Panic set in as the daggers were pointed at me. Adrenaline can make you do a lot of things you thought weren’t possible. In my case it allowed me to enter the trance-like meditation state that I achieve when performing telekinesis, instantaneously. I was shocked that Krshhh would suddenly want to kill me, telling me that the ’Sixth House’ now believed I was too dangerous to be allowed to live.

I made my awareness tiny, smaller than I had in previous attempts. This change in awareness allowed me to see the daggers start to move towards me in unison from where Krshhh stood. I believe that I had made my own awareness smaller than Krshhh’s own, because although they flew at me very fast, They were still slow enough to see coming. I was able to split my seat of awareness, so that I had two minds in control of my body. One was linked to my physical sight, which still worked normally relaying everything my eyes saw to the tiny shrunken awareness that perched behind my eyes. The other awareness was warped and shaped, sent away and down to fit my body shape. When this occurred, in a manner of split-seconds to my perspective, I had two ‘minds-eyes’ as I liked to call them. The shrunken one, with it’s enhanced perspective, saw the world as an enormous, alien landscape where normal thing moved at a snails pace. By force of will I made that minds-eye the one that held my reflexes. As Krshhh’s daggers suddenly flew towards me, I used the other minds eye, the one that was shaped to fit my body, to propel me out of the way.

“Ah such speed!” said Krshhh “You truly are a marvel sir.”

Using telekinesis I turned my body to face both him standing towards my apartment door, and the daggers where they floated now above my kitchen table. I attempted to say: ‘there must be some sort of mistake Krshhh!’ but the only noise I made was a horribly slow sounds. Have you ever heard a film played in ultra slow motion when someone is talking? That was how I sounded. Krshhh was using telekinesis to create soundwaves issuing from his throat in a perfect imitation of vocal cords, and he was doing it at the correct speed for me to be able to understand it in my heightened awareness. If anyone else were in the room right now, they would only hear a high pitched whining noise, I imagine. This was a skill that was beyond me.

“What, cat got your tongue?” Said Krshhh, almost mockingly. “I guess you cannot discover all of our tricks on your own, can you now?”

He sent the daggers at me again, faster this time. I made my awareness smaller yet. I discovered that my mind was not tolerating the stress as well as I hoped, for as my awareness became so small that a crack of skin on the back of my hand looked like some vast canyon, waves of dizziness started to affect me. I once again flew out of harms way, with difficulty. I decided to fly through my window. I did not have the mental calm and concentration needed to split yet another minds eye off, to send it to ‘learn’ the window in order to open it, so I merely crashed through it instead.

In the normal mundane world of everyday speed, I doubt a casual passer-by would even be able to see me as my body speed about in telekinetic flight. They would merely see a window appear to explode outwards as though an intense gust of air had blown it apart! They might have wondered at the sound too, as my body made a ripple in the air causing the atmosphere to distort, sounding like a small plane. The noise would have been followed by another, as Krshhh flew out hot on my heels.

I had made a mistake as I flew out of the window. When something has enough force behind it, even the softest surfaces can become deadly when impacting against it. A body falling form an airplane that hits the ocean surface will be destroyed. People always say that coins dropped from a high rise building can injure people (although that is an urban legend). As I flew away from Krshhh, over the rooftops of my local neighbourhood, I realised that my head was throbbing from where it had broken the glass pane of my window. The pain was a physical thing, slowed down like everything else to my awareness. I felt the first ‘throb’ shortly after breaking the window, and instead of being over in a manner of seconds, to be followed by another, this one seemed to last for a minute!

I used telekinesis to look back at Krshhh. He flew after me in a standing position. Unconsciously, I had assumed a ‘superman’ pose, arms outstretched Before me as I lay in the air horizontally. I saw the daggers following after him.

