Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 21:07:00 +0100 From: Tim <shiningstar@oceanfree.net> Subject: Powers That Be 5 Hello! How are we all? Good, I hope? Glad to hear it. Anyway, he we have the 5th chapter of 'Powers That Be' (the hint's in the name.) so yeah, hope that you enjoy the story. I think that you should, if you've been reading it up to now I *know* that you will, because if you don't then I'm gonna come over to your house and do something that... well, I actually don't have a clue what I'd do, but I don't think that Mr. Bush would approve! Thanks to *everyone* who's written to me so far. I really love to read mail from those that read my stories, it warms my heart and swells my inbox. Sher, you know what I'm going to say. Tim, well everyone, the truth is that Tim spends far too much time on the Internet. But the plus side is that I get to talk to him a lot more then I do to the Americans that I know. He's provided ideas and inspiration and I think that he deserves a big thank you. To all the others who've e-mails I've received, I appreciate every single one of them. And even if I haven't responded I've read them. On that note, I want everyone who reads this to let me know what you think of it. Good, Bad or Indifferent, I want to know. I want suggestions and I want advice. Send it all to - shiningstar@oceanfree.net . By the way, I use that e-mail address because I've got another story on the archives called 'Shining Star'. Go read it! This story is not true i.e. - it's fiction! I don't know 'N Sync or any other celebs mentioned in this story, nor am I affiliated with them in any way. The opinions, ideas, and sexuality's of the affor-mentioned celebrities in this story bear no relation to what they think or are in real life. If you're too young, what are you doing here? Note: Speech between / and / is mind to mind speech. ------------------------------- I woke up the next morning after one of the most comfortable, if short, nights of sleep that I've ever had. I yawned, stretching my arms and legs. But I couldn't. Frowning, I looked to see what was obstructing my movement. Then it clicked and I awoke fully. During the night Justin had moved over to my side of the bed and was sleeping with his arms around me and with his head leaning into my chest. Smiling, I tried to move his arms so that I could get up and have a shower only to find that his grip tightened when I tried to move him. I looked at my watch and saw that I could afford to sleep for another 20 minutes or so. I closed my eyes and fell back asleep. About 10 minutes later JC was at the door with a master key. He slipped it into the lock and turned it. Going inside he opened the curtains with a gesture and looked down at the bed. He smiled. Justin and Tom, he thought, wouldn't make a bad couple. They looked so cute together, curled up into a ball with the sheets on one of the beds. Justin groaned as the light hit his eyes and said. "Ok, Ok, I get the idea. I'll be up in a minute." He looked up at JC to saw him with an odd smile on his face. "What?" JC just laughed and left. Justin shook his head, bumping it against something that did not feel like a pillow. He took in his surrounding and finally realised what JC had been laughing at. He blushed at tried to get out of bed, only to be presented with the same problem that Tom had earlier. "Tom." He whispered. "Wake up." "I am up." Groaned Tom. "Then move your arms!" "Ok, ok, jeez, you sound like my last boyfriend!" Then Tom rolled over, releasing Justin from his grip. But Justin just stayed where he was, frozen in place by Tom's words. Had he really said what Justin thought he had? Or was his imagination simply working over time to compensate for his crap sex life. He managed to get some movement into his limbs again and got up to have a shower. He looked down. A *cold* shower. By the time he was finished Tom was awake and waiting for his turn to use the bathroom. "Morning!" I said cheerily. "Yeah. Morning." Said Justin. "JC was here a minute ago. Breakfast in 10 minutes in his room." "Then you'd better have your shower quickly and I'll head over now." Suggested Justin. "Ok. See you there." Justin got dressed properly and went over to JC's room. "So?" Prompted JC. No one else had gotten there yet. "What?" Asked Justin. "I saw you this morning. Tell me." JC was grinning. "I didn't want to spend the night alone in my room, so I went over to Tom's. That's all." Said Justin defensively. "Yeah right. I saw the two of you this morning snuggled up together so don't think you can fool me that easily." "Whatever." Dismissed Justin. "Listen, J, I don't care what you're into. You should know that! Look at Lance and Joey for fucks sake!" "Thanks Josh." Said Justin, smiling warmly at his friend. "Just because I say that doesn't mean that can go with just anyone, you know! I still have to approve of them!" Joked JC, but dropped the subject when Chris came into the room. They started talking about what they would be doing today for a couple of minutes before Lance and Joey came in laughing and joking with Tom. Lance got quickly down to business. "Right. We've got that radio interview in an hour and I'm told that it should take about 15 mins to get there. We'll be there for half an hour. Then it's onto the studio where they want us to lay down some more vocals for the new album. No more then an hour!" He said in response to the