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nothing. That was Norr’s dream—and the only reason she was willing to expose herself to the dangers associated with the impending performance.
    Because while clairaudience was one thing, and the occasional demonstration of telekinesis was another, a full-blown trance was something else. Once the sensitive exited her body and allowed a discarnate soul to enter it, she would be helpless until the entity left. Yes, she had spent her last few gunars on a bodyguard, but what if the entire audience stormed the stage as had happened in the past? Norr had been present the night that an unruly crowd had accused her mentor of witchcraft and subsequently beaten the old woman to death. Norr had been forced to travel for more than a hundred miles before she finally located a cemetery that was willing to accept the sensitive’s remains.
    Someone touched Norr’s shoulder and she jumped. It was the heavy named Loro and he was huge . The variant stood a full seven feet tall, weighted close to 350, and looked as though his muscles had muscles. Like all his kind, the bodyguard was the result of the same sort of genetic tinkering that had produced Norr, except that his body was designed to cope with heavy-gravity environments, where massive bones and big muscles were required to survive. Over time some of the big brutes had been absorbed into the generalpopulation, where they often wound up as laborers, watchmen, and freelance bodyguards. Loro’s voice consisted of a deep rumble. “Where do you want me?”
    â€œBetween me and everyone else,” Norr replied fervently. “Don’t let anyone up on the stage. Especially while I’m in trance. Do you understand?”
    The last was said as if the concept might be too complicated for a heavy to understand. Both norms and variants had a tendency to assume that heavies were stupid, but that was absurd since the scientists who designed the enormous humanoids had been trying to create intelligent workers. Loro was so used to the bias he didn’t even take offense anymore. “Of course,” the heavy replied. “I’ll take care of it.”
    â€œThank you,” Norr replied gratefully. “Now, if you would be so kind as to take your place out on the stage, I think your very presence will help keep the rowdies under control.”
    Loro nodded, pulled one of the curtains aside, and stepped through the resulting gap. The sensitive saw that two-thirds of the seats were full, and sought the momentary solitude of her dressing room. It was her habit to meditate for a few minutes prior to a demonstration, and even that small amount of distance would help reduce the pressure from the multitudinous thought forms that pressed in around her.
    Meanwhile, out in the audience, there was a stir as a metal man entered the hall. He wasn’t real, of course, but a replica of a man, one of dozens that had appeared on the streets of Seros during the past couple of years. Nobody liked them. Partly because they were machines, and there was a segment of society that believed that machines were dangerous, but mostly because of their incessant preaching on behalf of a group called the Techno Society. In fact,hardly a day went by when one or more of the androids couldn’t be found near the public market droning on about the benefits of technology.
    And sometimes, for reasons known only to them, the metal men would appear at public events like this one. Only rather than preach they were content to sit and observe. Like the rest of his electromechanical brethren, the robot wore a hooded robe that revealed little more than the sculptured planes of his alloy face and hung all the way to the floor. The machine whirred as it brushed past people who had already taken their seats and plopped down between a teacher and a butcher. Neither was especially pleased, and both went to extremes to avoid contact with the creature.
    Each attendee had been given a blank square of