Ascension II: Hijack

Yrtl felt as though the top of his skill was being prised off, from the inside. He tried to scream, but no sound emerged; the ambient lowlife hubub continued, regardless of the fact that a patron was being murdered in one of the booths. Business as usual, at Tic-Tac-Tony's.

Panicking, Yrtl recalled something about the Synod being able to instantly detect interference with a plant, and suck a guy’s mind right out of his body, leaving him a soulless automaton - like a noncon, in fact.

_Correct_, spoke Akin, from somewhere inside Yrtl’s head, _unless one is very careful. So I advise you stay still._

_You can read my thoughts?_ Yrtl was astonished.

_Of course. But the mundane fruits of your cognition are irrelevant. It's the vehicle in which they are contained - the mind - that is of interest to me. I need to borrow it, for the journey._

_What journey?_ asked Yrtl, _Where are you going?_

_To Heaven, in an applecart,_ said Akin, mixing metaphors with maniacal abandon.

_I've waited a long time for this..._