As Gods Above

by Andre Labuschagne

  We need to spend some time trying to find the correct type of focus to allow us control this power consciously.”

  “Good. I’ll hurry about my chores. Maybe you’ll have something constructive to show me, by the time I get back.”

  She went down the ladder. Instead of exiting the house, she slipped quietly into the sleeping room she shared with Awaki.

  When she tidied the room earlier that morning, she prepared her bed furs so that she could sit comfortably in the corner. She seated herself comfortably.

  Marshalling her thoughts, she started the relaxing exercises they had been experimenting with. Normally she didn’t need them, but for this experiment anything that could possibly help was to be desired. Carefully she focused her mind on Awaki. Awaki – her mate – her best friend.

  Once she was totally focused, so that she could hear only his sub vocal thoughts, as he concentrated on lifting a small round stone, she set herself, concentrated with every gram of energy she possessed, and called out in her mind: “Awaki!”

  Back on the roof Awaki jumped as if he had been stung by a bee. With a bemused L’ki watching him as if he had gone crazy, he jumped up and ran to the wall. “’Zashi?” he called, looking over the parapet.

  “What’s up Awaki?” L’ki asked, puzzled.

  “Didn’t you hear Anzashi call?”

  “Are you sure all this messing with picking up things hasn’t damaged you mind? I didn’t hear a thing. Maybe you are hearing things.

  Perhaps it was a crow or something?”

  A thoroughly confused Awaki walked around the roof, looking over the edge on each side. “I’m telling you, I heard Anzashi calling my name – as clearly as I can hear you talking to me.

  Maybe you are going deaf in your old age! Are you sure you didn’t hear her calling?”

  Anzashi had been following Awaki’s thoughts. She decided to put them out of their misery – before their confusion became a fight.

  With more confidence she tried again. “Awaki!” she thought. “In the bedroom.”

  Awaki looked enquiringly at L’ki. “Nothing again?” he asked.

  “What do you mean nothing?” the bemused L’ki replied. “Don’t tell me you heard her again?”

  “I’m telling you I heard Anzashi calling me. But wait, she said ‘In the bedroom. ‘

  Something weird is going on!”

  “More weird than picking up stones with a thought?” L’ki enquired.

  But he was speaking to Awaki’s retreating back. He slid down the ladder. Still puzzled, L’ki was nonetheless close behind him.

  “What’s going on?” L’ki asked.

  “First you’re hearing voices out of thin air, and now you’re acting as if Anzashi was calling you. And I still haven’t heard a word!

  Are you sure we haven’t been spending too much time up on the roof?”

  “Something is going on” said Awaki firmly. “And I am going to get to the bottom of it. I know I am not going crazy!”

  Nonetheless, the soft call: “Anzashi?” which he uttered at the bottom of the ladder was a little uncertain. He walked up to the door of their sleeping room, and queried again: “Anzashi?”

  A totally mystified L’ki trailed close behind him. “What the devil is going on?”

  Anzashi was still focused: “Look at me.” She instructed Awaki.

  “What do you mean look at you?” Awaki did a double take as he suddenly realized: “I heard that!

  But your mouth isn’t moving! How did you do that?”

  L’ki had had enough:”Do what?” he burst out. “If someone doesn’t tell me what is going on, I’m going to go just as crazy as you two.”

  He stared at Awaki, who was looking at his mate in dawning wonder, and then at the smiling Anzashi.

  She had to try: “This!”

  It wasn’t quite as easy as with Awaki, she had to hunt to find his signature, but having done it once, it seemed to become easier, like the right piece if stone, finding its place in a wall, just fell into place.

  “How did you do that?” L’ki was flabbergasted. “I would know you voice anywhere – but your lips didn’t move!”

  He looked at Awaki. “Is this what you were talking about just now?” he queried – his question almost a plea. “Now I can understand why you were so confused.”

  He turned to Anzashi. “How did you do that? How long have you known you could do it? Can you do it with anyone?”

  Laughing Anzashi broke into his stream of questions. “Slow down my friend. One question at a time – or we’ll never get to the end.”

  She made an effort to touch both their minds. “As to how? You might as well ask how does Awaki catch the things you throw at him, or how does the sun shine?

