I opened my eyes to a world in which I could see yet could not see. There was no light hitting my eyes; I was certain of that. Yet all around me, I seemingly saw and, perhaps felt, a magnificent storm, which I viewed from within the clouds. Lightning cracked around me, but I never heard any thunder; I could only feel the passage of current through the air in those magnificent arcs.
I sat there, feeling like I was in a meditative trance, discovering this new sense that let me know I was surrounded by this storm. I felt something new: a buildup before the lightning flew between the two points, the accumulated charge, and the change in electric potential. I kept feeling this new world as images from my past life were suddenly thrown in front of me.
“Miss Laval I understand you are excited; we can talk more about this after class.” It was one of my undergrad profs teaching about semiconductors and transistor design
“Now by applying Kirchhoff’s Law here,” visions from my first-year circuits class passed by me.
“Now when we apply a positive voltage to the gate,” more transistor design classes.
My visions of lectures faded, and I found myself standing in what looked like some kind of protest; I couldn’t hear what was being said around me; I could hardly tell people apart; my vision was blurry. Why was this blurry? It’s from my past life; I should be able to recall everything. I felt one group push into another. Were those counter-protesters? Cops? I felt myself being pushed around in the crowd; I was also pushing forward into this group. What happened here? Why can’t I remember anything? The vision faded.
I opened my eyes to the sight of the temple where our magic was being awakened by the priest, and I felt like I had been out for both a lifetime and only a single moment.
I felt tired, and my mind was still racing through all the visions I’d been shown. A strange feeling still sat around me; it was faint, distant, and distorted like the far-off echoes of a thousand voices singing slightly out of time. I closed my eyes and tried to focus, clearing away the strange feelings from the experience.
After a moment, I opened my eyes and was able to fully disregard that strange feeling around me: The echoes of the visions having finally moved on from my mind.
“The children have been accepted by The Great Mana.” The priest spoke more softly now, perhaps aware of the discomfort that comes with whatever this procedure is. “Now that they have been accepted into the world they must truly learn of it. Tomorrow they will return to the temple so that they may learn of the Great Mana and their world. For now they should rest; to be accepted into the world is no pleasant experience.”
As he finished speaking, a crowd of adults began to come and collect their children from the front, many picking them up and carrying them out of the temple.
“How’re you feeling Nessie?” My dad scooped me up into his arms with ease and began to carry me out, my mom carrying my sister beside us.
“I feel like I just ran around the whole city 30 times.” I closed my eyes and leaned into my dad, promptly falling asleep.
I awoke to the sound of the fire crackling in the bread oven and a pot boiling full of a soup or stew my mom was preparing.
“Did I sleep until dinner?”
“No, sweetie, it’s early afternoon, but people are always hungry after their baptism, so I thought you’d want something.” She moved over to the soup, scooped some into a bowl, and placed it on the table. “Come eat. It’ll help you feel more awake.
I pulled myself off the couch my parents used for talking business deals and moved over to try the soup.
“Why can’t this feel a little less exhausting.” I complained halfheartedly as I sat down to eat.
“You should go join your sister out playing when you’re done eating, it’ll be your last chance to go and play freely.”
---
As I made my way over to the play area, I saw the group of kids that my sister and I always played with huddled up, probably discussing the rules of whatever game they were planning on playing next. I slowly crept behind my sister, getting a few knowing glances from other kids who saw me but tried their best to keep a straight face.
“Gotcha!” I picked Ally up in a big hug from behind.
“Sasa!” her voice was brimming with excitement, “You said you couldn’t come play today.”
“I felt better quickly, I can play with you for one more day. What game are we playing now?”
The game discussions were decided shortly, and I was able to spend an afternoon playing with my sister for possibly the last time in many years to come.
---
“Are you ready to go Nessie?” Truly, worried parents were unavoidable anywhere you go in the world.
“Yes, I’m ready.” It was an effort to keep the exasperation out of my voice.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“Sasa, do you have to go?”
“Yes, Aly, but I’ll be able to come see you again after a month.” I ruffled her hair and then leaned into a hug. “I’ll miss you, see you soon.” My mom and dad joined in the hug as well.
