Majgen Ch. 006

"No. Femaron Baglian."

"Then why?"

"He did it as punishment, Femaron."

Majgen realized her words, were practically a lie and corrected herself.

"Actually. Revenge, might be a more suitable word, for his motives, Femaron Baglian. But I never saw him after that. So I cannot tell you for sure, Femaron."

Majgen would not have spoken that frankly of ill actions by Femarons if they had not been alone, nor if she had not known Baglian was willing to listen such things. Even under these circumstances she would not have spoken so freely - if not for Femaron Baglian's clear statements on the dangers of withholding information from him.

Baglian felt anger trying to rise inside himself in response to the picture Majgen's words painted. He forced it away, he was not one to allow personal feelings to interfere with his work. Speaking with Majgen was, to him, just another part of his work.

Majgen followed his line of thought, and considered it wise to inform him as fully as she could.

"Every teacher at the Mentariata is sure that Femaron Braygen was acting under the influence of my emanations. Self-destructive emanations from my subconscious mind, Femaron Baglian." Majgen took a sip from her drink.

"A Femaron affected beyond the ability to control himself, by self-destructive emanations?" Baglian asked.

He had noted a discrepancy in her emanations when she spoke of the impression the teachers had. It made him acutely aware of how she avoided speaking of her own impression. But he wanted the subject of a Femaron's susceptibility to emanational influence settled first. Majgen was too occupied with finding words to notice how Baglian analyzed her wording.

"I had not made such emanations for weeks before that time. Femaron Baglian. The other teachers believed that was one reason for Femaron Braygen not to pay conscious attention to my emanations. Also, Femaron Braygen was very distraught when my emanations became self-destructive."

'I won't need to explain how empaths are less likely to consciously notice self-destructive emanations when distraught to a Femaron,' Majgen thought, and didn't elaborate on that aspect.

"Now you have told me what the teachers believed," Baglian pointed out to her, "What do you believe, Student Majgen."

Majgen sincerely desired to avoid the topic of her beliefs, but she had not forgotten Femaron Baglian's rules regarding full honesty. She abandoned ideas of evasion sooner than they formed in her mind.

"I am not sure what to believe, Femaron Baglian. I am not a well-trained mentarion. I am a rank 10 student, I should not second guess Femarons, and I am certainly not equipped to know which high ranked mentarion is right, when there are disagreements."

"There were disagreements?" Baglian asked, wondering if there had been open dispute regarding the matter of how to deal with Femaron Braygen, after such abusive behavior aimed at a student.

Majgen was surprised at the contemplations behind his question.

"As far as I know, there were no disagreements regarding how to treat Femaron Braygen subsequent to..."

For a moment Majgen was at a loss of words.

'...the torture,' she thought.

"...the ordeal," she said.

"It was his own choice to resign. He did that as soon as he woke from the anesthesia security had put us in."

Nobody had told her of that, but she had inadvertently caught the memory from Femaron Peterson. Braygen's friend who had been with him, when he woke up.

"Mentariata staff considered him an innocent victim of my emanations. He did not become subject of disciplinary action," Majgen finished.

Baglian noticed her referral to other people's impressions again, and also noticed the discrepancy in her emanations again.

"Which disagreements did you refer to then, Student Majgen?" he inquired.

"Did I refer to disagreements, Femaron Baglian?" Majgen asked. She tried to remember her own exact wording.

"Yes disagreement amongst higher ranked mentarions," Baglian reminded her.

"It must have been a mistake on my behalf, Femaron Baglian. As far as I know there were no disputes regarding the matter of Femaron Braygen, Femaron."

Baglian could sense no discrepancies in her when she said that. So he returned the conversation to the point, where he had first tried to track the discrepancies.

"You said, you were not sure what to believe. Student Majgen," he said, interrupting Majgen's attempts to remember in what context she had said 'disagreements'.

Majgen's eyes had wandered, while she was concentrating on what she had said. Now they returned to Baglian's face again. He had not spoken the sentence as a question, so she remained silently attentive.

"Why don't you believe what the teachers believed?" Baglian asked.

