When Belaphorde saw that half of the ground floor was dedicated garage space with three separate garage doors. He thought the fatigue was making him see double. Tina did not seem to care about this as she drove right up to the patio of the main entrance and pushed down the parking lever.

In a mental haze, Belaphorde opened the passenger door and stepped outside. The color drained from his face. His vision blurred as he stood up too quickly for what his anemic body could handle. The worst part was his legs. The doctors had not found anything wrong with them, but the excessive Guiding and the pain had left Belaphorde with nerves of broken glass.

He fell over on the wooden patio next to a huge clay pot with a palm tree. He felt so pathetic, hyperventilating in his blue hospital pajamas being led into this luxurious mansion he sold his independence to. It hurt too much to think about.

“Oh dear, what have you done now? Pride will be the death of you boys. No crying, no accepting help, and no thinking before acting.” Tina unfolded the wheelchair from the back of the trunk. It was a bulky mechanical thing that looked like it was made over a century ago but it was what they could get from the hospital on no notice. “Not cute at all. But I'll cut you some slack since you are recovering.”

Belaphorde remained silent as they fumbled for a good five minutes getting him in the chair, none of them knowing what they were doing. With his feet at the rests of the chair and blood back in his head, Tina wheeled him up to the double glass doors and entered Kaigo’s villa.

The first floor had an open kitchen-living room with a hallway leading from the entrance to a few rooms further down and another glass door leading to the backyard. Sunlight streamed from the glass tower placed in the middle of the scene—the house’s own designer elevator.

Belaphorde was wheeled to sit beside the kitchen table with a view of the blooming high-rise driveway while Tina scouted the kitchen.

“Here, eat as much as you can, okay?” She placed down a bag of chips and a bottle of sparkling water. “I will be on break until the others arrive, but don't hesitate to call if you need anything.” Her voice was honey-sweet as she fluttered like a butterfly out of the room with her phone held high.

***

The hours passed in a sickness-induced time soup filled with nibbling on snacks, fluttering curtains, and the vague movements of the city below. Some people came and went, Belaphorde didn't pay them any attention. That was until a white van painted with blue Guardian logos appeared. Vigo was there, the young Guide could feel it in his gut.

Men in uniform rolled in the battered veteran on a stretcher. He was bandaged up with a cast around his leg. He almost resembled a cartoon mummy. It was comforting beyond what the boy could understand to still have this one piece of his old life with him, though he'd never admit it.

Tina wheeled him after Vigo into an entertainment room with a TV, a bookshelf filled with board games, a minibar, and a whole wall with blackout curtains. The sofas had been squished together right under the TV to make space for the king-sized bed Vigo had been tucked into.

“Vigo.” When Belaphorde was close enough he leaned forward to take the old man's hand.

Vigo coughed and shivered, his gaze flickering before finding Belaphorde. “Thank God! I was getting worried. Not about you, but the people in masks dragging me around. I felt like I was being abducted.” He chuckled bitterly before losing concentration. "I'd know you'd be fine."

“I'm happy that the two of you are reunited. Now, would you like me to explain Guiding and how your stay here will work?” Tina offered with a curt smile.

Belaphorde might have wanted some time alone with Vigo, the day already had offered a lot to take in. But he was not about to waste the Professor's time.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Please, go ahead.”

“Then your training can start right away. From our talk earlier I understand that you know nothing about Guiding, so I'll start with explaining the fundamentals.”

Belaphorde almost winced at her matter-of-fact tone.

“Guiding is divided into three categories; capacity, technique, and Relation-Gates. Capacity is the most straightforward one and is measured the same for Guides and Espers. It's your body's ability to tolerate ichor. When you awaken to your powers you get your base capacity. By training your cardiovascular system, pushing your powers and pain threshold you can improve your capacity. I don't think I have to explain why this is considerably difficult for Espers.”

“Because their abilities build up ichor, while a Guide processes it.”

Vigo stirred with a veteran's grin. "Damn, right. Most Espers will only ever rank up once or twice if they don't kill themselves in the process.”

