I’m not on Bellerophon anymore. I’m on another ship now, a nicer one than the Post Script. I wasn’t even at the monastery two days before This is stupid. My thoughts are wandering all over the place. I don’t know what to think or do or anything. I’ll start at the beginning and maybe it’ll make more sense.
Anyway. Kendi took me shopping. I’ve never had new clothes before. Most of my clothes were hand-me- downs from the neighborhood. The rest came from a secondhand store. But here, Kendi took me into real stores with real salespeople, helpful ones who didn’t try to brush us off.
“There are a bunch of people who want to talk to you,” Kendi said as we finished up. “They want to run some tests on what you can do, and they want to do it this evening. Is that okay with you?”
I nodded, still enjoying the feel of new clothes on my body. They still smelled new, and they were mine.
We took a gondola back to the monastery. It’s like riding in a giant basket on a wire, except the basket is made of metal instead of wicker. Once we got there, we dropped off my stuff and Kendi took me to another building.
Inside was a big room that reminded me of the gymnasium back at my old school, but with a polished floor and new yellow paint. A long table was set up near the far wall. Four humans and four Ched-Balaar were there, along with four other aliens. One looked like a caterpillar, one looked like a stuffed bear, one looked like a small elephant that had been hosed with red candle wax, and one looked like some kind of lizard. The humans were dressed in brown robes with gold disks around their necks.
When Kendi and I reached the table, I remembered to put my fingertips against my forehead like I was supposed to, even though I was suddenly so nervous my teeth were almost chattering. What if they sent me back to the Unity?
The oldest human in the group stepped up to the table, which was between me and him. He used a walking stick and had big purple ring on his hand. “Sejal Dasa? I’m Grandfather Adept Melthine. You can call me ‘Grandfather’ or ‘Grandfather Adept.’“
He introduced the others, including the Ched-Balaar and the other aliens, and they all sat down. The smaller aliens had chairs on the tabletop, and the Ched-Balaar sat on the floor like giant dogs. Kendi and I took chairs on the other side of the table. I still wanted to puke.
“Well, Sejal,” Grandfather Melthine began. “We want to know more about you. You have an unusual ability, and we’re fascinated.”
He sounded friendly enough and he had a nice face. I was still a little wary, though. The others didn’t say anything.
“We’d like to see what you can do,” Grandfather Melthine continued. “Why don’t you start by telling us?”
I hesitated.
“Go ahead, Sejal,” Kendi said. “It’s all right.”
“I can make people do things,” I said nervously.
“Like what?” Melthine asked. His voice was still gentle, not at all stern. I concentrated on him, blocking out the aliens in the room, and was able to relax a little bit.
“I can freeze people in place,” I told him, “and they don’t remember what happened when I let them go. I can also make people want to do something so bad, they do it.”
“Can you give an example?” Melthine said.
“Well, I froze six Unity guard in place so we could get back on the Post Script. And another time I made a guard want to punch his partner so bad that he couldn’t help doing it.”
“A powerful form of whispering,” murmured one of the other humans. “But without entering the Dream.”
“I don’t do it directly,” I added. “I have to sort of… reach through another place. It might be the Dream, but I’m not sure.”
Melthine’s hand was on his walking stick, even though he was sitting. “How does the freezing work, Sejal? What do you do?”
I thought about it. “It’s like I can…see what they’re feeling. Well, not really see. I just sort of know. And then I reach through the weird place and make one of those feelings really strong. The feeling already has to be there. I can’t make new ones.”
“Whispering,” the other human said again.
“How do you ‘freeze’ people, as you call it?” Melthine said.
“I shut their feelings down completely,” I said. “I looked it up once. It’s called apathy. You don’t have feelings, you don’t any reason to do anything. You don’t even care enough to remember what happened.”
Melthine nodded. “You don’t possess people then? Put your mind into someone else’s body and take it for you own?”
“No.”
Everyone in the room gave a little sigh, like they were relieved or something. I didn’t understand it. Several of them looked at Kendi like like he had done something wrong. I didn’t understand that, either. Was Kendi in trouble?
“Sejal,” Kendi said quietly. “Have you ever tried to possess someone completely?”
“No.”
“Can you, do you think?”
I thought about it. “Probably.”
The people at the table got all tense again.
“Try it with me,” Kendi said.
I looked at him. “Take over your body?”
“Sure. It’s nothing new, Sejal. Silent do it all the time. Do that freeze thing, but push harder. You can’t hurt me. It’ll be all right.”
So I did. Before any of the others said anything, I touched Kendi with my mind, like I did with that first jobber back with Jesse. Then I pushed.
The world jumped to the right. I was sitting in a different place. I looked down at my hands. They were bigger and darker. I drew in a sharp breath. The noise sounded different in my head. I looked sideways and saw… myself. My eyes were shut and I was slumped sideways in my chair. I leaped up, knocking the chair over. My heart pounded, but the rhythm was wrong. I panicked.
A hand landed on my shoulder and I yelped. It was reflex-I took that mind, too. I was seeing the room from two different points of view. There were two of me, but only one, at the same time.
The other people-and aliens-in the room scrambled to their feet. The sudden movement scared me again, and then I had three, four, five, and six people. Then seven and eight and nine. My eyes looked in a dozen different directions all at once. I had two legs-no, four legs-no, a dozen. My hearts were thumping so hard they hurt. In panic, I saw my body, still slumped in the chair. I wanted to be back inside it. I wanted to be me again. I lunged for myself.
And then I was there. I opened my eyes and looked down at my hands. My hands. My arms. My body.
I looked up, shaking. The room was dead silent. Everyone was looking at me. Then a babble broke out as everyone started talking at the same time. One of the humans, a blond man, was shouting. The caterpillar waved its arms. Kendi looked stunned. I just huddled in my chair. They were angry. They were going to do something to me. I wanted to run.
Finally Grandfather Melthine quieted the room and got everyone to sit down again. He was the one who’d put a hand on my shoulder. His face was pale.
“That was…impressive, young Sejal,” he said. He wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his robe. “I think you made history today.”
I didn’t say anything.
“We’ll need to analyze this more closely later,” Melthine added. “We thought Brother Kendi was powerful because he can split his mind into two pieces in the Dream. But you, Sejal…well, your abilities go rather beyond that.”
I still didn’t say anything.
Grandfather Melthine took a deep breath. “Well. Mother Adept Araceil Rymar also reported that you can pull other people into the Dream. Is that correct?”
I nodded.
