-Genesis-

I returned to my body still having dried tears on my face from crying before I went to The Archives. Laying on my bed I thought about what I had talked to Radiant about. He told me that my situation might not be as hopeless as I thought, and he seemed very composed and rational about my whole situation, just like he always was. I always wondered how he could stay so easygoing about everything, always knowing exactly what he wanted and learning all that he could when he didn’t.

Before today I had never really thought about Radiant on more than a surface level because of his young age, but today he showed some capabilities that were way beyond what I would’ve considered possible at my age let alone him who was three years younger than me. When Radiant showed me how analytical he was, I was impressed, but it was still acceptable. However when he showed me how capable he was with magic I was surprised and it even made me feel inadequate. I felt that I wasn’t doing enough myself to succeed like he was.

I have always thought that I could be doing more, but I also felt that I was doing enough and didn’t need to push myself too hard, after all I had my family to rely on. But today I realized that if I wanted to have any real security in my life I needed to work harder and become capable enough to stand on my own.

Realizing this I sat up in my bed and I followed the instructions that Radiant had given me to help me access my talent. Taking a deep breath I focused inward and started meditating. As always when I started to deeply meditate I noticed my mana core, but this time I also felt something else, something that seemed familiar yet foreign. I focused on this new thing and had a feeling like I had connected to a sleeping limb I never knew I had.

I started to try and get a feel for this new limb that I was certain was my unique talent. I quickly noticed that most of what it could do was asleep and I was unable to use most of my talent’s capabilities. However one thing was very obviously ready and willing to be used. Even without Radiant’s assurance that there would be no danger in using my ability I could instinctively tell that using this part of my talent wouldn’t harm me, in fact it felt like it would try to help me as much as it could.

I tentatively touched this part of my talent and willed it to work. It jumped into action like an eager puppy, and I felt like my entire self was being analyzed and recorded, from my thoughts to my physical body. Everything was cataloged and stored inside of something new that was me but also not me. There was a short period of time where this new thing, which I assumed was my copy, was drawing energy from my talent and I could feel it slowly awaken almost as if it was asleep and had only just been awoken.

Suddenly it felt like I had two of everything, two streams of thought, two bodies, even two connections to my mana core. There were now two of me, but at the same time it felt like there was still only one me but just connected to more. I immediately felt my new body breathing and feeling, but I couldn’t feel much of anything else outside of this new body. When I tried to open my new body’s eyes all I saw was a void of blackness. It felt very claustrophobic and pressuring.

I wanted there to be more than just blackness, and immediately I felt my talent, which I was still meditating on with one of my minds, react to my desire. My other body's eyes suddenly saw my room instead of blackness, except I could tell that this wasn’t my real room because the windows only showed the same blackness I had previously been seeing. Now it looked like the void was outside of my room instead of all around me.

I started to move my new body around this new room and slowly got used to the feeling of having two minds at once. While I was doing this I could feel how my talent was moving and working to do the things I wanted it to do, and I could also feel it trying to help me understand how to use it.

The whole process was going surprisingly smoothly, much more smoothly than I had been told getting used to a talent was supposed to be. At first I thought it was because of the method Radiant had told me to use, but after thinking about it that didn’t feel like the whole picture. As I sat pondering it with two different minds I came to a realization, it wasn’t only because of the method Radiant gave me, it was also because I was able to meditate on my talent at the same time I was trying to use it naturally with my other mind. With these two different perspectives I was able to easily understand how my talent was working and what it was doing while I was using it.

I smiled because I was happy that I was able to quickly understand how to use my talent. Feeling confident I decided that if I could have one more copy I would be able to understand it that much faster. So I immediately used my talent to make another copy, and after the same process as before I felt that a new mind and body had awoken and connected to me.

I was immediately overcome with the amount of different information I was getting at the same time. I hadn’t fully gotten used to having two minds before I got a third one and I had bitten off more than I could chew. The overwhelming sensation broke me out of my meditation and immediately everything became so much worse. Without one of my minds meditating and focusing on my talent everything became so much harder to understand exacerbating the problem.

I tried to shut off the new mind, but it was useless, it was like trying to focus on what someone was saying while I was being pummeled underneath a waterfall of my own thoughts. It felt similar to when I was panicked and overwhelmed by my thoughts in The Archives. Thinking back I remembered Radiant telling me to take deep breaths to calm down. This thought was like a light in a dark cave, and I immediately focused on my breathing, trying to focus only on this and forgetting about my thoughts. I felt three of me breathing separately and out of sync with each other, so I tried to synchronize my breathing between all three different bodies and felt my thoughts become less disjointed and overwhelming.

