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Mige floats around with Richard as they are walking through a bit of a more secluded area. Richard eventually stops and faces Mige.

"So I have to ask because I've seen so many people here with that little triangle badge that have larger numbers than you and seem so much less sure of their abilities. You float around like it's nothing to you. Is your badge a lie?"

"It is," Mige shrugs.

"Wouldn't they have means to check against that?"

"Oh they do," he turns and faces the human. "Here's a good example of how they tell." Mige raises up his paws towards the human. "I want you to push down on my paws and tell me when it feels like I'm putting everything I can into the act of pushing up on your hands."

Richard obliges and doesn't really know what else to do other than to try and resist. And he can feel the other person slowly increasing the amount of force. And then he notices a period where it stops increasing.

"Now?"

"Actually it'd be more like now," Mige says as he starts putting as much force into it as possible. And though it is considerably harder than before, Richard is still not really struggling. The advantage of trying to push down against a paw pushing up. "Do you feel that? The vibration?" he continues for another moment and then lets his paws drop. "When someone is giving their all there is a sort of variability in the force. People can't put their all into an act all of the time, there's a bit of give and take. Same is true for the tests for these. Originally, your rating on how well you use Sym magic was simply a matter of how big of a rock you were able to lift. Naturally that doesn't work in space so they use a weight system instead. But principle is mostly the same. They're able to tell when you're at your limit by the fluctuations and they're also extremely well trained to tell when someone is just faking it. But what they don't do is verify that you're only pushing up. So if I were to both push up and down on the object in almost equal force, with the force up being only slightly higher, then we're in a situation where they see me using everything I have and only actually lifting an object a tiny fraction of what I can actually do."

"So what would your rating actually be?"

"What's the point of cheating on a rating test if you're going to just tell people the answer?" Mige questions, turning upside down in the air.

"I suppose."

"Now the Raeshael test, that's the really tricky one to cheat. The Raeshael test is a matter of how precise you can move objects and how many. Even now it's basically just a series of puzzles moving small stones. To cheat that one you pretty much need to be constantly moving more objects than you are supposed to for quite potentially an hour and make sure they don't notice what you're doing."

"Do you think I could ever learn magic?" Richard asks.

Mige stops and floats up to him to look him straight in the eye, even going so far as to turn right-side up again. "It isn't so much of a matter of if you could ever learn magic but will. Magic isn't some special thing that only certain people are born with. Anyone can do it, you just have to figure out how. Magic is all about manipulation of energy, converting it to what is called phasic space or turning phasic energy back into real energy. But this information is something that is always there, even back in the time you came from. There really is no difference in time period. The trick, though, is that it is all around you and the minds of everyone are lazy. The fact that you can feel it all the time means your brain just ignores it. It's like the air in that regards. To use magic you have to effectively learn how to feel the air around you. And then after that you have to learn how to control it. There really isn't all that much more to it than that. Not to say you'd be able to be the best mage ever, that takes a lot of practice and skill. The kitsune are some of the strongest mages because they literally spend hundreds of years practicing at the craft. Unfortunately, this is not something I can teach you how to learn. I kind of cheated and figured out what it felt like to fully control my magic and then just copied the sensation and figured it out from that."

"Knowing you, I have no idea how much of that is the truth and how much is you making things up."

"I have never lied to you. Omitted information sure, but never lied. But there is one thing I want you to know. There exists inside you a gift far more precious than being able to light a candle or throw a rock. And that is a gift that is all yours alone. When the time is right, I'll give you the key to make the utmost use of it, but that's not today. You aren't ready for it yet and using it now would only serve to get you killed. Someday, though. Trust me," he says as he heads them back towards one of the markets.

"If you've never lied, then what is it that you actually do here? We've been here for a rather long time and I've never even heard you make any mention about what you do to earn money. It's just you find me and we go for a walk through some part of the station to have a talk or for you to show me something."

"Well, I'm not going to lie," Mige grins and then flies up ahead. Richard follows behind, frowning at the response but at the same time not taking it too personally. Other than calling himself a Prince and being the last of his kind he's never really heard Mige say a single thing about themselves. He probably learned more about Mige from that game with the Jhereshii a few weeks ago than he has from any actual conversation. When he catches up he sees Mige approaching some man in a long, black travelling cloak.

"Hello there," Mige speaks to the new individual, apparently bringing them into the spell for the Language of Intent as well. "It's a nice day today isn't it?"

"Buzz off!" the human retorts, swinging a hand at Mige to try and get them to go away.

Mige frowns for a moment, spins around slowly so that they first look at him upside down then back upside right. "Well that's certainly a mean thing to say. I'm only saying that it's such a nice day today, wouldn't you say?"

"And I don't care. We're on a station. It's never not going to be a good day. Now go away or I will force you to go away. Can't you see I'm busy."

Mige pouts, "no need to be rude. Was only making an introduction. But if that's how you want it," they flick their head slightly and float back towards Richard.

"What was that about?" Richard asks.

"Nothing you need to worry about. I was just trying to be polite and he was not."

"Is that a part of your job here? Talking to people?"