  It’s all in the mind, I suppose. At first I just got a jumble of voices in my head – and neither of you seemed to be hearing them.

  I think it was probably as a result of all that meditation you put me through, Awaki.

  Initially it was very confusing, but it seemed to me as if I could distinguish specific voices. I started concentrating on a person at a time, and slowly I learned how to focus.

  I’ve been able to hear Awaki for a while now, wherever he might have been at the time.

  But this is the first time I have managed to speak to someone.”

  “But do you think we could do it too?” Awaki looked at her with new respect. He had always known that she was very special, He just hadn’t realized how special.

  “I think you should be able to.” Thinking at them was becoming easier all the time.

  ”There is a place in your mind where you just listen, and if you focus just right you can talk through there as well.

  Each person has a sort of identifying signal, which helps me find them.

  Here, let me show you what I mean!”

  She closed her eyes and concentrated on Awaki. In her mind she tried to visualize what she had experienced in herself, them to ‘see’ the same place in Awaki’s mind.

  She ‘saw’ it as something like a cave mouth, but there was something blocking it. She directed Awaki’s thoughts to the place:. “Look here!” She commanded. “There seems to be something here, but it is blocked.”

  She focused everything she had in her and ‘pushed’ against the blockage.

  To Awaki it seemed as if something hit him in the head – hard. His mind was filled with bright lights, then suddenly things settled down – but he sensed that he was not alone.

  “Anzashi?”

  “Look inward Awaki.” Anzashi’s mental voice was muted. “It looks as if we have done something right.”

  “That’s for sure!” responded Awaki enthusiastically. “But this will take some getting used to.”

  “I think this is going to take some getting used to.” Regretfully Anzashi pulled back from full rapport. “Let me show you what I did. This structure here seems to be the control centre for these new powers. But it was blocked, so I pushed.”

  “Maybe next time do not push so hard” Unconsciously Awaki slipped back into voice. “You nearly took the top off my head – I’m still seeing stars.”

  L’ki had been standing by, looking now at the one, then at the other. Although he didn’t know what was going on, he could sense the silent struggle as Anzashi overcame the resistance in Awaki’s mind.

  Now he couldn’t stand it anymore. “If someone doesn’t tell me what is going on, I’m going to go nuts!”

  The other two awoke to his presence with a shock, shooting a guilty glance at each other.

  “I’m sorry, L’ki!” exclaimed Anzashi penitently. “That was quite a bit beyond what I was prepared for. I guess it sort of distracted us a little, and we totally forgot you were here.”

  She exchanged another quick glance with Awaki. “I guess we’ll have to show him, or he’ll never let us get any rest!” she teased.

  “I agree, but let’s push a little softer this time.”

  “You just can’t let it go, can
you?”

  The two allowed their minds to touch. “This is nice.” Anzashi remarked.

  Awaki agreed: “Not quite as deep as we did before, but much more manageable at the moment. So, what do we do?”

  “First, you have to visualize the channel, like so. Then you need to find the person’s signature – this is yours, and this is L’ki’s. It is somewhat like a tuning guide to get your mind on the same channel as his.”

  “OK. Something like this?”

  “Yes! Now try sending something to him.”

  “L’ki!”

  Awaki unthinkingly did exactly what Anzashi had done to him earlier. And although he was expecting something of the type, L’ki was almost as surprised.

  “I heard you! You actually got it!”

  “Yes, I did. Now let’s see what we can do about you!”

  Quietly Anzashi added her power to his, as he visualized the blocked channel. Gently they pushed… Until: “Oooh that did something. It looked almost like the meteor shower we had last year.

  Do you think it’s safe to carry on? That last push really hurt!”

  “I don’t think we have to carry on L’ki. Do you Awaki?”

  “Probably not. We know what we wanted to find out anyway.”

  “But you can’t leave me like this – I also want to… Saay! You guys aren’t speaking!”

  “Actually, neither are you!”

  “You’re right – I’m not! You did it guys.”

  Awaki once again dropped into verbalization. “I must admit that this has been a rather tiring morning. I suppose it will become easier with practice, but all that concentration has really knocked me out.”

