“I’ll try.” Sophie took a slow, deep breath. Then another. And another. “I should warn you: I’m not very good at clearing my head.”

Oralie smiled. “I know the feeling. But the good news is, the point of this exercise is to become more aware—not less. And I’ll be guiding you to the proper kind of focus. Are you ready to begin?”

“I guess,” Sophie hedged, taking another deep breath before closing her eyes. “What do I do?”

Oralie cleared her throat. “I’m going to walk you through a countdown of sorts, that focuses on each of your abilities—starting with your telepathy, then your inflicting, then your teleporting, then your talent as a Polyglot, and finally your enhancing. So to begin, I want you to think about how it feels to be a Telepath—and I don’t mean to use the ability now. That would make it too difficult for you to focus. Fortunately, you have a photographic memory, so you should be able to recall the experience vividly. So remember the last time you opened your mind to someone else and searched their thoughts. And as you visualize that, I want you to give me five words—five sensations—that define the way your telepathy works. What is it like to open your mind to someone else’s consciousness? And not what you hear or see or learn. How does that feel?”

“Um…”

Sophie had a hunch she was going to be very bad at this, but she squeezed her eyes tighter and tried to do as Oralie instructed.

Technically, the last mind she’d searched was Lord Cassius’s—and she did not feel like reliving that wonderful experience. So she pictured the mental conversation she’d had with Keefe afterward, which still hadn’t been pleasant, since she’d had to show Keefe those horrible memories. But… there was always something so natural about using her telepathy with Keefe. She barely had to try to let her consciousness reach for him and…

“I guess there’s usually a stretching sensation,” Sophie said quietly, “as I reach for the other person’s thoughts. Is that the kind of feeling you’re looking for?”

“It’s a wonderful start,” Oralie assured her. “But I think for the purposes of this exercise, it might be better to focus on a more emotional sensation, rather than such a physical one.”

“Okay, but… I don’t know what that would be,” Sophie mumbled.

“All right. Well. I’m not a Telepath, but would you say that you’re forming connections when you use the ability?”

Sophie nodded.

“Perfect. So let’s make the first word ‘unifying.’ Does that help you see what kind of sensations we’re looking for?”

“Maybe?” Sophie said.

Oralie smiled. “You’ll get it, I promise. Just try to really visualize the experience.”

Sophie sighed. “Well… telepathy usually makes me a little tired by the end.”

“Okay—and why does it make you tired?” Oralie asked.

“Uh… I guess it’s that the whole process is kind of draining? Like, I can feel my mental power pouring out of me the longer I stay connected.”

“Good,” Oralie told her. “So ‘unifying,’ ‘draining’—what else? We need three more.”

Ugh, she might as well have asked for a million.

And they still had to do this with four more abilities?

“Really think,” Oralie told her. “Embrace your memories of the experience without trying to edit them into the answers you think I want to hear.”

Sophie blew out a breath. “Um, okay, well… this is going to sound like I’m contradicting myself, but… using my telepathy also feels a little energizing.”

“Good! Not a contradiction at all. An experience is never one thing. Exercise is both invigorating and exhausting, isn’t it?”

“True,” Sophie admitted.

“Okay, ‘unifying,’ ‘draining,’ ‘energizing’—what else captures the feel of being a Telepath?”

“Well, it’s kind of… inspiring,” Sophie said, feeling her cheeks burn with the confession. “People have so much more going on in their heads than we realize.”

“I’m certain they do. Same thing can be said for emotions, by the way—but that’s beside the point. Excellent! ‘Unifying,’ ‘draining,’ ‘energizing,’ ‘inspiring’—you just need one more.”

An answer floated through Sophie’s mind, but it didn’t feel like the right word.

“Just say it,” Oralie told her, gently squeezing Sophie’s wrists. “I can tell you’ve thought of something.”

“I did, but ‘frightening’ sounds so negative.”

“There’s no negative or positive here. Only the truth of your experience. And isn’t it frightening to wander through someone’s mind?” Oralie pressed.

“It… can be.”

Something about admitting that out loud and recognizing the sensations made Sophie’s heart feel a tiny bit lighter, and her head hummed with a rush of new energy that made her mind feel stronger and sharper.

“See?” Oralie asked. “There’s power that comes with acknowledging the truth of what we experience, without measuring it as good or bad, positive or negative. It simply is what it is. And for you, telepathy is unifying, draining, energizing, inspiring, and frightening.”

“Yeah, I guess it is.” Sophie sat up taller, feeling much less intimidated when she said, “Okay, what’s next?”

But then she remembered it was her inflicting.

“I know this isn’t your favorite ability,” Oralie told her. “And I debated about whether I should make it fourth in the countdown, or third. But given your newfound control, and the untold depths of this power, I think it’s best to give it that added bit of discovery. So relax, take a deep breath, and give me four words that sum up the feeling of inflicting—and again, don’t try to censor them or shape them. Be honest about the experience.”

Sophie chewed her lip, replaying that overwhelming moment next to Big Ben.

And she realized she’d already found her first word. “ ‘Overwhelming.’ ”

She added “empowering” right after, which felt a little strange to admit, given that it was such a dark ability, but… it was empowering to know that she could face her enemies and not have to hide or cower anymore.

“What else?” Oralie asked, and it took Sophie a lot more emotional digging to realize her inflicting was both unsettling and refreshing—but it was. Owning the dark feelings inside herself would never be a comfortable process—but purging them all felt like a reset.

And when she repeated all four terms out loud—“overwhelming, empowering, unsettling, refreshing”—she felt her heart lighten again, along with another hum of energy that flooded both her mind and her chest.

Another burst of strength, right at the core of the ability.

The same thing happened after she decided that teleporting was liberating, surprising, and alarming.

And again when she realized being a Polyglot felt both humbling and uplifting.

“Down to enhancing,” Oralie said softly, “and while I’m sure there are many words to describe the experience, I want you to choose the one that feels the most defining to you—and remember, it should be about your experience with the ability, not how it affects anyone else.”