At first, Nihlus' focus will prove difficult to direct. He's not expending his new power on a person, or even the shapeless mass he saw on the security feed. He's targeting a feeling, and more than that, his own. It's not until he pins down exactly what the emotion is that he'll find the trace he needs.
He misses it.
There is a biochemical shift. A change that makes no sense in his own thoughts, a passive, subtle connection feeding back to the creature. It's not active, not awake, but it is enough to follow. A storm of sensory data will greet his initial efforts: thousands (millions?) of pieces woven to an overwhelming whole. The power of the Key will protect Nihlus' sanity enough for his focus on investigation to pick out a few fragments. Liquid warmth, wriggling deeper on all sides, like fingers squishing through a warm, fine mud. The echo of steps through a corridor, interrupted by the default chime of someone's TAB. A view of a door sliding back to show a familiar room with unfamiliar beings.
For the most part, his attention will be entirely subsumed by something else. Someone else, massive and all-encompassing, a being far too large to hold one shape. This mind is a place of rage and satisfaction, the inferno of loathing from the dream brought to full, waking awareness. It's ancient. Calculating. Implacable and terrifying. The nexus of a thousand parts. It calls itself Mother. It wants revenge.
His intrusion is noticed immediately. As close as he's gotten, Nihlus will feel the blast of anger swamp his presence as it reaches out to draw him in. For a fraction of an instant, he can feel it. He's part of it. He needs to be; he missed it so, so much, and now--
Panic frees him. Shock and hatred lash out in return. As Nihlus retreats back to himself, the door will be slammed behind him, every fraction of the path he followed uprooted violently from his mind. The process will be brief, but absolutely agonizing. However, when he opens his eyes, no trace of Mother's influence will remain.
Option 1!
He misses it.
There is a biochemical shift. A change that makes no sense in his own thoughts, a passive, subtle connection feeding back to the creature. It's not active, not awake, but it is enough to follow. A storm of sensory data will greet his initial efforts: thousands (millions?) of pieces woven to an overwhelming whole. The power of the Key will protect Nihlus' sanity enough for his focus on investigation to pick out a few fragments. Liquid warmth, wriggling deeper on all sides, like fingers squishing through a warm, fine mud. The echo of steps through a corridor, interrupted by the default chime of someone's TAB. A view of a door sliding back to show a familiar room with unfamiliar beings.
For the most part, his attention will be entirely subsumed by something else. Someone else, massive and all-encompassing, a being far too large to hold one shape. This mind is a place of rage and satisfaction, the inferno of loathing from the dream brought to full, waking awareness. It's ancient. Calculating. Implacable and terrifying. The nexus of a thousand parts. It calls itself Mother. It wants revenge.
His intrusion is noticed immediately. As close as he's gotten, Nihlus will feel the blast of anger swamp his presence as it reaches out to draw him in. For a fraction of an instant, he can feel it. He's part of it. He needs to be; he missed it so, so much, and now--
Panic frees him. Shock and hatred lash out in return. As Nihlus retreats back to himself, the door will be slammed behind him, every fraction of the path he followed uprooted violently from his mind. The process will be brief, but absolutely agonizing. However, when he opens his eyes, no trace of Mother's influence will remain.