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(Jenny woke the next morning to a kiss on the forehead. Burt was bent over her, his eyes sparkling with that look he reserved only for her.
“Hey, sleepyhead, Chidwi, BaaGah, Lolly, and Tidbit are already chasing butterflies in the garden, and Lizziebot fixed you breakfast in bed.” He gestured to a tray sitting on the bedside table. Sitting beside it was the journal Jenny had been reading the night before, her place carefully marked.
“At the rate you’re going, you’ll have all of those journals read by the time your break is over. Learn anything new?”
“I’m beginning to realize maybe I got the easy path. Agent training is even more intense than I thought it would be. And she hasn’t even gotten to the part where she is trained as a gate guardian. But I’m beginning to get a real feel for who she was and what the Alliance is about. I think I’m getting to the good part now.”
Burt grinned as he propped her up with pillows and got the breakfast tray settled across her lap.
“I remember it being pretty intense, all right. When you’re finished reading the journals, we can swap stories sometime. That being said, I wouldn’t have wanted to be trained the way you were, Jenny.
Do you need anything else? I just popped in for a few minutes, to check in on you. I have to run. Enjoy your day, and don’t think I won’t know if you aren’t following doctor’s orders. Be sure to take a short walk today and be seen by the neighbors, but you might want to change out of your jammies before then,” and he winked, “even if you are adorable in them.”
She laughed, and he kissed her again before leaving her to her breakfast and her reading.)
Lizzie approached her first lesson with Liliath with foreboding. She knew, or at least hoped, that Liliath didn’t bite, but the only thing she was less proficient in than mind training was the physical defense exercises. Reining in the constant ebb and flow of thoughts in her mind was nearly impossible for her. She could focus well enough at a given task, as long as she needed to, but when left without something solid to direct her thoughts at, she found herself easily drifting into endless branches and side paths of inquiry and speculation.
So, when she entered Liliath’s office in the admin building at the end of her lessons for the day, she was more than a little anxious. Liliath wasn’t inclined on her chaise, but stood in the center of the large room, her head turning at Lizzie’s entrance.
“Welcome, Lizzie and Ynni. Follow me.”
Liliath turned and exited through another door on the far side of the room. It led into a large space similar to the gym in Sanglarka, only about twice as large. Considering it was in use by a dragon, Lizzie supposed this wasn’t all that surprising.
Liliath stretched out on the mat and indicated that Lizzie should sit. “Assume your usual thought training position,” she instructed. “Today we will be adding Ynni to your usual breathing exercises and will practice going into a modified REM state, similar to sleep. Once you can do this without coaching, we will use this to learn control over various physical responses to stimulus such as pain and to help you defend your mind against potential incursion by beings who have the ability to use their minds to control others.
All agents and gate guardians are trained in this particular discipline. That being said, like any other skill, some take to it easier than others, and some never get past rudimentary application. You, I think, with Ynni’s help, may find you can accomplish more than you might otherwise expect.”
Lizzie was skeptical about this. She often puzzled about why mindspeech was even possible, and the other applications of mental training baffled her. To her, it seemed a lot more metaphysical than scientific and therefore suspect. She couldn’t, however, discount the practice, as she had seen evidence with her own eyes that some people, even on Earth, seemed to have a lot more control over autonomic body functions than others, which they claimed was due to these same mental disciplines.
So, she settled into the routine of careful, mindful breathing, as she had been taught in Sanglarka. Lall had always required them to do the exercise before both their morning and evening runs, so she had become relatively skilled in this part of the task. However, the only thing that kept her mind from wandering or simply falling asleep due to the relaxation of it, was painstakingly counting her breaths and concentrating on the rhythm of it.
Once she had fallen into the final stage of the exercise, Liliath’s mind voice blended into the count, “Now, Lizzie, I need you to give me permission to enter your mind at this point. Picture a locked door, and turn the key. I promise I will not be able to view anything you don’t wish me to see, but it is necessary for the next steps.”
Lizzie squirmed a little at the idea of allowing a dragon into her mind, but she realized that she desperately needed to succeed in this if she was ever going to get all of her questions answered. She complied, picturing the door to a bank vault. Surprised, she didn’t have to wonder what the combination was. She saw herself carefully dial the combination to her old high school locker and heard the lock click.
In her mind, she opened the vault door, which was appropriately sized to allow the entrance of the dragon and stepped aside to watch Liliath step into the room beyond. She followed her and was surprised to see the vault was a lot like Gaston’s lab, but larger. She couldn’t see the farthest walls in the distance.
“Very good. Now, Lizzie, I need you to form a picture in your mind of a peaceful place where you feel safe and relaxed.”
