by Curtis, Gene
As soon as their tips touched, Daniel flipped the sword down, switched his grip so that the sword was upside-down, edge toward Mark. He brought it up in time to block Mark’s blow that was coming for his head or shoulder. Three more quick blows followed for the same area before Mark changed and aimed for his leg. As Mark’s momentum bent him over a little Daniel saw that Mark’s head and shoulders where unprotected. His sword was in the right position for a stabbing strike to this area. He made the strike as he jumped to avoid Mark’s blow.
Ms. Vanmie called, “Hold!” She looked around at the class. “Mark stumbled across this technique a few minutes ago while defending against Daniel’s attack, which was pretty good for this level of study I might add. Students don’t usually get exposed to this method until they are fairly proficient at single combat, of which none of you are...yet. Yes LeOmi, yes Slone; that includes you too. This technique makes it fairly easy to defend against one or two opponents at most. It also makes it difficult for you to attack your opponent except in a few circumstances, one of which you just saw. The thing it is good for is letting an inexperienced or relatively unskilled opponent just wear themselves out while attacking you. Any questions?”
Someone asked, “How do you know how experienced or skilled an opponent is?”
“If it’s a Magi, just look at their signet. If they have more bands than you do you need to figure they can carve you up into itty-bitty pieces. If it’s not a Magi and there is the slightest question in your mind about their skill level being better than yours, it probably is. It that case, unless you’re protecting someone’s life, it would be better just to run away, if you can. If not, you need to get as much help as you can. The only time that you really need to stick around and fight is when you’re protecting life and limb. No exceptions. Property can be recovered or replaced. Artifacts can be recovered later if need be. Any more questions? Okay back to sparring; try out the new technique if you like.”
After class Mark’s group perched atop the second inset corner wall and watched as the freshmen had their first experience with the entrance to combat class. Mark’s brother James had already made it up. It was against the rules to let freshmen know what to expect, but James had picked up this tidbit of information from Mark’s thought projections last year when the family had met with Mr. Diefenderfer. After getting permission he’d been practicing over the summer at the corner store just down from their house in Virginia. The store had a propane tank room in the back. The walls were made out of fancy rock face concrete blocks and abutted the stone wall of the store. This formed an inside corner wall similar to the wall students had to walk up in order to get into the classroom.
James walked over and sat down with his legs hanging over the edge. “Forty feet is a lot harder than eight feet.”
Mark answered, “You’ll get used to it in no time. Are you going to try out for Flags?”
James shook his head. “I’m trying out for motocross.”
“I didn’t know you could ride a motorcycle.”
“I can’t yet, but I’m pretty good on a bike and that’s the only prerequisite; tryouts are on BMX bikes.”
“BMX bikes are a lot different than regular bikes.”
“I know; I’ve been using yours.”
The fact that classes ended earlier than any other year allowed the group to prowl the mall when it wasn’t as crowded as it usually was. Chenoa needed to get a pair of goggles since her first flight lessons would be in an open cockpit biplane. Jamal wanted to get a quality set of kitchen knives for himself since his elective was gourmet cooking. Nick wanted to stop by the electronics store in order to start stocking his lab. Mark and LeOmi wanted to go by the bookstore for a book or two on emergency rescue in order to get a better idea on future courses they might take.
Slone and a few of his crew were in the combat section of the bookstore looking over videos and didn’t react when Mark’s group walked by on the way to the stairs to the upper levels. Mark felt a twinge of anger just before he saw Slone and knew at once that it had to be coming from LeOmi. He took a couple of quick steps to catch up to her. He put his hand on her shoulder and whispered, “I think I’ll write a book on strategy for getting the bonus flag.” The emotion she was radiating, albeit weak, turned briefly to annoyance and then to absolute skepticism. She didn’t so much as look over her shoulder, much less laugh. The emotion she was emanating faded after a couple of seconds and he knew she was working to better control what she was feeling, or at least how much she was transmitting.
