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“Well done, Yavil. Would you care to get something to eat?”
    Her stomach growled before she could say anything. “Yes, please.”
    He offered her his arm, and together, they walked out of the lecture hall behind the last of the students.
    “Remind me to have you give medical instruction to my students before they try anything on the mock-ups. It might speed things along and put me out of a job.”
    “You want to be out of a job?”
    He grinned. “If I am not needed on Morganti, then I am able to go on more long-range assignments.”
    Her heart stuttered at the thought. “You wouldn’t be here then?”
    “That generally is the effect of not being on Morganti.”
    She bit her lip as they entered the dining hall. Her entire class was there, filling up on the food that they had missed while in the learning trance.
    He was going to leave. They were just on the verge of starting something and he was leaving. Her thoughts swirled in distress.
    With her mind occupied, she tried to keep her hands steady as she loaded a tray and walked with Hosh to a table. Eating was straight mechanics. She chewed, swallowed and drank her water with attention to fueling her system.
    “Yavil, is something wrong?”
    She tried to make light of it, but as she opened her mouth to speak, a spearing pain ran through her head. Her gasp was punctuated as her hands clenched on her tray and it clattered to the ground. “Oh no.”
    Out of reflex, she knelt to clean it up but another pain spike struck her, locking her in place. She hissed as Hosh touched her arm and checked her pupils. She clenched her teeth and focussed. “Brainstorm.”
    He nodded and lifted her in his arms. The sensation of his touch on her was setting a riot under her skin. It gave her something else to concentrate on as her mind locked itself in agony that she only remembered feeling twice in her life. The first time she had felt it, her mother’s father had died. The second time, it had been after her friends Hallow and Harkin told her that because of what she was, their family would not allow them to associate with her anymore. The moment that she learned they had lied and that they had only been friendly to get in with Yellan and Ardu, she had been devastated. Both times, her heart had been broken and her mind had followed.
    Hosh carried her to the infirmary, and the doctor did what doctors always did, he tried to scan her.
    “Dr. Tinneer, she won’t show up on scans. You need a contact healer.”
    The doctor looked at the blank readings and met her pained gaze. “I will call Quedar.”
    Hosh stayed near her, holding her hand to keep her calm as she clenched and twisted on the exam bed.
    A blue woman with a shaved head appeared in Yavil’s field of vision. “Hello, Instructor. I am Quedar. I am a contact healer. Have you dealt with one of my kind before?”
    Yavil shook her head, unable to speak.
    “Instructor Ender, do you know what started this?” Quedar was rubbing her hands together.
    “She said it was a brainstorm, but I don’t know what that entails.” Hosh sounded worried.
    Yavil could hear them talking, but it was as if she were listening to them from a great distance.
    The first touch of Quedar’s hands was cool water on her burning skin. The touch on her mind made her jump, and the part of her mind that controlled her brainstorms reached eagerly for the contact.
    She heard the woman hiss as she poured the equivalent of mental cool water on Yavil’s thoughts. When she removed her hands, she looked at Yavil with sadness in her eyes. “You are tougher than you look, Instructor.”
    Yavil licked her lips. “I don’t know if that is a compliment.”
    Quedar sat next to her on the bed. “Your people…do they link minds?”
    She nodded. “Yes. Of course. Tebr are always born in pairs.”
    “Yet, you were not. Did you never find a person to connect with?” Quedar’s voice was low, but Yavil could see Hosh listening attentively.
    “A few times, but