Chapter 144: Book 3: Talents
There's a whole mess of notifications that come right after that notice, but my attention is briefly taken up by the Interface's phrasing. It says I retrieved a Talent—not that I unlocked it. Not even that it's been granted to me. The way it's phrased, I almost feel like it's not something built into the Interface.
"Interface," I say. "What do you mean by retrieved?"
No response. I let out an aggrieved sigh. I don't know why I expected it to start answering all my questions now. There's a chance that the rest of the notifications answer my questions, though, so I continue reading.
[NOTICE: The Talent you have retrieved is the [Anchor]. Note that another usage of your Talent may result in severe consequences, including but not limited to the severance of your Interface from the wider Intermediary Network, including contact with your Integrator overlords.]
Yeah, well, a bit late for that, I think to myself. Ahkelios lets out a snort next to me, clearly thinking the same thing. The blatant usage of the term overlords there is new, too; it doesn't feel like it's a message written by the Integrators themselves. Mostly because they're usually a little more subtle than that.
[NOTICE: Second usage of [Anchor] has been logged. Talent signature identified. Processing...]
[NOTICE: Protocol ANCHORED HERITAGE has been activated.]
"I guess that explains that," I say, studying the notice intently. I wasn't able to put a name to the ability before—it felt like a combination of authority and speak and command, in a way that was difficult to find a specific word for. [Anchor] feels... correct. Or at least as close as I can get in English.
It doesn't explain what it is, though.