s without me knowing it. They'll never find out from me, and after some education, they'll never pick it up from you either.

"I'm supposed to tell them about this, but I'm not. You're my friend, and you're now my lover, and I'm not about to hand you over to them. I'll teach you how to control your power, and how to hide the fact that you _have_ power from other Faey They never have to know. And as long as we don't fuck up, they never will."

He stared up at her in shock. She was going to disobey the Imperium, keep him a secret. She truly _wasn't_ the Imperium, a loyal subject of the Empress that would do whatever she was told. The image of her as a cog in their vast machine melted away, and for the first time, he saw her not as an agent of the Empress, but as nothing other than _Jyslin Shaddale_.

She gave him a radiant, unbelievably tender smile. "There, see? It wasn't so hard, was it?" she asked, sliding her finger along his cheek intimately. "I told you before, Jason, I'm not interested in the Imperium. I'm interested in _you_. As long as I have you, what could they possibly offer me that's better?"

He was touched by her words, by her honest admission. He put his hand on her cheek, and she leaned against it, smiling down on him with her lovely gray eyes.

"Oh, if only we had a little more time," she complained in a longing manner, kissing the palm of his hand, sliding her legs against him sensually. "But you have to get to school, and I have to get to work. And I have to take you to school," she grinned. "While you're there, don't worry too much," she told him. "Remember, it takes _effort_ to use. As long as you don't try to do anything, nobody's going to notice. You might start hearing the thoughts of people around you, and you might overhear it when Faey send to each other. Those are passive actions, they don't require effort, and nobody can tell when you're doing them."

"Why could I hear sending?"

"Jason, sending is nothing but a broadcasted thought that people who are telepathically adept can hear," she answered. "It's what you might call thinking out loud."

"I thought that Faey had to allow themselves to hear it."

"We do," she answered. "We usually tune out the thoughts we hear, but we can leave ourselves open to hear sending, because it's a little different than just eavesdropping on the surface thoughts of others." She patted his hair with a smile. "You shouldn't have too much trouble. The one way you've developed your ability is through your ability to defend yourself. Just keep that up, and no Faey is going to notice anything different about you. I'll come over after I'm off duty and start teaching you the other aspects of it. And you _must_ learn," she told him seriously. "You have to get competent with your power and do it _fast_, Jason. Right now, when you have the power but haven't learned how to use it or control it, this is when you're most vulnerable. You have got to keep a lid on it and not tip your hand until I can teach you. After I teach you, no Faey will ever be able to discover your secret. I'll even teach you ways to fool them into thinking that they _can_ hear your thoughts, so they don't probe you all the time."

He was still a little scattered, overwhelmed by the thought of it. If someone had told him that he'd just inherited a million credits, it wouldn't have registered to him in the slightest. He had telepathic ability. He was possessed of the one thing that separated the humans from the Faey, more then the color of their skin or the pointed ears that made them look elfin. A human had telepathic power, a _human_ now possessed the one weapon against which the human race could not defend against, stand up to.

The implications were enormous, both personally and in the terms of the human race. Was he the only one? Was he some kind of fluke, or were there more humans out there with the same latent potential, which would express after the Faey stimulated it into maturity with their own power? If that were true, then the human race _could_ stand up to the Faey. The difference in technology was extreme, but always before it was the fact that the Faey were telepathic which was the one overwhelming factor that the human race could not defeat, which allowed them to crush any kind of rebellion or resistance before it managed to get any kind of start at all. But if a sizable number of humans _were_ telepathic, and they could somehow learn how to use their power without the Faey-

That was a pipe dream, and he knew it. As soon as the Faey realized that humans were showing telepathic ability, they would come down on the human race like a sledgehammer. They would root them out and deal with them, either with telepathic reprogramming or by killing them. That was why Jyslin got him out of that theater, because she knew what would happen, and she meant to protect him from them.

Yet another reason to be impressed with Jyslin, and be receptive to the idea of including her in his life for the immediate future. She truly was interested in him for who he was, and had demonstrated to his satisfaction that she was _not_ the Imperium. If anything, she was willing to go against her own people on his behalf. That was certainly saying something.

