“By the goddess, Nadia! You can’t just ask people why they’re black!”
Kari admonished the girl as if it were the most obvious thing.
“I’m sorry!” Darla panicked at the reaction, “but she just said I was allowed to ask her a personal question and, well,” she gestured at Cas, “like, it’s the most obvious thing about her! She’s black!”
“I know she’s black, Nadia,” Kari said with the voice of a veteran who’d been around the block, “we don’t talk about it.”
Cas put up a slight bit of offence, “hey, I never said-”
“Yeah, it’s kind of rude to ask in the first place, actually,” Kari was on a roll, and apparently not in the mood to acknowledge her own hypocrisy.
“Sorry! Why didn’t she tell me not to ask in the first place, then?” Nadia was tittering on her toes, flashing her hands about in defensive expressions of innocence.
“Because you can ask-” Cas began.
“Because we don’t mention her blackness!” Kari yelled as if embarrassed infront of guests. The girl had been obviously unhappy at Cas sharing her secret without her approval, and it seemed that frustration was leaking into the garnish of admonishment she relished hazing the new girl in.
Nadia bounced “Her hand’s aren’t black, though, are they ok to ask abou-?”
Cas, by now, had had enough. “Ok, stop!” she shouted, coming in between the girls, feeling hot with embarrassment. “Just stop talking about me being black, ok? It’s really not that big of a deal.”
The girls did stop at that, staying still, and sending side eyes to one another.
And then Kari broke. “Ok, but, why are you-”
“Because my parents were black!” Cas said, too flustered to care about giving a proper explanation.
Nadia piped up. “Ok, but why were they-”
“Because their parents were black, and their grandparents were, too! It’s melanin all the way down, ok? It’s just how people where I’m from look.”
The girls seemed to accept that as an answer, though Cas couldn’t help noticing the still living embers of curiosity that lit up Kari’s features.
Taking a sympathetic stance towards the girl, Cas regretfully called on her, “Yes, Kari?”
“Why are you so much older?” the girl asked.
Cas looked down at herself, and found that the ground was farther away than she remembered.
Instinctively, she reached for a mirror before remembering that those didn’t exist in this village. She looked all around her, to the paneless window and the menagerie of rugs that filled her hut… not a single article of glassware in sight. Something glinted, however, and Cas – noticing that the jittering slime she’d let go of had settled down – picked it up in her hand, bringing the creature up to her face, turning her face as she tried to make sense of her distorted reflection.
“Ugh!” Giving up the futile effort, she turned to the girls. “Kari!” she said, “how old do I look?”
The girl seemed unusually shy with her answer. “Uhm… you look… like you’re in the prime of your life!” she answered, smiling before darting her gaze down to her toes. A glance at Nadia revealed the girl was doing everything possible to avoid eye contact.
Maybe it was considered rude to guess someone’s age here? Perhaps it was related to the taboo against asking personal questions. After all, maybe guessing too accurately would imply someone was looking at their character sheet… wait a minute.
With a familiar drag of intention, Cas pulled her status sheet into view.
New information was present, and – it was something Cas felt she could remember.
image [https://i.imgur.com/XRmjAox.png]
Cas listened to her body, and the answer she found there matched her sheet.
She was sixteen years old now, as opposed to twelve. In fact, it was strange to her how she’d know she was twelve before and not thought to question that fact.
Cas looked closer at absorption on her status sheet.
image [https://i.imgur.com/LYzLDPZ.png]
Whew. Cas felt a bit of wind leaving her sails at the XP requirements for the next level, but… it seemed her maximum mass had increased without need for a level up.
Apparently, she’d unintentionally put on some weight over the course of her experimentation with clones and food… much like on earth, in fact.
Unlike on earth, her weight seemed to be directly correlated with food. Strange to say, Cas didn’t remember weighing that little when she was sixteen, but – extrapolating from the current data – it stood to follow that she’d reach her twenties in ten more pounds.
Cas took a little more interest in her human body than usual. It felt… more competent somehow. Her stats had gone up commensurately on her status sheet, but the numbers were hardly a prosaic enough representation of how she felt.
Ignoring the stares of the children as they followed her around the room, Cas paced from wall to wall. Cas’s hand felt lighter as she raised it up, curling it into a tight fist. In fact, her entire body felt lighter, like she was made of steel springs instead of rubber bands and balsa. She felt… denser.
