“Well,” I say, sitting on my bed beside Celeste as I unconsciously stroke the familiar’s cloud-soft fur. “That was a little bit somber, huh. So, what do we do now? I certainly feel different, but… well, I’m not sure I can do any magic.”
I can feel Celeste perk up under my hand. She, too, had been deep in thought about the turn our conversation had previously taken. [The first thing you need to do is check your Status. Then we can do a little experimenting if you want, and you can even try out your assault state. While in your rest state, a great deal of your magic is repressed,] Celeste says, sounding excited.
“My Status?” I ask, climbing up off my bed and moving back to my desk chair. “What does that mean? How would I check it? Is there some sentinel phone app I can log in to?”
Celeste gives a mental laugh. [Well, yes, actually, but that isn’t related to this. Your magic is bound directly to your soul, and thus, you should have an instinctive understanding of how to use it. However, while your soul understands what’s going on, your mind does not necessarily understand the same things other than on an instinctive level. This is why learning to pull up your instinctive information in a more visual medium can be helpful for new sentinels. It is your magic and your soul. You can have it show you what is happening simply by desiring for it to do so.]
I blink, trying to think through that explanation. “So… the Status is the way for me to see how the soul gem affected me, but in a visual way?”
Celeste bobs her head up and down, [Correct. Many sentinels prefer to read about their magic in a textual format. Although other mediums, such as voice, are doable as well. The information is said to be very helpful for understanding your current status, which is why we call it the Status. It will show you your strength as a sentinel and will give explanations and general information.]
I shrug; I suppose this isn’t the weirdest thing I’d learned today. Also, Celeste is right. While I can feel a lot of new things about myself, I don’t quite understand what they mean. Having some kind of description would be extremely helpful.
“Great, how do I look at it?” I question my familiar.
My mind catches on the thought. My familiar. For the vast majority of my life, familiars and the Centurions had always been these vague concepts — distant magical entities that I would never properly understand. However, now I literally have a familiar living within me. It’s time I learn what that truly means.
[All sentinel magic is instinctual to use,] Celeste explains, snapping me from my thoughts. [To see your Status, you merely have to want to. For some sentinels, it can help to think of the word ‘Status.’]
“Okay, let’s give this a try,” I say, then with a simple flex of will, I think Status.
image [https://i.imgur.com/VGVPmqg.png]
I startle as what appears to be a menu from some computer program appears in my vision. For a long moment, I marvel at the mere existence of this menu. If what Celeste said is true, then my magic had created this menu to show me. That’s interesting, given that magic and technology generally do not mix.
“Why does it look like a computer menu?” I ask Celeste, the Status box conveniently moving out of my vision when I look at her.
[It will look different for everyone,] Celeste says from her perch curled up beside me on the bed. [Your magic will show you things based on what will make the most sense for you in particular. Right now, you are just seeing the information from a broad view. If you focus on one thing, you can receive a more detailed explanation about it. It’s your magic, so you are in control.]
I nod, looking over the information shown in the Status menu with tired eyes. It had been a long day with the meeting with Audrey, going to school, and then that terrifying dream.
“Do… do you think we can go over some of this later?” I ask. “I don’t want you to think I don’t care; it’s just…”
Celeste nudges my leg with her soft head. [It’s okay. This is a lot to take in all at once. Also, we will have to go into the GDF tomorrow. A lot of things will be explained there as you will have to go through some training.]
I smile, absently scratching Celeste between her wings. “Thank you. Before that, though, you didn’t see anything bad about my Status, right?”
Celeste shakes her head. [Your mana toxicity level is higher than is comfortable, given you haven’t actually done any magic yet, but even that isn’t too surprising. Even as someone naturally resistant to mana, your body has never had to resist it in high amounts before. I expect levels to normalize by tomorrow morning. A normal level for a sentinel should be around two to five percent, so having it so high is probably why you’re feeling tired. Sentinels always suffer a period of weakness when they have high mana toxicity in their rest state.]
I stand up, moving forward and patting my shoulder for Celeste to hop up on. “That does make sense, I guess. Well, I think let’s go say hi to Dad. He won’t be happy that I’m going to miss school again tomorrow.”
With a mighty hop, Celeste lands on my shoulder, shrinking as she flies through the air. Then, fluffing her wings out to settle down, she wraps her tail around my neck like a fluffy scarf as I head to the door of my room.
Before making my way to the kitchen, where I hear Dad moving around, I make a quick detour for the bathroom. More specifically, a mirror. Celeste had said there would be physical changes, and while I haven’t noticed anything, I want to take a look before I go talk to my father. You know, just in case anything weird is going on. Or, rather, anything else weird.
Making my way into the bathroom with Celeste, I shut and lock the door behind me before moving to the mirror and freezing. Oh… wow.
