Borrowed talents

Jueqel briefly lost himself in a thick gel of memories . It was like wading through through mud, the thoughts that were not his own clinging to him. His thoughts cleared quickly, and he felt himself being set down, lain behind a tree. He was spent without energy. “This is not right,” he mumbled. He could hear a plane in the distance. The earth was cold. The bark on the tree poked through his shirt and dug uncomfortably into his side. The wind picked up, he thought.

He attempted to sense the presence of others, but could only find the faintest hint of them. “Need to rest,” and when he let down his guard he was looking through the eyes of both Raymond and Nita. It was a dizzying to watch the world through two sets of eyes. He tried not to think about it too much, and just let it happen. He managed to get a sense of what they were doing.

The truck's headlights needed to be adjusted, the one on the right fluttered. It came to a screeching halt at the off ramp. The two moved quickly to keep out of sight. They enhanced their vision with a mental boost, needing the clearest picture they could get of their surroundings. That's when they noticed the objects in the sky. Augmented sight allowed them to see parachutes were dropping passengers. Espers, no doubt. They had to be Seishin masters. No one else would have been so bold as to chance a run in with the military.

Breyn was nearby, the two sensed her, but they couldn't tell where she was. Their cursory search revealed nothing useful. Unable to find her and unwilling to take on the distraction, they moved toward the parked truck, careful to stay out of site. If they could get close enough to him, they would have him. They did not want this prize to fall into the hands of House Sieshin. In unison, “disable the Sieshin, they are too close.”

Jueqel felt his ability being used. Psychic static flew out from them in a wide arc and caught many of the Sieshin unawares. They would have to regroup and change tactics, but it would not take them long. Even so, the attack was clumsy, their skill inadequate for wielding his stolen talent.

Breyn's presence could no longer be felt by the two that had stolen his strength, but Jueqel could see her faint outline, a psychic signature he was familiar. “This has gone terribly wrong,” he tried to say, but the words were dry on his lips. Kard was most likely killing her, he knew, but there was nothing he could do to stop the monster. With Jueqel's inner eye Kard's outline showed dark smoke issue forth and wrap Breyn in a cloud of psychic vapor.

The two must have caught this as well, because Raymond and Nita split off in opposite direction. They were going to try to flank him. Their speed was amazing. Jueqel had never before witnessed the full extent of turning your psychic abilities inward. Augmenting the physical form with psychic strength frightened him. “We'll end up destroying ourselves with this power,” he remembered once telling Sherry. Doesn't the body get used up in the process? He was witnessing Yogan in action, and these two certainly did not appear to be used up, yet.

Jueqel suddenly found it hard to breath. His vision blurred, and he had to refocus. He sat propped up against a tree, facing the wooded area, and off to his left was the brick building with the word “MEN” in bold letters printed on the side next to a short breezeway.

Still too weak to do much, he managed to climb to his feet and brace himself against the trunk. He peered from behind the tree only to find he could not see down the sloping ramp where the events were unfolding. “Damn, Yogans.”