I get your point. Anyway, I apologize, and I’ll try to not stray too much.”

  “I’ll do the same.”

  She gave him a doubtful look before chuckling. “Alright, so threads recognition doesn’t end at just… knowing where the two ends of the threads are.”

  “Nice.”

  “Don’t interrupt. But thank you. That’s just half of it. The other half is figuring out what kind of threads you’re looking at, or sensing.”

  “What, like internal or external?”

  “No. Internal and external threads are, as far as we know, an objective categorization of threads, universally true. Recognition does play into figuring out which threads are internal or external, but oftentimes, you wouldn’t have to struggle all that much to find that out, nor would you necessarily care. We’ll call whether a thread is internal or external, the state of the threads. As opposed to our categorization of threads into types.

  “This categorization is subjective insomuch as it was decided upon by cultures, nations, individuals and so on. Nowadays, there are commonly accepted types of threads by all nations in our side of the Web, which comprise the majority of threads. But there are still threads which fall under different types depending on the nation, or even the person, in question.

  “For our purposes, we’ll be following the Sarechi categorization, which is almost the same as both the Imperial and the Inquisitorial one. Again, when I’m talking about differences, I’m talking about those types of threads over which there is no common consensus of categorization. Most threads you’ll encounter will fall under the common consensus and won’t be any different from how a ningana or a deshar categorize threads.”

  Sam raised an eyebrow. “I get what you’re saying. The first part of recognizing threads is isolating them into two connecting points. The second part, putting them into a box. Again with the controlling your own perspective deal. But what does it mean in practice? What are those types?”

  “In practice, it means that you’ll train your mind to instinctively put those threads into a box. To make it easier for you to react immediately, and even to help you with understanding threads. As for what those types are, we’ll go over each type and sub-type and sub-sub-type in due time and in excruciating detail. You don’t need to worry about that now. But, to give you some examples:

  “There are four types that correspond to the foundational tracings: threads representing a tracing acting on the body, on the pathways, on the core, and on an outside element. Then we have the type of ‘purely physical’ threads broken down into outwards facing and inwards. Which doesn’t have anything to do anything with external or internal threads. But rather something along the lines of comparing between the pumping of the heart and punching someone. And so on and so on.

  “Your main job when practicing threads recognition would be to make your body instinctively associate threads with their types. You’ll still be working on isolating threads, of course, but that will quickly end up becoming just a byproduct of your practice, and not your focus. We, however, will start by focusing on that aspect. Because you can’t do anything else until you can follow a thread from start to finish. And more importantly, when you can do that repeatedly. So, when you’re ready, open your Sight again.”

  Sam did as ordered, and the rest of the afternoon was spent in short bursts of having his Threadsight open and trying to follow threads from their start to their finish. Not vice versa, unfortunately, because he hadn’t managed to complete the former even once. Which was to be expected, according to Erianna.

  He did begin, though, in the later parts of the session, to flip his starting position and follow threads leading from other things (mostly Erianna) back to him. That proved much harder, as he had great trouble finding the start of the threads in the complex tangle that was Erianna’s threads, and even after he found them, he quickly lost them there. He only managed to find his way out a few times, only to discover that following the thread back to him was just as hard as following a thread back to Erianna. That was also to be expected, apparently.

  At around the same time his and Dan’s usual daily schedule officially ended, Erianna called for a halt in their lesson. “That’s enough,” she said. “You look half dead. We definitely went too long.”

  Sam waved her off, but didn’t raise any objection to finishing early. His headache had progressed into a migraine, and he was almost sure that he was somehow feeling mental pain in other parts of the body. Fuck that, he was completely sure. After all, he acutely remembered what phantom pain felt like. This was eerily similar to that, only instead of his body noticing a loss of sensations, it was noticing an abundance of them. Which made him wonder just whether the painkillers he was taking were helping him. They didn’t help him before.

  Erianna handed him his bottle of water, refilled by the princess herself, and with a thanks, he drank almost a third of it. Giving a sigh, he said, “Fine, we’ll stop now. But only because I still need to work out this evening.”

