Fire.
There was fire all around her. The flames danced in all the colors of the rainbow, twisting and fluttering in the air. Flames covered her body, but she did not feel any pain. Instead, Flilorn felt an indescribable warmth, as if the flames would protect her from anything and truly cared only for her and her alone. ‘The fire will protect me.’ This one thought dominated her mind.
This world of fire lasted for a time before it eventually faded into nothingness. ‘No. Don’t leave me!’ “Don’t leave me!” Flilorn opened her eyes and screamed as she reached in front of her. But what she saw was not the flames she reached for, but a white wall, lit by some strange light-emitting object on the roof. “What? Where am I?” Flilorn asked herself this question. “Beep” a sudden noise came from a box near her bed that she laid in.
A door to the room opened and in walked a man wearing a white coat with glasses on his face. “Looks like your awake.” The man nodded towards her. “I assume you have many questions, unfortunately, I am a very busy man. I will instead leave this video recording crystal here for you, it will explain the situation on your planet. All you need to do is condense mana into yourself and the device will draw the mana automatically from your body to play the video. As for your severe burns, they were healed. Any problems?” The man finished with a nod.
“Um, yes?.” Flilorns words came out in a raspy voice. “Well, I’ll send a nurse over to you soon then, but I have got to go, bye.” The man waved away her confusion then quickly closed the door and left.
Flilorn was silent for a short while, staring at the door. Then she moved her hands towards the cloudy white crystal set into a metal case that the man had set on her white bed sheet. She held the crystal in one hand as she felt her body with the other hand. Her body felt mostly healed, but there were still some parts that felt bumpy and looked scarred. There was a particularly nasty scar that encompassed most of her face. She could not see it, but she could still feel it. All of her hair was also gone, with no eyebrows and a smooth head, excluding some bumps. ‘At least I’m alive.’ despite the obvious hideous look she now possessed, she still felt grateful for being alive.
The door opened once more to reveal a woman wearing white with a little triangular white had on her head. “Doctor Berelea said you had a problem with something, does anything hurt? Also, may I ask your name?” The nurse questioned her in a concerned voice. Flilorn shook her head no “My name is Flilorn, Guillotine. Nothing hurts. But I can’t use this crystal. And why are your words not matching your mouth movements?”
The nurse relaxed a little after hearing she was not hurting. “Well to answer your question, we are not speaking the same language. This bracelet on my wrist allows my words to be understood by any sentient race, and also translates any unknown language back to myself.” She held her arm up, revealing a silver bracelet covered in runes. Flilorn nodded that she understood. “As for the video crystal problem, do you not know how to absorb mana yet?” The nurse questioned. Flilorn shook her head no. “It’s not that I don’t know how, but I can’t.” This response caused a puzzled look to appear on the nurse’s face. “What do you mean you can’t?” “What I mean is that I can’t absorb mana,” Flilorn responded to the nurse’s second question, starting to get annoyed that she didn’t seem to understand.
Flilorn waited as the nurse made a series of thinking gestures before concluding “You have mana burn?”. Flilorn shrugged her shoulder at the question. “I don’t know what mana burn is, but if it means I can’t absorb mana, then probably,” she said before focusing on the word burn. Her mind filled with fire which brought a smile to her face. The nurse ignored her as she muttered to herself, “mana burn at such a young age. It’s very rare, I’ve only ever heard about it in medical school. Usually, the only ones that get mana burn are old people. For such a young and healthy girl to have it is very strange. Flilorn, was it? How long have you not been able to absorb mana?” This question snapped Flilorn back to reality and she answered, “Since I was born I guess.”
This response shocked the nurse “Since you were born? Ahem, anyways. Do you know where your parents are?” “They’re dead,” Flilorn responded in a plain tone. “Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that.” The nurse seemed downcast at the response. “Anyhow, I’ll handle the crystal while you watch the video, alright?”. Flilorn nodded her head yes.
The nurse took the crystal and a moving image appeared on the wall. “Hello, natives of planet B-3961. This is an informative video of the directions of your new lives and some background information on the Xiolan Empire, all brought to you in your native language with new high imaging technology.” This video went on to say that the world that she lived in, was not special at all. It was just one world in a starry sea of billions. She also learned of the advanced technology utilizing mana as a power source. The video went on to talk up the Xiolan Empire to being a righteous power fighting evildoers. It finally ended with what was expected of the native people. The Empire wanted the natives to procreate and assimilate.
“I’ll leave you some time to digest all of that information.” The nurse walked out of the room, leaving Flilorn alone. The time flew by as she came to terms with this new reality. ‘What will happen to me?’ This thought came to her mind. Taking the video she just watched into consideration, she would be joining the army in early youth training. ‘I just want to go back to sleep.’ And she did just that, drifting off back into dreams filled with fire.
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“She has what?” “Mana burn sir.” Dentern stroked his chin as the doctor before him delivered very shocking news.
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The nurse had told the doctor that Flilorn had mana burn. She had just said it in passing as such a young girl having mana burn was very rare and interesting. The nurse did not know the significance of someone like that, but the doctor did.
