Darkling: The Rip

‘Reality is what the mind believes it is,’ replied Ragnak, ‘unless it is convinced that there exists something else.’

‘I can’t say I understand.’

The old man sighed. ‘What do you sense right now?’

Kai was taken aback at the question. Confused, he asked, ‘I-I don’t understand.’

‘What do you sense,’ Ragnak repeated patiently. His voice was a hoarse whisper, as though his throat had been ravaged by age or some ailment. ‘Tell me what do you see with your eyes, feel through your skin, hear with your ears, taste with your tongue, smell through your nose. Tell me that. All of it.’

His confusion wasn’t lessened; nonetheless Kai turned his eyes to different aspects of their current surroundings, trying to keep track of whatever he gleaned off all his other four senses. “I see...the dark room we are in. I see the fireplace. The chairs we are sitting in, I see you smoking a pipe, the clothes you are wearing, the goblet of ... whatever you are drinking, in your right hand.”

Ragnak smiled. ‘It’s my own home-made moonshine,’ he replied. ‘The recipé’s traditional, passed down, but never mind. I have only heard what you see. What about the rest of your senses?’

‘Oh. Right.’ Kai took a quick input of the sensory data. ‘Well, I hear the fire crackling, me speaking, and...I dunno, some weird sound from outside. I smell the smoke from the pipe, as well as from the fire. I taste...uh, nothing in particular, to be honest. I feel...warm, I guess?’

‘Good,’ replied Ragnak, puffing on his pipe. He paused, pulling the pipe from his lips to release a ring of smoke into the air. ‘Now, tell me, young Kai, how do you that everything you sense right now, is not a dream?’

‘Huh? What do you mean?’

‘How do you know that this is not a dream? Us, sitting here, talking in my study? How can you be sure this is reality and not a lucid dream?’

Kai was stumped. ‘Because – because, everything is real!’

‘Prove it.’

Kai was puzzled. Where is he going with this? He paused, then pinched himself. Hard. The pain was not extreme, but he knew if he was sleeping, he’d have woken. ‘There,’ he replied, a trace of triumph in his voice. ‘If I was asleep, I would have woken.’

Ragnak was not done. ‘And what if you are in a coerced sleep? You have been deeply anesthetised, or tranquilised, or in a coma? What if pinching yourself is not enough for you to exit the dreamscape?’

‘I – I don’t know, I guess.’

Ragnak smiled. ‘So, now you are ready to understand what I am about to explain to you.’

The man took a deep breath, then continued. ‘Reality – the actual reality that you know and awake to, after dream, is not one, but many. Several realities exist, parallel to each other. However, a human, at any given time, is privy to only one throughout his life. Very few peoples are even aware of the existence of such parallel realms of reality.’

‘You mean, like parallel universes?’

‘Yes, and no,’ explained Ragnak. ‘Reality, at the end of the day, is the sum total of the information your active senses relay to your brain. How does a man who can see explain colours to a man blind since birth? His eyes have never sent his brain that particular kind of information in his entire life. Even black, or darkness, for him, it holds no meaning, for there is no other color he can understand or identify to distinguish it from darkness.’

‘That is the problem,’ continued Ragnak, ‘with explaining relativity of reality to people. You have never sensed the boundary that separates one reality from another, hence words will only go so far. Tell me,’ he said, shifting in his seat, ‘Have you ever watched a movie in 3-D?’

‘Yeah, of course I have!’ Kai said. ‘Who hasn’t?’

‘Me.’ Ragnak grinned at the incredulous expression on his guest’s face. ‘Well, I have, but only once, I believe.’

‘Why, you don’t like movies?’

‘Hmm? No, I confess I am not partial towards that particular means of entertainment. I did like Avatar though.’

Kai grimaced. ‘Visuals were great, but it was basically the same story. Like Last Samurai.’

‘Only the Samurai won in this case.’

‘Yeah, I guess.’ Kai blinked. ‘Wait, what were we talking about?’

Ragnak chuckled. ‘3-D movies, but looks like we got sidetracked.’ He released another puff of smoke. ‘Anyhoo, the point I am trying to make is, doesn’t the screen seem like a window when you watch through 3-D glasses?’

