Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Instead, she’d gone for the printing option. Only…
“This chair will collapse if I sit on it.” She sighed as she accepted the truth; it wasn’t the object’s fault she’d put it together with such a lack of skill or finesse.
At least her cabin was usable. Soon as her mind had begun to function well enough to consider her options, she’d ordered this build—a build that was machine prefabricated. The contractors who’d put it together had done so using heavy-duty gloves, under secondary shielding provided by a Scott security team.
She’d then left the cabin “fallow” for a month.
So far, she’d only picked up the odd “ghost” in the materials, mostly faint echoes of a detail-oriented machine operator. It helped that she had a habit of wearing socks most of the time.
It wasn’t, however, psychometric tripwires alone about which Auden had to worry.
Utilizing financial sleight of hand that she’d learned at her father’s knee, she’d secretly purchased a small but high-spec surveillance detection device. She’d run the first scan upon her arrival, discovered two cameras and three listening devices, but would do another scan today to confirm she’d eliminated the bugs. After that, she’d check the bunker for any hidden threats—just in case.
Then she’d consider how to create a foolproof exit strategy for the child in her womb.
For now, she needed to put up her feet—and with the chair out of the question, it would have to be the futon laid directly on the floor. An impractical bed for a woman in her state; getting either down to it, or up from it was a major operation.
It was also the only option.
“I haven’t slept for the past week,” she’d told Charisma when the other woman balked at Auden’s refusal to even consider a bed frame. “I’ve started to sense details from the workers who assembled my bed here at the house, and I’ve had that for years.”
Charisma’s pupils had expanded. “Your sensitivity is that intense?”
“Unfortunately.”
The futon itself was borrowed from B2cc, a fellow psychometric who’d offered it to pregnant designation-mates.
B2cc: I’ve given birth and my imprint sensing is back to normal. This will carry my imprint, but I’ve heard that Ps-Psy leave weak imprints as a rule, so if anyone wants to test it, you’re welcome.
Auden, sleep-deprived and desperate, had taken the invitation. And would report back that the woman who’d offered the futon had been right. She could sense the other Ps-Psy, but it was a fuzzy knowing at best. No hard edges. No intrusiveness.
Even though they’d never met, Auden trusted her fellow anonymous psychometrics in a way she trusted no one else. They wanted nothing from her except information—the same thing she wanted from them in return. The kindness shown by B2cc…it had been an unexpected and generous gift, and Auden intended to pay that kindness forward.
Because Ps-Psy were on their own.
No one had ever studied psychometrics. Likely because they were no threat to anyone. Despite the legends, there was no evidence that a psychometric had ever killed someone using their ability.
Even empaths could wound or kill people with their ability. It hurt the E to do so, but at least they had an offensive tool in their toolbox. Could be that was where the legends of “assassin psychometrics” had come from—because while the Council had left Ps-Psy alone during their attempted purge of empaths, psychometrics were as tied to emotion as empaths.
The big difference, however, was that Ps-Psy could distance themselves by only working with objects old enough that the emotional resonance was so faded as to be negligible. Empaths had no such choice. Es also came into direct contact with violent emotions, the reason why they could utilize it as a weapon in exigent circumstances.
Prior to the fall of Silence, Auden and others like her had only experienced emotion thirdhand. Other people’s emotions, other people’s memories. Imprinted onto the objects they’d left behind. Add in the passage of time as occurred with most items handled in museums and Ps-Psy had never been a threat to the protocol.
Especially since they’d never been one of the more numerous designations. Their numbers had continued to decline in Silence because it was only the odd academic family that bred for a psychometric. Families like Auden’s wanted offensive powers. If not that, then at least a designation like F, which would add to the family coffers.
Instead, her parents—two telepaths who were both beyond 9 on the Gradient—had produced a 9.4 psychometric.
Older psychometrics on the forum said that back during their time, they used to believe the NetMind was the reason for rogue psychometric births. That the neosentience that was the librarian and guardian of the Net was balancing out the psychic ecosystem to stop the extinction of their designation.
Auden had never come into contact with the NetMind and word on the Net was that it was dead, driven mad then murdered by the horrific ongoing breakdown of the PsyNet.