Majgen Ch. 001

"Wallet five red." Baglian spoke his personalised 'deactivation of voice command' code without raising his eyes from the travel list.

"What's so funny, Student Majgen?" he asked, in the same neutral tone.

'Oh no,' thought Majgen. As etiquette required, she raised her head to look at the Femaron who had addressed her.'Please no. What am I gonna say, what can I say, think fast, what will not be offending?'

"I..." Majgen stopped after that word.'Think of something fast, maybe say, 'Your voice commands'. No that's offensive.'

"I... I..."'Oh no, I can't stall further, I am going to get such a beating now.'

"I don't know what to say," Majgen said as a desperate attempt to avoid the question, even though this particular strategy hardly ever worked.

"You are my personal student now, Student Majgen. Answer my question truthfully and directly or I will beat you."

"My sense of humour is inappropriate, Femaron Baglian." Majgen had finally thought of something suitable to say. She really hoped he would accept that, sometimes teachers did.

"My question, last chance." He spoke dispassionately still looking at the list of travels.

Majgen could sense he really was feeling dispassionate, which was a good sign for her. But he was also serious, which was bad. She could also sense his mental countdown to the time at which he would punish her, if she didn't start talking sooner.

'Almost out of time, oh no, oh no.'

"Your voice commands, Femaron Baglian." She expected a sudden rise of anger in him at that reply, and was surprised not to sense any anger in him at all.

"Is that the full truth, Student Majgen?" asked Baglian.

'Oh no, no, no, the ones who asks for elaboration always hit harder.' Majgen followed his new countdown for her reply with her senses, the same way her eyes would have stared at a clock if it had showed the same countdown, waiting till the last moment, hoping to find a better reply.

"No," she said just before his timer ran out. He moved his gaze from his wallet to her. He was still dispassionate in both appearance and emotions.

"The full truth, Student Majgen."

Majgen took a deep breath.'Disobedience or offence, he has me cornered now. Disobedience might hurt less, but then I risk being punished twice.'

"Now!" Baglian stopped his mental timer early, as he sensed she was contemplating something other than wording.

"You..."

She halted feeling her sentence would be offensive. Her senses warned her that Baglian would not tolerate further stalling so she continued in spite of the potentially offensive content.

"... are proud of your voice command settings."

Sensing he knew she had more to say she didn't stop, even though she really wanted to.

"You wanted to demonstrate them." Majgen was hoping to be allowed to stop there, even took a breath to make a natural pause. But Femaron Baglian still looked at her, silently. He sensed she had more.

"The other Femarons didn't appreciate your effort," she finished.

Femaron Baglian was still dispassionate, the other Femarons were not. Most of them had felt secretly amused when her words targeted Baglian's voice commands, but when she mentioned their reaction they each felt anger of varying degrees.

Majgen had expected this, she had seen it many times before. No matter how trivial the emotional reading she ever revealed getting from a high ranked mentarion, the response would be anger of some kind if the person had a mind shield up for privacy.

She couldn't help it, if her senses were open she sensed. To other mentarions sensing empathically was more like reaching out a hand and touching to feel. To her sensing was like listening with her ears. She could only stop it by shutting her empathic senses off completely, but years ago she had been strictly instructed never to do that unless directly ordered to.

"Is that correct, revered colleagues?" Baglian raised his eyebrows in an inquisitive but still dispassionate manner. Majgen could sense his countdown timer for the teachers' replies too. After three of them had nodded yes, he didn't bother to wait for the rest, before turning his eyes back to his wallet.

"Pity," was his dispassionate reflection on their lack of interest in his voice commands.

Majgen came to think of an ancient proverb the meaning of which she didn't quite understand but she recognised the emotion associated with it.

'You can lead the horse to the water, but you can't force it to drink.'

That was Femaron Baglian's emotion, the indifferent version of the emotion she associated with that proverb. Majgen was too scared of the beating she expected to wonder about Baglian's atypically indifferent responses to her knowledge.

"She is indeed perceptive, I didn't have a clue on that track." Femaron Baglian's emotions were more focused on the perspective of Majgen's perception than on his own lack of it. Majgen was grateful for that unusual thinking. She had plenty to fear with five more or less angry Femarons in front of her.

"What's so scary, Student Majgen?" asked Femaron Baglian, again browsing through travel options. This time Majgen didn't stall to make her wording more appropriate. Even though she had never seen his type of dispassionate behavioural pattern in a high ranked mentarion before, she was learning to adapt to his expectations already.

"My words were offensive, Femaron," she replied.

"Why is that scary?"

"I fear the beating I will get now, Femaron."

Femaron Baglian had apparently come across a particularly interesting travel option and took a moment to look it through before speaking again.

"Are you sure you will get beaten now, Student Majgen?" He looked up at her.

A moment earlier she would have said yes, but now she knew he had no plans of doing it. Not as long as she did as he wanted.

"I was, Femaron," replied Majgen, somewhat mesmerised by the novelty of a high ranking mentarion who could handle offence if only it was truthful. She kept looking at Femaron Baglian. She felt him touching her mind slightly, reading her more thoroughly. Then he turned his attention back to his wallet. He spoke while making a closer inspection of another interesting travel option.

"You are my personal student now, Student Majgen. The others can't touch you without my permission."

Majgen blinked a few times. The concept was hard for her to grasp. She looked at him longer than she usually did when someone stopped talking before lowering her head and assuming her normal pose. Rather than try to grasp the meaning of his words, she again started thinking of trivia. Gaining understanding was usually best left for the time she spent alone in her own room.

'When planning to travel by tube it is not enough to meet the normal sanitary requirements of intra-city public transportation. Remember to change your diet according to the guidelines for compact travel at least one week prior to stepping into the tube. Not only to respect your fellow passengers' right to a pleasant trip but also to avoid a fine. In case of unplanned emergency need to travel by tube a physician can...'

Majgen had spent all her life in super-cities and extraction-worker habitats. She had never been under an open sky. Thinking of scent emission reduction measures was as trivial to her as thinking of comparisons between the costs of travelling by tube, train or flight. Femaron Baglian's focus on his travel plans had moved her mind to areas of travelling and transportation.

Nobody spoke a while, the teachers sat still, each with a stoic appearance. Femaron Baglian was tapping away at his wallet.

"Femaron Baglian, would you like to scan the girl before deciding if you want her in your charge?" asked Femaron Kradi, abandoning hope of Baglian getting done with his wallet within a courteous time frame.

"I already accepted her, Femaron Kradi," replied Femaron Baglian. "We will leave Ceasar sometime before nightfall. Will the Mentariata send whichever belongings she has apart from traditional clothing to my current address?"

"Yes, the Mentariata can do that if you prefer, Femaron Baglian."

"Tenth Ranked Student Majgen, go to your room and pack two full sets of traditional clothing in standard long distance containers. I want you and your containers with clothing standing ready and waiting for me at taxi gate 7 in less than three hours," listed Baglian.

He moved his eyes from his wallet to his new student, and delivered the rest of his orders in the exact same informative tone.

"If you arrive late I will beat you. If you pack anything but standard clothing I will beat you. If you ever act disobedient in any way I will beat you. You are my personal student now, my word is law, you have exactly three hours to get used to that. Those are your instructions for now, go."

Majgen's head was spinning, constantly thinking of trivia to remain uninteresting had certain disadvantages, such as keeping her out of touch with the surroundings, making changes harder to understand and adapt to. Luckily she didn't need to understand the new change in her life right now; she only needed to comply with the instructions.

She bowed to the Femarons, backed a step, turned round, walked back to the students entrance and left the room.

*

Copyright of Nanna Marker (lit ID ellynei)

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