Majgen Ch. 008

"That matter is too complicated for me to explain in full right now, Student, but do you at least have some comprehension for what it means that the word pseudo is placed in front of the word logic?"

Majgen did not understand exactly where Baglian was headed with this questioning, but she was getting a bad feeling about it. She felt a strong urge to activate her empathic senses, before being told she was allowed to.

"Don't even think about turning your senses on again without permission, Student," Baglian warned, he was still inside her mind.

"I won't, Femaron," Majgen promised, making sure to regain enough self-control to make her words true. Then she continued to answer his question.

"I think that pseudo has been placed in front of logic in that term, to imply that it is similar to logic, but not quite the same as logic, Femaron Baglian."

"Correct," Baglian stated, still keeping a close watch on Majgen's emotions in response to each word he then said:

"Intelligent instinct is based on emotional pseudo-logical processes in the sub- and semi-conscious parts of the mind." Already after this part of his explanation he could feel another form of fear rising in Majgen. Struggling it's way through her currently dominant emotion, which was fear of punishment. He waited for the right time to aid the new feeling further before he continued.

"Hence, intelligent instinct is not actuallyintelligent. It is merely called intelligent to distinguish it from more primitive forms of instinct." With the aid of Baglian's words the other form of fear gained dominance in Majgen's mind. Fear of failure.

'No,' she thought,'NO, it felt so right. I knew I was right, Iknew,' but Majgen also remembered that she had been unable to figure out how she knew.

Baglian remained quiet, giving Majgen time to fully understand.

'What if I wasn't right?' The thought that she might have harmed Ukrial woke Majgen's protective side. Since Majgen was too young and uneducated to have any understanding of the concept of different sides of one's personality, she did not notice the change in herself.

Baglian did. His plan had been to wake this side of her. This was the side of her he needed to punish. This was the side of her he needed to educate.

'I must KNOW!' Majgen thought.

She no longer let the fear of punishment affect her. All that mattered now was the child. Her eyes had been aimed at Baglian all along, but for a while her attention had been turned inwards, now she turned her full attention to Baglian again.

"How is Ukrial, Femaron Baglian?"

"I am the one asking questions now, Student Majgen. Not you."

"I want to know, Femaron."

Baglian was not the least bit surprised by her defiance. He had already understood from her memories of being with Ukrial, that her protective side was far too selflessly brave for her own good. Her behaviour now was in full accordance with his plan to teach her protective side a lesson.

He withdrew his right hand from her left shoulder and swiftly stepped back in a side-wards movement to give his right fist room to gain force. He gave her a hard blow to the stomach, while still holding on to her right shoulder with his left hand. The force of the blow pushed her air out and caused her to bend forward. While Majgen was gasping to regain her breath, Baglian let go of her right shoulder too. Majgen ignored the pain in her stomach as best she could. She straightened herself as fast as she could, and turned to face Baglian again.

"Please tell me, Femaron Baglian," she pleaded, in spite of expecting more punishment for her continued defiance.

Baglian slapped her face with an open palm. The pain from that was negligible compared to the blow he had given seconds earlier.

"Selfish bitch." The insult was an act on Baglian's part, but with her empathic senses off Majgen didn't realise that. His words caught her full attention, and he continued.

"Do you really think the child will be better of because you find out how she is? Do you think you will be allowed anywhere near her again?"

'He is right, I can't help Ukrial now.'

His words hurt more than the slap had.

'What have I done?' Majgen felt despair rising in her. Baglian's word and actions were convincing her that Ukrial had been harmed by her actions. Stronger than despair guilt spread through her. It permeated every part of her.

'What have I done!?' she wailed silently inside herself.

'Guilt,' Baglian thought,'she took the bait.'

It was a difficult game he was playing. If he pushed her the wrong way, she might open her empathic senses even just a moment, if she did that she would most likely realise from his emanations that Ukrial had not been harmed by her actions at all, and this opportunity to get her protective side under control would be lost.

