“Indeed.” Maurice tapped the armrest of his chair. “But… like I said, forget that I mentioned the topic. Rulers who put themselves into stasis do not do it for fun. Rather, they are treating themselves as a discardable weapon that must be preserved unnaturally before it reaches its end. It is a strategic decision, not a personal one. The only reason that I mentioned it was my mind wandering on the topic of Taken.”

“Well in any case,” Sam said, “the ‘drawback’ will only apply to me if I end up becoming one of these ‘Rulers,’ right? And I’m guessing that they’re not a dime a dozen kind of people?”

“Not at all.”

“Good. So there’s nothing to worry about. Chances are, I won’t become a ‘Ruler’ of any kind and even if I will, it’s not like I’m even a little bit interested in extending my life far beyond the average. Quite the opposite, perhaps. Which, speaking of, what is the modern consensus regarding assisted suicide?”

“Frowned upon, and illegal.”

“Still? I guess human culture didn’t change all that much in all these years then.”

“No… not in that way, at least. Why? Are you… interested in the… prospect?”

“Nah… S’all right. I don’t think that I’m ready to give up living just yet. It’s only the first day of my new life, after all.”

“I see… good. In the future, I would like it if you would immediately contact me if you do end up feeling… more positively on the subject.”

“Sure… sure. But I’m guessing that you pretty much know what I’m going through, right? You went through the same thing as me.”

“It’d be very unprofessional of me to judge your experience based on my own. But yes… there were certain psychological difficulties at first. Which is why I started visiting a psychologist the very week that the effect of magic on my mind ran out. The same protocol that we have for all modern Taken and the same one that I’ll recommend for you.”

“Not before that?”

“No… that’s the official recommendation on the subject. Created by people much better versed in mental health than me, two of which were even Taken. Starting therapy now… in layman’s terms, it’s like starting to scab a wound when it still hasn’t finished forming. The interfacing between your brain and magic is like a fog well, preventing you from being aware of what you’re truly feeling.”

Sam sighed. “Yeah, I’m starting to figure it out. It’s like going into shock only you’re still able to think clearly. Hopefully, it’s like you said and I’m still going to be myself in a couple of months.”

“You will. I promise you.”

“Mhmm… Anyway, back on safer shores: I’m starting to feel self-conscious, mind giving me a couple of minutes to dress?”

“Of course. I’ll be waiting outside. Call me when you finish.”

Sam waited until the door closed before getting up and having his first look at the bundle of clothes as individual items. It was all… very familiar. You could probably go into any old clothing store in the year of our lord 2020 (pre-covid of course, why would you go clothes shopping during quarantine?) and find men’s wear with no discernible difference to what lay before him.

Sam settled on the most comfortable looking pair of sweatpants that were luckily his size (they all were, more or less, despite Maurice’s warning), a t-shirt and boxer briefs. He also grabbed a couple more clothes, including outside wear like jeans, and set them to the side. Those he was going to keep until he could get a functioning wardrobe in order. The rest he piled up on the counter next to the room’s sink before calling Maurice back.

“Ah, you’ve sorted everything. Saves me the trouble,” Maurice said.

“Seriously, do you not have nurses? Or orderlies in this case? Aren’t you the in charge of this hospital?”

Maurice smiled. “Sure there are. Who did you think made up your bed? It’s just that I thought it’d be best not to assault you with a plethora of different people on your first day here.”

“Oh, that does make sense. So, am I going to spend the night here, then?”

“That was the plan. Unless you don’t want to, of course. I could get you a room in a hotel back in the city.”

“Nah, that’s alright.”

“Good, that would’ve made today even more complex. Plus, tomorrow you’ve got a full day of tests waiting for you here anyway.”

“Joy… it’s like I never left. So what’s left for us today?”

“First, dinner. Then we’ll test your magic.”

“Ooh, sounds promising. The magic part, not dinner. I’m not feeling hungry at all. Plus, isn’t it a little early for dinner?” Sam pointed to the window, where outside, the sun was still up. Although, for all he knew, it could have been deep in the summer. Or maybe the fact that it was a different world with a different sun meant that the sunset came at a different time. It’s not the same skies, you moron…

“It’s already past six. And of course you aren’t feeling hungry. Why do you think that is?”

