The last thing Noel wants to do after his rooftop encounter is work a shift in the guiding center, but one of the other D-classes calls out for an emergency, and he's first on the standby list, so late afternoon finds him stationed in one of the little curtain cubicles on the public floor.
One thing that makes Halo unique among other Paradigm agencies is their public guiding programs; espers who don't work at Halo can make appointments beforehand or just walk in and get guidance for a fee. Priority goes to Halo's "Angels", espers who officially work for the agency, of course, but their public guiding service still pulls in massive numbers and revenue each year.
Not all espers want to work for an agency and therefore might not have consistent access to a willing guide. Halo allows them to receive the guidance they need in order to keep using their powers in daily life. Most other agencies don't have the resources to support such a program, with guides being in relatively limited supply.
Noel greets his next client with a practiced smile and invites him to sit in the chair on the other side of the table. "Hello, I'm Guide Arden and I'll be performing your guidance today."
"Arden?" the man repeats with obvious surprise. "Like Beckett Arden?"
"Yes, it's spelled the same."
"Are you related?"
"No, we just have the same last name."
The man accepts that easily enough and reaches for Noel's outstretched hand. Squashing the irritation flickering in his gut, Noel focuses on their point of contact, and after a beat, his energy pulses to life.
Occasionally, Noel considers leaving Halo and finding a job at a different Paradigm agency, maybe even in a different region. In moments like this, when someone connects him with Beckett, he entertains the thought with much longing.
It's not like he wouldn't be able to find a job. Guides are such a precious resource that agencies can't afford to turn down even low classes; Traction and The Hunt, for instance, are always hiring. Plus it would undoubtedly be easier for him outside of the same agency his talented and famous brother works at. But something always stops him.
Maybe it's because Halo is the most successful agency in the country, let alone here in Novum, with long lists of hopefuls wanting to get in. Maybe it's because the benefits at Halo reflect the company's affluence and the salary is higher than any he could get elsewhere as a D-class, plus he doesn't have to wear an ugly uniform. Maybe it's because he actually does like his coworkers and making friends has never been his strong point.
It's probably a combination of multiple things, but ultimately, Noel just figures he's safer at a huge agency like Halo. Here, he can just get lost among the hundreds of faceless low-level guides, and the rarity of field work makes it less likely that he'll ever have to use his transference. Just his luck that his first field assignment in a year would nearly blow his cover.
Don't get him wrong, he's glad he was able to help Jade in the moment, and it's validating to know that his sacrifice annihilated such a huge chunk of Jade's corruption. Part of him wishes he could reveal his ability and actually help espers more than the bare minimum he manages with his regular guiding aptitude, but it's just not feasible. Not with the way transference works.
Just like with any genetic trait, Paradigm genes have their own quirks and variations, even aside from individual strength. Espers can be more skilled in some areas than others. Some espers can only use telekinesis while some can only control elements, and some can even do both. A rare esper mutation allows a select few to read minds and sometimes even influence thoughts. There are also espers with guiding intolerance, like Jade, or guiding hypertolerance, in that they can get guidance from anyone. There are guides with universal wavelengths who are guaranteed to sync well with most espers, and there have even been cases of guides increasing an esper's corruption level if the match isn't exactly right. In the sea of unique traits, transference is just one of many, but it's notable for its usefulness.
A regular guide reduces energy corruption by synchronizing with an esper and cycling their energies together, using their wavelength to essentially scrub the corruption away, leaving only pure esper energy behind. Espers have no mechanism by which to purify their own corruption, so without proper guidance, it will simply build up until it overwhelms them and triggers a meltdown, wherein all of an esper's power attempts to escape at once. Very rarely, espers are born that can cleanse their own corruption, but they tend to be lower level, and the number of such documented cases can be counted on two hands. In general, corruption can only be purified by a guide.
A transferral guide, however, instead of gradually cleansing the corruption through energy cycling within the esper's core, can absorb the corruption into their own core and purify it with their guiding wavelength there. It's a desirable skill because it's more or less instantaneous, capable of simply removing large chunks of corruption from an esper's core without the time it would take to purify so much, or any effort on the part of the esper. For high-class espers who accrue a lot of corruption by virtue of simply using their powers, transference is a very attractive process when compared to the literal days of energy cycling it would take to remove the same amount that a transferal guide could simply snap away. In theory, Noel could be a very valuable asset.
However.
Noel's natural guiding ability is weak, so his natural purification ability is weak. Instead of quickly clearing the corruption in his own body, that rot just sits there, festering, while Noel's meager energy slowly chips away at it. Eventually, he can cycle it all out, but the damage it can do in the meantime is unpleasant, to say the least. If he happened to absorb too much corruption, it's possible it could kill him before his body managed to reduce it below lethal levels. He was sick in bed for two days following the Jade Ransom incident and the dizzy spells still haven't quite abated, and that was apparently from only 20-30% of Jade's corruption. Any more and he'd probably still be bedridden, if he was lucky.
So if he doesn't want to be worked literally to death, he has to keep quiet. Before his mother died, she was the only other person who knew the truth, and now it's just him. Even his father and step-mother don't know, as his mother hid the results of his trait test after realizing what could happen to him. As an A-class guide and one of the nation's preeminent Paradigm scholars, she knew exactly what her son could face as the owner of such a rare trait, and she decided not to even tell her own husband out of caution. Noel is grateful for that now; he's loathe to imagine what his family would do with the truth. Probably send him to a lab, glad for the excuse to be rid of him.
Except now it might all fall apart, years of careful obfuscation and hiding, just because his damn empathy got the better of him.
Wonderful.
Right now, though, he's just guiding normally, and the man across from him must be either D-class or lower, because the resistance is negligible. But Noel is still tired from his near-death-experience, his core still struggling to purify the last of Jade's transferred corruption, so even this simple effort leaves him exhausted.
When he's finally done, he pulls on his customer service smile through sheer force of will. "How does that feel, sir?"
"Much better, thanks." The man rolls his neck. "You're pretty cute. Can I ask for you again?"
Noel fights not to grimace. "Unfortunately, only Angels can request specific guides."
"Maybe I'll have to apply for a job."
"I wish you luck, then. The employee at the reception desk will handle payment for your session today, and you'll have a chance to submit an anonymous survey through your phone for a ten percent off coupon on your next visit. Please come again soon."
As soon as the man is gone, Noel slumps in his chair and checks his watch. Two more hours. It hasn't even been a full day and Noel feels like he's been at work for a solid week. "Will this Monday ever end?" he asks the universe.
The curtain parts and Noel jerks upright, pasting on a smile. "Hello, I'm Guide Arden, and I'll be performing your guidance today."