  Anzashi agreed. “It is exhausting. I must admit that listening is a lot easier for me. But then I have had a lot of practice in that.

  I think you will find that the more that we use it, the stronger and the easier the power will become to use.”

  “I sure hope so.” L’ki said ruefully. “I believe this power could be very useful to us. But I would hate to be this tired every time I ‘speak’ to someone.”

  “I think you will find that as you use it, it becomes easier to use.” Anzashi said pensively. “It certainly worked that way with the listening.”

  “How did you learn to do that in the first place?” Awaki wanted to know.

  “You taught me.”

  “What? I taught you? I did no such thing! I never even had an idea that something like this was possible!”

  “But you did.

  Remember when we started working on the telekinesis? You kept us at those meditation exercises of yours until we were ready to drop!”

  “When L’ki kept insisting that the control must be subconscious?”

  “Exactly. As I was saying, you kept us at it until we were just about asleep…

  The first thing I heard was you, Awaki, worrying about the whole idea of control, and whether L’ki was correct and no conscious control was possible.

  I started to answer you, to reassure you – but you were flat on your back, almost in a trance, and definitely not speaking.

  Obviously I was hearing things!

  So I lay back & relaxed. And I started hearing you again.

  At first it was almost inaudible, but the longer I listened, the clearer it became. Then one day I found the channel, as I showed you – and suddenly my problem changed – voices were pouring in, drowning each other out!

  But eventually I learnt how to tune in to specific voices by setting up an identity for each.

  Now I can hear whoever I want, whenever I want, just by reaching out.”

  L’ki looked at her in wonder: “Can you read my mind?”

  “Not normally. You will find as you use it, that you can usually only get stuff that are in the front of a persons mind, for instance when they are sub vocalizing.

  Both you and Awaki tend to do that when you are concentrating deeply - like that when you are trying to move something with the mind power.”

  “And you can do this to anyone?” L’ki enquired.

  “I haven’t really tried extensively yet.

  As I mentioned I can hear multiple ‘voices’ about the village, but I have been concentrating on focusing on Awaki.

  I have also been picking you up strongly for a while now, L’ki – I think all those exercises may have strengthened your mental ‘voice’ as well as your ‘muscles’”

  “I don’t know what the exercises did, but whatever you just did was right on the button. It seems to have cleared my mind.” Awaki declared. “You seem to have activated some sort of control center in my mind. Now we just have to find out what it does.”

  “We need to do some more testing on this mind talk of yours, Anzashi. Who else we can reach this way? How far can you reach? Is it stopped by houses, or trees, or mountains?” L’ki added. “If it will work over a reasonable distance, this could be a very handy skill.”

  “I think the first step should be to find out what our maximum range is, both hearing and speaking.”

  “That seems to be a good starting point.” Awaki confirmed.

  “I’ll take a walk over to the next valley so that we can see when we lose touch” L’ki volunteered.

  “Thanks L’ki,” Anzashi replied, “that will definitely show our present reach.”

  Awaki, who had been excluded from L’ki’s message, which was on Anzashi’s private band, looked from the one to the other.

  Anzashi realized what had happened: “we each seem to have a private band, for lack of a better description, and a public band of telepathy. L’ki was concentrating on me specifically, so he reached my private band.”

  She concentrated on Awaki: “Like this. Ask L’ki if he got anything.”

  “Did you get anything just now, L’ki?” enquired Awaki.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Did you hear anything just before he spoke?” she shifted to L’ki’s private band.

  “Nothing.”

  “If you hear this lift your left hand” she instructed, trying to direct the thought as wide as possible.

  Both men raised their hands, then looked at her in awe.

  “I think you are on to something, ‘Zashi. You have started controlling this telepathy.” Awaki congratulated her, “and I suspect L’ki and I will find the way to control the telekinesis.”

  “I hope you’re right…”

  The next couple of weeks the three of them were very busy.

  L’ki took his scheduled trip, all the time staying in touch with both Awaki and Anzashi. They found that the public band range was limited to between one and ten kilometers (this last was in what they called the declamatory mode – a mental scream), while on the private band they all could reach more than fifty.