Unnoticed by Majgen, herself, a little sigh escaped her as she tried to find a way to reply.

"It was so long ago, Femaron Baglian. Nobody informed me directly of the aftermath of the incident. My knowledge was gained indirectly. Things I sensed from others. Things I heard others tell others," she began.

Majgen got trailed off from her line of thought when she was indirectly reminded of a pack of fifteen rank 6 students, who had cornered her just three days after Femaron Braygen had tortured her mind.

----=(Bullying at the Mentariata)=----

After the incident with Femaron Braygen, Majgen had been excused from all classes and tutoring for a while. She would have preferred to spend all that time in her room. Unlike other students her age, she had a room of her own. However she was forbidden to spend more than a certain amount of hours in her room a day.

Prohibitions regarding usage of private quarters was even more unusual than awarding a rank 10 student a private room. Before her access to her own room had been limited, she had hid there whenever she was not attending class. Ottearon Weissme had personally decided not to allow her to continue to use her room that way, he had hoped that forcing Majgen out of her private quarters would make her less isolated.

Three days after the incident, Majgen had found that the classrooms numbered 60-70 were all scheduled to be unused for several hours. Leaving a whole hallway likely to be vacated. Majgen had made a habit of checking classroom schedules to find places where she could be alone. She usually avoided the frequently vacated areas on Mentariata grounds. Long ago, she had decided that - when aiming to be alone - she had to make sure the place was completely desolate. Experience had taught her that it was not safe for her - to run into students in unsupervised areas.

Majgen went to the hallway where classrooms 60-70 were located twenty minutes after last class in the hallway was scheduled to end. She walked it through, end to end, making sure it was really vacated.

'All clear for leisure time,' Majgen thought, and picked a comfortable couch.

Once seated, she took out her wallet to watch a comedy show. Subtitles on and sound off. If anyone should come near she did not want the sound from the show to alert them of her presence.

Majgen double checked the safety of her spot.

'Should work,' she thought,'I'm partly hidden from view of the open end of the hallway, if anyone should pass by.'

The other end of the hallway ended in an elevator, she wasn't hidden from view if anyone should enter the hallway from that.

'Doesn't matter though,' Majgen reassured herself,'nobody has any business in this hallway for the rest of the day, and student's never go here for fun.'

Twelve minutes after Majgen had seated herself, she got a shock.

One of the classroom doors opened behind her. A classroom full of teenagers around her age came bustling out. Laughing and talking. They had been kept late. Their teacher had felt a desire to repeat demonstrations more times than planned. None of those students had more classes planned that day, so the teacher had had free hands to do as she pleased.

Majgen froze a second at the sudden commotion behind her, but she did not turn to look at the students. Very quietly she reached out to her wallet. She touched the fold field she always kept ready on its screen, in case of situations like this. The wallet took four seconds to fold to standard transportation size. It felt like four minutes to Majgen.

She picked her folded wallet up. While slowly getting to her feet, she put the wallet in her left wrist pocket. Her hood was up, she kept it up even while relaxing alone. She only took it down for classes or if someone addressed her.

'Slowly now, no sudden movements, don't draw attention to yourself,' Majgen thought, and began walking towards the elevator. Slowly.

'Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid,' she soundlessly repeated to herself, over and over. An awkward attempt to make herself not feel fear. She was afraid. Behind her more than half the class was out of the classroom. And by the sound of it not many of them had started moving away up the hall, and away from her, yet.

She was sure there was no Femaron with them. Teachers usually left classrooms through teacher's entrances. From the way they were laughing and talking freely, Majgen got the clear impression there was no teacher's aid with them either.

The delayed class had been for rank 6 students. Majgen was fourteen years old and still only rank 10, most mentarions her age were somewhere between rank 7 and 6. Most of the young teenagers coming out of the classroom huddled in a group, where one was showing others something he had been given as a gift. They were so occupied in conversation that none of them noticed the clear emanations of fear from Majgen.

Majgen was more than halfway to the elevator before one of them happened to glance in her direction.

"Hey look, it's the freak," the student who spotted her said.

Most of the others in the group turned their heads to look in the same direction as the boy talking.

