Connecting The Dots

Several days ago, while we were attempting to infiltrate the power plant, I noticed something curious about my runes. Particularly, as I was portaling toward the direction of the building where Isobar had been, I noticed a much warmer — maybe even “hot” — set of runes glowing on my left and right sides, near my waist.
 
There was no time to think about it during the firefight that immediately ensued, but when I thought about it later, I just “knew”...I can’t quite explain it, but I definitely have the feeling of knowledge that I *know* I didn’t have before, but I unquestioningly have now:
 
The two small runes on my left and right side are symmetrical. They represent the ancient — and now extinct — Oqthcali civilization’s method of movement. Just that sentence, even the name of the civilization...are thoughts I’ve never known before. And I have no idea what the other runes on my body mean!
 
But I’m perfectly certain about this particular set of runes. Even more, I know how they “work” in a way that I didn’t understand before: they utilize a perfect harmony of concentration, intention, and momentum.
 
When adrenaline was coursing through my veins at the power plant, something must’ve clicked — unlocking this knowledge.
 
So after things settled down at Homestead, I returned to my “mansion in the hills” as the tabloids are fond of calling it. But there was no way I could settle down. My mind began to race with possibilities. Up to this point in my life, I’d been inventing things with the documented knowledge I had at my disposal. Books, video tutorials, audio-books, libraries — they all suited a momentary purpose. I never really retained any of the knowledge, but I definitely used it to build things.
 
But now, there was a type of knowledge I had that couldn’t be easily explained or google-searched; couldn’t be read about in a library. So of course there was no way I could sleep now...
 
I rushed into the secret vault and began working on an idea...something new, something I couldn’t have dreamed about even two days ago.
 
I took the utility belt I had been wearing and modified it by threading reinforced heavy gauge wiring inside it several times. At the point of the buckle, I designed a cross-hatching style of closure to allow the connection of the thickly coiled wires to be seamless when closed. Then I flattened two metallic nodes into a slight curvature and carefully soldered them to the places where the belt rests on my hips — directly over the symmetrical runes on my left and right side. It wasn’t pretty, but at least the utility belt covered up my prototypical handiwork.
 
Next, I confirmed that the wiring could sustain an enormous amount of energy by crudely connecting it to the main power inlet box for the vault. Of course I inadvertently brought the entire building dark for a few minutes, but it was enough to successfully test the durability of the belt’s new metal nodes, the cross-hatch sealed buckle, and the heavy gauged coil wiring.
 
Then, it was time to test out the belt on myself...and see just how far I could portal with it on. By my design, there should be an enormous amount of extra momentum provided by the coiled metal wiring now wrapped around my waist.
 
I concentrated furiously on the runes I now understood, intently focusing on Homestead - the safest place I knew of outside of the Sharpe Mansion, and then I felt it...the momentum.
 
It was like the imploding force of a black hole. The energy that typically radiated from my body now expanded to envelope the entire room, entirely surrounding me. And as quickly as it expanded around me, it then collapsed into emptiness.
 
In the next moment, I was lying prostrate on the floor of Homestead, directly in front of the computer screen where Socrates appeared, with a slightly bemused smile.
 
“Good evening Mr. Sharpe. Are you experimenting with your powers?” He chided me as I lay there thinking, motionless on the floor.
 
I quickly jumped up hazily and smiled in almost childish amazement, “Yes! Isn’t it awesome!?”
 
Before Socrates could answer, I focused on the Secret Vault at Sharpe Mansion and concentrated intently on the symmetrical runes. And with just a slight bit of movement, the same black-hole gut-wrenching momentum propelled me into the portal, returning me back to the vault where I previously stood.
 
The amount of physical exertion this required was exhausting, but I just had to keep working at it. I portaled to Homestead again...and then back to the mansion, and then back to Homestead again. I portalled with all of my luggage, and back. I portalled with my bedroom furniture in tow, and back. One time, I portalled into Homestead with my dog, “Bark”, and back. But on the final time, even though I’d learned to stabilize my landing at that point, when I reappeared at Homestead — I fainted.
 
So after a few seconds of Socrates apparently speaking to me VERY loudly and me being completely unaware, I regained consciousness and made a mental reminder not to overextend myself with this scale of portaling.
 
Nonetheless, I had invented something truly “new”. I had connected the knowledge of these two runes with my own inventive spirit. And in so doing, I also connected the dots between Homestead and the Sharpe Mansion.