Obligingly, Lizzie pictured an alcove in the university library where no one ever intruded. The little desk in an obscure corner of the research section had been her favorite retreat at school when she really wanted to focus on her continued inquiries into the mysteries of science not yet covered by her professors in her classes. It was hemmed in on three sides by tall shelves of worn, thick leather books, often inscribed in gilt lettering in old fashioned typefaces.
“Interesting, that you should choose such a place,” Liliath remarked dryly.
Lizzie was surprised to hear the voice so close behind her and realized that this was no longer mindspeech. In her mind she turned to see Liliath standing behind her, her head bent to keep from brushing the library ceiling.
“Why can I hear your voice? And how are we here together? I assume this is just a place in my mind and we haven’t somehow traveled to a library in my dimension.”
“Since you allowed me through the door to the world you have created in your mind, and as you deliberately picture your surroundings, I can travel with you through the world you create in your mind. In this place, mindspeech is the common language, so you ‘hear’ my mind voice as if I were speaking vocally.”
“Ynni sees too; Ynni will guard what Lizzie would keep safe.” And to her surprise, Ynni stood beside Liliath, nearly as tall as Liliath was, dressed in mail armor and holding a spear.
This made Lizzie laugh; and abruptly, Ynni shrank to her normal size, armor no longer covering her silky green fur. Ynni laughed with Lizzie and, shockingly, so did Liliath, or at least Lizzie hoped it was laughter. The baring of Liliath’s mouth full of sharp teeth was a bit alarming, otherwise.
“As Ynni said, because it is the talent of her race to read any mind, she is aware of any who are close by or who have ill intent. She also has the ability to guard your thoughts to a certain extent. This will be helpful moving forward.
“This place we are in now is a haven you can come to on command. You will want to decide on a key phrase we will call a ‘trigger.’ When you deliberately think this phrase, you will immediately be able to find this place in your mind, and it will become a mental shelter for you. As we move farther into mental defense, you will learn to use such visualizations to strengthen your mental responses. What key phrase will you use?”
Lizzie considered this. Something that would call this peaceful place to her mind should be something that would be easy to remember in a stressful situation, but not necessarily easy for someone else to guess. To her own surprise, the word that came to her mind was “campfire.”
She remembered one of her most cherished memories from her younger years. Her family had loved going to a campground in Monterey during Easter vacation. Her favorite part of the several days they spent there together was in the evening, sitting around the campfire, toasting marshmallows while her parents told and retold stories from their own youth. It was a peaceful time when Lizzie had felt connected to her family and safe from whatever else life dealt out.
“Now let us return to your vault,” Lizzie said. “We need to explore and determine future mental expeditions there.”
Lizzie pictured the vault, and they were immediately all there, standing in the area that contained the loom she had made for Gaston, that seemed ages ago and which had set her on this new path.
“The things you will encounter here may surprise you, and they will change over time,” Liliath instructed, looking around her. “Each thing in this space lives in your mind, but not all of them are literal. They are symbolic representations of thoughts and experiences. Sometimes we find ourselves puzzled by what they mean.
“The fact you are here right now says something for your potential. It means you at least have access. Some struggle to get even this far in their mental exercise.”
“I was only following your instructions,” Lizzie protested. “No real effort on my part.”
“Ah, there is where you are mistaken, Lizzie. You just displayed unusual trust in your own mind. For many, even getting to the locked door, much less getting past it, takes weeks.
“We will return to this place frequently over the coming weeks. It will be important, moving forward, for you to do your breathing exercises every night before sleep. I know you, like your podmates, go to your bed thoroughly weary at the end of the day, but you will progress much faster in our lessons if this becomes a habit. Eventually you will do it without thinking. But for now, be consistent in your nightly practice.
“Let us return to the practice room.”
And with that, Lizzie came to herself, sitting on the mat across from the dragon, Ynni seated beside her, one small warm hand resting on Lizzie’s knee.
“That was a good session, Lizzie. Do you have any questions?”
“Not really. I’m still taking it all in. Can I do that without you guiding me?”
“Not for now, at least not intentionally or easily. Going in with a guide is the best way to begin this. We are entering the place where all of your night dreams come from, and not all areas are pleasant. Until we have put your defenses firmly in place, you should content yourself with your breathing and relaxation exercises. I will see you tomorrow. For this first week, we will be doing this every day at the same time. Until tomorrow then, enjoy your workout.”
Lizzie heard the kind but obvious dismissal in her tone and nodded, got up, and left for her evening workout. She knew she would be extra hungry for supper tonight.
