He had been locked into the room by his captors while three of them and Steiner kept das.h.i.+ng out to the toilet and the fourth guy wanted lunch. For the time being at least, Remian was left alone in his little jailroom.

Psionic power flared. Anyone with decent psionic senses could point straight at him with their eyes closed, regardless of what walls lay between them.

This was the very first thing Psionically-gifted children in the Conglomerate learned, something every Cla.s.s-1 Psionic began with. Parents had their children practice this so that they could locate them at all times. In the Conglomerate, these things were practices meant for four or five year-olds. It was called the Psionic Beacon.

[Here.] Remian told Carrie. [THIS is where I am.]

[We're coming!] Carrie a.s.sured him. [We'll be there in a minute!]

[No, don't! Not yet! I'm busy!] Remian stopped her.

[You don't want us to rescue you… yet?] Carrie was baffled.

[Like I said, I'm in the middle of something. Give me ten minutes, at least!]

So there they were, twelve wolfcats and easily five thousand lynxmice all around Fal'Herim looking at the exact same spot, completely unable to concentrate on anything else but that glaring Psionic Beacon grow and grow and grow for the next couple of minutes.

By that time, even the lynxmice halfway to Paleres, Otta and Ira could sense it. Heck, the Wilds at KarGoth could probably sense it. To their Psionic senses, that thing was like a sun.

But Remian didn't know all this, of course. To him, he was just getting the hang of it. "Hmm. I think that should do. It seems stable enough."

At that point, half the lynxmice in Fal'Herim wanted to run away already.

Back at the Conglomerate, he had advanced through the Psionic ranks in virtual acceleration. Now, in real life, he wanted to do it properly.

The second thing children learned as Cla.s.s-1 Psionics was rudimentary telepathy, but in terms of Psionic communication, Remian had gone far, far past that even before leaving this world, so that was no issue.

Psi-scans, that detected psionic activity, and Psi-sensors, that detected physical presences, he had also learned and practiced without proper guidance in the past. Those were things learned by Cla.s.s-2 and Cla.s.s-3 Psionics, including improving their telepathic communication to the point of wordless sharing, simply sharing concepts mind to mind. All these, he was already well capable of. He skipped those and went straight to the Cla.s.s-4 practices.

This next thing was crucial. It was a way of condensing Psionic power into tangible form. A weak one would have a s.h.i.+mmering layer of power like water around him. A strong one could be tougher than a brick wall, and block weapons. A truly powerful one could stop a train… but of course, that would require immense Psionic energies and skill. It was something seven year-olds in the Conglomerate learned early on, and it was actually not that difficult to learn… though it was impossible to master. According to the high level Psionic experts, this particular ability had no theoretical limits, and therefore, no such thing as mastery. It was called the Psi Aura Barrier.

White light glowed around Remian as if coming from his skin, pressing against the mattress where he lay, at the same time pus.h.i.+ng him upwards, so that he actually hovered in mid-air for a minute.

Then the light shrank down until it almost vanished, covering Remian in a faint glow.

Psionics generally used the Aura Barrier in three forms. The first and most popular was like a bubble, covering him on all sides, protecting him against every angle of attack. Many young Psionic children kept up at least a minimal form of this protection when going out.

Older Psionics preferred to shrink it to a skin-tight layer. It was particularly useful against bugs or rain. Putting up a weak skintight layer was easy. Putting up a strong one, though… that was the trick. That would require compressing Psionic Energies into increasing densities. A layer powerful enough to rival armor was indeed possible, but depending on the skill of the Psionic, could take some time.

Then there was the third form, the Projection Form. This one was like holding out a s.h.i.+eld in one's hand, or at higher levels, a wall. Some really big walls could be formed by experienced Psionics. But again, while size was not that difficult to train, strength was the issue. Just about any Conglomerate ten year old on the street could project a wall-form barrier large enough to cover the whole road in an instant… except it would likely be unable to stop anything more than a housefly. Trying to stop a gunshot, on the other hand… that was something the average adult Psionic in the Conglomerate would be hard pressed to do without at least an hour's preparation.

Remian didn't have an hour. He had asked only for ten minutes.

The aura barrier vanished from Remian's skin and formed a s.h.i.+eld over his tied hands. It thickened and grew in size until it could barely squeeze into the whole room, a wall six inches thick and growing…

But as the minutes pa.s.sed, it started shrinking, hardening, toughening. Remian shut his eyes tight, compressing it more and more until it shrank back down to a s.h.i.+eld-size.

More he squeezed it from top and bottom until the s.h.i.+eld became a thick bar.