"Let's get dressed before I start taking advantage of the situation and make us both late," she said with a leer, reaching down and patting him on the hip. She got off of him and went to the mirror and slicked her hair over the left side of her head as best she could, then went over to her armor and started by picking up the codpiece, the section most closely compared to a pair of metal shorts. "Why don't you wear anything under it?" he asked curiously as she stepped into the piece of armor.

"Well, we could," she admitted. "I could easily wear panties and a bra under the armor, maybe even a pair of skin-hugging shorts or a tank top, and some Faey do wear a bra. But we can't take the armor off, and that makes going to the bathroom a tricky proposition when you consider the fact that this is the base on which all the rest of the armor is built," she said, tapping the codpiece as she slipped it over her hips, the locked its seams closed. "To get this off, I have to take the armor off my legs and detach it from the stomacher and breastplate, and that takes a while. I'd pee myself long before I got enough off to go without making a mess. The crotch of the armor has a locking opening that we use when we have to go to the bathroom," she told him. "If I wore panties, it would make getting them out of the way a tricky proposition. Maya calls it the 'doorway to heaven'," Jyslin laughed. "She once had sex with her husband wearing her armor. He didn't appreciate it afterwards, once the bruises started showing up."

That was certainly logical. He nodded in understanding as he sat up. "Need help?"

She shook her head. "A Marine has to be able to get into armor with no help in five minutes. It's a drill in basic training. I can handle it, love. You need to get dressed. I have to get you to your dorm room with enough time for you to get ready for your classes."

He nodded, climbing out of bed and looking around for his clothes, which were scattered all over the room. Her dress was thrown on the floor, and he reached down and picked it up, brushing it to get the wrinkles out. "You should hang this up," he told her.

"There are hangers over there," she said, pointing at the closet as she locked the leg greaves that protected her thighs in place, securing them to the codpiece. The greaves overlapped the codpiece, forcing her to take them off before she could get the codpiece off. It really was the base of the armor. She locked the flexible metal skin that filled the space between the joints to the inside edge of the greaves on her right leg, settling the kneecap protector in place. "Less time watching me armor up and more time dressing," she told him with a sly wink.

"Sorry. I've been curious how it fits together for a while."

"Trust me, love, in a month, you'll know how it fits as well as I do," she said with another wink. Jyslin loved to wink, for some reason. "Dress."

He hung up her expensive dress, then started dressing. He had to gather his clothes from various parts of the room, but he started tending to it quickly, his mind still racing with what he had learned this eventful morning. About his telepathic gifts, about Jyslin, about everything. It was all different now, and he needed a little time to sort it out in his mind, figure out what he wanted to do.

After putting on his vest, he looked and saw that she had all her armor on from the waist down. She was settling the sollaret boot on her foot, then took up the front half of the stomacher, the piece of armor that was flexible, that was between the breastplate and the codpiece. She attached it to the breastplate's bottom edge, hooked the back half to the back of the breastplate, then latched the top buckles on the shoulders of the two breastplate sections together. Then she picked up the entire assembly and slid it over her head, pushing her head through the opening for her neck. She settled it on her shoulders easily, then sealed the side seams and then tended to attaching the base of the stomacher to the inside edge of the top of the codpiece.

"Efficient," he complemented.

"I've done this a long time, love," she told him as she reached behind her and locked the back of the stomacher to the inside back edge of the codpiece without looking. "Let me get the upper greaves on, and we can go. I can get the bracers and gauntlets on in the car."

"What car?"

"Didn't you see the Toyota parked in front of the house?" she chuckled. "That's _my_ car."

"I thought you guys had hovercars."

"That's the Corps' vehicle," she answered. "When we first got here, we weren't allowed to bring Faey technology vehicles here for our own personal use. Most of us bought human cars when we got here, and hell, they're just as good as hovercars, so most of us never bothered to bring in our own personal cars once they lifted the ban. I have a hovercar, but I had to leave it with my parents. I know you've seen Faey in human cars."

"Well, sure, but I never much thought about what it meant."

