“Kill who?” I wanted to yell but it came out as a whisper. I’m not a murderer, I’m not a monster. But even in my outrage, I knew that she wasn’t lying. The words of the Seer always come true. I tried to read her mind but once again came up with nothing.

The Seer shook her head disappointedly. “You’re using your Gift wrong. You hit with the blunt end of the knife when you should be trying to cut. You only get away with it because your Gift is strong.”

I stared at her. “My Gift isn’t strong.”

“Not with how you’re using it,” she said calmly.

“How am I supposed to use it then?” I asked without breaking my stare.

She considered my question for a moment. “Do you know how your Gift works?”

Though very briefly, my teachers at the orphanage had explained what a Gift was. “My Gift is a divine present from the Lord,” I said confidently.

The Seer shook her head. “Unfortunately, that isn’t the complete truth. While you have a Gift, it doesn’t mean it was directly given to you by the Lord. Gifts are passed from generation to generation, meaning if two Gifted people have a child, their child will have a Gift. Occasionally the child of two Regulars may have a child who has a Gift. The first generations to receive a Gift had it given to them directly from the Lord. But you aren’t part of that generation, you aren’t chosen, you’re just lucky.”

I wanted to yell at her, to tell her I was special, that I was different, but even before I opened my mouth, I knew how pathetic it would sound. I wasn’t unique, but right now, that didn’t matter. I held in my pride, and asked, “So how do I fix it? How do I use my Gift properly?”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“You use your Gift to read people’s minds when you should be trying to control them,” she said condescendingly.

“I can only control people’s minds when I’m touching them. It’s how my Gift works,” I protested.

She sneered, flaring her nose. “Who says that you can’t control people's minds without touching them? You lack control over your Gift. If I was the one born with your Gift, I would be able to control minds from yards away and be able to rewrite people’s memories with ease. You rely on skin-to-skin contact as a crutch. You use your Gift incorrectly and curse your own luck. You don’t practice, you don’t experiment.”

I held back the tide of emotions that threatened to break through. I knew she was right. Not only because she was the Seer, but because I recognised a truth in her words. I was scared to use my Gifts before. Scared to see the fear in people's minds as I walked past. The names they thought to call me but never said. No one became strong without practice and I finally realised that I wasn’t going to be an exception.

The Seer smiled, noticing the resolve written across my face, the steel in my eyes. “Take baby steps first. Try to change someone’s memories when you’re touching their clothes. After you have that down, try to do it with eye contact. Maybe you could even attempt doing it with sound like your friends Seraphina.”

“She’s not my friend,” I said forcefully, forgetting for a moment who I was talking to.

The Seer smiled politely. “Of course.” She closed her eyes and frowned. “I think your time here is almost up.”

I bit my lip nervously. “So did I pass?”

The Seer grinned. “I already knew you were going to pass before the Culling started. I knew that Seraphina and Lucas would pass too. The Culling is merely a method to find out who else did too and this interview is only to root out the weeds. While right now you’re weak, you’re not a weed. The door behind me.”

“What?”

“That’s where you’ll be making your leave.”

I stood up from my chair and bowed to the Seer. She looked at me oddly, but I didn’t care. I left the room silently even though internally I was screaming. I passed the Culling. I passed. I grinned. Maybe my life was going to go uphill from here on out.