“Well, that’s bullshit if I have ever heard it,'' Edward said as soon as Washington left the room. Charming; I know. “He said that exact same thing to me when he wanted me to come to Telum, except for the Legacy and Matthew thing. Apparently, he was sooo impressed with my fighting skill. Matthew was your roommate, right? Old Wash probably doesn’t even know what your Legacy is; I sure don’t.”
“I haven’t even unlocked it yet, though? So there's nothing to know?”
“Oh, you have. Aura flows differently in the awakened, and it typically becomes active with big life events, that's why you typically get a rise in mythics after tragedies. We just need to work it out.”
I agreed to help Washington recruit Matthew as I honestly wanted to go to Telum. It would be my chance to become a Mythic and maybe even be put on a team.
“Why Matthew didn’t accept the invitation to the academy, I haven’t a clue. I thought he wanted to be a Mythic? Well, I could ask him when I next saw him, but first things first, I needed to get out of this hospital. I mean, other than a slight hit to the head, I was fine.” I thought.
“You might be in this hospital longer than you might want,” Edward told me in a slightly more serious tone than before. “Well, how do I say this? After I crashed into you, you went flying back a couple of metres. Your leg didn’t.”
“What do you mean by my leg didn’t?” I asked him, not liking where this was going.
“Ok, this is going nowhere; maybe I could show you.”
The room around us melted from my vision, and a field replaced it. I felt tired and hungry, and everything around me was moving in slow motion. Someone was shouting at me, but he was saying it too slowly for me to interpret. A small dog almost tripped me up as I was running, but I dodged it just in time. The same could not have been said for what happened next.
I crashed into myself.
Have you ever belly-flopped into some water? What about that popping sensation in your ears when they change in pressure? Combine both together throughout your body with your vision being blurred at the same time, and that is the best way I could explain what I felt when I crashed.
Then I wasn’t there. Well, I was, but not as I was previously. I watched as my body went flying back, and my leg snapped off just below the knee, tearing my trouser leg with it. My body went slack, and I winced in pain.
Then the image deteriorated, and we were back in the hospital room.
“From what I can tell, your leg bone snapped in two below your knee and practically cut it off. The damage was too great to save your leg, but you also should have died. It is almost certain that your Legacy, whatever it is, helped keep you alive, or maybe that was why my soul attached itself to yours. Whatever the case, you’re stuck with me here.”
An idea went through my mind, “If I’m going to go to Telum, and I’m stuck with you as you say, then can you help me become a Mythic? I don’t really have the training or even have my aura activated, and I would probably be chucked out in the first term once they realised my fighting skill is subpar. Can you teach me?”
“Well, first off, you don’t have your aura, that usually comes before your legacy? Your parents usually activate it for y… I see the problem, even then wouldn’t the orphanage do it for you? Well, that’s an easy fix.” Edward placed his hand on the middle of my forehead and said some words that I didn’t quite catch. A flash of lightning blue light filled my vision for a second, and the room became clearer for the first time. I became more aware of my surroundings; my body felt healthier and stronger than it had ever been. I felt an immense feeling of jamais vu from the experience, like something familiar but entirely new. Something was about to change.
Just then, a nurse opened the door and walked in, realised that I was awake, and stated rather formally, “Mr Walker, after your recent traumatic event, which was almost fatal, you were in a coma for three days. The only physical impact to your health was the loss of your left leg below your knee, which would fortunately only affect your walking if there wasn’t anything to replace the lost limb. Luckily for you, Mr Washington left you a replacement as a “token of gratitude.” You appear to be healthy enough to leave, but we will need to be checked over by a resident doctor to confirm that everything is ok and that your body is responding correctly to your new limb. Research has shown that replacing the limb quickly helps the body adapt quicker, we will help you in the first couple days to help the transition. I would recommend not doing any highly physical activities while you adapt to your current situation. You’ll need a cane to help you walk for the time being, if you would like someone to talk to about the experience then speak to your guardian to arrange an appointment with the hospital.”
“You’ll be a bit more jumpy than usual, but you’ll soon get used to it. It will kinda be like being in a dimly lit room your whole life and then finally finding the light switch. Basically, you will notice more things than you have before. Secondly, yeah, I’ll help you; I’ve nothing better to do, nor do I really have a choice.”
***
The next couple of days mostly consisted of tests and relearning how to walk with the replacement limb. Initially, it was slightly difficult as the new leg didn’t have as much flex as the old one, plus the fact that I needed a new leg. I needed a new leg. That didn’t sound right as a sentence.
While yes, a lot of people lost limbs and needed replacements due to Shade attacks and just plain accidents like mine, I’d never really considered how it would be to lose my own. The first day they put it on, I just stared at it while trying to move it. Edward did try to reassure me that it's normal to feel at least slightly odd about it, and so did the doctors helping me adapt. What helped more was the fact that nothing in the situation I was in was normal, so losing a limb on top of that was par for the course.
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I had unlocked my aura. Watching it flow had helped calm me down, as had seeing how different everything looked and felt. My newly unlocked aura made me feel more aware of my own movement, which made it far easier to change how I moved in relation to my new leg. I managed to reach the doctor's standard in record time, so they called up Miss Rose and dismissed me from the hospital.
