Age of Azmoq: The Valantian Imperium

by Rajamayyoor Sharma

  Whakaaro created a dragon that was so gigantic compared to mine, my dragon looked like a speck of dust next to it. And I felt that my mind stretched further beyond that.

  Sensing that I was about to try again, Whakaaro said, “We can do this till the end of time. We will continue to do this. But let us understand more about the mind and what you need to learn.”

  We then moved through my mind, standing on his first dragon. He spoke of things I had already figured out, the parts that were purely imagination, parts that were pure memory, and parts that were a mix of both.

  Whakaaro then continued. “I feel that you might already know some of this, but it is better for me to tell it anyway. Now, one reason for bringing Wahnita here is to show how you can enter someone’s mind with permission.”

  We started to walk towards the edge of my mind again. There was a sense of warmth I felt as I approached what I felt was the edge of my mind. Whakaaro extended both his hands as the feeling of warmth became a perceptible red color at the edge of my mind.

  “When two minds meet, the edges of their consciousness warm up gently. You did not feel this with your friend’s mind as it had erected barriers blocking your mind. I am sure that the edge of your mind experienced extreme amount of turmoil which you had to break through.”

  I nodded as I recalled the experience I had entering Dev’s mind. This was a completely different experience. Whakaaro said, “Try and gently push through the red area, to try and reach the mind on the other side.”

  I did as he said. The warm red area suddenly became dark, resembling what I had experienced in Dev’s mind.

  Whakaaro smiled and sat down. “Now just sit here at the edge of your mind. And wait.”

  And we waited. As we did, I saw that the entire area around us was getting red. And then, something happened. There was a door, like the one that Whakaaro walked through, that appeared. He spoke. “There are a lot of ways to a person’s mind. The mind, although, locked inside the physical self, has infinite potential. It can reach another’s mind with ease. It is only that we, find it difficult to recognize its potential. The problem works both ways. A man doesn’t know he can reach out, a man doesn’t know that his mind can be reached as well. This cave opens up the mind both ways.

  This door represents an entrance to another’s mind. Now that both your minds have expanded, the edges of your respective consciousness will clash. What happens next…? It is like when you give blood to another. If it is not the right type of blood, the other person’s blood will attack and destroy it, killing the person. This is because the host’s blood thinks the new blood is alien and dangerous. If it is the right blood type, the host’s blood greets the new blood with open arms.

  It is similar with a mind. Another mind entering it—there is always great resistance to the perceived attack. However, there is a key difference between blood of a man and his mind. While the nature of one’s blood is static, there is little that a mind can’t change into. So when your mind has to enter another’s, with practice, you can make the other mind believe you are the right type. This cave also helps—it lowers the mind’s defenses, making it easier to enter...”

  We entered the woman’s mind. It was different from Dev’s mind when I had entered it. It was full of life, color, brightness. If someone were to combine heaven and the Great Plains, this is how it would be. It was beautiful. It was full of pleasant sounds and fragrances. That was something different too—there were no smells in Dev’s mind. This was extremely pleasant. Then I saw the woman standing near a beautiful blue lake, skipping stones.

  “She still doesn’t know we have entered. That is the power of this cave. The person will not realize that their mental defenses have been lowered. You were alerted of my entry because you were still exploring your mind and happened to see an area becoming red. She is content in the world she has created for herself. You might have noticed that the world is similar to the real world we live in. Just shows how content she is with her actual life. Let’s go meet her.”

  We walked up to her and Whakaaro greeted her. Then he turned to me. “Now you will see why we come to the cave. It is not only to share thoughts and memories. We are of the same tribe. We share our entire lives together. There is little that we hide from each other anyway. We come here to strengthen our minds.”