It wasn’t anything spectacular. She was still a sixteen year old girl, and she was quite certain that Kari and Nadia both outshined her on all physical fronts, but compared to the twelve year old she’d grown accustomed to, this was like a memory of her golden years. More than that, however, was how the whole world changed in accordance with her.
Looking at Kari, the girl seemed shorter, yes, but something in Cas found it hard to treat the girl like a friend. The girl looked… cuter, now, somehow, like a little sister. This left Cas feeling a lot more protective and responsible for her.
Of course, Cas had always looked out for the girl, but before she’d been doing that out of habit, because she’d remembered that that was how an adult like her was supposed to behave. Now, however, she felt that long forgotten instinct to cradle the girl and shelter her from the world.
Resisting the urge to pinch Kari’s cheeks while making baby noises, Cas turned around, eyes dancing wildly around the world as a whole puberty’s worth of context suddenly gave a different meaning to all the familiar sights.
It was an ineffable difference, but it was strongly present in everything.
The ground, her experiments, the night sky, the empty space between her and everything else, all of it looked the same but was recognized differently. It reminded her somewhat of her brief serenity after unlocking her aura.
Speaking of which…
Cas sat down in lotus position, giving a brief reply to Kari’s questioning look: “Doing aura stuff,” before closing her eyes and searching in the darkness for a hint of that spark.
A timeless period followed as she grasped hold of her aura, and she effortlessly remembered the steps, as Sin had instructed them.
Her aura was always present, so she began at step four: recall the shape of her body.
Her new body, tingling with unfamiliarity, was easily noticed by her, and she could feel a sensation like a blade sliding into its sheath, as her form vibrated into itself.
Steps five, six and seven fell like dominoes straight afterwards. Her aura calmed, falling like a wet leaf against the surface of her body, a deep breath ignited the energy in her belly, and intention brought it up to her throat, shooting like a geyser onto that pin-point particle of concentration which floated in another dimension.
All of it was done with effortless intention on her part, and now all that remained was,
…
“You’ve graduated to the eighth step already? Good man!” Sin clapped her on what he assumed was her back, sending her sliding forward a few inches before looking at her apologetically, “or, rather… good Sakkari!”
Cas amiably accepted the congratulations, though she was eager to move from talk to action. “You never told me what the eighth step was, though. I assumed it was something too dangerous to do alone.”
“Aha!” Sin apparently found something funny in her worry. “Not in the slightest. The last step is the easiest! In fact, if you gave it a bit of thought, I’m sure you could discover it by yourself without guidance. I just neglected to tell you because…”
“Because…” Cas parroted.
Sin laughed as a crowd of children suddenly appeared around the Sakkari, “Because it’s tradition to test someone on the day they learn aura control!” Sin snapped his fingers, and the children had already taken Cas by her stalks, dragging her away like good little henchmen. “Of course I couldn’t let you learn it all on your own and skip out on all the fun!
…
Cas hardened some eyebrows into existence on her surface. They were carved into a displeased look as Sin circled round her, addressing the crowd like he was a lion tamer and she was the half-time entertainment.
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Today was the final match of the wrestling tournament.
Unsurprisingly, Sin was competing in the final bracket, and it seemed the anticipation of the match had made him livelier than usual.
“Oh, my dear friends and compatriots!” he began with his usual voice of showmanship. “It is my great honor to be the one among us lucky enough to say: that I guided our local Sage through her first steps into adulthood!”
Understanding looks went through the crowd just as Cas’s manufactured eyebrows turned confused, and particularly lively cheer arose which Sin had to speak over.
“And so! And so, as a preamble to the greatest wrestling match of this tournament!” At this another great roar rose up from the croud, as Sin pointed a hand over at the competitors corner, “I thought it proper that we all bear witness to her first and crowning achievement in Aura control.”
Sin smoothly turned to let the audience’s expectant gazes slip past him and onto the awaiting Cas.
Cas, left with nothing else to do during Sin’s speech, had gathered enough context to figure out that mastering the eight stages of Aura control was some sort of coming of age ceremony here.
She still hadn’t divined what the eighth step was supposed to be, however.
Sin stepped in behind her, placing a clay tablet before her.
Cas whispered at him hotly. “I did not agree to a public presentation.”
“Sorry,” Sin gave her an unapologetic smile. “But this is how we welcome people into the community here.”
