I stumbled into the locker room, my cap and gown surprisingly pristine despite the rough situation I had been in just a moment ago. I was safe, considering there were so many people around, and I was finally able to breathe a breath of relief. I really didn't have much time left to have arrived, and missing this would have been terrible.
It's my only high school graduation after all.
"Oi Young, get in line or you're not going out there!"
Upon a teacher yelling at me, I rushed in a slight panic to my place in the order. Nervously, I stood fidgeting, trying to ignore the jeers and whispers around me. Glancing down at myself to keep myself distracted, I noticed a few places that dirt had managed to make its way onto my gown. Attempting to tenderly wipe it off to no avail, I sighed. I would be the one with a dirty gown, wouldn’t I? It just fit so well that it was basically unfortunate.
I awkwardly waddled forward behind the girl in front of me as she began moving. I had missed the rehearsal the previous day for the same reason I had almost missed the main event today, but thankfully I was able to get here in time. I was sure I could improvise what I needed to do since I was so far back in the alphabetical order, I just needed to observe closely.
The sounds of the most stereotypical graduation music could be heard in the distance as my class marched through the tunnels, accented by the occasional shout from those spectating. Today was wildly important for everyone involved after all, so it simply made sense for a family to be there to support them as much as they could. I bit my lip as we emerged into the open air out of the dark tunnels, the cheers feeling far louder and the music far quieter now that we had arrived in direct view of the crowd.
I was definitely intimidated, made all the more stressful by the sheer beauty of the gigantic space we had entered. The pews we were to sit on were illuminated with the color of the ceiling, the stained glass roof beautifully accenting the boring wooden benches with the colors of the rainbow. They had somehow made it so that the light from the stained glass only covered the pews and altar, the crowded stands around them merely lit with dim stadium lights.
This place had been a sports stadium, but it was converted into the New Houston Cathedral not so long ago. The sheer amount of space in the stands was required for the crowd that the Great Cardinal tended to attract, but now that I stood in the limelight it was truly terrifying. It was packed, and everywhere I looked I felt like I could see someone looking at me, trying to figure me for someone they knew. I nearly jumped when the girl in front of me turned into a pew, where I finally managed to take a seat. I hadn’t realized how exhausted I was until I took that seat, but I was on the verge of passing out at that point.
The last few days have been completely packed with things out of my control, and the next few days most likely will be too. It sucked, but I didn’t have a choice in my participation if I wanted to move up in the world. After this ceremony I’ll finally be considered an adult, and my work will increase dramatically for an unspecified length of time. I wasn’t sure if I could handle it, but the people I trusted had told me that I could, so I had decided to take their word for it and try. Now that I managed to make it here though, I wasn’t exactly thrilled about my chances.
I was snapped out of my own little world when the people around me began to chant a traditional prayer. Considering I hadn’t had time to memorize it, I silently mouthed along to try and at least appear like I was speaking. I definitely felt an intense glare from the girl beside me, but that's besides the point.
After nearly ten minutes of chanting, the class went silent, and with them so did the entire cathedral. It was certainly eerie, and I was remarkably uncomfortable. A negative thought about how I was the reason they went quiet forced its way into my head, but I shook it off since I knew the actual reason why the chant had ended.
The sound of heavy footsteps began to approach, and I glanced up to see a man in ornate robes being led down the center of the pews, his far too long cap being held up by what I recognized as the Student Council from my high school. I felt a chill run down my spine as the sound of breathing of the people around me somehow synchronized with his footsteps, the soft thump of each footstep granting them the right to breathe.
I felt entirely out of place in this place already, and now that the Great Cardinal himself had entered, my stress was probably so visible that the back stands could see it.
The cardinal was dragging each of his steps out as much as possible, probably both to revel in his own impact and to allow those present to truly witness him. He was truly large, nearly two and half meters tall, and that only exemplified his presence. I knew that his appearance was popular among a few of the girls in my class, but seeing him up close was a different story. He was so strangely perfect, his face a symmetrical masterpiece and his short hair somehow separated itself into streaks of black and white so even that I wouldn’t believe it if they hadn’t spent hours making it look like that. His robes would probably be considered gaudy on anyone else; afterall, the red, white and blue of the states wasn’t usually this regal, this elegant. The spotted fur that accented the ornate gold trim of the robe somehow just worked, and it bothered me. He was the embodiment of church and state, the textbook example of a monarch, a king. This man was the antithesis of the American ideal, yet here he was, the one leading us forward.
The cardinal finally reached the altar, stepping up to look over our class, at us, at me. The cathedral was deathly silent, the air still, waiting in anticipation for the voice we all knew by heart. The cardinal smiled and opened his mouth, and I could feel the hearts of the people around me thump in response.
“Tonight we are here to celebrate the coming of adulthood for the fifty third class of New Houston High School. They have worked hard in their efforts to become model students, potential icons of the future of our race. Please, before I get started on the ceremony, I would like you to get out the applause, the cheers, the celebration of them you have within you. After all, your love is so dearly important to them, and I know you wish to show it off.”
