Part 29
To your relief Tam and the others seem more apologetic than offended when you spit the snack out into your handkerchief.
"Oh Jay! We are sorry. We forget that you're not like us! We should have been more careful before giving you something like that."
"That's okay." You tell them quickly, shoving the hankie into one of your AE suits concealed pockets. "No harm done." You give a quick laugh. "For all I know it might have been completely safe for me."
"But you cant take that risk." Freda scolds as if you had actually done so. You share a smile with Tam at her protectiveness.
"What are you doing over here anyway?" You ask, eager to deflect the conversation away from yourself.
"We were just going through a few telepathic exercises with the kids." Tam explains.
"And me." Svrian adds good humouredly. "It helps us build up our telepathic skills and accuracy."
Despite your reluctance to undergo the long hours of training that John always tries to insist upon you find yourself intrigued. Tam's earnest desire to teach and Svrian's easy acceptance of his need to learn with the small children make you feel that your own resistance has been petty and selfish.
"Do you mind if I watch?" You ask nonchalantly.
"Of course not." Svrian smiles and several of the smaller children pull at your clothes eager to show off their party pieces.
Tam runs the group through several telekinetic exercises. Lifting this picnic basket, pouring from that jug before having each of the children and teenagers perform a ask suited to their level of their advancement. He hesitates when he reaches you but at your slight nod he asks you to put together an eight piece children's puzzle i mid air. The effort leaves you hot and a little tired. A lot of what you've done to date has helped you measure the sheer physical strength of your telekinesis but this precision use of the power is an entirely different skill. The entire group cheers you when you manage it just as they did all the others and you grin and bow slightly before adding your voice of encouragement to the next person in the circle.
You work with the young people for over an hour while Stephen and Tyso talk politics and technology to the adults. It feels good to be part of a group where you are no longer quite the youngest or most junior. You're already quite tired though when Tam asks the entire group to form a link. Hesitantly you raise your hands to the children on either side of you. You've linked often enough with the others that the presence of another mind against yours doesn't make you flinch. As it's joined by a second and third, and then fourth and fifth and so on until you lose count, though you begin to worry. The weight of minds is building outside your shields and you're suddenly very aware that your mental self-protection is not nearly strong enough for this kind of pressure. Anxiously you try to break free of the now tight link. You're intrinsically a lot stronger than any of the young people in this link. You can feel the relative weakness of their minds and you feel a sudden terror of how hurt they could be when your shields collapse as they inevitably will.
The group tenses around you, unwilling to break the unity of the link by letting you clear. The reaction is entirely instinctive on their parts but your panic is equally instinctive. Everyone in the circle feels it as Stephen begins to reach towards you but you know deep inside that mental contact with the older Tomorrow Person might be all it takes to shatter your mental barriers completely.
You sense the children around you begin to catch your fear.
Do you:
a) try to get clear?
b) reach for Stephen and hope he can help?
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