The Power and the Glory

Book 4 Chapter III: Telepathy

The very thing you're best at
Is the thing that hurts the most
-- Florence + The Machine, King

Abi's dreams were as muddled and confused as her thoughts when she was awake. One minute she was playing with Arafaren, the next she was back in Ilaran's memories. Then both got tangled up and she found herself in Ilaran's place, staring up at the sky from the bottom of a well while Arafaren lay in Nuvildu's place. Then the scene changed again and she saw Ilaran kill his father, but instead of Ilaran it was Lian wielding the sword.

Then abruptly all of the confused memories disappeared and she blinked owlishly around at a large and rather cluttered room. It was a room she'd seen before but couldn't quite place. Whoever it belonged to had stacked piles of books everywhere. On the tables, on the chairs, even on the floor. How anyone could navigate the room without tripping was a mystery.

Abi looked around without any real surprise. Her dreams were so strange that this seemed perfectly normal. Nor was she particularly surprised when the door opened and Ilaran walked in. Without looking in her direction he picked up some of the books, checked their titles, and left the room with them. Abi idly picked up the nearest book and flipped through it. The cover felt exactly like a real book. So did the pages. She was mildly surprised to find it was perfectly intelligible and utterly boring. It was a record of harvests in a town she'd never heard of.

Why am I dreaming about this? she wondered.

She sat down in the nearest chair, half-expecting it to turn into a tiger or a cloud or something equally dream-like. But it felt exactly like an ordinary chair.

Ilaran came back into the room. He stopped abruptly and stared in Abi's direction. It took her a minute to realise this was because he was actually looking at her -- and from his expression, first startled and then annoyed, he could clearly see her. An unpleasant suspicion began to dawn on her.

"Is this real?" Abi asked.

Ilaran grimaced. "Unfortunately yes."

She blinked. "You don't seem surprised."

"You dragged me into your mind a few days ago. I'm not surprised the reverse has happened."

This was news to Abi. "I did what? When? How?"

"You were talking to your brother about your other brother," Ilaran said shortly. It took Abi a minute to realise what he was talking about. How ironic that he'd witnessed a conversation about Imrahil. "As for how, I think it's obvious enough. Both of us have found out much more about each other than we ever wanted to know."

Abi winced as she remembered her trip through Ilaran's memories. "How do we undo it?"

Ilaran shrugged helplessly. For the first time it dawned on Abi that he looked exhausted. Not as bad as when he'd been possessed, but not a whole lot better either. "I tried strengthening my mental shields. Apparently it worked, since I haven't been dragged into your mind again. I suggest you do the same." He paused and stared at her. "...Is something wrong? You look terrible."

Even though she'd thought much the same thing about him, Abi felt offended at this remark. "I just learnt that my other brother is still alive and he doesn't have a heartbeat."

The baffled look on Ilaran's face almost made up for the confusion of the last few hours.

~~~~

Over the years Mirio had perfected the art of speaking calmly while internally screaming. It was a necessary survival skill when dealing with the insanity of politicians and relatives, to say nothing of Abi's crazier schemes. Even so, it took him several minutes to collect himself enough to use it. For a while he felt like screaming aloud as well as internally. At last he conquered that urge and forced himself to speak calmly.