by J. E. Swift
The sphere then unraveled itself quickly, with Declan returning the water to the pitcher and the fire to the flame on the candle.
She did not care that she was the only one clapping at the tale. “I think that had to have been the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. You need to teach me how to do that.”
Caleb laughed before he nudged her. “That’s what all the ladies say. But trust me, you ain’t seen nothing yet.”
“You can do more?”
Declan blushed slightly. “Maybe. But now is not the time.”
Lionel tsked at Declan. “Come, come, Declan. Now is not the time to be modest. I know that you want to teach her everything you know. Show her.”
Declan glared his mentor slightly before sighing. He looked Caitlyn in the eye. “I swear I am not a show off.”
Caleb laughed. “Yes you are. But only to us. Now show her.”
Jonathan leaned on the table. “Caitlyn, what we are going to have him show you can only be done by four Actuals in the Trust. We don’t know how many in the Cine Tofa have this capability, if any.”
Caitlyn was beyond intrigue. “What is it?”
Even Michael looked giddy and was earnestly awaiting her reaction to what they were about to tell her. “Declan can Teleport. Show her Declan.”
Now she was positive her mouth really was gaping open. “No way! There is no way!”
Andrea nudged Declan again. “Well, are you going to pick at your dessert all night or show her?”
Declan stood. “Are you ready?”
She nodded. Within the blink of an eye, Declan was gone, only to reappear in the corner of the garden. While Caitlyn was speechless, Caleb was not. “The corner of the garden, Declan? You could have gone to Fiji or Rome or Australia! And you choose the corner of our garden. Truly disappointing.”
He teleported back to the bench. “Caleb, how would she have known I teleported to Fiji?”
“Well, I am impressed! Can you teach me?” Caitlyn would have started right then if he let her.
“I’ll try. But there are not a lot that are able to do it. It took me weeks of practicing to teleport.”
Nothing had taken Caitlyn weeks yet. She could do it.
As the evening wound to its conclusion, the others slowly excused themselves and left to go attend to other matters. Caitlyn stood in the middle of the garden with Declan, watching some fireflies flutter about the plants. She couldn’t stop thinking about the possibilities that were now in front of her; she felt as if she was limitless in what her body could do.
She was in the middle of contemplating it all, when Declan asked her what she was thinking.
She looked down at the drink in her hands. “You are amazing. What I just witnessed tonight, I mean, I did not think anyone was capable of that. I am going to need to work so hard to impress you.”
“Caitlyn, you’ve already made an impression on me. Why do you think I wanted to mentor you so much?”
“But what if…”
Declan cut her off. “No. No what ifs. No ‘I cannots.’ The very first time I spoke to you, I knew you were different. I knew you would not let anything hold you back. Do not doubt yourself now. I believe in you. Believe in yourself.”
Chapter 14
Caitlyn was nervous. Caitlyn was never nervous. Well, almost never. A conversation with Garrett early that morning had not gone over well. He did not understand why she accepted a new mentor so readily when she was progressing so quickly. She explained to him as best she could; she knew she needed this; she needed to try to do more. It wasn’t really as if she had a choice in the matter, but Garrett was maintaining that she should have refused, that the Council would have eventually relented.
She took a morning run to clear her head. She knew the frustration that Garrett had with her was only temporary. Caitlyn had no reason to believe they would not be alright. But right now, the young woman needed to focus on the day ahead of her. She was not about to disappoint her new mentor because of distractions in her personal life.
After the dinner with his family, Declan had asked Caitlyn if she wanted to start training a couple of days early. She had readily agreed to meet him at one of the older buildings on the outskirts of the compound. When Caitlyn walked through the door that morning, it was quickly apparent that no one had been in this particular building for some time. Her feet echoed eerily down the hall as she made her way to the room where Declan had asked her to meet him. She shivered slightly from the chill, as this building was not heated. Garrett had always either trained with Caitlyn outside on the nicer days or inside the comfort of the new facilities. He always insisted that she be comfortable while training.
When she entered the room, it was apparent that Declan viewed things differently. The room was cold and stark, a deep contrast to the Trust’s main headquarters. It was painted a dull gray and the only light came from a window that was in desperate need of a good washing. Caitlyn noted that there were two chairs facing each other in the middle of the room but that was it for furnishings. Sighing, she took a seat and waited for her new mentor to come. Several minutes later, she heard a small popping sound and Declan walked towards her to the middle of the room. He wore a light gray sweater, with dark gray slacks. She smirked as she thought how it made him almost blend into the room.
Declan took the other seat available, twirling it around so he could rest his arms and chin on the back. He looked at her for a moment, cocking his head in thought, before smiling. “Good Morning.”
Caitlyn couldn’t help but be a little arrogant. She crossed her arms playfully. “Good Morning? Where the hell are we and why are we here?”
Declan chuckled. “Well, aren’t you a bright ray of sunshine? We are in the old training facilities that have not been used in thirty years. Why is because I don’t want us disturbed. There is not anything here to distract you from what you need to focus on. There is no nature, no comforts of home, or no certain people to take away your concentration.”
