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Live In Reverse -- Chapter 3
1. "Guards, I want
him so much," Annalyse swooned. Kor looked like a Vejhonian god;
chiseled and sculpted with just enough wear to look real. His fierce
complexion sliced through the jungle; trusty spear in hand, while
glistening beads of sweat flew from his wavy jet black hair. The
menacing cold fusion of his fiery blue eyes penetrated an observer's
innermost thoughts. One wouldn't dare laugh for fear of being
savagely killed.
2. For a brief
moment, she thought he made eye contact with her and she feinted.
"Annalyse," her friend whispered trying to soften her fall. She did not
hit the ground hard -- It seemed like an angel had set her down gently
in fresh snow. Maureen looked straight at
Kor as he passed and caught the feint trace of a thin smile on his
face. Kor was laughing at their failed attempt to feign
discretion.
3. He was like a
shadow that crossed the path in front of them. He had climbed
every tree, scaled every cliff, forded every stream and river, and knew
every inch of his forest like he knew his own body. He was 18,
unencumbered by society and duty; the absolute master of his forest
kingdom and ruler of all who visited; mainly female admirers.
4. He found his favorite ledge in
front of Mantra's cave behind the waterfall, fell into his hammock and
entered a self induced trance inbetween consciousness and
sleep. The shell faded away and was replaced by an erie calm.
There was no EMF of any kind and the absense of frequencies made his
head ring.
5. He became aware of himself
riding in the back of an ancient ox cart. He could feel his body sway
with the banging of the cart's thick, uneven, wooden wheels against the
cobblestone road in a small town. The clacking was deafening and the
cart's bucking had nearly thrown him out several times. His body was 7
years old; his oily hair was dirty and unwashed. His tunic was torn and
scratchy because it had been a grain sack first. His father was driving
the ox cart in front. He didn't need to
look -- he knew it was his father. His mother had died from a
disease. Kor was disturbed because the scene felt distantly
familiar.
6. There was a muscular,
adult shellan with his hands tied over his head, being suspended by an
overhead beam. He couldn't move because his feet were shackled to the
ground. Beside him, someone in a black hooded robe, presumably
shellan, carved thin slices of flesh from his victim's limbs. There was
nobody else in the village; only the black robed priest and his
captive. The scene played out like something out of a holo, which
Kor watched very little of.
7.
"Old Man," Mantra invaded gently. Kor didn't answer but his smile could
be felt. "Old Man" was Mantra's term of endearment for Kor that had
stuck since their first encounter. "I don't have a propensity for such
goolish things," Kor confessed with a sigh, "but this one escapes me."
8. Mantra
examined Kor's vision, "How real it seems," he said, "There's a
complete absense of psyos." The dreamscape was apsionic.
9. "Is that me
in another life?" Kor asked, "Or ancient memories in the strata?
If it's me -- I wasn't very psionic." The kid was scraggly and
paper thin.
10. "Very good
questions," Mantra said. He examined the sky in Kor's vision and
there was no evidence of a watershell. The memories were from
some other shell. Kor followed Mantra's deductions and felt some
relief, "Some other shell?" he wondered, "Someone else's memories...
from some other shell?" More privately he wondered, "Could these
dreams be someone else's reality?"
11. It was a
realization more that a question, so Mantra accepted Kor's deduction as
his own. "Let me answer this way," Mantra invoked: A
stairway to a flaming door emerged in Kor's mind. The imagry was
vivid, realistic and much more inviting than watching a healthy shellan
get filleted alive by a sadistic priest.
12. Kor
climbed the stairs and dramatically opened the flaming door like a king
entering his private treasury. The door opened to a Universe so
astonishingly real and vivid that it quickly dissolved the previous
vision. "Did you make this?" Kor whispered. "It's all in
your mind," Mantra whispered back, "you're connected to it."
13. Kor waved
his arm within this infinite mindspace, unwilling to close the door
behind
him or leave the threshold. "Is it
in me?... or am I in it?" he
asked introspectively.
14. Several
Vejhonian synonyms ran through Mantra's mind: The
operative was "symbiosis." "It's a Universe that you carry with
you," Mantra
answered.
15.
The potential of this new revelation far outweighed anything he had
entertained before. Scenes from his life passed in review while
Mantra watched:
16. Down by the brook, Mantra manipulated a miniature spherical
Universe, like an energy ball within his hands. Kor's 6-year-old
self was watching from afar. "That's me!" Kor observed, "you baited me, didn't you?" Kor accused
him with feigned fractiousness. Mantra grinned.
17. The younger Kor crept up on Mantra, quite curious.
Without turning around, Mantra said, "I see you young hunter."
Kor was flattered and examined the camouflage paint on his limbs.
His face was painted too. "Are you the Old Man of the Forest?"
Kor asked.
18.
"I used to be," Mantra answered, "but I'm afraid that job is now
yours." He knew exactly how to ingratiate himself to a strappling
6-year-old. The older Kor blushed at how easy it was and
gave Mantra a psionic punch in the arm.
19.
Highlights of their future encounters passed like watching a movie
about ones private life. A new perspective can be gleaned when
reviewing personal history as an observer.
