Aptira's perception was perfect, though not all-encompassing. The outline of every river, every crevice of every rock, and of every mote of soil was known to him. No living being, however microscopic, escaped his awareness. The life energies of every bit of flora and fauna, and even the whispering imprints of those entities flitting into the threshold between dimensions, was known to him all at once.
Freed from the normal limitations of his body, his mind was amplified by the translation into the adytum device, his consciousness expanded to a godlike scope which held the details of his world and the surrounding solar system as closely and intimately in his mind as if each planet were the appendages of his own body.
The cost, however, would be dear. The energies of the turquoise orb would forever change his body. What's more, all that he had learned would in no way be possible to relay once he disconnected from the artifact. The privilege would be the sullen, deranged genius of every proctor and a lifetime of mental training meant to cope with his past deification. All of this would be the beginning of his troubles.
