When do we start

Spires jutted up throughout the city. Thousands of people walked the streets. Their lives busy with far too many things to do and not enough time to get the job done. They were all strangers to Nepal, but he knew them. Didn't he?

The orange sky indicated it was planting season, but the farmers did their work indoors, now. A single season went on for far too long to keep up with the population's growth. Amid the crowded streets, a woman sat on a ringed bench. She'd been admiring her gloves, scaled a pale green. Nepal moved in close to find the woman sitting down and sobbing. Tears ran from her face dripping to her hands. She lowered them to her lap. She rested on a bench. Familiar, somehow, he knew her. Closer, now. Her skin was not what he'd expected, and he recoiled.

Her eyes turned up to look at him. Dark eyes with large pupils, too far apart from each other. She was frightening, but he knew her and her pale scaled skin.

She'd created this place. She breathed sentience into the world she had found.

Nepal rolled out of bed, landing hard on the floor. He crawled over to the nearby table and propped himself. He inhaled deeply and climbed up into the chair. A small pitcher of ice water placed there for him, he poured and drank the entire cup. He poured another.

Cheshin was standing at the door. “You were some puzzle,” he said.

Nepal stopped drinking to respond, but thought he would finish the cup. He needed time to think. He swallowed more water.

“I'm not reading your mind, if that's what you are thinking, ” Cheshin said when he got no response.

No, that was not what Nepal was thinking, but it was nice to know his thoughts were private. At least for now. He was thinking how much of a puzzle this whole experience had been. He was caught up in a world he never suspected existed.

Cheshin continued, “I figure you could see it, if I were to do anything like that.”

“See what?” Nepal asked.

“He speaks!” Cheshin exclaimed.

“Sorry,” Nepal appologized. “This is very new to me. Weird beyond weird, you know.”

“Sort of, but not really,” Cheshin admitted. “I was born this way. Psychic, I mean.”

“Then how could you know?”

“I'm psychic. I know things through other peoples experiences.”

“Ah, I can see the advantages in that.”

“Yes, and no.” Cheshin tapped his temple with his index finger. “What's up here is mine, and it's not.”

Nepal gave him a baffled squint, “wha...”

"Many of my memories are not my own. I can tell which ones, but it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between them when I'm in a hurry. When we become the 'one mind', we loose part of ourselves to the group. We instantly remember something that someone else is experiencing.”

“I see.”

“You will, I think. You will see a great many things. You haven't even begun to tap your abilities.”

“Why do you say that?” asked Nepal.

“You don't know it yet. So, you must be told. Your kind always has to be told. It's your curse.”

“And what's that supposed to mean? I'm cursed?”

“I'm being figurative. You're not really cursed. Most of you live without every finding out. I only know a little, and that's from what Jueqel has mentioned.”

“What's Jueqel got to say about me?”

Cheshin considered this, “I'm not sure I should say fully. I'm not even sure if there are any limits to what you can know. Jueqel says you are a Psychinian candidate.”

“Psychinian?”

“Yes. It's a name they came up with, but I think it changes over the years. It means you're ancestral line comes from the first Psychinian. Who that is I don't know, but the House Thero, or the House of the Resonance Organization, has been tracking down and documenting Psychinians through the ages. They loose track of them from time to time, but it's very important to them that they keep records of the Psychinian family tree.”

“What's so special about Psychinians? Is that a family name or a code name for a disease?”

Cheshin snickered, “no, nothing like that. Well, maybe a little like that. Someone could put it that way. The family line runs its blood true and is considered the dominant gene passed to the next generation, no matter who the offspring looks like. There are only full blooded Psychinians. Only you can't test for the genes, because there is no Psychinian gene.”

“That makes no sense.”

“I not making this up,” Cheshin defended. “It all sounded more reasonable when I heard it from Jueqel.”

Nepal then asked, “So, what does a person do when the are one?”

“You're psychic. I mean really psychic. You just have learn to control your abilities.”

“How?”

“I can show you a couple of things you can try,” Cheshin offered.

Unsure of how to proceed, Nepal looked around for a pad and pen to take notes. When he couldn't find one, he asked, “where should I start?”

“For starters, you should be able to join your mind with mine. You're not an Oragwain, and I can't ask you to share in the 'one mind', but you should be able to share your thoughts with me. If that works, I we can communicate faster and I can teach you more in a very short period of time. Only,.” He paused to consider.

“Only, what?”

“Quick lessons tend to be very taxing. This House calls them Arenas or REM courses. It amounts to the same thing. Once we get started, we go until we get so tired we can't stand up. It is exhausting.”

Curiosity welled up and nearly missed the point of the last few words that were said. “I'd be alright,” Nepal blurted out.

Cheshin smiled, “I was talking about me, but yes, you will be tired after that kind of lesson, too.”

“Oh, ah, sorry,” Nepal said embarrassed. “I wasn't thinking. Of course, I wouldn't want you to get hurt or anything like that.”

“I'm only a telepath in that I've learned through the 'one mind' how to communicate thoughts and concepts, but I'm a much better empath. I don't have try very hard to read emotions. They just come at me most of the time.”

“You mean you know what people are feeling?”

“Almost all the time.”

“That sounds handy.”

“Yes, and I can be.” Cheshin put up a hand, palm out to Nepal. “But there is something else you should know.”

Nepal watched as silver threads streamed out from behind where Cheshin stood. They wheeled around and formed a web of pulsating strands.

“You already have the ability to enhance psychic talents.” Cheshin shuttered. “Your mere presence here has doubled everyones capacity to perform. It waxes and wanes, but for the most part, it happens while you sleep. I can feel it now, and I'm refocusing the extra strength you've given me into gathering empathic sensations.” Another shutter went through him. “You should be able to see the results.”

Nepal stared in amazement. How can this be? Is it true? Nepal said, “yes. I do see it.”

“This is you're gift to me. Temporary, I'm sure, but its there.”

Nepal was exhilarated at the thought of actually being psychic. There would be so much he could do. He thought of the comic books he had read as a child, and how heroic the story. But those were just comic book characters. Doubt tackled him. The web of Cheshin's empathic radar dish wavered and thinned to a pale wisp.

Cheshin said, “how can you doubt what you are seeing?”

“I don't,” Nepal lied.

Cheshin put his palm down and grabbed the doubtful man's hands. “You can do this, Nepal. You have already seen it. There are more things in this world that are witnessed by the blanks. You don't have to be a blank any more.”

“Blank?”

“A non-psychic. Blank, because they see a blank screen when they look into the psychic realm. They ignore the blank screen, like people ignore a TV screen that's turned off.”

When Nepal tried, he could see thin threads coming into the room from all directions, silver lines no thinker than a human hair. Many of them flowed through and around Cheshin, but there were a series of then surrounding a plant growing in the corner. “Alright, Cheshin. I'm convinced. When do we start the lessons?”