Gilded Scars by Murphy M.S

Author:Murphy, M.S.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Independent
Published: 2022-01-13T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Kenzie

“What is a ‘sense?’” Valera asked.

We were spread out in the Fifth Residence living room, our cleared plates still littered across the dining table. I was seated on the floor, my legs curled underneath me, leaning into the coffee table, analyzing the pages and pages of notes that either Tarec or myself had jotted down.

Sev and Tarec were on the couch, both angled forward and engaged. Korell had claimed one of the armchairs and had draped herself across it, her legs hanging off one arm of the chair and her head hanging off the other. She was here for support but found us terribly boring. Valera was also seated on the floor, on the other side of the coffee table. Although she couldn’t read, it was clear she felt a measure of control being so close to the papers I was referencing.

Dren was also present, to my surprise and annoyance. He’d claimed the second armchair and sat there rigidly, his arms crossed. He was distrustful of Valera and doing a terrible job of hiding it. I had to avoid looking in his direction to prevent my eyes from rolling into the back of my head.

Despite the tensions of the room, it was nice to be seated among everyone, all of us focused on the problem at hand. I had allies.

“You know,” I replied to Valera. “The five senses?”

“We have six senses,” Tarec said.

“What’s the sixth?” I asked.

“Inerxia.”

“I’m still confused as to what the first five are,” Valera cut in.

“Well, it’s five for us,” I clarified. “Both humans and Tashyans have five senses that ground and situate us. It’s how we interpret and contextualize everything around us. Our five senses are sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell.”

“You think the Second Trial will have something to do with one of our senses?”

“Yes, but we only have to worry about four senses,” I replied. “Elgoor cannot taste, so there has never been a Trial that involved that sense.”

“Elgoor only have four senses?” Korell inquired. I shook my head.

“They have seven. The Nostreylans have six, like you, but their sixth is relevant to their gift of fire rather than inerxia. But, in the spirit of a fair challenge, if you can call it that, the Trial will only test us on a sense we all share. Or that seems to have been the rule in the past.”

“I have re-checked the previous Second Trials at least a dozen times and I have not seen a Trial involving taste in any way,” Tarec assured us.

“So we only need to train ourselves using sight, sound, touch, and smell,” I asserted.

“How could you test sight? By taking it away?” Valera wondered.

“Or by overwhelming someone’s vision,” I supplied. “More than once, flashing lights have been used to confuse Champions as they navigate an obstacle course. Or a series of tasks are assigned, and selecting the right answer is dependent on tricks of the eye, such as extremely similar colors or symbols.”

“Don’t forget the alternating allowance that we’ve seen in some of the Trials,” Tarec added.

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