"It's taboo to tell others of our Wits," Elina complained, marching down the stone path towards the training building.
"It's not taboo, it's stupid," Melanie corrected.
"It's taboo because it's stupid," Elina shot back.
"It's necessary," I finally interjected. "How are we to pass this test if we do not know how to work with one another?"
Melanie blew out a breath.
"We are already Dreamers. This whole test is a farce."
"What do you mean?" Elina asked.
"I've been thinking about this whole thing. Both Professor Alyci and Professor Liraca have some sort of reconnaissance Wit. So during the test where our lives are on the line we will have to go all out, and they will be able to take all the notes on our abilities that they want."
"Also, you know, save our lives if we are in danger," Elina said.
“They wouldn’t need to save our lives if they didn’t put us in dangerous situations. Right Monty?”
I started from being thrown back into the conversation, but I thought about what Melanie was saying.
“I agree that we do not need to be put into any danger to become Dreamers, however we have been told from day one that the school's function was to create defenders from Nightmares and pioneers for the lower Layers.”
“You don’t think they want to know our abilities?” Melanie asked with a bit of scorn.
“I do, but I think it is a good trade. If not for them, we wouldn’t have even opened our Dreamscapes or created our Wits.”
“So you’re just going to tell them your Wit? That’s putting a noose around your own neck to be fair.”
“No. The run in with the Cheshire family showed me that some people with bad intentions would be interested in the nuances of my ability. Even showing you all is a risk, as the information that I used to write the ideas of my Dreamscape in a journal was leaked to them.”
“You don’t trust us?”
I do, but I’m still scared that I’m wrong and- I cut off that line of thought. It was an unnecessary fear that had no evidence of being true yet.
“Monty?” Elina asked.
“Yes?”
“Uh, nevermind, but Monty is right in that the benefit outweighs the cost. We are learning how to become Dreamers and in return, they are getting a glimpse of our powers. Don’t forget we will only be at the school for three years. You could just create random Wits that you won’t use once you graduate.”
“I could also just leave now. I’m pretty sure we’ve learned most of what is needed to be a Dreamer by now, so I could just make my way with my powers,” Melanie said.
“Day or orientation, the Headmistress said that all of us will be put on a list of those who have been trained on how to be Dreamers, and that there was no escaping their eyes then. If you leave now, they may believe that you have bad intentions towards the Sun State and hunt you down,” I reminded the two of them.
“Shit- wait, are the normal students that left going to be, you know," Melanie slid a finger across her throat.
“That is an interesting topic of study. Are you still in contact with any of them?” I asked.
“What!” Elina exclaimed. “No it's not an interesting topic of study, it's terrible.”
Sure morally it was wrong to kill children, but it was also interesting. It could provide more information on how Dreamer society worked outside our little control group. There had always been a choke hold on information about Dreamers and their powers, but now I knew that a lot of that was due to the fact that a Dreamer's abilities were very personalized and could change over time as the Dreamer developed their Wit.
However things like Intent, Dreamscapes, and Dreams were fundamental in all Dreamers, but that information was not widespread to the public. Were Dreamers that worried about non-Dreamers knowing about them?
Was it from a country standpoint? Not wanting unknown people to open their Dreamscapes and not be registered by the state? To not have the indoctrination of needing to protect the country from the threats below?
If I were to teach an entire town about visualization training and incorporate that into their children's studies at a young age would it increase the chances of a child reaching Enlightenment?
Or perhaps I could put the people of the town in fight or flight situations that could help to open their Dreamscape.
I know that the Coal Empire has done that kind of research, but I don’t know if it was locked away or destroyed after the empire fell. Perhaps I’d ask the professor about it later.
We made it to the training building and I realized I had zoned out of the conversation, which was now on cannibalism for some reason.
The conversation quieted so as not to be rude to others in the building and we slinked down the hallway toward the room I had booked. I knocked politely, hearing the clear voice from Vit to come in.
As the year progressed, the previously empty rooms now had a few different items. Some were better equipped than others, which made students fight over who got which one often. We booked the one where Elina drank her Awakening potion; it had weights, a table, chairs, and a pocket knife that no one knew who it belonged to.
However, when I opened I saw that many new things were added to the room compared to that morning. There was a coat hanger off to the side, and several small wooden stands with lit candles on them. The table was now completely set with a tablecloth, placemats, plates, silverware, glasses, and a platter of sliced fruits, cheeses, and biscuits. Two small jars of jam were on the table next to a serving tray with a tea set. There were no longer any weights in the room either.
“Come in please. May I take your coats?” Vit said.
“Thank you Vit,” Melanie said, as though she was used to this, and took off her coat.
