Therr’ka kneels by the pipe. Steam rises around her face, brushing her temples, whispering, luring, warning. She watches three Pyraleens trembling around the small opening where a thin thread of steam escapes. Their filaments stretch toward the leak as if trying to hear every faint tone. They hiss softly, not nervously — more impatiently.
Behind her, a voice calls out:
“What are you doing here?”
Therr’ka doesn’t react. She only lifts a hand behind her — a short, precise wait gesture — without turning around.
The steam thickens. Something cracks in its sound, not physically — more like a thought deciding to be heard.
The voice again, sharper this time:
“We’re from Sixth Division, and we’re taking over.”
Therr’ka sighs. The steam around her pulls back, almost offended. The Pyraleens shrink, their filaments curling into tight spirals.
Only then does she turn.
The speaker opens his mouth to continue, but freezes when he notices the mark on Therr’ka’s collar — the one worn only by higher‑grade steam empaths.
Behind him stands a newcomer from Sixth Division, young Gorrath Rethik. Eyes wide as plates. The Pyraleens mesmerize him. His gaze jumps between their trembling filaments and Therr’ka.
“You’re… you’re…”
Therr’ka nods.
“Yes. Now tell me what you hear.”
Rethik swallows.
“Nothing.”
Therr’ka smiles. Briefly. Sharply. Like a burst of steam.
“That’s exactly it.”
She casts one more disappointed look at the escaping steam, shrugs, and rises to her feet. Then she turns back to Rethik, her gaze sharp and accusing:
“She was trying to tell me something.”
Rethik tries to make himself invisible, but fails completely. “I… I…”
“Do you ever finish a sentence in one breath?” Therr’ka snaps. “Why did you interrupt me at all? That steam remembered something important, and now it’s gone. Water has been on Sionareth longer than life itself. And water remembers. Not like we do, but it remembers. And steam is just its faster form. You know that, don’t you?”
The entire Sixth Division nods as one. Rethik more eagerly than the rest.
Bipilon’s Note
“Steam remembers everything. Shame the Sixth Division doesn’t.”