Visions of Chaos

by Des Pensable

  ‘Release the gnome! Any decision about your future belongs to the Jeti; however, I will advise them to have you removed,’ replied Aquitain.

  The external illusion of the Cat Lord disappeared, leaving the gnome standing in its place wearing the mask. Jaz ripped it off her face and threw it onto the ground, and screamed.

  ‘Kill him! Kill that bastard. I’ll never live down what he’s made me do,’ and she burst out crying.

  Aquitain quickly commanded Rori to stop the power song. Moments later the verses changed and the connections to Miranda began to disappear. Here and there little people fell over, exhausted. Rori ran over to Miranda, who lay asleep with a beautiful smile as if in a wonderful dream.

  Aquitain looked into her mind and saw there was still much too much power there, so began to draw it into his own mind. It filled his source to capacity, but still he drew more. Better him than Miranda. Suddenly there was a popping sensation like the bursting of a bubble, and he was afraid something drastic might have happened. He looked at his source and saw to his surprise that its capacity had increased to at least five times its previous limit.

  ‘This is more like it!’ he thought. ‘This is what my source should have been like all along.’ It felt good, and he felt much more powerful than he ever had in his life before, but he was worried about Miranda.

  She felt his mind enter hers again. ‘Oh I love you,’ she said.

  ‘Miranda, you’re suffering from power narcosis. It’s like a powerful drug. It’s affecting your mind. I’ve nearly removed all the power, then I’m going to release your mind. You might have a headache and feel terrible for a while.’

  ‘No. I want to stay here in your arms forever,’ she said.

  ‘Miranda, wake up! It’s a dream.’

  ‘No. It’s the most wonderful feeling. I don’t want to wake up,’ she said, and cut off their mindlink.

  ‘Damn, she won’t listen to me,’ he thought.

  ‘I must go. I’m overdue,’ said Jaztrix. ‘Thank you, Aquitain, for releasing me from that nightmare. We will meet again, hopefully under better circumstances. You do your father proud. Go to the temple, there are many Barra children held prisoner there. Bye.’ And she teleported away.

  ‘Zephira. Thanks for your help. We have won the day, but Miranda has been damaged. Get something to cover the mask. I have it dominated but I need to help Miranda.

  ‘Rori. Thank you for your power song. It helped me defeat the mask; but now I have a great task for you. You must hold Jacintra’s Claw to cover the mouth of Jacintra’s Image so that it will not harm anyone, then later take it to Kami so that he may store it safely.’

  ‘Yes, Spirit Lord,’ said Rori. ‘I knew you would win.’

  ‘I won with your help, Rori. You are a hero today and I will tell your people that you will be a great shaman when your time comes.’

  ‘Thank you, Spirit Lord,’ said Rori. ‘I will work hard to prove you right.’

  Zephira returned with a sack and placed the mask within it, then handed it to Rori who had taken Jacintra’s Claw from Miranda’s limp hand. The club had shrunk in size so that it was more suitable for the little shaman’s assistant.

  Aquitain boosted the light from a nearby torch, and asked Zephira to look at Miranda and send him an image. It didn’t look good. She was bright red all over as if she had been burnt in a fire, and her respiration was laboured.

  ‘What happened?’ asked Zephira, suddenly afraid for Miranda.

  ‘She acted as the focus for a mind concert, without having any idea what was likely to happen. She saved us all by giving me the power, but this is the cost.’

  ‘Can’t you do something for her? She might die,’ said Zephira urgently.

  ‘Rori, do you have a healing song?’ asked Aquitain.

  Rori was a bit hesitant in answering.

  ‘Yes, Spirit Lord, but it is hurting us a lot to be singing it, and we are being too tired.’

  ‘Can you tell me the words of the song with the mindspeak?’ asked Aquitain.

  ‘As long as you not be telling Kami,’ said Rori.

  ‘No, I won’t let on to anyone that you told me,’ replied Aquitain, and Rori sang the words and Aquitain memorised them, then began translating them to work out their magical meaning.