‘Yeah,’ Kai said, unsure of where this was heading.

‘Now imagine, if somehow, the fabric of the screen was to tear in the middle. A rip was to form – as if torn by an invisible knife - and pulled in opposite directions on either side laterally, forming a hole. Suddenly, you are looking at another world, with images seemingly as vibrant, real and Three dimensional as the ones on the screen, no?’

‘Yeah,’ Kai said, slowly realizing what Ragnak was trying to convey.

‘Now imagine,’ said Ragnak, ‘that the real, three dimensional world you see, is actually played out on a fabric as well. This is –‘

‘The Fabric of Reality,’ whispered Kai, light dawning. ‘And a rip in this fabric allows us to –‘

‘-travel between Realities, exactly!’ finished Ragnak. ‘Such Rips – with a capital R – if sufficiently big enough, and stable enough, would act as portals, hypothetically allowing what one would call inter-dimensional transmission.’

Kai sat back, his mind reeling. ‘So, inter-dimensional travel – it’s...it’s real?’

Ragnak sat back on his armchair as well. But now it seemed his fire of enthusiasm had dulled somewhat. ‘I don’t know.’

‘You don’t know?’ echoed Kai. ‘I don’t understand – you literally just explained an entire new secret concept that so far had been explained in comics and movies and nowhere else, and now you say you don’t know?’

‘By that, what I mean to say is that, to my knowledge, such a feat has never been carried out successfully.’ A grim, sad smile touched Ragnak’s lips. ‘True, there have been lore from different cultures – about how in some ancient age someone managed to tear open a portal into a parallel reality that’s big – and stable – enough to allow demons and what not to invade our realm. But, in practice, no Darkling has ever managed such a thing. It takes a large reserve of energy to artificially make a Rip big – and stable - enough for even half the smallest bacterium to pass through into another dimension, let alone an invading demon army.’

‘So, if there was a large reserve of energy- ‘ began Kai, but was cut off.

‘Even if such an insurmountable reserve was possible to obtain,’ responded Ragnak, ‘such a thing should never be attempted under any circumstance, in the first place.’

‘What?’ said Kai, ‘But, why not?’

‘Because portals are essentially large Rips. Of course, Rips are present everywhere in the Fabric of Reality – or the Fabric, with a capital F, as Darklings call it – but they are minuscule. Like any piece of cloth or any material, really, there are small gaps between the fundamental three-dimensional constituent that make up the three-dimensional reality as you know it. These gaps act as the Rips. They are so small that even microbes find them hard to detect. Ancient masters and seekers of truth spent years in meditation and rituals, trying to discipline their mind enough to be able to sense those fundamental Rips.’

‘Wait, you just told me those Rips are bad things, so why in the world would sages and all seek to find them. Or become able to sense them, or whatever?’

‘Because such Rips serve a purpose. The fundamental variety of Rips exists because they have achieved a form of stability with the existence of a reality. It is extremely difficult to artificially manipulate the space-time continuum in a fashion. Darklings have yet to understand or discover all the factors that should be taken into account in order to form a stable Rip in the Fabric. Attempting to create a Rip even a cubic micrometer big without understanding the exact factors and without precise knowledge of the techniques would be like putting a monkey in charge of a console that controls a bomb powerful enough to erase the entire universe.’

Kai gulped, feeling suddenly lost in the vast ocean of information. ‘So, if a Rip happens to be produced that is unstable –‘

‘I cannot say for sure what will happen, my boy,’ Ragnak replied. ‘Best-case scenario, it burns off the creator’s eyebrows and collapses, restoring the Fabric.’

‘And the worst case?’

‘Worst case is that the Fabric – it acts as an inter-dimensional barrier - breaks apart completely, causing two parallel realities to merge into one, transforming both into a singular reality. If you don’t die, you’ll suddenly find your body – and mind, too, maybe – merged with someone, or something, from that other reality. Or maybe both realities will nullify each other. The latter is a relatively luckier possibility.’

