“Which ones?” Solomon asked with a sceptical look.
“Any, just… in general, do you have any beliefs whatsoever?” Aelfred replied.
After a moment of thought, Solomon earnestly shook his head, “To be honest, I’ve never really thought about it. I and the others have been raised in relative seclusion - our upbringing has been focused on academics and physical fitness.”
The older man stroked his beard and remarked, “Indeed, though I did expect you to have some thoughts, especially considering how much you like to speculate and mull things over,”
Solomon shrugged with a slight smile, before returning the conversation to its initial topic, “Besides, does it really matter? If they were real, how would they help us?”
“Well, that depends on which religion you’re looking at,” Aelfred chuckled, matching his protege’s expression.
Solomon placed down his pen and stretched in his seat, weary from several hours of continuous study.
“I have to admit, though. Out of everything, the two things I am least knowledgeable about are religion and people,” He acknowledged.
Aelfred sighed, “Just answer the question.”
Clearly, he wanted to get straight to the point.
“Alright. No, I don’t really believe in the gods, and even if I did, would it matter?”
Hearing this reply, Aelfred couldn’t help but feel a sense of nostalgia. He seemed to be transported back to Hu’s deathbed, where he had received a similar question and had given a similar answer himself.
Solomon noticed that the older man seemed to have become absentminded, as if he were in a daze.
“Lord?” He asked cautiously.
Aelfred blinked. His eyes quickly constricted and refocused on the handsome, amber-eyed young man before him. After a moment, he shook his head with a silent laugh, before standing up with a grunt.
“Come with me. I’d like to show you something,” He beckoned with a wave.
Solomon obliged with curiosity. He followed Aelfred through a maze of corridors through the 9th floor, before stopping inside Aelfred’s office. He watched as Aelfred undid security measure after security measure - every time a scan or a passcode lock was completed, Solomon couldn’t help but think to himself, ‘Surely that should be it?’
But there were always more. Eventually, and fortunately, the barrage of locks ran out after a while longer. Aelfred gave Solomon an awakening tap on the shoulder before leading him into a space which the latter had never seen in his 18 years spent living here.
“What is this place?” Solomon wondered aloud.
Aelfred responded by pulling a large white covering sheet, revealing four old cylindrical tanks.
“The place you were born,” He gestured grandly.
Solomon couldn’t help but walk up to one of the tanks and place his hand on the glass panel. As artificial humans, he and the other new men did not have organic parents. Their DNA was a finely tuned concoction of combinations from a variety of different species, hybridised to produce a pinnacle lifeform.
Of course, while all carbon-based lifeforms were composed of the same nucleotides, it was the intensely varied combination that allowed for the diverse array of organisms their DNA coded for. The new men were designed with the human body as a template, eliminating unnecessary redundancies, reducing weaknesses and implementing advantages from the post-Apocalypse world’s flora and fauna.
Solomon marvelled at the small laboratory Aelfred had shown him. It was the place where the next stage in human evolution had started.
Aelfred allowed Solomon to admire the place for a while longer before speaking again.
“That’s not the main point of this trip. I have something more important to show you.”
Solomon felt a little unstable. What could be more important than his birthplace?
The two passed through another corridor and emerged in a room slightly smaller than the laboratory they had just come from. The new room was built like a large cube, with a width, height and length of 20 metres each.
The place was almost completely bare aside from a pedestal in the very centre. Aelfred limped over and held his right hand over the embossed top.
After a moment, a panel in the floor descended. Seconds later, it reemerged bearing a large glass box. It looked similar to a jewellery display cabinet that one might find in a women’s accessory store. On the cushion within the glass sat three different gemstones of similar sizes.
Aelfred gestured for the bewildered new man to have a look as he undid the clasps and opened the glass container.
“This is Striking Amber,” He pointed to an egg-shaped amber stone. He then directed Solomon’s gaze to the middle-most gemstone on its right, “This is the Jadeite Echo.”
Finally, he pointed at the one closest to Solomon, “And that is the Cerulean Cat’s Eye.”
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Seeing that Solomon wasn’t sure of how to react, Aelfred smiled sagely. “After the Apocalypse, what were the biggest changes that happened to this world?”
“Widespread death of man and animal alike, and the subsequent rapid mutation of the survivors,” Solomon answered almost instantly.
“What else?”
“The ‘mutation’ of inanimate objects to become resonant materials,” Solomon added, after a brief pause.
Aelfred nodded in satisfaction, clasping his hands behind his back. With the air of a teacher, he began narrating, “The Apocalypse itself is a very unscientific event. It occurred without warning, and its global coverage is unprecedented amongst any disaster recorded in human history. What’s most peculiar is how it not only altered the organisms living on our planet, but also basic matter.”
“Resonant materials are very special. While the mutations that impacted animals and plants are understandable from a scientific standpoint, resonant materials are not. In many cases, the base molecular structures which make up a simple rock may have become superimposed with those of a living plant, forming an entirely new organism. In other cases, the properties of cooling magma may become entangled with those of ice, producing a stone which emits both heat and cold.”
Solomon nodded. While these anomalies had become something that everyone had grown accustomed to, they were still anomalies. They were indecipherable to even the best thinkers mankind had to offer.
Perhaps in a few generations’ time, technology would advance far enough for the anomalies to be understood. Until that time, however, they were like the first humans to discover fire.
Solomon looked down at the three gemstones before him, “So you’re saying that these are resonant materials?”