Mrs Rose met me at the front office. She seemed to have been incredibly worried while I was out, which was apparent from the bags under her eyes, which showed how little sleep she had had.
The drive back to the orphanage was quiet, as she didn’t seem to know what to say. She kept looking like she was going to say something and tried to work out how not to bring it up. She half-joked that I wouldn’t need to walk the dog anytime soon and congratulated me on my place in Tatum, which I had half forgotten about with everything that had happened.
Edward commented on how he liked the new scenery. The hospital didn’t have much in the way of entertainment—no books or even a TV. He apparently was bored out of his mind. To pass the time in the awkward silence, I talked to Edward.
“Soooo… stealing, that's illegal.” I started wanting to breach the topic sooner rather than later as I was stuck with the guy.
“Your point being?” Edward replied dryly.
“Uh… why?”
“Well, it's rather difficult to get money as a alive, dead person after my mission went wrong, and Old Washing Tub thought I was dead. The change in aura caused by a legacy activating messes with the tech they used to see if you're alive, and I didn't really have the chance to prove the tech wrong. I needed the money so…”
“That makes sense as to why you did it first but why you continue.”
“It made Wash look bad while only really harming the banks rather than stealing the food and I was trying to line up the places to spell F U. I know it's petty but I was so looking forward to when they worked it out, I only managed the F though.”
When we arrived at the orphanage, I went to my room. Luckily, the dog door was open, as I didn’t think I would have been able to jump over it while I was getting used to my leg (or lack thereof). It was the middle of the day, so most people were watching TV or playing football outside, but Matthew was in the room reading a comic.
He looked up, “I think that going to the hospital because of your leg is a bit of an extreme way to get out of doing chores. You’ve been gone for a week.”
“Didn’t you realise something was afoot when I didn’t return after an hour?” I responded.
“Really? You’re making puns.” Matthew said, surprised at how seemingly lax I was about my injury.
“Yeah, my leg just left me. I am very tired.”
Mathew groaned. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my reflection, but it looked slightly different from the last time I saw it. I still had brownish-blondish hair and no real marks on my face, but one of my eyes, instead of being the electric blue it always had been, had changed to the same fire red as Edward’s. It was incredibly strange, but I remembered something my mum told me once: eyes are the window to the soul, and I guess I now have two due to Edward. My face even looked healthier, and if it weren’t for the obvious, I would’ve looked like I was in better physical shape than I had ever been. I thought to myself, this is going to be hard to explain.
“Yeah, eyes don’t usually change colour without reason, except like soul trauma. You might have to invest in wearing sunglasses or a contact lens; people may be curious,” Edward informed me. “Though, in regard to general health, your aura is passively fixing minor issues that your body didn’t notice or couldn’t fix before.”
Mathew, as if on cue, asked, “Hey Tom, did you always have two eye colours, or did I just not see that before? Though, I would have thought I would notice that.”
On that topic, time to ask about Telum, because if I don’t say it now, I will completely forget about it. Different-coloured eyes are the same as going to university, right? They both have pupils—time to mention it.
“So, Washington visited me in…”
“No.” Matthew interrupted me.
“You don’t even know what I was going to say,” I complained.
“Washington asked you to ask me to come to Telum because he couldn’t convince me himself. He probably thought that he could get two already unlocked Mythics for the price of one,” Matthew explained. What he was saying was most likely true, but I still needed to convince him.“I thought you wanted to be a Mythic and help people. How are you going to help people if you’re just going to mope? From what I can tell, you’re just stubborn. Why didn’t you take him up on his offer?”
“He offered me a place when I was nine, and I had just fought a Shade for the first time. I lost that fight. I don’t have a clue where that Shade went or how it was defeated because I knocked myself out trying to use my power. When he told me he wanted me to join the university I declined the offer, because I was too young, most people there would be at least seven years older than me. And I was still bitter about losing my first fight.”
“Ok, that makes me feel bad for arguing in favour of someone who wanted a child soldier, so I agree with your past decision, but last time I checked, you were older than nine, so what’s holding you back now?”
“Do you know how old the average Mythic lives? Before you answer, it’s not long. Defending those who can’t defend themselves isn’t the safest job out there, and that’s just talking about low-level street thugs and burning buildings. Then there are the Shades, big hulking monsters which want to kill us. Have you ever seen one face-to-face? I have.” He said the last sentence monotone, with fear clear in his eyes.
“You speak like a regular life is so safe. Were you a Mythic when you fought that Shade? Even if you don’t want to be a Mythic for selfless reasons, even if you don’t dream of heroics, why not for selfish reasons: money, fame, and most of all, not to feel helpless when the next blackout causes a beacon of despair to the Shades. Why would you want to be a civilian and rely on others when you could be your own salvation?”
“I tried to talk myself out of it due to the danger. Miss Rose really didn’t want me to go, and at that point, I agreed. But you have a point, and honestly, I do still want to be one,” Mathew said reluctantly, giving in as the fear in his eyes was replaced with a look of determination. “But there is still one problem.”
“What’s that?” I said, trying to keep a straight face with a persistent smile hindering my efforts.
“The ship to Telum leaves tomorrow.”
Oh.