The Director and Ena hugged me.
I was being held in Big Brother's arms and Sarden, no, Sarsen was standing guard, while a crowd milled in the dark, saying goodbyes.
What was going on?
Apricorn was helped into a car by Homeward. I saw a baby cradle already inside the car. A very senior agent took the wheel, while Homeward sat beside her. A big caravan had been attached to the big off-road vehicle. The boot had obviously been packed to the brim.
Mr Holt kissed my forehead and wished me well, not noticing that I was awake.
Everything was said and done in a hushed manner. Everyone spoke in hushed tones, even though we were outside the city on the edge of the wilderness.
Behind Homeward and Apricorn's vehicle were another three.
Big Brother carried me into the backseat of another offroad vehicle with another caravan attached. An older female City Agent was already waiting in the backseat to receive me. Big Brother also kissed me goodbye, looking extremely reluctant to part. He kissed me on the lips, a long, lingering kiss.
"I'm staying to help the Director," he told me. "Stay safe and don't get injured anymore. Get well. Be strong and healthy. I love you, Kim. Always will. No matter what you choose to do in the future. I'll be waiting for you. I'm going to do my best to become a man worthy of your trust and who can keep you safe."
In the dark, he didn't think to look to see that I was awake and conflicted by his kiss.
Sarsen took the wheel and Shigure took the passenger seat. The older female City Agent waved to the handful of people staying behind.
Behind us were another two cars. The ones with big covered trailers. I only saw a few men and women board those vehicles.
The car engines all started, breaking the quiet in the silent night. The bright headlights cut through the dark like laser beams.
The Director waved and gave us all a flying kiss as we left.
"Let's go," said Shigure in a quiet voice to Sarsen. "We have a very long way to travel."
I didn't ask what was going on. It was obvious we were leaving. Where we were going, I could only guess. Perhaps it was the ancient home of the tribal judges like Shigure had once mentioned.
During the drive, I updated Shigure of my conversation with the Creator Father through our mental link, particularly the part where the two of us needed to talk and define our relationship. I also shared the Creator Father's story with him. He had listened carefully but hadn't said much. Acknowledging that he heard me, he told me to get some rest. I couldn't feel any of his emotions. His mental abilities had gotten so much stronger and better controlled that I doubted he would ever leak his thoughts into my head again.
For some reason, that made me feel a little sad and lonely. As if I had lost something.
We stopped for a toilet break at that old long drop toilet. Homeward stood guard with Shigure, sensing for any dark lizards who might dare to attack. Behind the toilet shack, someone had disguised a few barrels of petrol under a bunch of dried bushes. I reckoned it was courtesy of Director Worth. She was so dependable.
I was carried into the toilet and helped by the senior female agent while the men struggled with the barrels of petrol.
"Diamond Rough," she had introduced herself to me. "Call me 'Di'."
When I was done, Sarsen carried me out to sit in the car with Di, while the men struggled to load one of the trailers with the barrels. Seeing them struggling, I used my relatively new telekinesis ability to help out. Although I couldn't lift a whole barrel by myself, I could help reduce the weight.
"Thanks, Uki-chan," Shigure had called, sensing what I was doing. "Conserve your energy after this."
By the time they were done, I was sweating as much as any of the men who had done the physical work. They left two disguised barrels behind in case of emergency. Shigure borrowed my power to boost his ability in order to send a message back to Director Worth and inform her of our progress. I only felt the edges of his mental conversation.
After that, Shigure had brought everyone together, ostensibly to meet each other, but in reality it was to create mental links and a team chat group in Shigure's mind. We established a chat group in my mind as well as a backup. For those who had very weak to no affinity to mental abilities, Shigure and Homeward borrowed my mental space to perform what seemed like a delicate operation that opened up a bit of mental capacity in that person, allowing them to at least send and receive messages.
It was then that I realised that Homeward had developed mental capabilities as well. It was mostly only communication related though. I congratulated him and he had shaken his head.
"It's all your fault," he had sighed, poking me on the nose.
"You didn't want the mental abilities?" I hesitated.
"Have you ever heard of the saying 'with great power comes great responsibility '?" he asked me. "The more you have, the more that is expected of you."
That made sense.
"I'm sorry then," I apologised.
"Don't be," Homeward heaved another sigh. "What will come will come."
"I still think that what you guys are doing to Andrew's head is unnecessary though," I pointed out.
