A Long Time from Home Ch. 23

Dragon Lines doesn't move much and the fact that there was a Dragon Line Nexus right where I had meditated couldn't be a coincidence: I must have known it before I sat down to meditate, and it was most likely the reason why I had chosen to meditate here instead of somewhere else. The twice-yearly solstices had provided me with enough power to continue meditating long after I should have woken up due to Vis-starvation.

I drank some of the wine. It could be nice if I could remember the events that led me to enter the trance, but at least now, I knew why I had chosen Malaga.

The wineglass was almost empty when Karen came out. With her hair ruffled and dressed only in a t-shirt and a skirt, she looked both sexy and adorable. "Hey... Room for one more?"

"Hey there and sure." I moved a bit on the sofa and a moment later, she was laying next to me, resting her head on my shoulder, with a satisfied sigh.

"Comfortable?" I asked with a chuckle.

She wriggled a bit, but then seemed to find the right position and settled down, before saying "Now I am." Followed by a yawn. "That's funny. I couldn't sleep before, but now I'm really, really tired...." She looked at the sky, where the early morning had started to show. "Crap... it's almost morning! Aren't you tired?"

"Yes, but not enough to sleep just yet." I lifted the almost empty wineglass. "This helps and so do you."

"Thanks." She lifted her head a little to look at me. "Now that the nodes are open, is there anything I should be aware off?"

"A few things." I said with a nod and explained how and why using too much energy to heal others would drain a person and eventually kill the healer.

"Well... shit... I better not do that then!" Karen mumbled and was silent for a moment, before she frowned. "But you heal people, so how... oh" She interrupted herself with a chuckle. "Art of the bedchamber! That's how you got the energy to heal, right?"

"Right." I said with a nod. "Unfortunately, a woman only releases a limited amount of Vis during sex, no matter how many times she comes, so even that has a limit."

Karen was silent for a moment, before saying "So, if every woman release energy during orgasm, the more women you have, then more you can heal, right?"

I nodded again, causing her to laugh. "Damn, that's the best excuse for having multiple girlfriends I have ever heard!"

"Well, unless I actually show them Vis healing, no woman would believe me." I said with a smile.

"Good point." She looked thoughtful. "How about too much energy?"

"Nothing to worry about. Unless you know how to do it and actively try to make it happen, it's not going to occur."

"But... Earlier you said that there was too much energy and you had to divert it. So, where did it come from?"

With a small sigh, I explained it to her. Luckily, Dragon Lines and the related concepts were still in use among people doing acupuncture and Karen accepted it with a nod, before saying. "What did you do with it?"

"I used it for healing, since that is the most energy demanding activity I could think of. So, the bruises you guys got from playing beach volley yesterday should be gone tomorrow. With the amount of Vis I used, I'm pretty sure that any scars will be almost gone within a few weeks and your hair will grow faster for a while."

"Nice!" Karen said with a smile, but then got serious again. "I saw two glows at the end of the bed and since everybody else was in the bed, that had to be the Twins... what were they doing there?"

"Damn, you're perceptive." I said with another chuckle. "Well, I needed somebody to heal and the four of us wasn't enough, so I got hold of the Twins... Don't worry... They were sound asleep and didn't see anything."

"Hmmm... How much can you heal?" asked Karen speculative.

"Not their muteness, if that is what you're asking," I said. "Vis can't heal the brain."

Again, Karen nodded her accept of my explanation. "Shame."

She stretched comfortable and chuckled as her hand landed in my lap, causing my cock to grow hard almost immediately. "Still horny?"

"Well, I'm the only one of us, that didn't get to come tonight."

"Oh... right." With a smile, she unbuttoned my shorts and released my cock from its prison. I shivered as she let her fingers play lightly from bottom to the top. "Let's do something about it then... Everything else would be unfair."

Sliding further down in the sofa, she rested her head on my stomach and used her hand to pull the foreskin back, before closed her soft lips around my dick. I groaned as her tongue made a swirl on the tip at the same time as her hand continued to play on the shaft, using her nails to add some extra teasing.

It felt wonderful and I closed my eyes in pleasure, as she sucked on the head, played with her tongue, and used her hand to caress me.