"Well, now you do," she told him. "When you see a Faey in a human car, it's because she's off duty and she's about on personal business." She locked the two greaves around her right arm, over the flexible metal skin that protected her shoulder and armpit, flexing it a few times, then reaching for the flexible metal skin for her left shoulder. She quickly got that on, then the greaves, and then she picked up the forearm bracers and gauntlets and swept them into a small bag that was by the stand. "Alright, we can go," she said, locking the web belt that held her sidearm around her slender waist, then pulling down her rifle from the wall.

He nodded and picked up his tie, pulling it over his head. She handed him her rifle, letting him carry it, trusting him with it as they filed out of her room, then out of her house. She locked the door with a key on a small silver ring, then tucked it into one of the pouches on her web belt. "We have a stop to make before we go to your dorm," she announced.

That stop was at the guard post for the front gate. They didn't get out of her car-which surprised him that she could drive it with that armor, but then again, it showed how flexible the armor was-just pulled up the gate house and rolled down the window. "I want an entry pass for him," she called to the gate guard.

"What kind?" she asked in return.

"Unconditional," she replied. "He's going to be coming and going from now on."

She smiled knowingly. "Sure. Hold on a second. Could you look this way for me, sir?" she asked as she reached into her little cubby and took out a small camera. She took his picture and stepped in, seating it to a base as she started typing on a holographic keyboard. "Name?"

"Jason Fox," Jyslin answered for him.

"Thank you." She typed a few more seconds, touched the screen a few times, then reached under the shelf and pulled out a small laminated card. "Here you go," she told him, handing it to Jyslin. "Just present that card to the gate guards when you come, honey, and they'll let you in," she told him. "It'll also let you into the base exchange and the commissary, and all the other places on base. Don't lose it. It's a ten credit fine to replace it."

"I'll remember that," Jason said as he looked at it. It was in Faey, and it said he was a base resident, the "permanent resident guest" of Sergeant Jyslin Shaddale. A nice, technical term for boyfriend.

He could live with that title. He looked over at her and realized that he would very much be comfortable with that title.

"Permanent resident, eh?" he asked, putting the card in his wallet.

"Hey, I want you to have all the perks being a Marine's babe entails," she said with a wink as they pulled out onto Belle Chase Highway.

"A Marine's _babe_?" he asked archly.

"You are a babe," she told him, blowing a kiss at him. "You're _my_ babe."

"Don't get me in trouble at school," he warned. "Some students are more vocal about their dissent than me."

"They're not going to see me on campus, only when I visit you in the dorm," she told him. "They don't seem to have any problem with Symone."

"Symone's different," he told her. "Everyone likes Symone."

"Well, they can all like me."

He gave her a look, then laughed. "No," he told her. "They all love Symone because she's charismatic and fun. Nobody that meets her can possibly not like her. That's not you," he said with a slight smile.

"I can so be fun," she said primly.

"Fun, yes," he agreed. "But you don't have the kind of charisma that Symone does."

"What do you mean?"

"Why don't you come by the dorm tonight and see?" he asked, leaning against the door as they got onto the West Bank Expressway, the elevated expressway that led to the bridge over the Mississippi River, back to the city.

"I certainly am coming over tonight," she told him. "We have to start your education, as quickly as possible."

"Then you'll see. Everyone is Symone's friend. To the people in the dorm, the fact that she's Faey doesn't matter. Everyone loves her, and if anyone gives her any flak, the entire dorm would take turns beating the piss out of the guy."

"Wow," she breathed.

"I don't know how the people in the dorm will react to you, but then again, if Symone says you're alright, then that's that," he said seriously. "An endorsement from Symone should be all it'll take."

"You'll have to ask her to do that."

"She'll be over after she gets off duty."

She drove him back to his dorm on Saint Charles Avenue, on the corner of the Tulane campus, and he watched the traffic go by, lost in thought. Telepathy. He had that talent. He was a human, and now he was expressing the one gift, the single advantage that the Faey had that kept the human race in slavery. But it wasn't much, because after all, he was only one man. It would take an _army_ of telepaths to kick the Faey off Earth, an army equipped with weapons that could make the Faey retreat. In the end, it was nothing but a dangerous curse that could quite possibly get him killed, should the Faey find out about him.