20.
Kor watched the syllabus style of Mantra's instruction and was
impressed with his expert psychological craftsmanship. "I never
had to force you to learn," Mantra narrated, "you learned as fast as I
could teach." Kor had been his only student. The vision
featured Mantra's private collection of magical artificts; the
presentation slowed down to mark special moments and important
discoveries. Kor witnessed each stage of his development up to
his ultimate victory over matter.
21.
The day came when
Mantra introduced Kor to the secret society at large. "If you
only knew the euphoria I felt," Kor whispered about that moment.
Mantra was
exciting, but the entire society was a sensory overload.
"I was so raptured by it," Kor confessed, "and still am."
Mantra smiled. There was still the final, ultimate thrill that
etched itself forever in Kor's heart:
22.
The Secret Scrolls... so secret that their existence was denied.
In every dispensation, society priests kept records since the dawning
of
time. Seeing those scrolls for the first time was the most
spiritual event in Kor's life. He re-lived the moment as he
watched himself behold the oldest known document, written during the
first Dan in a language that nobody could read.
23.
Kor's eyes were
drawn to a set of characters styled like a litney. He couldn't
read it then, but knew what it said now: "Life through Light and
Death -- Beauty and Savagry." It was the very first truth,
written at the top of the first page of the first Dan. Every
society member kept that key litney on their person in any form they
chose, so long as it was on their person. To outsiders, it
was a stupid, harmless superstition that didn't mean anything.
But to insiders -- it was a key to fraternal harmony and an easy way to
identify other society menbers.
24. When Kor set the document down, he was speechless and nearly
moved to tears. As an observer, he remembered what his younger
self said when he calmed himself, and lipped the words in synch with
him, "Everything we are -- is here." His voice was deeper
now, but even his younger voice had strength and power.
25.
Mantra added to the narrative, "To the Elders -- you
gloriously embody everything that we hold dear... then... as you do
now." Kor also heard, "...and we've been talking about you ever
since."
26. There was an epochal moment that would come. It had
been indirectly alluded through innuendo that Kor was the 'heir
apparent' to a title that nobody in this dispensation was qualified
for. A date had already been set to install Kor as the
'Chosen One' in a traditional ceremony as prescribed in the scrolls.
27. Kor was being groomed to embrace the role when the time
came. To him, the scrolls were Ex Cathedra ad finis. There
was nothing to argue -- if the future revolved around him, he would
simply accept it.
28.
In a psionic world, those who recognize truth without evidence are easy
to find, and society priests avail themselves to guide the spiritually
inclined.
29. Society priests roam the strata similar to
the Psionic Guard but for a different purpose, on a much different
level. For that reason, their paths never cross. Strangely,
the Psionic Guard refer to their shellwatch facility as a "Temple" and
it serves no theological purpose. Society priests, on the other
hand, have no designated facility but are more in synch with the
literal function of proselytizing.
30.
Psionic seeds are easily planted: "Do you feel that there is more than
this? Do you want more
than this?" The question sounds innocuous by design, but the seed
blooms into a longing desire: "Who's asking? Of course I want more..." Where
proselytizing off-shell might invoke charismatic powers of
persuasion and compelling reasons to convert, on Vejhon, the priests
legwork is already done; the prospect is already converted. He or
she only needs someone in authority, to appear and identify the
unspoken body of
knowledge, believed to be natural and true.
31.
Kor didn't generally tap into such roamings, but Mantra wanted Kor to
witness at least one intervention as a training exercise. "This
shellan has puzzling metaphysical questions,"
Mantra drifted into the mind of a prospect who was about to be visited
by society missionaries. "Like many in our shell," Mantra
continued, "he doesn't think anyone can possibly understand him..."
32.
The missionaries knock. The prospect opens the door and is
greeted with warmth and friendliness. He already knows that there
are no secrets in a psionic world, but the missionaries proceed to
answer his
deepest and most puzzling metaphysical questions. He is
astonished, enraptured and feels spiritually reborn. "Haven't you
always felt
that that these things were true?" the missionaries ask him.
"Yes, but there was nobody to ask," he answers. The missionaries
continue, "There is a society that believes as you do, that has existed
since the first Dan. That is why we came today: We heard
you..."
33.
"There are no prayers, ceremonies or special induction rites," Mantra
narrates, "do you wonder why?"
34.
It was Mantra's style to ask rhetorical questions as a point of
information. The shellan looks and feels completely tranformed,
as if the missionaries had opened a hidden
part of his mind that liberated his soul. The scene progresses
into one of grateful, indescribable joy, before it settles into quiet
maturity. "You are one of us, now," the missionaries confirm, and
the newness never ends.
35.
"But I was always converted," Kor whispered. "True," Mantra
agreed, "Actually, you converted me, Old Man," Mantra joked. Kor
grinned. "I like the sincerity of his liberation," Kor commented,
"Thank-you for this journey." It was simply a matter of time; a
cliché symbolized by a faceless
clock. "Of course," Mantra acknowledged warmly, "You're quite
welcome."
36.
