Overlap: The Other Side

<03/29/149,518 {Avion 148} – 16:55 | Research Station NC-3, Genosis, Altiri Sector Space>

Though most of my days spent in the past were not so memorable, the instance of purge experiment #13 became a moment always jumping at me later on. In the human era of 1962, I cared only about selective factors of people and their lives as we watched with our clairvoyant powers, wanting and waiting for something interesting.

Like most, I was constantly bored, yet I had forgotten through time that all which may come to interest us, isn't always good for the person of interest. I wasn't thinking about that in the beginning of the moment though, as myself, Sherika, and Derria split off from our aggressor group to independently board a distant research station. The idea to look into this development was not of my own, yet we were already arriving from the docking station, soon to be greeted by the scryers who work here.

I actually don't care to be here. This was initially Sherika's desire. Like many other Altiri, she had been wanting to learn more about a recent development in a special report regarding one of the purge experiments. Sherika asked the entire aggressor group to go with her, and to my own surprise, I wasn't the only one who could care less. Only Derria offered to go, and I was guilted into going since the station had a strange rule about having at least three aggressor group representatives dock to learn of the report. I didn't voice any of my concerns though, bored as I was. I simply let Sherika absorb herself with the wealth of information she was looking forward to, or however she put it.

"I know you don't really want to be here Lumina, but at least pretend to understand the significance of this moment." Sherika turned to speak to me while continuing to walk herself backwards in where we were going, and she didn't hide that she knew how I felt, being linked and all.

Derria might be the type to go along to get along, but I'm not exactly set in this way. "I shouldn't have to pretend anything Sherika. You know already that I don't care about this stuff as much as you do, so why ask for me to play the part in the first place?"

"Because the scryers who work here put in a ton of effort getting the information they were able to get."

"Yeah, filtered and redacted information," I reminded precariously. Sherika isn't exactly wrong in her statement. The scryers who work at these research stations are a rank below the Royal Scryers who run all information of The Unity. The Royal Scryers are the ones who know every little detail about purge subjects and the aggressor groups handling those purges. Ordinary scryers can conduct psionic research relatively unimpeded, except when it comes to any identifiable information pertaining to either Altiri or humans involved in a purge or even a potential purge candidate.

So, the only other way to collect psionic information from the human world, for anything relevant at least, is to get that information from what is learned about the different form of telepathy between an Altiri node and a human node, or in other terms, a single purge, or purge experiment as the scientific scryers call them. Since that information is well-guarded, the Royal Scryers won't give it up willingly, but in furthering the interest of empirical psionic research and data, the Royal Scryers will often take what they learn, change and redact names to fictitious values, and allow only the scientific aspects of data and numbers to be published. If instead the report is more anecdotal, then everything about the story with redone, fictitious names, locations, exact timeframes, and other renamed elements.

This is actually the process by which our own psionic research has been slowly advancing, if ever so slowly. There are some interesting things to be learned by studying humans, especially in those who get purged, since they might develop unusual psionic abilities not native to our own kind. The research itself has mostly hit a brick wall for a long time, and even with new purges going on, that wall is hard to push back.

So yeah, these ordinary scryers of Research Station NC-3 probably worked really hard and begged the higher-ups for some sort of report; I'm not denying that. What I don't care for, is the idea of coming all this way to learn nothing of value concerning psionics. I've already been hearing rumors about this case, since it has been out for a while, and one aspect to the rumors is that little if any of the report contains new information on psionic fields and energy, let alone nothing about special ability development. Therefore, I have every right to be bored out of my mind right now.

In partial disagreement, Derria nearly copied Sherika's movement while Sherika reset her own walking pace, looking at me with longing eyes of desperation, likely just a ploy to have me feel the same as her. "Aren't you the least bit curious about Two-Week Girl?"

"Two-Week Girl?" I nearly laughed at the stupid name. I know Derria wasn't the one who was calling it that... Is the report really titled "Two-Week Girl?" In any case, I have heard of the phrase already, from those telepathic rumors we ask about.