  The woman threw a stone into the lake. Whakaaro followed, landing the stone slightly away, disturbing the ripples created by the first stone in the water. They did it again, but this time they both landed their stones in the same spot. The ripples created by the two stones together were much larger than either individually. “Our minds are like the waves created by these stones. If kept disparate, when interacting with each other, they fight each other, weakening one another. However, if synced well, they increased each other’s strength. Constructive versus destructive interference of waves of the mind. That is what we do here. We use our expanded consciousness to exercise and strengthen our minds by syncing them. Be warned—this is an extremely jarring and tiring experience for first timers. We will close our eyes, but you keep yours open.”

  Then both of them closed their eyes. The landscape suddenly changed. There was no land anymore. No recognizable object. It was only a symphony of colors, smells, sounds and feelings. It was pleasant at first, as if the entire world was a rainbow filled with melodious violins playing everywhere and the smell of roses. My mental body felt as if every part of it was being gently massaged.

  Then it all started to change. The rainbow was disappearing, replaced by a rash of colors and shapes. The two people in front of me just dissolved away. Nothing was smooth or perfect. It was extremely jarring to look at. The colors and shapes were changing rapidly, alternating between exceptionally bright to completely dark, in all colors. The shapes were also changing, too many and too varied to for me to comprehend. The whole world was spinning, shaking, contracting and expanding. The smells now varied from pungent to downright disgusting. The sounds varied from a violin being played improperly to fingernails on a chalkboard. My skin felt like it was on fire, and then it felt like it was frozen. My mental body felt like it was repeatedly struck by hammers and cut by swords.

  It all continued for a long, long time. Then it stopped. The pleasant feelings, sights and sounds returned. For some time, I was calm and happy again. But it didn’t last long. The chaos started all over again. And continued for a while. Then stopped again. Then it started again. This alternation between chaos and calm continued. I wanted it to stop. I couldn’t continue like this. I wanted to scream, but there was no sound that came from my throat, only the sounds of this world were heard. I wanted to wave my arms to attract some attention, but my body refused to move. It only felt the sensations being delivered onto it. I was losing hope. Maybe Whakaaro decided to kill me inside his mind, so that I wouldn’t pass on their knowledge to anyone. I welcomed death. Anything to end the torture.

  And then, suddenly, everything was white again. Calm, silent, pleasant. It was relaxing, but every one of my senses still hurt. A lot. Then the tingling returned. I was waking up. But I couldn’t open my eyes. It was just way too bright. I kept my eyes shut tight. My head was splitting. It was as if every fiber in my mind was on fire. The world had too much sound and light. I could hear people walking, and even the walk on the grass hurt. My stomach was churning, like I was on a ship in a violent storm. I couldn’t hold it in. I hurled. That made things worst.

  I could hear Whakaaro speak. Every word was like a serrated flaming arrow, piercing my mind.

  “What you are feeling now is because every part of your mind is extra sensitive. Imagine a fresh wound being treated with salt. That’s how you must feel. That is because all your senses were overloaded in Wahnita’s mind. Your mind was stretched to its limit and then some. What happened there was that our minds were pushing each other, exercising, resting, and pushing each other to the brink again. We have done this before so we aren’t as tired as you are, our minds are not frayed and on the
edge like yours is. Get used to this, as this is what we will do every day to strengthen your mind.”

  I was in too much pain to say anything. Then someone covered my eyes with a nice dark cloth, blocking out all light. Then, someone closed my ears, blocking out all sounds. I was carried somewhere and placed on a cool, soft bed in a place that smelt of vanilla. With all my senses being soothed, I slowly fell asleep.

  I woke up after some time. I removed my blinds, the stuffing in my ears and walked out. It was dark. I had slept through the day. Whakaaro and the others were sitting around a fire. Dev was nowhere in sight. Wahnita saw me and told the others, while waving to me. Whakaaro looked at me and beckoned me to join them. I walked up to them. I was feeling much better. But I was hungry.

  “I am glad you are up, son. To be honest, I thought you were not going to be up and about for a while. It typically takes a new comer to the cave a couple of days to rise again. You seemed to have recovered in half a day. I assume you are hungry?”

