Chapter 44

One, Three, and a Bit of Five

  Visions: First off, one might ask themselves how they know they are experiencing visions. Well good question. With practice one can begin to feel the tell-tale strain of energy being used to conjure such an event. Another great cue is that you cannot interact with the scenery. Sure, you can look around, change your point of view, your viewing angle, and so on. Still there is an undeniable quality that comes from visions.

  I can now tell the difference in visions from this universe that I am currently residing in, and my own home universe. The key distinction is that Mel is in my visions of home. Each day that passes, I feel like I am beating a dead horse. That I am clinging to something that means more to me than it does to her. At least that is what I tell myself.

  Then I see the visions. I see a blank face Mel being mind-raped by my brother. I see tears forming in her eyes. Now how can a blank face cry? Good question. Namely tears form where I think the eyes should be. Really the visions are tough to stomach. I can feel her pain, her mental screams for help.

  Worse I even see Mave there, fully aware, but unable or unwilling to do anything. Seeing that, I wonder if my brother has done something to Mave as well. Something that lets him commit crimes right in front of people. I watch it all unfold. Then fortunately they end.

  “Breathe.” A gentle voice calls out to me. The voice sounds distant and like it is floating away. Still, I recognize it, that is the voice of Rayquel.

  I hear the voice and the previously small spark inside me comes to life. Although now it is a burning heat lamp, bright and unavoidable. I feel like I could grow crops from the spark that is shared between us.

  “He’s back. I can feel him. He’s coming back.” Rayquel shouts out to someone in the distance. Her voice is frightened and at the same time ecstatic. She is relieved, no she is beyond relieved.

  Sniff.

  She is close enough that I can hear her sniffing me. I almost feel revolted by this, but I then relax slightly as I realize this is a way to make sure I am healthy.

  “His pheromones are back, meaning his mind is once again active.” A different voice. Only with this do I realize that the person that sniffed me, was not Rayquel. The doctor?

  That is a weird way to check someone, but I guess it works for Endarians, which I apparently am.

  “Oh wow, he is most definitely active.” The female doctor says, as I can almost hear a hint of nervousness to her voice.

  At this point I open my eyes, and the darkened room that I was in suddenly bursts to life. They had the lights set to dim apparently while I slept. Even when the doctor came in, they didn’t bother turning on the lights, instead going straight to check on the lab equipment that I am strapped to.

  “You’ve had a bit of a day. Can you tell us what you remember?” The doctor asks.

  I turn my head to the doctor and realize almost instantly that this was a big mistake. The world spins. I take a second to focus, before the world slows down enough, for me to look at the doctor. “I remember my citizenship ceremony. Then everyone noting that I missed the Secretary of Defense question. Then there was a monster handing me a certificate…”

  I am cut off by General Pouncing Tiger.

  “So, you saw the Secretary of Defense as a monster before they handed you the citizenship certificate?” General Tigran asked.

  “Yeah.” I say, rolling my head back to nod, then I thought better of such an act. “I’m still a citizen, right?”

  I ask, suddenly concerned that my status might be revoked. It would look kind of bad to renounce my human citizenship for Endarian citizenship, only to have to go groveling back to the humans.

  Laughter.

  Fortunately, all three people in the immediate area begin laughing at this comment. This is a good sign, and I immediately relax.

  “No, you found a lurking Prolaxian right in the midst of our command structure. We are thinking about giving you another award ceremony.”

  “No more ceremonies, please.”

  More laughter.

  Apparently, they think I am joking. I of course am deadly serious, but I realize this might not be the hill worth dying upon. At least it is not the hill worth dying upon currently.

  “At first everyone was shocked to see that you had the ability to reveal such a creature.” The General continued. “Rayquel even said that you had felt apprehensive when you first laid eyes upon the Secretary… I mean the Prolaxian infiltrator.”

  I turn to Rayquel, who just nods and smiles at me. I didn’t realize when, but somewhere in this, she held my hand. Had she been holding my hand this entire time? I looked at the hand and could instantly feel that she felt flustered by the gaze through our bond. She was about to pull away. That is when I gripped her hand a little tighter, letting her know I didn’t want her to leave. With this confirmation, she relaxed and let her hand stay. With that minor thing done, I realized I had to reply, as everyone was now staring at me.

  “I could. I saw the monster from the other end of the stage. At first, I thought it was some sort of prank you were all playing on me. You know give the new citizen their certificate by a person wearing a hideous costume. Make sure they really want to be a citizen. Then the more I looked, the more things didn’t seem to add up. I expected to see some sort of anticipation on your face, or at the very least through my bond with Rayquel. She might have a poker face, but it is hard to lie through the bond.” I said, patting my stomach, where I felt the bond residing, with my free hand.

  Hearing this the General nodded to herself. Then asked, “can you tell me again what your newest Psychic power is?”