  ‘By the Powers, no wonder they don’t like singing the healing song,’ said Aquitain to Zephira. ‘It uses empathetic healing. When they sing it they all take the pain and damage into their own bodies. Whoever taught them how to do it knew that they would only do it if they could all be convinced that it was for the common good of the tribe. I think I can modify it to use it myself, but it is likely to hurt.’

  He flowed his slimy body over and around Miranda and began chanting the modified version of the healing song into his mind, feeling excruciating pain all over his body. It was like deliberately standing in a large fire and letting yourself burn. Every fibre of his body screamed with pain, and he had no mouth or lungs to scream vocally. He had to use all his willpower just to continue. When he could hardly block the pain anymore and was likely to fall unconscious he stopped, and used his power to heal his own body. He repeated the process twice more. After the third attempt, he wearily uncovered her body and asked Zephira to check it closely.

  ‘By the Powers cousin, you’ve done it,’ said Zephira. ‘You’ve healed her. She looks normal and is breathing normally as if she is sleeping. Did it hurt much?’ Zephira shook her, but she wouldn’t wake up.

  ‘More than you could ever imagine. Mother uses this type of healing regularly. I never knew what it cost her in pain and suffering. Now I know why she would often come home dead tired, and lie in a bathtub of cool water for an hour.’

  He tried to contact Miranda mentally, but she didn’t respond. ‘I’ve healed all the physical damage, but it looks like there might be some mental damage as well. Maybe Alpha can unlock some knowledge about the type of mental damage that is caused by power narcosis. She’s out of danger now, but I’m dead tired and still full of poison. I will have to rest until the morning, then I can get Alpha and see what more I can do. We also have another problem. Before she left, Jaztrix told me that there are lots of Barra children held captive at the temple ruins. We need to mount a rescue tomorrow.’

  ‘Right cousin, leave it to me. I’ll get Goth to carry Miranda to the Jeti village and then come back for you; then I might teleport with Goth back to Chantalot at the Barra village to tell them what’s happened, and see if I can organise them for a rescue operation first thing tomorrow.’

  Before turning in for the night Aquitain negotiated passage through the village for the Crin with the Jeti village chief. He also forged an agreement with Xentos that the Crin would wait for them the next day to the east of the temple, where they would join forces to investigate the problem there and search for the missing Barra children. Aquitain wasn’t quite sure why Xentos had suddenly become cooperative, but was happy to have the platoon of Crin fighters help out, as none of them could guess what awaited them at the temple.

  Chapter 34 The Passion Flower

  Miranda busied herself over the metal stove in her little cottage near a gently flowing, sparkling clean stream. She had flowers growing near the front door, a vegetable garden growing out the back, and herb gardens growing on either side. She had blossoming fruit trees and bushes that gave off wonderful scents planted all around, to attract the birds and the small fruit bats, which she thought were cute.

  She was wearing the new robe that she had just finished embroidering this afternoon. It had emblazoned across the front an image of a brown bear. She left a pot bubbling contentedly over the fire while she carefully placed two sets of fine ceramic plates marked with a royal crest, gold cutlery and two sparkling crystal goblets on the beautiful spider silk tablecloth that shimmered with a rainbow of colours.

  She eyed the bed through the open doorway and smiled. He was going to remove the cursed tattoo tonight, after they had eaten the sumptuous meal she was preparin
g. It would be a perfect night. In fact, they had enough supplies for several perfect nights, and she was going to make sure they enjoyed every one of them to the limit of their endurance.

  She heard him calling for her outside, but she wasn’t going out. She was determined that he would have to come in and see the beautiful things that she prepared for them. She could wait. She had the food cooking slowly to make it extra tender and to bring out the wonderful flavour of the special herbs and mushrooms that she had searched for in the jungle. It was a meal fit for a king, her king.

  **

  Aquitain rested for several hours, periodically checking to see whether Miranda’s mental state had changed. He was desperately impatient for the poison to clear from his body, and for his two teleport rings to recharge. Several times he mentally reviewed the fight with the mask to see whether he could have done anything to change the outcome, but in the end decided it was pointless. What had happened had happened. He couldn’t change the past. She had saved him and everyone else with her courageous actions, but in doing so had sacrificed her mind. He was distressed almost to the point of panic.