Vit placed it onto a coat hanger, making sure not to have any wrinkles in it, before turning to Elina and I.
We looked at one another, shrugged, then gave him our coats.
“Please Mister and Misses, take a seat, I will serve tea. Do any of you have an issue with black tea? It has become more popular in social circles.”
“No, that should be good. Thank you Vit,” Melanie said.
I went to the closest chair, pulled it out, looked at the table, and saw a small paper that said Miss Elina Moda in an intricate script. I pushed back in the chair and went to my own seat.
The three of us sat in our seats. Elina was looking around with an impressed look on her face, while Melanie leaned on her palm with a little smirk on her lips. Vit gave the elbow digging into the tablecloth a slight glare, but continued to serve tea without speaking.
I sat with the posture my nanny had taught me when I was seven. It had been years since I had had afternoon tea because my grandparents were fans of earlier dinners compared to the rest of the Sun State. Now the setting of my shoulders felt uncomfortable and foreign.
Vit poured warm black tea into my teacup.
“Sugar or honey?”
I was surprised he had honey. It was rather expensive at the moment.
“Honey, please.”
Once he was done serving tea he sat down with us.
“I hope the tea is to your liking,” he said before taking a sip of his own. “There are snacks, should you desire, and I have extra in a basket.”
I looked around, but I didn’t see a basket anywhere. Perhaps it was under Vit’s chair.
“It’s good as always Vit. Now, can we get to business?” Melanie asked.
“I have not inquired about how each of your days has been.”
“Something something sharing Wits, something something canabalism. Anyway if we are going to share our Wits we should all agree that we don’t have to share everything.”
Vits hand froze from lifting his teacup, but then resumed, taking a quiet sip.
“Agreed. We should also showcase them and train with one another using them. The nuances are not the most important part. It is how we can best utilize the effect as a team. However, we are currently having tea, we can begin once we have finished,” Vit said, taking another sip.
After an uncomfortable twenty minutes of small talk which I didn’t take part in we were done. “So, who would like to go first?” Vit asked, sitting back down at the table.
I glanced around the table, ending on Elina who shrugged.
“Sure, why not. Right now I have two abilities, but one is pretty worthless. That one is called Firework Punch, and well, I punch hard and pretty. I won’t demonstrate it here as I’m still not good at controlling the power output. My other one is called Steam Roll. Basically, uh, each consecutive hit is more powerful than the last, but if I miss the power resets. Um, hey Monty, can I smack you real quick?”
I held out my arm to her.
She raised a hand up and a pink haze began to waft upwards. Very lightly she slapped my forearm, pulling her hand back into the air. The cloud of pink power was ever so slightly larger, and I could see tiny flecks of light streaking around.
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Two more times she hit my arm, but I couldn’t really tell if it was getting more powerful as she was being careful not to hit me hard. However the Intent coming off of her was a good amount larger than when she started, the flecks of light more prominent.
Then she swung down, missing me completely, and the pink Intent went back to how it was before she hit me.
“So yeah, thats it,” she finished a bit awkwardly.
“What does Firework Punch do?” Melanie asked.
“Oh yeah, Firework Punch just makes a single punch more powerful and bright. It takes a lot of energy though so I can’t use it one after the other.”
“I will go next,” Vit declred. “My ability is called Taskmaster. It is still in development, but the premis is simple. I will give myself a task to complete. I will then get a boost to my abilities that correlate to the completion of said task. However once I give myself a task I will not stop until it is complete. As for the example…”
Vit stood, tucked in his chair and cleared his throat.
“Task. Put away dining set, begin.”
A dull grey Intent burst from Vit for a moment, then condensed back into his body to only release small wisps of it. For a moment, nothing happened, then he moved.
Candles were snuffed out, taken out of the candelabras, and placed in a case that he pulled out of no where. The candlesabras were then taken apart and followed the candles into the case.
He moved back to the main table, and with bluring fingers took all the plates and silverware from the table, pulling out a cloth and cleaning them before stacking them in a seperate case he pulled from beneath the table.
When he got to the tablecloth he pulled on it smoothly and then grey Intent came off of him and helped to fold the cloth quickly, acting like small arms. He then properly cleaned the wooden table and took a small brush and dustpan to pick up the small pieces of food on the ground.
It was only when he closed the small cloth trashbag and placed it next to his chair that he stopped.
I glanced at my watch. He had completed the task in less than a minute, whithout making a sound or looking at them once.
“As you can see there is some room for personal belief when it comes to the completion of a task, as I not only put the dining equiptment away, but also cleaned the dishes, table, and floor. You can also see that I use Intent Manipulation to aid me in my task. With this ability not only can I use it to fight efficiently, but can also do more supportive tasks such as create fires, set up tents, and make food.”
