Chapter 39 The Reveal
Meira materialized a table next to Evernya’s bed, along with a much smaller stack of books before plopping on the couch to the right of Evernya’s bed. She took out her tablet and scrolled the screen for a minute before turning her attention to her kitten with a proud smile.
Having expected a teasing session because of her 5% score, Evernya stared at her elf in bewilderment as Meira congratulated her. “Congratulations on finishing the proficiency tests! I didn’t expect you to be average or better in multiple subjects. I may have you tested so you can obtain a high school diploma equivalent after your social studies and magic studies proficiency improve. How did you score so high on your magic studies test? I suppose it helps that the subject is bare-bones until college, because most humans don’t awaken until at least sixteen years old.”
“Most humans your age probably wouldn’t have scored much better on the test, but I want all your scores to be at least 70% proficiency. Now your social studies results were terrible. An average 9 to 10-year-old would have scored better than that. It doesn’t make sense they gave you a good education on most other subjects, but neglected social studies.” Meira paused, staring at her kitten as she questioned. “Didn’t you say you never met the people who enslave you?”
Evernya side-stepped Meira’s question with one of her own. “How do you know my results already? I just finished the last test a couple of minutes before you arrived.”
“I installed the homeschooling program on my computer to track your progress and assigned you assignments. Now please answer my question. How do you know so much about these subjects when you said you were alone.” Meira inquired, drilling her gaze into Evernya’s.
Caught off guard by Meira’s sudden seriousness, Evernya had no choice but to answer with partial lies. “When I woke up in the place I call the lab, I really was alone. I’m not sure how I did so well on some subjects. I just knew the answers to them like I already learned them in the past. As for the magic studies results, I made educated guesses on most of the questions based on common sense and what I have learned from you and Elizabeth.”
Seemingly buying her kittens answer, Meira stated, “As I explained before, it isn’t uncommon for slavers to suppress or partially erase a slave’s memories to make the training and conditioning process smoother. A slave won’t resist the conditioning if he or she doesn’t remember who they were. Typically, the slavers erase everything but learned skills and practical knowledge. It is an effective but heinous way to train slaves. The memory suppression is another reason it is rare to find an escaped slave.”
Meira’s suspicious tone abruptly returned as she continued, “Now what doesn’t make sense is this procedure would be nearly impossible to implement on you. Your mind is too strong for permanent memory erasing or suppression without a telepath of the mid arisen stage. Another less permanent way to erase the desired amount of memories is to brand one’s mana core with the required runes after the installation of a slave band. This method wouldn’t work on you either with your draconic heritage unless they used a special brand like the one you have now. Since the only brand on your mana core is a tracking rune, your memories should be fully intact. The only other way I can think of is if they erased your memories before your awakening as a psion. I can take you to a licensed mind mage to check you out, but I don’t want them to find out too much about you. I want to trust you, but your test results and story just make little sense.”
Evernya tried to keep her face blank as she panicked inside. Crap! What do I say? I should have just told her the truth when I had the chance over a month ago! If I tell her now, will she forgive me for lying to her back then? I trust her, but will she believe me after I lied to her? She deserves to know the truth, even if she loses her trust in me.
After several minutes of silence mulling over her options, Evernya revealed in a timid tone. “Well, it’s because as far as I know, I have all my memories.” Evernya paused again before dropping the bombshell. “This isn’t my original body. I awoke in this body in the lab with no idea how I got there. I didn’t tell you because I wasn’t sure if you would believe me. From where I’m from, magic only exists in fiction, and the only sentient race was humans.”
To Evernya’s surprise, Meira wasn’t mad. If anything, she appeared to be happy, as if a confusing puzzle finally solved itself. Instead, Meira rambled while staring at her kitten with a new understanding. “Wow, that explains so much! It is possible to implant a soul into a body, but it is highly illegal, and very few can do it. That still doesn’t explain how you woke up alone, though. The procedure to implant a soul into a body requires constant attention and can take months, if not years, to complete. Even if everything else succeeds, the soul or body could be incompatible. Multiple Mage’s close to the end of their lifespan have attempted a soul transfer over the years, but the failure rate is well over 99%.”
