Golden Stain, Chapter 1

Chapter One – Lessons

Go away! The mental voice cried.

Jay leaned against the wall and kneaded his temples with a fist. “Tary,” he said out loud, and then, through telepathy, Tary, come out of there.

I won’t! came the reply. I’ve had enough of your stupid lessons and Solan’s stupid face!

A short moment of silence. Well, Solan isn’t so bad, I guess. At least he listens to me!

I am listening to you, Jay said.

Oh, really? Then why are we having this conversation?

Jay cleared his throat as if it would help his telepathic words to be heard more clearly. Tary, you are the student here. You do not control the pace of these lessons.

But why won’t you listen!? We’ve been doing the same things for ages! I already know how to do all kinds of things you haven’t even shown me! As she spoke, Tary sent mental images to accompany her words. Jay glimpsed scenes where Tary, hardly even eight years of age, appeared to already be an expert with her abilities, using her mind to levitate a huge boulder. Likely story. Why won’t you stop babying me?

Jay sighed and took a step back, turning so that his back was against the wall and he could see down the hall toward the outdoors. Some of his other students were sitting and chatting in the garden, with the younger ones running about under the watchful eye of Solan. Tary, however, remained in her room, sealing the door shut with telepathy.

You aren’t old enough to know how dangerous this power can be, Jay said gently.

Bull! I’m twelve, and that’s plenty old, Tary declared. See, I’m holding this door shut with my mind and you can’t even get in! Do I know more about telepathy than you do, Jay? Is that why you won’t teach me?

Though normally a rather calm individual, Jay could feel a point of frustration growing in his head. Worse was that Tary’s words brought back memories: of Jay himself, recklessly using his ability once he’d discovered that he had it. It wasn’t like he didn’t understand. But Jay had been far older than Tary, who had discovered her abilities as a small child.

Without a dragon nearby, you could easily hurt or kill yourself, Jay explained.

Solan’s right there! She cried.

That isn’t the point. Doing anything without my instruction, anything that I think is too dangerous-

Well, why do you decide what’s dangerous? Tary snapped. Either teach me or leave me alone!

Jay took a moment to breathe. Fine. Stay in there and think about it for a bit, he said in as stern a voice as he could muster. Tary’s only reply was the mental equivalent of an imperious snort.

Grumbling to himself, Jay shuffled out into the garden. She’d be out in a bit anyway; she always was. Solan turned towards him, tail moving slowly in amusement.

I see your talk went well, the black dragon said.

Shut up, Jay declared, shooting one last glance back into the house. I’m sure she’ll be out once she cools down.

Upon seeing his entrance, most of Jay’s students came to meet him. They were an odd assortment of folks. A few were Jay’s age or older, telepaths who had managed to survive past their teenage years due to very careful use of their abilities or proximity to dragons. Most of them were younger than Jay had been when he’d discovered his telepathy, in their early-to-mid teens. Unlike Tary, few of them had discovered their telepathy on their own—not until Solan had made the first connection with them.

Most families and indeed, entire villages, had come to despise Jay for what he and Solan did. He recalled all too clearly the acquisition of one of his more talented students, Hemar, whose village far at the outskirts of the kingdom had seen Jay, and his dragon, as pariahs.

Telling them that one of their own possessed a power he could not control, and that Jay would have to take him away and teach him for his own safety, had not gone over well. Jay had a scar to prove it. In the end, though, it was a rare group that could stand against the united will of a telepath and an angry dragon.

Looking over the faces of his students, Jay felt a sudden prick of uneasiness. Sure, he was helping them to master their telepathy, but who was to say they would have even discovered their abilities without his interference? Most human telepaths ended up killing themselves once they started experimenting, but some managed to progress to adulthood without ever realizing their power.

By seeking them out and forcing them to embrace it, was Jay only endangering them all the more?

“We having a lesson today?” One of the students asked.

Jay shook off his doubts. “Yeah, just some basic things for the afternoon,” he said, motioning for them to sit on the grass. He still recalled how strange it had been at first, trying to teach other people what he hardly knew himself.

In recent years, though, he’d adjusted to the role. He ran his own experiments and consulted with Thunderbird via Solan. If there were such a thing as an expert on human telepathy, Jay might be the closest thing. Four years of hunting and experimenting, however, and that expertise only scratched the surface.

Jay glanced around the ragtag circle of telepaths. “So, did any of you figure out the problem I set up last night?”

The students looked at each other. Jay’s oldest student, a man named Kendal, had a glint in his eye, but kept quiet as the younger students whispered to each other.

“What was the question?” One of the youngest, about thirteen, asked unabashedly.

Jay had to chuckle. “You were meant to think about the reason telepaths need to be around dragons. I know I’ve described to all of you the Big Rules—say, want to recall those for me?”

The student heaved a mighty sigh. “Rule one: Always have a dragon nearby.”

“Perceptive,” Jay noted. “Pretty sure there are two others.”

The student crossed her arms. “Rule two: Never use telepathy on someone without their permission.” She fell silent, frowning at the grass.

“That’s good,” Jay said, though he felt another tinge of worry. If his students couldn’t remember the most basic rules, how were they meant to be safe?

“Rule three: always use telepathy like you’re using tongs,” Hemar chimed from the back of the group. “Very carefully.”

“Perfect,” Jay declared.  “I hope I’ve beat that into your heads enough for it to stick, but obviously, we’re focusing on the first rule here. I’ve told you time and time again that it’s dangerous to practice telepathy without Solan nearby.  I have, however, only started to talk about why.”

