Detect Life

“’The Sound of Souls,’” I answered, reading the title that appeared before me. “What’s this do?”

“Ugh, boring,” Cynosarges made a face. “I guess I can see a reason for it, given the circumstances, but really…”

“It’s a detection ability, of sorts,” Grandmother answered and the throbbing in my head must have shown on my face because she chuckled. “Sorry, dear, but I thought you might find this one a bit useful—to put it simply, it should allow you to sense the presence of other living beings.”

“Sounds pretty cool,” I said truthfully, if not with enormous enthusiasm. “Why’d they forget this one? Is there a problem with it or is it just too had to train or something?”

“The damn thing sucks,” Cynosarges rolled his eyes before pausing. “Well, I guess the amount of time it takes to teach it doesn’t help, but the real problem is with the technique. It lets you sense life, boy. Think about it.”

I frowned for a moment, doing so, and then tilting my head slightly to the side.

“All life?” I asked.

“All life,” He confirmed. “Humans, plants, animals—there was even an experiment that proved it would respond to sufficiently large groups of bacteria. Once you get the hang of it, you can separate the plants from the animals and even ignore small or simple creatures, but if you consider that Hunters generally operate in either large cities or in the wilderness, it’s usually still too broad to provide useful information. Worse, the Grimm don’t show up on it at all, since it works by doing this type of Aura echolocation thing.”

“Ah,” I said, frowning.

“Even so, it has its uses,” Grandmother added after waiting for her friend to finish. “Even if all it usually tells you is whether or not things are there, that can provide a wealth of information in the right circumstances. Sometimes, simply sensing people where they aren’t supposed to be can be invaluable; with Raven, it should be enough to serve as a last line of defense. Should you suddenly sense a new presence without them passing through the rest of your range…with her power, it could be as little as a split-second of warning, but perhaps it’ll be enough.”