312 Far Future Ch. 22 – She Lives with Ghosts (1/2)
I nodded slowly, meeting each and every one of their eyes. ”Yep.” And let that sink in. ”And just imagine when they come looking for a blade baby... and find six of 'em. And me.”
Their faces all changed, visualizing that. Mindclaws around their hands...
Brekko was thinking faster and further then all of them. ”Can we trust you?” he asked.
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I just held up my hand. ”You're asking the wrong question. I've shown you my colors. What you should be asking is... how can we get this lady to trust us, a bunch of greens?”
They all looked at one another, and even Brekko looked a little downcast, but then straightened. ”You say you can give us a Claw like that, and train us, show us the ropes. Nobody here is willing to do anything else but use us up and throw us away. You willing to teach us, show us shit like you're saying, stuff we couldn't even imagine... fuck, yeah, you can count on us. I'll do whatever you say, girl!” The others all agreed with quick nods. This was like a golden opportunity come from Heaven. Turn it away? As if!
”Well, then, here's the deal. I'll take you in, I'll Open you up as fellow Nulls, and I'll train you all, including the baby blade. But you'll have to agree to a contract to do that, a psionic geas Tatted right onto your brains.
”You'll be my gang, as well as my students. I'll have shit for you to do. That shit will help you get stronger, stay on the path, get more independent and able, give you focus for your life, the kind of focus that'll bring you out of this place.
”You're going to give me all of your time until you are twenty. At twenty, we sit down and talk, and either you decide to stay on, or you find a way to repay me, and you walk.
”If that's okay with you all, then we're good to go. Follow me, and we'll get you initiated, and your first lessons will start.”
”Where you live, girl?” Brekko had to ask. The fact that I could even do such a thing showed I was way up the power scale from them.
”You will address me as Sensei, or Sage Sama,” I said in a clipped voice. ”That's a sign of respect. I will be your teacher, and I know more then you. I am not your boss, your sis, your mate, or your girl. I am your instructor and your guide. You will call me as such, and if you can't bear to do so, then fuck off.”
”Sage Sama, where you live?” Brekko rephrased the question sort of respectfully.
”Right there.” I pointed, and their eyes followed my finger, and they hastily swore and looked away.
”You live in Habberblok?” They all looked at me as if I was crazy.
”To be precise, I live in Habberblok... in the Top Fifty.” I let that sink in, and they all gaped at me. ”And if you choose to follow me, at some point, so will you.”
Hook, set! I had them. There was cool, and there was ”She lives in the place that kills people that look at it too long”...
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”This is floor 157. Nobody stays here, so we've got our choice of rooms,” I pointed out to my new cohort of six teens, who looked a bit jumpy. The whole floor was indeed totally abandoned, and given how close the Top Fifty was, it wasn't surprising. Davro was especially twitchy.
I pointed them to chairs probably near as old as the building around a couple tables of equal pedigree. ”Sit. It's time to Mark you.” They swallowed despite themselves at the contract they were about to enter, and took their seats around one table, and I set down my case of Inks on the other. ”Brightboy Brekko, you're first...”
My Claw was gold. He looked at it, and chose to believe in my colors...
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-You may open the Door.-
I watched them staring at the Door floating in their minds, very obvious, impossible to ignore, a Door that had not been there before.
I was getting about two goldweight value of Karma a day. At such a rate, I would make Ten in Melee in about a year and a half, if I did nothing else. Me being who I am, even if monstrous loads of Karma were all Sealed up and waiting to return to me, I wasn't going to be waiting all that time to get it back.
Still, the steady stream was more than enough to start regaining my Marks. I had to focus on the mental ones, of course, or it would interfere with the Heavy Gravity Training I'd started. That was fine, more brains never hurt me.
They hesitantly approached the Door, and pushed it open.
I looked at their green souls entering, their single Marks obvious, and they gawked at my golden one, girded with nine. They were tiny and small and inferior, and, well, I was me.
-Holy fuck!- /squeaked Brekko, gaping at me, and the others /thought similar things. It was their first experience with anything like telepathy, and suddenly being able to feel that they were indeed vastly mentally inferior was a very humbling thing, even to Smart Guy.
-This is the Markspace, an /tellepathic space formed by the connection of your Marks through me. Through your Marks, you may speak with one another mentally across any distance, swiftly and precisely.
-I will hear everything you say in Markspace, because you are using the back of my head as a chatroom. So don't go talking about childish subjects, girls, sex, or similar things unless you want me listening in and commenting on your lack of discipline. I don't need my head filled with drivel.-
They all made hurried /agreements.
-The majority of your instruction will be taking place here, because I'm not going to waste time with the misunderstandings of your perceptions and the limitations of words. For instance, I want all of you to do THIS.-
The /broadcast was overwhelmingly precise. Go into your brain. Feel the power burning at the two points of your heart and your guts. Drive it up your spine to your brain, radiate it over your skin, and condense it at your hand.
”AHHH!” six voices screamed in unison as their arms snapped out, and then they gaped in real life.
Davro, especially. Because all six of his buddies had hands glowing with emerald light, much like his own mindblade!
-Six of you are standing at a crossroads. Davro has already diverged from your paths. He is a Powered, one of the great lucky stars of the human race, with potential to become something great and exciting with relative ease, if he has the will and the drive to get there.
-The rest of you are like me.- Every one of them blinked in shock. I really wasn't a Powered?
-Powered walk a lot of roads, but the famous ones are the Psion and the Psi-warrior. A mindblade is a clear indicator of the PW path. Given your lack of mental gifts, Davro, not being keyed as a Psion should come as no surprise to you. You all can see that Brekko is the most mentally gifted of you, but it should come as no surprise that even he has a very, very long way to go.-
Disgruntled, they still had to agree. The evidence was right in front of them. They all stared, mesmerized at the mindclaws on their hands, and then looked up.
At the claws extending four inches past my fingers, like translucent golden power fists... on both of my hands.
-There are things you will learn together, and things you will learn apart. The six of you are not like Davros. He is Powered. I have taken the liberty of making your choice for the rest of you, and kicked you down the path of a Forsaken.
-As of right now, you are Null Psions. Davros will be different from you, capable of things that you simply cannot emulate.
-You will be capable of killing people like him.-
There was some strange shuffling mentally as they all considered that. It wasn't a bad trade, actually. Davros certainly was wondering what to think.
-Davros is a water gun. You are water barrels. As brothers in arms, if you trust one another enough, you will be able to fill the water in his gun.
-I do not think I should have to tell you what that might mean for you as a psi-user, Davros.-
Davros swallowed. He could draw on the strength of his friends? That would be... absolutely incredible...
-The power of a Null like us is limited by the power of our souls. You have not opened that power, which we will do so now.- I held up my right hand, and they mimicked the motion as the instruction washed over them.