  Nothing had prepared him for such heartbreak. He wanted to scream and cry and smash things. He had waited all his life for the right woman to come along, and here she was in the physical sense, but her mind was trapped elsewhere. He was a mind wizard but didn’t know how to fix her mind. It was the ultimate frustration. He felt guilty and unworthy of her. He could imagine the gods laughing at his ineptitude. Look at that stupid incompetent mind wizard. He desires the most beautiful sleeping princess in the world but can’t wake her up.

  About an hour before dawn he couldn’t wait any longer. He teleported to the Barra camp and found that everyone except a few of the women and the children had gone on the trek to the temple. Alpha was waiting patiently near the fireplace containing the urn of the dead and the Omen.

  ‘Hello Alpha, what do I know about repairing minds?’ asked Aquitain.

  ‘You have some knowledge but it would be dangerous for you to remember it at this stage,’ replied Alpha.

  ‘I’m not worried about the danger. Give me the knowledge.’

  ‘No,’ said Alpha, ‘I can’t do that. It’s too dangerous for you.’

  Aquitain’s tolerance snapped.

  ‘What! How dare you deny me my own knowledge! Release it immediately,’ Aquitain ordered, finding it unbelievable that his own memory crystal could deny him anything.

  ‘So, the extra power I can see in your source has gone to your head like your grandfather thought it would,’ Alpha observed.

  ‘No it hasn’t. All the manipulation, the Rob do this and Rob don’t do that. The continual suggestions that I do something different from what I want to do, that’s what’s gone to my head. I’ve had it. All my life I’ve had people telling me what’s best for me. That’s over. I know what’s best for me, and from now on what I say is what’s going to happen.

  ‘You are a part of me and you’re supposed to serve me. Lately you’ve developed a mind of your own. You’re telling me what I should do and refusing my commands. From this moment onwards you will do what I ask immediately without comment, or I shall unmake you and make another memcrystal that will obey me. This is not debatable, it is a fact. Give me the information now or I will destroy you!’

  ‘All right,’ said Alpha, and it unlocked a treasure trove of information on how the mind stored information and how power narcosis could affect memory and perceptions of reality. Aquitain immediately returned to the Jeti village with Alpha embedded in the chaos matter collar around his neck, and sat down by Miranda’s side to digest the long forgotten knowledge.

  It seemed that power narcosis induced a condition called a microcosmic state in the patient’s mind. What this meant was that the sufferer created an independent reality within their own mind and lived in it. Without very serious help they would remain in that state indefinitely until they died. The usual treatment was to seek the services of a psychic surgeon who had experience with this type of problem.

  Aquitain felt like going into a murderous rage. He had never heard of psychic surgeons, and even if they did exist how often did people suffer from power narcosis? The new knowledge only made him more frustrated, so he sang a calming mantra to himself and decided to meditate on the problem.

  If he were Miranda what would he do? What sort of microcosm would he create? He thought back on what had happened when he had dominated her mind. What had she said? How had she felt? He remembered how effortlessly he had entered her mind. How open and receptive it had been. How sensuous her voice had been. She had said how much she loved him and wanted to stay in his arms forever.

  ‘By the Powers, it’s a sexual fantasy she’s created,’ he thought. ‘She’s wanted to get rid of that cursed tattoo for so long she’s created her own reality where the tattoo is gone and she’s living it up!’ He dropped out of his meditation and examined her closely. Her respiration was a little fast and her muscles were tense and apprehensive. She was waiting for something to happen and he could guess what that was. ‘No, she’s not living it up yet!’ he thought, ‘but what can I do to get her attention?’

  He sat thinking when suddenly a female Jeti villager came and laid a flower beside Miranda’s head. He looked around and saw Rori, terrified.

  ‘I’m sorry Spirit Lord, she slipped past me. She said she has given the Druidess flowers before and she always loved them.’

  ‘What is your name?’ asked Aquitain.

  ‘My name is Shastritara, Spirit Lord. I want the Druidess to be well, because I wish to ask her to take me on as her assistant.’

  ‘Why don’t you become an assistant to Kami?’ he asked.

