The hivemind is conquering for me?

As I stepped closer to the strange red line I could see It was pulsating quietly. It did not look powerful or dangerous I felt a sort of connection with it.

"well of course I would feel a connection. It is inside my own head after all." I said in self mockery. Upon closing the distance, I reached out to attempt to touch the strange red line. I took the fact I had not disintegrated as a good sign so far. My hand slowly but surely made contact with the red line and all of a sudden.

The phenomenon was silent but the line exploded horizontally from edge to edge of my perceptible vision. upon the once red line now turned black there were red tally marks spread across the line. "How bizarre." I muttered. Deciding to once again touch the now black line I noticed with a slight amount of pressure I could make the line move.

The line itself was very sensitive I could see the tally's whizz past me whenever I moved one my hand in one direction or another.

By accident while It was whirling past one of the red tally's touched my hand upon contact I heard a faint voice. "Apollo-mate is-" before It continued to speed past me. I was confused why I heard my own name but was even more confused by what I heard. "was that Orchid?" Deciding to confirm my hunch I stopped my scrolling and a single tally appeared in front of me.

I placed my hand out once more to touch the tally and I heard the familiar voice one more. "very good Apollo-mate remember to keep your elbow level and your feet, yes just like that." the tally closed once that had been said I re touched the same tally and the same sentence was relayed to me.

"I don't remember this we have trained to many times to remember a single sentence from a random training day." I pondered aloud trying to make sense of this. "Is this some sort of new power?" Looking to my left as I stared at the never ending line I thought to myself that there must be a beginning to the line so I started tugging.

10 minutes of tugging later and the line finally came to an end what was before me was a very large red tally I had seen a few big ones so far but this one was definitely the biggest. Steeling my mind even though I had no sense of danger I held my hand against the tally.

"Greetings small-spawn." That is all that Orchid said but It had dropped me to my hand and knees the emotion those words carried. were heavy. They felt like the most important words in the entirety of existence, If the wrong thing was said there could be dire consequences.

After getting up I moved onto the next tally along just to re confirm my hunch as I remember our meeting as though it was yesterday and I know I did not feel those emotions at those words. "Now that we are connected psionically, I can feel your fear and disorientation.

Please be at ease our one, this one means no harm." I could once again feel emotion that was not mean which means these tally's are Orchids words to me.

I was stunned at the idea. from what I am now guessing every word ever said to me must be upon one of those tallies scrolling a little further along I was soon disproven.

"Little-spawn is on my thorax. ."Little-spawn is on my thorax. Little-spawn is on my thorax. Little-spawn is on my thorax. Little-spawn is on my thorax. Little-spawn is on my thorax.

Little-spawn is on my thorax. Little-spawn is on my thorax. Little-spawn is on my thorax. Little-spawn is on my thorax."

I cut out of the new tally I just touched after being bombarded with that almost 200 times in a second. Looking to my right for the next couple hundred tallies I had a feeling they were all similar to this one. This made me second guess what my new ability was If it was not just reading peoples old conversations with me but something more?

After turning my brain out for an idea for a short while I came up with a new conclusion.

These tallies aren't just random conversations I have had with Orchid no, these are memories she has of me that she consider special which involve me. Thats why it starts with our greeting. I felt touched by how much I meant to her before being frightened slightly. I often forget how much the Hive and in that regard Orchid actually love me.

The amount of tallies are countless spanning far beyond what I could see. even the most mundane thing as talking about water as heard from a tally I just grasped Is considered a special memory. One that needs to be remembered forever.

After understanding the principle of my new power I decided I would experiment with it later to figure out if its trainable or not. As I was about to step back from the line I suddenly felt a compulsion. My hand, acting almost autonomously, reached out towards the strange line and hoisted it left.

I did not understand why I was doing this but something inside of me felt like it needed to know something.

I did not stop until I reached the very end. Upon arrival, I noticed a new tally be made I wanted to grasp it to see what it said out of curiosity but my body seemed to have another plan. It grabbed a tally about 5 tally's back for some reason.

"Orchid Is very sorry this has happened to you my queen this is a great tragedy but forgive Orchid why are we not telling Apollo I'm sure he would want to know?" Orchids voice was laced with a sadness I had never heard before. she had been said and even cried before but this? It sounded close to grief. Even further what tragedy had befallen Jewel? And since when do they keep secrets from me?

I tried to look into the other tally's but It was just gibber jabber about how I looked while sleeping. Deciding to try and get to the bottom of this I took a step back from the line as my body seemed to be fully under my control once more.

As I stepped back far enough, the Line at blurring speed shrunk itself and became the strange red line It once was crackling with energy and floating In the endless darkness of the room. I stared at It for a moment and wondered to myself "how do I get out of here?" It felt like I was stuck inside my own dream and could not get out.

However, Upon turning my back to the line the scenery around me changed and I was once more back in the jungle I was in before the encounter. "Ok time to get to the bottom of this. Wake up"

As I opened my eyes the first thing I saw was Jewels face plate looking down at me In confusion. "Are you ok my love? I felt amount of dishevel towards the end of your sleep there. You are usually a very active dreamer but at one point I felt your entire brain and psionic energy change. You felt somewhat hollow. Then you came back as I said in dishevel"

"yea I'm fine precious." I said raising my head to give her a kiss. "I think I just developed a new Psionic power and it has left me rather confused about something.

"A new power?" Jewel said in excitement for me "wait you did not go into your Mindspace did you?" "No I did not. If I did It was in a part of my Mindspace I'm not familiar with." I responded

"Well, tell me my darling Apollo, what is your new power what happened?." I began to explain what had happened how My awesome battle dream was overtook by the strange red line. what had happened when I touched it how It was for some reason linked to Orchid and finally I mentioned what Orchid said at the end. Jewels smile dropped once I told her the exact words.

She of course knows those words they were said to her by Orchid through a two way Psionic link.

It Is literally impossible for anything not stronger than her Psionically to break into that link without her knowing. So for her love to manage to break into it with his new power, even if he could only hear Orchids part, Both filled her with great pride and also great shame.

She did not want to confess her failure to her love but she could feel Apollo's emotions and he feels like he's being kept in the dark about something.

interrupting her speedy inner turmoil I asked "So what great tragedy has befallen you and why are you not telling me about it?"