The Search for Artemis - By P. D. Griffith Page 0,36

the city, his time living on the streets, or the tragic death of his parents.

All the people in the room silently stared at him. He couldn’t tell if he’d managed to shock them with the horror of his story or if they were underwhelmed by its mediocrity, but Landon didn’t really mind either way. He just hoped the story would put an end to the conversation.

Just as Landon wondered if the training session would ever start, Dr. Brighton began from behind his desk.

“All right, students, today we are going to—”

The door opened and Celia bolted into the room. She crouched awkwardly as she attempted to shut the door softly behind her.

“Welcome! Welcome to Telekinetics. You must be Celia Jackson, correct?” Dr. Brighton asked. With each word, Celia’s face became redder and redder with embarrassment.

“Yes, sir,” Celia meekly replied.

“Go on . . . Take a seat anywhere that’s open.”

Celia moved down the center aisle and took a seat at an empty stool two rows ahead of Landon. He felt bad for her, but also a bit relieved, because her late entrance seemed to shift the class’ attention away from him, if only momentarily.

“So back to where I was. As you all know, we have acquired a few new students today, so to help get them started, we are going to go back to the basics. This is going to be easy for some of you, but revisiting the fundamentals is never a bad thing.”

Dr. Brighton was comfortable at the front of the room; his demeanor was authoritative but familiar, commanding the respect and attention of everyone in the room, without sounding like a dictator. As he continued, he directed everyone to three small pedestals standing up on his desk. They were tall and slender, resembling candlesticks, but much thinner. The top couldn’t have been larger than a pencil eraser, and the base was barely big enough to hold the stick upright. He then pulled out three marbles from his pocket and displayed them in the palm of his hand.

“Telekinetics is a dangerous field of study. If you are too eager and attempt to lift too much, you could die as the pressure of the object will force your body to collapse in upon itself. Your bodies are limited in what they can manage.” Dr. Brighton walked across the front of the classroom as he spoke. “Like an ant, you can lift multiple times your body weight—far more than any normal human—but don’t think that just by getting fatter you can lift more. It doesn’t work that way.” The class chuckled. “It requires training, discipline and mental acuity. As far as we know, the maximum weight one can telekinetically lift without passing out is around thirty-five times one’s body weight.

“But strength is not the most important aspect of your training. If you want to be a master of telekinesis, you must pair that strength with control. Many an accident has occurred in this facility because students fail to recognize that without control of their abilities, they are dangerous.

“So today we will focus on control. The exercise is simple. You’re to lift the marbles and place them on the pedestals. It seems easy, but it will require a great amount of concentration and finesse. You’ll need precision to place the marbles on the small pedestal, and these stands will tip over if you set the marble down the slightest bit too hard or off-center.”

Hoping to glean some added insight into how to use his powers, Landon watched intently as Dr. Brighton demonstrated the exercise. The doctor’s movements were effortless. The marbles in his palm floated into the air, hovering at eye level, and then descended onto the top of each pedestal. The doctor made it look instinctual; there didn’t seem to be anything special or unique about using one’s abilities. No physical cues seemed to be involved, like a squinting of the eyes or a subtle hand gesture, not even as much as a twitch. Dr. Brighton just continued to speak.

“So we’ll start with this and see how the day goes. If we need to, we can move to something else later in the morning, but I don’t know if we’ll get there. Now, everyone please go to the cabinets at the back of the room, get three stands and three marbles, and get started. I’ll come around once everyone has started.”

Now that his explanation had concluded, every student moved from behind their tables to the back of the room. Landon followed close