These days foot traffic around the barracks was greatly reduced, in part because of the stricter security and in part because of the rumors about what had been going on inside ever since they started taking on strangers by the trainload. As such, two girls dressed like dolls carrying frilled parasols should have been an unusual sight, but they were in fact regular visitors.

An elderly valet followed after them with a well-worn doctor's bag in hand. The soldiers they encountered all deferred to the two girls, saluting as they passed. The girls made no move to return the gesture in any form, leaving the soldiers to hold the salute until the girls were sufficiently removed from them.

The girls went to the headquarters building. The valet opened the front door for the girls. Just past the door, there were two young soldiers on watch duty and a sergeant sitting at the reception desk a little further in. The two young soldiers, seeing the girls entering, sprang to their feet and snapped to attention, with the one on the right shouting, "Attention!"

The sergeant also stood at attention, but not quite as quickly.

As the girls were closing their parasols, the elder of the two said, "Call Colonel Mazarin."

The sergeant then told the soldier on the left, "You heard her. Go get the Colonel, Baumann."

He took a step back to fall out of the position of attention and quickly made his way to Colonel Mazarin's office. The sergeant and the remaining soldier were left standing at attention. It was not that the girls were ignorant of military courtesies but rather an entirely deliberate move. In fact, a slight grin rose to the lips of the older girl as she watched the soldiers stand still and silent as boards.

A few minutes later, Colonel Mazarin appeared with a couple junior officers with him and young Baumann trailing behind. The Colonel stopped a few paces from the girls and stood at attention with the others with him doing likewise.

Colonel Mazarin tilted his head to his right, where a lean-featured junior officer was standing.

Lieutenant Blanchard turned to Baumann and said, "Go fetch Corporal Charis, Trooper Ioanides and Drummer Szlaty. Tell them to come to 2-2."

Baumann went to where he had been sitting to get his shako before exiting the building.

Colonel Mazarin nodded and Lieutenant Blanchard made his way to the door.

Mariana curtseyed to the Colonel, saying, "If you will excuse us."

Iliana curtseyed as well.

The valet gave a curt bow before following after his young mistresses.

They had to cross the courtyard to get to Building 2. There was a group of about fifty Ancients being granted some outdoor time. Several who took notice of Mariana and Iliana shrank from the sight of them.

When they reached Building 2, they waited briefly for the men Lieutenant Blanchard had summoned. They were an ill-favored sort, but the two girls were seeking function over form and these men certainly appeared to be the kind who would be capable of doing what was required of them.

They proceeded to the second floor. Each floor housed one of the four companies of a battalion, which were further subdivided into four platoons. Most of the men of a given platoon would be berthed in bays intended for 40 to 50, but now they were crowded with over a hundred Ancients gathered from the four corners of Arielle. To accommodate these numbers, the 'guests' would either have to double up in the bunks or some unlucky souls would have to settle for sleeping on the floor.

Initially, the soldiers separated the males and females, but Mariana insisted they mix the sexes, putting a greater priority on keeping people from the same geographical area together. Her reasoning was that people from the same place were more likely to have known each other prior to the Cataclysm and the presence of acquaintances, even friends and family perhaps, ought to help trigger the return of their memories.

The first challenge they encountered was communication. No one could understand what they were saying and none of them could understand what was being said to them, which is how many found themselves in sanitaria. The more quick-witted among them were learning, but in-depth conversations would not be happening anytime soon.

Ironically, it was their hated enemy Giger Taus who came to their aid. He was a prolific crafter of black market enchantments—anonymously, of course, but there was no mistaking the magic of the man who killed their mother. It would be even more ironic if his work guided them to the solution to his undoing.

Not everyone had a gift for foreign languages and the dismantling of the magic economy made international trade more important than ever. A subtle magical shortcut for enterprising folk was a fairly popular item according to the dealer who sold the items in question. A little gem fixed to the throat and another in the ear would harmonize the languages of two speakers. As a passive enchantment, it would not set off the usual detectors and only the most sensitive instruments would pick up the trace of magic.

Once the language barrier was overcome, it immediately became clear that all the awakened Ancients had none of their original memories, or at least not enough to be useful. The task then turned to restoring the Ancients' memories, if it was even possible. They started simply, giving the Ancients various tasks to accomplish and measuring their response. After a few days without even the slightest hint of progress, they started to resort to a more aggressive approach.

There was a process to be followed all the same and it began with a simple test. When they stepped into the bay, Mariana did a quick scan of the room before saying, "Line them up."

When they were all in position, Mariana then said to the valet, "Mr. Geoffries."

Mr. Geoffries opened his doctor's bag and produced two small wooden boxes. Mariana gave one to Lieutenant Blanchard and Iliana gave the other to Corporal Charis.

In the wooden boxes were Witch Crystals. They were a crude tool but easy to mass-produce. The crystals were part of the late Countess' plan to lure children into practicing magic, mostly to swamp the Witch-hunters with hundreds of petty offenders but also as a means of scouting out any diamonds in the rough that warranted polishing. Poaching young mages from the Academies was no longer an option, so new talent had to be found some other way.

The Witch Crystals reacted to a person's magic potential, basically a form of passive detector. Obviously, there could be problems if they were dealing with a subject with the potential for magic, but thus far all the Ancients they tested lacked even the slightest trace of magic ability.

As they went through testing all the Ancients in the bay, they got the same results as with the others, providing further evidence to the theory that it was only the people without magic ability who were cursed during the Cataclysm, leaving those with the power to sire the current inhabitants of the world. It would stand to reason then that without the unique environment produced by the Cataclysm, the prevalence of magic ability among humanity would be even lower than the current rate. All this was, however, of secondary concern to the task of unlocking the knowledge of the Ancients and exploiting that knowledge.

Once all the Ancients present had been tested, Mariana and Iliana selected six at random and led them to the showers. It was easier to clean up afterward that way.

Their first subject was a heavyset, middle-aged man. Mariana signalled for the man to be stripped and led into the shower room. Mr. Geoffries offered Mariana an interpreter set while he gave another to Lieutenant Blanchard to affix to the subject. Meanwhile, Iliana took up a pen and pad to record the proceedings.

Mariana took hold of the man's wrist so that she could read the brand on his forearm.

Mariana turned to the subject as Mr. Geoffries was lighting the torch and asked him, "Do you have a preference, Zero-Zero-Two-Zero-Five-Six? Fingers? Toes? Or should we go right to more delicate anatomy? It could yield faster results."