"You mean the retard?" a girl asked.

"No, that's not the retard, that one is the freak," the boy replied, "The retard is taller and walks funny."

"Hey freak!" another boy yelled.

Majgen walked on, trying to keep the exact same pace. She felt an urge to break into a run, but she feared that would provoke them to chase her. They were higher rank than her; if they called for her she would have to go to them. Otherwise she would be punished for disobedience. The mentarion ways, however, did not require her to respond to nicknames.

"Student Majgen!" a fourth one of them, this one a girl, yelled.

Majgen stopped dead in her track. Her title and name; those she was not allowed to ignore. She pushed her hood back and turned round. Keeping her head bowed, she stared at the floor while her fear grew. She stood absolutely still, facing in the direction the yell had come from, the direction of the group.

'Please let me go.' Majgen thought,'Please just insult me and tell me to run off.'

"Get over here, Student Majgen," the girl yelled.

Majgen started walking. Her legs felt heavy as lead, but she tried to keep the pace fast enough to not be offensive to the one who gave the order.

The group consisted solely of rank 6 students.

"Are you crazy, Student Harriet Cowl?" another girl, Laila, asked the girl who had yelled for Majgen to come. "Haven't you heard what happened in the cafeteria last ninth month?"

"Are you scared, Student Laila Java?" Harriet asked with a condescending smile and continued:

"Feel free to run away and hide from the freak. I, myself, am not going to hide from a freak, this is my school."

"Don't be such a wimp, Student Laila Java," a boy named Sput Krano followed up, "we can't allow freaks to make the real students hide."

"I'm not scared," Laila said, everyone present could sense she was lying about her fear, "I'm being cautious. We are only rank 6 students, we can't claim to be immune." Everyone present could feel, she believed the second statement.

"Well, let us all be cautious then," Student Harriet said, "Does anyone feel hate towards the freak?"

Harriet looked at all present, feeling quite entertained.

"Don't be shy," Harriet continued, "feel free to speak up. Pure hate is one of the first signs of primal rage."

Majgen stood still, she was fairly sure none of them were affected by her emanations. She was scared, but she couldn't sense hate or rage in any of them. Hate was a very strong emotion, just as easy to discern as fear. She would have felt it, if any of them were feeling it.

No one responded to Student Harriet's question at first, but just as Student Harriet decided to proceed with a new show; Student Sput Krano stole the attention of the other students away from her.

"I hate the freak!" he exclaimed, and continued his rave with a badly imitated snarl, "I want to kill her!"

Both his emanations and his badly performed exaggerated act made it obvious to all, he was joking. Most of the group rewarded his efforts with laughter.

"This isn't funny," a serious looking student said. His name was Otto Bandera. "I don't hate her, but she gives me the creeps." He looked round at the rank 6 students. "It wasn't just the incident at the cafeteria. There's been many incidents. Several of them involving high ranked students. I heard from a reliable source that the day she got discovered she got under the skin of a whole ranked-it-up party. A rank 1 party."

Otto paused a moment to let that piece of information sink in, and give the least sensitive amongst the others a moment to realize he wasn't lying, before continuing.

"But that's not the worst part. Three days ago she got to Femaron Braygen. That's why he quit mid-season."

"I heard she got to Femaron Braygen's teaching aid," a student who had laughed at Sput Krano's act said and added; "Femaron Braygen dismissed a whole class early to deal with his affected aid."

More of the students joined the debate about rumours of incidents involving Student Majgen. They ignored her presence. Majgen considered using the chance to run off, but she felt sure their attention would return to her if she moved and remained still.

Younger teenagers studying at the Mentariata, looked different than non-empathic teenagers. Mentarion uniforms were unlike anything non-empaths wore. Another visible difference was that mentarion students wore either none or very little make-up, also mentarion students all had hair colours that looked like it could be the one they were born with.

Teen mentarion students did not speak like non-empathic teenagers. A large difference in phrasing was of course the formal demands of the mentarion ways. However, that was not the only aspect of speech in which these students differed. Sixth ranked students

controlled a vocabulary that many adult non-empaths couldn't claim to possess.

