My parents always thought I was a bit different than all the other children, and truth be told, I was. This all proved to be even more true when, at the age of 10, the Talent unveiling ceremony was held. The Talent unveiling ceremony is when children that turn 10 that year finally get their special Talent revealed. Talents are special abilities each Person has, some more useful, others less, it can range from relatively normal things like being a very good cook to unimaginable things like being the hero, albeit very rarely.  There is a lot of focus on those Talents, the rarer the better, the more useful the higher the value of the person, but on the flipside “useless” Talents get treated like dirt. I am the last one going today, everyone got a relatively normal Talent without any special outliners and then it is my turn. I walk up to the Priestess in charge of the Ceremony trying my best not to look too nervous.

“No need to worry, child, this won’t hurt and will be over before you know it”, she gives me a small smile while saying that, but I’m not really worried about pain, being different made me a target for bullying so I got used to it. “Let us begin”, the Priestess continues while holding a hand over my head and starting her incantation. I closed my eyes and waited. I waited for what felt like an eternity but most likely was only a few seconds and then carefully opened my eyes slightly. I didn’t know what I was expecting to see but the Priestess looking at me with a mix of shock and disgust definitely wasn’t it. I sneak a peek at the big display that shows everyone what your Talent is and in big letters it says: “Age”. Age? I never heard of a Talent like this before. I started to look around the crowd worried what their reaction would be, most of them looked confused and once I saw my parents I was the one in shock. The look of disappointment and seemingly anger in their faces comes as a surprise to me. I turn to the Priestess and ask: “What does my Talent mean?” After a moment of her collecting herself again she says: “We don’t really know, it’s very vague but we know that Talents like that have always been useless. Now go back to your parents!” After she says that she turns around and goes back into the Temple, I was the last one afterall. I return to my parents who don’t even look at me and we walk home in silence. Once home they start screaming at me “How can you be so useless!” “Is this your thank for raising you until now?!” I don’t have any influence on my Talent I’m trying to ignore them as best I could and went to my room crying myself to sleep. What did I do to deserve this?

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The next morning I wake up to my Mom and Dad talking with someone I don’t recognize downstairs. I get ready and head downstairs. “Don’t you worry, we will take very good care of her once she is with us” “tsk, just take her out of here already, she should be awake by now anyways!” I had a feeling from the reactions yesterday but I didn’t expect it to be so soon. “Good Morning” I walk downstairs and greet them. The person whose voice I didn’t recognize is a woman, dresses similar to the Sisters taking care of the local orphanage, but not quite the same, and there was a coin purse on the table she was sitting at with my parents. “Hello there child, from this day forward you are going to live with me, say what is your name?” “Good morning, my name is —”