  “I am famished,” I said, as I looked around to see if there was any food left. Wahnita smiled at me, walked away, hopefully to get me some food. Whakaaro continued “The experience you’ve had in the cave. You need to have that again for next seven days, before you are ready to start the exercise yourself. Do you feel ready to do that?”

  I balked at having to relive the experiences of the morning. But I wanted to improve. I wanted to learn. “I will do it. I would be lying if I said I was ready, but I want to ensure I can live up to your teachings.”

  Whakaaro smiled. “Glad to hear it.”

  I was curious about Dev, as he was nowhere to be found. “Where is my friend? Is he alright?”

  Another man from the group, sitting across the fire answered. “We have applied some energizing balm on him, fed him and put him to sleep. He would need to rest for at least a couple of weeks before he recovers. Once the two weeks pass, he should be as strong as before.”

  I was relieved. When I saw him the day before, I never thought he could recover that fast. Wahnita was back with some food. We spoke for a while about the Great Plains and I heard their stories and legends. They spoke to me about the time before the “prisons.” A time when man roamed free, be it in the plains or the mountains. When man learned to tame the other beasts of the land, and then, learned to tame the land itself. That is when man came face to face with something untamable. Something divine. The parts of land with Ojas mukh. It was fascinating. But as soon as I finished eating, Whakaaro motioned the storyteller, another young member of the tribe, to stop. I wanted to hear more.

  “Go and rest, son. You need all the rest you can get,” he said. I reluctantly left, back to my tent. The next few days my routine was the same. Get up early morning, eat, and then enter the cave with Whakaaro and another member of the tribe. A couple of times, even Whakaaro didn’t enter. Once in the cave, one of them would enter my mind, lead me to the mind of another. Then the cycles of chaos and calm. Then I would be led out of cave, with every inch of my mind and senses hurting. I would be covered with cloth, and led to a hut to sleep till night time, when I would just get up and eat again.

  After a week of this, the pain was reducing. I was ready. Or so I thought. Whakaaro told me in the morning. “There will be no more sessions for the next three days. We will move to the next phase of training after that.”

  I was upset. I thought I was ready. I told him, “Whakaaro, I feel ready. I am well rested. I can start right away.”

  Whakaaro smiled and walked away. I was feeling frustrated. He then returned with a short piece of steel wire. He held it up. “Pull this from one end.” I was curious. I did, as he held the other end. Nothing happened. He then repeatedly bent the wire at one point, bending it one way and then the other. He did it for a couple of minutes and then asked, “Does it look any different?” it didn’t. I shook my head. “Now, pull it again.” This time it broke from the point where Whakaaro had bent it.

  “Your mind is like this wire, after repeated bends. It might look fine, but subjected to lot of stress, and it will snap. That is known as fatigue failure in the sciences of the prisons. But unlike this metal wire, you can’t just reheat it and put it back together. Once your mind breaks, it is lost forever.”

  I didn’t protest any further. I didn’t want any part of me to snap, let alone my mind. “What do I do for these three days?”

  Whakaaro said, “Do what relaxes you the most.”

  That was the best instruction I had heard. I quickly gathered some food, mounted Arion and left. I was going to ride for three days in the Great Plains. There was no greater joy. I moved away from the Banyan tree till it was just a dot on the vast landscape. Now there was only me, Arion, the sky, the grass and the occasional Naxanatten tree. It was wonderful. I hadn’t seen the sun rise and set for a week. Only when something is taken away, do you realize its worth. I really missed staring at the sky, lying on the cool grass, all alone.

  I then started realizing what Whakaaro was talking about. Although I was doing something that should have been extremely relaxing, I was getting tired rapidly. Especially my mind and my senses. Soon I was searching for a shady spot to hide from the sun as everything felt too bright. Thankfully, I found a large Naxanatten tree. I positioned Arion and myself in such a way that the Arion’s and tree’s shadow together could block all sunlight. I just slept.

  When I woke up, it was dark. The sun was just rising. I had slept for more time than any day the week before. And I still felt tired and weak. I ate some food and decided to return to the Banyan tree. It wasn’t wise for me to be alone when I was in this state. I slowly rode back, hoping I was travelling in the right direction. I felt my mind direct me based on instinct and a sense that there were other minds in a particular direction, rather than memory of the actual directions.

