Biv plainly took the prediction seriously, because when I turned back around, he was gone, returning a few seconds later with a very sleepy and befuddled Puck, who was still dragging his blanket along with him in what would have been a comical sight if I weren’t suddenly afraid that we were about to be blown to bits. “Whass wrong?” He demanded, scrubbing at his eyes petulantly.
“Tengu is attempting to attack.”
Puck stared into the dimly lit cockpit before frowning. “So? Let ‘im. You already proved your ship can kick his ship’s ass.”
“He is not attempting a physical attack,” Kiasis’ voice was still perfectly calm and controlled, her movements slow and unhurried as she worked the controls of the ship. “He is attempting to attack magically.”
“What? How can he do that?” I turned to Puck, horrified. “I thought you said he had to touch people to hurt them!”
“He has to touch to use his healing magic.” Kiasis swiveled her seat around to face us, and I thought she looked paler than she had the last time I had gotten a good look at her face. Aside from that small difference, she seemed exactly the same…not nervous, not flustered, not even the slightest bit worried. “Tengu is a strong telepath. He need not touch to use other abilities, if he wishes, to attack those who are sensitive enough.”
“Sensitive…?” Biv asked tentatively. I was glad to see I wasn’t the only one with no real clue what was going on.
“Other telepaths,” Puck answered grimly in lieu of Kiasis. “The more sensitive the telepath, the more vulnerable to attack.”
Biv’s eyes widened, and I was suddenly the only one in the dark again. I didn’t much like it. When he saw that I plainly didn’t grasp what Puck’s statement meant, he clarified for me. “Sch’silians are very strong telepaths.”
“My mental defenses are also much stronger than anyone else’s on the ship.” Kiasis didn’t much seem to care for the implication that she might be vulnerable to anything. “However, it would be…impractical at the very least for me to continue piloting the ship, as it is theoretically possible for Tengu take control of my mind.”
“Yeah.” Puck moved into the cockpit. I didn’t like how worried he sounded. I hadn’t heard Puck sound worried yet, up to this point. “I’ll take over. I never thought I’d be so happy to be as mentally sensitive as a rock.” He turned as Kiasis vacated her seat, flashing me a quick grin. “I’m what they call mind-blind. No telepathic sensitivity worth mentioning, not even as much as most humans. My people consider it a handicap; got me picked on as a kid.” Sliding into the empty seat, he turned it around to take the controls as Kiasis made her way past Biv and me, heading for the mediation mat Biv had been napping on.
She sat down, crossing her legs, her back as straight as a board as her eyes fell closed. “Biv. You and the girl should move closer. The nearer you are to me, the better I will be able to protect the both of you. Tengu’s ship will soon be close enough that he may try to attack either one of you.”
Biv moved to comply right away, but I was too confused to do the same. Following directions without question had never been one of my strongest skills. “Wait a minute. Humans aren’t telepaths. How is he going to attack us?”
Puck’s ready answer drifted out of the cockpit brightly. Dim though things might seem, he was always happy to give a lecture on some subject or another; even the brief acquaintance I’d had with him had taught me that. “Most humans have at least some low level telepathic ability. Over seventy-five percent of them, actually. Of course, it’s not as strong as it usually is in other races, but it’s there, and it’s usually enough for them to at least receive, if not send. Besides, princess, you forget you aren’t exactly human.”
I glared in the direction of his voice. “Yeah, well, I’m not a telepath either!”
And that was when it hit me.
It was only for a few seconds, or so I was told later. All I remember is the searing, white-hot pain in my head as my world dissolved into pure hell. It wasn’t so much like physical pain, although I couldn’t have distinguished that at the time…it was more like every fear I’d ever had was taking over my brain, like every bad experience I’d ever been through was reoccurring all at once, until everything else faded and there was fire and the scent of smoke, choking the life out of me and making it impossible to breathe, and my skin was burning and blistering and peeling away from my flesh.
Then I was on the mat, leaning over Kiasis with a knife to her throat.
And then I was flying through the air and slamming hard against the bathroom door. Apparently it wasn’t just a rumor that Sch’silians had roughly twice human strength. Ow.
“Holly!” Biv hurried over to offer me a hand up. “Are you alright?”
I grunted, but I didn’t move from the little heap I’d fallen into on the floor. “Wh…I…” I was having a little trouble articulating my general feeling of “What the FUCK?”, what with the wind having been knocked out of my lungs and all.
“You are,” Kiasis provided with a hint of dry humor. “Apparently more telepathically sensitive than you believed.” She was sitting upright again, tucking her knife back into the sheath on her boot. “Tengu seemed to invade your mind with relative ease.”
I looked first at Puck, in the pilot’s seat, then at Biv, for some kind of clarification.
“It was…kind of scary,” Biv said finally, still staring at me with a kind of horrified awe in his eyes. “One second you were just sitting there with us…the next, you just jumped at Kiasis and grabbed her knife!”
I rubbed gingerly at the knot forming on the back of my head. The idea that someone had just…hacked into my brain was surreal and more than a little scary. T hat he had made me do things against my will, things I wasn’t really even physically capable of doing…I wasn’t sure yet if that scared me, or made me angry.
I was leaning towards a little of both.
Kiasis’ voice interrupted my thoughts, and my head jerked up with a sudden movement that I regretted instantly. “You must return to the mat and stay here. Both of you. The closer you are, the better able I am to defend you from further attack.”
I pushed myself to my feet and followed Biv to the mat. Considering her success so far, I was less than confident in her ability to protect anyone…but I knew she had to at least be better at it than I would be. Still sore from my involuntary flight across the room, I lowered myself to the mat again carefully. “I don’t understand why he picked me,” I complained. That wasn’t quite true; I understood, theoretically, why he’d attacked me out of everyone on the ship. I just didn’t like the explanation.
I liked it even less when Kiasis confirmed my conclusion. “Because you are the most powerful untrained…and therefore defenseless…telepath on the ship. In order for him to attack you from so great a distance, your abilities must be quite considerable, probably due to your mixed parentage. However, if you are not silent so I can concentrate, you will be two very dead humans.”
I fell silent, giving her a glare that I wasn’t sure I’d have been brave enough to give her if her eyes hadn’t already been closed already. I thought for a second that it would make me feel better to know that she wasn’t totally unaffected by the situation….but it didn’t.
