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“Um, so… what exactly do you want me to do?”

I looked over at Jesollae, and while it was hard to see much more than her silhouette in the dim lighting, from her posture, she seemed to be contemplating the same thing.

“Well… first, why don’t you simply look around, and describe the energy that you can see, in as much detail as you can.”

I turned around in a slow circle, trying to carefully parse everything I was seeing - with that many Tiaileng there all together, there was significantly more going on than I was used to. At least, being in a circle, things were spread apart enough to differentiate what was going where.

“It’s… not quite as easy to say with everyone here, and it’s also that the… tendrils, energy strands, whatever you want to call them, they seem to look a little fainter when I’m farther away from people, so it’s a little harder to make them out like this. Normally, when I see them, I’m… a lot closer in, obviously, but I can still see them.”

“All right… but can you describe what they are doing, and where they’re going?”

“I mean, they seem like they’re still… mainly connected, I guess? Most of them are, at least. They’re all definitely spreading out from me, although from this position, it seems like they’re emanating from… the center of me, but higher up, like maybe from my neck and shoulders? They’re sort of… waving around gently, like they normally are, but they seem like they’re going in generally straight lines between me and… all of you?”

I leaned forward a little, looking more closely at some of them. “The ones that are connected to… what I think are my assigned Tiaileng, kinda hard to tell in the dark, but most of them have two or three, maybe four tendrils that are going between us. From me, they just sort of… flow out, but I can see them making actual contact with patches of fur, that are doing that sort of… fiber-optic light effect, faintly, where the tendrils are touching. They’re pretty much touching constantly, not really moving from where they’re making contact. On… I think it’s Jesollae, though, there are six or seven, and they seem a little brighter? The ones around Jesollae, though, probably her entourage… there are some tendrils kind of flickering around there, like they’re trying to extend all the way, but most of them aren’t making contact, or if they are they’re only brushing up briefly and then flicking away. They could probably make better contact, but… after what happened, I assume you probably don’t want me to try that again just yet…”

“Hmm… perhaps not, but we’re making good progress, especially with that description,” Jesollae’s voice replied. “I admit, I still don’t know exactly whether the tendrils are a true representation of the energy flowing between you and all of us, some more specific bond or attunement representing the assignment process, or perhaps both, but I think I’m beginning to get a better sense of it. Just to check, though… for all of the Tiaileng that are assembled here, do you feel like energy is coming through in the type and amount that you’re used to feeling? Theoretically there should be power for all of us and more, but there’s a difference between a device’s measurement and having this many actual Tiaileng taking it in all at once…”

From around the room, there was a chorus of affirmative responses. Whatever the baseline was for being relatively close to me, they all seemed to be reaching it, at least. Even so, I wasn’t sure what emotion I was really projecting, outside of maybe… curiosity? I had to admit, strange as the impromptu experiment was, there was a certain sense of fascination from just looking around the room and seeing the manifestation of that actual connection - not just to one, or two, or three Tiaileng, but to nearly all of them, an incredible array of usually invisible energy with me somehow at the center of it all…

“Okay, then we’re probably ready to move on,” Jesollae continued, shaking me from my momentary reverie. “Now that I have a general idea of what you’re looking at, I’d like you to try doing something a little more… involved.”

Following Jesollae’s enthusiastic and insistent guidance, I began moving around the circle, trying to tease out everything I could about the translucent, faintly-glowing strands that were tying all of them together. Surprisingly, despite the fact that they actually seemed a bit more visually solid than they had before, now that I was actually trying to focus on doing something with them, they were harder to manipulate. More often than not they seemed to shimmer and weave around my fingers instead of allowing me to grab hold of them, but when I tried nudging them more subtly rather than grasping at them outright, they seemed to respond a little more readily.

That being said, whatever tendrils had established themselves with my own Tiaileng didn’t seem intent on going anywhere - no matter which way I nudged them, they all stayed quite firmly attached. And it wasn’t just that - even if I got hold of an unattached tendril that was in reach and nudged it into place on their fur, it would only linger for a moment before flickering away again. I supposed it meant, and Jesollae seemed to concur, that the tendrils did somehow represent the energy level of the bond I had with each Tiaileng, and once it was established, no amount of coaxing would change it in either direction.

Still, it was interesting to see that the tendrils, and the apparent energy level, actually wasn’t the same with each Tiaileng. Now that I was looking closer, at each individual connection, I noticed that some, like Soliaveren, only had two slightly brighter tendrils attached, while others, like Daledonne, to my surprise had up to seven. Somehow, based on what I’d heard before, I’d thought that Tiaileng all took in about the same level of energy, which was how you could tell how many Tiaileng someone could handle by looking at the total energy someone could put out.