“Maybe the magic drug that fixed me also retained the not hungry side-effect of ADHD medication that everyone kept warning me about, but I found great help for my diet?”

“It is magic who’s at fault. Right now, there’s foreign magic in your body, propping you up and giving you energy. When it runs out, you’ll swiftly crash down if you don’t have the material nutrients to back you up.”

“Fine, I get it. Magic makes me feel full, so I better still eat if I don’t want to start recycling this great body that I just got. So when does dinner get here?”

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

“It has already been prepared. I just need to go grab it. Should I bring one for myself so that we can dine together?”

“Sure, go ahead. It’s not like I have anyone else to eat with, or my phone to watch some YouTube while eating. Better have some company than leave myself alone with my thoughts.”

“Well, if you’d like, you can wait and dine with Ms. Khan instead when she gets here.”

Sam laughed. “No, that’s alright, I won’t keep you from your dinner or force—Ms Khan?—to eat with me. Who’s she, by the way?”

“Sarah Khan, she’s a Taken as well, and the last one to be returned before you. Although she was, of course, taken as a twelve-year-old, so she is still two years younger than you.”

“Right, OK. And she’s coming here… why? So that the two of you could gang up and me and deliver some sorely needed exposition?”

“Just her I’m afraid. I thought that it’d be best that you’d have a face to face with someone your own age. Someone who can relate to what you’re going through better than I can.”

“And how does this Ms. Sarah Khan feel about being forced to be alone in a room with me, after the sun’s out?”

“Very angry.” Maurice smiled and actually let out a small chuckle. “She wanted to be the one to go and get you from Transit, or at the very least, to be there waiting for you on the roof with me. But, she has some very important… training, that she has to finish today. And she can’t stop in the middle without ruining her last couple of weeks of preparation. So she’ll join us as soon as she finishes.”

“As soon as? So she’s a student here?”

“Indeed, second year. So, shall I go and grab us food then?” Sam nodded and once Maurice was out of the room, he immediately started pacing back and forth. He wasn’t ready to be back with his thoughts just yet. Thankfully, it barely took Maurice a minute to come back with trays laden with food. They set down to eat on the far side of the room where a table and three chairs were arrayed.

“Are all of your rooms this fancy?” Sam asked, his curiosity finally getting the better of him.

“No. although most of them are not far off. But I wasn’t going to place you in anything but our best.”

Sam nodded. “And the food?”

“That, is the same all around, I’m afraid. It is to your liking, I hope?”

“Fuck yes, it is. Much better than what I’m used to from hospitals.”

The time passed quickly and before Sam knew it, all traces of food on his tray were gone and so were four full glasses of water down his gullet. He was now back to pacing around the room, waiting for Maurice to make the reverse journey. “Shall we move on to testing your magic?” Maurice asked, once again back in under a minute.

“You’re the doctor, doctor.”

“Good, then hold this in your hand.” Maurice handed him a cylindrical metal item.

When Sam grabbed hold of it, the item’s surface broke out in shining, rune-like lights. “What’s this?” he asked.

“It is a device for measuring your level of magic. You just need to hold it for a short time while it finishes its calculations.”

“Right… you guys have levels here. So how high do they go? Low like D&D or sky high like in an MMO?”

“We do have levels, but it’s nothing like in video games. When we speak of levels, we are strictly speaking of an objective measurement of the maximum amount of magic you can have in your core. Starting at level 1, which is the base level, every level after denotes double the amount of magic of the previous one. Level 2 has double the amount of 1, 3 of 2 and so on…”

“Gotcha… at least on the surface level. So, I’ll just keep holding this and it’ll tell me whether I’m a level 2 or a 5?”

“Hmm… yes. But most likely, you won’t be any level.”

“Cause I’m too good for levels.”

“No, because all Taken are returned with the same amount of magic in their core, and that amount is lower than level 1.”

“So, it’s zero. You’re saying that I’m level zero.”

“No. It’s sub-1.”

“Also, colloquially known as zero.”

