Chapter 13 - Part I

"Close your eyes.  Raise your palms flat and forward."

Good.

Breathe.  Focus on that breath.  Start by counting.  1, 2, breathe in.  3, 4, breathe out, et, auj, breathe in, vok, kuth, breath out.  Then let go of the numbers."

He gently touched the tips of Vren's outstretched hands and she felt the warmth of his fingers permeate her own thin skin.  Warmth, and something else.  A steady beat vibrated through her being as well.  Could it be the beating of his heart?  The flow of his blood?  Or something else.

Yaj-Oth, a Yibouhese bei'thal, pulled his hand back, but the beat continued.

"I am simply making apparent what is already there.  I'm setting you in the right direction, handing you the leash.  What do you see?"

"I don't see anything.  My eyes are closed." 

He slapped her face for that.  "Now is not the time to play idiot, student." he said, but he was not angry.

Vren did not budge.  Instead, she reached out on her web, feeling the presence first of Yaj-Oth, and the 50 or so souls or half-souls throughout this side of the barracks.  They were in all directions, and aside from Yaj-Oth, none seemed to have purpose with her.  She struggled to find what he was looking for.

"The Silent Scholar warned me about this.  Clearly we need to beat it out of you." he resigned himself, drawing the nine-tails short whip from his belt with his powerful hand.  "But my promise to you as teacher is that I will break you of this.  You will be bei'thal yet."  He struck her bare back with enough force to visit her flesh in fresh bloody streaks, but not more.  The wounds broke open others from days past, but they went no further than that.

Vren cried out in pain, crouching her body away from the blow, and her focus lost not only her connection to her web, but to the beat radiating from her fingertips as well.

"Stop it!" she cried.  "Please."

"Why do you play your tricks when I give you the answer into your hands.  Try again student." He continued.

"Stand up straight.  Begin again."

Vren pulled her body and her mind back into focus, moving her attentions to the pains in her body and the frustrations of her mind, to the energy of the air around her.  Again, Yaj-Oth brushed her fingertips and again she felt the beat within her body.

"Focus.  Do not use your head.  The kennel husband does not philosophize with the dogs."

"He commands them to attention." she responded and Yaj-Oth rewarded her with a curt nod, though Vren could not see it.

So instead Vren followed the beat of her own heart and traced it to that of her fingertips, where that foreign rhythm flowed.  This time, she found the connection.  She followed the source of the beat, through the door, out the room and down the hall.  It snaked around a corner and through another door where it found its end - its origin.  Vren tugged.

Within seconds there was a knock at the training room door.  Vren opened her eyes.

"Good.  Good.  Now, command it to enter."

Vren cleared her throat and ordered with the most authority she could muster in a foreign tongue, "Enter bei."

The door opened and a young girl of perhaps 15 tides or so walked in.  She was beautiful, exotic and charismatic.  Vren could not tell where she came from, her skin was dark enough to be considered Nüish, but light enough that in the right lighting, she might be mistaken for Lithenese. Her eyes were round enough for any one of the known tribes of Benge, yet dark irises and a piercing glare could have her be Yibouhese just as easily.  Vren blinked, and when she looked again, she realized her assessment had been all wrong.  This girl was clearly a Nü.  She might be a hauntingly strange, if not beautiful child, but she had a strongness in her face Vren had grown up adoring.

"A bei'thal is not supposed to be tricked by their bei." Yaj-Oth berated, bemused.

Vren looked at the similarly shirtless man, clad only in breeches and leather bracers.  She shook her head and blinked her eyes again, trying to realign her mind through a symbolic physical gesture.  When she refocused on the child, she realized she was looking at a very strange, non-descript child, and a boy at that.

"This one is compromised of appearance.  We call that goa'bei.  Certain features of his face and body will be accentuated, depending on the preferences of the viewer.  He will never age until the day his body finally gives out and will need to be replaced."

"What was the cost?"

"I do not forge bei.  Ask another."

"Why did it have to be a child?"

Vren grimaced as she felt the whip at her back again.  Although it was light, the fresh wounds stung.  "You are asking the wrong question.  How might this bei be of use to the Empire?"

A thought popped in her mind.  An insidious thought.  She was afraid to suggest it, afraid she might be right.  She shook her head in disgust.

Yaj-Oth smiled.  "These are no longer human beings Vren.  Whatever they were, however their lives ended, that might have been a tragedy, but it is over now.  They cannot feel anything.  Nothing you do can harm them further."

The child continued to wait patiently at the door, mindlessly starting into space as he waited for his next orders.