The Valhalla Covenant
Chapter Four — Inspiration

Reimas stirred, slipping easily and with little intrusion of distracting regret away from the dream world. He was aware from the first moment of his return that his mental state had not been ideal in the earlier stages, but had improved later.

The notion of resolved dualities was totally clear during the final phase of the dream but once he woke up, it began to fade away and he grasped at it like a drowning man just out of reach of a lifeline.

Somehow it seemed crucial to everything he hoped to achieve and he knew that he’d have to consciously explore the concept until it all became as clear as it had been in the dream.

One of the threads, as soon as he woke, took the form of a mental image of a pendant. Such a thing was worn as a reminder, usually of a person who hoped the wearer would continue to think of them — hence the connection with the French word for thinking. In this case, he consciously assigned his initial fading awareness of the significance of duality as a pendant for higher conceptual goals.

Those aspects of the dream that had spoken of fear and the mastery of it were also compelling, and he began to wonder if he might have more fear buried deep within than he imagined. He asked himself what he might be afraid of that could remain elusive to his conscious awareness, but nothing came to mind.

His earlier career in writing movie scripts had given him financial freedom. Once the pursuit of money no longer seemed important, he had lent his strength to the formation of a new kind of social network. The Little River, he had dubbed it and the name had stuck.

Along the way, he had loved and lost like so many others, but had remained good friends with at least one of his long-term partners. Amongst the Institute he had many good friends.

Fear had no apparent home in his heart, despite the very early loss of his father and the later loss of his mother, yet the message of this dream rang true in some unfathomable way.

Perhaps it went beyond himself? Significantly, his emotions flared at that thought. Also, his surroundings briefly seemed to darken as he felt the terrors of this world in a momentary inner vision — but the source was not within him.

Heidi, Laurence’s assistant, handed him a voice recorder and for some time he made observations about many details of the experience.

Eventually he got up and checked the recorded data, with Laurence guiding him through the results. Breathing and heart rate readings helped to confirm the exact time he had fallen asleep, and the feed from the VR unit had clearly determined the start of his rapid eye movement. As expected, the initial electroencephalographic readout revealed that his mental state was too deeply unconscious in the early parts of the dream.

Later in the event, the readings had closed towards the optimal alpha wave state. At the point where he had become conscious of the meaning of the bishop’s mark, his mind manifested a complex blended alpha and theta pattern. That was pretty much the right state for remote viewing, even though it hadn’t happened in this case. It was not a guarantee that it would occur but Laurence considered it a precondition.

Reimas recalled how his mind at that point had possessed a remarkable clarity, but he was frustrated when he attempted to isolate the factor that seemed most likely to consistently stimulate that mind-state. Further analysis of the stimulus inputs might reveal the critical elements, but something made him doubt it. He felt it was something within him, instead.

With the need for operational information now so pressing and such a promising initial attempt, the ability to achieve the same sort of experience at will was crucial, so he strongly resisted the temptation to slow what had become an almost painfully intense thought process. Ideally, the problem should be solved here and now so he sat down in an easy chair in the lab and shut everything else out.

Ambience had seemed to contribute but it wasn’t the primary factor. Something else crucially important eluded him.

Even with all this equipment — dials, gauges, REM monitors, strobes, fancy light and aural stimuli inputs, relaxation chairs and chambers — it still boiled down to whether or not his own mind could free itself by some hidden, mysterious means from the unnameable influence that normally clouded human awareness and held it firmly in the physical realm.

Exactly what was it that held the routine human mind back from the freedom of such complete clarity?

In a way it felt magnetic, as if there was some sort of electronic signal being broadcast that was designed to distract, confuse and befuddle the brain. Or could there be some other channel for administering a consciousness anaesthetic, something subtle and completely unexpected?

Yet sometimes, just on the rarest of occasions, he had been able to break completely free, much like it had been in this latest dream, for long enough to realize he could be free at any time — if only ...