  I blinked, as I had forgotten. So, I had to look it up from my status again. “Revelation Sight, which is at ninety-nine plus percent.”

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  Hearing this the General nodded to herself. “I think that might be the most powerful weapon in our arsenal. We were infiltrated by at least one Prolaxian. Intelligence has indicated that there are likely more involved in this. We have gone through the communications of the former Secretary of Defense and found that he had several odd communications with different people.” The General began.

  Hearing this I raised an inquisitive eyebrow, wondering if I should be privy to this type of information.

  The General just waved a dismissive hand. “You and Rayquel, in addition to your temple training, will be part of a new task force to find other Prolaxians in our different governments.”

  “Governments as in plural?” I ask.

  “Yes. Some of the communications came from human and Dwenvarian communication clusters. We think this might be part of why the Prolaxians were able to spread so easily on the Dwenvarian home world. This would also help to explain how the information on the two human labs were leaked.” The General said.

  “So, they have spies in our networks, and others as well?” Rayquel asked.

  “Yes. Which is why we will have another award ceremony for the two of you. This time you will get both the Psionic of Valor, for your previous fight in space. Along with receiving the coveted Mage of Valor medal for your recent operation, where you revealed the Prolaxian infiltrator.” The General said.

  With that, I felt annoyed at the use of me getting awards to draw out other potential sleeper agents. This is a thought I fully intend to draw out by my next set of questions.

  “To be clear, I am to be the bait to draw out, and then identify other Prolaxian infiltrators? Also isn’t the Mage of Valor medal only for mages who use combat magic, while on the ground?”

  The General chuckles. “That is one way to put your ceremony. While it might be a bit much to assume another Prolaxian infiltrator will appear, we can at least start whittling down suspects. As for your other comment, you did cast Magic spells during the intense combat operations. We clearly have evidence of you using your Mage Breaking spells to stop the opening of a portal. Then the use of Healing magic on an injured soldier on the front lines of combat.”

  I pause as I try to puzzle out what she was saying. Then it hits me. “Myself. I am getting an award for Healing myself while in battle?” I ask incredulously.

  “Well, when you put it like that, it does sound selfish. But your blocking the extra-universal portal was enough for us to start scrambling forces. That alone would be enough for the award. Added to that, is the fact that you then took enemy fire.”

  “That was friendly fire.”

  “All fire during a battle is enemy fire.” The General clarified.

  “The infiltrator as you call it, didn’t even have a weapon.”

  “Then why would you need to heal yourself so many times.” After hearing the General’s argument, I realized I needed to stop while I could. Still there was something odd coming from Rayquel’s pair bond with me.

  Wanting to change the subject, as I believed this current course of topic was only going to get me angry at a superior officer, I turn to Rayquel. Then locking gazes with her, I ask, “What?”

  With that one question, I felt a surge of nervous emotions flow through our bond. Honestly it was a bit much, and more than I remember there being.

  Rayquel breaks eye contact from me, then looks to both the General and the Doctor.

  There is a moment, as I guess they are either communicating with pheromones, or telepathically. Maybe they are using that odd brain wave communication system that all women seem to possess. In any event, I don’t know how they exactly communicate, but they seem to come to some form of consensus. With that the two, look to the Doctor, who then nods.

  “Yes, you are no doubt by now feeling the increased bond of your connection to Rayquel?” The Doctor began. Hearing this, I did notice there was a change, a huge change. Before I sort of had to pay attention to the spark to see what she was feeling. Now it feels like I will be burned if I don’t pay attention to the glow bulb. Again, it is a matter of magnitude greater than it previously was.

  “There is some good news, and some not so good news to share with you.” The Doctor begins.

  Hearing this, I instantly feel flustered. I almost imagine the doctor saying something along the lines of “you have cancer, but it is treatable.” Or something to that effect. I know it can’t be something too bad, my own body scans would have told me by now if something was truly wrong with my body.

  “See you have formed additional pair bond layers with Rayquel.” The doctor began. “If I am to understand correctly, you somehow used the power of your pair bond to strengthen your final attack against the Prolaxian Infiltrator?”

  Thinking back on the situation, I do remember this being the case. I remember somehow grabbing the spark that was between us, and then using that spark to generate more energy. Then next thing I remember the Prolaxian who had previously been able to withstand my Telekinesis-X powers, was squashed easily.

  I didn’t think much on it, at that at the time. I had just done what felt natural. But the way the Doctor was talking, it seemed I had done something wrong, or at least unheard of.

  “Don’t worry. You didn’t do anything that is wrong, or detrimental to your bond. Rather you just went out of normal order. See…” The doctor began a long, LONG diatribe of how I messed up.

