Page 58 of Flickerstate

My ears keep ringing. I try to think through the phantom noise. “I’ve read Highwall biographies before, and UFOs won’t help us. Let’s focus onPhilosophy of Navigation. The chapters on leaguing were super abstract, but they agreed it would require shared flickerstate concepts and, uh, ‘maximal unity of purpose.’”

Vik nods. “I saw fire and gold when we banished the beasts. You?”

“Same.”

“What about ‘unity of purpose’?”

“I wanted the beasts gone. I assume you did too.”

He raises his eyes to the reddening trees. A shard of sunriseglints in each pupil. “The spidery one was going to bite somebody. Our teachers weren’t moving fast enough.”

His words squeeze my throat. Because he’s right: The supposed adults in the room weren’t going to save us.

“Thanks,” I say. “For coming to help.”

His forehead knits. “Of course.”

No “of course” about it. When every other student was too petrified to move, he walked into striking distance of a beast to lend me power. It was uncalled-for and idiotic and brave.

“I mean…” He looks lost. “We’re friends. Right? I don’t have that many.”

I wonder whether he’d want to be my friend if he knew about the wound under my sleeve. If he knew about my dreams.

Maybe. Maybe he’d be brave then too.

“Me neither,” I say. “Yeah, we’re friends.”

He smiles, sudden and brilliant in the hazy half-light. “Shared concepts. Unity of purpose. Want to try again?”

Chapter Fourteen

Monday afternoon, Clinic A begins a unit on advanced occlusion. Mr. Davis has left to wrangle the swelling ranks of Clinic B, so we’redown to two teachers. Dr. Langmore orders the remaining students to sit at the inmost ring of tables. Clustering together makes the space even emptier, the echoes even louder.

As Dr. Langmore explains it, advanced occlusion allows navigators to expand the protection that occlusion offers beyond themselves, shielding others from interference or hiding them from beasts. It’s easy to guess what the third trial will be: Each team will pick a navigator to occlude their teammates, who will channel back to that navigator to sustain the occlusion. Whichever team holds on longest wins.

So Candace, Bree, and I have to struggle with channeling again. After dinner, rain pattering against our common room window, we sit, Bree and Candace brushing shoulders on the sofa, mecross-legged on the carpet, and discuss our options.

“Sorry, Norah,” Bree says, regretful but firm. “You messed up last time. The navigator can’t be you.”

Candace cups her chin and frowns. “I’m not happy with how the first trial went either. But Norah takes our nav and uses it efficiently. We can’t do that with her nav or each other’s.”

“Then let’s figure out how,” Bree retorts. “I’m sick of nosebleeds.”

Candace quirks her eyebrows. “Fair. Anything to add, Norah?”

I trace a hummingbird on the carpet with my finger. “We can’t keep doing what we’re doing. We’ve tried to mesh our flickerstate concepts, and we’ve failed. A lot. So what if we reconceptualized each other? Like, what if you guys saw me as something other than fire?”

Candace lifts her chin from her hand. “Is that possible?”

“Vik managed.”

“How does he see you now?”

“Fire.”

She cocks her head. “You mean, he saw something else first?”

I shrug, self-conscious. “Wings. With red feathers. Which doesn’t seem very…me.”