He said all of this with a straight back and shoulders squared.
To say I was impressed would be an understatement. It was a flexible ability that could aid him in doing seemingly anything. If he had a second Wit would he be able to use them in tandem with one another?
“May I ask questions about your ability or would you prefer if I didn’t?” I asked.
I think Vit was having an effect on the way I spoke.
“Ask the question and I will see if I should answer.”
“Are you conscious of your actions or is your body moving on its own? Can the ability adapt to a rapidly changing situation? What if the task that you set is no longer possible to complete?”
“Yes I am conscious, however my state of mind is different. There is only the task I must complete and how I should go about it. I have stress tested my ability for changing environments, but it is hard to do alone. That is one thing you three can help me with when we train with one another. Same for the third question, I will need help to properly test such a thing.”
Vit took his seat again, placing his gloved hands in his lap.
Only the task he must complete? Was that similar to when someone focuses on a subject or is it impossible for any other thought to enter his mind? If his task was to kill enemies and I was bleeding out would he ignore me?
Melanie and I looked at one another for several moments, neither one of us wanting to go first. Over the last few months I learned that Melanie, despite being more socail than Elina, Vit, and I put together, didn’t like to talk about herself much.
Meanwhile I was just hesitant for their reactions to Dismantle. I had been pushing down the thought of their horror all day.
Melanie blew out a breath.
“Fine. I my Wits name is Shifting Cape. What happens is I summon a cape that I can control, thats it.”
What did she mean by control? Could she fly with it? Could she make it still like wood?
She stood, then glanced at the three of us with a hesitant expression. Purple Intent condesnsed around her hand, then flowed out, taking the form of a billowing cape. It solidified into a long black cape that brushed against the ground the part in her hand was the top where the neck tie was.. It looked real, more real than the chains that Ravik had created with his ability.
Was that due to Melanies attention to detail, or did the realistic material make the cape as weak as normal cloth. Speaking of, what kind of material did the cape immitate? Cotton? Wool?
Melanie pulled the cape closer to herself, glanced at us again, then turned around.
Although she tried to hide it I caught a glimpse of another object appear in her other hand. It was… a wand. One of the black ones with white ends that street performers used. I saw her mouth whisper something and the wand tap against the cloth of the cape. Suddenly small purple embers fell from the cape similarly to when Elina had her SteamRoll going.
The wand dissapeared and Mealnie turned back around with an awkward smile on her face.
“Well here it is, the Shifting Cape! Now, I’m sure you are all wondering what I mean by “Shifing” Well let me show you!”
Like a waiter with a tablecloth she lifted and pulled down the cape. Keeping one hand on it it set down, and then imitated a tablecloth on a round table, only there was no table beneath it.
“What is this? A table beneath the cloak? I don’t remember seeing that? Oh, that because its not there!” She said theatrically, yanking the cloak back to reveal the empry space.
She once again flicked the cloak outwards, and instead of keeping its shifting billowing form it stiffened to a flat board, making it look like a fan.
“I can make it quite durable, but I don’t really know what to compare it to. With my ability to manipulate its form I can make it whip out with powerful force, shield myself or one of you, and even use it as an extension of my body.”
The cloak became limp once more, then moved, extending toward the table. The ends of the cloak wrapped around the top of the table, and seemed to press down into it. Then it pulled back, lifting the table completely off the ground.
That too was a very flexible technique. How much pressure could the cape give out? Could it crush a limb completely if it wrapped around it? It didn’t seem as though she could fly with it, but perhaps she was just not sharing that.
She placed the table back onto the ground, then whipped the cloak around to place it on her neck. Was she going to actually fly with it? However instead of actually placing it on herself the cloak disappeared from view.
“And that, lady and gentlemen, is the Shifting Cape,” Melanie said, giving a deep bow.
Elina gave a polite clapping, and Vit nodded curtly.
Should I ask about the wand? Obviously, she didn’t want to share about it, so it would be rude. Was it a condition she had made? The purple sparks hadn’t shown up until she had used it on the cape. So did that mean the cape was useless without the wand?
While I was thinking, the other three had all looked to me. Damn, now it was my turn. How do I explain it? How do I show it? It wasn’t as though I would use it on myself. Dismantle wasn’t specifically a organic material only Wit, but that was its intended use. I brought the broken watch that I could use it on, but I don’t think that would really convey what my ability could do. I should have asked Bliss to catch me a rat or something.
“Monty?” Elina said, bringing me out of my thoughts.
“My apologies. My Wit is called Dismantle. When I attack something, such as a Nightmare, the attack will not wound the Nightmare as it normally would. Instead it dismantles them, their skin separates from fat and muscle, muscle separates from bone, bone separates from other bones.”
