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A/N: The Haventon Born ebook has been released. See here for where you can get it!

While most people were still recovering from Joanne’s announcement, Darlryan was scowling thoughtfully at her.

“Ind can probably fix what the young lady has done to herself so far,” he said. “But it’s interesting. What she’s describing isn’t clairvoyance, it’s a temporal affinity. We always knew it was technically possible but I don’t recall any confirmed cases. If it tears you up that way, I guess we know why, now. We can fix it for now but continually fixing you isn’t practical.”

“If I make it the end of this war, I’ll stop then,” Joanne said. “We need my gift to stop the enemy flanking us so much.”

“She has a point,” Adrian said. “She’ll be a valuable asset in clarification merges now we know.”

“We can discuss that later,” Sonia said. “We’ll certainly ask Indaturan to fix her up but what we do after that we can discuss later. I’m more interested in what she said about the kids. Game over?”

“We don’t necessarily win this war if we keep them alive,” Joanne said. “But we definitely lose if we don’t. How badly we lose varies with who we lose but at best we have a possibility of resisting, at worst everyone loses regardless of side.” She gave Lydia a wry smile. “Try not to die, Lydia Keefe-Morgan, because that’s you.”

“Wha–” Lydia stared at her open-mouthed. “Why?”

“I wish I knew,” Joanne said. “Because it doesn’t seem to be anything you do. Whenever I try to sort events for the war, I get sicker than usual and my visions are really hazy. I feel like someone is trying to stop me.”

“Block you, you mean?” Sonia said.

Joanne frowned and shook her head. “No. It’s more like someone else is reacting to the changes I’m testing and adding variables to stop them. It worries me because they’d have to share my gift to do that.” She hugged herself and looked at Darlryan. “You said there were rumours; could they be true?”

“Given that I don’t think what it’s doing to your brain would be unique that’s unlikely. Human brains aren’t designed to handle that sort of stress.” He narrowed his eyes. “Though, maybe… yes, that might work.”

“What?” Sonia asked.

“If they did their manipulating in resonant form they’d be better able to handle the energies.” He stared at Joanne. “You’re definitely not resonant but you are pretty close. Maybe close enough to learn to be a tasaria, like she was in her former life.” He nodded towards Julie. “It would be a good test if you’re willing to try. But for now, will your mother let you come with me to get your brain fixed?”

Joanne shrugged. “It’s not really her affair since it’s my brain, but I should at least tell her where I’m going.” She rose to her feet. “I’ll be right back.”

“You’d better release that essence bug she gave you,” Matthias said. “I don’t want you getting in trouble and she’s bound to ask.”

“But…”

“Don’t worry. I’ll find it in a few days and then yell at her about it.”

Joanne giggled at that. “She’ll be so annoyed.” She produced a bubble of essence from somewhere and popped it. A tiny bright thing vanished into the wall. “I’ll see you in a minute.”

A/N: The Haventon Born ebook has been released. See here for where you can get it!

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