Holder of Sound

In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. Upon arrival, walk straight to the front desk and request an audience with the "Holder of Sound." When you speak, you may realize that you cannot hear yourself, or any noises around you, and that the receptionist will neither look up nor respond to your request. If this isn't the case, leave the building and don't return, for your selection of institution was a poor one.

If indeed all is silent around you, look to the left of the desk to find a hallway that wasn't present prior to your arrival. Head steadily down the hallway, eyes focused straight ahead and locked on the door at the far end. As you progress, your sense of hearing will gradually return and screams of agony, as well as one-sided conversations that only the clinically insane could think up, will fill your ears. If at any time the endless babble ceases, cover your ears and shout with all your might, "What has been granted mustn't be lost!"

If the voices come back, consider yourself lucky that you'll be allowed to see another day outside of a room padded with the innards of past Seekers. Continue on down the hall until you arrive at the door. Knock once and push the door open before receiving an answer.

Inside will be a completely empty room, save for a small cot in the back. Sitting on the cot will be a young man of perhaps nineteen, bloody bandages where his ears were. He will be sitting there, rocking back and forth, mumbling to himself. Approach him and pull the bandages away from either side of his head, leaning in close to the bloody pulp to ask a single question. Ask anything other than "Will we understand?" and you will suffer the same fate as this man.

Once the question has been asked, a rush of future events surrounding each of the Objects will flood your mind. Horrific detail of every unjust death and injury at the Seekers hands will play through your mind over, pummeling your fragile psyche with countless waves of despair. If you keep your sanity throughout the visions, you will find the young man dead and bleeding on the cot, an ear clutched in his hand. Take it from him, leave the asylum, and never return.

The Ear is Object 210 of 538. May the truth of the Objects never reach your ears.