The Threat of Being Devoured

Despite the measures she has taken to protect the Plan, Gywtug knows its shards are not safe unless hidden. She opens her mind to the psychic space. A Shard floats in front of her, channels of thought flowing through it. To hide it totally, she must deflect the channels. Carefully, she assigns properties to the Shard to see how they behave; every property— cold, kinetic, tactile— repels some channels and attracts others. Only one property scatters all: the threat of being devoured. To truly devour a thought requires energy she cannot invest in each Shard, for the Plan is scattered in millions. She must be economical and only fabricate fear. Imbuing the Shard with the threat, she watches as, slowly, channels bend like light around a black hole. The Shard vanishes.