  I like to think I take criticism well, wait, no I don’t. Who does, right? Well anyways. Long story short I broke the pair bonding recommended steps. I had somehow managed to jump from level one, to three, and then almost managed to get to five. Apparently, I would have completed the fifth bond entirely, had the Prolaxian Infiltrator not gone squish when he had. That was both interesting and a little concerning.

  Apparently, our skipping steps was nothing to worry about for the moment. As long as we took the proper steps to correct our foundation we should be fine. There was some weird, Endarian concepts that were thrown into the explanation. Best I could understand was the build your own furniture analogy.

  What do I mean by build your own furniture? Well, that is simple. Say you want a bookshelf, you go order the parts and get a small package filled with all the parts that you will need to assemble a bookshelf. Once you have the parts, you can either be boring and read the instructions first; laying out each piece in the order you will need them. Then go line by line making sure to assemble the piece to exact specifications of the blueprint. Or you can take the more fun route of imagining how you want your bookshelf to look. You then go through, use the pieces that you want, assemble it how you think it should go, then leave it as is. There are merits for both.

  While building a bookshelf to the instruction’s standards might be the way to guarantee success, it is often dull. All this is to say that I built my own bookshelf, or in this case my own connection to Rayquel. The connection now leans to the side and can wobble if we put books on the shelf too quickly, but overall, it is in the shape and idea of what a true pair bond should be.

  “So let me try to sum this all up. We,” I say gesturing to Rayquel and myself. “We have what could be described as a tier three pair bond. We also have parts of the tier five pair bond forming. This means we are almost fully complete there too. The only problem is that we are missing a few pieces at the base to keep the whole thing sturdy?” I ask.

  The doctor looks ticked. “Have you listened to a word I said?”

  That is a fair question. I know for a fact I zoned out, or at least I tried to zone out during his long speech. Though Rayquel, the little narc, kept pulling me back in when my mind started to drift.

  “What?” I ask.

  Rayquel, feeling simultaneously annoyed and amused answers. “You are basically correct. Though using your furniture example, from earlier, does not even come close to how poorly our foundation is.”

  All right so maybe I wanted a second opinion on my furniture analogy. But still, she said there was merit to the analogy, so that must mean something?

  “Basically, what you did was you assembled a bookshelf right in the center of the living room. This made the most sense as that was where all the parts were. But now you have an extremely shaky bookshelf that can’t be moved, unless all the top portions shake free. Worse, you don’t even know if you can put the books you wanted, on the shelves.”

  It was at this time that I realized my mistake. “Your right, why would we even let books out on racks anyways. They are so precious that surely, we should use humidors for them. Still a shelf to hold an e-reader seems a bit plain. But I think our shelf could hold an e-reader at the very least.” I say.

  Anger.

  Rayquel is apparently angry. I look to her, trying to understand what she is thinking. Then I get the one-word reply.

  “Moron!”

  That is a bit harsh, but I am willing to let her continue. I was wrong for trying to assemble a bookshelf, I fully admit. Though I know for a fact, that I would need to use the instructions to assemble a humidor.

  She apparently realizes I am about to zone out again.

  “Look, I know this is a lot to take in. We likely should have given you some time to prepare for this, but really, we couldn’t let you make another mistake like you did earlier.”

  “Mistake?”

  “Yes, what you did was extremely dangerous, not just to yourself but to me as well. If you are going to use the bond like that in the future, it is probably best that we have a firm foundation in place before continuing.”

  Hearing that, I relaxed a little. I understood her concern. What I had done not only affected me, but also the part of her that was in me.

  “So, what are the next steps?”

  “In order to have a full connection ready for where you two are. You will need to complete the tiers two and four of the pair bonds.”

  “Tier two, I know. That is the mind melding. What is the fourth tier again?”

  “The body melding.” The doctor says.

  I blink. Then blink again.

  “What?” I ask.

  “It is a weeklong ceremony, where you two will be joined in the ultimate form of union.” General Tigran says.

  “Nope.” My one-word response. Mind melding is one thing, but that? That is way more. “Especially not before I talk to Mel about everything.”

  Hearing that, the General lowers her head.

  Fortunately, Rayquel is the voice of reason. “I know, and I understand. Frankly that loyalty and not wanting to hurt her is part of why I find you so endearing. That said, we are not asking you to do any of these steps. All we ask is that you don’t try to use the pair bond like you did earlier, without these tried-and-true methods in place.”

  Hearing that and the concern in her voice I relent. That is a fair compromise. Truthfully, I didn’t even know what I did in the first place. So not repeating something that I didn’t know, didn’t seem like too much of a commitment.

  “Okay.”

  And with that one word the whole awkward topic of a weeklong sex trip with Rayquel was dropped and I was allowed to leave the hospital. This way I could prepare for my Gemini Temple run with Rayquel, while also preparing for an upcoming award ceremony where I would act as a litmus test to help identify Prolaxian infiltrators. Fun times all around.