Even after waiting a minute the symptoms of him overdrafting his conceptual energy refused to go away. To not draw attention to himself Hale had no choice but to suppress the pain and work through it. A thought crossed his mind as he quickly took his phone out and flipped the camera. He looked at his image incredulously as he found that his eyes were completely gray. Not a hint of color within them, it even seemed that his pupils were beginning to turn into black holes as they absorbed everything around themselves. “Oh fuck me.” He whispered out.
He now had to hide his eyes so others wouldn’t get suspicious. He needed to hide this ability he had. He refused to be like those dead people he had stepped over.
After pulling himself together and taking a moment to adjust to the pain racking his body he focused on what he had learned. The moment he realized what it was he immediately forgot all thoughts of regretting his decision. In his mind he found the knowledge of a small toy. A teddy bear that you could press the stomach of and it would speak. But he knew much more than just that. Not only was he familiar with every inch of it, he knew exactly where it was. Even if he were to personally put that teddy bear where it is he wouldn’t know as many clear details.
Looking around he found that people were spread out all over the warehouse. Although it was abandoned there were still rows of metal racks with a few boxes on them, pallets and things strewn about. Although most of it was empty. Everyone seemed to be spaced out and minding their own business as they all searched around. Hale strategically meandered around as he worked his way closer to the location of the teddy bear. He knew it was in a small room that was against the west wall. Hale surmised it was once an office for one of the warehouse managers.
Hale found the teddy bear and examined it before getting closer. However, no matter how he looked at it he didn’t notice anything strange about it. Without knowing what else to do he pushed the belly to have it speak. In a gurgled and distorted robotic voice it said, “You will die soon.”
Hale was immediately taken aback. The moment he pressed it he finally got a gut feeling of what the concept is that intertwined with this bear. Prophecy. Being connected to a concept gave him a sort of innate instinct in recognizing other concepts. Not only did this concept sound particularly powerful and esoteric but the fact that the bear spoke meant that it could actually actively prophesize.
However, when Hale heard what the bear said the blood drained from his face. How much did he trust the musings of a teddy bear? So he asked a question as he pressed it again hoping to hear something different, “Why?”
“The moment you awakened you were guaranteed to die.” The bear said in its broken mechanical voice.
Hale’s face sunk as he heard the toy. This was not what he wanted to hear. The massacre of a few hours before was still fresh in his mind. He was stunned for a while, unable to decide what to do with this information. He was a logical person and thought of this situation logically. He took a deep breath and decided that more information will never hurt. It may help him dodge an early death.
“How will I die?” Hale whispered out.
“A knife through your heart.” The robotic voice said unemotionally after a few moments of silence.
“Who stabs me?” Hale was now sure that this is what could save his life. He wasn’t sure if prophecies were absolute or if the fact that the prophecy was said would alter the future and the prophecy may not come true but Hale had to hope it was the second option.
However, before the bear could speak again Ava opened the door and quickly snatched the toy from Hale’s hands before he could press the stomach again. She scowled as she looked at the bear and pieced the situation together.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“Using CIOs are not allowed.” Ava spat out like it was beneath her to talk to him.
Hale was incredulous at this situation. Was it fate that he wouldn’t hear the answer? Ava being the one that pulled it from his hands so quickly, it made him wonder if she had heard his question. What if she knew that she could be capable of something like killing a teammate. If she was afraid the answer was her. His mind spun but before he let his mind get away from him he remembered his eyes being gray. So he quickly dipped his head lower and refused to make eye contact with her.
She stared at him for a few moments before scoffing and walking off. He was suddenly thankful that she was such a shit person. She definitely irked him to no end, Hale hated getting looked down on, it was especially strange since she was a carbon copy of her sisters but he let it go.
He layed low and stayed in the back of the group as everyone came back together since they found the artifact. Jacob rushed to the van and came back with a metal briefcase where they put the teddy bear and locked it. It was much more hardcore than Hale would have guessed the security of such a thing was. The thing couldn’t move, it just spoke when someone pressed its stomach. But, wanting to lay low he was quiet and simply followed everyone else.
Cayden seemed to sense that something was strange with Hale but in the end he decided not to approach him. They had just seen something that could change someone drastically and he didn’t want to disturb Hale’s train of thought. Little did he know that Hale was thinking, but not about the dead, but on how he can stay alive.
Stabbed through the heart. Hale’s mind was racing to try to come to a solution. He had to break it down into its parts and deal with each one. Firstly, being killed in his sleep is a possibility. He has to be sure of his safety before he goes to bed now. The second part is the actual stabbing of the heart. Since he knew where the killing blow would be and how it would be done surely he could just wear a small metal plate under his shirt. That was usually something totally impractical but he was in a unique situation. He knew exactly where he was going to be stabbed, so why not wear some heavy duty armor just over that spot.
Eventually, the team pulled into the underground parking lot and parked next to the many other similar looking vans. Ava and Rick walked off with the briefcase that had the artifact in it. Hale had considered trying to find a way to use the teddy bear again to get further information but after seeing Ava personally protecting it he gave up that idea. She was weird and he definitely felt threatened by her.
The two with the briefcase went off in some other direction while the rest took the elevator up to where the little dorm rooms Hale had been in previously. On the elevator up Hale had a thought, even though he knew should keep a low profile because of his eyes, he had to ask.
“Do you guys ever get free time? Like, do people live in this office building forever?” Hale asked innocently as he stared at the screen that was slowly counting the floors that the elevator passed. For obvious reasons he couldn’t make eye contact.
Cayden let out a small chuckle before he said, “No, there are areas where there are only awakened people, in a more open setting. There are many people who just want to live a mostly normal life so they live in an awakened only suburb. But, usually only people who have useful concepts get the luxury to do something like that.”
“How do they stop objects from becoming artifacts?”
“Something to do with the concept of suppression. Artifact creation is a popular job. Imagine you have the concept of sharpness. If you could radiate a knife with your own concept then that knife would stay sharp forever, or maybe it could cut through metal. People would pay a lot for that. And if you could do something like that then why stay cramped in this office building?”
Hale found that it made sense but at the same time knew that something was missing. Not necessarily that Cayden was lying but just that he might not know the whole truth. From what he gathered during this mission, Cayden had the concept of binoculars. This at first seems useless but if he self created an artifact those binoculars could zoom 100x and still be clear people would surely pay a decent amount. If that’s the case then why is Cayden the leader of this scout unit and not out making artifacts?
They went their separate ways and Hale wanted to go to his room and instantly fall asleep as he was still wracked with pain and had a terrible migraine from using all his conceptual energy but he couldn't let himself relax just yet. He first went back to their team’s room where all the gear and monitors were so he could look for something for his master plan.