Kai went silent, processing the information. In the meantime, Ragnak, with a suppressed groan of discomfort, rose from his chair and walked over to the case of books beside the fireplace. From the end of the second shelf, he pulled out a thick, heavy book in a dark blue cover. Walking back to the fireplace, he handed the book to Kai as he sat back down. ‘Faust’s Compendium,’ he said. ‘My Guru gave that to me of his own private collection, after I left my training. He insisted it was necessary I go through them.’

‘What’s it about?’ asked Kai, running his fingers over the glossy, golden cursive letters spelling its name.

‘It’s a manner of cautionary manual,’ replied Ragnak, pulling out a packet of tobacco and messily tearing it open, spilling a little on the carpet. Cursing, he proceeded to fill up his pipe. ‘The book essentially explains what our best experts understand of the true nature of Rips, and how they work. What’s more detailed, however, is the information regarding the risks involved in attempting to manipulate Rips. I want you to read it. Only then can you understand the full implications of what attempting to amateurishly tangle with Rips may involve.’

Kai closed the book. ‘That won’t be necessary,’ he replied. ‘I’m sold. Rest assured, old man, I am not going to meddle with the Fabric or Rips. But,’ he paused.

Ragnak raised an eyebrow. ‘But?’

Kai hesitated, before speaking. ‘If the Rips are so dangerous, why are they used at – I mean, what are they used for anyway? You have told me what Rips are and how dangerous they are, but what do they do? For us? Why are they important?’

Ragnak went silent for the longest time. For nearly two minutes, he just sat back, his eyes set on Kai, but unfocussed, as if trying to solve a problem. Finally he spoke, ‘The first time you did something – what was it?’

Kai was nonplussed. ‘Heh? Meaning?’

‘The first time you did something that only you, me or another Darkling can do.’

‘Oh!’ Kai tried to remember. ‘I dunno. Now that I think of it, I realize I had been doing stuff like that since as long as I was little. Stuff would automatically move, when I was angry, or too excited.’

Ragnak nodded. ‘Hmm. Extremes of emotions triggers a person’s ability to focus on a matter, provided the said extreme offers constructive reinforcement and not destructive. In a Darkling’s case, it allows him to perform psychokinetic feats that would be marked as above-average, at the very least.’

‘But,’ continued Ragnak, ‘what I wish to know from you is what you would feel physically at such a time, when you would unknowingly make something move?’

Kai tried to remember back. ‘In school, there was one time some guy was teasing a girl I liked –‘

‘This girl have a name,’ asked Ragnak, his voice seemingly mild.

‘G- wait, fuck off, you geezer!’ he said loudly. In response, Ragnak burst into peals of laughter. ‘Bloody prat!’ Kai fumed.

The laughter subsided, though the old man still showed his teeth in a wide grin. ‘Early crush, eh? Come on now, what was her name?’

‘No bloody way!’ declared Kai, silently grateful for his recent tan. ‘You want to hear the rest or not?’

The grin didn’t quite vanish, but Ragnak gave a nod of agreement. ‘So, anyway, some idiots were teasing her and me because we were sitting together for lunch – don’t you dare!’Kai raised a finger in warning, as Ragnak’s grin widened dangerously on the point of breaking into laughter. ‘The teacher made us sit together, all right? Anyway, I was getting hot and bothered, embarrassed and angry, cuz they were making a big scene. I don’t remember what I said, but I remember that the loudest teaser of them all suddenly fell down flat on his butt, like someone pushed him.’

Ragnak gave a grunt of acknowledgement. ‘Darkling psycho-kinesis, obviously.’

‘Obviously. I remember I felt really warm, right before that punk fell down. Not just warm, mind you. Almost hot, for a second. Then it suddenly vanished.’

‘Good,’ replied Ragnak, ‘That is what Darklings call the Surge.’

‘The Surge?’

‘Yes.’

‘Okay, what’s the Surge?’

‘The Surge is the build up of energy within your body, right before the said energy is expelled in a controlled projection. It’s essentially counterpart to pulling at a bow’s drawstring before loosening an arrow.’

‘Darklings, Kai, are humans who possess an innate mental ability to control their cells and the energy transference within their bodies. Some people are born with it, and are considered a prodigy. Others train for years to awaken this ability.’

‘Okay... so how does it work? This Surge?’

