Chapter 6.


    Hydrako woke with a start, suffocating. It took him a few, long and relatively scary moments to realise he was no longer underwater. He stood, and, with a slight gurgling sound, inhaled deeply with his lungs, as his gills had collapsed after coming out of contact with the water, which was lapping at his ankles. His aggravation and disappointment that he had misjudged the timing of the tide’s position, even by such a small margin, showed on his face.
    Although, he thought tiredly, remembering his reason for the hasty and incorrect calculation, I had other things on my mind last night.
    “Ah! Good. You’re already awake.” Llyanio sounded refreshed and energised.
    “Just got up,” Hydrako responded groggily. “If you’re worried that I’ll end up telling someone what occurred between us last night, you needn’t; I’m not so stupid as to do such a thing.”
    “Of course not, I trust you. It’s just that there are those who have the ability to prise such information from you without requiring any work on your mouth’s part – very possibly without your knowledge – and who are prepared to commit such, as far as I’m concerned, a crime.”
    Hydrako looked up, curious and with the intent of learning more. “How?”
    “There is a way of mental communication known to a fair number of people, though only usable by a select handful, despite the fact that many more have the potential to do so, called ‘Warptalk’.” There was a pause as Hydrako absorbed the information, then Llyanio continued. “There are other, less well-known ways to use this ability to glean information from another’s mind, and even ways of stopping others from carrying out those practices on you, though these require much discipline. It is even possible to engage another person with such abilities in mental combat, even warfare if many people are involved…of a sort, anyway.
    “It is even possible, and not unheard of for someone with my experience, for one person to be blocked, not by the person whose mind they were attempting to break entry to, but by another with the intent of defending that person’s mind, and the person whose mind is at risk to be completely oblivious to the mental or, as it may be, ethereal, proceedings.”
    “You would teach me these abilities?” Hydrako asked, evidently understanding what he was being told with a surprising level of ease.
    Yes. Llyanio’s answer came to him mentally, her voice echoing through his head. He had not even known she was inside his mind.
    “This doesn’t feel right. Shouldn’t I already have the ability to at least realise when my mind is being invaded? I am a wizard, after all!” Hydrako was talking loudly and with a hint of despair. He did not like it when he could not understand something despite any amount of logic and reason he thought with.
    “The fact you have the ability to use magic means that you show great potential and promise for mastering these abilities, but they are not magic. That is, not any magic that we are aware of being able to cast spells with. If Warptalk and its subtler aspects have a tie with magic, that magic is neither arcane, nor divine.”


    The next hour and a half was spent with Llyanio instructing Hydrako in the use of Warp-talk and using its connected power to block his mind from invaders. He progressed quickly, exceeding the skill of anyone else Llyanio had ever known to have after such a small length of time of being introduced to using Warptalk, and surpassing her expectations of him. As they neared the end of Llyanio’s second hour of tutoring Hydrako, he was able to successfully block her from his mind whilst also concentrating on her words and their meaning as she began to talk him through how to practically invade another’s mind whilst it was being defended.
    “You see, just as you imagine, with conviction, belief, and above all, concentration, a barrier surrounding your mind when defending it, so must you imagine smashing your opponent’s barriers one way or another. This can be done in any way: you can imagine them just crumbling away before your presence, imagine prising them open with your talons, imagine crushing them with a giant fist, or even stabbing your way through them with a knife, whichever way is easiest for you. I find I obtain the best results when I imagine, in such a way, my mace obliterating my target’s mental defences.” Hydrako felt her ruthlessly shatter his barriers with a powerful psychic force, and she was in his head before he had time to reconstruct the shell around his brain. After that, she continued to tell him mentally, it is easy to gain access and salvage the required information. Llyanio withdrew from Hydrako’s mind and he resurrected his defences as if it was second nature, making sure to think them into being thicker and stronger than before.
    “Is it possible to do things such as kill when using this ability? Could you imprison someone forever and even control them? Could you extract someone from their body and transfer them into another?”
    Llyanio took her time to answer. “I’m sorry, I am unable to answer that last question and be sure of being right. It is possible, but it would take an unbelievable amount of power and discipline to do so, let alone keep them alive through the process. Unfortunately yes, it is possible to kill a person this way, all too easily, too. Again it’s just the matter of how you do it; all the many different ways of making it happen will have the same outcome, with differing amounts of ease, which will ultimately affect success. It’s just about using whichever method is best for you. As for controlling someone, that’s a little harder, and there is the risk that you would have to abandon control of your own body throughout the entire procedure, unless you were powerful enough to maintain control of your own body and someone else’s simultaneously, but I doubt that is within the ability, potential or otherwise, of even Dragons.
    “To imprison someone, it is the simple matter of constructing and regulating your own barriers over their mind, whilst compressing their mental selves into those barriers. You could even cut off parts of someone’s brain from them. That all just leaves the problem that as soon as you allow these blocks to falter, as soon as your concentration slips, your opponent’s consciousness will be free once more, and don’t think they won’t fight to regain control of their body…Now I suggest you get some rest. It’ll be another hour before the others wake and you’ve taken in a lot of complex information whilst being insufficiently rested…Besides, I’ve got something to finish off,” she added enigmatically.
    His curiosity aroused, Hydrako extended part of his consciousness like a mental limb towards Llyanio. His groping limb of psychic and ethereal matter found her brain, but she had fortified her mind, not that he hadn’t expected that. He shoved against her barrier, as if trying to shoulder down a wall, but there was absolutely no effect.
    Llyanio knew he was being more playful than anything, and that he intended no hostility, despite what his actions were. She turned to him with a friendly smile, and said; “Not so easy, Hydrako. And mind your manners.”