I was afraid. I honestly felt that this man would eventually catch me, and kill me. Despite the strain, I made my awareness smaller still, fear urging me onto greater speeds. I flew so fast that I knew that damage was being done to my skin, in the physical sense as the cold air whipped against it. We had left the land behind and now were flying over the ocean, close to where I lived. The speed we travelled at made my eyes close from the wind when I looked forward. Looking back I noticed that Krshhh was keeping pace with me, and that his shock white hair was sitting perfectly still! I remembered how he had made the rain fall away from him several nights ago, as though protected by an invisible dome. How had he done it? I was managing to keep Krshhh at bay, apparently he could not go any faster than I was. If I could work out how he had created the dome, I might be able to see where I was going, with my physical sight that is.

I needed to ‘learn’ an object in order to send my minds eye into it and control it telekinetically. Maybe I was limiting myself? Despite the strain, despite the lack of food or sleep, I split yet another awareness of from my mind. The ability to have my mind working simultaneously in several places at once was now becoming second nature, yet the sheer stress of doing so was starting to make me delirious. One minds eye controlled my body, one was shrunken behind my eyes to allow my inhuman speed, and now a third was shaped like a dome, surrounding my body.

I tried something different with this minds eye. Instead of trying to learn the wind that whipped past my freezing body, I simply forced it out. It was the mental equivalent of pushing two negative ends of batteries together. My mind, in the area of the dome, repulsed anything in the immediate area. I could sense that oncoming wind was now being buffeted away from me by this minds eye ‘dome’ of protection. Up until now my breathing had been an unconscious reaction, my body performing this task in real time automatically. I used the ‘dome' to sense the atmosphere around my body, and realised that I had repulsed everything! There was a complete vacuum. I changed the level of repulsion to allow just a small amount of atmosphere to enter the dome. Elation filled me at my achievement! I had worked out yet another skill, through sheer determination. As I could now look around freely without wind buffeting me, I must have momentarily forgotten about the danger that followed me.

Suddenly I felt a force invade my body. The minds eye that I had split of and shaped to fit my body was violently ejected from the space it inhabited. Krshhh! He had somehow forced a minds eye of his own into my body, and now controlled it! My flight came to an instantaneous halt. Krshhh casually flew to float in front of me. Try as I might, I could not get my minds eye shaped like my body to re-enter it. Krshhh’s will was stronger it seemed.

“Enough! Enough games. I am through toying with you. I must do this. And though I honestly regret it sir, I can no longer allow you to continue. You learn at an alarming rate! I saw you create a dome of mind around yourself! How is it possible for you to continuously teach yourself techniques that we spend years mastering?”

“Pplllllllllllloooooeeeeeaaaaa” I tried to say please, he allowed me use of my vocal cords it seemed, yet we were still in accelerated time perception, so my voice came out as a dull slowed down tone.

“Please? Huh! Please tell me how you did it! How are you so capable of discovering our secrets? I admit to you sir, you frighten me. You have none of the loyalty that is required by the House, yet you become rapidly as powerful as our highest ranking members. You are dangerous! I regret this, as I have said, but I do see the need for your life to end! I am sorry”

The daggers once again turned to face me. In sheer panic, as a final desperate move I lashed out with the only thing I had at my disposal, the ‘dome’ I had created. I willed its repulsion levels to be at maximum and sent it flying at Krshhh. He clearly did not expect it as it slammed into his body. He flew away into the distance, sailing down as the force sent him into the ocean. The speed with which I repelled him caused his body to create a small circular tidal wave, as though an asteroid had slammed into the sea.

The minds eye that had controlled my body was gone! I re-entered my own minds eye and regained control of my body. I saw the daggers still floating near me, though without Krshhh’s control they now started to fall. I felt quite victorious, yet suspected that Krshhh would not be so easily defeated, so I used the ‘dome’ to encircle the daggers. The ‘dome technique’ seemed to be quicker than learning each item individually. Inside the dome of my minds eye I could create a vacuum, with absolutely no atmosphere. Instead of repelling the daggers, I simply formed the dome around them. The requirements of this on my mind were disorientating, as I simultaneously controlled my body and made my awareness small enough behind my eyes to allow inhuman speed. With my ‘dome’ now safely holding the daggers, I sent them up! I had never sent my mind further than visual reach before. This splinter of my awareness now shot upwards at incredible speeds. I could ‘see’ with this awareness, as it shot through the atmosphere, red fire of burning ozone reflecting around the edge of the ‘dome’. Out into space the daggers flew, into the vast black panorama of stars. Once I felt they had enough momentum, I dissolved the ‘dome’ and they flew off endlessly into space.