Ragnak took a deep breath, exhaling a long plume of smoke that made him look like an old bearded dragon. ‘The exact biological dynamic is complicated, and I am no expert, so I’ll give you the simplified version. You know a human body emits heat, right?’

Kai nodded.

‘The cells of a human body continuously emit unwanted heat. A Darkling can however control his body cells to such an extent that he can close of all the heat emitting cells all over his body’s skin, and instead focus all the concentrated heat to be released from a much smaller area. The most common such area is the palms of a Darkling’s hands.’

‘That would be a lot of heat,’ marvelled Kai.

‘Quite a lot. Especially considering the energy being released isn’t simply from what you ate, but also from the Rips within a Darkling’s body.’

‘Wait, what?’

Ragnak nodded. ‘Rips don’t just exist without a reason. The Fundamental Rips serve as a portal for the inter-dimensional transference of energy, from one reality to another. Rips are of two types: positive and negative. Negative Rips absorb energy from our reality, and transfer it to some other reality, while Positive Rips absorb energy from other realities, and releases it in ours. Keep in mind, however, that the amount of energy leaving our Reality at any given time equals the energy flowing in.’

‘That is why Rips – the Fundamental ones – are of such importance to us. You asked why sages and mystics since time immemorial have attempted to discipline their mind? For this. They wish to obtain the physical, or at least, the mental abilities of Darkling-kind.’

Kai’s eyes widened. ‘Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa! Slow down, time out!!’ He made a T with his hands. ‘Didn’t you just tell me it’s dangerous to manipulate with Rips? About how it can destroy realities? And now you are telling me I have been doing it all the time?’

At this, Ragnak laughed. ‘You, no. I doubt you have ever tapped into fresh inter-dimensional energy. Any energy you exploited to perform Psychokinesis has been purely based on a cellular level.’

‘But you have, right?’ Kai demanded. ‘How does that change anything? You told me it’s unsafe to manipulate – ‘

‘No.’

‘I’m sorry?’

‘I said, no, I did not,’ came the patient reply. He took the pipe out of his mouth. ‘I said it’s dangerous to try and open a Rip. I never said anything about trying to close one.’

Kai suddenly felt like someone had stolen his mouth. ‘I don’t understand,’ he said finally.

Ragnak smiled. ‘Opening a Rip involves severing the metaphorical thread between two neighbouring Rips in the Fabric, and thereby forming a bigger Rip. The more such threads you sever, the bigger the Rip becomes, until the energy transference through this Rip becomes so great and rapid that the Rip begins increasing in length on its own. The problem with this is that there is no upper limit to check the progression of the Rip’s exponential increase in size. It will keep on increasing until the entire Fabric of Reality has been torn in half.’

‘However, no such risk exists when it comes to attempting to close a Rip. Closing a Rip is equally as difficult as opening one of a similar size. You will require a large amount of mental stamina and psychic discipline to achieve it. Very few people manage to completely close a Rip, and only for the briefest instants; the rest make do with reducing the size of the Rip as much as they can- ‘

‘-To reduce the flow of energy through that Rip,’ Kai continued, with drawing comprehension. ‘So, when you do magic’ – Ragnak grimaced at the word, but Kai carried on – ‘you are manipulate both your cells, and try to reduce the size of the Rips through which energy flows out, right?’

Ragnak bore a pleased smile as he bowed his head in assent. ‘Correct. You try and reduce the size of the Negative Rips. I assume you understand the reasoning behind this.’

‘For the Surge,’ replied Kai, nodding. ‘I guess it’s to keep the built up energy from slipping away into some other Reality. The longer I can keep the Negative Rips closed, the more energy I can accumulate within me, the more powerful my magic, right?’

‘You have the hang of it, and quicker than I expected. That bodes well for you,’ Ragnak said.

‘Eh, well, I kinda liked Physics in class.’

‘Budding physicist, eh?’

‘Hell, no. More into making stuff.’

‘Really?’ Ragnak seemed genuinely fascinated. ‘What kinda stuff?’

‘I dunno. RC and radio based, I guess.’

‘An engineer then!’

Kai snorted. ‘In my country, yeah, right. You’ll find an engineering certificate around every corner.’