groans. "Then we're free until the concert tonight, and then it's onto New York tomorrow for the last concert!" "Party!" Shouted Justin. "Yup. Then a month of Florida sun, sand and surf!" Confirmed Lance. While he had been speaking breakfast had arrived and everyone dug in. "What am I going to be doing during all this?" I asked. "As one of our personal assistants you'll be with us to get us things if we want them, but since you're really only one as a cover then we'll go easy on you!" "Have you sent that report to the council yet?" Asked Lance. "Yeah, I made it out this morning and sent it. Why?" Said JC. "Just making sure. What did you say about our PA?" "Just that we'd found him, how powerful he is and that he wants to with the good guys." "Could you stop talking about me like I'm not here?" I asked. "You said that they'll send someone out. When?" "I don't know. This hasn't happened in a while so it could take them a while to get organised." Said JC. "Ok. What can I expect?" "Like I said, they'll check out your mind and they'll want to know about your power, they'll do background and history checks on you, but you won't be there for that. Emm, I don't know what else there'll be. I told you about the physical tests didn't I?" A couple of minutes later everyone was finished their breakfast and was ready to leave. We were chatting - waiting for the limo - when all the guys suddenly stopped talking. Frowns developed on their faces and they all turned to stare at one spot in the room. I turned to see what it was that they were looking at and saw a column of light floating about a foot off the ground. It was originally about two-foot high and a couple of inches wide but it quickly expanded to the size of a doorway, and when two men and a woman stepped through I realised that that was what it was. "Gentlemen." Said the domineering women, in greeting. "Ma'am." Said JC, evidently stunned to see her, who ever she was. "I take it that you're Tom." She said, addressing me. "Yes." "Good. My name is Baram Nihorsa. I'm the head of the Mages Council that I know Joshua has been telling you about, and these are two of my colleagues, Duril Sita and Kata Senti." The two men behind her nodded in acknowledgement of their names. "Also on the Mages Council. We're here to assess you." "Your Honours." Said Lance. "We had not been expecting you so soon." "True, but then James, you hadn't been expecting *us* at all." She replied. "Now then. We'd like to get on with things." "Of course your honours." Said JC promptly. "We have other engagements so we will, unfortunately, have to take our leave of you." "I understand completely." She said. The five members of 'N Sync filed out of the room. Once out in the hall Justin turned to JC. "We can't just leave him in there with them alone." He whispered urgently. "I don't see why not, you know that they can be trusted more then anyone." "I know that, and you know that. But Tom doesn't. He had no reason to trust them. I'm going back." With his decision made Justin turned back towards the room they'd just left and started to walk back to it. Sighing, JC grabbed his arm. "I'll stay with him." Before Justin could protest JC explained. "I'm our contact with the council, it's better if it's me who's there." Justin nodded. "If you promise to look after him no matter what the council says." "I promise. Now go! You're going to be late. Lance, I presume you'll make some excuse for me?" Lance nodded his head. "Sure. You've got a bad headache." The four who were going left and JC headed back towards his room. "You've decided to stay." Said Baram, not even phrasing it as a question. "I have, your honour. That is, if it's alright with you." Replied JC. "I can-not see any problems with it." She said, and then turned her attention back towards me. "As I was saying, we will first perform the mental tests that you've been told about. It entails searching your memory and the rest of your mind for any indications that you might turn to Dark Powers. This should take about half an hour, but you will not feel the time passing, to you, it will seem like a couple of seconds." She indicated to the two others to come forward. "Since this is not my speciality, Duril and Kata will perform the examination." They loomed behind her and, while see over saw everything, made the mental preparations necessary to do an extensive search of my mind. With out speaking they indicated to me to sit on a sofa in the room and sat on either side of me. When their hands made contact with my head I shuddered and felt Goosebumps all over me. They took their hands away from my head. "They're saying that they can't get through your mental blocks, that you've got to lower any resistance that you are putting up against them." Said JC. "I'm not doing anything." I protested. How could I be? I hadn't been taught and I wasn't doing anything on purpose. "You must be." He said. "Just relax and don't worry about what they're doing." Great advice, I thought, two people that I don't even know, probing through my memories and thoughts, and I'm not supposed to worry. I took a deep breath and relaxed myself, clearing my mind of any worry. Duril and Kata put their hands back on my head and this time they didn't pull away again. I felt tired and closed my eyes, only for an instant, and when I opened them again, JC and Baram were in a different part of the room, deep in conversation. When JC saw