“Exactly.” Tina continued. “The original ranking system was based on capacity thresholds, nowadays people say D-rank or A-rank with no respect for science. One thing is for sure, with just a simple test I could tell you have exceptional capacity, which I theorize is because your technique is what we only use for training.”

“Belaphorde is the best Guide there is, I've never heard of this technique stuff.”

“Let the professor talk.”

“Technique is how we can modify our Guiding and use our capacity with efficiency. This includes different physical contact, Guiding pressure and patterns. Lastly, Relation-Gates. Guiding is affected by our relationship to the one we Guide and ourselves. As a baseline, know that trust makes Guiding easier, and the more you can freely accept yourself the deeper you can reach into your Gates. Are you following?”

“I'm not sure. It sounds obscure.”

“We will explore these things in detail later. Today's lesson and why you have been brought here is so we can try a technique called Passive Guiding with the Gate of Resonance. Your current technique is called Pressure. You force your Guiding like a pressure cooker causing yourself and the Esper stress. If their capacity is too big or there's I'll intent from either side the Esper will be drained and can even black out.”

Belaphorde thought in silence. He had plenty of experience with Pressure-Guiding. It was great to hear an explanation but it stung to think how childish he had been in his understanding of Guiding. Vigo squeezed his hand and gave a reassuring look like he could sense Belaphorde’s growing frustrations.

“Currently you have no energy to Guide due to severe burnout. On average it would take two years to fully recover. But with a resonance partner, well, I will have to observe how strong your resonance is.” The professor retrieved her tablet from the bedside table and tapped it to life with a pen from her blazer pocket. “For transparency, I’m required to inform you that I will be recording your journey as a part of my research. Your circumstances will make for a unique case study.”

Belaphorde gritted his teeth. Just another person to toss him around. But there were more pressing matters at hand.

“Don’t leave us hanging lady. How does Belaphorde do this Passive Guding?” Vigo asked for him.

“You are already doing it. The Esper and Guide have physical contact and an open Gate. That’s the base requirement. I’m sure Guide Belaphorde has done this many times without being aware since it has a low effect. However, since you have no capacity all you should experience are the effects of the healing of your resonance. It should feel like, warmth, and comfort, like it is easier to breathe. Though it might take a while before you experience this. For higher effect, you as a Guide have to keep your brain in a focused state, even when you don’t feel anything. The best results for beginners come from either doing mental math or reading difficult texts.”

Tina handed Belaphorde a booklet with math questions and brain teasers. Belaphorde opened a random page and his heart sank, both to his low blood pressure and the fact that he had no clue what he did not understand what he was looking at except for the headliner; Algebra.

“What’s with that expression? Are you feeling sick? Perhaps you require more rest before we start Guiding.” Tina looked over the young man with worry.

Bel shook his head. “No Professor, I’m fine.”

“Don’t tell me you have such visceral feelings towards simple high school math.”

“I never went to high school,” he stated plainly.

Vigo immediately felt the need to defend his boy. “So what? School is built to make mindless, obedient drones! Belaphorde has more practical real-life skills than…” Vigo trailed off, his face flush. In a calm manner, Bel picked up a nearby towel and wiped the sweat off Vigo’s brow. In seconds the worn man was snoring loudly.

Tina cleared her throat to collect herself. “Apologies, I did not mean to offend you.”

“It’s alright.”

“I think we keep things as they are for now. You try and feel out how to Guide for a while and I will take my leave for today. I will always be available by phone so do contact me if anything happens. I will visit daily to continue our lessons. There will always either be the housekeeper Balm or a nurse to look after you and sir Vigo. Any questions?”

Belaphorde had too little energy to think of anything, so the professor with childish glee crossed off a list on her tablet and said goodbye while sauntering out the door.

Bel moved the wheelchair as close to the bed as he could and for a while held Vigo’s hand in silence. He thought he understood Tina’s lessons, but the Gates sounded too abstract. His mind flinched at the idea of having to ‘soul search’ or sit with Kaigo in therapy. Hopefully, he had yet to grasp what the Gates were about. However, he did have evidence to back up that when he or the Esper had ill intent the Guding had been unpleasant and draining for the Esper.

Twenty minutes later he was using Vigo’s chest as a pillow.