“No. Level zero would mean that you have no magic in your body, which is impossible. Sub-one just means that your body doesn’t have enough magic to be at level one.”

“Right, OK. But I’m guessing that you guys don’t go about saying that someone is level one a half or one and two-thirds. From what you said, it’s binary. They’re either level 1 or level 2, no?”

“Yes, but it will still be wrong to say level zero.”

Sam laughed. “Fine, Fine, I give up. So how long until this thing calls me out as level sub-one?”

The device clicked in Sam’s hand. “It just did,” said Maurice while taking it away from Sam. “Good, it’s the usual amount.”

“Good?”

“The alternative would’ve been that you had yet another thing that set you apart from all other Taken. And while that might sound good to you, I would like to avoid having yet another reason to worry about your Awakening.”

“Awakening?”

“Yes. It’s the common term for the day in which a person is finally able to sense the magic in their body and access their core. For the average Terran, it is around twelve-years-old, and for us Taken, it is a couple of days after being returned.”

“Wait. If you’re saying what I think you’re saying… I have the same amount of magic as a twelve-year-old?”

“Roughly, yes.”

“So… I’m ten years behind. Jesus Christ. There goes my chance at being a powerful wizard.” Sam rubbed his eyes on his palms.

“That is not a fair assessment. The progress a teenager makes, even those who dedicate themselves to training, is much smaller than when what they achieve when older. If you apply yourself, there is no reason why you couldn’t close the gap between you and the average for your age in a couple of years’ time.”

“Yeah… but if I’m aiming for more than average, then I’m still roughly ten years behind. At the very least four, if teenagers are just as useless as you say they are.”

“That’s a very negative way to look at it. If you decide to apply yourself to magic, then you will eventually be able to catch up to many of your peers, even the most talented among them. After all, almost all the first Terran Rulers were Taken of your age group if not older.”

Sam shrugged his shoulders. “We’ll have to wait and see, I guess… C’mon, don’t look at me like that. I said I that you could be right. Sure, am I bummed out about not being level one-hundred straight away? Yes, obviously. But it might not matter to me at all in the end. I mean, I just got here. I don’t know anything about this world and what my future in it holds. Maybe I won’t actually care about magic, and I’ll just want to be a chartered accountant, you know?”

Maurice cleared his throat. “Yes… in any case, whatever you end up deciding to do, you’re going to get our, my, help. Doesn’t matter if it’s being a soldier or a lion tamer.”

“Nice. By the way, so what does this.” He pointed to the device in Maurice’s hand that was no longer glowing. “Actually measure? My precise amount of magic in… some kind of empirical unit?”

“Nothing that accurate, I’m afraid. What it does do, is to measure how close, or far in your case, you are to level the level it’s calibrated to. This artifact is calibrated to level 1. Lucky for us. Because those calibrated to level 1 are pretty rare, and they’re the only ones that can give an accurate reading of sub-level 1 amounts of magic. You see, we mostly just use those calibrated to level 8 as you can make all the calculations for whatever level you need from—Sorry about that. I’ve wandered off on a tangent again.”

“No, it’s alright. You can’t help where your mind goes to, and it’s not like you have a list of every piece of information that might be relevant to me. But I’m just wandering… Can’t you just slide around these runes, or are they sigils? And just recalibrate the… ‘artifact’ like that? Or is it that you need a professional for this sort of things?”

“You can’t recalibrate these artifacts. They were built specifically to measure a certain level. You’d have to make from scratch to—” Maurice paused and scrutinized the dim device still held in his hands. “What sigils, or runes, are you talking about?”

“You know these.” Sam waved at the side of the artifact. “The glowing things that were there before. Squiggly nonsense lines and what not. You really couldn’t see them?”

Maurice squinted his eyes even further while staring at the now dim metal covering of the device. “I think I can now… Barely. But this… I think that I know what you are talking about. And why it would make sense that I can barely see it when it’s clear as rain to you.” He let out a breath while sitting down and messaging his temples. “If I am right… if I am right, then we just found the third thing that separates you from all other Taken. In that case, what you saw are most likely threads, which would make you a Thread-Weaver.”