Chapter 8: Savant

"Ah, excellent, now that we're ready for a proper discussion, let's start with some introductions, huh? But I believe I've already introduced myself and my associate over here, so that would leave..."

"My name is Lucas Thane."

"Huh… So, Lucas, you don't mind me addressing you by your first name, right? After all, we're such fast friends already. I have a minor question for you... What exactly are you, and where did you come from?"

"I am human, have always been. As for where I'm from, I don’t know how to tell you in a way that you would understand."

"That only makes me more interested."

Lucas took a deep breath and let out a short sigh. "...How do you even explain this? You guys have the concept of a world, right?" Enoch and Silas exchanged a short glance and then nodded.

"I haven't had enough time to test it, so I'm not quite sure how what I say gets translated, but it should be more or less the same idea. The long and short of it is, I am not from your 'world'. And don't ask me how I came here, I don't exactly know myself. All I know is that when I woke up, I found myself in the middle of the forest, inhabiting the body of Solomon Hawthorne. So far I've been kind of just going with the flow."

Enoch looked at Lucas incredulously. "..That was not what I was expecting." It was then that Lucas saw a veritable bonfire of curiosity catch a blaze in the eyes of his interrogator. "I have so many questions, I don't even know where to start.” Catching himself before he derailed the entire investigation Enoch calmed himself, took a breath and continued his interrogation.

“But there is something that I have to ask before we get into that any further. I'd like you to confirm that you have not killed Solomon Hawthorne, willingly possessed his body, and have committed any crimes in that body since."

"I did not kill Solomon Hawthorne or willingly possess his body, and I have not committed any crimes to my knowledge since."

"Madeline, you can come in now."

As a short white-haired young woman entered the room, Enoch continued, "Sorry about this little trick from experience, if we bring in a person face to face who you could determine as having the ability to differentiate if you were telling the truth or not, it often causes people to be a bit less chatty. So, usually, keep her just out of sight."

"So, Madeline, what's the verdict?"

"He reeks with the stench of residual lies, but during your short conversation he spoke what he believed to be true. Regardless, his words smell rotten, containing lies of omission and deceptive framing. I can't tell if he's trying to hide something or if he's just rotten."

Enoch gave a short clap and grinned. "Excellent. Now that you’ve already let the cat out of the bag, and now know that we have a person who can verify the truth, do you mind giving us a short summary of your little misadventure?"

Not having much of an option, Lucas gave a short, truthful summary of his actions over the past two days as Solomon Hawthorne.

"That would definitely explain that fancy skeleton of yours," Enoch remarked, rummaging through his pockets for a couple of seconds before pulling out a familiar black bottle. He held it up to the light as if trying to find something.

Enoch gave it a thorough inspection pulling off the stopper and looking at the bottom of it, he let out a short 'aha'. Looking back toward Lucas, displaying the small symbol he found, an ornate stylized M. "Not many get such a… ‘useful’ gift from Malachi. Only a brief session of immense pain for a rather robust skeleton. That's a pretty good trade. His gifts tend to be more dangerously 'whimsical', useless or bizarre. So, hopefully, you'd understand why it is policy to not immediately return this to you. Not that it really matters all too much for you as you already received the benefits."

Lucas couldn't help but think, "He sure loves the sound of his own voice," as Enoch delved into a tangent about his retired colleague who also had "unique" bones. Unlike Lucas, whose bones were lighter than normal, Enoch's colleagues bones were significantly denser than humanly possible. Which apparently led to a lot of comedic incidents around the office.

"Enough about David, let's cut to the chase, involuntary use of possession abilities is not illegal.

With Madeline's ability confirming that you haven't intentionally possessed your current vessel and haven't committed any subsequent crimes, you would normally be free to go. However, there's a small problem. While you may not be a 'savant' exactly given your uh… ‘circumstances’, there would be no real legal distinction. You'd be bound by all the laws and restrictions that apply to 'savants.' Fortunately for you, there aren't many, but unfortunately, one of the most crucial ones is going to cause a bit of trouble in your situation.”

Dramatically pointing towards Lucas's face Enoch continued “Errant-savants which is what you are: a savant without any affiliation, clan or organization. Around these parts that's a big No-No a ‘significant taboo’. So unless you have some form of support that can span across worlds, you're in quite the pickle."

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

At that moment, Enoch turned towards Silas, sporting the largest puppy dog eyes Lucas had ever seen. "Can we keep him? I'll walk and feed him every day. I'll take good care of him, I swear," he pleaded.

Silas's face did not change in the slightest as he replied " You're my direct superior; you don't need my permission or authorization to induct a new recruit,"

It was then that Lucas interjected, "Do I have any input on this decision?"

Enoch retorted, "Do you want to stay imprisoned forever, shipped off to one of the higher-ups for experimentation?"

With a wry smile Lucas replied, "Touché."

"Exactly," Enoch gestured towards Silas, who promptly unlocked Lucas's manacles. Then, Enoch extended his hand. "Welcome to the team. Although you're not a member yet, it's just a matter of time and a few tests to make sure you're not some powerful monster evading our lie detection capabilities."