Cas, still speaking in a stage whisper, exclaimed, “I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do.”
“It’s easy,” Sin assured, “just follow the seven steps, and then release the energy.”
“Release the energy? Where?”
Sin had just finished setting up the clay tablet, leaning it up against a set of bricks so that the flat side faced her like a karate board. “Where do you think?” was the only answer that came from his smiling teeth.
Cas took a deep breath into her air pocket. It didn’t do much for her biology, but it was a good cue.
Her aura was always active ever since she achieved the third stage, so Cas was happy to start at the fourth.
She grew a stalk, imagining every detail of the new appendage, as well as the mass it was attached, to, hardened the tip, and felt the weighty energy of the morning star she’d grow atop the stalk, stored with tremendous energy as she sprang the seventh step.
And then, like pressing a trigger, she released all that energy and her false arm sprang forwards, flashing through the intervening space and smashing into the clay tablet with a pitiful *dink*.
The hardened tip of her stalk bounced clean off the tablet, winding back on itself.
Shuddering a bit against its brick supports, the tablet stood otherwise unaffected, a small, cracked dent in its center the only evidence as to Cas’ efforts.
And the crowd went wild.
A roar so loud that Cas couldn’t believe it to be anything other than patronizing went through the gathered masses, and even Sin – with his naturally honest smile – came stolling with a jolly clap which encouraged everyone else onward with cheering her.
Looking around, Cas saw that – despite her unusual popularity – the reactions seemed genuine.
Or, rather, they seemed standard.
It was like… you know you go to a quinsinera, or birthday party, or graduation, and everyone’s there making a happy face and bringing flowers for what is – objectively speaking – just another average party.
Well, it was like that. The reaction was perhaps overblown, but it wasn’t malicious in its manufacture. That was perhaps standard for coming of age ceremonies, Cas supposed.
Sin, still laughing, seemed to have an insight into her feelings as he knelt next to her, taking the clay tablet up as if he planned to frame it.
“Dissapointed?” he asked.
“Am I that easy to read?” Cas stared blankly up at him with her billboard eyebrows.
“No,” Sin lied, “It’s just how I felt when I first started learning. You’re a quick study, but it takes years to master aura manipulation. I’ve been practicing for over a decade to get to my level.” He gestured to himself with a proud thumb, letting out a mischievous grin at Cas’s exasperated countenance.
“Haha!” he let out that short laugh of his. “Don’t tell me you expected to be a master after a week of training. No, you still suck at this, trust me. I could see that from over there,” he gestured to where he’d been sitting. “Still,” and here Sin stopped laughing, speaking more seriously, “you’re past the largest hurdle, now. You know how to manipulate aura." Slowly, the man reached a long arm out, hand bladed, and pressed his fingertips against one of the bricks. “All that’s left is to continue sharpening the knife. Stick to that and eventually…”
Sin let his arm do the talking, as he flexed his shoulder, shifted his fist and suddenly a loud cloud of dust replaced the brick, a wave of landing shrapnel panting the dirt with pits behind it.
Cas took his words to heart, and lifted her stalk, putting all her might into another strike aimed at the remaining brick.
Her stalk flopped into the dirt like wet spaghetti, drawing another laugh from Sin and intense panic from Cas.
Searching inside herself, she found her aura was back at stage three.
“Oh, come on!” she yelled. “Are you saying I have to go through all those stages every time I want to move a muscle? It takes me ten seconds to do that!”
Sin was beside himself with hysterics at the continual pranks reality seemed to be playing on the Sakkari. “Did I not mention that!?” he laughed, drawing a large glare from Cas and calming a bit. “But, yes, you will have to do that as a beginner. Once you’ve mastered the steps, you can learn to bounce between the sixths and seven stages eventually, but… I think that technique is a bit beyond you at the moment. Your stage five is looking a bit messy.”
Cas ground out. “Thanks for the critique,” looking sadly down at her literal noodle arm.
A harsh clap on her back sent her sliding forward. “I’ll tell you this, though! You’ve been missing my matches. Why not watch this last one, and see what Aura can really let you do."
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Naturally Cas wasn’t one to decline such an invitation.
She’d never been a fan of watching combat sports back on earth, or any sports for that matter, but maybe all earth sports were just lacking superpowers. The tour de france exploded in popularity after doping, after all.
