The ability that has changed Paul Schuman’s life is easily described—he sums it up as:
What we have is the power to increase our five senses by connecting them to whatever we focus our attention on. That’s all it is.
but it has many uses and hidden pitfalls that, at the start of Shadowed, Paul has spent the last two years trying to understand.
“Opening” – how it works
Paul calls his power “Opening,” for how it opens him up to whatever sensation he focuses on.
That focus is the key to its nature, as he understands it. It operates by amplifying one specific perception out of many, allowing him to take in his sense of one specific thing much more powerfully than ordinary senses could.
At the start of Shadowed, Paul has spent the last two years struggling to control this power and also to make a secret living without anyone knowing about it. He can Open with a thought, while standing or walking, and give no outward sign that his attention is elsewhere. (If its weakness hasn’t triggered; see below.)
Opening Sight
Paul can increase the precision of his sight and the degree of distance and dim light he can see in. This appears to him like a form of tunnel vision; if he searches a dark street for a car of a specific color, he sees the colors of each car he looks at “jumping out at him” in the darkness until he finds the one he needs. Within those limits, his sight can be better than most binoculars, night vision glasses, or magnifying glasses. (Since it’s his own senses that are enhanced, he can’t see behind an object or where there’s no light at all.)
A technique he sometimes uses is to position himself where an object has a tiny reflection in a patch of glass. By Opening, Paul can then see that image clearly without revealing that he’s watching his target.
Opening Hearing
Paul has found that his hearing can be the easiest sense to use. This is simply because he doesn’t need extra study to understand a whispered secret or the footsteps of a guard approaching from the next floor, once he spots them, and because he doesn’t need to look toward someone to hear them. Opening’s use of focus makes Paul a master of “parabolic” listening over distance; in an otherwise quiet environment he can follow a whisper from more than a hundred feet away. On the other hand, complex conditions can be worse than distance; in one chapter he struggles to hear across the street, when two glass windows and busy traffic all run between him and his target.
Since he’s still limited to sounds his ears can still perceive, he can’t catch ultrasonic or other exotic sounds. But by focusing closely, Paul can spot electronic devices (such as burglar alarms) by hearing how the faint electric hum sounds more complex than it is through ordinary wires.
Opening Touch
Touch is a challenging sense to enhance. Paul can best use it by improving his precision with specific tasks he can practice; for instance he can learn to pick a lock quickly if he has a sample to work on (which he usually does). Enhanced touch doesn’t make him stronger or faster, but it can sometimes make a particular movement more efficient, if nothing interferes with it.
Opening Smell
Paul tries to avoid enhancing scents. In theory his nose could pick out a smell better than many animals, but he’s had trouble recognizing or remembering scents when he catches them, since (like most people) he had almost no practice analyzing them before his power appeared. Smell can also be the most overwhelming sense since it triggers memory directly.
Opening Taste
Like smell, taste is a sense Paul doesn’t have enough experience in deliberately using, enhanced or not. Paul uses taste mostly as a reward for himself, savoring the best foods he can afford. A fresh-baked roll can be a banquet to him, although too often he has to make do with stale food and fight to keep his sense from Opening.
A Note about Reading People
Paul’s senses can be awkward in focusing too intimately on other people. He knows he should be able to read people’s emotions and spot deception easily through tiny expressions and changes in voice, but he tends to shy away trying from it. Since he has had to learn to ignore most of the sensations of his own body, focusing too closely on others can be disorienting.
The Other Side of the Gift
Since Opening is triggered by his will, Paul’s senses are no better than average when he’s not using it. He can overlook signs or clues as easily as anyone else when he isn’t paying attention, and he can be surprised normally. Since he lives in hiding and in fear of being found out, he’s more likely to keep his guard up than many people, but this is more about attitude and having that extra awareness available if he needs it.
Also, the effect can be too available: it can be activated not only by full concentration, but sometimes by simply putting his attention on a thing. Paul can be intrigued by a sight or sound (or worse, caught up in a pain) and suddenly find he’s slipped into a trance and lost a minute or longer in taking it in. Much of his training in the two years before Shadowed begins was learning to control that effect.
As a result, Paul often uses his power by shifting rapidly from one focus to another, and never lingering on any one perception for long. By moving his attention around, combined with practice, Paul can usually keep himself under control.
The Source?
After years of searching, Paul still has no answer for where the power came from. His last memory was visiting a friend in a hospital, but nothing he can find connects the doctors to anything suspicious. His family history is just as ordinary.
But as Shadowed begins… could he have given that power to someone else?