As they shook hands, Lucas couldn't help but ask, "This is probably the point where I should ask what exactly a savant is. While I know that word I I'm fairly certain it doesn't mean the same thing here as it did in my world. I'd also like to know why they have to follow such a weirdly strict law."

Enoch's curiosity resurfaced like a tidal wave. "We really need to discuss in depth that old world of yours; it sounds truly fascinating. After I administer an important test and give you a brief tour, we should sit down for a nice long chat. Oh, that reminds me, Silas, please inform William's group that the job is complete, and they can return to the office. And Madeline, you're free to resume your business. Thank you for your assistance, yet again. Now, where were we? Ah yes, we need to attend to an important matter first before anything else. Follow me, and we can walk and talk."

Lucas's body screamed in protest with every movement, his bones groaning and muscles rioting against the strain of standing upright. Nevertheless, he pushed through and followed Enoch out of the door. They entered a long, empty stone corridor, where a curious person stood, a pale youth, who seemed to stand guard to the right of the door. After a brief eye contact, Enoch made a shooing gesture, which the kid shrugged at before silently leaving.

Enoch walking backwards leading Lucas down the corridor, began. "Savants are one of the two categories of humans who display abilities beyond the natural limits of human capability. The two primary categories consist of savants and sorcerers. The distinction between the two solely lies in the method of acquiring their abilities: sorcerers inherit them through some sort of hereditary means, and have them since birth. While savants acquire them later in life. This can be done in a variety of ways but they can be broadly split in two categories: Acquired and Natural. Acquired savants are individuals who gain abilities as a result of some external force—whether it be an item, environment, or by the results of another ability. On the other hand, Natural savants are people who possess the innate talent to awaken an ability independently. This Awakening is typically triggered by some impossibly intense powerful emotion, often a form of desire."

At the small break in the sentence, Lucas interjected with a pertinent question, "Which one is stronger, savants or sorcerers?"

Enoch paused briefly before responding, " That's a question without a real answer. Sorcerers tend to be more steady, while savants tend to have higher peaks and lower valleys. If I had to put it in analogy, sorcerers would be rolling two six-sided dice, and savants would be rolling one 12-sided dice. Sorcerers are, on average, slightly stronger, but it is a lot more complicated than that because savants have the factor of the unknown on their side. It's important to remember that sorcerer abilities are inherited, so for most of us, as long as our opponent can identify our family, there's a high likelihood they could roughly guess our abilities. Oh, by the way, I'm a sorcerer, if I haven't mentioned it already."

"I think that's a good enough baseline for now. Onto your second question. Due to historical incidents that would take far too long to explain during our short walk. So, I'll simplify it for you in a couple of sentences. Essentially, anyone can become a savant, and since their abilities vary so significantly in type and potency, imagine some random Joe gaining immensely destructive godlike abilities out of nowhere. You could see how that can quickly turn into a bad situation real quickly. The whole organization restriction was set up to mitigate situations like that. The principal is to train and reign-in savants, teaching them how to use their abilities in a ‘constructive’ and 'reasonable’ manner. Of course, there are many other reasons involving class, politics, the interpersonal connections and feuds of powerful sorcerer families, but I'd rather not bog down your first day with all of that. So, I'll leave it at that."

Without Lucas even noticing, they had climbed up a few flights of stairs, traversed down an elegantly constructed dark wooden hallway, and arrived in front of an office door with a brass plate reading "Director Evelyn" in bold lettering. "Well, here's our first agenda on our list," Enoch whispered. "Just don't say anything and maintain a calm and composed expression."

Enoch cleared his throat, grabbed Lucas's lapel, and kicked the door open, yelling, "SUP, BOSS?"

Lucas, still unsteady on his feet, was unable to resist being dragged into the room. While Enoch continued to blabber, Lucas managed to take in the full view of the room and its occupant. It was the opposite of what one would expect of a director's office. The air was hazy with smoke, and it smelled of tobacco, alcohol, and unidentified ‘herbs’. Laid out on the desk amidst a veritable mountain of hard liquor bottles, cigarette buds, and various drug paraphernalia, was a tall, dark-haired woman. Despite her unhealthy pale color and disheveled appearance with possibly the largest eye bags Lucas had ever seen on a human, she was undeniably attractive, possessing a unique magnetic charm. Her eyes remained closed as Enoch prattled on, but her expression grew increasingly irritated and began to border on a mild fury.

"" ...I'll take the silence as a yes. I'll have Silas send you a full report later. I'm going to take our new friend to the mouth, so if you have no problems with that, I'll be taking my leave." Enoch concluded before swiftly fleeing the room, pulling Lucas along.

After sprinting with Enoch down the hallway for a few dozen meters, Lucas felt a sensation, unlike anything else, it was akin to the feeling of breaking through the surface of the water after a long dive. After experiencing that bizarre feeling, the pace gradually slowed to a normal walking speed and Enoch turned back around, continuing his habit of walking backward.

"Whew, we got so lucky. Now that permission is out of the way, we can proceed with that test I mentioned earlier. There will be a couple more after that, but you won't even notice, so don't worry about it. Let's get to it; it shouldn't take very long at all."