Ragnak sighed. ‘True, but I doubt finding an engineer who’s truly passionate about making stuff is that common. As a Darkling, the strength of your psychokinesis will initially depend on your emotions. Passion is a great tool to allow you to tap into your emotions.’

‘Initially? What about later?’

‘Well, simply put, you will have to train yourself with time to be one day be able to perform psychokinesis without depending on your emotions at all.’

‘Why? If emotions help you with easing the path to accessing your abilities, why not keep using them?’

Ragnak gave a sad smile, placing the pipe between his lips again and taking a big puff. ‘Emotions are a great source of motivation and psychic fortitude for a Darkling, true, but they are wild forces, and a Darkling bears the risk of being overwhelmed by them and doing something very destructive. A Darkling wields potentially tremendous powers. An unhinged Darkling – or even worse, a psychotic one – will be granted access to vast reserves of mental ability to manipulate Rips, but he will become unable to discern good from bad. Just imagine the difference between a monkey that throws poop when angry, and a monkey that knows how to use an automatic rifle.’

Ragnak gazed off into the distance. Kai sat silently, mulling over the implications. ‘Has it ever happened?’ he asked hesitantly. ‘A Darkling gone mad and did something really bad?’

Ragnak gazed into the fire. The firelight danced in his eyes as he responded. ‘Many times.’ He turned to look at Kai. ‘Have you wondered why we call ourselves Darklings?’

Kai shrugged. ‘Kind of. Stopped bothering with it after sometime. Why, why are we called that?’

Ragnak made a sound like clearing his throat. He pulled out the pipe and leant forward toward the burning logs, spitting something at the flames. A hissing sound followed as Ragnak sat back into the armchair. He picked up the pipe. ‘Because an axe forgets the cut it made, but the tree remembers the wound that it received.’ He placed the pipe back between his lips. ‘In the past, when the human civilisations were new, Darklings were more often born than made. Depending on where they were born, these Darklings would either be revered as gods, or be vilified as demons and exiled, even murdered, sometimes as children.’

‘As man’s world aged, gods became myths, and Darklings – feared or loved – came to be seen as mystics, shamans, sorcerers and magicians. Most would grow depressed or mad, however, and often times the instability of their Surges would kill them, and sometimes innocents in the vicinity would fall victim to their accidents as well.’

‘Matters came to a head when one certain mystic by the name of Ayta the Anathema grew so mad that within his heart grew an unquenchable thirst for power. Fuelled by this lust, Ayta performed the most Forbidden Art: the creation of a Fabric Portal. For the first few moments, all seemed well, but then suddenly the Rip he had made started increasing at a rate outside his ability of control. Ayta went into shock, and two Realities began to collapse into one, creating widespread destruction in both, even as the Rip expanded more and more.’

‘Fortunately, Ayta was not the only Darkling in the city he inhabited. Three others – each quite as skilled as Ayta himself – rushed quickly to where Ayta stood still in shock. Lore says that the Three sacrificed every last inhabitant of their beloved city – a task that haunts them forever – by drawing on the energies of every living thing to close the Rip and restore order, even going so far as to sacrifice themselves. By quirk of fate though, the Reality of the Parallel Dimension altered their selves somehow, owing to which they found themselves not only resurrected after the Rip had closed, but immortal as well. However, their city, their beloved Atlantis, was devastated, as was the entire island that held them, so that the waters of the Atlantic soon swallowed them.’

Kai’s eyes were wider than saucers. ‘Wait – Atlantis. As in the Atlantis? The island nation from Plato’s writings?’

Ragnak smiled. ‘I don’t know for certain, son, but I should believe s-’

‘Did you just call me son?’

Ragnak paused. ‘Yes, I believe I just did. Was it inappropriate of me to?’

Kai blinked. ‘No, it’s cool. What were you saying?’

Ragnak narrowed his eyes, but didn’t dig any further. ‘The Three Mages set out on different paths to the three corners of the known world, for it was their belief that a world with three dimensions can only have three corners. These three corners – Karnak, Shambhala, and Lygos – became places of renown throughout the ancient world. Over the succeeding centuries, during times of great significance they would convene in order to maintain the balance against threats, both that were possible, and had come to pass. With time, they also would go on to reach out to lost Mages and psychokinetic individuals, giving them a sense of purpose and the proper training.’