"What do you mean?" Shigure asked me in confusion.
"I mean," I shared with them the memory picture of how the Creator Father's friends had laid their hands on some people, spoken a few words of power and imparted abilities.
"Hmm," Shigure and Homeward pondered over this and had a private conversation that I couldn't hear.
While they were talking, I went and touched the nervous guy's head and asked the Creator Father for some help. The Creator Father acquiesced and then the job was done. No need for the delicate handling of a relatively mind blind person so as not to hurt them. Easy.
Shigure and Homeward looked at me for a long moment. I couldn't understand the look or fathom what they might be thinking since they had continued to shield themselves from me.
"Wow," Andrew said with amazement. "This is so cool."
Shigure went through the process of establishing a link with him into the team chat group and taught him how to shield his thoughts. Andrew was clumsy and spammed the chat group with a lot of unnecessary thoughts before he got the hang of it. He wasn't the only one. All the others new to mental communication took quite some time to get the hang of it. In the meantime, Shigure and I had to continuously clean up the chat group feeds.
To one side, I noticed Sarsen and Di hidden in the shadow behind a car kissing. Was Di his girlfriend? I hadn't realised that his girlfriend was so much older than us.
Sarsen glanced up and noticed my gaze. He brought Di over, while I shielded my thoughts so that I could have a private conversation while Shigure and Homeward were continuing to borrow my mental abilities to better understand other people's mind spaces and fine tune the way the links had been made. That way it would feel more intuitive for the others.
"Di, you've already met Kim and I've told you about her. Kim, this is Di, my girlfriend. She's not actually a City Agent as such. She's actually from the City Police and would occasionally be loaned to us. In order to come with us, she resigned. She doesn't have any abilities, but now that you've enabled her to have weak telepathy, I guess it can be counted."
"Kim, I'm so grateful to you for this opportunity," Di took my hands and smiled. "If it weren't for you, I'd probably never gain an ability in my life."
"Kim, do you think you can help us establish a mental link with each other?" Sarsen asked.
"Erm," I scratched my head. "Asking me that is a bit like asking a battery to send an email. I'm sorry. I haven't learnt how to do that. Shigure does all the real work. Besides, you don't really need the mental link. You already have a soul link. You can ask Homeward about that. That's his area. You also both have the potential for spiritual communication. You just gotta figure out how to access the right channel, like finding the right radio frequency," I mimed turning a radio knob.
Sarsen gave a short huffing laugh.
"Kim, you're useless. You haven't changed in giving people useless information, have you?"
Somehow, I'd made Sarsen annoyed again and didn't know what to say.
"Just say you don't know or can't do it next time. Don't waste other people's time."
"Babe, don't be so mean," Di scolded Sarsen. "She's just trying to help. Perhaps she can really see it but doesn't know how to explain. She already said that we're asking the wrong person."
"You don't understand," Sarsen rolled his eyes at me. "Kim has a tendency to say really weird things that don't mean anything at all sometimes. The more you ask her to explain, the more confusing things will get. Forget it. We'll ask Shigure later."
He pulled Di away while she mouthed an apology to me.
I wasn't sure why but what Sarsen said had cut a little. It hurt. It seemed I hadn't improved as much as I had thought.
With the group chats established, Shigure waved a hand both physically and mentally to catch everyone's attention.
"Everyone, I'll be your main point of contact and the main mental team chat group is with me. Kim is the backup if you can't reach me. She'll pass on the message if needed. Think of her as a stronger radio tower that can boost the signal. If you all have any queries regarding mental abilities, please come to me. Kim is also still relatively new to it and so may not know the answer to your queries. That said, let's get going. Director Worth will clear our tracks up to here. We still have a few more days of travel."
Homeward came over to me and picked me up from the car seat.
"The boss," Homeward nodded his chin at Shigure, "wants you and Apricorn to sleep in the caravan beds. The two of you can help take care of the baby. The rest of us are going to be taking turns driving. We'll be travelling nonstop for a few days. The journey is going to be long more so because of the lack of road and rough terrain that we'll be entering than because the place is so far away. So we want you ladies to stay comfortable."
"Alright," I agreed, greeting Apricorn when I entered her caravan.
After being settled onto a bed and a cushioned rail being put up so I wouldn't fall out too easily due to the bumpy journey, Homeward went out. Apricorn saw that I was troubled and comforted me.