Condition Evolution 4 by Kevin Sinclair (parable of the sower read online .txt) 📗

on telekinesis drills,” he said with finality, before regaling me in all that was telekinesis.

It was tough for me, because when I looked through my External Interface screen, I felt a little of the physical pain that was being inflicted on my body. I persevered as best I could. There was even a part of me glad to feel some small proportion of the pain and the struggle that my body was going through. It gave me a strange desire to succeed.

In front of me there was a table of objects set up for me to manipulate. My instinct was to send them flying wildly around, but Fiekela instructed me to raise and move them slowly, under painstaking control. Unexpectedly asking for slight adjustments in direction, always preventing me from any kind of free-flowing movements. It was beyond frustrating, and extremely difficult to maintain concentration. Endless hours of telekinesis went by, to the point that I just stopped.

“What is wrong, Vakuna?”

“What do you mean?”

“You have stopped.”

“Oh, right, yeah. Sorry, isn’t it bedtime yet? We’ve been at this for hours.”

“We have only been training for two hours,” Fiekela replied, confused.

“No way! It's been all day. I’m exhausted.”

“I see. Perhaps we should make some adjustments to your program, it seems I’ve failed to sufficiently compensate for your mental fatigue. We have time for an hour of free training, given your remarkable ability to locate and stretch out your bond. It will also be an opportunity to master your levitation skills. Let us return to Normal-State.”

With that, we moved back out of the Mindscape, and the pain hit like a wave. I felt like I’d been torn to shreds and put back together again. I screamed involuntarily, my whole body rigid and locked up from the machine. Within seconds the pain began to die off and I regained some semblance of myself, enough to feel the cool healing waves coming from Ialos, who was now standing in front of me, gently pressing her hands on each side of my head. Once I was coherent, Ialos slowly removed her hands, then spoke angrily to Fiekela. “Why would you bring him back without warning me first? He should never have to suffer like that. Is this not already bad enough!”

“It was a simple mistake. I can assure you, it won’t happen again, Ialos. I was merely eager to continue with our training.”

“Make sure it does not happen again,” she demanded. “That pain would have been near unbearable,” she continued with her attention falling back on me. Her expression was sad. “I am so sorry you had to endure that, Vakuna.”

“I’m fine now. Even so, I’d like that to never happen again. In future, I guarantee I won’t be leaving the Mindscape until I’m sure that this torturous training equipment is completely off.”

“Good.” Fiekela clapped his hands. “I am glad we all took something from that lesson. Now, shall we continue our work?”

“That's what I’m here for,” I replied. “Though I’d like to avoid any more agony today, if you don't mind.”

“No more suffering, I assure you. Apart from if you fall practicing levitation, but Ialos can have you fixed up quickly if anything were to happen.”

“Great,” I said, a little anxiety in the pit of my stomach, “that's just about acceptable.”

“Before we begin, I need you to do a small thing. If you would keep your eyes open, but to try to imagine an overlay of what you can see through your External Interface screen over your own vision.”

I tried to do as instructed, but nothing happened immediately. As I concentrated, I did become aware of that smokey-grey link between Normal-State and Mindscape. I reached for it with my mind and it reacted to my interest, somehow becoming more substantial. I felt rather than saw it solidify, and the viewing screen I was also thinking of suddenly popped into place over my normal vision. It was disconcerting at first as my vision increased to take in 360 degrees. I tried to narrow the focus, to make it less intense for myself, and my vision began to narrow back to a normal level. Relief flooded me, as I didn’t think I could have operated with my sight expanded like that. On a whim, without turning, I tried to look at Ialos who stood to the side of me. My vision impressively changed, to now encompass her. I took a second to admire her, then switched back to a more normal range.

“Okay, I seem to have managed that. My vision has increased dramatically.”

“Excellent, I had faith that you would do it. Are you able to adapt your field of view?”

“Yes, I can control it.”

“In that case we can focus on your basic levitation. It is a fundamental skill of our people and it will simply not do to have you lagging behind in this area.”

“Whatever you think is best,” I answered flatly. Part of me was excited though. I’d already had some big achievements today. Now I was ready to fly.

“Levitation was explained in your initial transfer, so you should understand what is entailed. Would you care to try?” Fiekela said. “Then we’ll have a baseline to assess your progress from.”

“Sure, I’ll give it a go. This might even be fun,” I replied, and then thought about the segment of the data dump I received yesterday that covered telekinesis. I was overjoyed when it all opened up in my mind. I concentrated on pushing my body away from the floor and I slowly rose into the air.

To move in any direction was simply a case of pulling or pushing, be it from the ground, a wall, or even a person. I’d begun to move towards the wall furthest away when the desire to increase my pace crept up in me. I dramatically increased the mental force that I was using against the wall behind me. It was a mistake, as I found myself suddenly hurtling through the training facility at a speed far greater than I was comfortable with,