“Wending” is a term used by Gráinne to describe this behavior.
Erszebet seems to be somewhere in between Fitch and Gráinne. She understands the concept of Wending and can speak about it, but seems to consider it a little beyond the pale of normal magical practice. Further conversations will be needed to better understand her misgivings on the topic. I can think of two possible explanations: (1) it is somehow dangerous or disagreeable, so Erszebet doesn’t want to do it, or (2) Erszebet simply lacks the required degree of magical power and skill; understandable given she came of age as magic was waning.
The second hypothesis has led some within DODO to posit the idea that Gráinne is a “super-witch” with a degree of magical power that places her head and shoulders above other witches.
The “super-witch” concept is now beginning to influence DODO’s planning process, as some members of the staff have begun looking for others of this type. It is supposed, for example, that Winnifred Dutton (1562 Antwerp) may be another “super-witch.”
The purpose of this document is to discourage further use of the “super-witch” idea for which we really have no firm evidence yet, and instead request that DODO staff use the terminology “Wending” to describe the specific behavior we want. The ability to Wend will undoubtedly make a Known Compliant Witch (KCW) a more effective collaborator, and so let us seek out KCWs who know how to do it, rather than making the “super-witch” distinction which is not supported by evidence and which is pejorative to Erszebet Karpathy—the one witch we actually have to work with in the present day.
Diachronicle
DAY 584 (EARLY MARCH, YEAR 2)
In which everything expands
AS DODO EXPANDED, THE ORGANIZATIONAL hierarchy, and its attendant bureaucracy, evolved accordingly. It was both electric and irritating to witness a corporation blooming around us, leaving us sometimes marooned in the middle of it. I was grateful for Mortimer, the IT geek specialist, who brought a touch of whimsy to the chunks of that bureaucracy he managed. Even more grateful than I was Rebecca, whom DODO decided to hire given that she was frequently underfoot anyhow, not only asking lots of intelligent questions but frequently answering them. She was also very good with Erszebet, and that could be said about nobody else except myself, who was increasingly beleaguered with procedural developments. Once Mortimer got the intranet (ODIN) up and running it began to take up too much fucking bandwidth a lot of my time.
It also altered how we did things. Within a matter of months Tristan and I went from being almost Siamese twins to actually seeing each other in person only at the (snazzy new) snack bar or the occasional lunch out; most of our engagement was via ODIN channels. This had an odd effect on our friendship: after the electricity of first meeting, there had been a frisson between us that we never acknowledged (although it was strong enough for others to comment upon)—but we certainly enjoyed it. (Or at least, I confess to enjoying it, and to perceiving within him clues that he did as well.) Then, spending so much time together, we grew accustomed to our closeness, so that we went from not-quite-first-date to old-married-couple almost seamlessly.
Until ODIN came along.
Once Tristan became just an icon on the nearest screen, I often forgot that he was a living, breathing, winsome Male, and so when we would encounter each other—in the copy room, grabbing a handful of grapes, waiting for a meeting with Blevins . . . that initial electricity, that exquisitely repressed well-hello-there energy, erupted all over again, and never quite settled because we were never in each other’s presence continuously for quite long enough.
THE ONE EXCEPTION was in early March of the second year. Tristan and I flew to DC for a meeting with General Frink and Dr. Rudge at the Trapezoid. I will only detail the mental takeaway, but the emotional and visceral takeaway was that I got to spend two entire plane rides alone in a private plane with a hot bad-ass dude handsome gentleman, who crossed his legs carefully when I looked at him too long and who could make me grin inwardly (only inwardly, I assure you) merely by uttering my surname in a particular tone. Now that I know there will never be such plane rides again, I wish to state that despite the violation of DODO’s baroque sexual harassment policy, it really is a fucking shame regrettable that we did not make better use of that privacy.
But I digress. Back to the mental takeaway:
Based on Oda-sensei’s most recent estimates, the goal became to have a fully functioning Chronotron by the end of the year, at which point we would be able to undertake formally planned DEDEs—DODO’s chartered purpose. Meanwhile, we would postpone any outcome-oriented missions. No more moneymaking gambits, etc. After the Chronotron was online, we would be able to run such missions far more safely and efficiently.
In the meantime, those of us on the payroll would not be idle. Do not think it, reader! As well as the office-speak mumbo-jumbo to become familiar with, there were still certain diachronic jaunts it was deemed safe to undergo, those being:
First and above all, to seek out and convert witches and other abettors, thus creating a network of Known Compliant Witches (KCWs) and safe houses.
Second, to fill in the data gaps the Chronotron noted as it was uploading digitized information from primary and secondary historical material—in other words, factoid-finding missions (what did a particular intersection in Rome look like in 44 BC; how large were daikon in pre-modern Japan; where did George Washington sleep the night of 11 January, 1779, etc.). Not only was this useful for the Chronotron data workers, but it would also help us to break in new recruits with low-stakes missions.
Third (in a similar vein), to make reconnaissance missions to DTAPs we knew would be important for future work. Chief amongst these was Constantinople circa 1203 (more on that in a moment) and Renaissance London, both of which would be major hubs within the KCW network.