As the Cardinal finished speaking, he closed his eyes and raised his hands to the sky. The crowd took but a second to recover from his words before going wild, and I felt that my eardrums would burst from the noise that exploded. Even the classmates around me were celebrating, and I had to pull my knees up to my chest to hug. I could feel a migraine forming, and it probably wouldn’t be a pleasant experience.
Nearly five minutes later, the Cardinal lowered his hand and opened his eyes. In an instant, the cathedral went silent.
“Thank you for your cooperation, everyone. I would like to again, congratulate the fifty third class for their hard work over the entirety of their schooling; it has certainly not gone to waste. You have gained the right of adulthood, and through this the right to see your future role in society.”
The cardinal leans forward on the podium in front of him, his face now far more serious than before. I wasn’t sure if it was me imagining it or not, but I thought I heard a gulp come from somewhere nearby me.
“I see many good faces in this crowd. It is rather unfortunate that a few of you will not receive the right to lead, to mold the future. A few of you will be marked, and you will defend humanity to the best of your ability.”
I usually wasn’t that good at reading faces, but the emotion the cardinal felt about the marked was more than obvious. The level of contempt this man felt for those who were marked was bone chilling. The whole cathedral, me included, flinched as the cardinal suddenly slammed his hand into the podium. His eyes were burning, and the invisible flames seemed to burst free and spread through the room, igniting in the hearts of those listening.
“As Americans, we must not pity them, nor spare an ounce of sympathy! The lord chose us as those to be defended, and by extension, those who guide our world to a better tomorrow! We are the last bastion of humanity, and we shall defend our ways forever more!”
The room was flaring up, yet somehow silence persisted by only the sheer force of the Cardinal’s speech. Taking a quick breath to calm himself, the cardinal regains his regal poise.
“Your role as adults is to slot into the fold as best you can, and capitalize on what you can to succeed. I look forward to seeing you all again, no matter the reason. Now, let me see your true radiance.”
Holding up a small staff, the cardinal holds it out as if holding it above us. Slowly, each pew is lit with a golden radiance escaping from the heart of each graduating student. Finally, the wave of light reaches me, and I feel my heart slightly warm as it lights up.
The migraine hits suddenly, and as it does my heart drops.
Stolen story; please report.
[Congratulations on reaching adulthood as decided by your community! You have been marked as a ward of the system. I am OSS 117, the subsystem now dedicated to assisting you along your path forwards.]
Between the splitting headache and my utter panic over the system showing up, I grab my head in pain. As I do, I feel a sudden jerk as I am dragged over the pews by guards I never recognized were even there, put into strange looking handcuffs, and pulled to my feet.
“This is MDSS-22, we have secured a mark, proceeding to extraction.”
I started to yell for help, but found myself gagged to fast for me to react to. A blindfold is also thrown over my eyes as I am harshly pulled away from the rest of the class. I was extremely nervous, and my migraine was just getting worse. The blaring noice of the crowd and my class was quickly dulled as I am pulled out of the main room, and a small forced march, the smell of gasoline tells me exactly where I was. I yelp a tad as I am lifted and chucked into a truck, the door behind me slamming shut. I take a few deep breaths and get myself upright, pulling my knees to my chest once more.
----------------------------------------
After a good while, I had almost managed to fall asleep, a godsend with my still raging migrane, however unfortunately a sudden screech causes me to jolt awake, the vehicle having apparently stopped. The sound of a door opening is followed by me once again being roughly dragged in a direction. Eventually, I am forced into a seat, my restraints then removed. My eyes took a few seconds to adjust, but I had apparently been dragged into a plain, gray concrete room, lit up by a single fluresecent light bulb. At first, I assumed I had been placed into an interogation room considering the plain steel table in the center of it, but I was slightly suprised to see that there was a simple steel bed and toilet behind me. The thing that surprised me more was the man sitting across the table from me, mostly because I actually recognized him.
A local celebrity, Liam Ulches was the youngest official knight in history, and he made quite publicly made his home in New Houston. He was essentially the posterboy of the MDS in the region, and it was intensely strange to be sitting across from him. A large amount girls in my class thought Liam was the ideal man, but sitting across from him, I just couldn't see it. His build didn't seem all that fantastic at first glance, and his eyes and hair were artifically modified to be orange, which happened to mesh terribly with his camo uniform. I would have chuckled if not for the two guards holding assault rifles behind him. Liam gestured towards the table in front of me, a translucent orb roughly welded to the surface that I had somehow missed before.
“Place your hand on the orb, if you would please sir.”
I hesitate to reach out, a tad bit immensely anxious of what it would do to me. The knight sighed, glaring at me impatiently. Not wanting to get on the man's bad side, I gingerly placed my fingers onto the orb, a distinct sucking sensation occuring in my fingers as the translucent surface lit with verdant green light. A hologram appeared above it, probably displaying some kind of information that I couldn't read from my position. The guards and Liam simultaneously groaned upon seeing my status, to my slight confusion. They muttered something between each other, followed by Liam sighing and kicking his legs up onto the table.
“To make a long story short, I am going to need you to share the details of your gift’s power yourself. It’s technically completely up to you to do so, but y’know, not a great plan if I were in your position.”