Most of the rank 6 students in front of Majgen, was fourteen like herself. Those had been at the Mentariata for four years. To claim rank 6 these teens had not just learned the basics of certain mentarion techniques, they had also gained knowledge of politics, history and other social sciences to a degree that made them academically equal to adult non-empaths in the second year of studying social sciences at university level.

Student Harriet Cowl was soon bored with the rumor comparisons, she turned her attention back to Majgen.

"Student Majgen, I need a subject to train my abilities on," Harriet claimed, "Are you available, Student?"

Majgen's stomach clenched so hard it began to hurt, she had no classes to attend and no homework to be done at this time. No excuses she could make and she knew lying was impossible too.

"I am available, sixth ranked Student Harriet Cowl." Majgen had made sure to memorize the girl's name, to be able to address her properly.

After finishing the sentence Majgen bowed to her equal aged superior.

Harriet did not usually harass rank 10 students - unless they were stupid enough to act obnoxious in her general vicinity. Ten year old children were more likely to awake protective instincts in her than pack mentality instincts. To Harriet it was fascinating; to sense a student of her own age fearing her.

'She fears me like I would fear a Femaron,' Harriet realized.

Harriet's power over the other teen asserted her with a very real feeling of having progressed, since she was enrolled in the Mentariata four years earlier. Student Harriet, moved closer to Majgen. Standing right in front of Majgen, the sixth ranked student raised her hands and pressed her palms against Majgen's ears.

Standard frontal standing scanning position.

The rest of the group ceased the debate of rumors and turned their attention to Majgen and Harriet. Partially distracted by the now very strong emanations of fear from Majgen, and partially distracted from a talk of rumors - by realizations of an option to gain a direct witness account.

Being rank 6 students, none in the group had received proper training in performing mind scans yet. Student Harriet's entry was painful to Majgen. The pain was not intentional from Harriet's part, it was just a side effect of untrained clumsiness. Harriet did not know how to mind sedate, but once she was inside Majgen's mind her movements became less painful. Mostly because Harriet moved her mental view, very slowly.

Without experience with mind scanning Harriet had trouble discerning conscious, unconscious and semiconscious processes. She could not navigate between them, nor really understand what she was sensing from them. Harriet wasn't planning to look for something particular in Majgen's mind. She just hoped to find something interesting, something to show off to the others. She hadn't been trained in mind scans, but Harriet knew how to mind share. Whatever she found within Majgen she could show to others.

Harriet concentrated, and managed to recognize something that reminded her of mind sharing. A feeling of memories. She plunged into one of them, and viewed it not knowing what kind of memory it was. The other students could see Student Harriet Cowl's eyes widen as she began seeing, without using her eyes. She even moved her head a bit as if looking around.

Abruptly, Harriet took her hands off Majgen's ears, as if she had been burned. She turned and took a step away from Majgen. Harriet drew some fast gasping breaths. Her mouth was twitching at the edges. Majgen stood still, she did not know what Harriet had been looking at. She was just trying to cope with her fresh headache, caused by Harriet's untrained intrusion.

The other students thought Harriet looked nauseous.

"Did you get a little look in the mirror, Student Harriet Cowl?" one asked with a smirk, assuming Harriet's ill-being was caused by mirror-effects.

Harriet ignored the comment, she was still filled with the images she had seen. A second later she ran to the nearest waste bin and lost the remains of her lunch to it. Another girl, a friend of Harriet, went to her side and helped holding her hair back, when she vomited a second time.

"Looks to me like she got a gooooood look in the mirror," Student Sput Krano said, causing most of the students to break into laughter.

Harriet coughed and started spitting the taste of vomit out of her mouth. She shook her head in response to his words, but spat a few more times before talking.

"No, it wasn't a mirror effect," Harriet stated, her voice was shaky.

Harriet straightened herself and went to a close-by drinking fountain; washing out the taste of vomit before talking again.

"You wont believe what I saw in her mind."

Harriet was recovering from the surprise and horror of what she had seen. Now she was preparing to harvest attention from her discovery. She acted like she wasn't going to say more; waiting for someone to take the bait.