Instead of following the group to the upper levels Chenoa stayed on the first level and went to the fiction section. Romance was something she had zero experience with, knew little about and had seen none of up close except for her parents’ relationship, and she only had her mother’s version of how that happened. She intended to change what she knew and understood. She knew that fiction was just that: fiction, but she figured it had to be based on reality at least in part. She wanted some practical ideas and tactics to use in order to make him notice her as more than just a friend with pretty hair.
She figured she had an advantage over most other budding relationships; she sometimes knew what he thought and most often why he thought it. He never thought of girls as girls, or boys as boys for that matter. When she could read his thoughts he was always thinking in terms of what was needed in order to accomplish something. He thought of people in terms of what their strengths were, what they enjoyed and how that would relate to whatever task or goal he was involved with. That was the only type of relationship she ever saw when he transmitted his thoughts.
She was looking over the titles when she heard Slone’s laughing voice behind her, “You’re pathetic. What? Are you training to be a prostitute now?”
As much that he was infuriating her, she tried to tune him out by keeping her back to them, gritting her teeth and shutting her eyes.
“Oh, I get it. You’re after Mark.” His crew joined in laughing. “That really is pathetic.”
One of them started the chant, “Mark and Chenoa sitting in a tree...” Slone ended the chant still laughing, “Here comes Mark with the baby carriage.”
Chenoa turned and said, “At least Mark has a girl interested in him.”
Slone smiled and his eyes narrowed, “Hey Salina.”
A girl that Chenoa hadn’t seen before walked over. She had very blond hair done up in tight ringlets and was smacking gum. She held her palm up at shoulder lever and said with a squeaky northern accent, “Yeah?”
“Chenoa, this is Salina, Salina, Chenoa; one of Mark’s rangers.”
Salina gave a little curtsey and chirped, “Pleased, I’m sure.”
Slone said, “Kiss me.”
Salina squeaked, “Ooo, I thought you’d never ask,” and planted one on him.
Chenoa thought if Salina was trying to pull off a 1920s bimbo routine she had the voice all wrong, but she had the bimbo part down pat.
Mark was finding it mentally difficult to adjust to the early scheduling of classes; zero dark thirty wasn’t anything he’d ever experienced on a regular basis. He felt that being sleepy in class was just plain wrong.
Tim—Mr. Fairbanks began Wednesday morning’s class by saying, “I trust everyone is good and sleepy.” He looked around at the class. “Good. Now, I want you to find a spot on the floor where you can lay in a group while touching the person next to you.”
Everyone got up, formed into groups and found a spot to lie down.
Mr. Fairbanks continued, “Now, I want you to go to sleep.”
After a few minutes Mark didn’t realize that he was asleep when he heard a voice say, “Look over here.” He turned to look and saw a hooded figure standing against an indistinct swirling background. The figure pulled his hood back revealing the face of a man about his father’s age with blond hair cut into an old style flat top. He had radiant cobalt blue eyes. “Hi there. My name is Lester and I’m your instructor for this session. Look around and tell me what you
sense.”
Still looking at Lester, Mark said, “I see you and a swirling background.” He looked from side to side then behind him and said, “The swirling background is all around; it’s like we’re in a cloud.” He thought he heard a voice. “I think I hear a voice but I can’t make it out...wait, I think it’s Chenoa.”
The voice resolved in his mind; it was Chenoa saying, “I think I hear Mark’s voice.” He looked to where her voice was coming from and her image materialized into being. She was walking and looking around as if searching.
“I’m here,” he said.
Chenoa looked at him and then ran to where he was. She sat beside him and put her arms around him. “I love you.”
Mark began to hear other voices: LeOmi, Nick and Jamal. “I hear Nick, Jamal and LeOmi.” He called out, “I’m over here.” All three materialized and ran over to him.
Nick knelt, hugged him and said, “As long as you serve The Seventh Mountain my sword is yours to command and I will do my best to keep harm from coming to you.”
