“I must learn resistance,” Darius said. “No affront to you, Seqiro, but if we should have to stop at your Mode, we human folk would be patsies for any of the telepathic horses there, and I doubt you could save us. I understand from Colene’s memories that there are other Modes near yours where other animals have telepathy, and that could be trouble too. So we all should learn resistance, if it is possible.”
Your human mind has reasoned it out as mine could not. I will try to teach you resistance. It will not be easy, because we have much experience in controlling humans. I have refrained from doing it when you do not wish it.
“And we appreciate that, Seqiro. But now we should learn how to protect our minds. This is a good time to do it, when we are more or less idle.”
We normally exert full control, so that our servants never realize that any resistance is possible. I will try to exert partial control over you. When you are able to resist that, I will intensify it. It is possible to learn resistance, though we normally seek to conceal that information.
“Let’s choose an action for me to resist, that won’t interfere with anything else.”
I will make you bite your thumb. This is a punishment we use on occasion, its severity depending on the offense.
“That certainly is not something I would do on my own,” Darius agreed.
I will not make you do it hard. When your teeth touch the skin, you will know that you have lost.
“Agreed. Start it slow, and we shall ascertain where my threshold of resistance starts.” As he spoke, he got up, and was getting dressed in the odd clothing Colene had decreed he wear for this day.
Darius felt himself touched, mentally. In a moment his left hand was at his face. Realizing that this was not his own action, he tensed his muscles and drove his hand away. It retreated from his face, but then returned. Again he drove it away, but his arm only quivered, and then his thumb came to his mouth and his teeth touched the flesh.
Suddenly his hand was flung away. Seqiro had let go, so that his failing effort to resist became a violent motion. But Darius had lost. He was shaking with the effort he had made. “How much of your power was that?”
Perhaps a quarter. You fought well.
“Not nearly well enough! I just couldn’t seem to get a leverage on my arm.”
Remind yourself that your arm is your own, and must ultimately obey you. Shut out any intrusion.
“I will try.” Darius focused on his left arm, trying to will it to obey no one except him.
But his hand came steadily toward his face, and in a moment his teeth touched his thumb again.
“That was faster than before! I’m losing my resistance.”
No. I used greater power to overcome you, now that I know your level of resistance.
“So I was doing better instead of worse!”
Yes. In my Mode we would see that you never understood that, and we would dispatch you before you realized that resistance was possible.
They continued the exercise while Darius ate. Burgess, meanwhile, neither gained nor lost ground; he was in what for a human person would have been something like a coma.
Then Amos arrived in his vehicle-car. Seqiro was aware of him long before he was close; the horse’s range did not seem to be limited in this Mode. He brings containers of nourishment, but does not know whether any will be effective.
“Seek his information on the Sin Eater. I will need it later.”
Amos walked directly to the tent. “I have to go teach school today, but I brought some multi-vitamin and mineral supplements of several brands and types.” He paused, looking around. “Can you prevent the neighbors from noticing me, Seqiro? I don’t think it would be wise to be seen coming and going from a young student’s house.”
They will not notice you.
“Thank you.” Amos had adapted to the horse’s telepathy quickly, because he believed what was in his own mind, and when Seqiro spoke to someone directly, it was in the mind. He went into the tent and squatted beside Burgess. “But there is a problem. These pills have many things, and most will probably be irrelevant. Some may be what we need. But some may be poisonous for Burgess. It’s a calculated risk, and I don’t know how extreme it is.”
Poisonous! Colene’s thought came from the house. Hold the phone while I get down there.
Amos smiled, wryly. “That is one charming little girl.”
“So I have noticed. If only she were a vessel of joy, so that I could marry her in my own culture as well as hers.”
“You can’t many her in yours? Why not?”
“I am Cyng of Hlahtar. I must draw joy from my wife, and give it to all the others. Colene—”
“Is depressive. But couldn’t she learn joy?”
“How does one learn joy?”
“How does one learn to resist telepathic control? Yes, Seqiro let me feel you practicing. How does Colene learn telepathy? No person in our Mode has done that before, as far as I know, though some have made claims.”
Darius was surprised. “She is learning telepathy! That is akin to the drawing of joy, in a fashion. If she could learn joy, I could marry her.”
“I heard that,” Colene said, entering the tent. “Oh, Darius, I’ll learn it if I can! But right now we have other business. What’s this about poison?”
Amos opened a bag. “All I could think of was to try multi-vitamin, multi-mineral pills. We don’t know what Burgess needs, but there’s a fair chance it’s here. He may have been picking up trace minerals from the dust in the air. So if he takes one of these, it may be all he needs. But if it gives him a dose of what he doesn’t need, it could poison him. Just as an overdose of arsenic would poison us. In fact, an overdose of a needed nutrient could poison him, as it is with salt with us. I don’t know how to analyze his need, here in the field. It might be possible in a laboratory, but that would have other risks.”
“Such as becoming a freak at a freak show,” Colene agreed. “That’s out. Can we try a little bit of something first?”
“Yes, but that will take more time. How much time do you have?”
“I’d like to be gone from here in a couple more days. But if Burgess needs longer, we’ll just have to stay longer.”
“I suggest you have him try a bit of powder from one pill, and wait an hour, then try some from another. In the course of the day you can sample a dozen pills. But it’s roulette. If one of them helps, you win; if one of them kills him, you lose. Are you sure it wouldn’t be better to let him remain here for longer, perhaps several months, so he can recover slowly?”
“If he does recover,” Colene said. “The way he’s going, he could pass the point of no return first. And what’s to stop him from reverting when he goes back on the Virtual Mode? No, we need a cure.”
Amos handed her the bag. “It is not a risk I care to take. Burgess is the most remarkable creature I’ve encountered. I have acquainted you with the risk.”
“Yeah, I’m the one who’s suicidal,” she agreed, with a self-depreciating little smile that made Darius want to hug her. Once more he realized that the very thing that made her unsuitable to be the wife of the Cyng of Hlahtar was one of her most appealing qualities. That semi-bitter edge, that laughed at death even as it flirted with it.
Colene handed the bag to Nona. “Darius and Seqiro and I have to go for blood tests and a license. That leaves it up to you. Try him on the tiniest bit you can, and see if he reacts. We’re just going to have to hope we win before we lose.”
Darius let it be. Colene had made the decision, and it was probably the sensible one. Amos returned to his car, while Darius went to the house with Colene. Seqiro went to the front of the house and waited.