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“Hold still, country boy,” Jayne teased, adjusting the strap around Corbin’s bicep and pricking a small needle into his vein.
The room they had brought him into was filled with strange devices unlike anything he had ever known. Small blips sounded each time a line on one of the glass screens moved. The ceiling was a perfectly rounded white dome that matched the bare walls of the room. It was quite different from the rest of the house they had traipsed him through. No stately furniture sat in here, no lavish carpets or rugs decorated the floor, and the only light came from a small fire burning in the center of the round room, the flickering flames warming his naked chest.
“There, that is the last one,” Jayne said, fixing another of the strange little suction cups to his skin. The things were attached to his temples, arms, chest, and back.
“What is all this for again?” Corbin asked, still uneasy about what he had gotten himself into.
“For the third time, Corbin, these are not part of the ritual. This machine is to monitor your vitals throughout the process. We wouldn’t want you dying on us, now would we?” Jayne teased, sharing a giggle with Cassandra.
Corbin felt strangely at ease with Lady Cassandra, but these little jokes that amused her scared him to death.
“Where did you get all of these machines?” he asked, trying to keep the conversation going so he could ignore the fact that he was nervous.
“I had them designed shortly before building the healer center. These were some of the first units used there. Of course, that was back when the place was still open to everyone in New Fal. When I retired, most of this came with me.”
Corbin scrunched his eyebrows together, wondering how old this woman was. Lady Cassandra looked old enough to be his grandmother, but she moved with the strut of a woman half her age. Yet had not the healing center been built ages ago?
“Are we ready, my dear?” she asked her apprentice.
“Yes ma’am!” Jayne said, throwing her an emphatic thumb’s up.
“Okay, Corbin…just as we discussed, fall into your regular meditation routine now. Get in good and deep. I will know when you are there, and then we will begin the ritual.”
Lady Cassandra guided him to a spot on the floor, where he adjusted his seating and relaxed, crossing his legs. He placed both hands palms up on his knees so Lady Cassandra could drop a tiny lotus petal in each. Corbin focused his breathing and cleared his mind, already drifting deep inside himself, using the rhythm of the machinery to lull him into a meditative trance. He had long practiced the art of tuning himself to the world under the tutelage of his sensei and was so mastered in the art that he could stroll into a village celebration and still find some focus to center himself around.
Lady Cassandra dropped her green cloak to the floor, revealing tightly wound wrappings across her breasts and down to her groin, leaving her arms and legs bare. She began swaying back and forth in a graceful dance across the fire from Corbin. Her arms moved like dancing serpents while her fingers seemed to play through the air, plucking invisible strings.
Corbin was already far too lost in himself to see the spectacle, otherwise he might have run from the room when her hands began to radiate a soft light while she slowly chanted. Lady Cassandra’s voice began to rise with each thrust of her arms, both aimed at his body across the fire. A silky substance shimmered in the air around her fingertips, leaving faint trails of purple light behind them. The chanting grew louder and louder as she fell fully into the dance, eyes now orbs of white. The light grew brighter, with more substance, until it was as if liquid were floating in the air. Trailing patterns worked their way into an intricate glyph that circled the air in front of the entranced woman, her fingers delicately tracing the astral design repeatedly.
Lady Cassandra could see the boy’s mind now—not just his thoughts but the core of his neural network—as clear as if it were a network of rooms floating in front of her non-corporeal form. She reached deep into his psyche and began forming new patterns.
Corbin felt his body grow hot, sweat rolling down to the cold stone floor, and he could hear the Lady speaking in some foreign language like a dull aching in the recesses of his mind.
The glyph had widened, stretching over the fire, until one tip intersected with his forehead and the other her weaving hands, which seemed to be dancing with a life of their own. Unraveling some of Corbin’s neural patterns, Cassandra was able to find what she needed. The sorceress carefully created a bridge in his mind, opening a long dormant door.
It was like throwing a switch that invited the energy of the universe to course through an opening into his body. Corbin threw his head back and howled, bright light shooting from his eyes.
“Cassandra, his heart rate has spiked!” Jayne shouted over her master’s chanting.
Lady Cassandra knew how dangerous this was, but she could not stop the process. They were too far along now, and she had to tie his mind back up before pulling away. There was no way to go any faster, not that this knowledge kept her from stubbornly trying.
Jayne moved to inject Corbin with a needle of adrenaline and was gently pushed back by the power of Cassandra’s mind.
Wait, my dear; I need only a moment more, her voice spoke in Jayne’s head.
Jayne did not argue, understanding that there was much Lady Cassandra knew in the world that made little sense to her. Jayne looked down at the man, who lay sprawled across the floor. His eyes were clearly moving behind closed lids, and she wondered what he was seeing at that moment.