Unsure how to respond to Meira’s reaction, Evernya shrugged her shoulders, stating, “Your guess is as good as mine. All I remember is going to bed in my old body after a long week of work, then waking up alone in a hospital room in my current body. I later found out dozens of robots occupied the lab, but nothing else.”
Upon catching Evernya’s wary demeanor, Meira reassured her. “Don’t worry, I believe you, and I’m not mad you lied. If I were in your shoes, I would probably do the same.”
Evernya’s body slumped in relief. “Thank you! It’s nice to have someone who knows biggest my secret. I honestly can’t picture myself going back to my old life. I consider this body mine as much as my old one.” Gushed Evernya.
Meira rushed over to hug her kitten, unable to resist herself. “Never be afraid to talk to me about anything, even if I can’t help I’ll try my best to support you.” Vowed Meira.
“I consider you my older sister, so don’t worry, I won’t keep any more big secrets from you.” Announced Evernya with conviction as if bestowing a title upon Meira, causing her elf to hug her again with tears in her eyes.
After several minutes of constricting hugging, Meira released her captive kitten “Thank you for not calling me your mother or even grandmother. I’m not that old.” Commented Meira in a choked-up voice.
To lighten the mood, Evernya exclaimed in a teasing tone, “You’re over 300 years old! You are old! You are probably the oldest person within hundreds of kilometers.”
“Hey! I’ll have you know I am only a young adult in elf years! My parents were over 500 years old when they had me. Also, believe it or not, I am not the oldest person in the area. The wolf shifter alpha in Druth has me by a few decades.” Meira proclaimed.
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“I don’t think I will ever get used to people living that long. Where I’m from, the oldest human ever was around 120 years old, but most people didn’t live past 80, yet here I am in front of an elf who is over 300 years old.” Said Evernya, finally free to reveal information about earth.
“You will eventually, since you are ageless unless you die from unnatural causes.” Meira remarked.
“I suppose you’re right. We may sit here in this same house 500 years from now.” mused Evernya.
“Probably not, but you never know. I think both of us would move on from this area from boredom if nothing else forces us out. A lot of things could happen in 500 years after all.” Meira remarked.
The room descended into silence for a few moments until Evernya asked a question. “What did you mean about a Mind Mage? Wouldn’t my telepathy qualify me as a Mind Mage?”
Ready to move on, Meira jumped at the chance to answer her kitten’s question. “Mind Mages have similar abilities to a telepath. They usually are wizards who specialize in spells related to the mind. These spells are still on the controlled list but have fewer restrictions. Since they aren’t as precise as a trained telepath, the spells are available to wizards who obtain the proper licensing. A Telepath can also become a licensed mind mage, but they have to jump through several more hoops. No matter your magic class, all aspiring mind mages require extensive branding to prevent abuse of their magic. It is difficult to become a mind mage. The cost is so high to become a licensed mind mage, they charge extreme fees to perform their magic on clients. However, I wouldn’t suggest this career path for you since it would be a waste of your talents and may expose the fact you are an unlimited telepath.”
An interesting career field. It almost sounds like this world’s version of a psychiatrist. Someone capable of effecting emotions would be good at treating mental issues too. I don’t think I would ever want someone poking around in my mind, even if they are incapable of harming me. I thought about going into the psychology field in my last life, but the schooling required turned me away. It sounds like a boring career choice when I can do so much more than poke around in someone’s mind. Mused Evernya in her head.
“Anyway, I came up here to check on how you are doing, and to give you your last meal for the day since it’s getting late.” said Meira, causing Evernya to glance at the digital clock on her nightstand, finding it to be almost midnight.
“Wow, I didn’t realize it was so late,” Commented Evernya.
“You didn’t notice your room was dark?” Meira inquired.
After rewinding her memories to before Meira arrived, Evernya commented. “Now that you mention it, the room seemed a bit washed out than before.”
“Mind if I try something? I want to see if you have a typical shifter lowlight vision or dark vision. You had the light from the laptop screen, so I think you may have lowlight vision.” Meira requested.
“I don’t care. I’ve never been afraid of the dark.” Replied Evernya. Now curious, since she already knew her vision was significantly better than her old body.
Meira wandered around the room, turning off every source of light before flipping the main light switch, plunging the room into complete darkness. The only light visible was the dim glow from Evernya’s beautiful sapphire eyes, which suddenly become brighter and feline-shaped.
