The next morning all the companions were herded into the large room that they'd learned the shocking revelation through the television. This time the furniture was re-arranged and breakfast steamed tantalizingly from the tabletops. Dr. Tachiban and Dr. Sunumbra stood unobtrusively from the doorway, watching.
Ceria and Bristle wasted no time to eyeball the doctors and instead grabbed two seats and some food and dug in. This in turn allowed the rest of the group to follow suit, and soon all were engaged in sorting through their sleep veiled thoughts and eating. Dr. Sunumbra glanced at Dr. Tachiban, giving an imperceptible nod, and readying her clipboard. Dr. Tachiban approached the group, wary after the observational camera report, and tried to keep his voice friendly and conversational.
"I am given to believe that each of you specify in some form of, ah…" The doctor frowned, trying to grope for some foreign word to describe his thoughts. "Order? Class? Guild?" Zaph perked up at the mentioning of guilds but the rest remained inert. "Profession?" Now he had all their attentions. "I'd be delighted if you would share with me what that is."
Kaisui, eating eggs with one hand and flipping through his revised book with the other, didn't glance up as he muttered, "Sorcerer." Dr. Tachiban glanced at Dr. Sunumbra, who wrote this down and muttered the word 'arcana and technology disk'. One by one, they each named their specialty, though hesitantly. Once done writing, Dr. Sunumbra made check marks on her sheet while listing items off to Dr. Tachiban.
"I'll let Dr. Furicko know that we need two disks of technology in relation to arcane, two nature and wildlife,two of ESP and other paranormal abilities, one on stealth and spies, and two on artistic musical progression." She grinned at her colleague. "The EIL is going to be busy today."
"What's an EIL?" Ceria asked with a mouthful of toast. Dr. Sunumbra left to report the day's order while Dr. Tachiban replied, with a simple smile, that all would see soon.
After breakfast had finished the group was escorted down the long corridors, past two metallic double doors, and into a large room that practically hummed with energy and electricity. Ten chairs were arranged in a circle in the room, odd contraptions connected to them all. Ichi looked up from his sorting of the EIL disks and flashed everyone a smile.
"Welcome to the EIL!" he announced with obvious pride. "Here, you'll be learning over the course of a few days, the progression of millions of years in the professions and knowledge specifically chosen for each of you." They all looked at him with a mix of puzzlement and apprehension. "Allow me to explain. Science has shown us that to learn the brainforges an neural pathway in the brain to allow for recall later on in time. If that specific bit of knowledge is called on enough times, then the link becomes stronger and stronger. However, if this information is not called upon, then the links fall into disuse and weakens to the point of nonexistence." He knew, from their expressions, that he was loosing both their interest and their ability to comprehend what he was saying. Quickly, he moved on. "Through that same power of science, I have constructed the method using this machine called Electronic Impulse Learning. Light and energy honed to a laser beam and watched rapidly over and over in the same sequence of flashes can have the same impact as reading a book."
"You've lost me," Ka'Lore admitted. The others looked just as clueless as she on the matter. Ichi gave a defeated sigh.
"I'm going to point a light at you and you will magically learn knowledge without having to do the work," he muttered. This being easier to understand, they all became curious again.
"But that's rather cheating, isn't it?" Zaph mused. "I can't imagine there not being a repercussion." Always eager to discuss his inventions, Ichi happily supplied the answer.
"Oh there is," he assured Zaph. "The mind can only handle a specific amount of this kind of learning a day, lest it reject it all in a self defense stratagem. We can cover a set span of information before stopping. Also, the information is quickly lost if recital is not implied. That's why directly afterwards, it's encouraged that the techniques newly learned be put to test somehow." Ichi beamed at them all. "So. Who's first?"
"Me!" squeaked Ceria excitedly. "What do I do?" Ichi gently took her hand, leading her from her companions, and helped her to hop into the large sized leather chair. With delicate movements, he applied the straps that would hold her in place. She quailed at this, in between laughter, and tried to squirm free.
"What are you doing to her?" Bristle inquired defensively, taking a bold step forward. Ichi held up a hand for patience.
"It's imperative that she sit still for the duration of the EIL transmission," he explained. "I will not strap in the others, but I'm not so trusting of the kenders' ability to hold still long enough. Don't worry. Nothing bad will happen."
"What am I going to learn?" Ceria inquired eagerly, wriggling still but beginning to calm. Ichi lowered a cone shaped mechanism, the dual tips pointed at Ceria's eyes.
"You are a bard, a singer I take it," he mused. "Therefore, you are going to learn the history of song." With a flick of his fingers, Ichi flipped the switch and the hum of power in the room increased. A beam of red light shot into Ceria's eyes, blinking too quickly to notice as anything more than a solid beam.
Everyone watched, anxious and apprehensive. The laser abruptly shut off, the mechanical arm retreating and the metallic straps that held Ceria still releasing her. Blinking rapidly, Ceria rubbed her eyes and absorbed all she had just learned.
"What do you think?" Ichi asked, anxious as much as her friends had been. Ceria leaned back in the chair with a very thoughtful look.
"I don't much care for the opera, but the chorals are certainly pretty, and the early folklore is very interesting," she mused. Ichi gave a shout of joy at his success – he hadn't told the group, of course, but the EIL had only been tested twice prior, and he wasn't sure what the effect would be on the pastwalkers. Apparently, it was as every bit as triumphant as he'd hoped. Jubilant, he eased her out of the seat.