Krshhh came flying out of the ocean in an eruption of water, a look of fury on his face as he flew towards me. I felt his awareness attempt to force my own out of my body yet again. I had an idea how to stop this, as I split ten different minds eyes away from my awareness, shaping them all to fit my body! I nearly passed out then and there, yet I was now furious as well. Trying to kill me? Anger kept me going as I managed to prevent him from entering my body.

“How… how many?” he yelled with a look of fear. “Such… such, control! No, it is not possible!”

He suddenly flew straight at me. His speed was incredible! I jerked my head back telekinetically, yet his fist managed to graze my face. At that speed I knew I was going to have an enormous bruise below my left eye. I flew backwards from the impact. I felt my cheek and drew my fingers away to feel blood. I quickly raised another ‘dome’ of protection, attempting to repel the fist strikes as they came from everywhere. The dome would repel them from the outside, but the impact would repel my body from the inside, quite painfully. Krshhh was managing to change the shape and integrity of my own ‘dome’  with his strikes somehow.

His strikes should shatter his hand, I remember thinking. He most likely had a small dome around his fists. One last strike sent me plummeting to the ocean. My dome kept me safe, yet the impact from his blow had jarred my teeth. As I landed on the ocean floor, I felt rage. Purest rage and delerium as a result of days of exhausting effort. Making my awareness smaller than I had yet dared, I flew up and out of the ocean, fist first, at such a speed that I saw a look of surprise on Krshhh’s face as my dome covered fist slammed into it.

I believe he had a dome around his face, for this time instead of flying away into the distance, he flew only a short space, before coming to  an abrupt halt. I removed one of the ten minds-eyes that were in my body and created a second dome. I secretly sent it around behind him, so that it crashed into him from behind as I flew straight at him. Both my fist and the dome crashed into him at the same time, with my fist in his stomach area, and I felt the dome that protected Krshhh seem to buckle under the impact, as though my sheer force of will was able to change the shape of his. That is how his strikes get through my dome, pure strength of mind!

I saw the wind get knocked out of him, and stood mid-air for a moment of triumph. Then he did something I did not expect. The ocean below seemed to swirl. I looked down in wonder as Krshhh moved away. Directly underneath me an enormous funnel of water suddenly shot upwards. It slammed into me, submerging me totally, removing by physical force any control I had over my body. Telekinetically I could not move out of the funnel. The dome around my body held, yet I could not escape. I knew that at our accelerated speed I had few minutes, but in real time had only moments of oxygen left in my blood. I did not yet have Krshhh’s skill of forcing my own awareness into something and thereby forcing his out, and so could not penetrate this prison of telekinetically controlled water.

I believe I may have gone partially insane then. I was going to die! I had no time! I needed more, I knew. The smaller I made my awareness the more time I had right? Keeping only the dome around my body intact, I removed all the other minds-eyes that I had active, with the exception of the shrunken one that held the main focus of my thoughts and reflexes. With the 'dome' held automatically I shrunk my other awareness. I made it smaller than anything before.