Aelfred nodded, “Close, but not quite. These are something I call ‘Philosopher’s Stones’. Unlike most resonant materials which have very passive effects, Philosopher’s Stones are normally dormant, but can be activated for supernatural effects. They’re resonant materials with an ‘on’ and ‘off’ switch.”
He turned to look at Solomon.
“Some special people in this world have a sort of ‘sixth sense’. It’s not like sight or vision, but more like an extension of your mind that can be projected both externally and internally.”
Solomon raised an eyebrow in disbelief. This was all too sudden, and his life built on and surrounded by academia and science felt as if it was crumbling from its very foundation.
“And you believe that I have this so-called sixth sense?” He asked.
“I don’t just believe you do,” Aelfred smiled, “I know you do.”
Before Solomon could respond, Aelfred hushed him with a raised finger. He then took a few steps back, away from the glass container and pedestal. He raised his prosthetic leg up and brushed away his flowing robes to reveal a large red ruby.
As the ruby began to glisten, Solomon felt the temperature of the room begin to increase. The next moment, a bright crimson beam of energy was projected from the ruby. Just as he worried that it might damage the room, the inconspicuous white wall at the point of impact absorbed every last bit of that red energy.
Solomon stared at the spot on the wall where the beam had vanished, his mouth agape in shock. Aelfred lowered his robes and patted his leg like an old man nursing an old wound.
“The walls here are made out of resonating materials with the specific purpose of absorbing special energies,” he explained.
Solomon calmed himself with deep breaths, turning to look at the three Philosopher’s Stones on the cushion.
“How do I use the sixth sense?” He asked, his thirst for knowledge tangible.
Chuckling, Aelfred returned to his previous position. He placed a hand just above Solomon’s head and closed his eyes. Moments later, Solomon felt as if something was intruding into his brain and reflexively, his physical body tried to recoil backwards, the feeling echoed by his mind.
He felt a strange new sensation as something within him retaliated at the intruding cold tendril. Suddenly, the tendril voluntarily retracted itself, but the feeling of being able to feel and manipulate something within his mind remained.
“That is your sixth sense. What you just felt was mine,” Aelfred explained, steadying Solomon’s unbalanced body with a hand, “After you familiarise yourself with your new sense, try bringing it into the vicinity of one of these Philosopher’s Stones.”
Solomon’s eyes were closed and his brows were furrowed, but he nodded nonetheless. He spent the next few minutes or maybe hours playing and becoming accustomed to his sixth sense. After some more time passed, he internally decided he was ready.
His eyes flickered open, and he could see a wisp of amber light just in front of his face. He subconsciously clenched his fists in a reflexive physical reflection of his mental exertion.
That strand of light which appeared invisible to all but himself began to move in a shaky flight path towards the glass box. It slipped through the open lid and as it moved closer and closer to the right-most Philosopher’s Stone, the Cerulean Cat’s Eye, he felt a strange sensation.
It was an internal yearning, as if something within the Cat’s Eye was calling out to his sixth sense. Solomon felt that if he submerged the stone in his sense, he could undergo a significant qualitative improvement. But to what exactly, he wasn’t sure.
As if aware of his plight, Aelfred raised a hand before Solomon’s face, blocking the latter’s line of sight to his sixth sense. The moment Solomon was unable to see the extension of his sense, he could feel that it had been cut off.
He stepped back and sighed, before realising that the entire time, he had forgotten to breathe. As he quickly compensated for that brief period of anaerobic activity through deep breaths, Aelfred patted him on the back.
“Not bad. Not bad at all,” He muttered before speaking up, “Solomon, what sort of feeling did you get from the Cerulean Cat’s Eye?”
“I need it - or it needs me. It was beckoning to me,” Solomon stammered in confusion.
Aelfred nodded, “Alright. Now, try bringing your sixth sense to the Cerulean Cat’s Eye again - only, do not make actual contact. Resist the urge to become one with it for as long as possible.”
Solomon caught his breath and closed his eyes again. This second attempt at coaxing the sense from out of his mind was significantly easier, though he did feel quite tired already.
Once he opened his eyes, he was greeted with the familiar sight of an amber wisp. Quickly, it floated down to the Cerulean Cat’s Eye, hovering what must have been an inch above its glassy blue surface.
Gritting his teeth, Solomon stove off the ‘calling’ of the gem. After what felt like hours, that sensation still didn’t weaken, but he could feel something new hidden beneath the layers of yearning. It seemed to be trying to convince him to sublimate with it by telling him what powers it could provide.
Once again, Aelfred covered Solomon’s eyes with a wrinkled palm, cutting off the latter’s connection to that amber wisp. Solomon gasped aloud, but quickly broke out into a wide grin.
“It seemed to be trying to communicate with me,” He gushed, “It told me that it would give me the ability to see like a cat.”
Aelfred nodded in approval, before gesturing to the other two Philosopher’s Stones.
“Recuperate for some time and then try again. If you begin to feel a headache or any sort of mental pain, we will stop for today. Overexerting your sixth sense can cause significant damage, so slow and steady is the name of the game.”
Solomon wiped away the grin on his face, focusing his gaze on the middle-most Jadeite Echo.
As he trained his sixth sense and probed each Philosopher’s Stone, the rest of the day slipped away into dusk. By the time he had finished, he felt that his entire body was coated in a layer of sticky sweat. It seemed that manipulation of his sixth sense was no less tiring than intense combat training!