Chapter 51 - Knowledge From Touching Fingers

A shiver went up Yuzu’s spine as she stood behind the bed’s headrest, her fingers subconsciously clutched at the corner of its dark stained wood. The boy once against pressed his straightened palm against his heart and bowed to her.

“I apologize for not believing you.” Argus said, “But now that I see the truth, I understand where I err’d.”

“I’m not following at all.” Yuzu said simply. “What truth are you talking about?”

“That you are not Soryana of the Kismet Order.” Argus said, placing his hand in his pocket as he started pacing away from the bed. “That you aren’t aware of the world of the Exalted, or even that you are one yourself. That the nature of the powers which you wield are still a mystery to you, and that you want to know more.”

“I could have learned other things, but I try not to pry into the personal details of others without their permission.” He said.

“That... was the purpose of touching fingers?” Yuzu ventured a guess.

“Yes.” Argus said, “I’m only able to access your mind if I make physical contact. From a distance I can only gather your surface thoughts.”

Yuzu was stunned for a moment as she thought about the implications of such a power. I thought he was only creepy and disturbed, or insane. No, wait, can he read what I’m thinking?

Argus smiled quietly, nodding. “Yes, I can. You don’t have to feel bad. After all, people have thoughts like that all the time. Very few people have the mental composure to control their thoughts, even if they know they’re being listened to. So even if you think horrible things about me, don’t worry, I won’t be offended.”

“I’m more or less used to it.” The corner of his lip twitched a bit as he looked away.

Then I can’t keep any secrets from him. He’s really dangerous! Even though he’s short and weak looking. Ah- Yuzu frowned, sealing her lips as her thoughts began running away from her. The harder she tried to stop thinking, the worse her thoughts seemed to get. I can’t let my guard down against this weird kid at all. I need to leave before I offend him.

The boy didn’t give any indication that he had heard her thoughts.

“Can you... turn it off?” Yuzu asked, finally.

“No.” Argus said, “I wish I could... But it’s like hearing someone talk loudly at a table beside you. You can’t close your ears, even if you wanted to. The best solution I can find is to minimize my contact with other people as much as I can.”

Yuzu thought to herself about the implications of such a decision. “It would be hard for others to be around you too, if they knew you were always listening to their thoughts.”

“It’s true. Really, if I could control it, I would...” Argus sighed as he nodded. “But, it’s easier for both of us if we converse about a topic. Your mind wanders less, and unless it is a sensitive subject, a person’s thoughts will mostly match their words. Also, somewhat counter-intuitively, it’s better if I do the talking, for the same reason.”

“Then.. Tell me what you meant by calling me a Candidate of Fate.” Yuzu suggested supportively, listing off her questions as she thought of them. “And what is an Exalted? And what does it mean to be one? What is the Kismet Order?”

He looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, but didn’t answer her. Instead, he pulled the complicated looking golden pocket watch out of his pocket and looked at it.

Yuzu found her thoughts wandering as she started wondering what the watch was, and why he wasn’t answering her question. Didn’t he just say it was better if he talked? She fumed inwardly in frustration.

“Yes, I can provide the answers to your questions, but in return you must provide something of equivalent value.” Argus said at length, his countenance turning serious and businesslike in a way that did not match his schoolboy appearance. “Knowledge is scarce. I cannot simply give it away.”

That makes no sense. It’s not like you lose knowledge or it goes away if you share it. Yuzu grumbled to herself before saying, “That’s fine with me, but what would you exchange it for?”

And how can I know how much ‘knowledge’ of something is worth without knowing what that knowledge is? This exchange seems completely biased in his favour. As Yuzu came to this conclusion she also realized that she didn’t actually care if Argus heard most of her thoughts in this conversation.

Someone like Char Char who worries about what people think about her would probably have a much harder time. I, on the other hand, don’t care about hurting his feelings. She thought the last part extra ‘loud’, as if to emphasize it to Argus, who was probably listening.

“It’s quite straightforward, actually.” Argus said, “If I need something from you, I will provide half the knowledge you desire as a down payment, and you can decide if my request is worth the rest. If not, we can barter. Once you deliver your side of the deal, I will reciprocate with the other half.”

Yuzu’s eyes lit up at his words as she instinctively tried to hide her reaction.

“Ah.” He said quietly a moment later, reacting to her thoughts. “You’re confident at bartering. This might put me at a disadvantage, but I suppose this makes the arrangement even more fair, yes?”

“I suppose.” Yuzu couldn’t complain. “Then what do you want for my questions?”

He smiled and shook his head, “Let me answer a few questions for free to start. First, because I need you to understand a few things before I can ask you for what I really want. Second, because you already have given me some measure of payment.”

“The knowledge from touching fingers?” Yuzu asked, making a guess.

Argus nodded, setting his watch down and sitting down on the chair next to the desk. Yuzu remained standing, leaning against the back of the bed’s headrest, which was at a comfortable level for her elbows to rest on.