The queen has a strong adherence to her communication ban between all parties to or from aggressor groups where it concerns anything personal and often tactical. Violations are not nothing, but it isn't an intense punishment if caught red-handed either. Even so, many engage in rumor and muddle up the details on purpose, almost as a kind of cipher to prevent any trace back to who may have started such rumor or other details which might highlight attention to a particular Altiri individual. Apparently, if I heard right, the purge is about Purge #13, and the unknown individual is being dubbed "Two-Week Girl" because her purged started and finished in the span of only two weeks. The purge itself is not recent, but for some unusual reason, details about this are being released (after being filtered) to scryers, people like those on this very station, who we are about to meet. I don't actually know if the two-week purge thing is true; not all details about a rumor make total sense, and I for one do not believe this to be true.

"All the same," Sherika spoke up as we approached the presentation room, "you're free to listen, or just walk around if you really are that bored. However, if possible, I want to be the one to ask them questions, unless they don't care about limitations."

"I always forget Sherika can be like this." I barely whispered loudly enough for Derria to hear me, though a slight wince from Sherika told me she heard me anyway, despite ignoring my comment.

"So what if she is? I happen to like that about Sherika. She's always interested in learning about psionics. She's also smart, much like Rose, just more outspoken about it. If anything, it wouldn't shock me if Rose and Sherika ever one day decide to become scryers themselves."

I've thought about the same idea myself a while back. Becoming a scryer has some benefits that aggressor groups don't have, and one of those benefits is the ability to combat boredom. In human language, the closest equivalent to a scryer would be a scientist. Scryers are always out to collect data, get answers, and learn more about the world around us. Our prolonged resource shortage makes most scientific fields of study very difficult to conduct, but for the field of psionics, that isn't as much a problem. Physical and electronic equipment is not needed to study psionics, only our brains must do the work. Now that we can partially combine what we learn from ACS414 and our own spectrum of psionic research, some more has been learned too, but there is still a cut-off point.

This is one reason I didn't want to become a scryer; learning more about the world would be awesome, but I want to only take part in something if I can always learn more. There have been some new and amazing developments about psionics ever since the purges began, but lately, not too much has been uncovered... I think I would go mad if I spent all my life trying to learn more about something, only to learn nothing or so little. If Sherika wants that role, fine, but I'm not going to join her if she does, not for this reason at least. Human behavior, for better or worse is far more interesting to me, because there seems to be no limit. I thought I had humanity pegged entirely, but with each new generation of births also comes lots of change in that world, and so there is always something to learn. Aggressor Groups have special privileges to use clairvoyance on ACS414 constantly and exclusively; we don't have to be scryers to study humans. Let's ignore the fact that scryers also get more or less the same privileges regarding clairvoyance.

"I'll just hang back and listen in." I didn't want to give either of my sisters the idea that I was being rude. I really don't want to let them down. Sherika begged me to go with her, since coming out this way would have been easier with my presence, since I have a leadership rank and all. I'm still going to let them do the talking though.

Before long, we entered the presentation room, separate from many other facilities onboard designed for different areas and levels of research. The central terminal was already powered on and linked to an enlarged monitor to view the relevant documents and files. They would have had to carry a portable cartridge with the data on it over here from the temple, since none of the terminals are networked between ships or stations. I could already tell this was going to be one of those things where the scryers try to explain the details for us, instead of just allowing us to read in silence. All the same, there were plenty of places to sit in silence and listen, but first we had to greet the unfamiliar faces.

"Sherika! Hey! Welcome to the meeting."

"Good day to yourself Lovithica. Hope you haven't tired yourself out going over this to everyone else."

Sherika knows her? When did she buddy up with random scryers? Hm, I 'm just going let this play out. I stood patiently with a smile, waiting to be introduced, ensuring my internal thoughts were a bit silent and mute for now. We Altiri do not have to be telepathically linked to read our own minds after all.

"Ehahah, yeah you know I'm going to lose my voice sooner or later, but it looks like you and I care most about learning more, and this case is interesting to say the least. Oh, but I seem to be excusing my lack of greeting to your friends." Lovithica looked right at me and Derria, waiting on either us or Sherika to introduce her only company, and Sherika naturally did all of the talking.

"Right, right. Lovithica? This is Derria, my sister and one of my co-crew for our ship. The other one is Lumina, leader of our collective unit of the Cy-Stars."

"Good to meet you Lovithica." Derria and I both said this at the same time, though I wasn't expecting the abrupt hug she gave us after. I didn't oppose to the hug, but it gave me too many sensations at once to react normally. Also, she has an interesting name for a Scryer, the pronunciation being (Lō-vĪ-thë-kah).