With a grin, Remian shoved that bar against the door, locking it from the inside. Only when he secured his room did he call Carrie. [Okay! You can come get me now!]

Right outside the building, a wolfcat howled. One voice was joined by a dozen, and then a flood of squeaks and squeals.

"W-what's happening?!" someone yelped.

There was a crash, and then a dozen crashes and screams sounding below Remian. There were growls, more howls, and a whole lot more yelling and cras.h.i.+ng.

Something heavy b.u.mped into the room door. Steiner's voice cursed outside. "The door is stuck! Which of you morons… whoa!"

Wolfcat snarling and barking drowned out his voice.

Remian meanwhile, carefully lifted the chair into the air with his Psionic powers. Yes, this was another popular ability among Psionics, the ability to move things with just their thoughts. Learned and practiced by many Cla.s.s-4 children, it was the ever-popular Telekinesis. Most Cla.s.s-4's would be able to move small things around given a bit of practice. Children could use it to clean up their room, putting their toys back into storage, for instance. Moving furniture around, however, was normally something experienced adults would do.

Anyway. The chair was hovering over the door, just waiting to fall on some unlucky intruder's head if it turned out to be the wrong one.

Leaving it there, Remian tried something more advanced while yells and barks went on outside. (By the way, don't tell Remian, but most Psionics using Telekinesis don't just leave stuff hovering in mid-air! Most of them couldn't do it even if they wanted to.)

A slip of white aura energy formed on his wrist. It hardened, sharpened, and grew.

This was the beginnings of Remian's first Psi Blade. It was a Cla.s.s-5 ability very popular among fighters. In other words, Remian had finally begun to use Psionic power as a physical weapon.

Small as it was, that little blade was able to cut through the ropes.

There was a heavy crash on the door and a human groan. Then, there was silence outside.

[We're here.] Carrie told Remian from the other side of the door. [Open the door.]

Remian dissolved his projected barrier as his hands were freed. [It's locked from the outside. I don't know if one of those guys have the key or anything… but you can break the door down.]

Meanwhile, he raised another barrier around himself, a bubble-type.

The door burst open, and Carrie herself dashed in. She looked around fiercely, then, seeing no enemies and Remian pulling pieces of rope off himself, she calmed down. [Get on.]

Remian stumbled across the room to Carrie, his whole body numb and stiff, and managed to clamber on. Carrie bolted out, das.h.i.+ng through corridors and pa.s.sageways followed by a stream of wolfcats and lynxmice until they were out on the streets, and making a grand parade. Hundreds of Wilds and one human streamed through the slums and out toward the industrial district.

Mindy saw them arriving. [Remian! Are you all right?]

[Stiff and sore, but alive and in one piece.] Remian a.s.sured her. [I think I can now consider myself completely rescued.]

[I'll let George and Darian know.] Mindy nodded.

***

Along with the Psi-Blade, Cla.s.s-5 Psionics also practiced two other techniques that could also be useful in combat.

The first was an illusion technique called Guidance, because teachers often used it to teach students stuff in a more convenient manner. Most people would know it was an illusion, so other than causing distractions (if you were creative enough or you knew someone well enough to be able to know his weaknesses), it was used more for communication than combat.

The second was the movement of non-solid substances by an advanced form of Telekinesis. Usually applicable to gas or water, some fiercer Psionics had been known to shape and throw fire with just their thoughts. While controlling fire, specifically, would be called Pyrokinesis, the overall term referring to all these sorts of techniques is Aetherkinesis. Putting aside individuals talented in one or the other form of aetherkinesis, just about every experienced Cla.s.s-5 would be able to at least fire off Psionic Bolts in combat.

Remian started practicing these three Cla.s.s-5 techniques in the privacy of his own bedroom at the industrial district, this time guarded by two wolfcats and a sub-clan of lynxmice. As the day pa.s.sed, his Psi Blade grew longer and stronger, until it was able to rival most Tier 4 swords. He used the Guidance Illusion technique to chat with the wolfcats and the lynxmice, though he really couldn't say for sure how strong or how good it was, they seemed to enjoy it well enough. He shot off a string of Psi Bolts, and then played around with shaping a candle flame into a miniature wolfcat, much to the amus.e.m.e.nt of his guards. But then the lynxmice complained and asked for a miniature fire-lynxmouse instead, so he made one of those too.

As his control improved and his confidence rose, as mid-afternoon pa.s.sed, Remian finally tried his first Cla.s.s-6 technique.

It was time to form his first Silhouette.