In reality, Baglian had found that apart from saving the child from a continued life in sexual abuse. Majgen had with one simple light invasive procedure given the girl a personality shaping experience, which already displayed promises for Ukrial to be able to put the abuse behind her without suppressing the memories in an unhealthy manner.

Prior to meeting Majgen the girl had been emotionally torn. After three years of sexual abuse the child's emotions had taken several steps down a path that would have ended in a severely unhealthy compartmentalisation. Baglian knew that only from the child's memories.

After he had sent Majgen home three hours had passed before the legal matters had been settled, and he was with the child again. In those hours every sign of beginning emotional compartmentalisation had disintegrated. What he sensed was a very sad and distressed child, who was alone in the world. Deprived of both her parents, and deprived of the illusion that they truly loved her.

But incredibly he also sensed that she was an emotionally healthy child. In her memories the signs of beginning mental illness were clear, but in her current state there were none. He had stayed with the child till he was sure.

Baglian considered Majgen's direct effect on the child to have been an extremely lucky coincidence. For the mind of a child like Ukrial, to show such miraculous signs of improvement, the subject would normally have needed several longer sessions with an experienced mentarion, or weeks of therapy with the weaker empaths of the Empaticon, or years of non-empathic forms of therapy.

Baglian considered the miraculous change occurring as a consequence of Majgen's treatment to be a lucky fluke. He believed that when Majgen supplied exactly what the child needed, it had been a coincidence. He did not believe that Majgen had truly known that this was exactly what the child had needed. He knew she had believed to know, but he was convinced she had just been lucky.

----=(Consequences 3, Majgen)=----

A need to find out how Ukrial was doing, still burned in Majgen, but now that she had realised that the knowledge would only satisfy her own need, she ceased her defiant behaviour.

Majgen felt guilt because she now believed she had harmed Ukrial, and she felt guilt because she had exposed the child to risk of harm in the first place, even though her intent had been to help. She felt shame because she realised how immensely arrogant her actions had been. Acting on her instincts with her mentor so close at hand, had in the end been a sign that she had believed she herself was more suited to aid the child.

And she felt ashamed about her defiance just now. Before Baglian had slapped her and called her selfish, she had truly thought that defiance was selfless.

Baglian and Majgen, stood still for several minutes. Majgen stood still because anything else would be defiant. Baglian stood still to let Majgen simmer in her own emotions, making sure she got the time needed to learn a lesson from them.

After a while her inner torment made Majgen forget, rather than ignore, the prospect of impending physical pain. She wanted to cry, but her guilt and her shame allowed her no tears for herself.

She had been lost in her own thoughts a while, when Baglian moved from his spot next to her. She was not paying attention to Baglian's movements. Baglian went to the living-room's drink cabinet, where he filled a glass with water. Then he moved to one of the rooms hidden, but not secret, wall-safes. This one contained medication so he kept it locked with code as well as biological identification. He took three soluble pills from the safe and put them in the water. He walked back to the drink cabinet, and waited there for the pills to dissolve. He stirred the glass with a stirring rod, which he carefully deposited in the trash bin after use. He then walked to Majgen, with the glass.

"Take this glass," Baglian ordered, while reaching it to her.

Majgen took the glass. The unexpected order pulled her out of her own thoughts and brought her attention back to Baglian, and the glass which was now in her hand. She was puzzled to some extent, but too absorbed in her inner torment to pay much heed to that emotion.

"You have the right to refuse to drink the content of that glass," Baglian informed. Then he turned from her and went to the living-room's control panel, which was placed close to the exit to the foyer.

Majgen followed him with her eyes, but stayed where he had left her, full glass in one hand. She saw him activate the control panel manually, and she saw him type only a few times on the panel. He was activating a previously programmed function. To Majgen it seemed Baglian had personalised every single mechanical device in his life. Wallet, communicators, room controls, broadcast viewing devices and anything else she could think of. No detail was too unimportant to make more efficient.

The living-room initiated the program Baglian had activated. One of the couches moved further into the room. This made the area between the rear of that couch and the wall bigger. Simultaneously the front layer of the wall moved into the ceiling, displaying a grey coloured inner wall. And what appeared to be several safes. The couch was moving slowly, a safety feature of automated furniture movements.