me looking at him he ended the conversation with Baram and came over to me. "How do you feel?" He asked. "Fine. I didn't even notice a thing." I looked over at the three members of the council. They were tilting their heads and making a lot of eye contact, but other then that they weren't making any noise or anything. "What are they doing?" I asked. "Talking mind to mind. The senior telepaths often spend so long talking mind to mind that they 'forget' how to speak. That's what happened to the two who were testing you." "They're talking about me?" "Of course. They'll be deciding weather you are fit to join with us or not." "When will they make their decision?" "Now." Answered Baram. "It is our conclusion that you are fit to be trained further in the arts of White Magic. However, the *other* tests have still to come, so you will have to be prepared. Joshua, we will have to persue this matter with Drayn further. We will be in contact." With those as her parting words, the column of light formed in the room again and they stepped through it. "Well, that's that." Said Josh. "You were talking to her about Drayn?" I asked. "Yes." He said, sitting down on the sofa beside me. "I included it in the report that I sent earlier, but I wanted to discuss it with her. She doesn't know he's up to either and she's an Oracle!" "Who is Drayn?" "Good question. As I'm sure that you've gathered, he's a very powerful Black Mage, and he was head of the 'Black Council', before it was dissolved. As far as we can gather, his eventual aim is to bring order into chaos, and to destroy the White Arts, forever. But, before you mentioned him, there hadn't been a report of him for over 200 years. We had been kind of hoping that he'd died since then." "Sorry for bringing bad news!" I gasped. "You should be." Laughed JC. "But seriously, it's better that we know that he's still alive then hoping that he's dead." "I guess. But hasn't anyone been able to do anything about him?" "The most powerful mages lived a long time ago and he was one of them, the rest have either died or are recluses. Frankly, there's no one else left who's powerful enough to kill him. We can beat him down, but we can't kill him. Over the years he's vested so much power into his protection that he's almost invulnerable." Explained JC. "Not even the head of the council, Baram?" "Not even her. But you might be. That's why Baram thinks that he's come after you, because he is afraid that you might be able to beat him." "When?" JC laughed. "Not for a while yet. Even with how quickly that you're developing you powers, and with us teaching you, it's going to be a while until you're ready to take him on!" "How long?" "A while. A couple of years, maybe." I thought about it for a while. "Listen... JC, no offence, but I don't want to be an assistant for the next couple of years. I've got a life other then this one. I've got to think of my future." "I didn't tell you?" Said JC. "The council has been in existence for a while now, and it's had a lot of time to build up funds, especially with some of the things that we know. Everything that you'll need will be provided for. As far as I can tell, they're also sitting on a lot of inventions, if you ask them nicely, I'm sure that you could be given one to introduce you to the world, something that would guarantee you a future... speaking of your future, there's something else that I should tell you." "What?" I asked suspiciously. "Well, the thing is, well it's... it's." "Just spit it out Josh!" "Immortality. If you want, you can live forever." "Oh." Well that was a shocker. He'd been talking about people who'd been around for a couple of thousand years, but I hadn't connected that to anything that might effect me. "Yeah." He said. The conversation sort of fizzled out after that. After a couple of minutes of silence he offered to show me how to mind- speak. I agreed without hesitation and within the hour I had it down. "Try to talk to Justin!" Suggested JC. "Ok." I concentrated on finding Justin's mind among the hundreds of thousands that surrounded me. With JC it had been easy because he was sitting right beside me, but with Justin I had to search for 6 minutes before I found him. JC assured me that I could make a sort of a link with them so that I could find them without trouble, but that was later on, and this was now. / Hi! / I said. / Tom? / Said Justin, sounding stunned. Apparently when our minds were unscrambling what was said to each other they were able to attribute the characteristics of the person to the 'speech' in your head. / Good guess! / / You've been spending your time well, I take it / He said. / You know it! I think I've got this now. / / It looks that way / / Man! This is gonna cut my phone bills in half! / Justin laughed. / You can only do it with other people who have magic dumbass! / / Where are you now? / I asked. / In the studios. You can tell Josh that we'll be back at the hotel in an hour and a bit, so he can stop worrying! / I laughed out loud, puzzling Josh. / I'll do that, see you then. / Then I 'hung up' on him. "It worked then?" "Yeah. It was a perfect line and everything." I joked. "Justin says that they'll back in little over an hour, and that you're to stop worrying." He grinned. "I always worry about that boy and he knows that nothing's going to stop me!" --------------------------- Let me know what you think. shiningstar@oceanfree.net Tim.