The flaws revealed by sunlight

As per usual, tomorrow Eve slept until the very breakfast. Even then, she was groggy and kept yawning as she freshened up—the first proper sleep in a while turned out to be very unsatisfying. Yet even if her eyes were bleary, they were clear enough that Eve didn't miss the weird atmosphere in the house.

Victor acted as if yesterday never happened. There were no changes in either his expression, eyes, or the way he spoke and stayed silent. Celina and Xia, at the same time, kept shooting weird glances at him and avoided his presence even more than usual. It was another drop into the ocean of complications that Eve fell in, and she wasn't glad to deal with it first thing in the morning.

She pulled both women away for chat right after breakfast, leaving Victor to deal with dishes on his own for once. Celina and Xia followed Eve obediently into the bedroom. She pushed them to sit on the bed, put her hands on her hips and looked down at the two. Then she sighed.

"One of you must've listened in yesterday. Xia, right?"

Xia nodded seriously. "When I noticed Mister Kraust entering your room so late, I was very suspicious, Sister Eve. Though I didn't expect the truth to turn out like it did…" she trailed off.

"You can't blame her for that, Eve. Xia told me what you were talking about earlier, and about what she heard later. You herself asked her to be on alert!" Celina said with an indignant frown.

Eve waved them off. "No, I'm not blaming anyone. It's just that you two weird me out even more than Mister Kraust does!"

Xia pouted. "But what do we do, Sister Eve? You can't expect everyone to have a stone face like him!"

"Exactly, exactly." Celina crossed her arms over her chest and nodded with a self-assured look. "He must have all muscles in his face paralyzed except for the ones that make him frown. Normal people like us can't just pretend that he isn't a rare esper telepath that can read our minds and manipulate our decisions without even letting us know!"

"I knew about many people who believed in an entity that knew and controlled everything in the world, and that somehow actually made them feel better. Can't you be like that?" Eve scowled.

"Uh, Eve… Do you mean… God?"

Eve nodded. "Exactly. Isn't that the same thing on a different scale?"

"Eve, you can't just tell us to pretend that Mister Kraust is God! Even a little one! Though, his looks are godly… Ouch!"

Xia, who just poked between Celina's ribs, nodded as if nothing happened. "Yes, that's too hard, Sister Eve. It's not like we are even Christians."

Eve rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I just wanted you to stop looking at Mister Kraust like he is going to eat you at any moment. Think about it. We lived there for a week and you never suspected him. Nothing really changed."

Celina nodded with a determined frown. "I will try my best, Eve. Just give me time, alright?"

"Me too, Sister." Xia nodded as well.

"Good. Now, Xia, how's your superpower? Had you noticed any changes already?"

The sudden changed of topic made Xia blink owlishly, before her eyes sparkled with joy. "Oh, I did, Sister Sorceress! It feels so weird at times. I only need to look for a little while at something and I just know where all the weak points are! How did you do it?"

Eve opened her mouth, but before she could start explaining about the image processing algorithms and the physic models, she changed her mind. "Magic."

The awe in Xia's eyes intensified; Celina snickered in her fist.

"Doctor Ziffer, forgive us for being so uneducated…" she pleaded jokingly. "Let simple people like us just bask in the shining of your awesomeness!"

"Enough. Go, do whatever you two usually do."

Xia threw a glance at Celina. "I was going to train with Lin-Lin. I think you could take part too, Sister, if you are careful!"

Eve shook her head. "Another time."

"Don't laze around too much, Sister. Sooner or later, I will teach you how to fight properly." Xia nodded for emphasis. "It's because you don't know how to fight that you got wounded in the first place! I still remember how you jumped on that sentry from the front, giving him enough time to get his gun!"

Eve cringed and looked at her nails. "Fine. But Mister Kraust's matter takes priority."

Xia nodded with a stern frown. "As long as you get it!"

⠀

After that conversation was over and Xia with Celine went to train, Eve went to talk with Victor. Her mind was brimming with questions of all kinds. She didn't even know where to start. Radiant Technologies, Victor's level seven core, and his abilities… There was enough to think about for a month, if not for several. 'It's a good thing that I'm not in a hurry…'

In this small house in the woods, there weren't many places to be unless you went to hide in the forest. Victor was sitting in the living room with a jigsaw puzzle. He put piece after piece together almost without search; it was a speed that could come only with either a great photographic memory, or a lot of practice. When Eve walked up closer, he glanced at her, but continued with what he was doing.

'A hobby? Hm… It feels more like a way to deal with his OCD. Sorting small things in order to distract yourself from bigger things…' Eve thought. She wanted to ask, but felt too awkward to do it; somehow, it felt too personal. A moment later she realised that Victor probably knew the question already. That only made her feel even more awkward.

Eve coughed to dispel it and forcefully switched her line of thoughts to a more neutral one. She came to the table and sat on the opposite side of it. "Before I will examine your core, I'd like to ask you about your powers, Mister Kraust."

He nodded to her. "Don't mind my distraction, Doctor Ziffer. I'm listening."

It was much easier for Eve to speak when Victor wasn't penetrating her with his eyes. She straightened up. When she spoke, her expression and voice were cold and clinical. "Is your telepathy something that you can focus or turn on and off, or are you forced to hear every thought around whether or not you want it?"

"I hear everything on the surface of the minds of people around, but if I focus, I can read their memories too."

"Does it harm you in crowds?"

"I learned how to ignore what I don't want to hear, and the thoughts are never too loud for me."

"Can you only hear thoughts, or feel emotions too?"

"Both. If someone imagines a picture, I would see it too."

"What if someone is in pain? Does it hurt you too?"

Victor shook his head. "I don't know how to describe, but it feels too distant to do that.'

Eve nodded. "What's the distance of this ability? Are there any other restrictions?"

Victor paused and looked up. "I can hear thoughts clearly from about fifty meters. Farther away they become blurry and I can only grasp general intent. Even farther away, at around kilometre, I can't hear anything. If I want to read someone's memory, I need to be at five meters from them at most, and it requires time. Also, some people can partially resist my abilities."

Eve raised her brows. "And what's the distance of your mind-control?"

"It's about the same as for mind-reading; it also weakens with distance."

Eve hummed and scratched her chin. "Alright. Here's the plan of works: first, I will explore your core's programming by itself. Then, if nanites really only strengthen your natural abilities, it will become complicated. I'm not a neurologist. I'm afraid I will need to depend on trial and error to do anything and hope not to fry your brain."

Victor nodded. "So be it. When do you want to begin?"

Eve looked at the jigsaw puzzle in front of him. It was almost a complete picture now. "When you finish there."

She stood up and went to sit on the couch. 'It would probably be more convenient to sit for data transfer there than on the bed. Instead of sitting side by side, one of us could bring a chair along. Though… It was almost possible to bring a chair into the bedroom as well, wasn't it?'

Soon enough, Victor finished his puzzle, only to separate all the pieces and put them back into the box. After taking it away, he moved a chair to sit on the opposite of Eve and looked at her expectantly. "Are you ready, Doctor Ziffer?"

As she looked at his flawless face, Eve suddenly realised… That keeping up a professional attitude on close contact with other women wasn't exactly the same as keeping it on close contact with handsome men.