“First, let me start with something you know. The new abilities that you’ve gained, that were granted to you by that chest.” Argus’ eyes looked pointedly at the satchel at Yuzu’s waist, “Are a manifestation arising specifically from your attunement to the Domain of Fate. As I said before, you are a Candidate of Fate, whether by coincidence or divine providence. This is a quality that is now ingrained in your being. One that cannot be altered or taken away. Even if you wanted to, you couldn’t go back to how you were. Nor could you attune to other domains.”

He put on a thoughtful look as he mentioned as an aside, “Well, there are ways, but only in very specific instances is it possible. Even then, the most likely result is insanity or a horrible death. Or worse.”

He shrugged, as if to discard that line of thought, and continued with his explanation.

“The Domain of Fate resides within the Kingdom of the Gods, and shares one quarter of that Kingdom along with the domains of Nature, Chronos and Knowledge.”

He paused once more, scratching his head as he looked slightly perplexed. “Actually, the modern term for Chronos is Spacetime. I don’t think Chronos has been used for at least twelve hundred years.”

Argus’ eyes narrowed as he looked at the closest wall to him. His focus was not on the papers tacked to the wall, he simply looked away out of habit as he thought deeper on the topic. “The earliest record of the term SpaceTime was in the annals of Lord Noga in the War of the Five Kings- Oh, did you know that Lord Noga is probably immortal? I’m pretty confident on this theory- Anyways, it wasn’t Lord Noga himself who used the term but rather his minister HuangYu, who was also a follower of Chronos- I mean, Spacetime.”

Aside from the random interjection about Lord Noga, Argus wasn’t speaking directly to Yuzu as he began to ramble. He seemed to be recalling the facts from his own knowledge and memory, linking together different disparate pieces of information to form a stream of consciousness examination of... well, Yuzu wasn’t sure what had Argus so enraptured. It was extremely hard to follow his line of thought.

And what was that about Lord Noga being immortal? It had been spoken so casually Yuzu thought it must have been a joke. Meanwhile, Argus continued his analytic monologue.

“...pushed by several prominent writers and scholars. After that the term seemed to have caught on, and was quickly adopted over the next twenty years, eventually becoming common enough to replace the original term even in scholarly writing-”

“Ah!” Argus shouted suddenly, eyes lighting up, “Could this have to do with the alliance between Huan and Kumin- Yes, in the spring of 305 the Arbiter of Yuima became involved in the war! It lines up!’

“But that means-!“ With a sudden flurry of excitement Argus jumped to his feet grabbed a brush and an ink well from the desk. He ran to one of the walls and began drawing a diagram on the blank spot of a pinned up parchment. As he wrote, he spoke excitedly to himself, having completely lost himself in his train of thought. The more he wrote, the more erratic his movements and thoughts became until he was very visibly trembling. His enthusiasm began to transform into incoherent ramblings and constant self interjections as he became more and more overwhelmed by his thoughts.

“Argus, Argus!” Yuzu frowned as she left the bed and walked up to the boy. She tried calling his name several more times, but he seemed completely lost in a storm of thoughts. His words began to lose all sense of coherency as he began stomping the ground and waving his arms frantically even as he scribbled erratically on the wall with his brush.

His neurotic behaviour was quickly becoming severe enough that Yuzu began to worry if he would hurt himself. She reached out and grabbed his arm to stop him as he began jabbing his brush rapidly into the wall, leaving dents and black splotches of ink as it tore through the paper.

“Argus, stop it. Get a hold of yourself!” She pulled him away as he took a few seconds to realize that she was preventing him from using his arm. His eyes suddenly regained a bit of clarity as he looked up at her with a shocked expression. His face was splattered with black ink, and his clothes had been completely ruined.

“Yes?” He asked, as if nothing was amiss.

“I- I don’t follow any of what you’re saying.” Yuzu stammered slightly, surprised by his sudden display of mental clarity. “I think you need to calm down a bit.”

“Ah, sorry, I had an epiphany and got a little carried away.” He said, then smiled brightly at her, “Don’t worry, I won’t charge you for what I shared with you just now.”

“That’s not the problem.” Yuzu said tersely, letting go of his arm now that he had relaxed significantly.

His smile faded as he dropped the brush and ink well on the ground. The small clay vessel bounced off the ground and cracked, leaking its remaining liquid onto the floor.

“I know. I can’t help myself. Once I start going down a path of thought, I can’t stop.” He frowned as he dug the toe of his shoe into the ground, looking like a little boy who had been caught doing something naughty. “You know, I’ve gone days without sleeping, spiraling down a tangent without any awareness of the outside world. Sometimes I wake up on the floor and I realize that I haven’t eaten in weeks.”

His head hung down despondent as his hands balled into fists at his side. “I feel broken inside and I don’t know why or how I became like this.”

Yuzu didn’t reply, at a loss for words.

“That’s why I need you, Yuzu.” He said finally. “To help cure me of this curse.”