I frowned, picking up images from the old seer as he spoke.
Vash added, “In short-term, everyday usage, the Pyramid provides individual seers with an almost limitless supply of light. Especially those at the top. The shape of the Pyramid symbolizes the hierarchical nature of the macro version of the living resonant construct. It is known by us that the alpha tier shifts at irregular intervals, but—”
“Okay, wait.” I held up a hand. “Time out. Could you at least try to translate that part?”
Vash smiled. “We are unable to see the workings of the structure from outside of it,” he said. “We know it is made up of beings...”
A Pyramid made of silvery-white light appeared in the space above where we sat, a kind of Barrier-generated mirage. Illuminating dots making up the Pyramid’s walls, floors and corners, Vash connected them with silk threads.#p#分页标题#e#
“...Represented by nodes. We know that the leadership changes, but not how. Or why. We can speculate on the latter. But we cannot be certain our theories are correct.”
I glanced around, saw all of the seers staring up at the Pyramid, too.
“Those dots are people?” I said to Vash. “Seers?”
“Yes.” Vash nodded. “Incidentally, your husband was quite obsessed with determining the identity of those seers at the top.” Vash highlighted the top spot, the one I’d circled for Revik in my untidy sketch on ship’s stationary.
“He thought he might know the leader of the Rooks on Earth,” Vash added. “But he could not remember. It was a function and condition of leaving the Pyramid that he lost much of his memory of the time he spent inside of it.”
“Yeah,” I muttered. “He mentioned that. Convenient.”
“Yes,” Vash said seriously. “Very. He would never have survived otherwise. As it was, he was quite suicidal. He struggled with those feelings for years.”
“Suicidal?” I didn’t hide my surprise. “Revik?”
“Yes.” Vash took another sip of tea, his expression serene. “Quite a normal response, if you think about it. As you may have gathered from my description, living inside the Pyramid carries some very specific advantages. Servants of the Rooks are in a kind of trance. What they do in that trance makes perfect sense to them as long as they remain inside. But, break the spell, and suddenly they are able to see what they have done in quite a different light.”
“In other words,” I said, thinking aloud. “When he was a Rook, what he did seemed normal. Moral even. And when he left...”
“It seemed less so, yes.” Vash placed his palms on robed knees, nodding. “Further, upon leaving the Pyramid, one experiences a severe loss of power. The Pyramid culls skills and raw talent from all of its members, creating a sort of ‘library’ by which any of the beings inside can access the skills of all the others. Losing access to those shared pools of light and skill can be quite difficult...even painful. It is another reason seers don’t often leave. The Pyramid acts as a great amplifier...and also a distributor according to moment, status and need...of light and its structures, or aleimi, as we call it.”
“So,” I said, fighting to keep up. “Inside the Pyramid, you can access the ability of any seer inside it? Even if you never had it before?”
Vash nodded, taking another sip of tea.
“Wouldn’t that make them all, like...super-seers?”
“In a way...yes.” Vash set his cup on its china saucer, clearly amused by this idea. “There are limits, of course. One must know how to access particular skills in the first place...so knowledge is required, especially for more complex abilities. We strongly believe skill sets are further stratified by the hierarchy itself, with some being reserved for use only by those at the top.
“Your husband was a strong seer in his own right...but he was much, much more powerful when he had access to the light and abilities of tens of thousands of other seers.” Patting my knee once more, Vash smiled. “You can see now, also, why a telekinetic seer might appeal to them, Esteemed Sister...?”
I nodded. “So why did he leave?”
Vash sighed. “Do you really need to ask me that?”
“Well, yeah. If he was brainwashed, then—”
Vash waved a hand. “Suffice it to say, it is possible to experience moments of clarity no matter where you are.”
At my silence, he shrugged.
“...The Rooks have been quite shrewd in recruiting seers who fill out those skill sets they lack. Like any beings, we each have our own gifts and aptitudes, and they vary. Imagine if you could paint like DaVinci, have the mind of a Marie Curie or an Einstein, the oratory skills of a Martin Luther King. For seers, it is much the same. It is a tremendous loss to give this up.” He added, “It can also debilitate the minds of lesser seers to realize that what they had come to think of as their own was indeed never really theirs at all.”