After doing this I felt that I could now control one of my streams of thought, and I carefully used one of my minds to try and meditate back on my talent. There was a moment of instability as I almost used all three of my minds at the same time, but I managed to focus and make the other two minds keep focused on only breathing. Slowly my talent came into focus as I meditated and I started to feel much more in control of everything.

Not risking losing control again, I continued to use my two other minds to breathe while I just tried to understand my talent. After what felt like forever, I gained enough confidence to use my second copy to stop focusing on its breathing and used it to open the eyes of my real body. This was a copy’s mind, but I found that I could also use it to control my real body if I wanted to. Since I was focusing on meditating with my real body’s mind, I wouldn’t be able to move my body with it. After a while of getting used to my talent’s capabilities I was able to use all three of my minds at the same time. Although I still had to use one of them to meditate on my talent or else the deluge of information would become too overwhelming.

After gaining rudimentary control of my talent I realized that it had been an hour since I had started and I decided that I couldn’t wait any longer before I talked to my parents. So I mustered up the courage and left my room.

Since I lived on the opposite side of the house from my Dad’s study, I had to walk quite a ways to get there, because that’s where he would usually be while he was here at the house. Walking up to the large door to the study I knocked on the large doors and waited patiently before they were opened.

Looking at me through the opening in the door was the head butler who was as professional as always and said, “Miss Genesis what can I do for you?”

I mustered up my courage and said, “I’m here to talk to my father about something I’ve learned in The Archives.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“One moment please while I inform him.” He closed the door and I didn’t have to wait long before he opened it back up again, “Miss Genesis, your father will see you now.”

The butler opened the door fully and allowed me to walk inside before he closed the door behind him while he stayed outside of the study leaving me alone with my father as well as one of my brothers who was seated on the opposite side of my father’s desk. Seeing me enter my father spoke, “The butler said you found something out in The Archives?”

“Yes father.” I took a deep breath to calm myself as I took a look at my brother before ignoring him and saying what I had come here to say, “I went to The Archives after you left my room and I met with one of the people I know there. He’s very mysterious, but I know him well enough to tell him about a problem I am having trouble with.”

My father got a suspicious look on his face and I hurriedly continued, “But I didn’t tell him who I am or anything.” I calmed my nerves and continued, “Anyways he’s very knowledgeable and said that he might be able to help me out. He was able to use divination magic to get a description of my ability and told me that I should tell you about it if I want to solve my problem. He also said that I should mention that my talent would be great for gathering information in The Archives.”

“Hmm,” My father hummed in curiosity, “Well I’m not sure I trust this individual, but anybody who can enter The Archives isn’t someone to be dismissed. I will take a look at this description of your talent that he has given you. You can write it down on a piece of paper here.” He grabbed a piece of paper off of his desk and placed it closer to me along with a pen.

I walked over to his desk while giving a side glance at my brother who remained silent. I didn’t pay him much mind and proceeded to write the description that Radiant had given me. “This is the description he gave me Father.” I handed him back the paper which he proceeded to read.

[Unique Talent(Tier 8): Collective Self (Rank 0)]

: A fusion of the talents [Linked Subordinate(Tier 7)] and [Automatic Self(Tier 7)].

Collective Self creates a connected collective of virtual self copies that can do everything the original can do. These are virtual copies and don’t exist in physical space, meaning that the collective is limited by the physical capabilities of the original. If the original has a way to control two bodies then one of the collective will be able to use one of these bodies independently from the original. Virtual copies act as if they were real and the collective can exchange damage done (and other things) between them and the main body. Virtual copies are sustained by the talent’s own energy source. Collective Self can currently support 2 copies.

After reading the whole description my father placed the paper down on the desk in front of him and sat back in his seat with a rare sigh, “Tier eight huh. If this is true then we’ll have to get someone to confirm this.” He looked at my brother with a contemplative look before looking at me and continuing, “You said that you know the person who gave you this description, did he say anything else when you were talking to him? This description is detailed enough that it makes me wonder why he would give it to you without asking for anything. Someone with a tier eight talent is very rare and would definitely draw the greed of others.”

I responded, “Actually we did talk for a bit after that, but he mostly just gave me advice about how to better use my talent and what it might be useful for. As I said before he’s very mysterious so I don’t know much about him.” I paused before I remembered what Radiant told me to mention about him, “Oh but I was curious about his talent and asked him about it. He told me that he had a tier nine talent. I guess that’s why he wasn’t too interested in my tier eight talent and just gave me advice.”

My father wore a deep look of contemplation after what I had said before responding to me, “Tier nine you say. He could be lying, but if it’s true then he’s definitely someone powerful.” He focused back on me and asked, “How often do you interact with this man? Do you have any idea about who he could be?”