As I spoke I focused on the corner of the room. I was scared of their reactions. None of them spoke, waiting for me to continue. Or perhaps they were too horrified to speak.
How could I demonstrate this without terrifying them? Think, what were the tools nearby that could help?
Table and chairs? No. Clothing? I don’t want to ruin mine and it would be rude to do it to theirs. Plates Silverware? No, the ability won't work as they are whole pieces. Food? Perhaps. Food is organic material. What foods does Vit still have? I remember seeing the fruits on the platter.
“Vit, do you have any more oranges?” I asked, finally looking back at the table.
There wasn’t horror on their face, but Melanie looked uncomfortable. Vit was still as placid as ever, but Elina looked like she was forcing herself to make no expression.
“They are tangerines, and yes, I brought extra.”
Melanie rolled her eyes.
“May I have them, please?”
Vit stood and took out a basket from beneath his chair and placed it on the table. There were a handful of fruits on it and I grabbed a tangerine.
Though Senses was deteriorating due to lack of maintenance it still worked well enough for me to use on the tangerine. I felt its weight, the disgusting taste of the peel, the slightly hairy feeling of the skin wrapping the juice packet things.
“Was that it?” Melanie asked.
“No, that was another small ability called Senses. Give me a moment.”
On the foundation of what would become my library I created a tangerine. It didn’t need a whole lot of information, so I was done in a couple of minutes. The orange ball then morphed into a very thin booklet labeled tangerine. The book talked about the anatomy of the fruit, and its nutritional benefits. It also held the seams I had marked in the book. For such a small fruit there were quite a lot.
Now it was time to take it to the lab. The book quickly flew into my Dismantle Room.
The Room was now fully functioning. The walls were an almost white stone, and the surgical table was marble. The floor was wooden, as wood made things feel more alive and real compared to cool hard stone.
Various tools lined one wall. The function of these was for my Intent to imitate when inside someone Dismantling them.
Another wall was filled with empty papered posters, waiting to be filled with information. These would be for the functions of the subjects parts
The third was a bookshelf, which could hold additional books from my library, such as a wounds book or related species book. Next to the bookshelf was a desk, this pieces function would allow me to add information as I worked. I still had issues Dismantling and adding to my library at the same time, it was taxing on the brain.
The last wall was filled with empty display stands. This would be used for three dimensional models of the subjects in various forms. This would be to help me use the information known about the subject to help me guide Dismantle, an altered version of Senses built into the ability.
The tangerine book landed on the surgical table, its three pages flapping open. The wall with papers now showed labled parts of the tangerine, its nutritional benefits and how to go about peeling it. The papers also included the seams I had determined for the fruit.
On the display wall several tangerines in different steps of being taken apart were placed.
The bookshelf was empty, but my Dream Journal, what I started to call the book where my notes had gone, was placed onto the desk.
I could use this as an opportunity to see what to add to my Room.
The book finished uploading the information to the Room, which only took a blink, then morphed back into a tangerine sitting on the table.
Back in the real world, I placed the tangerine on the table and put my index finger over it.
With simple Intent Manipulation I shaped my chalk white Intent into a point. Like a ruler straight needle coming out of my finger. This was something else I had been working on recently, as to not rely on weapons for Dismantle.
I pressed the point into the top of the fruit, where it had broken off its stem, and guided Dismantle as it flowed into the tangerine.
The skin was cut and peeled back in quadrants. The walls that glued the crescent shaped parts came off like a glove from a hand. The core stem was cut away from the rest of the fruit, and lastly the small juicy sacs were separated from one another. That last part took the most effort, as there were just so many of them, but this wasn’t the small experimental Room I had created before. My Wit was now strong.
In only a couple of seconds, the fruit was now broken apart completely, small orange juice pods rolling away.
“That is Dismantle,” I said, staring at the now messy table.
“I have questions,” Vit said.
“I have concerns,” Melanie mumbled, not quietly enough for me not to hear.
“I’m gonna eat those,” Elina said, taking a few of the pods and throwing them into her mouth.
I turned to Vit. I asked him questions so it was only right he could ask me questions.
“Is the reason you used Senses first to gain knowledge on the tangerine? Does that mean that you require information on what you are Dismantling for the Wit to function?”
“Yes, as you know I have done research on the Nightmares we may face on the Second Layer. That was one of the primary reasons why. If the Nightmare has a normal animal counterpart than I can already have a basis for it. Which means I’ll be able to already use my ability on them, but to a lesser degree until I learn more.”
“I see. Well now that we have all learned of one anothers Wits we should begin planning our training regime. Monty and I started yesterday so we just need input from you two.”
From beneath the table, Vit pulled out a binder. He was really good at hiding those things.