Awakening Book One of the Trust Series - By J. E. Swift Page 0,15

of his from when he met Caitlyn prior to her change. He noticed her look all around and then take a few moments as she examined each image, her brow sometimes rising as she tried to puzzle something out in her mind.

“These are all from your point of view.”

“You catch on quick. What I am showing you are my memories. I am not doing exactly what I did earlier, creating a scene, instead I am just playing an imprint, a moment in time. If I wanted to, I could create the environment from a memory if need be.”

With that, he changed the room into the bar that Caitlyn and Garrett first met to hammer home the point. He indicated for her to sit down on the stool she had sat in that night. Once she did, Garrett took her lead and did the same. He knew Caitlyn to have good deducting skills, so he asked a question. “Now why do you think all this would be important?”

She came up with the answer in an instant. “Well, if it were me, I would use you for espionage.”

He curtly nodded. She seemed like she would fit perfectly into the Trusts mold. Garrett was not sure how he felt about that. He never felt as if he fit in completely, but he knew he never would. Too many factors would prevent that. “Exactly. Someone who has this capability can show the Council or Tribunal anything they have seen and it is a guarantee that they remember it perfectly. It’s an invaluable resource.”

“So, were you a spy? You know, before you left to mentor me?”

“No, not really.” He left the answer hanging for a minute before continuing. “I had always wanted to mentor, so I asked the Council for time to pursue that prior to any further discussions as to my career. I had chosen a different career path.”

“I see.” The unspoken question stood between them.

“There are other reasons that the Council longs for those that are like me.” He figured he should tell her all of it.

She raised her eyebrows. “Like what?”

Even though he had been the one to broach this particular subject, he still found himself hesitating briefly to talk about it. He personally found aspects of it vile and despicable, albeit important, but she should know the unpleasant parts to being an Actual.

“There are those that are called Inquisitors.” He paused as if that explained everything, when in actuality, it explained nothing. “Inquisitors are not regularly talked about within the Trust. We pretend as if they don’t exist, but we and especially the Cine Tofa, depend on them tremendously. When you allow me to let you into my thoughts, my memories, my creations, you relinquish control of your mind. I can essentially take it over, not letting go till I choose to. That is why it is so important for you to trust me. Most of our kind would never take advantage of this ability and the moment someone wanted to disconnect, we would let them. However, there are a few whose jobs are to do the opposite. They will take over your mind by force, essentially imprisoning the person in their own mind.”

“But I thought that you needed me to have an open mind and allow you to come in.”

“That is the preferred method. In truth, it makes it much easier and it is not traumatic on the person. However, with a simple touch, I could take you over without your consent. It would be harsh and it would be painful, because your will would be fighting mine, but I would eventually win.”

“That’s awful.”

“It can be. Especially in times of war between the Cine Tofa and the Trust, the Cine Tofa will take prisoners of war essentially and subject them to the Inquisitors. Those that we have set free after being captured by the Cine Tofa tell horror stories. The Inquisitors there are especially talented at finding your worst fear and making you live it over and over and over again, either to try to get you to release information or just for the pleasure of making the person suffer. The prisoners are almost never the same again.”

“And the Trust condones this as well?” she sounded disgusted.

He nodded his head. “On very rare occasions, yes. And even then, they do not use all the torture techniques that the Cine Tofa does. You have to think of the Trust using it more like a jail cell or using the technique to