Have I ever mentioned that I hate seizures? If I haven't, then I'll say it here. I hate having to deal with the aftermath of a seizure, where I feel like Jace did after the one time he mindsculpted himself...which I still say had to be a hell of a trick.

Crossing Paths
Chapter 8: Silence Inside the Mind

The longer he had to stay in this particular white room, the more and more Jace began to panic from being left alone with only his thoughts for company. Only a few minutes passed since some of the Simic directed him to stay in this particular room that was supposedly to disallow mental projections from passing through, but he had no way to know.

He did know that he could sense nothing beyond the walls, even when he saw one of the members of this guild pass by the currently-sealed door, which had a window that had been crystallized in a way to make it impossible to tell he would be looking at if he looked through it. He had heard this room be called an 'observation room', though he couldn't tell how they would be watching him. It didn't look like there were any obvious methods of watching someone in the way of enchanted gems or illusions hiding anything that would transmit what was seen and heard. And with the enchantment in the walls suppressing his ability to send out thoughts beyond the wall as well as receive them, he couldn't be sure of anything that was going on.

It was making him paranoid being left in silence like this. Is this what it was like to not be able to innately read minds, he wondered to himself as he sat upon the thinly-padded cot in the small room, bringing his knees to his head and wrapping his arms around them both. The silence made for a lonely way to pass the time, making him wonder more and more what people not like him would do to make time seem to fly by faster.

It couldn't have been even five minutes and it already felt like an hour passed in this tiny room. It felt like the walls were slowly closing in on him and he couldn't planeswalk out of here to relieve such oppression without drawing a whole lot of attention and possibly causing panic, either. It was driving him insane, though it shouldn't even come close to starting.

"Why did I have to be born with this curse," he muttered to himself as he placed his forehead on his knees, closing his eyes as he subconsciously scratched the back of his neck with one hand...

...if only he knew there had been an eye on him this whole time, just not one he could perceive.

Fifteen minutes of total silence both physically and in his mind felt like pure torture that lasted for hours for the man as he tossed and turned on the cot while still balled up into himself. He wasn't sure what was more torturous, this and the resulting soul-crushing loneliness that came with it or being in that magic-negating cage while Baltrice scorched him with smoke and heat and made it almost impossible to breath at times when he was younger. At least in the latter, he wasn't alone, even if he was with his torturer...

A click became heard and Jace immediately returned to a sitting position facing the door, though he was crossed-legged upon the bed. Though the being that walked in after Lavinia and Emmara surprised him a bit to see.

"Prime Speaker Zegana," Jace asked with a confused look, taking in the merfolk's ornate appearance as he did. He was quick to note that all three of them was wearing something over their right ear, the 'psy-blocks' he heard the Simic members in his office earlier call them. They didn't seem surgically attached to either Lavina or Emmara, thankfully.

"Guildpact," she started with a flat tone to her voice. "We may have found a pair of potential solutions to your current problem, one more permanent than the other."

Jace couldn't help but look at the merwoman funny.

"How," he flatly asked. "I haven't seen, heard or felt any of you do anything yet."

She simply pointed toward his gloved hand, which he looked at while scratching an annoying itch that has shown up at the back of his neck.

There were extremely-tiny white spores upon it, small enough for him to actually miss before it was brought to his attention. "They're sensation spores, designed to monitor patients with minimal invasiveness and are best used on first-time patients, those whom fear most medical practices or those whose well-being are of higher priority than normal."

As the Living Guildpact, Jace figured the last reason applied for him, allowing a fair bit of relief to wash over him. Admittedly, considering some of the more...disturbing ways the Simic Conclave as a whole could find out what was wrong with a being, he found himself glad he normally wouldn't have to go through such under normal circumstances. "I do have to ask, why were you on the verge of insanity a moment long ago?"

Jace looked at her stunned. He really was starting to turn insane from the silence? Was he really that dependent on his ability to read minds to stay sane? He simply looked down upon his legs, unable to figure out a way to answer that question.

"I really don't know," Jace finally responded, leaning his head forward again. "That was the first time I've been completely cut off like that for any length of time."

A silent nod came from Zegana, who placed her slightly-elongated fingers upon her chin in thought as she kept a studious gaze upon Jace's form. The mindmage couldn't help but give a slight shudder after catching the look himself upon slightly looking up, wondering if he had ever given such a look to others in the past. "That...rules out one of the options for the time being." Only upon his giving her a confused look did she dare to elaborate. "The more-permanent option would have required surgery of a somewhat-exploratory nature to repair the damage to your physical mind. However, after seeing how you reacted when you couldn't use your abilities, this may not be wise."

"What is the other option," Emmara asked of the Simic guild leader before he could, prompting the merfolk to lower her hand.

"There is a spell that can be used to prevent you from projecting out unless you actually try to project your thoughts..." Even with everyone wearing those strange devices, the psy-blockers as they were called, Jace just knew there was a catch from how the guild leader let her sentence hang.

"What's the catch?"

Zegana looked around the relatively-small room for a brief moment before looking back toward Jace. "It seems to only function when the person it's cast upon is conscious. While asleep, you will need to be in a room that functions like this one to keep your thoughts to yourself while you sleep."

And Jace allowed his forehead to meet his knees with a light bit of force...