Once the couch stood still, one of the safes opened, by rolling its doors into the wall from the sides. The safe was about one metre high and one metre wide. It was placed at floor level in the middle of the wall. A white grey shape pushed out of the safe and began unfolding itself.

Majgen was used to wealthy luxury from her time at the Mentariata, she could recognise self-unfolding furniture when she saw it, but she did not realise what piece of furniture this was until it was near its functional shape.

When she did all thoughts of Baglian's perfectionist nature disappeared from her mind. All her emotions of guilt and shame were pushed away too, and gave room to an overpowering fear.

'Tyla. Evil grief its a tyla. I didn't even know Femaron Baglian owned a tyla,' she thought, as her hands began to shake, to the extent that the water in it started slopping about.

The tyla was a piece of furniture which at Majgen's time was only used in connection with corporal punishment. A very different purpose than what its initial creator had had in mind, when making the first designs.

More than four thousand years prior to Majgen's birth, the tyla had been designed, defined and named. Back then it was a piece of furniture used in massage parlours, or other places that offered professional massage. The piece of furniture was initially created to make it possible for a masseur to give a thorough back-massage, without straining his own body with awkward work angles. While still allowing the person receiving the pleasant treatment to be positioned comfortably, with a healthy blood-flow to all parts of his body.

The mentarions were the first to officially use the tyla for other purposes. Others had realised earlier that the tyla was just as conveniently designed to bring pain to a human's back, as it was to bring pleasure, but the Mentarions were the ones who made it official, by introducing the tyla as a standardised form of corporal punishment.

Even though only a small fraction of the human population had personal acquaintance with tylas, everyone knew what it was from movies or other popular entertainment aspects giving insight to the mentarion ways. Nowadays very few were aware, a tyla had originally been an instrument of pleasure and well-being.

Majgen was personally acquainted with tylas. Not every Femaron at the Mentariata felt confident using their fists for corporal punishment beyond a slap to the cheek. If any Femaron ever mentioned why, it would mostly be with words flowered with inconvenience of bleeding, bruises and risk of broken bones; in reality most of the Femaron's who resorted to use of a tyla, for lesser offences, did not do so for the above mentioned reasons.

Majgen had learned through emanations from the teachers in the Mentariata, that many of them had not passed the advanced courses in corporal punishment. Without those classes a high ranking mentarion was not allowed to beat lower ranking mentarions under uncontrolled conditions. Kicks, fist-blows, hitting instruments not specifically designed for the purpose or even an unrestrained target, were all elements considered to belong to the category of 'uncontrolled conditions' in referral to corporal punishment according to the mentarion ways.

A tyla-whipping, was not in itself a term for extremely painful punishment, Majgen knew that from experience. However, she also knew that Baglian had no inhibitions against using his body or whichever tools was nearby, for corporal punishment. Baglian had passed every single advanced course in corporal punishment available in the mentarion society, and a couple hand to hand combat courses available in the non-empathic society.

In spite of being an instrument for corporal punishment in itself, the sight of a tyla alone was not what instilled such strong fears in Majgen. Her relation to the concept of corporal punishment was no longer of phobic proportions. She still feared pain, but had accepted it as a part of her life.

Majgen knew that Baglian was skilled at inflicting pain without resorting to 'controlled conditions'. She had gained the clear impression from him that he would never resort to restraining an offender during punishment, unless it was absolutely necessary. From Baglian's memories Majgen had gained a large insight into how high levels of pain he could inflict without resorting to controlled conditions.

The thought of what level of pain he planned to inflict with the aid of a tyla, was terrifying.

Baglian noticed the erratic movements of the water surface in Majgen's glass, and followed the logic of her emotions.

When the tyla was fully unfolded Majgen closed her eyes a few seconds. A futile attempt to gain control of her shaking. When she opened them again Baglian stood next to the tyla.

"You have a legal right to not drink the content of that glass, but I recommend you drink it," Baglian stated.