Really, I don’t look much different than I had before: sandy blonde hair, blue eyes, and pale skin with just a few freckles. My face looks pretty much the same, too; it’s just… better. My skin is smooth and shows no hint of the acne scars I’d built up over the years. My hair looks straight out of a shampoo commercial, even mussed as it is, and my eyes… my eyes are what had changed the most. Well, changed is the wrong word; more like enhanced. The blue within them is now so much deeper than it had been previously. A deep, piercing cerulean that immediately draws the eye — similar to Celeste’s new eyes.
Before now, I had never really found myself ugly. More just… average looking. Being half American and half Japanese, I’d never really fit properly with either. Now, though, I feel like I could be one of those teen models. I’m still me, just with the dial turned up to eleven. How strange; I had always been, more or less, happy with how I looked. I hadn’t realized I wanted these changes, but… subconsciously, doesn’t everyone want to improve some things about themselves? It’s just the human experience.
I look in the mirror for a long few moments before deciding that nothing really has changed. Yes, I look better than I did this morning, but that doesn’t change anything about my life. I still want the same things I wanted before. It’s nice, of course, but it isn’t a huge deal. With a shrug, I depart the bathroom to find Dad, neither Celeste or I having said a word.
I find my father sitting on the kitchen counter, looking at his phone as he waits for the oven to heat up. The fragrant smell of spices wafts towards me from the yet uncooked pork dish he’d prepared. Upon my approach, he looks up at me and blinks in surprise. “Wow, you look good today. I take it your magical crystal note means you decided to accept the bond?”
“I did,” I say as I move up to give my dad a quick hug before settling on the stool beside him. “Celeste says I’m a proper sentinel now.”
Dad’s expression turns complicated for a long moment before he gives a wide smile. “I’m glad you were able to decide on the path you want to walk. As your father, I’m a bit remiss that it involves so much danger, but… well, I learned from my own father that if you push too hard, you’ll end up pushing the ones you love away.”
I offer Dad a weak smile as I remember his old story. My grandfather is a harsh, American, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, kind of guy. He had forced my dad towards professions like lawyer, soldier, and doctor when they had never really clicked for him. He had been absolutely furious when Dad had started learning to become a teacher and had forbidden him to continue. Rather than stop, though, Dad had left the country, moving to Shinara with me and my mom.
My grandfather, plus the pressure of the Second American Civil War that had been happening at the time, had ultimately made my parents decide to leave. It’s also why cities all around the world, like Shinara, have such a dense American population. A lot of the country fled when the war had gotten bad, and the Volcora attacks made it even worse.
As a kid, whenever I’d said I wanted to grow up to be something crazy like an astronaut, a professional archer, or even a sentinel, Dad would bring up the story of my grandpa. He’d say that he would never put boundaries on what I could or couldn’t be, even if he clearly wanted to at times.
Even now, I’ve only met my grandfather in person one time and that had devolved into a shouting match between him and my father. Frankly, the man had scared me. He still scares me.
We still receive monthly letters from him. Frighteningly, most of them are addressed to me. Dad throws them away before I ever read them, and I’d never asked to read one before he tosses it. I don’t know what my grandpa wants with me, but I’m very glad he is an ocean away.
“I remember,” I say, staring at the far wall as I reminisce. “Who would have thought that when I said I wanted to be a sentinel when I was eight, that it was actually possible.”
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Dad gives a gentle smile, “I always knew, I think. Even when you were a little girl, I knew you could grow up to be anything. I was more expecting tournament archer than sentinel, but hey, life can take some weird turns sometimes.”
I laugh, “It definitely can,” I say, patting the head of my very own source of weirdness, who still sits on my shoulder.
“So,” Dad says, looking over with his smile still in place, “you’re a sentinel now. Got any magic to show your dear old dad?”
I blink, uhhhh. “Celeste, do I have any magic? I mean, I kinda feel like I should be able to do something, but…”
With that, Celeste hops down off my shoulder and onto the counter before us. I’m about to scold her for getting her dirty paws on the counter before realizing that, even though she might look like a physical being, she isn’t. She is a mana projection, which hopefully means she won’t track dirt onto anything.
[You have yet to earn your first ability. However, you do have your dominion art unlocked. Your dominion art is the ability that makes up your identity as a sentinel. It is a powerful ability that's only available to you; no other sentinel could learn it, even if they wanted to. That’s because it’s formed out of a combination of our dominion and unique astral path,] Celeste explains, hopping straight back into lecture mode.
“That’s the living mists thing, right?” I ask, “How would I even use it? Is it safe to use inside?”
