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A mind was, among other things, a vessel for interpretation. Physical senses funneled into it and needed to be understood. Ultimately, it was just information.

Therefore, it was possible for her to sneak a peek at that information for herself, to reinterpret it with her own mind simultaneously with the person who was actually receiving it. It could be a bit messy, since there was so much information being received, but all she really needed to focus on was sight and hearing--and occasionally touch and smell, if she wanted.

That simplified matters greatly. Not worrying about other senses like taste, balance, or proprioception meant that the amount of information she received was greatly reduced. Plus, other senses could be a bit difficult to reinterpret.

Every mind was distinct in one way or another. Perhaps that was because of the soul. Or perhaps it was the opposite. Perhaps that distinctness was what generated the soul.

Whatever the case, it made each mind slightly different, which meant that each one required a slightly different reinterpretation in order for her own mind to understand.

That was also why reading thoughts directly was so hard--if not impossible. People may have interpreted information from their senses in slightly different ways, but people crafted their own thoughts in very different ways.

It was like the difference between a combination lock that required three numbers versus one that required twenty. It was theoretically possible to discern the pattern, but it was far too impractical to be useful.

She'd learned that at a young age, too.

But reinterpreting senses was certainly manageable, and after years of practice, sight and hearing were by far the easiest. So much so, in fact, that she could now do it on an enormous scale.

Sescoria may have been far from the largest city in the world, but its population density was the highest in the nation, and in this area around Bosliat, there were thousands of people. Pauline could see what they all saw, hear what they all heard. And it wasn't overwhelming, either. Mildly difficult, perhaps, but certainly not overwhelming. With a bit of effort, her mind could collect all of that information, reinterpret it, organize it, and even convert it into a mental map for herself.