When Nick moved out of the way and sat Jamal knelt, hugged Mark and said, “I serve the destiny of The Seventh Mountain by serving you.”
When Jamal sat LeOmi knelt, hugged him and whispered in his ear, “I don’t want to have feelings for you, but I do. I’m afraid that you’ll leave me like my mother did. I want you to love me more than anything else.”
Mark heard Lester’s voice say, “You’re going to find that your slightest emotions are very much on the surface and vulnerable here until you get used to dream casting. You’ll need to filter that with what you know about yourself and the other person. In the beginning you’ll have to struggle to keep them in check.
“Now, Mark; I want you to try and pick a location where you’d like for this session to take place. Think of a place that is comfortable for you all to have a discussion within this group.”
That was a no-brainer. Suddenly the whole group was seated in an extra large booth in The Oasis. The table was laid with breakfast items and the aromas were absolutely wonderful.
Lester looked around and said, “Good choice. I like The Oasis too, but I don’t often get to eat there anymore. It’s nice to have it in a dream.” He reached out and picked up a cup of steaming coffee.
“I let Mark control this session because he already broadcasts his thoughts, and I’m pretty sure he hasn’t realized it yet but he also broadcasts his dreams. His ability has put this group ahead of the rest of the class.
“The reason each of you are a part of this dream is: one, he expected to have you as a part of the dream; two, he called you into it; three, each of you expected to be a part of a group dream with him; and four, each of you trusted his call when you heard his voice. That’s the way dream casting works at first.
“When you get comfortable with your group you won’t have to be lying next to each other and touching. Any one of you will be able to initiate it. As you get more and more comfortable with it your skills will improve to the point of being able to invite anyone you care about into a dream. They won’t even have to know you, but you will have to care about them.
“Another useful bit of information is that classes, news and entertainment are dream cast every night. Most of these you’ll be able to remember; others will be so normal feeling that you won’t remember them and only your subconscious minds will retain the information. For example: you all received three foreign language classes last year that I’d bet you don’t remember. I know you remember being told that you had those classes, but you most likely don’t remember the actual classes. As a result you are now practiced at speaking, understanding, reading and writing in German, French and Spanish. Any dream that feels absolutely normal to you will not be remembered in the conscious minds.”
Mark interrupted, “You’ve used the plural term ‘minds’ a couple of times—
Lester interrupted back, “Your brains are composed of several minds, but you already know that. You think of them as the front of your mind, the back of your mind, your mind’s eye and so on. There are many more and they’re all related. You’ll learn more about them later on.
“Well, now you have the basics. You can go ahead and finish breakfast if you like, but remember it’s just a dream. When you’re ready, wake up and sit up. When you’re all awake, lay back down, go back to sleep and have another dream meeting or two. After that you can leave. Your homework assignment is to locate one of the dream casts about news or one of the entertainment casts and write a paragraph or two about it in your notebooks.” He opened the cardboard box on the table, removed a slice of scrambled egg pizza, took a bite and faded into nothing.
Mark was in the last hour of Combat class when Ms. Vanmie’s freshman class began coming up. A lot of the freshmen were high stepping and rubbing their leg muscles from the forty foot climb up into the classroom.
Ms. Vanmie stepped into the classroom from the senior’s climbing walls, walked toward the freshmen and raised her arm. “Freshmen, gather around.” When they were sufficiently close she continued, “This is combat class. You will train here with a variety of weapons in later years but your primary weapon will be the sword and that is all you will train with this year. We will begin with wooden practice swords which will be used in class for the next three years because otherwise the floor would get quite messy. Your third sophomore year is when you’ll start using real practice swords if you were wondering. The term for the wooden practice sword is riotous. That term comes from the wooden practice swords that Roman gladiators trained with a couple of thousand years ago.
“You will carry your riotous with you at all times and you will even sleep with it. That won’t be much of a problem when you learn Aaron’s Grasp.