‘Some two millennia previously, a child was born. So powerful was his psychokinetic potential, mages across the world felt it even when the baby was yet to leave his mother’s womb. The Three Mages convened, and travelled to witness the child’s birth –‘

Kai interrupted, ‘You are speaking about Je-‘

‘Yes,’ replied Ragnak, before continuing. ‘Over time, the Three opened a single Library, filled with troves of vast knowledge, both mundane and esoteric, on every matter that was known to them. In the eyes of all Mages, this Library was the single-most precious resource in all Human History, and it is believed that to this day, any and all information ever discovered by mankind finds its way there by one means or another.’

‘Yet, the Mages eventually passed down their mantle to successors, retiring to the shadows to become observers. With time, their absence became more prominent as chaos increased. The world changed its face, and with these changes came the end of two of the great temples of learning that the Three had established – Ragnak was razed by the Greeks, then the Romans, while Lygos – now called Constantinopolis, was devastated by the Ottomans. Only Shambhala remained safe, for few invading armies bothered with scaling the desolate Himalayan mountain atop which the school stands to this day.’

‘Shambhala?’Kai wondered. ‘Never heard of it.’

‘Modern world commonly misinterprets the name as Shangri-La. I see you recognise that name.’ Ragnak smiled as recognition flashed across Kai’s face.

‘With the destruction of the two great schools, mages and mystics across Arabia and Europe were scattered across the land, brimming with much they learnt from those schools. They passed down the knowledge, but often time the warnings conveyed to their students fell on deaf ears. Newborn sorcerers started dabbling in techniques that were not only immoral, and but also dangerous. At times a few would nearly go as far as to achieve what the Anathema had, but would quickly be silenced by their more cautious fellows, or be killed by their own acts.’

‘Eventually the rest of mankind grew fearful, because with time the Mages seemingly started to give in to their baser instincts. They came to be viewed as necromancers, foul souls who convened with the darker forces. Eventually, the kingdoms in Europe joined together in founding an organization called the Waters of Purity, tasked with hunting down all psychokinetics. It was they who gave us the name Darkling, as though we were something evil, though they were not above slaying children if they saw fit, or hanging anyone who dared protect innocent psychokinetics. With time, this organisation obtained a multinational autonomy, rechristening itself the Orders of the Stake.’

‘The Order of the Stake?’ repeated Kai. ‘Why haven’t I heard of them before?’

There was no smile in Ragnak’s eyes as he responded. ‘You have, Kai. They simply go by a more urban name today.’

Kai suddenly felt as though someone had draped an icy blanket over him. ‘The Division,’ he said.

‘The very same. Although their brutality has remained the same, their outlook and modus operandi underwent some significant modifications some eighty years ago during the Second World War. Hitler, fuelled by his ambition to conquer and unite the world under Axis Rule, collaborated with Japan and banned the Order’s presence from both countries. In the meantime, the Nazis began collaborating with the Thule Society, a secret underworld organisation consisting of mages and necromancers, while Japan did the same by recruiting mystics and shamans that they had erstwhile left out to be persecuted. Armed with both metal and “magic” – as you say it – the Axis beat down anyone that stood before them.’

‘No damn wonder, man!’ Kai marvelled. ‘I mean, how are you going to fight an invading force that has a mage powerful enough to overturn a tank?’

Ragnak nodded. ‘Quite. It wasn’t until the Nazis reached Stalingrad that the Russians realized the Germans’ secret weapon. The Russians quickly relayed this information to the other Allied Powers. Faced with increasing international pressure, the Order changed its mode of operations from hunting psychokinetics, to recruiting them.’

‘Riiiightt!’ responded Kai. ‘So that’s how it began

‘The full force of the recruited band of Darklings by the Russian Embassy of the Order saw combat at Stalingrad, where through both will and steel, the Germans were pushed back. With the entry of the USA and full force of the Order’s recruited army of Darklings, Germany and Japan were soon beaten back.’