“Well, normally it is about the same,” Jesollae had replied. “However, that number is probably looking at the minimum amount that is needed for that connection to satisfy a Tiaileng, in conjunction with the energy they generate through photosynthesis as a matter of course. With most people, that minimum is equivalent to the amount that they can put out, and those who are slightly higher probably still only hit that minimum with two or three. But in a situation like this, where the number of Tiaileng still hasn’t reached your total energy potential, well… there haven’t been a lot of cases like this, and even fewer, in fact probably just this one, where we can measure the energy levels in such a unique way. Perhaps some of your Tiaileng have naturally taken advantage of that extra energy by establishing even more of a connection. In fact, I can’t help but wonder if Tiaileng like that could survive in the absence of light entirely…”

She seemed to trail off after that, but I kept investigating, although I didn’t really come across anything that seemed all that interesting or different than what I’d already found - at least, that is, until I looked even more carefully at what was happening with the tendrils and the Tiaileng I wasn’t actually attached to.

I had noticed, when they went away, that they weren’t just wiggling, but flickering somehow. Before, I’d been looking closely at their interactions when they made contact, but this time I tried to follow then as they went away. Some of them didn’t move all that far, just kind of lingering in the vicinity… but a lot of the others actually seemed to… diffuse, in a way, flickering for a moment before seeming to fan out into a skein of strands that became thinner and thinner, fainter and fainter, until they almost seemed to fade into the background. Except, that background…

“Can we kill the lights entirely?” I asked, and Jesollae made a hurried command in Tiaileng. In a moment, the dim light faded entirely away… except, as my eyes fully adapted, I realized that it hadn’t, not quite. Even in the complete absence of light, there was still a diffuse haze permeating the entire area around me, so faint that in any meaningful light it would have been all but imperceptible. Now, though, I could see it just barely, filled with seemingly infinite thin strands as faint and delicate as possible, and even then only really perceptible in the cases where whatever it was pulled together into a faint skein, gathering light as it narrowed and twisted into another bright, aimlessly searching tendril for a minute or two before disbanding back into the diffuse cloud that surrounded me.

I tried to describe it the best I could for Jesollae, although she didn’t seem to know precisely what it signified any more than I did, though. “My best guess is that it represents… well, the rest of your energy potential that’s capable of making a new connection. And if there’s as much of it as you describe… I had expected that there was still plenty of untapped energy to add new assignments, but if you’re right, then I have to admit that even I may have underestimated your capacity. Given what’s happened between us, though… I think in my enthusiasm I underestimated quite a lot about you…”

Somehow, though, that revelation seemed to be enough for now, and a few minutes later she had the lights back up and allowed the crowd of Tiaileng to disperse. It was clear, however, that the break from earlier was now definitely over - and whatever secrets lay in the energy that emanated from me, Jesollae had redoubled her determination to tease them into the realm of her understanding.

Her next big experiment, in fact, occurred the very next day, when Emma and her companion arrived unexpectedly in one of Jesollae’s transports, looking slightly bewildered at being there. Before we could speak, though, she shuffled Emma and Mirracai into one room and me into another, which didn’t quite match the rest of the decor in the mansion: it was white-walled and rather spartan, with four cushioned metal chairs arranged facing each other in a close rectangle, and unadorned aside from what looked like interrogation-room one-way mirrors on two of the walls. In fact, if I had to guess, it was probably a room that Jesollae and her entourage had assembled within one of the mansion’s other rooms, rather than something that had already been there.

“Don’t worry about the… viewing windows, it’s just so you don’t have to look at a bulk of equipment. It’s all passive anyway, and I will need you to concentrate on what’s in the room rather than what’s next to it. Have a seat and see if you can relax, and we’ll get started in just a bit.”

Emma and Mirracai made their way into the room a few minutes later, accompanied by a male Tiaileng that I didn’t recognize. All of them were wearing various expressions of confusion, although Emma’s looked a little more incredulous than the others.

“Excuse me, but… what, exactly, is going on here again?”

“Just a simple test,” Jesollae replied, her tone carefully moderated in what I guessed was an attempt to sound soothing. “Nothing complicated at all - no equipment, no nothing. All you need to do is to pick a chair and have a seat, and… think happy thoughts?”

Emma still looked a bit skeptical, but since I was also there, she seemed to accept it, picking the seat next to mine and gesturing for Mirracai to use the one across from her. The unknown Tiaileng took the remaining seat across from me, and Jesollae, satisfied that everything was in place, walked over to the panel in the corner and dimmed the lights to the point that those around me were silhouettes more than faces.