    An hour later, Hydrako was woken by an intruder in his brain. He worriedly began to mentally grapple with his opponent, but was unable to force the entity from his mind.
    My, you are strong when it comes to this sort of thing, aren’t you? Llyanio’s voice exclaimed, echoing through his brain.
    Oh! It’s you, Llyanio. Umm…sorry ‘bout that. Hydrako replied, slightly embarrassed.
    Quick! The others are all up and it’ll look suspicious if you don’t arrive.
    Hydrako could sense her urgency through the mental link between them. Okay, I’ll be there soon, don’t worry. He felt her withdraw from his mind, reassured.
    Hydrako arrived to find a disgruntled Titas and a concerned Gyro arguing with Whyren, whose arms were folded firmly against her chest; evidently she was beginning to get aggravated.
    “You can’t expect me to travel through the Shadow-shift areas when the portals are active,” Titas was saying loudly.
    “Well tough! I am anyway!” Whyren replied, barely keeping her temper in check. “Either you desert us or you take the risk, slight as it is.”
    “Why – do – you – have – to – be – so – SUBBORN?!?” Titas asked furiously through clenched teeth. Hydrako was impressed that Whyren just stood there impassively before his rage.
    “It is not a slight risk, Whyren,” Gyro stated. “The seven year resting period is over and the Shadow-shift portals are once again open, and they shall remain so for the next year or two.” He was wringing his hands nervously, which was very uncharacteristic for one of Dragon blood. Yet it was not Titas that had him worried.
    “Oh come off it!” Llyanio said after welcoming a slightly confused-looking Hydrako. “I suppose if we go anywhere near these portals we’ll just be sucked in?” Hand actions accompanied her voice, allowing her to make Gyro’s concern seem like an absurd notion.
    “Are we talking about The Vanishings?” Hydrako asked, thinking for the first time that he may have an idea of what they were arguing about.
    “Yes,” Whyren responded calmly.
    “It’s not at all as risky as either of you are making out,” Hydrako exclaimed brightly, addressing Gyro and Titas, “I know these waters, and The Vanishings are not to be feared so badly; the chances of us getting caught in a portal is remote. Besides, the area’s not too active yet, it’ll be a number of months before there’s any significant cause for concern for travelling through the area.”
    Titas gave Hydrako the look that would be befitting of a murderer starring into the eyes of an insane victim. Hydrako shrank back somewhat, subdued.
    “Well, I think the matter is settled, then,” Whyren said loudly, as if challenging Titas to object. “We travel on, along the coast.” She turned and walked off.
    Titas followed, grinding his teeth in pent-up anger. Hydrako and Llyanio ran to catch up with Whyren. A pause followed, during which nobody looked back. Gyro stood still and sighed, shaking his great, golden-crested head solemnly, then began to jog after the group.