Looking at me with obvious anticipation, I nervously glance between the liam and the guards. I didn’t exactly know that I even had power now, let alone how to check the details.. An awkward moment of silence passes when a guard suddenly leans towards Liam, having probably realized that. Liam laughs heartily and scratches the back of his neck awkwardly.
“Ah, to check, ask about your status in your head. The system will provide it for you.”
I hesitated, but followed what they said. Immediately as I thought of my question, the system responded with a far more detailed description of my status then I was imagining.
[Name]: Ran Young
[Race]: Human (Marked) (MAX)
[Most basic marked race.]
[Soul Contract]: None
[The System highly recommends finding and signing a soul contract with a familiar or patron as soon as possible.]
[Gift]: Sparkless Hearth [Tier 0] (Esoteric)
[The comforting fire that should be within your heart has been extinguished by forces outside of your control. Find someone to reignite it.]
[Total Physical Ability]: F*
[Endurance]: F*
[Average, but cellular regeneration has been augmented by your mana veins]
[Dexterity]: F
[Human Average]
[Strength]: F
[Human Average]
[Agility]: F
[Human Average]
[Total Magical Ability]: D+
[Mana Veins]: C
[The veins have formed into knots, leading to a unique magical constitution.]
[Creativity]: E
[Slightly above average, requires tempering]
[Knowledge]: N/A
[Currently non-applicable without a Soul Contract.]
[Mana Affinity]: C+
[Extremely high elemental affinity for a newly marked, extremely helpful in development.]
[Magic Affinities]:
[Light] [Tier One]
[Skills]:
[Sparkless Hearth] [Gift Power] [New!]
[You gain the skill [Inherent Mana Manipulation] and an affinity for [Light] mana.]
[Knotted Weave] [Mana Veins] [New!]
[Your mana veins are unusually long, and naturally woven into your physical form. As a result of this, your mana has collected into ten different pools instead of being spread throughout your entire body.
You have two major knots and eight minor ones. The major knots are contained above your heart and in your abdomen. The minor knots are located within your arms and legs, two in each. The small knots are each directly connected and reliant upon a major knot. (Arms to the heart knot, legs to the abdomen knot.)
When you gather mana to use, you can use the entirety of one of these pools to cast a spell. When a spell is cast in this manner, any mana from the pool that is excess of what is required for the spell will be consumed to increase its power. This can lead to unintended effects. Casting a spell in this mana causes a knot to tighten, and eventually to form an additional knot.
Because your veins have naturally woven into your physical form, they can be disabled through powerful enough physical contact. When disabled, the mana within is dispersed, and the knot cannot be used until one minute has passed. When a major knot is disabled, all small knots connected to it are additionally disabled.
[Inherent Mana Manipulation] [Passive Skill] [New!]
[You have the natural ability to control the mana that flows within your mana veins.]
For what felt like an uncomfortably long period of time with Liam and the guards staring at me, I sat reading my status. It was definitely longer in word length than the one that the guards had gotten, but I wasn’t sure what exactly they knew about me. The idea of them claiming I lied was slightly terrifying. I uncomfortably shifted in my seat as one of the guards scoffed and looked away, opening my very dry throat.
“U-um… My gift lets me control mana, a-and it gives me an affinity for light mana.”
A look of slight surprise emerged on Liam’s face before he grinned and playfully punched the guard to his right, who groaned and reached into his pocket. What I recognized as a twenty dollar bill was handed over, to the obvious chagrin of Liam.
“Ha, I knew my intuition was always right.”
I could just feel both of the guards roll their eyes at that.
“Sir Ulches, we both know that you cheated somehow, how in hell would you know that there would be a light magic caster marked this time?”
Tapping his forehead, Liam sneered at me. I recoiled back a bit, which was an unintentional mistake. Before I could even know it, I was being held up in the air by my collar, the knight having somehow gone around the table and grabbed me without me seeing it. The man was far larger then I had originally thought, a detail I was now distinctly aware of as my feet dangled above the ground.
“You timid types are by far the most fun for me. Sometimes they even survive a few dungeons, and get a little chip on their shoulder that I can crush.”
Liam flicks his wrist, and I slam into the wall, dropping painfully onto the simple steel bed in the cell. I wince in pain as I attempt to prop myself up, a pain shooting through my shoulder. I don’t get long to dwell on it though, as my ankle is struck by the knight’s steel boot, the distinct and extremely disconcerting crack of bone cracking echoes through the room. My vision black from pain, I can only shiver in fear as I feel Liam’s hot breath on my ear.
“Don’t get me wrong kid, I don’t really hate you or marks in general. You’re a potential issue, and I am required to solve that. Your first mission is in two hours, get yourself ready or else.”
Liam’s sinister laughter sends a chill down my spine as I hear it slowly move away, the door slamming telling me that they had left. I hold my legs up to my chest, feeling my consciousness begin to slip. The only thing I wanted to do at that moment was to scream in pain, in anger, in true anguish at my situation.
Decisively however, nothing seemed to escape my lungs as I blacked out, an empty scream for an empty person.