I had expected her to continue, but after a short while she stopped.

Raising herself up on one elbow, she swung a leg over my body and got on top of me. A hand went between her legs and steered as she slid the head of my cock in between the lips of her pussy.

Apparently, she hasn't bothered with panties when she dressed.

"Ummm..." she gasped as started to rotate her hips, taking me a little bit deeper with each rotation. "I swear, that dick of yours is magical!"

With a chuckle, I held her hip with one hand and used the other to dive under her t-shirt and play with her breasts by gently massaging her nipples rubbing the palm of my hand in a circular motion over first one breast and then the other. Her eyes were closed, and she had a dreamy look on her face.

Karen pulled her hips up a bit then slammed herself down, completely impaling herself on my hard dick. I could feel her pussy contracting around my dick.

She shivered and opened her eyes. "One moment."

Without waiting for an answer, she took her T-shirt off, before she lay down with her nipples boring into my chest and her mouth right alongside my ear. Her breath came in short bursts.

As she straightened her legs to lie more comfortably on me, her hips moved and changed the angle of my dick inside her.

It wasn't really a position that allowed me to do much, but at least my hands were free, so I caressed her smooth, silken skin, while she fucked me slowly, using only small movement of her hips to make me slide in and out of her.

She continued that way for a while, but then rose up on her elbows and a heartbeat later, our mouths found each other, and we kissed deeply and passionately.

Without breaking the kiss, Karen started to move faster, grinding her clitoris against me as she moved back and forth on top of me, stroking my cock with the velvety moist sweetness of her sex.

It was a sweet ride, and I could feel her lips turn back in a smile, as I gasped at the feeling.

A heartbeat later, it was my turn to smile while kissing, as she made small noises of pleasure every time she moved, and I could feel the pleasure building inside her.

Not that I would last much longer myself. The feel of her kisses, her body against me, with her breasts sliding over my chest every time she moved and the way her pussy massaged my cock, was adding up to an orgasm.

A moment later, Karen groaned as she came, her body shaking. Somehow, she managed to keep moving even as her pussy clenched rhythmically around my cock.

That made me come as well, the feeling so intense that the world swam for a moment and for a while, I was aware of nothing but the fiery pleasure that ran through me, as we kept kissing.

Karen kept fucking and kissing me though our orgasms and I kissed her back, hugging her tightly at the same time, while her hips kept moving slowly until I was completely spent.

Then she stopped kissing me and collapsed on top of me with a smile.

It took some time before either of us moved, but finally I broke the silence with a "That was... amazing!"

Karen giggled. "I think I disagree, but only because amazing is an understatement." Rising up on her elbow again, she gave me another kiss. This time it was short and sweet. "I feel like falling asleep like this, but we better move into our bedrooms."

Looking at the morning sky, I agreed.

--------------------------

Thursday 22nd of June 2000, Outside Malaga, Spain

As I had been awake most of the night, I had expected to sleep late, but with the Salamander power still doing its work in my body, I woke up after only a few hours of sleep.

On the bright side, the Salamander power had done wonders. The aching muscles, the almost permanent exhaustion and the feeling of weakness was gone.

I could even see it in the mirror when I brushed my teeth. Some of the lost muscle mass had been restored, the skin had a healthier colour and there was a sparkle to my eyes again.

Feeling alive, I walked up to the kitchen to get something to eat, but otherwise, it was a quiet morning. Alice and Rita were working on their assignments and Karen had taken Zena and Cyra to the shops in town, since it was their turn to cook.

With Rita and Alice being occupied, I spent an hour putting the new leather straps on the scabbards for the sword and knives. Working with leather is not really something that I like, but was one of the many practical skills, I have picked up out of necessity over the years. Mostly to be able to make these kinds of repairs myself.

The result wasn't perfect, but it was functional and at least it was better than before.

That done, I placed the weapons on the top shelf of the closet, took my drawing pad and walked into the garden to do some sketches.

Because I just wanted to relax, I let my imagination run wild, fusing past and present as the figures started to take form. Karen became an Eastern Scythian horse archer, firing her bow as she galloped across the steppes.