"You'll want to practice what you've learned now," he instructed. "Dr. Tachiban will lead you to a practice room so you can sing your new songs in peace." Smiling, Ceria brushed against Bristle and whispered assurance that she was well and he would betoo, and walked out with Dr. Tachiban, humming a church hymn under her breath. Ichi addressed the group once more. "She hasn't finished learning, of course. Over the next week, all of you will be returning to me and learning a bit more until you've reached present day information. Now, who's next?"
By the end of the day, Bristle was applying finely honed spy tactics to sneak up on people and startle them, Sofia and Zaph were amusing themselves with discussion on the aspects of telekinesis, Kaisui was tinkering with a small radio using his arcane powers to toy with its abilities, and Kalra'an and Ka'Lore were outside in the laboratory's outdoor facilities naming which fauna and flora were poisonous, as well as species of animals they'd never known existed. Ichi and his two assistants watched over it all with a proud, happy look. Everything, thus far, was falling into place. They could only hope that fate smiled on them longer because after the resocialization process, these seven would prepare for a reconnaissance mission against the power so strong that it overwhelmed even Ichi's energy manipulating powers.
Sofia, in the middle of playing with floating balls, looked up in alarm as Dr. Sunumbra approached her. She regarded the female doctor coldly, and ignored her very presence. Dr. Sunumbra knew to approach cautiously, for a telepath could be deadly if angered.
"I'd like to talk to you a bit," Dr. Sunumbra said tentatively, sitting down slowly and smiling at Sofia. "I've noticed that you tend to seal yourself away from others when angry. Are you… Angry often, Sofia?" Sofia ignored her. "Depressed?" Again, Sofia ignored her, but an imperceptible twitch occurred at the corner of her eye. "Because if you are, there are ways of helping that-"
"I'm not crazy!" Sofia blurted, the balls she'd been so delicately juggling with her mind flying out in all directions. "I'm not crazy and I'm not evil!"
Dr. Sunumbra wondered at this outburst and pondered an incorrect diagnosis – perhaps Sofia was paranoid. Still smiling and keeping a gentle voice, Dr. Sunumbra pressed the matter further. "Nobody said you were, Sofia. I just asked if you were angry often."
"You would be too if you'd died twice," Sofia muttered, recollecting the scattered balls. "It messes with your mind." Dr. Sunumbra nodded sagely, in both awe and fear of this hostile being with her.
"What happens when you die?" Dr. Sunumbra asked nicely, deciding to humor Sofia. Sofia's angry look faded and took on a weary, far away appearance.
"It's quiet," she murmured. "Everything is quiet. It's like getting a clean, warm bath after a long and dusty travel." The doctor was quiet, contemplating this. Sofia spoke up again. "To be a doctor of the mind is a broad subject. What do you specialize in?"
The doctor saw no harm in sharing a little personal information. With a sly smile, she replied, "I particularly like the aspect of the human mind in states of insanity." Sofia tilted her head back, laughed at the sheer irony of it all, and left the doctor to think quietly on the interview in silence.
Bristle utilized his newfound stealth with utmost glee. The room that Ceria was in, practicing a choral, wasn't locked but it was guarded as Dr. Tachiban sat in a chair, arms folded and watching her. Bristle smiled, finding the perfect opportunity to have a little fun. He crept in as silent as a shadow.
Meanwhile, Ceria was building her crescendo to the highest note, hoping she could hit it with perfection. Dr. Tachiban, who enjoyed this type of performance, sat on edge of his seat listening in unabashed admiration to her talent. He thought voices like these only existed on the database of songs, from eons long past. The gift had been lost.
Bristle scuttled away from under the chair that the doctor had been sitting on, his task there complete. Keeping to the shadows and making no sounds, he rounded the room and prepared to strike.
Ceria was not foreign to the language of magic, and, upon learning the chorals taught to her in the brief time in the EIL, she recognized this language called 'latin' to be very much like it. And so, with a mischievous glint in her eyes, she readied to twist the words of the true choral into something a bit more fitting for a bard. "Rico mefulgo expeto beatitas luc luxis!" Bristle chose that moment to pounce, which is exactly when the flooding light spell that Ceria cast filled the room. Dr. Tachiban shut his eyes against the brilliance of the beam, and when his pupils finally adjusted, two kender were in a jumble on the ground, giggling.
"I got you," Bristle crowed victoriously. Ceria conscended her defeat and saved her voice, happy to cuddle. Dr. Tachiban frowned, got up to reprimand Bristle for interrupting the learning session, and fell flat on his face from tied shoelaces. The two kender fell into another fit of giggles.
"You two are unruly little urchins," he growled, trying to pull apart the crazy knot that had been used. "How old are you both? Honestly!"
"I'm twenty four," Ceria announced gleefully. Bristle chirped his age, and eyed the doctor when he lay there, staring open mouthed.
"Why don't you act your age?" he sputtered. "You're grown adults. Be more mature!" The two kender recoiled at the thought.
"You mean act like a human," Ceria corrected. "No thank you. Humans are a nervous wreck with legs. My only worry concerns my family. Everything else will come as is, and I'll take it with a grain of salt." The doctor couldn't help but feel a little surprised and awed by such a reverent upholding of simpleness.
He merely shook his head, amazed. "I question that laboratory reading. These two are far from sane." Leaving the two kender to giggle and play, the doctor left hastily to update this grievous computer error.