“The next ability I have is related to, but separate from my healing. I’ve found that I tend to pick things up pretty quickly. Almost in the sense that I can see what I’m supposed to do for certain actions. Not only that, but if I really concentrate… I can get an idea of things I shouldn’t know.”

At this, everyone looks confused, clearly not understanding what I mean, based on my wording.

Lin breaks the silence with a question. “So, are you saying that you are a quick learner or are a soothsayer?”

“Uh… not exactly. It might actually be easier to show you, than to try to explain it.” I look around quickly for something I can use.

Wait a second, doesn’t Gong know a second language of sorts?

Maybe I can use that.

Making a scrunched-up face, “So, Gong. I get the feeling that you know something… something like a second language. Related to signs?”

She was clearly looking confused until I had mentioned the signs.

She squints her eyes at me and sniffs.

“How would you… well, yes. Us demi-humans and human informants have a few ways to communicate secretly. Are you saying you actually know the language?”

“No, no, no. Not at all. However, I am pretty confident that if you wrote something on the wall using that language, I could figure it out.”

She looks so skeptical.

“Really. You know, did you know we switch up the codes and concepts from time to time? That way others can’t know what it means. There are a lot of layers to this. Are you sure you are still confident?”

Hook, line, and sinker. Now I know how magicians feel when pulling off a big trick.

It’s not only Gong that looks skeptical, but also Ai and Lin. Ai in particular is looking between Gong and I to see if we are acting.

She’s definitely the skeptic of the group. Probably, that’s what kept her and her sister alive for so long.

“I’m pretty confident. Though, I’m pretty sure there are limits on it.”

Lin speaks up at this point. “I think I can agree somewhat with James. When I was showing him stuff around the city, there were things that he would have no reason to know, but he seemed to just get.

“I didn’t think on it too much, since I assumed he was one of those really stupid, smart people. You know the ones where they are great at knowledge stuff, but really terrible at life stuff. Like the ‘not trusting a homeless orphan who just tried to rob them, giving them stupid amounts of money, and ask to make them their bodyguard’ type of stuff.”

The group glances at me quickly and nods between themselves.

Ouch. I’m a little hurt by that.

Though I kind of deserve it, if you put it that way.

Gong also adds, “Yeah, I can easily believe that.”

You didn’t have to say it though!

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“Well, I guess it couldn’t hurt to try out.” Using her spinneret and legs, she creates a design on the wall.

It really just looks like one of those psychoanalysis blobs to me. I totally wouldn’t have recognized it as a design. I guess it kind of looks like a blobby person.

Staring intensely at it, I check my intuitive scanning to see what it means.

My scanning reveals what it means.

It means “Stupid Guy, Beware.”

Not cool.

I give her a look. She seems a little shocked at my irritated look, but appears to reassure herself. “S-so, what does it say?”

“Stupid Guy… Beware.”

She gulps.

“Ah.”

She’s definitely surprised.

Ai and Lin look between the two of us. “Wait, so he actually got it?” Lin blurts out.

Gong doesn’t answer her, but instead gets quiet. She then asks, “How did you know? What did you look for?”

Good, I can work with this.

“When I looked at this, I got the feeling that the main blob represented a stupid person. However, I could tell some of the tiny blobs outside that main blob, reversed what the main blob meant. What was interesting, was there were two of them. So, I assumed they canceled each other out. The shape of the blob seemed unstable, representing danger.”

Now that I know what to look for, this type of sign isn’t too hard to parse. However, with no context… this would be impossible to figure out. There are just too many things this blob could look like. It looks like Gong is convinced though.

Gong responds, “You’re actually right. That’s what we look for in these. While I can sense a tiny bit of dishonesty, it smells like you actually just figured it out. Could it be th…”

Before Gong can continue, Ai interrupts her.

“I’m not sure that we can use that as proof.”

Oh no. What did she come up with?

Directed to me, she states, “James, you had mentioned that you remember nothing before waking up in that alleyway, right?”

I nod.

She nods in self-affirmation, before speaking further “It’s not uncommon for people who have been memory wiped to gain their partial memories back as they re-experience things.”

Turning to Gong, “While probably unlikely, is there any way an informant may have shared the concept behind interpreting these signs?”

With a bit of thought, Gong nods “Yeah, definitely. We weren’t the ones who came up with this system. Apparently, slaves in another country came up with it and our guys just adopted it. It’s really just meant to give us a quick bit of information, that can be difficult to detect or understand, if you aren’t looking for it.

“It also wouldn’t be weird to assume that I would know the system, since you can probably guess I pass around information and that we’ve passed many of them already.”

Ah shit. That actually makes sense. Great excuse, in fact. If I was trying to hide information from them. Which I am… but not that much.

Round two.

“Hmm… that’s a good point. I have another example then. Gong and Lin can go deep into the caverns, in a place that I wouldn’t have any business knowing what they are doing, and make a series of hand signals. All while you watch me to see if I do anything strange. When they come back, I’ll see if I can tell what they did.”

After some thought, the three seem to add some additional limitations. “You should take all of your tames and place them somewhere else.”

Before they run off, though, Gong stops everyone. “Wait a second. This could be a similar situation to the last one.”

Really? I’m a bit confused.

I’m not alone in my confusion. Gong clarifies.

“You all have probably guessed that I can smell emotions among other things. Not only that, but I can sense a lot more than humans can.”

Everyone nods to that.

“Well, I also have other ways of sensing things.” She goes to the floor and plucks one of the transparent lines.

“Using these, I’m able to determine a lot of things, like where people are and how many are there. These are all over the caverns and the area around the entrance.”

From the reactions of the two, they never noticed.

That’s probably because they didn’t come from a world where tripwires were in basically every action or war movie.

“Not only that, but now that I have access to the spiders, I can barely sense what they see and feel.”

Wait, really?! Let me try that!

Immediately, I try to connect to my cockroach.

Okay. I can feel his thoughts toward me… wait a second. She may be right. It’s faint, but I can get a small idea of where and what she’s looking at. I’ve also discovered the cockroach is a she. Not sure if that will matter.

“Huh, you are right. I didn’t consciously notice that.”

Gong nods. “Me neither, I just had a thought after just “knowing” something that was happening in the spider room.”

Should I really continue pushing this?

Yeah.

I’ll give it one last push on the last area. Though I think this will just reinforce their current thoughts, based on the pattern.

“Okay then, I have one more for you guys and it’s related to when I healed you all.”