“So, Damian… can you see the connection? Take your time, and look as carefully as you can…”

I leaned in towards Emma, squinting, and saw… something, maybe? “There’s… a little bit there, but it’s really hard to make out. It’s incredibly faint, like… a wisp of steam, if anything, but I can’t be sure I’m really seeing anything properly.”

“Seeing what?” Emma’s silhouette asked, seeming to pull away from me slightly. “I know you’re not ogling me, but… wait. Is that the… I remember some of your Tiaileng talked about how you could see the, the energy between you and them. Are you saying you can see that with… anyone?”

“I don’t know - like I said, it’s so faint, I’m not entirely convinced I’m seeing anything at all, that it’s not just a trick of my eyes from trying to look too hard.”

“Hmm,” said Jesollae, doing something off to the side, and a moment later the room went from dim to pitch black. Well, pitch black for everyone else - I could still see hints of my own cloud of energy, and a couple of tendrils coming off my shoulder and shimmering in my peripheral vision - probably the ones streaming off to connect with Jesollae. Trying to ignore them, though, I looked closer at where I was sure Emma was, and noticed… definitely something this time, but it was vastly different from what I was used to. Instead of shimmering brightness, the tendrils I saw coming off of her were a faint, ghostly green, and for a moment I wondered if they were somehow afterimages persisting in the darkness. As I watched, though, they moved, and not in the blinking, jerky sort of way that afterimages tend to do - instead, their movement, while less… vigorous, somehow, bore a close enough resemblance to the way my own tendrils seemed to work.

“Okay, I think I’m seeing something now. It’s still really faint, but… it’s definitely there.”

“Excellent! That’s one hypothesis confirmed, at least. Now… can you tell how many there are, and how they’re connected?”

I leaned in a little closer, concentrating on bringing the faint tendrils more clearly into focus. “It’s a little hard to tell, but there are… yeah, t’s not really distinct, but if I look for a while it seems like there are three of them, kind of interconnected and curling around one another, and they’re all going towards… can’t quite tell in the darkness, but I think Mirracai’s chest? And… there’s one more a little ways away, not connected to anything, but I can barely make it out at all.”

“Okay. In that case… do you think you can try and guide the loose one over to Esciarre, and make contact with him?”

I could only assume that Esciarre was the name of the unknown Tiaileng across from me. “I’ll… try…”

I reached over towards the tendril, but unlike my own my hand seemed to go right through it. As it did, though, the tendril moved ever so slightly in response - and when I flicked my hand through in the opposite direction, it moved a little bit in the other direction. It took a number of repeated, coaxing passes, but it slowly began to snake further away from her, although it became fainter as it did so.

Finally, after what had to have been over a hundred passes of my hand, I saw it brush up against a bit of Tiaileng fur across from me - and for a moment, the fur lit up slightly. I made a couple more motions with my hand, coaxing it closer, and to my surprise, it actually seemed to latch on, although it actually seemed to glow more faintly as it did so. After a few seconds, though, it slid back off, and while I managed to coax it back on a couple more times, now it would only hold on for a second or two, nearly fading from visibility entirely, before sliding back off and recovering a bit of its strange, afterimage-like brightness.

“Sorry, I… I can get it to touch, for a little bit at least, but it won’t stick at all, and when it does it all but fades away entirely. It’s like there’s… not enough there, maybe, to actually connect?”

Jesollae seemed to sigh slightly at that, and a moment later the lights started to come back up.

“Yes… that was what I was afraid might happen. I had hoped, perhaps, that somehow the fact that you have so much energy of your own might somehow boost another connection enough that you could form a bond between a person and an extra Tiaileng, but it looks like it really is limited by someone’s direct energy potential after all. Still, it’s interesting that you can make out other connections in the right condition, which could be a useful attribute nonetheless. And as for you, Emma… while I am sad to say that you will not be able to have any additional Tiaileng partners - as some of my associates may have overheard you musing about at one point - if Damian’s observations are any indication, your connection with Mirracai is especially healthy and strong-“

“Wait a minute. Your associates? Are you seriously listening in on everyone who’s connected to Damian?”

I couldn’t see Jesollae in the darkness, but I swore that the tendrils in my peripheral vision flared a little in response. Did that mean the tendrils could, in a certain sense, show what Tiaileng were feeling?