  ‘Kami says that only males can be shaman, even though I can sing all the songs.’

  ‘You have a beautiful name Shastritara, and you have given me an idea. Thank you for the flower,’ and the little female ran off smiling.

  He closed his eyes and created in his mind an image of a unique flower. On the top of a golden stalk with several golden leaves was a flower that grew in the image of two entwined butterflies, with bodies joined at the abdomen in the act of copulation. The wings were spread out and gently pulsing with each sensuous movement, which began in time with the recipient’s heartbeat, and would increase steadily as they watched. The wings radiated a glorious rainbow of deep, rich vibrant colour that changed in harmony with the movement of the bodies.

  The perfume was of an incredibly expensive exotic type, with aphrodisiac qualities that only the wildly wealthy could afford. He had smelt it once when he was a young lad, and it had given him erotic dreams for weeks. To this he added the feeling of a warm embracing hug, and an anticipation of something wildly exciting about to happen.

  He memorized his creation so that he could send it exactly as he felt at this moment, and created a mindlink between them.

  ‘Miranda I have a beautiful and precious present for you. It’s the only flower of its type in existence. It’s my flower of passion. I want you to have it, but you’ll have to come to me to collect it.’

  ‘No, I want you to bring it into our cottage so that you can see the beautiful things I have for us here, and taste the wonderful meal that I’ve made for you; and when you lift the tattoo I’m going to ravish you and make you never want to leave me, ever,’ she replied.

  ‘Miranda, smell the perfume of this flower. It’s sending me mad with desire. You must take it from me - I feel like ravishing you before I can lift the tattoo. Save me,’ and he sent the mental image of the perfume into her mind. Her body went tense and she broke out in a sweat.

  ‘Oh. That’s incredible perfume. Oh, you wonderful, beautiful, fantastical man. I love you so much, Tain. Show me the flower!’ And she sat up, wide-awake.

  ‘Sweet mercy of the Lady, where am I?’ she said.

  ‘Back in the real world, Mandy,’ he said. ‘We’re in the Jeti village and it’s just before dawn, on the morning after your mind overloaded with po
wer during the fight with the mask.’

  ‘Oh. I think I’ll go back to the other place, it was much nicer,’ she said.

  ‘Don’t you dare. It’s half way to the other side. Besides, you want to see the flower don’t you?’

  ‘You mean it’s real?’

  ‘Yes. It’s my passion for you,’ and he sent the image to her mind.

  She closed her eyes and breathed in the perfume and watched the rhythm of butterfly petals copulating sensuously as the rich silky colours dazzled her mind. Her heart sped up, her breathing changed and small beads of sweat appeared on her forehead. She jumped up with eyes wide open and paced around singing a prayer to the Lady.

  He thought to himself, ‘That worked well! Should I call myself a psychic surgeon or a flower designer?’

  Rori left to tell the villagers the good news.

  Several minutes later she sat down beside him and hugged him around the neck then, unable to sit still, climbed onto his back and clung to him, her face buried in the fur at the back of his neck.

  ‘Tain, that is the most wonderful gift that I’ve ever received. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I’ll treasure it always, my love. Oh I wish I could show you how I feel. I want you on me, I want you in me, I want to wrap around you, I want to join with you. I want you to make love to me like there will be no tomorrow. Tain, I’m on fire inside. Quench it, please, quench it!’

  He felt her naked sweaty body wrapped around him and clinging tightly. Her throbbing emotion pulsing and arcing across their mindlink was arousing him like nothing he had ever felt before. His mind was in meltdown, his muscles tense with apprehension. His blood caught fire. His breathing became erratic like hers.

  ‘Mandy, are you sure?’ he mentally panted hardly able to speak.

  ‘Yes Tain, yes, yes. I want you to, Tain! yes!’ she gasped, so he caressed the pleasure centre in her mind. Her hair turned fire red and she went rigid in ecstasy, then she clung to him like a limpet on a rock while her body jerked and spasmed as if an invisible storm was trying to rip her from his back. His muscles tensed, his willpower evaporated and his body released its tension. He lost all awareness of who or where he was as her ecstasy triggered his.