‘So, I guess after the war, the UN forced the Order to change its name or something?’ Kai queried.

‘More like something. The existence of the Order and the Darklings was still a secret with only a select few privy to this information. Through a covert order passed by the members of the UN’s top echelon, a committee called the International Paranormal Security Council was formed. The Order’s autonomy was taken away, and became answerable to the IPSC. The IPSC voted in favour of rechristening the Order as the Division of Psychokinetic Regulation, and changed its operation and mission statement.’

‘Changed?’ echoed Kai, unconvinced. ‘Changed how?’

‘Simply put, earlier they would kill you if they found you. Now they would mark and register you, and keep you under close watch for the rest of your life. All the time hoping, wishing to catch you with half a toe outside the line, so they lock you up someplace.’

A long silence followed. Ragnak quietly smoked away, staring into the fire, while Kai mulled over his thoughts regarding everything he had learned this evening. Eventually, a thought struck his mind. ‘Razia told me they – the Division – they also have their own set of psychokinetics. If that’s true, what exactly do they want?’

Ragnak had sat back, so his face remained shrouded in darkness as he replied. ‘To be honest, my boy, I have no idea. I just know that whatever their agenda, it is not once that involves the welfare of Darklings. For them, we are the prisoners, and they are the guards in charge of our behaviour. However, make no mistake,’ Ragnak leaned forward, his eyes set on Kai’s, ‘they are bad, but I can tell you for certain that they aren’t the ones after you.’

‘Huh? Wait, what are you saying? Razia said –‘

‘Only what I asked her to tell you. The ones who attacked your home, the ones who killed your mother seven years ago – believe me, those people, they aren’t the Division.’

Anger rose within Kai. ‘How can you say that? They are at our heels right now! They use both guns and this - this psycho-magic whatever to attack us! They behave exactly as the Division does!’

‘Because I have been in contact with the Commander, the top man of the Division, and a member of the IPSC.’

‘You-!’

‘You don’t understand, Kai!’ plead Ragnak, a hint of frustration and imploration in his voice. He was suddenly off the armchair, and he knelt by the side of Kai’s. ‘The Darkling Fraternity and the Division has been forced to cooperate in the last few years more than ever in either’s history, and not without reason. A new threat has arisen since the past decade now, a new enemy, one that has been targeting young Darklings.’

‘What – who?’ began Kai, his mind fighting between a sudden curiosity and denial.

‘I don’t know! Neither does the Division! These young Darklings, these children, they are nabbed the same way they attempted yours – their parents are surgically killed, and the children taken, and the entire family is made to look like having died in an accidental fire or a house collapsing on them, or some freak accident. The children are never heard from again! No one knows what happens to them. In the last ten years alone, over 60 such Darkling children have been taken, from a teeming metropolitan area in South Korea to a remote tribal village in Kenya.’

‘And you are saying, these people, they are after me?’ Kai’s mind whirled. ‘That makes no sense. I’m not a child. I’m almost eighteen now!’

Ragnak reached out and placed a hand on Kai’s shoulder. ‘I know,’ he replied, his expression understanding. ‘You may not have known it, but while the Division did lose you, I – myself – I kept track of you. I saw you pursue a lifestyle that would have left an eleven year old at the mercy of bad people, but you scavenged, you fought, and you survived. You have managed to do more than what has been expected of you, and I feel pride knowing someone like you is joining us. I don’t know why those men wish to take you, but this is not a fight you can win alone. Please, Kai,’ the grip on his shoulder tightened, ‘I need you to trust me. Please, come- ‘

The old man suddenly stopped, his head turned to one side. Then, as abruptly as he had stopped, he spoke again. ‘You need to wake up.’

Kai blinked. ‘What?’ completely perplexed by the words, as Ragnak rose to his feet.

‘I’m sending instructions to Razia immediately. She’ll wake you up right about now. You need to pack up and be gone before they arrive.’

Kai rose too. ‘Wake me up?’ he repeated. ‘Um, hello, what are you talking about? I am awake.’

Ragnak turned to face Kai. ‘No, Kai, you are dreaming.’

‘Excuse me?’