It was a strange thought, that he had such a mysterious power, a power he had hated because of what it meant. But now _he_ had it, and though it changed very little in the grand scheme of things, it changed his life a great deal. He had to be careful now, always cautious, always vigilant, to keep his dark, deadly secret. His life depended on it.

What would it be like to be telepathic? Well, from what he'd managed to figure out, he'd be able to hear the surface thoughts of the people around him. Jyslin had talked about that before. He'd be able to overhear Faey sending to each other, and from the sound of it, Jyslin was going to teach him all the tricks of it, like attacking, defending, and a way to deceive the Faey into not probing him all the time. That would be nice, a relief to him, but the rest of it... he wasn't sure how he was going to feel about that. But one thing was for sure, he'd better _learn_ it. His life might someday depend on being able to attack and overwhelm a Faey who discovered his secret.

And on another angle, perhaps buying that airskimmer would be a _very good_ idea. That way, he always had an escape route. He could flee up into Tennessee or Kentucky or West Virginia, states which had been _completely_ depopulated of humans... or at least officially. There were squatters out there, humans who had fled into the uninhabited forest areas rather than accept the Faey order, or to escape being sent to a farm, or to escape after pissing off the Faey. It was lawless out there, as bad as any _Mad Max_ movie, but that might be preferable to being reprogrammed by the Faey secret police, the Imperial Gestapo as some called them, or perhaps being _dissected_ to find out why a human had somehow gained telepathic powers.

Yes, that was a good idea. He'd have to start looking into it. And perhaps discretely collect up the components he'd need to build a plasma rifle, and build himself his own suit of armor. If he did have to flee into the wildlands, it might behoove him to go into that chaos armed to the teeth and sporting an overwhelming advantage.

Just in case.

He blinked when he saw the dorm, and to his surprise, she went past it, past the campus, going all the way up to where Saint Charles ended, merging with Carrolton. She pulled over and patted him on the leg. "I think this is far enough away," she told him. "I don't want them to see you get out of a Faey's car. So you avoid any friction."

"I appreciate that," he said as he opened the door.

"Aat, kiss," she ordered.

He chuckled, then leaned over and gave her a lingering kiss. She actually licked his nose before he pulled away, giving him a wide, bright smile. "You have a good day at school, love. I'll be back as soon as I'm off duty. Remember, don't try anything, and if you start hearing voices in your head, don't panic. That's you overhearing the thoughts of those around you. Just listen. You'd be surprised what you can learn," she said with a wink.

"I'll be careful. Now let me out."

"Have a good, _uneventful_ day," she told him seriously.

"Amen," he agreed.


Chapter 4

_Brista, 19 Shiaa, 4392, Orthodox Calendar;_
_Saturday, 24 May 2007, Native regional reckoning_
_New Orleans, Gamia Province, American sector_

It was like an entirely different world had been unveiled before him.

He walked in a kind of half-daze, virtually overwhelmed by the sheer amount of _chatter_ that surrounded him. It gave him a headache and scattered his concentration, because what he was hearing were the unguarded thoughts of all the people around him.

It was like hearing their voices in his own mind, just as Jyslin had described it, like thinking thoughts that were not his own in different voices. Thoughts of school, of home, of the Faey, of stresses from the workload of school, to sex. He glanced at people as he seemed to figure out whose thoughts belonged to who, sort of getting a sense of direction out of it after about an hour of practice. Each person was like a beacon of broadcasted thought, as clear to him as if they were saying everything that he was hearing.

It was damned distracting, so much so that he didn't hear a single word Professor Ailan said during plasma class. He was too distracted by the _cacophony_ of thoughts bombarding him from every side. It was like being in a room surrounded by screaming people.

At least nobody said much of anything to him when he got back to the dorm. People did notice that he was dragging his ass back in the morning after, but the fact that he _walked_ back left enough opening for people not to be quite sure what happened. He didn't answer any questions, simply changed and got his pack ready for Saturday classes. It didn't really hit him until he got out among the other students, close to them, starting as a faint buzzing between his ears, then growing steadily more discernible and louder, until it was at its current level, which was giving him a headache.