"My name is Skirie. I'm Lovithica's partner. I used to specialize as a scryer of human dreams, but my interests eventually shifted to moments like this one." The woman was in all aspects beautiful and young looking; a sign that she has had many more resurrections than average for Altiri, and also, her pronunciation just now was (Sky-rë), for anyone confused about the unique spelling.

"Human dreams huh?" I don't know if my tone came off as disinterested or subtle, but her past study reminded me of another benefit scryers stick to. A scryer can of course specialize in any field of study they want, and leave whenever they want; there isn't any long-term obligation to lock one's self into any position or voluntary job.

"Yep. We can't ever see any details about what these dreams look like, but people talk about them sometimes. The Royal Scryers are supposed to give out some information on it since we could learn more from knowledge of purged subjects, but, that hasn't happened too often."

I was interested in human dreams, but not as enthusiastic as Skirie was right now. Nevertheless, I'm sure my presence here is registered enough for me to go and sit down... I'm in a strange mood today. "Interesting. I'm just here to listen today, but please answer any questions either of us have." I nodded to Sherika, caring not if she was trying to get me to make any particular impression, while I took my seat in waiting.

It was a few minutes before the meeting officially started. Both of these two scryers have had the opportunity to discuss this in great lengths to many interested parties, and will continue to do so until this rumor dies down. At the very least, I'm glad they both feel honored to get the credit for delivering this report. When we all took our seats, Lovithica and Skirie remained standing, Skirie on the terminal for occasional data scrolling and the Lovithica facing us as a presenter.

Chapter Theme Shift: Dimensional Pulsation ~ Raven of Light (Dimensional Journey)

"So, we're here today to discuss a special case file concerning purge experiment number thirteen, or as we will refer to, Mylla." Despite Lovithica's enthusiasm, I had to pause in my own mind to confirm what I already knew. Mylla's name among many others soon to be used is fictitious. The person is real, but the name will be altered to protect her identity. "Purged by reference name AG-13, Mylla has captured our interest for a variety of reasons. The very first and most important detail which stands out here is the record setting purge cycle duration. We already have the longest record of a purge on file going for two years, with an average of nine months. However, Mylla is a special outlier, because her purge completed in only the time of two weeks, which occurred in the first month of this very same year."

I didn't want to show any feeling to this given what I already said to Sherika, but hearing that first part of the news was shocking in itself. The rumors spoke truth then? Mylla only had to wait two weeks to be purged? And how is this allowed to be shared when the purge was so recent ago?! Details about purged humans only ever get released about a hundred years after the human node dies.

Seeing she had our interest, Lovithica continued. "There are a number of outliers to this purge, and in fact we don't yet understand what happened to make this purge accelerate with such speed; it wasn't intentional, according to testimony provided by AG-13. With Mylla's recent missing status, many are already calling this specific purge a failure, for reasons beyond physical means at least."

"Missing status? So this wasn't a successful purge? Tell me she's at least alive!" Derria was just as concerned as I was, though I was glad she was the one asking instead of me.

"Whether or not Mylla's life is expired is not something we yet know of. I pressed on this detail with the Royal Scryers, but they didn't want to tell me that information, which leads me to believe she might still be alive, and possibly rejected the link. Truth be told, I don't really know if she is alive or dead, and AG-13 might not yet know it either."

Skirie spoke about this some more after Lovithica have herself a second to breathe. "In any case, what we quickly learned from this experience, putting all personal details aside, is that this two-week purge had some serious and adverse side-effects on the target individual, most of these side effects not being something anyone would wish for... The montrum induced by the purge would have been extra powerful, perhaps more so from motivating influences of this global space race the humans have going on. While it isn't mentioned in a concise manner, enough mentions about the montrum suggest that the specific montrum Mylla underwent was one of the most intense of all its time. Essentially, each and every effect and cycle of this purge was amplified far beyond what would be considered ordinary, since its speed was hastened. Whether or not all information made it through is unknown as well."

I couldn't deny it, and neither could Sherika. "This is awful you two! Why are so many people excited to learn about something so terrible?" Sherika knew as well as I did that, if any particular woman on Earth was found worth purging by anybody, then they would have to be an exceptional person in many aspects, a caring soul who many could love, and so AG-13 must be heartbroken right now.

