I thought I'd paste in what I'm supposed to be writing now Chapter 9. You've caught me in the middle of attempting to disguise an infodump kinda conversation:
“Do you know” He said to me one evening, toward the end of term. “exactly how rare your gift is, Willam?” He asked.
“No, sir” I said, “but you're the only person I've met who can do it.”
“You think I'm the only person who can link. None of us with the gift are allowed to speak of it. As far as I know there is a single person who knows all of those within the order that can link. And that's Levit”
“Why is that, sir?” I asked, as I swirled my brandy, the few sips I'd had already making my head swim slightly.
“Why?! Oh-ho!” He said, tapping the desk lightly as he exclaimed “Because it's not an officially recognised gift at all. We can't detect people who have it, not like we can those who have our more mundane gifts. It officially doesn't exist”
“But why do we not recognise it, Sir?” I asked, and I could feel a little frustration push it's way into my voice. “Surely more gifts we have within the order is a good thing isn't it? It seems silly for me to hide it.”
“Oh, but the order has the gifts. They've had me for the last 40 or so years, to use the gifts when needed, and I'm sure they've had a fair few others- though I only knew of one. What would those gifts being common knowledge achieve, exactly?”
“Prestige?”
“Prestige, my boy?” He leant over and topped my glass up a litte “Do you think that's a good thing for the order?”
“Well, why wouldn't it be?” I asked.
“Why wouldn't it be sir.” He said, his eyebrows raised and a small smirk on his face. “You haven't had enough brandy to forget the niceties, now.”
“Sorry, sir.”
Herold nodded gravely, and took a small sip from his glass. “I'm sure you've seen the magnificent view from your room. Have you not?”
“I have, sir”
“haven't you wondered why it's so magnificent?” he leant forward “why our towers are higher than those of the royal keep? Why we are on Highrock and not them?”
“I... It never occurred to me, sir”
“And it never occurs to those in the keep, either. Not really at least. Oh, no. This order exists, this school exists, because we are the perfect balance between useful he placed his palm up on his desk “and benign” He placed his left hand palm up above the desk and shifted them, like the two sides of a scale. “What you and I represent, is something that makes this order much less benign. I mean could you imagine what we can do? We look into the eyes of the right guard, or the right cook, and he's now our personal assassin. Nobody is safe from us. We tip the scales. Make the order less benign. But we make it much more useful. So we're hidden away, and the order has the benefits of our abilities alongside the benefits of being benign. It's a win-win for the order.
“Do you think that's fair, sir?”
Herold raised his eyebrows. “Fair? How do you mean?”
“Well that we, that our abilities are kept secret. That we're unable to use them for ourselves. That we're just a tool for an order.”
Herold smiled. “Outside of this room, Willam, that is a very dangerous question to ask.” He stretched behind his desk. “But it is an interesting one.” There was a pause between us. “I think it's about time you left, Wil. You have a long day tomorrow.”