"No, nothing of the sort. I'm being paid quite a bit to do my job. And for that I want to be very thorough about my job. But they did not inform the station I was coming so I'm operating under the assumption that I am to operate blind. If someone figures it out then that's well enough. But it defeats the point of operating blind if I tell some what I'm doing. And so that's why I will not simply say what it is I do. They want to see how the station responds on their own. It'll take me a while to do the entire station. This is a very large place and it is when I'm doing my job that I find these things that I show you. And as I've said, it's important to always enjoy your life for you only get the one. Anyway, come along. I found this little stand nearby that sells these things. It's not real meat and they even admit to it on the store front. Not really all that much nutritional value to be perfectly honest. Though I suppose there are some vitamins and proteins in there. But the way they have it prepared, it's like mmm. I imagine in your old time you had these thoroughly spiced and sauced steaks, yes? Now imagine that taste, that juiciness and then make it into an eatable cloud," And with that Mige began to lead Richard off to some place they had found.

The information Kinou had gotten was a huge success. So successful, in fact, that the disguised lynx immediately went about securing transport to his next destination and went ahead and sent a request that any of the other Shadows that had not found any viable leads to go ahead and converge on his next destination. His next stop is going to be going to a planet this time, though it was going to take a few stops in the meantime. It would end up looking far too suspicious if right after an attack on a station someone from that station arrived on the planet. He'll be using Gate jumps entirely as he doesn't want to waste too much time. And thankfully his destination is also next to a Gate so he won't lose too much time from that. Planets are always preferable. Actual day and night cycles means a lot more they can interact with, though getting accustomed to how a planet's daily cycle is will take some time. The data was naturally encrypted and may even be a trap itself, but he somewhat doubts it. The place he got it from was far too well guarded to be a honeypot. But what he did get was information on all three attacks, with four more being planned for Phase two, coming in a few months. And all of these have an organizational structure. Each system has its own group of an anti-Mythics activist group. But a group this large needs someone to help finance these operations and help coordinate things. A human that is able to convince these people to join in the cause.

And though the information did not give an exact name he could use, it did say that the single person who had met each of the people in charge of every one of the attacks aimed at the station came from this one planet. And the more interesting thing which he did also relay back to the station is why it is that they are targeting the station itself. While waiting for a flight to the planet on his final stop, he did some more digging around and got a hold of some communications sent between the base he had infiltrated and the planet. The strange thing is that Foznetal is the only station being targeted. There are far more vulnerable stations closer to the border that could be targeted and be far more likely to succeed. Apparently there have been more attempts initiated against the station but either the person they sent ended up being unreliable and ran away with the funds or didn't act in the way they wanted. And there's one attempt that was going to happen but a malfunction destroyed the ship.

But even still, there have been no attacks made or even planned against any other station. And that is certainly something to think about. That they are attacking only that one station means that it's not opportunistic attacks. Whatever their end goal is, Foznetal stands in the way of it. And when he thinks about that particular fact, Kinou can only come up with a very few possible reasons. There are really only three things that Foznetal have that is not present at all other stations. First and the least likely is the tracking of Corewards. The station was first designed to help track Corewards. It has the known location of every Coreward in the sector and its destination and is coordinated from all the member races. Removing Foznetal for that reason wouldn't do anything, just decentralize the information.

Second option are the politicians. The station has probably the largest diversity of politicians in any one location. It is the only place in the entire galaxy where one can find representatives of every major species in one location. And they do this to negotiate peace deals and negotiate trade. Removing the station for this would isolate the various races, making communication slower and more easily manipulated. If one were to stage a strike at a vulnerable target, it would make sense to attack the station to disrupt communication so that they can pull off the entire attack before anyone has time to respond. But this only works if targeting a single system and even then communication from that system could hold things for a while.

The final possibility is the fleet. With each system donating one ship to the fleet, especially with the engineers tinkering with some equipment, Foznetal's military might is arguably the largest in the entire sector baring the Corewards. The entire fleet of Foznetal would have no chance against the Consortium, that much is still true and hasn't changed since the Consortium War. But at the very least when considering the station's might, coupled with the military of any of the factions, war is almost impossible. Even the Fringewards are protected and difficult for war to be carried out against them because of the threat of Toreselia's fleet. Let alone any additional reinforcements other systems decide to devote to intervention measures.

In short, the only logical explanation, and the one sent back to the station to be aware of, is that this group of humans want to be able to go to war with someone. Until his group can either apprehend this person and interrogate him or find more conclusive information he won't be able to tell the score or the target. But it is clear that the station represents the greatest impediment to war in this sector of the galaxy and for war to be started, the station must first be taken out. And so as he waits to go through this final Gate to the planet he has to consider that his mission has slightly expanded in the grand scheme of things. It's no longer just a mission trying to attack one station or the leadership. The mission to stop these attacks must still be stopped, but the bigger issue is whom is trying to go to war with whom. And can that war be stopped in time or the fleet maneuvered in such a way to mitigate that war as much as possible. But that'll just have to wait until he can see how much they're having to deal with.