Lila began to whimper, clutching the back of her head as she struggled to process Yrix's words. The Psionic connection was far stronger than the one she felt the day she was stolen from Earth. Only this time, it appeared she was not allowed to simply lose consciousness.
"Or perhaps I shall put it even more plainly. Impress me with your gifts and live. Disappoint me, and I will kill you myself, before finding a use for your corpse."
The room remained silent, as the girls reeled from Yrix's overwhelming presence. At such a point, only one remained focused, her gaze still fixated on the flayer regardless of her pain. Sonera still hadn't forgotten what was taken from her.
"Now. For your initiation. Many of you here have yet even to activate your latent potential." Yrix explained, gesturing towards the doorway behind her. "I will awaken that potential, one student at a time. If you survive the process, you will be...changed. Do I have any volunteers?"
Just as Yrix had expected, Sonera was the first to eagerly raise a hand, glaring at the Psion with her usual malice. But what genuinely suprised the flayer was the second hand that appeared in the farthest corner of the room. It belonged to the Earthling named Lila.
"You volunteer?" Yrix tilted her head, focusing her voice solely on Lila.
"I uh... yeah." Lila smiled nervously.
"Wonderful. You will be first," the Psion spoke out loud. "As for the rest of you. I have a list. Do be patient."
Lila suddenly felt a soft hand grasp her wrist, pulling her away from the doorway in fright.
"Are you sure?" Lunae whimpered, her eyes watering.
"Of course. If someone like me can survive, then you've got this in the bag." Lila smiled as she gently lifted the girl's hand away from her.
"But I'm...not-."
"You already spoke into my mind, girl. Give yourself some credit."
Lila watched intently as Sonera stared at her with a curious look, almost as if giving the girl a measure of respect for her decisions. Yrix took notice, squinting her singular eye before gesturing towards the open doorway. As she walked past the towering figure and into the doorway, Lila felt an unusual sense of calm. Perhaps she should have been afraid.
______________________________
Yrix's office took her student by surprise, both in its proximity to the bedchambers and its strangely familiar layout. In fact, the only thing that felt appropriately alien was the size of the wooden desk in the center of the room, with both its height and the steps leading up to it matching Yrix's figure. As for the contents of the room, it was primarily filled with leatherback books, as if pulled from a library on Earth.
"You were expecting something different?" Yrix laughed, her voice gently entering Lila's mind. "I did not build this place with the intention of flexing my alien origins, nor the opulence of the Consortium."
"You built it yourself?" Lila's eyes widened as she awkwardly scaled her way up the steps near the center of the room. "The Aerie, I mean."
"Every brick. Every wooden scaffolding. I went to great lengths to study your human culture...make you feel at home," the Psion boasted proudly. "I am of the stern belief that your edge cannot be honed without a reminder of where your Psionic powers originally came from."
"Home." Lila smiled.
"Yes." Yrix nodded. "Maybe you'll see it again...in some form or fashion. If you survive your Psionic awakening."
"So...I get powers if I don't explode?"
The Arch-Flayer chucked almost uncharacteristically, her somber tone having been altered by Lila's presence.
"Yes, Lila. You will be able to practice all sorts of miracles your species has beleived to be impossible."
"If I survive."
"If you survive."
Yrix then lifted her prey into the air, bringing the girl at level with her Psionic eye. The Arch-Flayer's piercing gaze began to bore into Lila's skull, causing her to feel agonizing pain all over. But just before her mind could collapse into itself, the girl felt her body become transported into a different dimension entirely.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Where am I?" Sonera tilted her head, staring off into a sunless horizon as a gust of cold wind brushed against her face.
"The Psionic plane. Those with our gift can access it at any time, to meditate and commune." Yrix explained.
"Could you be killed here?"
"Yes. Two Psionic warriors could face each other in this plane. The winner would take the other's mind."
Sonera turned around to see a dimly lit landscape, its indescribable ruins only made visible by a glowing aura in the distance.
"What happened to it?" Sonera asked, her malicious tone shifting into genuine curiosity.
"You'd think the center of all Psionic minds would be something...more than this. Perhaps it once was. But our minds are not temples. They are a battlefield."
"It's our reflection." Sonera nodded.
"Yes. Psionic powers are... merely a catalyst with which we express ourselves. The same can be said of this realm. I would ike to prattle on about history and supremacy like so many other Psions. To tell you this is the birthplace of art and culture. But I am not interested in lies."
Yrix then stretched out a hand towards her student, enveloping her with Psionic energy. Within the plane, her grasp felt like the hand of a god, tearing at the girl's insides in an attempt to draw something out. It came as no surprise to Yrix when Sonera began to resist.
"So this is your strength. I chose wisely." Yrix nodded.
Regardless of what she felt, Sonera continued to glower at Yrix, her eyes sharpening with an orange glow. Eventually, her hatred reached its limit, bursting forth from the girl's chest and consuming her in an enveloping flame. Sonera's solar radiance burned brightly against the ruined landscape as she took a step towards Yrix.
"To awaken your Psionic potential is to open your mind. Accept your true nature. Only then can you be honed into the perfect edge." Yrix continued.
"Not for you." Sonera frowned, the dust around her shifting as she spoke.
