The Purger wasn't described because a description I write is not as frightening to you all as what you each can individually envision as 'scary.'

Ada, I'll PM you the meaning. Right now, here's something a bit different...



Psychosomatic



You.

Yes, you. The person reading these words right now.

I want you to do a little exercise. It's easy, painless, and requires no effort on your part.

Are you ready?

Alright.

I want you to think of something that you regularly come in contact with. A drinking glass, a favorite book, a doorknob... Anything that you can easily conjure in your mind. For purposes of clarity, let's use the doorknob.

Now, imagine yourself holding that doorknob in your hand... See yourself holding it. See your hand. Feel it. Focus your thoughts on your hand and that doorknob, and nothing else...

There. Right there. Can you feel it? In the palm of your hand, that fleeting sensation of something smooth, hard, and cold? You see it in your mind: The familiar shape of the doorknob, held firmly in your hand.

And just like that, it's gone again.

The exercise is done.

Now, you may be wondering what just happened. How were you able to feel that doorknob? Some of you smarter types might think it has to do with an acute memory, cellular recollection, quantum physics, or some such thing. But that is not the case.

No, the reason you were able to hold that object was because you were tapping into a power your mind has long since forgotten it holds: the power to summon. What you were just doing was making that doorknob move from its normal location to you, through an otherworldly channel like nothing science has ever seen.

Right now, your amnesiatic mind is weak. It can recall the sensation of what you touched for a fraction of a second, perhaps. That's all the time you can keep the channel open as you are now. If you continue the exercise we did earlier, over and over, the sensation will gradually start to become more stark. More defined. It will last longer. Perhaps if you look at your hand, you'll even soon begin to see the faint outline of the object you wish to summon.

Be warned, though - summoning a single object can take months or even years of envisioning. And each new object and new sensation will reset the process. If you are not of a patient mind, you will quickly become frustrated and give up.

You're going to give up, aren't you?

No...?

You really shouldn't attempt this repeatedly if you can't handle the repercussions.

Oh, that's right... I forgot to mention that part, didn't I?

If you attempt to summon more than your mind is used to - for a normal human like yourself, that could be as little as a few times a day for a few days - you may begin to feel strange. Notably at night, when you are alone and your mind is allowed to wander. You may feel an abrupt jolt. A queasy, unexpected sensation that just grabs you for the most fleeting of moments. If you aren't focused, you may not even notice it at first. But sooner or later, you'll feel it: the channel that connects our plane to the ones beyond.

And like this plane, the ones beyond are inhabited by sentient beings. Beings that know the ways through to other realms as well. Beings that have retained much of what we have forgotten. And like us, they're more than eager to explore anything that is new to them... Like a long-closed channel that has slowly begun to reopen.

...And there it is now. You can feel it, I'm sure... Those slender, tentacle-like fingers on your shoulder... Did you feel them?

I truly hope you did.

Because I was focusing on your shoulder as hard as I could.