The Pellegrine - Initiation 3 - The First Signs of Danger

Date: 22 June 2673, Sunday

“Happy Birthday to you … Happy Birthday to you … Happy Birthday to Jorg … Happy Birthday to you!” sang the whole group of people gathered in a small summer house in Sweden.

“Thank you all for remembering my birthday. I’m also glad that you didn’t put six hundred and fifty-three candles on my cake,” Jorg said.

“We would’ve if we could but the sprinklers would all go off!” someone in the crowd remarked and everyone laughed.

“I see that you’re stealing my line again, Erik,” Jorg laughed and the crowd laughed again.

“Erik is a great nephew of Jorg’s,” Brin whispered to Jacques and Heath. “He always comes to Jorg’s parties. There are another one or two who’d come but the rest never do,” said Brin as he shook his head.

“Why not?” Heath asked.

“First, Jorg’s gay,” came Brin’s reply.

“He is?” Jacques asked.

“You mean you didn’t know?” asked Brin.

“I just thought that by the time magi hit a certain age the urge to have sex just goes …” Jacques replied.

Brin tried to suppress a grin but failed. “Jorg’s one of the most virile men I know.”

“You mean … you and he &Hellip;” Jacques pointed first to Jorg and then to Brin. He seemed to be struggling for words but they finally came out, “You’ve slept with him?”

“No,” replied Brin with a wide smile. “I don’t think that I’m his type.”

“Then how …?” Jacques began.

“Magi normally have a few identities running concurrently. When human communities were still small and records weren’t so well kept, magi were usually wanderers. This helped to keep normal human beings from asking too many questions regarding our longevity. However, when records became essential, we had to find another way. We continued to move frequently from one place to another, but we needed to give the impression that we had normal lifespans. Rather than projecting illusions of a shorter lifespan, we have a system. To put it simply, when there’s a need, a magus is put into a home for ‘natural’ deaths, or simply be involved in an ‘accident’. The magus will have another identity waiting or him or her, one that’s maintained by a special team of magi. Sometimes, it isn’t convenient for an early ‘death’ and the magus has two concurrent, or even three concurrent identities. Depending on the circumstances, they might even have to exchange identities regularly to ensure that no complications occur,” explained Brin.

“So what has this got to do with knowing about Jorg?” interrupted Jacques.

Sighing, Brin continued. “As I was about to say, before I was interrupted, Jorg and myself have more than one external identities, in addition to our real magi identities. One of my identities is already known to you: Doctor Charles Brown. My other identity has just started medical school. The first of Jorg’s identities is an old man living in a retirement village. He has another that is a navy officer turned journalist. There are times when he assumes a third identity. He becomes a rich gay man who’s out for a good time. He has garnered quite a reputation in the party circuit.”

Out of a sudden, Jacques turned and stared at Heath. Heath had not said a word during this time. “You’re awfully quiet, Heath …” said Jacques. Then squinting a little, he added, “You knew, didn’t you, Heath? And you didn’t tell me?!”

“I couldn’t,” replied Heath quietly.

“I’m your partner for crying out loud. You could at least tell me,” Jacques said.

“Look Jacques, when he went into your mind to get you out, he left himself open to me. He gave me his trust. I wasn’t totally trusting of him then. He just said he hoped I wouldn’t talk about what I saw. He didn’t ask me to promise to keep secrets but just asked that I do not judge him. He did it to save you. How could I talk about what I know?”

“Sorry, Heath. You’re right, of course. He trusted you with his mind when he saved me. The least you could do was to keep mum about what you saw.”

“I see Jorg wasn’t wrong about you, Heath,” remarked Brin.

“What did he say about Heath?” Jacques asked curiously.

“Jorg said that Heath was a man of integrity and principle. That’s why trust didn’t come easily. Trust came only with truth and Jorg couldn’t prove the truth of everything he said. Jorg was prepared never to have Heath trust him.”

Heath blushed a little. He was not used to people praising him like that. Most of the time, he was riled for being gay and an overprotected child.

Trying to change the subject, Heath asked, “So, you were saying that Jorg’s family don’t come to his parties …”

“Yes,” said Brin with a wide smile, knowing what Heath was up to. “Being gay, Jorg wouldn’t be able to continue the family line, nor contribute to the increase of the magi community. The community looks on having children as very important because most of the time, magi don’t get a chance to settle down and have children.”

“Why is that?” Jacques asked.

“Most magi end up in the rescue corps. In fact, Jorg was there for a time. Most magi end up in the rescue corps and those in the rescue corps don’t usually make it to three hundred.”

“Why?”

“The rescue corps is just a more organised way of doing what we magi have done for ages. We help to rescue humans who are in danger. Usually we try to stop wars or get innocents out of harm’s way. I remember an incident on Uranus where one of the mines caved it. A team from the rescue corps got in and rescued almost all the people. They died with the last seven.”

“Why didn’t they just zap out?” asked Jacques.

“Magi have special abilities but we don’t have the means to tell the future or predict unpredictable events. The rescue corps would put a life of a normal human being above that of themselves. Many magi do that too. Jorg’s youngest sister was on board a ship bound for Saturn when something went wrong with the transport relays. She died trying to keep the integrity of the fabric of space together. She saved the ship but she drained all of her life energies.”

