Dreamworms Book 1: The Advent of Dreamtech by Isaac Petrov (drm ebook reader TXT) 📕

“There’s nothing you can do. It’s better to accept it.”

“I could… I could…! Ah!” She throws her head back in exasperation.

“You don’t have the power, girl.”

“Not yet.” Her eyes open with determination. With desire. Ximena feels it flooding her senses: the will, the urge, burning up her spine. “Not yet.”

Yog and Rew stand alone in the infinite nothingness of the staging permascape.

“That has been revealing,” the three Yog bodies say with her single female voice. “The human does thirst for power.”

“Indeed, she does,” Rew says. “Power to save her father—thirst for love, as we did witness on her first memory. Power to shake her world—thirst for change, as her second memory demonstrated. And now, underpinning it all, as the foundation of her being—thirst for power. Power to control her own destiny, and impose her will.”

“Indeed,” Yog says. “This human has reached due worth. You are cleared to begin her instruction in the Path of Light.”

Rew bows lightly and remains silent for a few moments. “She shall likely conclude it, Overseer Yog, as one of the two human Walkers to tread the Path in the Shadow. With such talent and thirst, she has the potential to attain the power she so desires. She shall prove invaluable to us.”

Thirteen

The Wake Barrier

The staging permascape is once again filled with people. And other than the black sky, that’s all there is here: humans and mares. And that’s the point of it, I guess, Ximena thinks.

“I do welcome you back, human apprentices,” Rew says.

Edda and the other youngsters gather slowly in a rough semicircle around the twelve mares. Ximena feels Edda’s deep discomfort at the memories of the events of last night. It was tough—the emotional ride, the depth of the alien inspection, such exposure, such vulnerability. She’s not the only one feeling it. Aline, next to her, has also refused to talk about last night, as have Piet and his brother Janson. Everybody looks kind of shell-shocked. But what surprises Ximena the most, by far, is that most of them have made it through. Such a motivated bunch! Apparently, there’s only one missing. Edda and her friends were just talking about it. Pieter, who has been chatting with the other candidates, says it is a man from De Haere, who apparently suffered cardiac arrest and had to be taken to aws Medic.

“In this session,” Rew continues, “you shall be initiated into the first step of the Path of Light, which you shall conclude in morrow’s session.”

“Just two nights?” Ximena whispers to Mark. He is a Walker, after all. He has done the training. “Is that even possible? To learn the first step in two nights?”

“Not for me,” Mark whispers back. “Took me six months. But look,” he leans closer to Ximena and points at the group of eager youngsters floating in the air in front of them, “so many minds in such a limited space. That’s some serious time dilation right there. Every night will feel to them like a month, or more.”

“Like us right here now, right?” Ximena waves a finger at the auditorium.

“Yep. Time dilation in dream-space is directly proportional to its mind density,” he says, like he is reciting Pythagoras’ theorem. “And inversely proportional to its rendering requirements.”

“Uh, okay.”

Mark smiles. “Let me rephrase that. You want to binge-watch a month worth of zombie dreamsensos in a single night? No problem. Bring many friends and pack them close together in an empty room.” He chuckles. “Gets boring after a few dream days. Trust me.”

“Right. But still,” Ximena points a finger at the floating scene where Edda and the rest are listening to something Rew is saying, “even stretching both nights to two entire dream months, is that enough? You trained for six.”

Mark shrugs. “Rew chose Geldershire for a reason.”

Ximena frowns skeptically, and returns her attention to Rew and her students.

“—which shall have you trialed after the second session,” Rew is saying. “Only the twenty-four most proficient among you shall be cleared forward. The rest shall be discarded.”

Ximena feels Edda’s sudden surge of apprehension. That’s about half of them! Purged after just one step. And the Path of Light has three steps, Goah’s Mercy. Edda draws a deep breath and exhales slowly, trying to blow her anxiety away. She wants to pass. She needs to pass. But is her desire stronger than the others’? She looks around her—all those determined looks. They sure as Dem are going to give their best. And perhaps this is not even about who wants it more. Edda couldn’t lift two hundred pounds over her shoulders, even if the life of her father depended on it.

“I do request each of you humans,” Rew continues, “to approach one of my Walkers,” she nods with her head at the eight mares standing behind her. “Each shall take a maximum of six apprentices.”

“Come!” Edda says, taking Aline by the hand and trotting towards one of the mares. “You too, mensas!” she shouts behind at Pieter and Janson.

It doesn’t take long until eight groups have formed, one around each mare. Edda, Aline, the boys and two nervous-looking women Edda has never seen before gather around the tallest mare of all.

“Sense and Bind, human apprentices,” the mare says. She speaks to them slowly, her female voice soft and pleasant. “I am Qoh, dreaming from Deviss, thread-maker to Walker Rew-at-Deviss, and your instructor.”

“What’s Deviss?” Edda asks.

“What’s a thread-maker?” Pieter asks at the same time.

Qoh turns to Edda. “Deviss is where I am sleeping and dreaming from.”

Then she turns to Pieter. “A thread-maker is a master of the second step of the Path in the Shadow.”

“And what’s thread-making good for?” Pieter asks.

“I do meld minds. As yours are now melded into this permascape.”

“Dream sharing,” Aline says to Pieter. “I think.”

“Where are you?” Edda asks. “Where’s Deviss?”

Ximena notices that other groups around them are similarly grilling their mare instructors with questions. Qoh raises an arm, and the other groups vanish from sight,