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Rodney went with dragging steps to his newest class. MindGifts. Humph. Until Cadman had come along, he'd dismissed MindGifts. He'd never seen a Herald in action, but most of the descriptions he'd heard about what they could do had seemed fanciful and over-embroidered at best. It wasn't as if everything that a Herald could do couldn't eventually be replicated by a mechanical device using the proper scientific principles. He arrived at the room and walked in. There were a couple of the older trainees there already and he eyed them distrustfully as he sat down in a chair close to the door.
Rodney, they’re not going to bite, Cadman said with a slightly tired air of exasperation.
Rodney crossed his arms defensively. She just didn't get it. It wasn't that he was afraid of these people. It was just that he was in yet another class where he'd wind up looking like a fool compared to people half his age. He sent a bolt of pure annoyance in her direction and Cadman sighed and retreated.
Dean Daniel came in, a pile of books tucked under his chin as he pushed open the door with his shoulder. He blinked a little absent-mindedly and then smiled at the assembled class. "Ah, hello everyone. I apologize for being late. Just give me a second here and I'll be right with you."
Rodney manfully restrained himself from rolling his eyes as the others murmured politely and one of them got up and relieved the Dean of his pile of books. Back when he was teaching, he had never been late. He was sure that Cadman would protest that Daniel was a busy man, but for once she was silent. About time, too. A niggling feeling of disquiet tickled his conscience, but he resolutely shoved it aside.
Daniel thanked the trainee for his help and then turned to the class and laid his hands flat on the desk in front of him. "Today you're here to learn how to use your Gifts. You've been grouped together because you all have similar Gifts. In particular, you all are Mindspeakers." He smiled, tilted his head and then Which means you can all 'hear' me when I do this.
Rodney blinked in surprise. It was very similar to when Cadman talked to him but the feel was very different. Where Cadman was always flavored with apples and impudence, Dean Daniel had a smell of incense and a wry, gentle sort of humor to him.
"Most of you are already familiar with the concept due to speaking with your Companions," Daniel said, switching back to regular speech. "But we're first going to learn how to ground, center and shield."
"Why is that, Dean?" piped up one of the other trainees, looking entirely too bright eyed for Rodney's taste. Of course a teenager would get all excited about Mindmagic. It had a glamor to it that math distinctly lacked for all except the most dedicated.
Daniel straightened up from leaning on the desk and lifted an eyebrow. "Good question. Anybody have an answer for that?"
The other trainee said slowly, "Well, I suppose shielding will keep us from hearing people that we don't want to, or others from hearing us if we don't want to be heard."
"Excellent answer," Daniel replied, pointing in their direction. "And grounding and centering provides us with a stable foundation from which to work and to base our shield on."
"Like a house!" the first trainee said excitedly, waving their arms. "A house is only as good as its foundation and the shield is like a house in that it keeps unwanted things out and gives us privacy."
Daniel grinned and shoved his glasses back up his nose. "Exactly. Now if everyone will listen closely..."
Rodney sat through Daniel's instructions on what to do with what patience he could muster. It all sounded like a lot of hooey to him, but the foundation concept made just enough sense to him from an engineering standpoint that he was willing to suspend his disbelief for a little while at least. When Daniel gave the instruction for everyone to ground, center and shield, Rodney closed his eyes, focused his attention on a single point inside himself and thought about being attached to the ground. He startled a little when he felt something like a click and a feeling of solidity. He mentally shrugged it off as some weird power of suggestion from the instructions that the Dean had given and he then brought up his 'shield' exactly as Daniel had instructed them to. It sparkled in his mind’s eye all around him and Rodney was once again startled as the constant press of Cadman that he'd gotten used to suddenly felt removed from him. He opened his eyes and looked at the class.
Daniel was blinking at him, his mouth slightly agape. He shut it with an abrupt snap and then said slowly, "Very good. Very, very good, Rodney." He then squinted slightly and Rodney 'felt' something bump against his shield and slide off. Daniel's eyebrows took flight into his hairline and he cleared his throat. "Well. It appears that you're a natural at shielding, Rodney."
"I am?" Rodney replied, completely thrown by the comment. "Really?" After sucking at all those damned classes in dealing with people and defending himself, winding up being a natural in the subject that he didn't quite believe was even real was kind of bizarre. It figured, he thought a little grumpily. This was just one more bit of information that showed him that the universe had it in for him.
Daniel nodded and smiled at him, then went around checking on the other students and commenting on how they had done. After he had completed his circuit around the students, he came back to Rodney and said, "Okay, Rodney. Since you've already got shielding down, I'd like you to try something else."
Rodney nodded tightly at Daniel, feeling a little nervous. Daniel gave another small smile. "Okay, now envision your shield thinning in one small area and try to say something to me, mind to mind."
Rodney paused, unsure what to say. What sorts of things did Heralds say to each other, mind to mind?
"Problem?" Daniel asked as Rodney sat there blinking, feeling oddly tongue-tied.
"I don't know what to say," Rodney admitted, feeling foolish. He'd never had this problem before. How Radek would laugh if could see Rodney now. His mouth drew down in one corner as he was unexpectedly hit with a wave of homesickness. He really kind of missed the scrappy little engineer.
Daniel's face showed brief surprise and then smoothed back out again. "Ah, I see. Okay then, tell me what you had for breakfast."
Rodney opened a small slot in his shielding and shot out the thought, Oatmeal with applesauce, scrambled eggs and bacon.
Daniel winced slightly and rubbed at a temple. Not so loud, please. You don't have to think it so forcefully, at least at this distance.
Rodney blinked as he heard Daniel. This was a really odd feeling, to talk to another person without moving his lips. Then his curiosity surfaced. How far can a Mindspeaker be heard? he asked, turning down the mental volume.
The entire length of the Kingdom, if they're strong enough, Daniel replied. And you just might be. We'll have to test that later. He then nodded and spoke aloud, "That was excellent. I'll come back to you in a bit and we'll work on that some more. But for now, why don't you practice dropping and raising your shield while I work with the rest of the class on their shielding?"
As Daniel turned away toward another trainee, Rodney felt a knock against his shield. He turned his attention to it, and got the impression that it was Cadman. He opened a slot again and said, What?
The taste of apples came and Cadman said, See? You are a Herald. You'll be a good one too. You're a natural when it comes to the Gifts.
Rodney's lips twisted at that thought. Right. He was Gifted alright. Funny how that hadn't been the case when he'd wanted to enter the Bardic Collegium in his youth. He huffed, then said, I'm in class, Cadman, and you're disturbing my concentration. Don't you have anything else to do other than bug me?
Cadman sighed in his mind. If you want to, I could practice speaking mind to mind with you later, she said with a surprising amount of wistfulness.
Rodney really didn't want to talk to her anymore that he had to. He was about to tell her that in no uncertain terms when...
Please? she said pleadingly.
Her tone brought him up short. Um...why?
Because we're going to be a team, Rodney. And I want to help. Unless you like the idea of practicing with the other trainees, Cadman replied.
No, he didn't. Just the thought of trading thoughts with a bunch of people he didn't know made him slightly queasy. Alright, he found himself saying, But just for a little while. I'm not interested in listening to you yammer at me all night, you know.
I know, I know. You find me real damned annoying and all that jazz, she replied knowingly. Then her tone abruptly shifted to something much more diffident. But...thanks Rodney. For saying yes. I appreciate it. And then she slipped out of his mind.
He squirmed a little guiltily in his chair and spent the rest of class doing what Daniel told him to, trying not to think anymore about the conversation and how wistful she had sounded at the end.