Dain's signet

I think Dain is an inntinnsic (thoughts reader) limited by touch/proximity and not a memory reader and he lied about his signet to survive. First in FW Violet asks him about his signet and he replies with -

“I can read a person’s recent memories,” Dain admits quietly. “Not like an Inntinnsic reads minds or anything—I have to put my hands on the person, so I’m not a security risk. But my signet’s not common knowledge. ”

“I’m still learning, and of course I’m better at it the closer I am to Cath, but yeah. I just put my hands on someone’s temples, and I can see what they saw. It’s…incredible.”

The first thing that comes to his mind is to convince her that he is not an inntinnsic. He also claims he has to put his hands on someone's temples to read memories which we know now is a lie, just touching someone's face is enough for him. He also touches Violet's face the day after under the tree, when she and Xaden kisses and doesn't know about it. When Jeremiah manifests, the second and third years didn't know what is going on but Dain immedietly knows that jeremiah is reading thoughts -

“Is Violet going to hate me forever? Why can’t she see that I just want to keep her alive? How is he…? He’s reading my thoughts!”

When talking about needs, Violet says -

Dain has to know everything.

Reading recent memories by touching someone's face isn't knowing everything. He also reads Violet's Athebyne memory and somehow doesn't know Xaden and Violet are together. But when Xaden tells her about Athebyne, he was in her room and they had a very steamy conversation. How did Dain not know that?

I pivot, dropping my hand from Xaden’s arm, but it’s obvious by Dain’s expression that he now knows there’s something between Xaden and me— and he’s hurt. My stomach hits the ground. “Dain…” “Him?” Dain’s eyes widen and his face flushes. “You and…him?” He shakes his head. “People talk, and I thought that’s all it was, but you…”

In IF Varrish tells him -

“Search like you’ve been practicing but focus on the word ward.”

This is pretty brilliant if he came up with that. Say the word you need the memories of related to, and all that person can think is that memory. Before the battle of Basgiath, he says he can only find half the boxes-

“I saw where Barlowe put most of the lure boxes but not all of them,” Dain continues

Now this seems pretty important. Why doesn't he try to look in the memory of Jack to find the rest of them? Jack was unconscious and in their custody. He doesn't know where the rest of the boxes are because you can't read the thoughts of a person that is unconscious. The inntinnsic we know says he sees intention in clear pictures -

"Mostly they come across as pictures, but some people intend in really clear pictures."

I think the same happens to Dain. Thoughts come mostly across pictures. When people think of memories, he sees the memories in clear pictures. Also, Imogen and Dain were in the same squad during first year. Isn't it a little too coincidental that two first year at the same time, same squad, manifests rare mindwork signets that are the exact opposite of each other?

So, here is what I think happened. Dain a normal, happy, grinning guy goes to Basgiath with a lot of expectation from his father. Then manifests the only signet that is punishable by death. So he goes to Cath, and Cath helps him lie. There are a few signets you can fake if you are an inntinnsic (memory reader, truth sayer etc.) He gets the idea to fake memory reader after seeing Imogen erasing memories. After he gets away with it, he starts following the rules strictly so no one suspects him and constantly downplays his signet so he is not considered a security threat.

I think that is why he was struggling with Cath's power in FW and in OS Sloane thinks he has too much. It would also explain why his signet doesn't have a linear growth like everyone else. It seems like he was reading memories just fine in FW but then in IF year Varrish brings him civillians to practice on and then they needed to be mended by Nolon. After all that 'training' he still couldn't read Barlowe's memory properly.