She was new, and there were more than enough eyes on her.
“Yeah?” I asked.
“I understand that she’s new to your squad, right?”
“That’s right.”
“It’s my understanding that it takes a while for guides and espers to get comfortable with each other and bond.”
“It can, or if the compatibility is right, it can happen pretty fast.”
Postin sat back in his seat, speaking without looking at any notes, any files. It went to show that he was rather comfortable with the topic. He was playing the game, trying to say he already knew all about this without stepping on any toes. He walked the line between arrogance and knowledge. “And how was it that you connected with Ms. Moore in the first place?”
No doubt that was in the file… “The Guild assigned her. We needed a guide, she needed a squad, I guess they figured that made sense.”
“So you’re not particularly attached to her?” A lift in his voice suggested that was exactly what he’d hoped for.
I’d already had this conversation with the Guild, of course, when they’d sent out reps to speak to us just after the whole fucking mess at the hotel. I’d made it perfectly clear that they weren’t taking her, at least not right then. I wasn’t sure what they saw when they’d looked at me, but they hadn’t pushed it at all. That whole S-Rank thing probably had them thinking twice.
“I don’t know if I’d say that.”
“You’ve cycled through a number of guides over the years. They rarely make it more than a few months.”Ouch, that was ahard jab.“My understanding is that you’ve had trouble finding someone long term.”
I pinned him with a smile to hide my actual feelings about that. I was used to mockery, and it rarely bothered me anymore, but somehow this man who thought himself so important, looking down on me, riled my darker urges. I wanted to prove to him that all the power he thought he held meantnothingwhen faced with an esper.
But I knew better than to let that desire free. “What can I say? It’s hard to find someone who fits well. We’re a rather eclectic group of misfits, after all.”
“Ms. Moore also has a history of trouble when it comes to squads. She has been displaced a number of times already, typically at the behest of the squad. It’s difficult to think that this partnership would continue beyond a few months. It might not be either of your faults, but that doesn’t change where it seems like this will end up.”
“Listen, I’m not exactly known for being brilliant here, so do you want to just get to your point?” I stared down at my nails as though pondering a manicure as I asked, allowing the tiniest bit of my annoyance to slip past my perfectly curated mask.
“Constantly changing guides isn’t good for espers. They respond best when paired with someone long term, right? Well, we have some options for you. We have a number of S-Rank guides who will be happy to be permanently added to your squad.”
Thatoffer had my eyebrow lifting. We’d gotten S-Rank guides because they worked best for us, but they’d always been tossed our way as punishment or just as a temporary assignment until they could get away. Here Postin was offering up some poor S-Rank as sacrifice?
And how the hell didthatwork? Did they blackmail them? Offer to pay them enough that they didn’t give a fuck who theyworked with? It seemed impossible to have that much sway over a guide, but the way he spoke suggested he knew exactly what he was saying and had full confidence in it.
“How would we know that would work out? I mean, it’s easy tosaythat it would be for good, but what if in a couple months we end up in the exact same position? I mean, so far Ms. Moore seems pretty damn compatible. Seems like it’d be a pretty stupid thing to give her up without any sort of assurances that this other theoretical guide would work out.”
Postin rested his elbow on the table, the action pulling at his suit, showing how well fitted the thing was. “I can assure you that these guides are nothing like you’re used to. They have been educated on their place within the system, and they will adjust to any esper or group they are assigned to.”
The words made discomfort bubble inside my stomach. There had been discussions for years about how to better make use of guides, how to train them, how to teach them. A push toward finding them as young as possible had helped the Guild take in teens, even children, to try to brainwash them earlier and earlier, to make them more pliable.
The way Postin spoke said the military had done that exact thing, had succeeded where the Guild still struggled.
And I found the entire idea repugnant. I knew better than most just how important guides were, and the idea of harming them for any reason made me ill.
“That seems like a pipedream,” I pushed. “And I don’t see any reason I’d let go of a perfectly good guide for some promise I’ve never actually seen before. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have places to go.” I didn’t wait for his permission before getting to my feet, the coffee untouched.
“You know you won’t be able to keep her forever, right?” Postin had dropped his game, his nice guy act. He wanted to show his teeth, to make me understand that I didn’t have theupper hand here—he did. “Between us and the Guild, there’s no way that the four of you can keep her.”
“Last I checked, there’s no legal way to break a contract between guides and espers unless someone in the contract does it. In short? You’re shit out of luck. Until she or us decide we’re over it, there isn’t a damn thing any of you can do.”
“Nothing legal, sure, but I think we both know that legal is hardly the only option. Think long and hard about this, because there are some fights that just aren’t worth having. As a combat specialist, you should understand that concept.”
I turned and set my hand on the back of his chair and leaned in, far closer than I needed to, so he could see right into my eyes. I loosened my grip on the power that rushed through me, that filled me, and the sparks of pain as the corrupted energy turned my eyes that sickly purple.
He tried to lean back, but there was nowhere to go. If I wanted to tear his head from his body and use it to bowl down the hallway, there wasn’t a damn thing he—or anyone else around—could do to stop me.