“Outside of class, if you have a confrontation with another student and it becomes violent your riotous is the only weapon you are allowed to use for the first three years. My suggestion is not to get into a confrontation with an upperclassman. If you happen to find yourself in such a situation it would be wise to concede whatever the matter of contention is unless you are fond of pain and suffering.
“In the first chapter of your textbook you will find instructions and diagrams for three sets of formal exercises. You will practice these exercises daily. If in two weeks you’re not proficient enough to satisfy me, then you will have to defend yourself against the entire class...all at the same time. It has never taken more than one such lesson to convince the student to come to class well practiced. Every two weeks you will add the next three exercises to your repertoire.
“Now, if there are no questions, we will begin your first lesson in sword combat.”
A student raised her hand and Mark pretty much knew what the question would be. “Ms. Vanmie, I know there has to be a reason that swords are our main weapon, but wouldn’t it be more practical to train with firearms?”
Ms. Vanmie smiled at her, “DeLisha, every year a student asks that question, and every year I give the same answer. Come with me please.”
Before she could turn around and start toward the gun shelves Mark’s stepbrother, James raised his hand and asked, “Ms. Vanmie, may I give the demonstration?”
She paused, looked back at James and grinned. “So you think you might be able to succeed, do you?”
James shook his head, “Not really, but I’d like to try.”
She chuckled under her breath, “Follow me; DeLisha, you stay put.”
A few minutes later James and Ms. Vanmie returned; James was carrying a submachine gun that looked like something that gangsters used back in the time of prohibition. Ms. Vanmie said, “Slone.”
Mark’s class scrambled to where the freshmen were standing when they realized there was no other safe place to stand.
Ms. Vanmie continued speaking to Slone, “James has chosen a Thompson .45 caliber submachine gun with a two hundred round drum. The rounds are pink wax squibs. When I step out of the way advance and disarm him at your leisure.” She turned to James, “One hundred point
s and the rest of today’s class off if you manage to even nick him.” She took three quick steps back.
Slone was on the move before Ms. Vanmie had come to a full stop and before James could take aim. Slone was very fast: diagonal left one step, diagonal right one step, feign left, then diagonal right two steps. James began firing in a continuous burst. Slone came up next to James from a leaping somersault long before the weapon had run out of ammunition. His riotous came up and knocked the gun from James’ hands and continued up over his head poised to strike a mighty blow to James had he chosen to do so.
Ms. Vanmie said, “Nicely done, Slone,” and turned toward the freshmen. “A sword doesn’t have to be reloaded either.”
James pointed at a very light pink smear on the edge of Slone’s left tunic sleeve. Slone looked at the nick. His facial expression remained unchanged; he brought the pommel of his riotous down, striking James in the center of his forehead. James crumpled to his knees and then fell forward. Some freshmen gasped and Ms. Vanmie turned to look.
James spent the rest of the day in the healing ward.
After lunch, Mark and LeOmi joined Gerod on the balcony outside of the healing ward for their first lesson in Advanced Communications. There was a golden censer on a pedestal beside the door with a plume of sweet smelling smoke issuing from it. Gerod saw Mark and LeOmi look at it and said, “Frankincense and myrrh; it helps establish a stronger connection between your physical minds and your spirit’s minds. Now, I want you to just relax and try to understand the concepts as I explain them. These lessons will be semi-informal so you can take your robes off and feel free to interrupt with questions or comments anytime you feel like it.”
Gerod motioned toward the floor at their feet and then sat down with his legs crossed. “You’ve already learned that your spirit is a real and separate entity from your physical self. You may not have thought of it in those terms, but none-the-less you already know it as a fact of existence. Aaron’s Grasp is taught in the freshman year because it’s not that difficult to learn and it is the first lesson that shows you that the spirit is a real entity, not just some mental abstraction. The reason it is taught this way is so the student obtains experiential knowledge as opposed to logical or trust knowledge. Logical and trust types of knowledge are flimsy and easily modified since they are based on reason and exposition. Experiential knowledge is based on your perception of reality and your interaction with reality.”