It was both a wondrous and frightening experience, hearing other people think. It would have made him think he was going insane had Jyslin not warned him of the possibility, had told him what it would feel like. Luckily for him, she had prepared him for this, so he was able to approach it with some calm reserve, not let it show that something was bothering him.

He sat there as the sound of it all seemed to drone on, then blur together as if the competing voices were canceling each other out. He had his eyes closed, rubbing his temples, when a sudden _bang_ almost startled him out of his chair. Ailan was standing by his desk, a heavy plasma conduit sleeve resting on his desk from where the Faey had slammed it down. "I said class is over, Jason," he said with a smile. "What's wrong?"

"Headache," he answered, rubbing his temples, closing his eyes again. "I used to get them when my father was ill. Stress."

"So, last night was the big date," he said, leaning over the desk. "How did it go?"

"About what you'd expect," he answered. "Dinner, opera, then she took me home."

"Which home?" he prompted with a sly smile.

Jason gave him a flat look.

Ailan laughed. "It's all the buzz, because you didn't come back to your dorm last night. A few people were wondering if you killed her."

"She's quite alive," he said mildly, wincing as a particularly strong throb jagged through him. "Truth be told, she convinced me that she's not at all what I expected her to be. She hates the Imperium nearly as much as I do, so we have common ground."

"I'm not much of a fan of it either, Jason, but we all do what we have to do," he admitted openly. "I _am_ Faey, and I believe in the Empress, but I think she should change the way that the bureaucracy does some things. They've become extremely corrupt, and their corruption is making the nobles corrupt, and when noble houses get corrupt, they start thinking of breaking away from the Imperium. If she doesn't do something soon, we might have another civil war. We don't need that right now, not with this war with the Skaa."

"You're complaining to the wrong man, Professor," Jason told him. "I'd be overjoyed if Earth _broke away_ from the Imperium."

"Be careful what you wish for," Ailan said seriously. "You might find your yoke under a renegade noble ten times worse than subjugation under the Empress."

"True," he admitted.

"Well, see you during lab," he said. "Hope you feel better."

He didn't talk to anyone, mainly because he could hear every thought everyone around him had. He learned quite a few dirty little secrets during that time, things he would much rather have not known, and found out that being privy to the thoughts of others was not as interesting as some people might have thought. People would approach him and ask what happened last night, or try to chitchat, but their thoughts told a completely different tale. Some of them were jealous, some were angry, and few meant what they said when they talked to him. People who acted one way had thoughts which were quite different from what he knew of them. It was quite an eye-opening experience.

And not entirely a good one.

There was a great deal of trepidation involved in it. He avoided every Faey who crossed his path, moving quickly to get away from them, deathly afraid they'd somehow find out. But when he passed by two Army regulars patrolling the campus, he learned that Jyslin's other warning was also correct. He could hear Faey sending.

_He's cute,_ he distinctly heard, much louder and clearer than the surface thoughts of the people around him.

_That's the human the Marines had so much trouble with,_ the other answered. _He's taken._

_More the pity,_ the first said with regret as they wandered away.

That blew his mind anew. He heard them perfectly, and they didn't seem to notice, mainly because was careful not to let his shock register on his face. He could hear Faey sending!

He honestly had no idea what happened most of that day, only a blur of fear and amazement. He looked up after what seemed like a few minutes after plasma class and found himself standing in front of the dorm, and it was nearly four o'clock. He could not remember _anything_ from the other classes. He honestly didn't know if he even showed up for them, and that scared him quite a bit.

He ambled up to his room and immediately checked his panel, to see if he'd thought to record the classes. He did. Well, that was a relief. He wouldn't show up on Monday and Tuesday with blank looks when they asked for his homework. He sat at the desk and put his head in his hands and tried to get a handle on his headache, tried to push out all the sounds of the thoughts from the students in the dorm, tried to center himself and ignore them, falling back on his mental exercises. After a few moments, the sounds of the voices retreated from him, leaving him feeling blissfully alone in his own head. It was quiet, serene, the headache eased, and he felt much better.

A knock on the door startled him half out of his wits. He reached over and opened it, and found Jyslin standing there, hand on the doorframe, waiting for him to open it. She wore the tank top and shorts she always wore when she visited before working out, but a blue tank top this time. She stepped in and closed the door behind her, then bent down and gave him a lingering kiss. "I see it's awake," she said immediately.