Celeste bobs her tail up and down in what I assume is her equivalent of shrugging shoulders. [I don’t know. Dominion arts are completely unique to every individual sentinel. There are no records on what your ability will do, not that I would have access to such records besides. Not to mention that we doubt we even know half of the standard abilities that are possible for a sentinel to get. If you focus, you can bring up a description of what it does, but that will be the only hint we get before just trying it. You should be able to tell if it’s dangerous, though.]
Hmmm, okay, more just thinking about it, huh? Okay, so how does this work. Living Mists.
image [https://i.imgur.com/lD9Q5X0.png]
I look at the description; it sounds complicated but… also incredible. Some of my previous exhaustion vanishes as I look over the text describing an actual magic spell I can apparently use. Does this mean that I’ll be able to spread a healing mist over an entire city and heal everyone there? I mean, probably not now, but at some point in the future, could that be possible?! I really, really want to try it. I mean, who wouldn’t? It’s a magic spell! Who needs to understand how it works other than that it does!
[Quite the ability, isn’t it?] Celeste asks, waving her long tail excitedly. [It should be safe to test. As long as you go for calm mist and not raging tempest.]
“Wise. By the way, can you only see these description things when I look at them? It feels like you should be able to see it anytime?” I ask as Dad gets up to move our dinner into the oven.
[I can look at them whenever I want as, like I said earlier, in a lot of ways we are treated as a single being. If you have an ability, I also have it. I should be able to wield the same power. I just think it’s more fun for us to learn together!] Celeste explains.
I give a gentle smile to the small foxlike familiar. I’m really glad our personalities mesh so well. While Celeste is definitely a bit more hyper than I am at times, that doesn’t bother me much. Celeste is always willing to explain and answer my questions, and she seems like she’ll be a great companion. One that I’ll still enjoy being around years in the future.
“It certainly is more fun,” I say. “So, how do I use it? Also, I’m not going to, like, fill the entire apartment with mist, am I?”
Celeste shakes her head, [While you are outside of your assault state, all of your abilities will operate at around five percent of their normal potency, and you will have the general strength and durability of an average human. This is due to mana toxicity again. Staying at full power permanently would kill you, which is why the different states exist at all. Think of it like this, your assault state is your fully powered-up self, using all of your power, but you can only stay that way for a few hours. When your mana toxicity gets too high from being in your assault state, you will begin to feel weak and need to leave that state. Please note that our soul gem won’t actually let you kill yourself by staying in your assault state too long or using too much magic. Once it’s detected that you can’t use any more magic without risking death, it will force you into unconsciousness until your mana toxicity is at reasonable levels once more.]
[All of that is to say. In your assault state, you probably could fill your entire apartment with mist with some effort. Outside of it, though, you would be lucky to fill a small room. As you grow stronger, you will be able to do more. However, right now, you are about as weak as a sentinel can be.]
I nod my understanding, “Cool, so how do I do it then? Like, I kind of feel like I can do it, but it’s just instinctual.”
[And that’s exactly how you do it, instinctually. You are the soul gem, and the soul gem is you. Its powers, my powers, and your powers are irreversibly joined. Controlling your mists should be like bending a limb. Very easy to do. I can do it, and you can do it. That does not mean easy to master, though. As you well know, there is a big difference between moving your fingers and perfectly drawing a bowstring,] Celeste says.
Hmm, that sounds suspiciously like more; think about it, and stuff will happen. Oh well, it’s magic powers. I don’t know how I expected it to work, but… well, I guess it wasn’t this. It does make sense, though. The Centurions and GDF both need at the ready warriors to be able to combat the Volcora. That doesn’t work as well if said warriors have to learn for years even to do the most basic bit of magic. Well, probably; I still haven’t actually done any magic yet.
I scrunch up my face in concentration as I focus. Extending my hand out, I start trying to summon a calm white mist as Celeste and my father watch intently. It takes a long moment to figure out how to do it. Ultimately, Celeste’s explanation that it’s like another limb I can flex is accurate. The magic feels like a piece of me — flowing through my veins like blood. I will it to come forth using the instinctual knowledge to guide me. Over my extended palm, a curling white mist bursts forth.
The mist is less, massive fog bank, and more smoke machine. Nonetheless, I watch in fascination as my hand pours out a calm white mist that curls and moves in unnatural ways. Within the mist are small flashes of blue light, tinging the entire mist a very slight blue color. The mist quickly moves across the countertop before cascading off the edges like a silent waterfall.
Concentrating harder, I stop producing more mist and instead focus on trying to control the mist that’s already out. It’s hard, like each tendril of mist was a finger, and I needed to control them all at once. I feel like I should have a ton of fine control, but all I can manage is generally directing the mist in one direction or another.
As I try to direct my mist, I feel what Celeste had explained earlier. It feels like my control and power should be greater than it currently is. I feel limited. I bet that the feeling will go away after I learn how to use my assault state. Eventually, I decide to try and dismiss my mists, and, like the summoning, it comes instinctually. With a simple flex of my will, the magical mist fades from the room as if it had never been.