“Not since… certain agreements were put into place, no. Back when Damian was struggling with his initial assignment, though, some monitoring was put into place to see whether contact with those he knew would or would not be useful in resolving the situation in a caring way. That call was made before I was actually involved, but I did review all of the recordings. Every bit of insight, even something unexpected… you never know when it might be useful.”

“Still, though… that’s kinda… ugh, no, that’s really freaking creepy, actually…” I could see the tendrils between Emma and Mirracai seem to shift slightly in response, becoming… darker, somehow? Not that their brightness had diminished, but that the shade of green had actually shifted somehow. At the same time, I heard Mirracai whimper a little, and Emma growl slightly.

“Rrrgh… enough! Turn on the lights, this experiment is over!”

Jesollae was probably hesitant about it, but she quickly complied, leaving me blinking as the lights snapped on at full brightness. Once the bloom had receded and the room came back into view, I looked over to see Mirracai sitting on Emma’s lap, and Emma cradling him and nuzzling at his neck.

“There, there, the scary spying lady isn’t going to do any more weird stuff right now…”

“Scary? Really?” There was a certain edge to Jesollae’s voice, but a moment later it was back under carefully modulated control. “Nevertheless… the fact that the monitoring was set up in the first place was… incorrect, and it won’t happen again with any of your friends and relatives without them giving their explicit consent first. The purpose of all of this isn’t to disturb anyone, and I have no intention of further doing so. After all, if I am assigned to you, it does mean that I can have only your best interests at heart, and obviously that extents to your loved ones too.”

“Whoa, whoa, hold on!” Emma said, perking her head back up. “Did you just say that you’re assigned to him? You’re on the freakin’ council! Is that even possible?”

“A couple of days ago, I might have said that it was… an extremely theoretical possibility. Now… all I should really say is that Damian is a very special case indeed.” And however much Emma might have felt that she deserved a better answer considering what else Jesollae had revealed, Jesollae refused to do any more than smile ever so slightly in response.

I wanted to visit with Emma a bit more, but Mirracai didn’t seem to be reacting well to the burst of unsettling emotions Emma had apparently shared with him during Jesollae’s revelation. I let Emma head on back to the transport for some alone time with Mirracai, and then rejoined Jesollae in one of the adjoining labs, where she was poking frustratedly at the display of a large, angular machine.

“Hmph… sometimes I think your descriptions are far more useful than scientific readings - especially ones that have absolutely nothing useful to compare them to for reference. Still, once the data is analyzed in earnest there may be something useful there. That being said, I still put more stock in my own perception and experience - or I would, but honestly, when it comes you, we’re all… like you say, flying a bit blind. Even though this experiment didn’t have quite the result I was looking for, it’s still a result - one of many more experiments and results that will need careful consideration.” She paused, seeming to consider something as she stroked at her vaguely bearlike muzzle. “Especially, for that matter, one that I’ve been quite fascinated with ever since I heard about it…”

Something about the way she smiled as she said that, with just a little bit of a suggestive hint, made me uneasy. “Er… what do you mean?”

“Something that I can’t recall hearing happen with any other assignment level before, even the ones with a population big enough for it to happen. Not what happens when you, well, have sex… or at least, not precisely. That in and of itself is something worth watching - and perhaps experiencing - but what I’m much more fascinated by is what happens right after, when the Tiaileng all cluster around you. The way the energy of that must work… I know it’s only a ‘gut feeling,’ as your language likes to call it, but in my case that gut feeling is backed by enough years of observation and clinical experience that I’m inclined to believe it, at least to the point of forming a hypothesis that I can test. Maybe that interaction isn’t the key to everything, but each thing we’ve tried and examined so far, we’ve found… intriguing pieces, which have to be coming together to map out the puzzle of something quite interesting indeed. And that energy, that closeness and connection… that has to be one of the points where the bond between you and your Tiaileng is at its purest. If that’s the case, then we might have an even better chance of really getting at how you’re different - and, perhaps even more importantly, why you’re like this when just about everyone else in your species isn’t. Which means that… once you’re ready, examining this particular condition seems like the next logical step.”

“Um, about that, er…”

“Yes?”

“I mean, I’ve… I got to the point where I can kind of get comfortable enough to have sex, sometimes, with some Tiaileng, but trying to do it with… you watching, all of your Tiaileng watching, a bunch of machines watching and recording stuff… It’s taken a long time just to get comfortable with that much closeness normally, and even now I’m still not sure how comfortable I’d be with that part if it wasn’t for, you know, the afterglow and stuff. So I’m not sure if…”

“Right, and like I said, this is when you’re ready. However, I really don’t want to wait that long before doing such a possibly crucial experiment, so… let’s have you get some practice in, shall we?”