She came to realize quickly that his training methods would be very different from Garrett’s. She grudgingly admitted that it sounded like it might be conducive to training, albeit boring. “Okay, then. So what are you going to teach me?”
Declan stood up. He looked pleased that she was direct with her lines of questioning. “We are starting with mind blocking.”
Caitlyn couldn’t suppress her self-assured tone. “Hate to bust your bubble, but I already know how to do that. We need to move on.”
Declan grinned in response. “So confident, aren’t we? No, you know the basics of mind blocking. What I am going to make you understand is that the mind of an Actual is like an onion. There are many, many layers to uncover. There are many different ways to block one’s mind, just as there are many different ways of breaking into one’s mind. You know how to block the most direct way of someone invading your thoughts; it’s the way most Actuals know how to figure out what someone is thinking and how to do telepathy. You would have no idea how to block my father, Lionel, and me from entering your thoughts, along with many others who are especially skilled at telepathy. There are many crevices in the brain and we can sneak around and find the cracks that are lying there ready to be manipulated. If you get someone who has particular skill, serious damage can be done. We are starting with the basics that Garrett taught you and building upon them.”
Caitlyn mused on this. “If that was true, why didn’t Garrett teach me that? He is able to perform projectile telepathy; surely he has the ability to get past a basic block if what you state is true.”
Declan shrugged. “He does. Being a projectile telepathist makes him particularly adept at breaking through a block. With that said though, most people don’t think it is worth the effort and he probably was saving it for the end of his training. I disagree, I think once someone grasps the basic concept of mind blocking, they should be taught the advanced techniques. If the Cine Tofa ever got a team together that was capable of that infiltrating the Trust; our numbers would
be significantly dwindled and we would be at a severe disadvantage. There are certain criteria that every mentor has to cover before you can attempt the Threshold that is approved by the Council. Only the basics are covered in the Threshold test. I’ve been fighting the council for years on more rigorous criteria. They have not been willing to listen till recently.”
“But your father is an influential member of the Council and a Descendant.”
He shook his head. “The majority of the Council and Descendants did not agree and my father’s sway, while influential, is only worth so much. They are a bunch of old traditionalists. But…” He walked around the chair, closer to Caitlyn, “that is what you are here for. We are going to show them what a proper training can accomplish and its distinct advantages. Since you are my student, I’ll teach you how I feel every Actual should be taught. Are you comfortable?”
The chair she was sitting in seemed to get harder by the second. “No.”
His blue eyes danced. “No? Well, that is actually a good thing; it will make you more alert and aware of your surroundings. Look at the wall. Block your thoughts.”
Caitlyn already had her block up. Where in the beginning she had to manifest a brick wall mentally to block out others and not to project her thoughts unwillingly, she now just had a secondary instinct. Declan stood in front of her, his stare hard and piercing. She began to feel a fog overtake her, the thoughts she had becoming muddled and her clarity dissipating. She shook her head slightly and with furrowed brows, focused harder on shielding her thoughts, imagining an invisible wall between the both of them. She pushed at the fog with the same intensity it rushed at her.
For a moment, the fog relinquished, retreating. Caitlyn smiled smugly to herself, thinking she had won the battle. She looked up at Declan, grin wide on his face and she heard his voice clearly ring inside her head.
“But not the war.”
Out of nowhere, the fog returned heavier than ever, pressing forward unrelenting. As much as she tried, she found that she could not focus and could not bring back up the shield that Caitlyn had established. It felt like her brain was being wiped of everything. For a moment, she couldn’t remember where she was, what she was doing here, or even who she really was. Everything was vague. Then as quickly as it overtook her, it was gone.
Caitlyn was positive her mouth was hanging wide open.
Declan took the seat next to hers again and placed his hand on her shoulder. “Are you alright?”
“Yes.” She couldn’t stop the shakiness in her voice. She was physically fine, but it was hard to absorb that someone could take away the essence of what she was, so completely and so quickly. “What was that?”
“That was a kind of telepathy called subjective telepathy. Subjective telepathy takes away ones focus. While it is not attacking your thoughts directly, it is attacking other parts of your brain. Since your focus disappears, you cannot concentrate, hence lowering your block and allowing the person to sweep your mind. You feel in a daze and you are not sure what is happening to you. It only takes a moment and then everything is taken that the person wants, like a particular memory, a security password, a location. It is a powerful tool in the fight against the Cine Tofa and a powerful tool against us. When it is your immediate thoughts that are being invaded, the attacker can only obtain the here and now, and the mind reader cannot go beyond that. This however, this raids you of your most important secrets if the attacker is looking for them. Unless, of course, you are like my father.”
“You mean, because he can compartmentalize his brain, they can only attack one section at a time. The rest of his brain keeps its defenses up.”
“Exactly. I wish we could duplicate that and teach others how to do it.”
“So how do I block it?”