I twist in my seat, looking towards Dad with a grin. “I can do magic!”
image [https://i.imgur.com/s4uEg3H.png]
The ability to control mist is incredibly exciting, and I spend most of the night messing around with it, my tiredness long since forgotten in the face of real magic powers. It got to the point that Dad had banished me back to my room for my practice as I was making the entire apartment feel even more humid than usual. Even still, I can’t seem to stop myself from playing with it. I feel like some superhero from a comic book, and I can’t wait to learn more about what I can do.
I turn to my familiar, who had been lying on my bed and also playing around with wisps of mist, which had startled me at first. Celeste had briefly mentioned that she could also control the mist, and I wonder exactly how that works. Thinking it through, if I am now the soul gem, and so is Celeste, it makes sense that she would be able to use the same powers. However, to what degree can she use our powers? Could she go somewhere and use them completely independent of me? Will the ability become weaker the farther away she gets? Testing is required.
Shaking my head, I force myself to focus once more. “Celeste, can I ask you a question?” I ask, drawing her attention from where she was forming rings of mist in the air.
[Always,] Celeste responds, dispelling her mist with a flick of her tail. [What is it?]
“You mentioned that I could gain more abilities later. How? Does it have something to do with the ranks I saw in my Status?” I question.
Celeste thinks for a moment before responding. [Sort of. New abilities will come along with new ranks and sub-ranks. Yet, there are no rank or sub-rank thresholds that guarantee a new ability. Magic, in general, is strange. You have to earn it; it never just comes for free. By undergoing trials during your time as a sentinel, you will increase in rank and gain more abilities. This is because you are more deeply attuning yourself to our dominion and astral path.]
“Okay, but what about becoming a sentinel? I didn’t earn that, did I?” I ask, genuinely curious.
I knew about magic’s strange inclination to only work for people who it considered worthy. If you wanted to use an inscribed item, for example, you had to show the item that you deserve it. The easiest way to do this is to undergo some kind of simple trial. Trials can be massive challenges or something as simple as cleaning your room. It really just depends on the inscription and its effect.
[You did earn the right to become a sentinel,] Celeste responds. [It isn’t possible to force a bond. Either a soul gem bonds with you or it doesn’t; there is no in-between. When I arrived at the local GDF branch, I was shown multiple candidates who I would never have bonded to. I chose you, and I am a being made of magic. Thus, you earned the right to be a sentinel. That gave you access to kinds of magic only sentinels can use.]
I nod, “Like an assault state and a rest state.”
[Exactly, but there are other abilities unique to sentinels that you now possess as well,] Celeste explains. [In addition to shifting states, you’ve also gained heightened strength, endurance, perception, and dexterity while in your assault state. Also, while in your assault state, you have a comprehensive barrier that will protect you from harm, and you will gain a magical inventory at a higher sub-rank. These are things that all sentinels have just by forming a bond.]
“You didn’t mention our dominion art, which seems odd because it’s clearly important,” I comment curiously.
[Dominion arts are completely unique to each sentinel — like I said earlier. They form as a result of our bonding of souls. While every sentinel does have a dominion art, they are all vastly different.] Celeste explains.
“Okay… that makes sense, I guess,” I say before frowning. “But sentinels don’t only have one power. Where do the other abilities come from?”
[Like I said, you have to earn them,] Celeste says. [Think of it like this, every increase in rank or sub-rank is a time where our soul gem undergoes refinement to become more potent and more deeply attuned to our astral path and dominion. During these times of magical influx, it’s possible to gain a new magical ability. These abilities tend to be less unique than a dominion art, but they are still very useful.]
“How would I go about earning one then?” I ask.
[New abilities are governed by two trends. The first is your astral path and the color it’s aligned with, as certain colors tend towards different ability types. As a blue sentinel, you should expect to primarily receive healing and support abilities. The second trend is actions. If you often shoot a bow, you are highly likely to receive an ability revolving around bows,] Celeste explains.
So, if I’m understanding things correctly, I have to do something frequently if I want to get an ability revolving around it. So, if I wanted an ability that could, say, cure a disease, I would need to work on doing those things manually beforehand.
“That’s… strange,” I say, trying to take in what Celeste had explained.
[There’s a reason sentinels need so much training to reach their full potential, even if they can use magic right away,] Celeste says with a mental laugh. [Don’t worry, we will get there. The GDF has training courses on a lot of these kinds of things, so that should help a lot, too.]
My eyes widen at her mention of the GDF, and I glance at the clock. It may have gotten quite late while I’d been playing with my magic. “Crap, I need to get ready for bed,” I say, hoping to my feet to run to the bathroom. Tomorrow is going to be a big day; I just hope I’ll be able to fall asleep.