"I haven't been able to concentrate all day," he said wearily. "I can't even remember most of it."

"Your brain is having trouble processing all this new information," she told him. "I think the first thing you need to learn is how to tune it out. It shouldn't take you long to learn, it's pretty easy."

She sat down on the bed and urged him to roll his chair over to her. He did so, and she reached out and took his hands in her own, pulling them into her lap. "Now, let's begin," she said with a smile. "Tuning out. You should have no trouble with this, love, because all you do is learn how to ignore what you're hearing. It's a very simple skill that most children learn within a day."

"You're not wasting any time."

"Your life and your sanity depends on learning this as fast as you can," she said seriously.

He couldn't argue with that. He nodded and gave her his undivided attention.

He'd already touched on the idea of tuning out before she came in. The idea of it was to push the alien thoughts out away from himself, sort of lock the outside of his mind and not let anything in. Because he had such a disciplined mind, and he knew his mind very well, it didn't take him very long to wrap himself around the trick of it. It helped that Jyslin looked into his mind and instructed him, showed him what he was doing wrong, give him some helpful advice. It didn't require any kind of expression of power to do this, only a desire not to hear what was going on around him.

Within two hours, he had the trick of it down rather well. It was much like she said, simply a method of tuning out the outside noise, the interference, focusing himself only on what was within.

"Good," she declared with satisfaction. "That's all there is to it, love."

"It's easy."

"It's a good thing it is, or we'd all have gone insane long ago.'

"But Faey have closed minds."

"_Adults_ do. Children don't. And children tend to learn together."

"Ah." Now he understood. Surrounded by the unguarded thoughts of the other children, they'd have gone mad long before reaching adulthood. "Now what?"

"Now nothing," she smiled. "You have tomorrow off. Let's go see a movie, or get a canoe and paddle around in Jean Laffite swamp or something."

"No," he said. "I have something I have to learn, and I don't have much time. Teach me something else."

"Let's not get fanatical," she said. "You need to rest, and this isn't something we can get sloppy with."

"I'm not tired, and we can do something tomorrow."

"I'm not sure," she hedged.

"I'll tell you what. Teach me something else, and we'll go out. An actual date, to make up for the theater."

She gave him a sly grin, then laughed. "Pulling out the heavy artillery, are we? Alright. I'll teach you how to send. There aren't any Faey around here, so it should be safe enough."

"I can learn this in one day?"

"The basics, yes," she nodded. "It takes a while to master, though. It takes practice."

"Anything worthwhile takes practice."

She smiled. "Alright, sending. Sending is rather simple to do, but it takes a while to get good at it. It's the third thing a child learns."

"What's the second?"

"Closing her mind, but you've already got that down."

"Oh."

"Now, I told you once that sending is thinking out loud, and that's all it is. You take your thought and push it out of your mind. If you put enough behind it, people sensitive to sending will hear it."

"That's it?"

"That's it. It's very easy, like I just told you. But it takes quite a while to learn how to limit your range, exclude people or places from hearing you, sending to only one person, and learning how to be understandable up close when you're trying to send for distance. It takes a _lot_ of practice."

"Then the sooner I learn how to do it, the more I can practice."

"Workahalic," she said with a teasing smile, patting his knee. "Okay, give me a second to make sure there aren't any Faey around to hear you, then you can start practicing."

He _felt_ her when she did that, sort of swept her mind out and searched for Faey, but he wasn't sure how she did it or how she knew what to look for. She nodded to him, and he began.

Again under he tutelage, for she had a light touch on his mind, observing what he was doing, she walked him through the idea of it. It was just as she said, sort of taking a thought and putting himself behind it, then pushing it out away from himself, sort of trying to _think out loud_. As she said, it was very easy to do, for he succeeded after about a half an hour of attempting, casting a thought of _hello!_ Out away from him. But the way she winced when he finally succeeded to him that it was too strong, that he had _shouted_ in some manner.

"Ouch," she grunted. "Well, I'm certain you did it, that's for sure," she ch