  I soon reached the banyan tree again by mid-day, completely exhausted. I was barely able to ride Arion. Whakaaro seemed to be waiting for me. “You are back early,” he said, with a knowing smile.

  “I could barely reach back here. I am so tired. I am beginning to see spots in front of my eyes. My ears are ringing. My skin is burning up. Why is this happening? Did you know it would?”

  Whakaaro nodded. “I had a sense. After our sessions, when we block your senses, your senses have no stimulus to get excited, allowing you to recover enough for the next day. Now, without that protection, even when you are doing something that is extremely relaxing, you are tired and barely able to function. This is because even relaxing activity overloads your senses. Now, listen to what you actually need to do. We will apply energizing balm and seal you up, just like your friend. You will have to stay there whether awake or asleep, for the next three days. This will allow your recovery to be complete for the next phase. Are you ready?”

  I nodded. I was soon covered in some itchy paste, wrapped in white cloth, and then my eyes and ears were covered as usual. And I was left alone. It was the most bored I have ever been. I slept through some of it, but mostly I just waited for the three days to get over. I thought of every memory in my life, happy or sad, imagined every scenario I could. The three days still felt like an era.

  I finally heard Whakaaro’s voice. “Come, it is time.” It was the most pleasant sound I had ever heard.

  Then we started my real training. It involved what the three of us had been doing so far, but with just the two of us. Whakaaro and I entered the cave, and started the exercise. I was to enter Whakaaro’s mind. That part was easy. The other part, not so much. I had to do the same exercises that Whakaaro and someone else did. The how, Whakaaro said, I would figure out myself soon enough. When in Whakaaro’s mind, I felt everything dissolve away, indicating that I had to start. I created a white to fill in the void. And then I felt a pressure on my mind. It changed the color to black. I figured out what the exercise was. I pushed back, to create gray, along with the sounds of doves flapping their wings. Whakaaro pushed back to create blue, with sound of rain. And so it went. It was the sa
me as the week before, in terms of my experience.

  When I came to, I just collapsed. It was even more exhausting than the first time I accompanied Whakaaro and Wahnita. I didn’t wake up that day. I woke up in the morning next day, for the next session.

  And so it went on. For two weeks. By the end of which, I was strong enough to last till mid-day before I collapsed. But I still spent the rest of the day relaxing in the tent. In all this time, I hadn’t seen Dev even once. I had no idea what was happening with his training.

  My progress made Whakaaro happy. He said it usually took a young member of the tribe at least two months to start getting used to the exercise. My progress was even better through the next two weeks. I could function the whole day without collapsing. Then came the last time I exercised my mind with Whakaaro. We started the same push and pull with our minds. But then Whakaaro tried something new. With the visual battle ongoing, he recreated the dragon from our first encounter. Through the sounds we were creating, he spoke. “While exercising, push yourself to expand your mind further.”

  I created a gigantic griffin, which wasn’t even close to how large the Dragon’s foot was. It was difficult to do this as our exercises were going on. I had to really dig deep. I created a colossal Baku, the dream eater. It was larger than the dragon, but not by much. Whakaaro just increased the size of his dragon to larger than my Tapir. He was mocking my attempt to outsize his creation. I tried to increase the size of the Baku again. It barely increased in size. I decided to give up. I relaxed and stopped competing. I thought of creating the most magnificent creature that I knew from my childhood, a creature I wished was real.

  And there is was. A phoenix, resplendent in bright yellow and red flames, emerged from the recesses of my mind. It was the larger than the dragon. In fact, the dragon was like a speck of dust compared to the glorious beast that had sprung out, although large size had not been my intention. The exercise stopped. Whakaaro had stopped pushing. In fact, the dragon also disappeared. There was no activity from him at all. I was a little concerned. Had I disrespected him somehow? I kept screaming.