The hotel room feels different with the damping device active. Reality holds stable, shadows behaving like normal shadows instead of suggesting geometries that shouldn't exist. Even the TV stays tuned to actual channels instead of broadcasting from other dimensions.

  "It's almost too quiet," I say, watching the device display quantum measurements in its strange hybrid format.

  James looks up from his laptop where he's reviewing the first batch of documentation Rachel uploaded to the secure drop. "Quiet how?"

  "Like..." I search for words to describe the sensation. "Like being in a soundproofed room after living next to a highway. You know the noise is still there, but it's muted. Controlled."

  The darkness behind my eye pulses gently against the damping field, and for the first time I can really feel the difference between my natural interactions with other spaces and the artificial ones the Church creates. My awareness flows smoothly, naturally. Their methods feel forced, jarring, like badly translated poetry.

  "According to this," James says, scrolling through more documents, "the device doesn't just control dimensional bleed. It's also gathering data, learning your specific quantum signature. The more you wear it, the better it adapts to work with your natural patterns."

  "That sounds suspiciously like Church technology."

  "Actually, it's the opposite." He turns the laptop so I can see complex diagrams of quantum fields and dimensional interfaces. "The Church tries to force everyone into the same patterns, make them match their ritualized approaches. This device learns and adapts to each user's natural way of interacting with other spaces."

  I think about Adrian, about how the Church's forced evolution left him trapped between states. About how different my own connection to those spaces feels - organic, flowing, natural despite its strangeness.

  The device hums softly as I reach out with my awareness, testing its limits. Reality bends slightly around me, but in controlled ways now. The darkness expands beyond my left eye, showing me the spaces between spaces, but without the usual ripple effect on local space-time.

  "Better?" James asks, watching me experiment.

  "Different." I let the darkness recede, feeling how the device helps guide it back without forcing or constraining it. "Like having steering and brakes instead of just raw power."

  "Rachel's notes say it works best if you don't fight it. Don't try to suppress your abilities completely, just..." He checks the documentation again. "Just let it help you maintain equilibrium between spaces."

  I'm about to respond when something shifts in the quantum field - a familiar presence brushing against the edges of normal space. Adrian, trying to reach through dreams again. But this time, with the device active, I can feel the difference between his artificial quantum state and my natural one.

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  "He's trying to connect," I say quietly.

  James tenses. "Can he break through?"

  "No. Not like before." I close my eyes, analyzing the sensation. "The damping field isn't blocking him completely, but it's... filtering somehow. Showing me the difference between natural dimensional contact and forced manifestation."

  The darkness pulses as Adrian tests the new barrier between us. His consciousness feels fractured, unstable - beautiful in its complexity but fundamentally broken by what the Church did to him. Through the device's stabilizing field, I can finally understand what Rachel meant about forced evolution creating something that only looks like transcendence.

  "I can feel how wrong it is now," I say, opening my eyes. "What they did to him. How they twisted something that should have happened naturally, if it happened at all."

  "Can he feel the difference too?"

  "I think so. He's..." I focus on the quantum resonance. "He's angry. Frustrated. He thought our connection was proof that forced evolution could work, could create something real. But now he can feel how artificial his state is compared to mine."

  The device displays complex measurements of the interaction, showing the clash between natural and artificial quantum fields in formats that bridge normal physics and other dimensional mathematics. Adrian's presence grows more agitated as he fails to break through the damping field.

  "You're hurting him," James observes. "By showing him what he isn't."

  "No." The realization comes with sudden clarity. "I'm showing him what he could have been, if they hadn't forced him to become something else. If they'd let him develop naturally, or not at all."

  Adrian's consciousness withdraws, leaving behind echoes of frustration and loss. The device's readings settle back to baseline as reality stabilizes fully around us. In the sudden quiet, I can feel the difference in my own quantum state - not suppressed or controlled, but guided. Balanced.

  "Rachel knew," I say, studying the device's displays. "She knew the Church's methods were wrong not just ethically but functionally. That forcing dimensional awareness creates something fundamentally unstable."

  "That's why they're so afraid of people like you." James closes his laptop. "People born with natural sensitivity proving that their forced methods are unnecessary. Maybe even counterproductive."

  The darkness pulses gently against the damping field, and I think about my mother. About how she chose to help them try to force evolution instead of letting it happen naturally. About what that choice cost her - cost all of us.

  "We need to find Rachel's backup facility," I say. "Need to understand what she discovered about natural quantum sensitivity. About what these abilities really mean."

  "The device is the key, but..." James gestures at his laptop. "The documentation is complicated. Quantum encryption layered with dimensional locks. It'll take time to decode."

  "Time we may not have. If the Church is monitoring facilities like hers..."

  "They are. But they're also dealing with the aftermath of what happened at headquarters. And..." He pauses. "And trying to understand why their most successful subject suddenly can't maintain stable manifestation anymore."

  I look at the device on my wrist, understanding what he means. By showing Adrian the difference between natural and artificial quantum states, I've disrupted his ability to pretend his forced evolution is real transcendence. The Church will be scrambling to understand why their prime example of successful transformation is suddenly unstable.

  "How long?" I ask.

  "To decode the backup facility's location? A few days, maybe less if Rachel's documentation is as thorough as it seems." He starts gathering his notes. "But we should move. Find somewhere quieter to work on it."

  I nod, feeling the device's subtle harmonics stabilize reality around me. Somewhere quieter, somewhere we can understand what Rachel discovered about natural dimensional sensitivity. About what these abilities really mean when they're not forced or controlled or twisted into weapons.