I made it so small that I could ‘see’ with this minds eye in micrometers! Seeing with the minds-eye, or astral projection, whatever you want to call it, is far superior to physcial sight! You have no restrictions, 360 degrees of vision all at once! I saw cells in my body individually, even though there was no light in my watery prison, for I did not need it when looking with the minds eye! I was seeing the delicate surface of cell membranes. I saw molecules passing through the permeable surface of red blood cells. I made my mind even smaller to examine the structure of those molecules. I was seeing things that were too small to be seen with the naked eye, things that were measure in pico-metres! I saw the vast chain of atoms that formed the chain of a protein molecule, linked by electrical bonds that to me were enormous pulses of lightning!. How much smaller could I go? I made my minds eye so small, that I was looking at each atom as though I were facing a computer screen! Atoms were, in my understanding, the smallest possible size of a unit of matter, so small they could not be safely divided. I looked at the surface of one atom as my awareness shrank even further, at its individual electron, proton and neutron. The electron was an enormous lightning rod, coloured in a dull grey instead of the blue you might expect. The proton was a similar lightning rod, yet coloured red. I went even smaller as I looked at the structure of the neutron, able to see with my minds eye the quarks and leptons. Three quarks made up one neutron that I examined, looking like three floating blobs of grey jelly-like matter that, as I soon discovered when I made my awareness even smaller, were joined by something... different. There is no word for these bonds that connected them. They looked to me to be pure white light! Yet solid somehow. Some primal fear was activated in me then. I felt awe at what I was seeing, as though I had stumbled onto secrets I was not meant to possess.

I made my awareness increase in size. I honestly felt like a naughty child that had been caught doing something wrong, presuming to look in on adult secrets. I had no desire to go any smaller than what I had just achieved, as though to examine the structure of those light bonds that held the quarks together would be a grave sin. I cannot explain where this feeling came from, I merely felt it. With awareness now increased in size, I was looking at the molecules of the water funnel that surrounded me. My mind had been so small, that I had only been distantly aware of my body. I doubt that anything more than a microsecond had passed, in real time. I looked at the properties of one water molecule. I could see two types of a certain kind of atom, and one of another. Simple chemistry told me I was looking at two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen.. I looked closely at the electrical charges that held the molecule components together. I then formed a small ‘dome’, shaped it like a knife, and sliced through the electron bonds. The electrical beams that I saw whipped about for a second and dispersed. I had separated the oxygen and hydrogen!

I took a while from my perspective, but with practice I was able to slice the bonds of more and more water molecules quite rapidly. I then thought of a more efficient method, splintering off thirty minds eyes! The strain on my minds was incredible, yet I felt then that there was no limit to what I could do! I set my multiple awareness’s to their task, splitting the molecules. I knew that no amount of control that Krshhh might have over the water would matter when it disintegrated!

In real time, from a normal perception, it appeared that Krshhh’s funnel suddenly just evaporated, as pure oxygen and hydrogen dispersed into the atmosphere in a rush of whirling gases. I didn’t bother dispersing all the water in the funnel, just enough to free me. The rest fell to the ocean below as Krshhh apparently relinquished control. As I increased my awareness to an acceptable level, I turned to face Krshhh once more for battle.

I realised with a start that several people were now floating above the ocean. I quickly counted twenty, including Jeff the telepath and Krshhh, all facing me wearing the black clothing that was their style, with looks of expectation on their faces. I quickly formed several domes of protection around myself and prepared for the worse.

“No!” said a man who floated forward to stand in front of me. “Do not! It is over!” he held his hands out peacefully to his sides.

“Oooo?” I attempted to say with painfully slow vocal cords.

“Yes over.” The man was the oldest person I had ever seen. He was so wrinkled that I could not see a smooth patch of skin anywhere! His shock white hair was long , tied back in a tail.

“My name” he continued in a voice that sounded like leaves blowing about, “is…” he opened his mouth and made a gong sound. Exactly like a giant metal gong being smacked with a massive hammer. Schbwong!!! “I am the leader of the Sixth House of the Alliance of Minds. You, young sir, have exceeded our expectations beyond our wildest dreams. I believe you to be the answer to the question! It has never been considered that it would ever be answered! I must… I would like to invite you to join our house.”

“Oh excellent, I accept” I thought more than spoke, in a state of exhausted delirium, as I passed out from the strain of all that had just happened.