Majgen looked at the glass in her still shaking hand. The water had a slightly orange taint from the dissolved medication. Her mouth was dry, but not from thirst.

"What is in the glass, Femaron Baglian," she asked, the words shook less than the lips they passed coming out.

"Grane."

"Grane, but isn't that... isn't that a..." Majgen didn't want to be remembering the word correctly, she hoped to be mistaken. But she was not, she remembered correctly.

"Grane is a fast-working, intermediate lasting anti-empathic drug." Baglian still followed his students emotion's meticulously. The grane appeared to be an even larger surprise to her than the tyla. He continued his explanation.

"As you may, or may not be aware, you have a right to refuse to take any anti-empathic drugs I offer you. I do not have the legal right to force you to ingest it at this time. Consuming the contents of that glass is an offer you can refuse."

Majgen's eyes flew between the glass and Baglian and the tyla. She knew the normal connection between anti-empathic drugs and punishment, but she did not consider herself to fit that scenario. Not when the punishing party was a Femaron.

'Baglian didn't offer Etaron Ristro anti-empathic drugs prior to whipping him, he didn't wear a helmet to shield himself either. Ristro was a graduated mentarion. I am only rank 10,' Majgen thought, as she remembered how Baglian had whipped the young man. She was trying to understand the situation in spite of her fear.

"I wasn't aware that you had perceived that memory from me," Baglian said, "The difference is that Etaron Ristro only had Trearon potential. You, however, have higher empathic potential than I do, Student Majgen."

His words were hard to grasp for the terrified young woman. She had never thought of herself as a potentially powerful mentarion.

'I'm only rank 10, I haven't even had any training in using my empathic abilities in mind struggles.'

"Any idiot can perform a powerful mind shock, without much training. If their potential and desperation is strong enough," Baglian explained, in response to her unspoken confusion, "You have the potential. Before I am done with you, you will also have the desperation."

He paused watching his student's emotions closely. If she broke into a panic she wouldn't drink the drugs, and he wanted her to drink it for other reasons than the imminent whipping. If his only motive for temporarily removing her empathic senses had been in regards to the whipping. He would have chosen a brand with an effect that only lasted hours. The amount of grane he had put in the glass would keep Majgen non-empathic for several days.

"Not drinking will not save you from the punishment you face now," he stated, "I am in possession of appropriate helmets. In the past, I have had other students with higher empathic potential than myself."

'Then why did you give me this glass?' Majgen kept the question to herself, but the meaning of her question was easy to understand emotionally without knowing the exact wording.

"I offer you grane for your own sake, Student. If you refuse to drink it I will have to wear a helmet. If I wear a helmet I cannot monitor if the pain is even stronger than intended," Baglian said, it was only partially a lie. If he had not had ulterior motives with giving her grane he would have refrained from using both drug and helmet.

He was planning to expose Majgen to a higher level of pain, than he had exposed her to previously. But he was not planning to torture her to the extreme degree, he was implying. He did not seriously think she would loose her senses and attempt to attack him. Not from the whipping he had planned for her at this time.

'To monitor it's not stronger? Not to monitor it's not less?'

"If you believe there is any chance that you will be beaten less, because I wear a helmet. You are not just ignorant, you are stupid." Baglian begun moving towards her his hand already stretched in front of him as if he was going to take the glass. Baglian was very skilled at knowing when to act, to push a student into the decision he wanted.

"I want to drink it," Majgen exclaimed while grasping the glass harder.

"If you want to drink it, then drink it. I won't let you stall further," Baglian claimed.

Majgen raised the glass to her lips and emptied it swiftly. Baglian took the empty glass from her and walked to the drink cabinet. Where he deposited it on the tray he kept there for dirty glasses.

"You will soon feel a burning sensation in your stomach," Baglian said with his back to Majgen. He turned round, to look at her and continued, "In about seven to ten minutes your ability to control if your empathic senses are shut off or turned on will begin to fail. In about fifteen minutes your empathic senses will be completely gone until the effect of the drug starts to wear off." After saying this Baglian pointed to one of the clocks in the living-room.