“How sad!” remarked Jacques noticing that Heath was still very quiet. “Still, not being able to have children isn’t a good reason to keep away from an relative,” Jacques continued. “Why don’t magi make use of the different methods of artificial reproduction?” he asked.

“We did try that when the methods were made available but we only had normal human babies. Somehow, there’s something missing when we use artificial methods,” Brin explained.

“It’s sad to have a family and they don’t acknowledge you. I should know, it almost happened to me,” said Heath, breaking his silence.

“Well, Jorg’s father disowned him. Jorg was the eldest in the family. His two younger siblings took his father's side whilst the younger two accepted Jorg. As a result, now, the older magi in his family don’t consider him an exemplary magi. If they only knew how many times he had to run confidential projects for the magi council. They aren’t secrets but Jorg doesn’t like to talk about them. The council has respected his wishes not to talk about it voluntarily. The younger magi in his family don’t have much contact with him because of their parents or grandparents. It’s hard to fathom, but among the magi, there are also bigots. Thankfully, they are in a very, very small minority.”

“Normally,” Brin continued, “magi functions are a magi-only event. Being invited when you’re semi-magi is really a big deal.”

“Why …” suddenly Jacques stopped. Heath had given him a direct warning not to say anything. Jorg had warned them not to say anything about their change into true magi.

It was at this time that Jacques suddenly noticed a shadow in his mind. It disappeared when it noticed Jacques had spotted it.

“What’s the matter Jacques?” asked Brin because Jacques had stopped so abruptly.

“I thought I sensed a shadow. It disappeared the moment I sensed it.”

Brin focused for a while and his face grew grave. “We’d better let Jorg know.”

The party wound down after about three hours. After the guests had left, Jorg called Brin, Jacques and Heath to his private chambers.

“I knew about the shadow. It is an eavesdropper. A magus that creeps into conversations very carefully without the victims knowing. I sensed it just before the cake came out. I had been trying to find out where it came from. When it fled after being spotted by Jacques, I managed to tag it and I now know who it is.”

“Who is it?” asked Brin.

“I wish I could tell you but if I did, much of the preparation with Jacques and Heath would be wasted. It was around during much of the party and you couldn’t spot it. It was by chance that Jacques sensed it.”

“You keep saying it Jorg. Why?” Jacques asked.

“To protect us,” said Brin. “I understand Jorg. I’m sorry that I wasn’t more vigilant.”

“Vigilance had nothing to do with it. It is that powerful. Now that you know, it’ll become more cautious and it’d be harder to sense it. Brin. We’ll have to get the second phase of our preparations started. I know it’s earlier than we’ve expected. We’ll need to move or else we won’t be able to keep one step ahead.”

“Yes, Jorg. I understand.”

“Good, get going. I’ll need to place some protection on our two charges.”

“Very good Jorg.” Brin disappeared.

“What protection do we need?” Jacques asked.

“Your powers are growing indeed, especially Heath.”

Jacques looked questioningly at Heath. Heath looked blankly at Jacques and gave a shrug. Jacques turned back to look at Jorg who gave a small laugh.

“Heath has reached par with you Jacques. He just doesn’t know it yet. It was Heath who showed me where the shadow was when it first appeared.”

“When did I tell you anything, Jorg?” asked Heath.

“You didn’t. You see, your magus power has a very strong passive element. When the shadow was coming close to you, you caused it to become more prominent. That is why Jacques could sense it. It is very rare and I only got to see it once in my lifetime. You can use it as an active power but you’ll need to learn how. That I’ll be teaching you in your training. Right now, I want to help you protect yourselves. Come here both of you. I want you to do what I do and we’ll project a mental shield so that the eavesdropper won’t be able to sense anything.”

Jorg gave them two small medallions. “Here, wear these. They’re tuned in to your energy and mine. If any eavesdropper is near, you’ll be warned. This is necessary for the next year or so, until you finished your special training on mind protection. Right now, the eavesdropper only knows that you’re semi-magi. He has no idea that you’re transforming and that the transformation would be complete in a year’s time.”

Jacques and Heath looked at Jorg in surprise.

“Yes, it is so soon,” said Jorg. “One more thing … if you want to accelerate the transformation, there is a possible way. Make love without condoms. However, your psychic powers will diminish when you do it. With my medallions, you need not worry but once the transformation is complete, remember … make love with condoms. The one who is bottom will have his powers reduced.”

Heath blushed when he heard that because his powers were not so apparent earlier because he was more of a bottom in his relationship with Jacques and that had been reducing his psychic strength.

Jorg transferred them back to Heath’s room in the mountain house.

“Heath, perhaps I can be bottom once in a while,” Jacques suggested.

“I know that you’re uncomfortable as the bottom.”

“But I don’t want to suck away your power,” argued Jacques.

“That shouldn’t be the reason for changing. If we decide to bareback, it must be because we both want and like it.”

“We’ll just have to find a way for me to like it,” said Jacques.

“All right, but now, I have something else in mind,” said Heath with a slight grin as he reached for his lover and pulled him closer.