"I'm Blackfire." With a bemused look, she added, "And technically, they're just the right level of paranoid in a school full of people who either have powers, have lots of combat training, or both."

She counted herself in the third category. Tamaran was a planet of warriors. Although friendship and camaraderie were prized, so was strength. In fact, their language didn't even have a word for 'nice'. The closest was a word that meant 'weak'.