Mantra dissolved their visionscape and Kor became conscious of his
hammock again. He sprung up, "I've got a few more heads to
turn," he quipped, and off he ran.
THE POLAR RIFT
37.
As the Dans
progressed, the secret society accumulated so much information that the
non-clerical elements in society became
suspicious. Society members simply didn't 'fit in' any more and
were perceived as a threat. The
gulf between wisdom and illiteracy widened irreconcilably and forced
the
priests underground. Once the priests were out-of-sight and
out-of-mind, the topside population felt better.
'Intelligence'
faded into psionic cracks unnoticed.
38.
As the
Psionic Guard became the political guardians of law and order, the
Secret
Society
evolved to preserve spiritual continuity. The hatred between them
grew so intense that any notion of symbolizing two halves of the same
paradigm was vehemently redacted. They stigmatized each other
until bloodshed made them sworn enemies, each claiming a polarity
within the
strata; diabolically bent on annihilating each
other. Psionic opposites do not attract: They
destroy.
39.
Society members
embrace unchanging machinations in a constantly changing
Universe; inner peace results when one accepts their place in a higher
consciousness. There are no
excommunications: Either you 'always
were' or 'never will be.'
The society at-large serves as a support group, "We are all we have,"
is
a common anthem. The topside population believes in existential
physicalism since psionics are manifest through wavelengths most
impressively demonstrated by the Psionic Guard. Psionics does not
require faith because all Vejhonians are inherently psionic to varying
degrees. Some care more or less than others.
THE PSIONIC GUARD
COMPOUND AT SPEARPIERCE
40.
"The freedom to feel, whatever it is
that you
feel, is an attractive selling point for society recruitment because
fear is absorbed, rather than dissolved," a Guard offered.
"Society inductees are
rescued from their feelings of powerlessness and insignificance,"
another suggested.
41.
Director Kyle'yn nodded, "We're not opposed to abstract
physicalism or existential ideas, so long as such ideas do not
undermine the Constitution." "Then I wonder why there's a
problem?" a graduate asked. Everyone understood, "Indeed, there
shouldn't be." Kyle'yn looked into his eyes, "It takes more
responsibility to be a free-thinking shellan, then a society
whore." The bunch laughed out loud, including the Director,
"Elitist idiology
is lethally incompatible with freedom, or as my Cacci Dai escort said
once, 'Cosmos and Chaos exist, but not at the same point in time and
space.'" They were at the reception following a graduation
ceremony.
41.
"What keeps the superstition alive?" a graduate asked the
Director. "The operative word is 'superstition,'"
Kyle'yn answered, clearly not finished with his thought or his
answer. "The secret society supposedly maintains a secret library
that contains the history of Vejhon since the first Dan," the Director
continued, "It's so secret they won't divulge its whereabouts to its
own members, or even admit that it really exists."
42.
"Wouldn't something like that be of great cultural and academic
significance?" another graduate asked, "I'm sure we know where it
is." "Yes,"the Director sighed, "that's precisely where it gets
sticky." He turned the question around: "What is our
function?" he asked, like an instructor. "To protect the will of
the State," a graduate
answered. The Director nodded and smiled sternly, as if a deeper
truth lay behind the textbook answer. "What if..." the Director
pontificated out loud, "... an ancient manuscript that revealed
shell-shaking formulas that could potentially alter physics, or even
destroy the shell, was made available to the public?"
43.
The very idea was ludicrous and the ramifications immeasurable.
"We can't release that kind of material to the public," a graduate
answered. The Director nodded, "So, is it safer with
us?..." the Director paused for effect, "...or with them?" Four
graduates encircled the Director. It sounded like a
trick question. "In effect, they're just stubbron Jolvian
asses," one graduate remarked; his meaning went deeper and his peers
understood.
44.
"If in fact," a graduate offered, "an Elite paradigm does
exist, and our theoretical understanding of their oligarchy existed
all these Dans -- then we might as well leave it with them." It
was daring and succinct. "Guard's Damn!" the Director exclaimed
out loud, "I think I'm nominating you as my replacement!" He
patted the graduate warmly on the back while his peers jabbed at him
for being right. All in good fun.
45.
"One more question, Sir," a graduate asked. The Director
nodded. "The university system depends heavily upon State
sponsorship," the graduate continued; "my sister says academia takes
blasphemous liberties
to maintain the status quo; that Historians are religious figures and
not educators." The graduate sounded nervous but sincere.
The Director gave him a blank stare and then began to squint as if
angry. Then he broke out with a warm chuckle, "Tell her to join
us," he said. The graduate let out a breath of relief.
"Thought your ass was gone, didn't ya?" his friends jabbed at him.
46.
"If you boys will excuse me," the Director motioned toward a stately
looking lady by the grog fountain. "Ahhhhh," the graduates
acknowledged in unison and parted to permit his egress.
47.
Lasers were banned on Vejhon because of their potential for eco
terrorism. For that reason, "cyonics" which refers to
concentrated light was lexicographically and etymologically
interchangeable with "psionics" which refered to exosensory
attentuation. Transversing the watershell was accomplished by
using any number of State-controlled
checkpoints.
48.
On the other hand, Onimex prefers the bath.
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