"Many don't yet know the specifics of even what we have shared with you, though by the end of a few more cycles, everyone will know. The rumors floating around do mention that no new psionic information can be learned about this purge. While I personally attest that this is inaccurate, Skirie nor I prioritize the significance of that to the personal hell Mylla is suffering."

At last, I decided to speak my mind, angry at myself that I assumed this would be so mundane. "Don't you think the Royal Scryers should just tell AG-13 what her actual status is? I know that those clowns are certain of her whereabouts, and they're not saying everything. If she really is suffering from a broken purge, she should get to hear why from her own pairing."

"Lumina, was it?" Skirie seemed to take interest in me for some reason, lacking the same anxiety. "You've never actually looked at or examined in detail any report about a purged subject, have you?"

"... No, why?"

"Lovithica and I have, several times over. It's what we have focused on for so long now. There are some personal and psychological factors of a purge you need to understand first, before understanding the reason why Mylla might not want to contact her own aggressor group. This isn't looking like a case of, somebody got upset about the purge; rather, it's looking a lot more like Mylla may have suffered from serious psychological ailments instead, resulting of course from this purge. We were able to confirm at some point she was taken to an undisclosed medical institution, even though she isn't there presently. We unfortunately have more details on purge related data than anything else, and it is clear that at least the very first connection was maintained for a proper duration."

I felt even worse trying to imagine any personal hell within the scope of someone's own mind... Is the purge really such an intrusive tool, that it warps perceptions strongly enough to invoke pure insanity? Is that what happened to Mylla? Did the purge do too much too fast, turning her into a mental vegetable? "I... I can't believe it."

Lovithica seemed a little relieved to see my own reaction. "I'm glad all of you are sensible. I won't mention who, but there have been a small number of people who didn't show any sympathy for Mylla's situation, not an ounce. They cared only about the empirical data and psionic aspects of this specific purge."

"Lumina, Derria, and I are not that heartless... But it pains me to know there is nothing any of us can do."

"Indeed there isn't. You see, there are still many unknown aspects about the purge, even though we now have thirteen of them on file. Our goal as scryers in this instance is to hypothesize the reason why this one went so poorly, so that we might prevent a repeat instance in the future for those who want to invoke their own purge. It's also important to see if we can learn any other factors about the purge in general from what Mylla went through, such as, why the montrum aspect of this purge was the very first part that went out of control before everything else."

Despite how I felt going into this meeting before, it took everything within me to hold back, on curiosity and desperation to learn more about Mylla. Purging has become a recent hot topic among our race, and even I have at times had thoughts about purging specific human individuals. It makes me wonder what it would take, makes me dwell on what side-effect this would have for us and the target... I used to not care at all for how our interventions in the human world would affect their race if the consequences were potentially negative, which in Mylla's case is the truth. It really doesn't sit right with me.

However, as Skirie just said, there were other details about the purge I was obviously missing. Our team learned about the purge more than once in a station just like this, yet even with repeat lessons and time, we don't remember every little detail. "The montrum phase of the purge is only the second phase, right? That would mean, whatever went wrong with Mylla's purge would have begun almost immediately."

"Your memory is correct Lumina," Sherika credited. "The study of the purge as we learned states that montrum is a very important if not critical state of a purge... Though the reasons as to why still elude me." Sherika turned her gaze to Lovithica, assuming she might know the answer.

"Some of those theories about each phase was initially theoretical, and some of it incidental at best, but we are certain that montrum plays a fully critical role in the drive and completion of the purge. I don't actually understand why either. Herios never had time to explain why, before she died."

"Tell me something you two..." I paused before asking, really imagining in depth all I could to come up with some kind of answer. "What exactly is a montrum? What does it feel like? I've heard the standard definition before, but it isn't really helping me understand things anymore."

Skirie offered to explain, despite warning us of the long winded explanation. "I have done studies on montrum, so I know a bit more, but still am limited in what I know. Montrum can come in many forms, and its definition is a bit vague, because the montrum that comes from a purge and one that occurs naturally have severe levels of difference in intensity. Montrum by definition is a mental obsession over a particular subject matter, an obsession so deep and strong, it overrides all other emotion in the moment. Many might refer to it as a good sensation for stimulus, because the brain is going full speed on the subject of a montrum."

Derria raised her hand next to infer more on our behalf. "You said the montrum from a purge is different though. How?"