“Can you see anything?” asked Meira.
“Ya, but everything is colorless. Also, my vision range seems to be much shorter. I can barely see the bathroom door.” Replied Evernya while scanning the room with her glowing feline eyes.
Meira flipped the light back on, causing Evernya to clench her eyes closed. “You have a dark vision then, probably from your vampiric or draconic genes. Usually, dark vision has a range limit, but within that range, you should have normal detail without color. Your vision range seems to be around five meters, which is unusually short, but at least you can see in complete darkness. I only have lowlight vision like most demi-humans races, so I am blind right now.”
“Is there anything I can’t do? I swear every day we find another ability or odd quirk I have.” Commented Evernya after reopening her now typical humanlike eyes.
“Well, you had a high chance of inheriting dark vision, since both vampires and dragons have it. The worst you would have is lowlight vision, which is still better than humans. Now, about your many magic and physical advantages, there is always a price to be paid to balance things out. The magical laws, as I have mentioned before, keep the world in balance. The stronger your base capabilities are, the tighter the limitations are to compensate. I am worried about what limitations the system imposed on you since your unique mix of races effectively nullifies almost all the limitations each race making up your genetics has.” Meira replied, causing Evernya’s tail fur to puff.
Meira continued while watching her kitten depuff her tail by stroking it lovingly. “Our knowledge on the limitations of dragons has limits, but we know they cannot regenerate mana while awake unless they eat food with a high amount of mana. To compensate for this, dragons have immense mana capacity. You seem to have the high mana capacity, but your ability to absorb mana counters the need to sleep to recharge. Any vampiric being can’t go out in sunlight but are immensely powerful at night. So far, you have no issues in the sunlight, and besides your pale skin and fangs, you don’t have any other obvious vampiric traits. The only real limitations you have are you cannot damage silver like all shifters and your insane appetite for mana and food. I hope we find out your other limitations in a safe environment. If you were to find out a limitation in a life or death situation, you could die.” Explained Meira while trying to suppress a squeal as her kitten frantically stroked her re-puffing tail.
After spending a few minutes stroking her tail, Evernya remarked, “I’m definitely not ready for a life or death fight. I can barely control any of my magic.”
“I hope to change that soon, but first, we need to get you healthy. Now time for your meal. Its bed time for both of us.” Meira responded.
Meira materialized the forty-liter tank of liquefied food and handed Evernya the drinking tube.
“It feels like I am a baby drinking formula. I don’t even have to suck because the pump does all the work for me. This may be convenient, but I think I prefer solid food. It’s just too weird to be drinking out of a tank like this.” Evernya commented while eyeing the flexible drink tube.
“Once you are mobile again, we can go back to solid food.” Meira stated before a teasing smile formed, “You kind of are a baby. You can’t do much on your own, and I have to carry you everywhere and feed you.”
Evernya glared at her Elven keeper. “Hey! I am a legal adult, I am just a bit disabled at the moment.”
“Fine, whatever you say, but to me, you are a baby. I am over 300 years older than you. To be fair, I could consider almost every human in the area a baby.” Meira said with a teasing smile still plastered on her face.
Evernya gave Meira a textbook teenager glared before stuffing the drinking tube in her mouth. Meira chuckled as she turned the pump on.
Fifteen minutes later, Evernya signaled with a wave of her right hand to turn off the pump.
“Looks like between 25 to 30 liters is your maximum. We may need to hire a personal chef if this keeps up.” Meira commented after examining quarter full 40-liter tank.
“I am a growing girl, I need my food.” Evernya insisted.
“The full evaluation did show you need to stockpile nutrients, but it also implied you reached physical maturity. Malnutrition probably caused your petite stature. An average female shifter is 175 centimeters tall, yet you are only 160.” Meira baited, but faced disappointment when her kitten didn’t react to her jab.
“To be honest, I like how I look. Besides, if I can’t reach something I’ll just use telekinesis.” remarked Evernya.
“That’s true, as long as you like the way you look, no one else’s opinion matters.” Meira asserted.
Like clockwork, within a few minutes of her meal, Evernya felt an intense need to pee. After having Meira ferry her to the bathroom and back, she was back in her bed. Before Meira could even tuck her in, Evernya fell into a deep sleep.