Due to the Twins' fondness for the story, I drew them as two Feminae Bellum trainees, helping Inquisitor Captain Kaeso Maximus in the battle against the Baylon ambassador and the Madjay in the necropolis of Waset.

Rita became an Egyptian noble woman, relaxing in her garden by the Nile in Pi-Ramesses, and Alice became a priestess from Albion (or Britannia as the Romans later called it) in front of the Northern Anchor. A quick search of the knowledge from the women revealed that a part of it was still standing, and that it was called Stonehenge now.

I was still working on the last one, when I heard two sets soft footsteps on the tiles behind me. Recognizing them as belonging to Zena and Cyra, I looked up, expecting to see happy faces.

Instead, they were looking like they were on the way to their own execution, as they headed for the table next to mine, carrying some books.

"You two look gloomy. Didn't the shopping trip go well?"

They nodded and placed the books on the table.

"< Mom is watching >" Cyra said mentally and wrote something on a piece a paper, before she handed it to me.

It wrote "Mom discovered that we haven't done our Math homework yet, so we have to do that before we're allowed to cook."

"Well, you better get to it then." I said with a smile, but then remembered something. "Wait a second... you're on vacation... Why do you have to do mathematics?"

They glanced at each other and then shrugged, before Zena wrote some more and showed it to me. "We didn't do well in math last year, so we have to train even when on vacation."

There wasn't much I could say to that, so I just nodded and went back to the drawing, while they sat down at the table with huge sighs and opened the books.

We all worked in silence for a while, but then Zena asked mentally "< Ivan, do you know what the square of 16 is? >"

"< Yes, but why don't you just calculate it yourself? >"

"< 'Coz it takes like forever without a calculator! >" Zena sent back with a sigh. "< I hate math! >"

That surprised me. Most Baylon Mentats were extremely good at mathematics. At least the part of mathematics that is connected to geometry, since Mentats can easily imagine the mental figures and, as Telepaths, the Twins should be able to do the same.

"< Can you explain to me how you normally do it? >" I asked.

Zena paused for a moment and started to explain. It didn't take long for me to realize that the way they calculate now was a lot more abstract than my method. In theory, the method they used were faster than the one I had learned, but it also relied on root learning of squared numbers.

Something the Twins clearly haven't learned.

The Baylon way for multiplying large numbers relied on geometry and was based on the fact, that the area of a square is the same as the sides multiplied with each other.

As an example, 16 squared were the same as the area of a square where the side length was 16. A square is a figure that you can manipulate in several ways, without affecting the area. Divide the figure in two, place the two halves end to end and you have a rectangle with the side length of 8 and 32, but with the same area as before. Do it again and you have 4 and 64. Next time it's 2 and 128, and finally 1 and 256. Since the area never changed, that meant that 16 squared, or 16 times 16, were 256.

I sent the explanation along with the mind-images to the Twins, who thought it over and then asked "< What if there's an uneven number? >"

I showed them the method to do that with mind images and the explanation, before I said "< Try it a few times and send the mind-images to me while you do it >"

They did as I asked and while it went slowly in the beginning, they soon got hang of the visual system and the images started to come faster and faster.

"< Oh, My God! This is SO much easier! >" said Cyra after a little while. "< Why don't they teach that? >"

"< This method is easier for you two, because you're Mentats. Not many others will find it easy. >" I sent with a mental chuckle. "< And besides, it's so old that it has most likely been forgotten by everybody else than people who study ancient Egypt >"

"< Fair enough >" Zena thought, but then added "< Do you have any other methods that works that way? It's really a lot easier to work with those mind-images! >"

I looked over at the house and spotted Alice in the kitchen window, before I said "Yeah, but then come over here and I'll explain verbally and with drawings as well as the other way."

They got the meaning immediately and came over to me with large smiles.

As they sat down, I sent. "< And before we start, try to use the Scientiam techniques I taught you two days ago. It really makes it a lot easier to remember >"

"< Will do >" said Cyra and then blinked as she saw the drawings I had been doing. "< WOW... they're so COOL >"

Zena smiled widely as she looked as well. "< They're really good... Can we look? >"

Thinking that they needed a break, before we started with the mathematics, I nodded. "Sure."