Still, this wasn’t the tour de france, and Cas was consequently able to stay awake through the entire match.
It had been an interesting start.
For one, there were three people in the circle. Sin stood on one side, facing two opponents who he’d called out quite explicitly.
They didn’t seem to carry as much confidence as their numbers should’ve allowed.
Sin, for his part, strolled with an easy swagger on his side of the circle, gesturing to the crowd and flaring that invisible aura of his yet higher, drawing interested notes of amazement from the audience.
Above him was the usual head tag for the man:
image [https://i.imgur.com/jXhpOHP.png]
The other men flared their own auras, apparently trying to match the show of strength and drawing quieter cheers from their village compatriots.
image [https://i.imgur.com/d9G2GoT.png]
image [https://i.imgur.com/Kjv0UAK.png]
Cas was no longer confused about the matchup.
The referee, an older man who looked completely unimpressed by the whole affair, stood in the center, raising his arms out to either side.
As a neighboring spectator had kindly explained, the rules of the match were as Cas had expected. Much like standard wrestling, touching the ground with your back, or stepping outside the ring was considered a loss.
Unlike standard wrestling, however, the referee yelled “contestants make ready!!” and Sin and the two men simply walked towards the center.
No low crouching, no searching for the take down, they just stood there, with maybe a hint of a ready stance as they shifted their weights forward and tensed themselves.
“Contestants make set!” the referee yelled, and even Sin stopped his merry making, eyes glinting like steel.
The referee walked backwards, taking a full step outside of the ring.
“Fight!” he announced, with a downward chop of his hand.
The match started.
“Winner!” the referee announced in the next moment, walking through the man-sized cloud of dust that billowed over the ring to raise Sin’s victorious arm.
Cas didn’t see the fight, but she could remember having seen it. It was that strange phenomenon when something happens too quickly, and you’re left unable to react or even understand it in the moment, but otherwise perfectly capable of looking back on the event in the most minute detail.
Cas, stunned into silence as the crowd flowed around her to congratulate their champion, ran back the footage in her mind, trying to process what had happened.
When it was happening, the event had startled Cas. People just weren’t meant to move that fast, and the horrible noise the fight had created, it was like two giant sparklers bursting in quick succession.
Those two sparkler bursts of motion where the only things she’d made out. In a blur, the first of the two men had kicked high at Sin’s head, the loose pants-leg of his shawl letting out fluttering bangs like a beaten carpet.
Sin swam under the strike. He must have, at least, and he was behind the men. Before they could react, and before Cas could see, he lifted his knee high… and then the men crashed out of the ring, digging trenches into the dirt with their faces.
And those very same men, a little disoriented but otherwise unharmed, now had smiles on their dirtied faces as they moved to congratulate the victor.
It was an amazing sight, but that adult perspective she’d caught last night didn’t allow her to enjoy it so simply.
A cold thought Cas had never appreciated snaked into the back of her mind.
These were dangerous people.
----------------------------------------
The time for the Nadia’s leaving ceremony approached, and the girl was stopped at the outer bounds of the village by Kari.
As Tami had suggested, Kari gave the girl a reed necklace, a traditional symbol of welcoming someone into your family, and Cas went up to make the announcement.
Crawling forward, she presented the young girl infront of her.
“As is tradition, the Unari Nadia has walked out into the desert. However I – who would have use of her as an assistant – have therefore decided to take her into my household. I remind all of you, that it is against the law to harm anyone who lives lawfully, and Nadia has broken no laws.”
It was mid-day now, and it was silent.
Noon was considered the best time for the ceremony, the sun was considered a mercifully quick killer.
Noon was also a strange time, however.
It was a quiet time when everyone in the village went indoors to hide from the sun and to take a break from work.
No one here was accustomed to being outside at this time, and so the world, with its short shadows and bleached sands, looked like a strange and ghostly apparition. It looked unreal, and the villagers looked at it like it was a stranger.
Self consciously, Nadia shifted in her shoes.
The villagers were giving her the same look.
Just hours ago, they’d been cheering for her ceremony and carrying on all their dealings with her with obeisance. Now, however, tired and hot and shielding themselves from the sun with their brows, the Villagers remained perfectly silent and – to a man – turned their backs on the girl and walked away.
The ceremony had concluded, and – unusually – there were no honors or joyful exhortations given.