Evolution

[Tenacity]

Miranda knelt once again, meditating in a quiet, sandy room as she waited. She had sent the thugs off to find an artifact dealer for her, and as her mind cleared she could feel it's presence getting ever closer, one footstep at a time. It was amazing what one could hear, if one simply opened her ears to listen; though Miranda admittedly had a bit of help from The Shrine when it came to the art of perception.

She smiled, at peace with her surroundings. She felt the flapping of a fly's wings as it buzzed in the corner of the room, the clicking of a beetle's tiny feet as it skittered across the sandstone floor, the whistle of the breeze outside as it passed by the window. Not the tiniest change in the vicinity went unnoticed to her. Hyperawareness was only one of the benefits granted to her by the Shrine; it's evolutionary effect on her mind had granted her telepathy, telekinesis, and other senses she could not yet understand.

Eyes closed, Miranda tracked the artifact dealer beyond the tiny room's closed door. She felt his footsteps through the ground, his breathing through the air, she even heard his thoughts... 'how much will she pay?', 'is she going to kill me?', 'why does a nomad want artifacts?', 'I wonder how good she is in bed?'

She chuckled to herself, shaking her head at the man's narrowmindedness and singular devotion to his material needs. All unenlightened men and women were the same, only money, food, power, and sex mattered to them. Past those simple needs, they had nothing to strive for... at least, nothing they could be bothered to learn of.

Miranda took a breath as the door opened and the artifact dealer stepped in, carrying a large crate full of ancient alien gadgets and gizmos. He smelled of sweat, fear, and arousal.

"Oy, miss, I dunno what you want 'round here but this is all I got to sell right now, make it quick and pay in cash!"

His eagerness to get the deal over with was a sign of defensive behavior, he was uneasy about her and she could feel it.

"I'm not a nomad."

"Wha? I never said you was a nomad!"

"No, but you were thinking it. Set the crate down, please."

The dealer dropped the crate to the ground, almost spilling it's contents out across the floor. He backed up a bit and crossed his arms in front of his chest, expecting her to dig through the pile herself. Miranda relaxed once more, and the crystalline devices began to glow, floating up out of the grate and rotating through the air around her. The dealer's mouth hung open in astonishment as one artifact after another floated in front of Miranda's eyes.

As suddenly as they had floated out of the crate, all but one artifact dropped to the ground, that one still hanging in the air directly in front of Miranda. It was relatively small and cylindrical in shape, made of purple crystal outlined in metallic gold. The artifact hummed and pulsed as Miranda stared at it intently. Most of the other artifacts were simple tools, ranging from personal maps to simple lights and children's toys. This one, however, was significant... it was a piece of the puzzle, one component of the conduit that Miranda sought to rebuild.

She reached out and pulled it from the air, the now-active artifact humming in her hand as it rolled across her palm, warm to the touch. Miranda stood, and slipped the artifact into a small, thin pocket at the waist of her dress. The artifact dealer straightened up, realizing that she was taking one of his precious commodities.

"Hey, you gotta pay for that, I got kids to feed!"

"If you truly care for them, you will teach them to fend for themselves; else like you they will require others for the rest of their lives. Find a new profession, dealer."

Miranda's skin began to glow, dousing the room in pure white light as she once more reconnected with the Shrine. When the light subsided, the dealer found himself alone in the room, his 'customer' having disappeared into thin air as if she was nothing more than a hallucination to begin with. He sighed heavily and began to pick up his artifacts off of the floor, piling them back into the crate.

Miranda once more opened her eyes to find herself within the Shrine, one artifact closer to her goal.

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