Right. Not done yet. Do the stuff, get the drugs.

I launched into the session, tracing the figures and shapes – the reflections, as Eyes had called them – as I’d done the first time. I remembered to pay attention to the afterimages left on my retinae and to overlay them with new images as they were presented. It was easier to govern the second time around – the nectar regimen wasn’t just for kicks – and soon I was building out little layered structures of two, three, and four images before they disappeared. The reflections came more quickly, and my ability to accept or ignore them advanced in sync. That said, if these were the reflections of prior thought, I was still at a loss for what they represented. They were just two-dimensional shapes. Unless one of my priors was a geometrician, I couldn’t translate them into understandable ideas.

I plowed through piles of imagery, layering some, moving them into holding areas on the lid until they faded a few seconds later, tossing others immediately. This went on for an eternity with little progress. It was like a videogame where I’d reached the end of the map but hadn’t won the quest. Based upon years of training across numerous gaming consoles, I knew that there was always another angle. You had to go back and find it; the magical gem that opened a gate to a new realm.

Controlling the pieces with my eyes – and my mind I guess – I rotated them clockwise and counterclockwise like the dial on a safe, as if there might be a combination to unlock a deeper level. I tried moving them in distinct patterns across the glass. Reflections reappeared at a faster rate, convincing me that I was stuck on level one. There had to be some type of code.88

A crescent shape appeared. I wiped it over the glass, side-to-side, up and down. How could something so simple represent an idea, or even the part of an idea? Maybe the good stuff is written on the back, lol.

Hold the fuck on.

Rather than rotating the reflection on the two-dimensional plane in which I’d been working, I rolled it along the third axis, tilting it to the side. It wasn’t two dimensional at all. From below I’d never suspected that they had depth, but oh did they. Just tilting the crescent showed it to be far taller than it was wide or long. I assumed it was just a feature of the display, but it seemed to climb straight up from the top of the coffin.