A point of resistance began to dissolve as moments went by, and his mind relaxed with an inner sigh. Letting everything go for the time being, he thrust himself back into the broad arms of the chairs and closed his eyes.

Calmer now, he grew more certain all the time that the exciting outcomes of the experience had little to do with individual external factors. It was clearly something bigger than a few lights flashing in front of his eyes at just the right time.

Suddenly it came to him and he sat bolt upright. What he had introduced into the equation was an element more like comfort than relaxation, a profound sense of comfort that he knew he felt only very infrequently. Inner peace doubtless contributed, but it was more than that — something more active and positive, something more related to pleasure, comfort and security. The key to all this had more to do with cultivating such comfort in the moment, and as he thought that, the word ‘grace’ came to mind.

Sinking back again, with a short, sharp intake of breath, he felt sure that he was on the verge of further significant revelations, but became aware then, of the presence of someone close behind him — Jos. Erin, as it happened, was with him, and they were keen to hear all about how the session had gone.

“I thought you said you weren’t ready for this,” he said, surveying the readout screen with a tightly controlled expression of curiosity.

His blue eyes seemed incongruously playful but to those who knew him well, it spoke of a conscious care to observe what mattered most. Jos’s actions and stated objective in life tended to create the impression that he was to some degree at odds with himself but despite that, he maintained a robust sense of humour and never allowed his petty demons to take control.

Reimas had long known that he dealt with them by tuning into other people and their concerns with energy and enthusiasm.

Firmly believing that self-knowledge and integrity were the best foundations for living a full, rewarding life, the paradox amused and to some extent puzzled him, but at this moment he wondered if Jos carried more of this elusive X factor than he did.

“I’m glad I did do it,” Reimas replied eventually.

“Monitors showed you were a little too deep,” Jos observed, “but there’s a spike prior to something of a mountain range towards the end. What was that about?”

His at-a-glance observations were perceptive, and with the mention of the spike, Reimas vividly recalled the wonder he’d felt over the bishop revelation.

“Yes, funny you should notice that. It was one of those moments. There was more to this than I’ve ever experienced in the past.”

“What?”

“It was all about chess, but in ways you might never imagine and I know it’s heading up the right alley, even though it wasn’t anything like what I expected.”

“Just around the corner and you might have to head to China to get there,” Jos laughed.

Erin moved over to the doorway and regarded the balcony with admiration.

“Kind of what I had in mind, but hopefully not as far as China,” Reimas replied.

Laurence approached them, still scanning a printout in his hand.

“I just find it strange that we’ve had better results out on the balcony than I’ve been getting lately in the lab,” he observed.

“Didn’t even know it was there,” said Jos, confirming what Reimas had thought.

“Thought as much,” he said.

“Trust you boys not to notice something like that,” said Erin with a brief ripple of a laugh, looking through the doorway again. “It’s beautiful.”

In the company of his friends, Reimas felt more centred than he had for a long time. He was sure it came from the sense of community they shared, but also suspected that the quiet beauty of the treetop secret garden had helped.

Laurence had spent years doing amazing things like this and Jos had funded it. The mutuality of all their interests as a group gave Reimas heart, despite the more generally wayward state of the world.

“Do you think you’ll be able to reach the same sort of state again?” Erin asked, turning back towards Reimas while Laurence and Jos debated a technical point that had showed up on the data sheet.

“I don’t see why not, but there were things about it that might never be repeated.”

“So you think that it was significant?” Jos asked.

“Short answer — yes, but I’ll tell you about it later. For the moment I need to talk through things in a more general way to consolidate it all in my mind.”

“Fire away.”

Reimas sat back and took a deep breath.

“Relaxation was definitely one of the principal factors, but a deep sense of comfort seems to be closer to the mark. It’s almost as if that’s the main requirement before the mind can be truly untainted and cleared to see what should be seen.”

“I won’t argue with that as a concept,” Jos observed, “but I hardly see you as the driven kind, at least not emotionally driven.”