  “How dare you?! We’re stopping now because I said we’re stopping now. Saying otherwise would insinuate you’re giving me orders.”

  Sam smiled. “I apologize, Your Highness. It must be this fatigue. Driving me to such an absurd statement.

  “Mph! That’s better. Remember your place, Sam Anders. You are here under my pleasure. Disregard it, and you’ll be gone before you know it.”

  “What?! You can’t do that. This is my room!”

  “I can and I will. This is my room now. It’s Sarechi soil. I spent a long time here by now. By virtue of my royal birth, it belongs to me and my house.”

  “Just this one room?”

  “Hm… I could make an argument for the building, I suppose. Extract some rent from it, maybe… Alright, we’ll see what Mother says.”

  Sam laughed. “Does your family actually own anything on New Terra?”

  “It’s complicated. Doubly so because of the difference between the royal family and the Sarechi state. For example, we do own the parcel of land where the Sarechi embassy is located, bought at a token price from the Terran government—we meaning my family, yes? But we lease it to the Sarechi state in exchange for services provided by the External Ministry at the behest of the monarchy.”

  “That’s cool that you know that.”

  Erianna blushed. “I told you, I was forced to suffer through years of royal education. Not to mention all the other information forced upon me in less educational circumstances. I’d just as well erase that piece of information from my mind and make place for something actually worthwhile.”

  “Like what my favorite movie is…?”

  “Only insomuch as you probably have good taste and so your favorite movie might make for a good watch.”

  “Well unfortunately for you, whatever I place at number one, we’re not going to have enough time to watch it before we need to leave.”

  She scoffed. “I was hardly expecting, not to mention wanting, to watch it with you. You’re a fine person and all, Sam. But I hang out with a better class of people. I wouldn’t want to spend my free time with one such as you.”

  “Hey, that’s hurtful.”

  “That truth hurts.”

  Sam made puppy eyes at her. His eyes misting up and lips puckered upwards. “That’s… that’s what you really think?” he asked in a low, pitiful voice.

  “Oh, come off it, Sam. I’m only making these jokes because I know without a shadow of a doubt that you’ve made some like them in the past. Stop looking at me like that! Now I’m starting to feel bad.”

  “You should! Don’t you know that I have virtually no self-confidence when it comes to the question of whether other people want to spend time with me? And then you go and say something like that. How rude!”

  “You’re telling me you’ve never made a joke like that?”

  “That’s different. I know I’m joking, 99% sure.”

  She shook her head with pity. “That’s sad. Anyway, you’re feeling better?”

  Sam rolled his shoulders around before letting out a yawn. “A little bit. Hopefully, I’ll be back to good form by the time we finish with dinner.”

  “I doubt that. But I’m sure you’ll be able to finish the evening’s workout.”

  “You joining us for it today as well?”

  “Yeah… I suppose I’ll be joining you guys for the foreseeable future. It’s not like I have anything better to do unless I’m spending the morning or evening teach you. Which might not even matter in the end, if your other teachers decide to have you work out twice a day.”

  “Ah…” Sam stretched upwards. “Busy bees, the both of us. Alright, I gotta go to the bathroom. Don’t make yourself too comfortable.”

  “Did you forget whose room this was?”

  Nevertheless, he found her sitting in the same spot, looking through her phone when he came back. She held it in front of him as he sat down. “Look, Farris is trying to be funny.”

  Sam read the text aloud. “This Saturday, 1300, be there.” His phone chimed just as he finished. “Want to bet I got the same message?”

  “A princess doesn’t gamble. Even when the outcome is certain.”

  “What about a battle?” Sam asked after he showed her the same exact message. “In books, they’re always taking gambles, betting it all on this maneuver or that.”

  “That’s different. In battle, the princess is not a princess, but a general. And she acts under a different set of duties and constraints.”

  “Is a princess allowed to go song hunting for my playlist with me? Since I’m assuming she will not allow me to do any other form of training or studying in the next twenty minutes.”

  “Yes, she’s allowed. But she will judge you on the quality of your songs.”

  “Well, she’s more than welcome to try.”

  She turned the chair away from him and towards the monitor. “I’m Erianna Ninae. I don’t try. I do.”