The New World

The Mirror Game

Tecumseh was lying on his bunk, staring at the ceiling, hands under his head. He was bored. He missed his friends, even his parents. But the day schedule was very full, and rest too short to have time to think. The lights would soon go out, as they did every evening at the same time.

He was one of thirty "beginners" as they were called at the institute. The night rest lasted six hours. Meals were shared with the inductors and other beginners. The day consisted of classes, prayers and plenty of physical exercise in breathing and concentration.

Classes covered religion and politico-religious world history, general culture with scientific subjects, languages and some literature. Pure knowledge was taught by direct induction, as in school. Languages, requiring the mobilization of cerebral motor functions, were learned in small groups, with each group taking it in turns to play the role of inducer.

Sport also played an important role. It was designed to develop the ability to control oneself and others. Pelota, a sacred sport, was an opportunity to constantly challenge and measure oneself, thanks to the precision and speed of the strokes.

The days were exhausting. But in the evening, when Tecumseh lay down on his narrow bench for the night, he wanted to think long, long thoughts of Reyana. The mutual discovery session they had spent the night before he joined the Institute burned in his mind like an irrepressible fire. The evocation of the girl's naked body, too quickly glimpsed and embraced, her small dark breasts, her hips still a little bony, triggered a violent arousal in him. To relieve himself, he went to the bathroom and masturbated several times in a row.

Art, on the other hand, seemed to have no such worries. He spent his evenings studiously or quietly in front of his terminal screen. His room-mate's comings and goings didn't distract him. Then Tecumseh would go back to bed and fall asleep within minutes. His dreams were rare, dull and sad.

Lyda and Paul kept in touch with their son as often as possible. But it wasn't easy. Thought connections were blocked. Of course, the children could still connect via terminals, but these were probably being monitored. Nevertheless, for the first few days, Tecumseh seemed relaxed, discovering his new world.

They had little contact with the novices, so were called those who had passed their final integration test.

On one occasion, he sent a coded message that nobody could isolate oneself, and that his room-mate, a certain Art, was very unsympathetic. Art didn't know any of Tecumseh's favorite games: neither Soul Kitchen nor Mind Ape. And on several occasions, Art had expressed his doubt that a son of an Indian woman could become a Chosen One.

Then, as the weeks went by, he seemed more morose and tired. He spaced his messages. Paul was worried: "He must be running out of sleep, don't you think we should contact the institute?", he said to Lyda.

On one occasion, Paul and Lyda received a coded message. Paul blushed when he translated it into plain English. It read: "A god of war, with his leg cut off and replaced by a mirror, his name is T-Scat. Tomorrow I'll play and become a child of the mirror. You win or you die".

Then came the big selection day. One morning, Professor Bernalt had come to see them during breakfast.

"Kids, today is an important day. Tomorrow, half of you will continue with us. The others will go home."

The day went on as usual. But after dinner they were told not to go to bed, but to get into their sports gear.

They made the thirty beginners play pelota all night long. The game was played by teams competing on a field shaped like a capital I, with transparent walls.

Players retrieved the luminous ball from their chistera and catapulted it with sweeping, acrobatic movements. It whistled, propelled at over 200 km/h, and clattered with deafening percussion on the glass, which lit up like a star to mark the impacts. Some of the blows were "sacred"; they had to be announced, in connection with thought, with the intended rebound and landing zones. Mistakes could be costly, as the point would then go to the opposing team. The games were very demanding, both physically and mentally, due to the constant stress involved. This was precisely the educational objective: to prepare beginners to master stress in extreme situations.