They fuzzed over the drawings for a while, pointing out details to each other as they went from drawing to drawing.

It took more time that I had expected, so finally I said, "Girls, we need to start, but here's a deal. If you use the Scientiam techniques I taught you and focus while we go through this, you can have the drawings."

Zena looked at me slack jawed. "< Really? >"

"Yes."

"< Deal >" they sent in unison.

The great advantage by teaching Mentats is that you can send mind-images along with the explanations, which not only eliminated any chances of being misunderstood, but also made it faster than normal teaching. Even then, the Twins were exceedingly fast learners and I discovered that their level of education was extremely high. They might be struggling with the math they were doing, but they would have been highly regarded scholars in most places in the old world.

That they were mute was actually an advantage in this situation, since it had forced them to learn sign language. As a purely visual way of communication, it had trained their ability to visualize and as the Baylon Mentat method to calculate anything was based on geometry and mental images, that just added to their speed of learning.

The basic of Baylon Geometry was covered in no time, so I moved on to Baylon mental mathematics and explained how that related to a lot of the other mathematics. That included the normal geometry since I could see from their books, that the rules written down by Euclid of Alexandria were still in use.

The best part was that both girls had an almost constant expression on their faces, as if they had just understood how something really worked and as we progressed, they started to smile, have fun, and ask good questions.

Most of the questions were about how to use the mathematics in real life, so I took them for a little walk in the garden around the house and had them calculate everything I could think of. From the area of the lawn, the volume of the swimming pool, the angle of the sun chairs to the speed of a flying bird.

When we came back to the tables, the Twins went back to the books and solved the problems almost as fast as they could write, while I finished the last drawing and by the time Alice came out to see what we were doing, we were done and were relaxing in the shade.

"I hope they didn't make you do all their work." She said with a smile that hid the seriousness of her tone of voice.

"Not even close." I answered while both Twins started to sign. "And besides, I don't know the methods they were using."

"Oh." Alice said absently as she looked at what the Twins were signing. Then she blinked in surprise. "Ivan taught you a new way to do math and it was fun!?"

They nodded in unison and Cyra signed again.

"Okay." Said Alice and translated for me. "They want me to give them something to calculate." She looked over at the Twins again. "15 times 16?"

Zena rolled her eyes, wrote 240 on the paper and showed it.

"Correct," I said, "What about 42 times 256?"

Alice looked at me like I was insane, but the Twins closed their eyes in concentration for some time. Zena opened her eyes a heartbeat before her sister and then wrote 10752 on the paper, while Cyra nodded in agreement and Alice looked on in disbelief.

Chuckling at Alice's facial expression, I said, "Brilliantly done, girls! 27 squared?"

Cyra smiled and didn't even look concentrated as she took the pen from her sister and wrote 729.

"Well done... You want more?"

Alice looked at the Twins in wonder as Zena nodded eagerly.

"Okay... What is the square root of 36 times the square root of 144?"

Both Zena and Cyra frowned as they thought it through, but then smiled and looked concentrated for a few heartbeats before they wrote 72 on the pad.

I nodded as I projected pride and both girls smiled back. "Good. We calculated that there was 2000 cubic feet of water in the pool, but how much water would it contain, if it were 20 feet long, 15 feet wide and 8 feet deep?"

Zena stared into the air as she built the mental images and then wrote '2400 cubic feet.'

"Well done." I said with a smile and looked at the stunned Alice. "Satisfied?"

"Are you insane?" Alice laughed and gave both girls a hug. "That's fantastic!" Her blue eyes bored into me. "That goes for you too, Ivan."

"Nah... They did the work, so the praise goes to them."

Alice opened her mouth to say something but closed it again with a slight smile and nodded, giving the Twins an extra hug, before she stood up. "Good job, girls. You can go cook now!"

Both Twins pumped their arms triumphantly, high-fived each other and then ran off towards the kitchen as fast as they could, completely forgetting everything else, including the fact, that the books were still on the table.

As soon as the Twins had disappeared into the kitchen, Alice walked over to me and gave me a big hug, along with a soft sensual kiss.