“You started off right initially. Your general block is very strong; the average Actual would have a hard time breaking through it. However, in order to stop an invasion like this, we will need to have you create a multi-layer block. I won’t lie to you, it is difficult and will take some time to learn. Possibly months. But knowing your reputation, you will probably learn in an hour and prove me wrong.”
Caitlyn laughed. As it turns out, she did not learn the multi-block in an hour. It took her only three days to learn. Declan was shocked by her abilities. For the next two weeks, Declan brought her to this desolate room, where he put her through hours upon hours of mental attacks. They would arrive before sun up and leave well after sun down. He never taught her how to do the attacks, he stated that would come later, but he was setting a foundation for her to protect herself when the time came. Finally, at the end of the second week, Caitlyn stood from her chair covered in a sheen of sweat.
“Declan. I have not asked this once in all of my training, with the exception of the first day with Garrett, but I think I am ready for a break.”
She sat down with her legs crossed. Declan followed suit, sitting close to her. He produced two oranges and two bottles of water from his backpack and tossed one of each over to her. After taking a sip of the water, he cocked his head. Caitlyn noticed that he had sweat dripping from him as well. “Your focus is incredible. The fact that we have been going at this for well over twelve hours a day, with barely any stopping or breaks and now is the first time you voluntarily request a break? You have managed to learn defenses against multiple telepathy techniques. Those defensive blocks that I just taught you, took me a couple of months to learn. You are really special, Caitlyn.”
Caitlyn made quick work of the orange peel. “Thanks. I don’t know how to describe it, it’s like this is all second nature to me, I just need to be reminded how to do it. That sounds odd, doesn’t it?”
He shook his head. “Not at all. There are some things that come more naturally to me than others. Matter manipulation for example. That trick I showed you at dinner two weeks ago? I was able to do that within the first week of my mentorship. I thought Lionel was going to faint. I did not think I was doing anything incredible, but everyone kept telling me otherwise. Telepathy however, that takes a lot of concentration on my part and it does not come as naturally to me as it does to you. But the focus that you are displaying took me years to achieve.”
“I have a hard time believing that.”
“It’s true. But, I think two weeks in the dungeon is quite enough. If you want to take the weekend off, we can, and then resume on Monday.”
Caitlyn thought about that. She had barely seen Garrett in two weeks. He stated that he was busy with an assignment that the Trust had given him, but she could not help think that it was a ruse to make her not feel guilty about the time she was spending training. She wanted to continue training. She found it very exciting when she learned something new. The Potential knew with Declan that they were going way beyond what other Actuals were capable of performing. It made her feel strong and empowered. She learned that she thrived off those feelings. Declan was not bad company himself. He was serious about the training, but she found that he had a similar sense of humor to hers and they had various things in common. She could see the both of them becoming close friends.
However, her longing to see Garrett won out. She missed him. They had barely made their feelings known to one another when he was separated as her mentor. She wanted to keep that fire going in their relationship. Garrett was special, she knew that. There was something in the back of her mind that was preventing her from being able to give herself wholly to him, without hesitation. Spending time apart would not help the situation.
“You know, the weekend off does sound good. So if you are tired of the dungeon, where are we going to train?”
“We can return to the new training facilities in the main building. We have not even skimmed the surface of what you are going to be capable of. Monday, wear comfortable clothes and running shoes. Show up at five am.”
She groaned as she stood up. That was early for even her. “Five am?”
“Yes. Be in a good mood. Have a nice weekend, Caitlyn. Enj
oy.”
With that, Declan McPherson transported to who knows where.
Chapter 15
The weekend had been more than pleasant for the most part. Garrett had returned late Friday night. The Councilmen had kept him more than busy over the past week; their primary objective had been to get him to resume his role as an Inquisitor. After Caitlyn had left the briefing room, the Councilmen made it no secret that they wanted to promote him within the group. They acknowledged his talent level, for the ability was rare and as a result he would be most useful in the more difficult cases.
Garrett was not very inclined to oblige, especially after they took away his mentorship. They reiterated time and time again that the change was in no way a reflection on him, but it was simply that Caitlyn was exceptional and needed guidance beyond what he could provide.
He refused to believe that. Caitlyn was exceptional; there was no doubt about that. But she was still advancing far beyond her peers at this stage. The change to Declan was not a well thought out one and a rash one at that. Caitlyn and Declan were a dangerous combination. Both were extremely too driven. He firmly believed that Declan did not understand that Caitlyn would need to learn to pace herself.
He did not want Caitlyn just to become another tool that the Trust could use. He had seen it happen before with Actuals of significantly less power than she had. They became soldiers of the Trust; their lives completely dedicated to the Trust only, their personal lives second to their loyalty of their organization.
Declan was the embodiment of this belief. Declan was so wrapped up in Trust business, it was well known that it he had not even had a personal relationship in more than two years. His life was the Trust and nothing else. Garrett hated the idea to losing Caitlyn to that. In the past three weeks since the Council handed down their decision, he had only received a few intermittent phone calls from Caitlyn. He felt that Declan’s influence was already beginning.