His name was Kilongi, Berelea, the third. This doctor came from a small-sized noble house. He had been chosen for this subjugation as he was very good at what he did and also trustworthy. When he heard the news of a young girl with mana burn he instantly asked more questions, “Where are her parents?”, “What kind of background does she have?”. All of the answers satisfied him. Flilorn’s parents were dead and she had no background it seemed, being found in the middle of the forest where no noble would be found. He continued to find out any other information about her, but was unable to, due to her companions dying. But he was now sure that this girl had no connections and wouldn’t be looked for if she disappeared.
Dentern looked at the doctor in front of him “can we use her?”. Kilongi shook his head in affirmation “I believe so sir. She has no connections and all of her companions died in a fire, with only her as the survivor. Nobody would miss her.”. Dentern’s face turned cold “Then separate her and keep her under watch. We will hand her over to the lab when we get back.”. “Yes sir.” Kilongi bowed then left.
“Sigh. The things we do for power. I guess she’ll just join the rest.” Dentern may seem cold, but he was conflicted internally. ‘I can’t let her go. If the higher-ups knew I let go of such a good candidate, they’d have my head.’ He did not know exactly what they did with these mana burned individuals, and he didn’t want to know. It was an order from the emperor to all nobles and select individuals in high positions. It was a very secretive order, after all, you couldn’t allow everyone to know the army was snatching mana burned people off the street. It would cause widespread panic and rebellion if it was to be publicized. ‘Let’s just focus back on work’ he quickly got back to work, trying to forget the snatching of a young girl.
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Kilongi walked the halls of the mothership back towards the hospital wing. He had talked to the ship captain before to tell him what was going on, it was just a formality. Since he was a noble, if he wanted to do something, he could do it. Especially when it was an order from the Emperor, he did not have to listen to anybody.
“That girl will be very useful.” He knew why they captured mana burned individuals. It was only known to nobles, the captain did not even know the reason. This was also the reason he was sent on this mission, to capture any easy targets that have mana burn. ‘Hopefully, she can further the scientist’s research and finally find a cure.’
Mana burn was not only seen in a few people, but all people. Mana burn occurs from the extended use of mana. The channels that allow mana to go into the body get slowly eroded as mana continues to flow through them. Of course, this erosion of the mana channels is very slow. Usually, the erosion takes ten times the average life span of a sapient to finally develop the symptom of mana burn. So for most people, it was not a worry because they would die before that. But for people in power, it was different. As mana is taken into the body it increases the lifespan of an individual. So, many people live longer than normal, but for people in power, who have resources and safety, they can extend their lifespan by many times more using accelerant resources. Accelerant resources are very rare and expensive, and for good reason. These accelerants allow people to absorb mana at a much-improved rate, as a consequence the life span increases drastically.
So all the people in power are slowly dying, what do they decide to do? They try to find a solution. That is where the experiments on mana-burned people come in. ‘If only we didn’t have to team up with those god-forsaken Dondalian’s.’ The Dondalian’s were the people of the Dondalian confederation, and also the Xiolan empire’s enemy. As a consequence of the threat of death, many great powers had secretly decided to pool their resources into finding a cure for mana burn.
Kilongi shook these thoughts away as he came in front of Flilorn’s door. Two guards were behind him to ensure a smooth transfer process. Flilorn was a special case, having mana burn at such a young age was truly just God’s cruelty. Cases like hers popped up sometimes, but often they use older people who fell from power for experiments.
Kilongi opened the door and stepped through to see the young girl staring at the monitoring box next to her bed that had somehow caught fire. “What the hell! Guards! Quickly put out that fire!” ‘Did the device overheat? So strange.’
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Flilorn was dreaming of fire, which had become the norm. She had been here for a few weeks now, she did not know when she was going to be released. As she awoke she smelt smoke. Her eyes shot open and she looked next to her. The strange box that beeped, which she had learned was a monitoring device placed there to signal when she awoke, was on fire. She smiled like seeing an old friend as she stared at the flames consuming the box.
Just then, the doctor she had first met walked in through the door with two soldier-looking people standing behind him. The doctor was an elf with long ears while the two soldiers behind him appeared to be a dwarf and a human. She herself was known as an eljind. It was similar to an elf in that she had long ears, but she also had multiple, still-growing horn nubs on her head that would one day encompose her whole head. She also possessed a little nub of a tail that would one day grow into a metallic snake. Along with her nails that were unusually strong and sharp.
“What the hell! Guards! Quickly put out that fire!” The doctor called the guards to take action as he stared at the box with confusion on his face. The guards soon came back with a fire repressor crystal, quickly dowsing the fire. Flilorn frowned internally at this but did not show it on her face. “Ok, now that that’s over with. Flilorn, we are moving you to a different location. You will be coming back to the homeworld with us. You have no parents so we will be raising you as per Empire guidelines, as a soldier. I believe the video should have covered that.”
“Ok” Flilorn had no reason to argue. If the Empire did not take her in then she had nowhere to go. She followed the doctor out of the room as the two guards followed behind her.
They walked for a while before reaching their new destination, a normal room with a bed. ‘This is hardly different than where I was before.’ Flilorn was disappointed, she was hoping for a change of scenery. ‘At least this room has a lot of amenities.’ There was a toilet and a shower, also a lot of cameras. ‘Are they afraid I’ll escape or something?’ She shook her head at how carefully they treated her as if she was precious cargo. ‘I wonder how exactly I am going to be a soldier. I have that mana burn thing, won’t I be useless?’ She thought about this but finally concluded she would probably eventually join the normal workforce. ‘I’ll just live an uneventful boring life.’