The two figures entered an awkward silence as the astral plane's fading light began to ebb. Far off in the distance, a bright flash illuminated a storm of clouds, causing Sonera to avert her attention. The realm was reacting to a presence she could not yet discern.
"Very good. Now then, we shouldn't linger much longer. Inevitably, he'd find anyone in here. But I imagine your scent must be truly irresistible."
As if envisioning the creature Yrix spoke of, Sonera turned to see a dark figure in the distance, its twisted limbs quivering with uncontrollable excitement. She wanted to feel terror in that moment. But something stopped her, as the Psionic plane faded away.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"What exactly is the point of this?" Ivy whined. "I've already proven myself to be Psionically gifted."
"You mean your father did it for you."
"What?" The heiress gasped. "How did you-."
"The most gifted of Psions can peer into one's thoughts and memories."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"So what did I have for lunch three weeks ago?" Lila winced, keeling over onto the floor of the Psionic plane as she tried not to fall apart.
"Oh, good heavens, it's not that thorough," Yrix replied in a jovial manner as she continued to mimic human phrases. "But considering your diet...it wouldn't be impossible to guess."
"How does it work then?"
"The more focused you are on a single thought or emotion, the easier it is to read."
"Is this the part where I hear about the spiritual energy of inner peace?"
Yrix walked behind Lila hastily, trying not to smile as she spoke, "No. You fat panda."
The girl laughed as well as she could, coughing up bits of blood in the process.
"You got it." Lila wheezed.
"I did."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"I don't think about my family that much!" Ivy huffed.
"The moment I brought you here, that's ALL you've reflected on. You've traded in physical pain for your insecurities." Yrix explained.
"Can you...not tell the others about this?" The heiress looked down in shame.
"I won't divulge your personal life, no."
"Then why bring it up?"
"You were bragging."
"B-but I passed! With flying colors!"
"It was hardly a test for you. That girl Lila, whom you think so little of already. She struggled to survive during this session. I congratulated her for surpassing such a hurdle. You, on the other hand...we will see how you handle the other tests."
____________________________________
Lila sat restlessly, her body shivering at the entrance to Yrix's office as the muffled noises of another student could be heard just behind the doorway. She was unable to grasp what she had become, and yet still, she refused to think of her family. The pain she felt was just another convenient distraction.
Ivy, on the other hand, resorted to pouting in the same place she had woken from, crossing her arms in frustration as she stared into space. Her adaptation to Yrix's treatment was nothing less than stellar, and yet she still felt like the heiress who could never make her father proud. It wasn't until Yrix entered the room that she began to notice her surroundings.
For all her pride, Ivy was unprepared to accept the ramifications of what she had undergone. For when Yrix stepped out onto the red carpet to call for another, there was a noticeably lifeless figure slumped over behind her.
"Did she...fail?" Ivy gasped as her eyes widened, staring at what appeared to be a blonde girl whose corpse was being halfhazardly tugged along by Yrix.
"Allow me a moment," Yrix grunted with noticeable dissapointment in her tone.
The Arch-Flayer then exited through a different doorway, its contents having been previously unseen by any of the girls. What then became of the failed student was unknown, leaving Ivy speechless. It hadn't quite dawned on her that if she failed, she would be thrown out like garbage along with those she deemed inferior.
One girl began to sob loudly, causing Lila to stir. The Earthling girl recognized the voice immediately and knew it belonged to Lunae, who was utterly mortified by what she had seen. Mustering her remaining strength, Lila limped her way over towards the frightened student, trying her best to seem emotionally intact.
"I'm next," Lunae whispered in a panicked tone as her words entered Lila's exhausted mind. "She spoke to me."
"I didn't even know what a Psion was until twenty minutes ago, Lunae, you'll be fine," Lila replied, not realizing she was using her own powers to communicate with Lunae.
"I'm sorry." Lunae sniffled, wiping away her tears as she walked towards Yrix's office.
"She'll make it." Lila smiled awkwardly, looking around for someone to talk to. "Yea?"
The Earthling whirled around to see Sonera, who was standing right behind her in complete silence.
"You did." Sonera tilted her head. "Why?"
"I...didn't want to die?" Lila shrugged.
"You beleive you have something to come back to."
"And you don't?"
"I know why I'm here," Sonera spoke plainly before leaving abruptly.
Lila spun around, fidgeting desperately as she tried to find another person to converse with. One step towards the bunk beds was all it took for Ivy to shoot her a menacing glare, leaving the lone girl with nothing but her own shattered mind. Eventually, she knew she would have to pick up the pieces alone.
"Yrix?" Lila asked, using a sudden connection before placing a hand to her mouth in fright. "Ignore that, I'm sorry."
"Good to see you're learning," Yrix replied as she suddenly entered the room once again. "What is it?"
"Umm...do we have food here?"
"Lunch will be served after a few more students are seen. I promise it won't disappoint."
"You studied our culinary?" Lila grinned.
For both Yrix and her student, something felt oddly right about their interactions. Amidst all the evil the Arch-Flayer had already committed, there was still some brevity to be found with. But the Psion already knew why Lila truly acted the way she did, which brought her great satisfaction.