TOG: Out of Touch tidbit

From Chapter Three...

When I first started memory reading, I was not able to last to the end of the final memory very often, no matter how peaceful the passing may have been. I had a mental block that made me fear becoming lost to the memories. Other times, I would try to read the heavy rope too far back from the knot, then be unable to last through the death memory. As I gained experience, the block dissolved, I lasted longer and now, only the most violent of deaths prevent me from seeing the memory to the end. I have improved being able to gauge how long I can last through the knot and have adjusted my grip on the memory timeline accordingly, usually I can read within a couple of days before death.

Time between death and my readings does not diminish this. I have performed after death readings of people that have been gone for decades, even centuries. However, I do not do many of these readings as the petitioner does not have many sentimental objects to aid in my endeavor, nor a personal connection to the deceased. While I can do a reading of a person by directly touching them or a body part, I prefer not to. Reading live people by direct touch is something I carefully avoid. I have no object to buffer me from the waves and a direct touch of a person provides only the deepest waves and a memory rope. With a long-deceased person, I get very little of their day-to-day life, but their substantial memories are still strong. The petitioners that wish me to read bones are usually anthropologists or historians and want more information than just how the person died, which is all I can usually give them. Since they only want to satisfy their own curiosity, it is not worth it for me to take their case.

I leave those requests to PsyChometrists that can read objects found around bodies, but not the person’s bones. Bone Sages are the best option, but the scientists are reluctant to give up a bone shard for the reading. Bone Sages can use bones in a variety of ways, but to read a specific person from their bones, they must consume the bone. Blood Sages also use blood in many rituals like general divination and prophecy. But, to read the specific person the blood is from, they too must consume the blood. Drinking blood or eating bones can cause the sage to be subsumed by the reading, and I have met a couple of sages that have gone far down that path. Secretly, I wonder if Blood Sages are where the myth of vampires come from. To avoid being swallowed or drowned in memories, I pose limits such as linear time frames. 

I am a plain PsyMemore, a type of TouchVoyant, and I wish to remain that way.