“Maybe not, but the way I’m beginning to see it, even the slightest emotional taint in the subconscious is like a submerged log to a speedboat on a lake. I would never have gone as far as I did if there’d been more submerged logs, but it does feel like there were one or two out there.”

“Or in there. So what’s to see when the mind’s untainted?”

“Clarity’s the obvious word. Like it or not, I can only explain it in terms of actively seeing through delusion rather than seeing something new and unexpected.”

Jos laughed.

“I’m sure I’d be lost without it.”

“Maybe so, but you won’t find your way into the astral with it,” Reimas replied. “I fought chess pieces in my dream and the only way I could win was to work out that I was in control.”

“What, that’s your major insight?”

Reimas shook his head.

“Try being in control when you’re dreaming then you can laugh all you like,” he said. “In any case, that wasn’t all of it. Once I’d defeated the last and most powerful piece — the bishop, I realized that the slash on the side of it was symbolic of duality resolution, and somehow the gateway to absolute clarity.”

Erin looked puzzled.

“Surely the queen is more powerful than the bishop.”

A slow smile creased Reimas’s face.

“Perhaps in a real chess game but, in any case, I’d always have the advantage over a woman.”

Jos and Laurence both laughed.

Yet Erin let it go with the barest raising of an eyebrow. She’d been in this game for long enough to know they had a just call on each other’s emotions, but from time to time they’d get her quota on her own terms, when she wanted to deliver.

“So, how does resolving duality bear on the astral?” she asked, demurely.

Reimas, sensing her play, leaned forwards conspiratorially.

“It’s a thing of beauty,” he said. “Has to do with the idea that no true battle can be successfully fought in outer terms alone.”

“So?”

“Well, it’s clearly a very inner battle to reach the astral, and inner realities can only be properly understood by resolving the dualities of important principles.”

Laurence and Jos stopped dead still.

“Do what?” Jos asked.

“Dualities? Think good and evil, work and play, sleeping and waking. There’s always a relationship between the two that’s more complex than it seems at first sight.”

“The hidden mechanisms of all realities reside within the territory enclosed by their opposite aspects,” Laurence agreed in his cerebral way.

“So how do your resolve them?” Jos asked.

“Observation, curiosity, discipline and commitment to careful thought … having the energy to go that one step further.”

“On its own though, it’s no more than a fancy truism,” said Laurence. “Where exactly are you going with this?”

“I’m not sure yet how many dualities I’ll need to resolve, if that’s what you’re asking, but I’ll be looking at anything that helps me cultivate the necessary frame of mind,” Reimas replied.

“Comfort, being one?” said Erin.

“Yes, deep, pervasive, radiant comfort.”

“Okay, that sounds cool,” Erin replied, “but from what you’re telling me it sounds like all this progress you’ve made has more to do with the awesome sex we had last night than anything else.”

It raised a laugh, but jesting though she was, it was still a core belief with her that sex answered many needs and often explained things that otherwise couldn’t be.

Reimas wondered briefly how much there was in it, but before he could reach a conclusion, Erin hastened to remind them all that she had to leave for the city.

Earlier, Jos and Reimas had decided that in the current circumstances it would be stupid to have her travel alone. Jos’s personal assistant, Marcus, had been detailed to accompany her at a discreet distance.

Dependably, he was waiting at the door when she turned.

“You ready for Xoldin, Blaze?” Jos asked, just after she left.

“Any time. Any place.”

“Good. We’ve got a location.”

“How?”

Laurence grinned.

“I got lucky with intercepting an encrypted online itinerary while you were out to it. There’ll be a convoy of three. He’s always in the middle but take out all three if you can, just to be sure.”

Reimas shook his head.

“You know we can’t tell who might be in those vehicles. It’s not the way I do business.”

“The RPGs I’ve given you won’t destroy his armoured SUVs. They’ll force the occupants out and then you can pick your target.”

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