18.8 Revelation 8: Artifacts

“How did you come to possess this device, the Portal?”

“The ring?” I recalled the details of my discovery, and the symbol on its face. A vague recollection morphed into a crisp image I had seen years before in a book I briefly skimmed through at a small bookstore in the middle of nowhere. More images came into focus, like The Unfinished Pyramid and The All-Seeing Eye, and other such symbols related to the secret groups and cults described in the book, and scattered throughout culture and counterculture alike.

“Who is Nostradamus?”

“He made predictions.” Every portrait of the seer I had ever seen erupted in my sight. “Was he Terran?”

“It is unlikely. However, he was apparently in the possession of another Terran device, an Extrapolator called a Poet’s Cap.”

I could see all manner of headwear. After a collage ranging from bejeweled crowns though elaborate wigs to a pope’s tiara, other accessories appeared — rings and bracelets, watches and waist chains, amulets and necklaces, broaches and tie pins and clips. Clothing followed, simple and ornate and everything in between.

“Surely these are not all Terran?”

“No, but many are. Apparently, many neuronal devices of Terran origin have influenced individuals and even the evolution of societies and civilizations on Earth.”

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