“Well I see him almost every time I enter The Archives. He’s pretty much always there doing some kind of research, but he doesn’t seem to interact with others much except for me.”

“Just with you?” My father got a suspicious look on his face. I could practically hear his thoughts wondering why some guy had an interest in his daughter. “Why would he only interact with you?”

“Um, w-well I think it’s more like other people don’t interact with him rather than him not interacting with others. I got to know him after I approached him first, but I’ve never seen anybody else try to approach him before except for me. To be honest he’s always so absorbed in what he’s doing that he doesn’t really pay attention to his surroundings. Sometimes I think that if he didn’t specifically know me, that he would just pretend I didn’t even exist.”

My explanation seemed to appease my Father and he said, “Well alright then. This is some great news Genesis, I’m glad you’ve gotten this information. Your Mother and I were both in a bind about what to announce at your birthday celebration tomorrow, but this information will help us delay the worries of others and figure out what to do. Is there anything else you wanted to say?”

My Father’s words of gratitude made me feel warm inside and I said, “No that was all.”

“Then you may leave. Tell the butler to come in on your way out.”

I nodded and left for my room. I felt so much more assured about my situation then I had just hours ago, and I was also excited to learn how to better use my talent. I considered going back to The Archives and informing Radiant how everything went, but then I decided to wait until tomorrow when I would be seeing him to celebrate our shared birthday. I couldn’t wait, but in the meantime I decided to practice my talent while I waited for tomorrow.

-Break-

I woke up from a long sleep. After having such a stressful day yesterday I was refreshed and ready for the new day, my birthday. The first thing I did wasn’t to get ready like I always did, instead I entered The Archives where I would be meeting Radiant to wish him a happy birthday.

As always Radiant was already in The Archives, and Radiant was wearing something different just like every time I saw him. Today he was wearing a strange style of clothes that was similar to something a farm rancher would wear, except that it was different in so many little ways.

He wore a wide brimmed hat that looked great for blocking the sun, a long sleeved button up collared shirt and a leather vest. He wore a belt with a large buckle that held up a pair of blue pants that he seemed to wear quite often. To top off his look he wore a set of large pointed leather boots, and instead of his usual red band that hid his eyes he wore a pair of dark sunglasses today.

Most people would never buy clothes to wear in The Archives unless they really wanted to show off how rich they were, but Radiant, on the other hand, seemed to treat points like trash and wore something new every time I saw him.

I was interested in the novel clothes he decided to wear today, but I focused on what I came here for, “Happy birthday Radiant! Congratulations on being seven years old.”

Radiant smiled and said, “Thanks. Happy birthday to you too Genesis.”

As always Radiant was not the most talkative and seemed to be at a loss for what to say next. I didn’t make him sit in silence for long and said, “That’s a unique set of clothes you have on this time. What kind of clothes are they?”

He pulled at his clothes and said, “Oh this? These are the kind of clothes a Cowboy would wear.”

“A cow boy?”

“It’s a title, not an actual race of people or anything, so don’t be confused. These clothes just remind me of a place I once used to live. That place had people with a spirit of adventure and freedom. Whenever I think about wishing I could be free to be somewhere else doing something else I think about that place. I wore this because I was wishing I could be with you in person, celebrating your birthday with you, but that will have to wait until sometime in the future.”

He shrugged his shoulders and gave me a faint smile, “Perhaps if you don’t get tired of having me as your friend we could celebrate our birthday together once I’m finally free to do so.”

Sometimes I got the impression that Radiant was carrying a heavy weight on his shoulders, and I could feel that now when he spoke about freedom, but I was still touched by what he was saying to me and I responded, “Don’t worry Radiant I won’t ever get tired of you. As long as we can talk to each other about our problems I’ll be happy.”

“Thanks Genesis.” He smiled and said, “I know that you have to prepare for your big party today so I won’t take up too much of your time here. But I wanted to know how everything went yesterday with your parents and your talent.”

“Of course, I wanted to talk to you about it too.”

I described my experience with learning my talent and how I had some trouble at first, but I explained that I was able to learn it quickly because I was able to do multiple things at the same time.

Radiant seemed impressed with my quick progress, which I was proud of as well. Then I told him how my talk with my Father went and how he must’ve seen Radiant as some sort of powerful hermit that didn’t like to interact with others. Radiant looked like he wanted to dispute this, but then he paused and got a pained expression on his face and said he couldn’t really dispute that, and I laughed at his attitude.

He took my laughing at him in stride before telling me some more advice pertaining to my situation and my talent. After exchanging another round of happy birthdays I got up and left The Archives feeling that this was a great start to the day. I took it as a sign that everything would work out and both of my other minds agreed as I went about getting ready for the day.