Ragnak smiled. ‘You are actually sleeping right now on the single bed in the room next to Razia’s in the highway motel you stopped last night. The Mysore Sanctorum is about fifty miles away.’

‘Okay, okay, I see what you are trying to do,’ Kai replied. ‘But there’s a problem. A – you aren’t black. B – you aren’t bald. C – you aren’t clean shaven. D – my name’s not Thomas Anderson.’

The smile did not falter. ‘Do you remember entering this room, Kai?’

‘Yeah, I – ‘ Kai paused, then turned around. His eyes scanned the walls of the study. ‘Where’s the door?’

‘There never was one,’ came the reply. ‘Nor were there chairs we sat in.’

Kai whirled around; the armchairs they had been sitting on had vanished. Faust’s Compendium lay on the carpet – no, on the bare tiled floor. There was no carpet.

Kai looked up. The bookcase beside the fireplace was gone – as was the fireplace.

Only Ragnak stood where he was. And then the walls disappeared. Suddenly the two of them were not in a scholar’s study room, but a bare hall. Only the roof and the floor existed. The walls were so far back that they were hid by the darkness.

Kai turned his attention to the one thing that was still there: Ragnak. The old man stood smiling where he had been.

At first Kai tried to find words. They came, but he felt they were gibberish. His heart was beating painfully fast. Need to calm down, need to calm down. Calm. Calm. Calm. He thought to himself, breathing into his clenched fists. Moments passed. Ragnak stood where he had been, a smile of understanding on his face.

Finally, Kai spoke. ‘Ragnak – explain!’

Ragnak bowed his head in consent. ‘You are not going mad, Kai. Nor have you been drugged, as you probably are thinking right now, or have been placed under an illusion of some manner. You are simply in the Mindscape.’

‘Mindscape?’ repeated Kai.

‘When you sleep, your mind relaxes to achieve a kind of relaxed balance between focus and the lack thereof. It triggers certain areas of your mind’s telepathic ability. This allows a part of your consciousness to enter the Mindscape, a purely telepathic platform that Darklings are able to access, either by meditating or sleeping. Within the Mindscape, you can alter what passes for reality here. You can will constructs into being, merely by the simplest tug of imagination, so light that you don’t even acknowledge the effort.’

‘Constructs?’

‘The Statue of Liberty behind you, for example.’

Kai turned around, to find himself face to a marble white face. ‘Hiya, love!’ it said.

Uttering a cry of shock, Kai jumped back. Overcoming his shock, he saw the man-sized Statue of Liberty, holding up the torch – and grinning at him with a disturbingly lascivious expression. ‘You smell nice, stud!’ it said, winking.

‘That’s really... weird!’ Kai muttered, feeling dazed.

‘My apologies.’ A click of the finger, and the Lady Liberty vanished in a puff of smoke. ‘As you see now, Kai, I contacted and summoned your dream self, assisting it in achieving a state of lucidity. The study room, the chairs, they were all constructs I created, to make you feel at ease.’

Kai pointed at him. ‘You are real, right?’ he asked. ‘Or am I dreaming.’

‘I am very much real, as is the book I gave you. As you know very well, I am the steward of the Fraternity, and we await your arrival to Shambhala as soon as possible. But now,’ said Ragnak, stepping close and raising his right hand, ‘my boy, you need to wake up!’

Saying so, he placed the palm of his hand on Kai’s chest.

The world in front of his eyes explosively dissolved into darkness even as he felt the impact of something very hard landing on his chest. ‘Wake up!’ yelled what seemed like the loudest voice across all Realities.

Kai opened his eyes. The view of a plastered ceiling and a creaky fan was obscured by the face of a girl sporting a cropped haircut and excessive mascara, which made her look like a racoon.

Razia.

‘Get up!’ She grabbed his arm and pulled him into a sitting position; something heavy slid off his chest and onto his lap. ‘Boss just contacted me! Bad guys fifteen minutes away, max! We need to hit the road in five, got it? Pack up! Now!’ She slammed the door hard as she left.

Kai shook his head, trying to set things within his head in order. His eyes finally focussed on the object in his lap.

A thick heavy book, with a dark blue cover. The golden words spelled out its name.