Another of the young students placed his hand on the grass in front of him, a sign that he wished to speak. Jay nodded.

“Is it ‘cause he’s better at telepathy?”

“Something like that,” Jay prompted. “Are dragons better at telepathy than humans, though?”

The student thought for a moment. “No,” he decided suddenly. “You said that dragons aren’t better, just different.”

“That’s right. So though Solan is very skilled, it isn’t his skill level that has an effect on our telepathy.” Jay leaned back.

 “It’s because he’s a net,” Hemar said thoughtfully. “His telepathy holds in our telepathy so that we don’t use too much.”

“That’s exactly right,” Jay grinned, “but we’ve talked about that before. Why do you suppose Solan’s telepathy is like a net?”

The garden went silent as the students pondered, evidently to no result. After a minute or so, Kendal raised an eyebrow, and Jay nodded.

“I think it’s because Solan’s telepathy is what you call balanced,” the man explained. “Ours is unbalanced. The slightest motion can set us to falling right out of our own heads. Solan, though, couldn’t do that if he tried. By being around him, it’s like we brace ourselves on something, giving us something to hold onto.”

“Yes! That’s it exactly. Did everyone understand that?” There were nods, but a few confused glances as well.

Shall we do a demonstration? Jay suggested privately to Solan.

I don’t know, Solan replied, catching on instantly. I’m not certain it’s entirely safe.

We’ve done it a few times before—it’s fine, I trust you! They need to see this so they can understand, Jay insisted, looking over his shoulder to where Solan reclined in the grass a few feet away. I don’t want them trying this kind of stuff on their own.

Well, perhaps, Solan conceded, casting an evaluating eye over the students.

“All right, Solan and I will be showing you something interesting we’ve discovered recently,” Jay said, hopping to his feet. “Everyone, close your eyes. I will be forging a telepathic link with you.”

This also was something relatively new; he’d discovered it some two years ago. Telepaths could not only talk with one another whenever they liked, but form inclusive bonds that allowed a kind of group conversation. Carefully and slowly, Jay lifted out his awareness to include all of his students together. Their emotions ran through the link, to each other and to Jay.

Care to join the party, Solan? Jay asked.

Solan had always been reluctant to join his telepathy to others, but came into the circle as well. Physically, he and Jay faced each other and Jay placed a hand on his scaly forehead.

Now, just observe, Jay said to his students. Solan, in his mind’s eye, became suddenly like a very heavy and immovable stone. He’d concentrated all of his telepathic energy on Jay, giving up his general awareness of telepathy to instead condense all his power on one location.

Jay let go of his reservations and unleashed his full power, exerting as much telepathic force as he could towards the sky.

Normally such an effort would certainly have torn him from his body and possibly even killed him, but with Solan holding him as strongly as he was, only a tiny amount of power escaped. Jay raged with telepathy, putting on a show. He knew that the other students would be able to sense the full amount of force he was trying to use, and also see that it wasn’t going anywhere. Solan was stopping it.

To his surprise, two distant points, outside the circle, seemed to respond to his exertion. One was familiar—Tary, in the house, sensing him from afar—but the other, he didn’t have time to discern before it disappeared off his radar. Had he… imagined it?

All right, that’s enough, Jay said, starting to feel exhausted. Even if the power wasn’t being released, it was still very draining. A sense of awe and perhaps even fear filtered through the telepathic link from his students, and Jay knew it was time to end the lesson. I’ll be pulling away now.

Opening his eyes and sitting back onto the grass, Jay was met with the wide and startled eyes of his students. He grinned. “Did that prove my point? Even if I’m raging completely out of control, Solan can prevent me from escaping my body.”

A moment of silence. “That was….” Hemar muttered, searching for words. “Jay, you could have… That was a lot of energy.”

“And so much energy can be frightening,” Jay agreed, suddenly recognizing their anxious expressions. “Do you see that, without Solan trying his best to restrain me, I could have seriously injured myself? But because he is so stable, when he really puts his mind to it, he can stop me from moving at all. “

The students nodded, though some, especially the younger ones, still looked upset. Kendal looked at Jay.

I think you might have gone a tad overboard, he said through a private link. None of us have ever even considered using our power that intensely. It was frightening to watch.

…I hadn’t realized, Jay replied. Looking around at his students, he motioned for them to lean in. “Hey, I suppose I should apologize. You guys aren’t used to seeing things like that. It’s just important that you all understand just how out of control our abilities can get…” he found himself looking back at the house, where Tary still sulked, “and how we can prevent that from happening. Okay?”

“Okay,” most of them murmured, or nodded. Jay decided it would probably be best if they had some more relaxing lessons for the remainder of the day.

As time wore on the students calmed down, taking part in discussions and safe telepathic games. Jay himself, however, was beginning to fidget, glancing back at the house. He’d been sure that his show would draw Tary out in curiosity—after all, it was what she’d asked for: a new lesson. Her absence left a distinct gap.

I’ll go talk to her, Solan offered, getting up from where he had been resting a few feet away. Jay hardly had time to feel relieved, though, as the dragon reappeared from the house moments after he’d entered.

She isn’t there, Solan said. I think she ran off through the window.

“Damn it,” Jay muttered. The other students looked at him. “Class dismissed, or whatever,” he told them. Getting to his feet, he crossed his arms and scanned the area. “I’ve got to go get Tary.”