"Normal montrums occur naturally, but a purge forces the brain to endure one. The subject matter of that montrum can be fairly selective, but given our nature, it's more often about space or aliens. The subject matter isn't what is important though. Simply having a montrum at all has effects on the brain and the body, and for some reason has a positive reaction to the Cora."

"You're saying that a strong enough montrum can boost psionic aptitude in a human?"

"Yes," Skirie affirmed. "It is still very difficult to prove, but this case in particular highlights much about a montrum that we were not aware of before. I'm sorry Lumina, but describing how a montrum feels is difficult even for us, especially when the montrum scale is so different in a purge. You'd have to imagine a level of wonder and certainty combined together, and intensified a thousand fold. Montrum of this scale can open up the mind to many new experiences, but some of us have also wondered if it can cause psychological harm. It hasn't before, but what happened to Mylla is very unique."

"Let me guess," Derria returned with something in mind. "The montrum of the purge is supposed to be very intense, as a phase to increase the psionic aptitude of the target human. This montrum is mostly a psychological effect, changing exactly how the brain thinks and what the mind focuses on for subject matter. The purge forces this montrum to happen, and so as a result, the montrum in question is always powerful and overwhelming within a standard purge. But because Mylla's purge was accelerated, you think the montrum phase was also accelerated too?"

"This is mostly correct," Lovithica presented with interest. "We're not actually sure which came first. Did the montrum spiral out of control first, causing everything else to accelerate in a harmful manner? Or, was this an instance where the montrum did most of the damage but wasn't the main culprit? We unfortunately do not know. All we know about Mylla, is that in only the span of two weeks' time, about eight months of Altiri information was crammed into her head, while at the same time, the montrum within her was powered on strongly, probably combining its aspect with the information phase of the purge, as well as combining with any unknown ability phase if ever it triggered. I can't say for certain why this happened, but I am confident in deducing that Mylla suffered from powerful delusions and hallucinations from this, to a point where her entire reality was altered far beyond what the purge was designed to have her notice."

"So then, she's in a psyche ward? If she believes she is crazy, then this is worse than I imagined."

Putting aside Derria's concern, Lovithica reminded us what the unknowns were. "We cannot be certain where she is, but these effects have the potential to actually make Mylla clinically insane, by total definition. When a montrum becomes more powerful, anything else unusual experienced during that moment also becomes a stronger reality overlapped onto the direct sensory input. For all Mylla knows, she really might have gone insane from the purge, seen things that weren't real but were tangible enough to her to believe it so. You could say, the purge worked too well as it started to shift her mind."

"Are you sure that it was the montrum phase that did all this damage and nothing else?"

"Mostly certain, yes. A purge was never designed to be dangerous or deadly in any regard, but the montrum aspect of it, especially being forced, can make the cycles of a purge more powerful. The montrum phase is almost like an amplifier for the rest of the signal and data input, and even when given to someone in safe amounts, the sensation of the montrum itself, as we've been told, can be a highly addictive sensation to those who are purged, mostly because the sensation is rare and never felt by any other means. The reason the montrum is the literal second phase of the purge is because, Herios was certain that without this phase, the other phases would fail to be motivated enough to function."

"Okay... If the montrum aspect of a purge is not something most people understand too well, how in the world does it end up in the purge signals sent by the aggressor groups who do invoke purges?"

"There's a bit more complexity about the purge that I don't understand. I've been told two contradicting statements, one that suggests that knowledge of the montrum is an initial requirement to properly send a purge, and another statement that suggests this montrum phase is a natural aspect of personal focus from psionic signature. I believe the second statement is true, because not all aggressor groups have had much knowledge on the aspects of a montrum."

I didn't want to keep asking the same question, to avoid looking like a dunce, but it was just so confusing to me. Basically, the montrum forced on humans by a purge, a powerful sensation of infinite wonder and curiosity combined with a mysterious level of self-certainty to that montrum, happens to be an amplifier for boosting psionic aptitude. Is a montrum an amplifier for all psionic signals and abilities, or just this one thing? If it was already powerful enough to control a person's thoughts in an ordinary purge, I can't imagine what Mylla went through.

"What we do know, is that this certainty sensation within the montrum of a normal purge is just below the threshold value of what can effectively override affirmations within the psyche and, in a figurative sense, alter that person's whole reality. So, if Mylla's montrum was amplified uncharacteristically, then every perception of the purge she would have experienced would be far too real to deny, more potent than her own biological senses. For these reasons among other testimony, we believe that the quickened duration of her purge swiftly made her clinically insane in a number of ways. Of course, we are still waiting for more news to come out about this. It takes nine or so months for telepathy from a purge to atrophy if not properly used, so a lot might change within that time frame."

"Now I'm beginning to wonder why this report was released in the first place." Sherika had the right idea questioning where the motivation for this was coming from, as I wanted to know too. Will Skirie explain?

"The reasons are a combination of wanting to learn more about the purge from an unusual incident, and using that information to prevent the same incident from occurring. The Royal Scryers and the queen know what they are doing by enlisting our help without directly asking. If we can't figure out what went wrong, and this isn't some isolated incident, the very future of purges could be in jeopardy."

"I really feel bad for Mylla though." Derria spoke what we were all thinking. "Considering current events on ACS414, I would imagine that the space race and launching into the atmosphere was probably all Mylla could think about. I wonder if she's been living a life of entire fantasy while being stuck not knowing anything else for those two weeks, and I really hope somebody is taking good care of her."

"It's a messy situation for AG-13, because even if Mylla somehow does make a full psychological recovery, the experience itself will become a most powerful deterrent to reject any further contact with her own aggressor group. Testimony from AG-13 stated that Mylla wasn't entirely all there when the purge completed and linked them together. I personally think the effects of the montrum were way too strong, and kept her in the altered state for too long even after the end of the purge cycle was finished."

"Now I want to know what a montrum on that scale actually feels like." I don't want to go insane either, but if something is strong enough that it can alter my very own thoughts and emotions, I have to know what it really feels like... But Altiri cannot be purged, so we cannot experience a montrum of that scale.

"So far, all we've been able to confirm is that montrums have the power to be unintentionally dangerous, by extension of the purge. A montrum on its own is a kind of self-satisfying principle within the mind of any person at this power level, and so trying to resist its pull is impossible. Since the sensation is proving to be highly addictive in a fair amount of purged humans, we can only conclude that purging has more risk than we once thought for the target individual. We are also certain that montrum has some unknown boosting effect on psionic ability, though the exact specifics on why or how remain under investigation."

"I'm getting the sense that this is all you can tell us about Mylla."

"Sherika is correct," Lovithica answered. "We have a lot of unknowns and uncertainties, so we are working with all the facts first. The facts are, Mylla's purge completed way too quickly, affected her mind in horrifying ways, and alerted us to a new potent danger of purging. This danger partly extends to aggressor groups too, since this would be considered a soft failure. If Mylla, recovered or not, chooses not to get in contact with AG-13 after this experience, then AG-13 would have lost their ability to purge for eternity, gaining nothing in return, and instead, living with the guilt that they unwillingly hurt someone in the process."

Such admission was already a lot for me to handle. I hated the mere idea of our involvement in the human world hurting anybody worthy of our appraisal, or worthy of a purge for that matter. It reminded me that a purge can succeed while the overall goal of one can still falter. If for example a subject purged decides they do not believe in aliens despite what they went through and despite their montrum, then the purpose of that purge is lost. Other times, the stress of a purge alone might be too much for somebody to bear psychologically...

Skirie is right. I should have studied more about these purges, to see what they are doing to these poor humans. If there has been even a single instance besides this one where any human has quit their own life over the shock of our presence, then purging should be something we avoid, the risks too great.

How did the very first few humans react to our purge? What about every number before thirteen? What about every number after? I can see now why Sherika and Derria wanted to come. I'll be sure to tell all my sisters about this moment when we get back... But much about this case still bothers me. If a montrum can cause this much psychological damage to a human, something that can rewrite someone's subjective reality instantly on its face, then it means montrums can be weaponized. Maybe I'm overthinking it a little, but I really want to find out where Mylla is, just so that I can apologize to her on behalf of The Unity. This is not merely the responsibility of AG-13 and the scryers, but of all of us, for encouraging these purges as often as we do now. Somehow, I still feel that many more purges will arrive in the future, no matter what happens with Mylla and her group.

"It sucks that we cannot control the duration of a purge as it does its job, the timing randomized. I can only hope this never happens again. Montrum might be the key in discovering where our powers come from, but it can also be a dangerous and addictive sensation to mess with." Skirie wasn't joking around as she said this, and I agreed with every word. If we incidentally hurt even one more human from our own meddling, what will become of Humanity and The Unity?