“We’ll miss you too, Nessie.”
“Thanks dad, I’ll be back before you know it.”
I walked out and began to head towards the temple. It seems that walking to the temple on your own is a part of the rite of passage here, though a suspicious number of people are conveniently sitting outside of their homes and stores. With my perfect memory, it would be hard to find a way to actually get lost, so I made it to the temple without any issues.
This time, we weren’t going through the main hall but into the back entrance, which leads to the schooling area. We’ll have to stay here for a month, and then most of the poor kids will return to start learning to work for their families. My plan is to stay here much longer than the month, though luckily, the students who are staying for a proper education get a bit more freedom to visit their families; if I were a betting woman, I’d wager it’s because the people who stay are the rich ones.
“What’s your name?” asked a nun - or maybe she’s more like a priestess? - as I came in.
“Uh, Vanessa, daughter of bakers.”
“hmm hmm hmm, ah yes, there you are, your room will be just this way.” She led me down a hall into a room with four small beds and another girl.
“Your other bunk mates should be here soon, get along now.” Her voice went stern with that last bit.
“Uh, hi, I’m Vanessa, daughter of bakers, you?” I wasn’t quite sure how to deal with potential friends yet. I played with the other kids in the neighbourhood mostly to keep an eye on Aly or have something to occupy my mind while unable to do anything interesting.
“Hi, my name is Jessa. Nice to meet you!” she beamed out, quite the bubbly personality. Oh! And my parents are tool smiths.” She sounded a little proud of that.
As I moved over to put my few things by one of the beds, the door opened up and the nun/priestess led in another young girl and gave the same spiel as earlier.
“uh... hi, um, I’m Rathi, daughter of lumberers,” she spoke quietly and shuffled a little in place.
We went over introductions again and spent some time getting to know each other. They’d both spent some time learning from their parents; it seems that it can help influence the type of magic you unlock. Well, that’s the impression that I get from their stories. As we finally get settled in, the door opens one more time.
“Hi, my name is Fali, daughter of farmers.” Once the nun/priestess had left again, she quickly introduced herself.
We repeated the introductions and talked for a while longer. Fali was pretty quiet but seemed content to be listening.
“So, what was it like when you guys awakened?” I asked once we’d hit a lull in the conversation.
“Uh, I don’t remember mine yet. Did any of you?” Jessa asked the other two, who both shook their heads in response. “My dad said that the priests have stuff to help you remember. He said that it’s important to remember your awakening.”
“Um, did you remember anything, Vanessa?” Rathi asked, her tone slightly more confident than it had been when we first met, not even an hour ago.
“Not really; just remembered a weird feeling afterwards.” I lied; I didn’t want to say anything that would call unwanted attention to me.
We continued talking about a whole lot of not much interesting; as it turns out, five-year-olds make poor conversation partners for a 30-year-old mind, even if I’m somewhat hampered by my current physiology.
---
Around what looked to be mid-afternoon by the sun’s position out the window, we were all called to come into a classroom which slowly filled up with other girls who had just recently turned five.
After a short while, most of the desks were filled, and a woman wearing robes very similar to those of the priest from the day before walked up to the front of the classroom, cementing the idea that the woman who had taken us to our room earlier was some kind of nun.
“Good day everyone, as I will be in charge of imparting The Great Mana’s knowledge upon you so that you may use his gifts I will be telling you all how your time here will work. First, while you are here you will listen to everything that the priests and nuns tell you, there will be no talking back. Am I understood?”
“Yes.” A chorus of voices echoed out: It seemed I was not the only one warned to do as I was told here.
“Secondly, you will all be divided based on the *element of your magic, you will all spend your first month here attempting to learn your *element enough to channel the power of The Great Mana through it. Most of you will not succeed in this, if you demonstrate that you are unable to control your gift a priest will have to cut you off from the gift The Great Mana has bestowed upon you. Do not allow yourselves to be forsaken from it.”
A single month to teach something to a group of five-year-olds seemed a bit unrealistic, but I didn’t have the expertise to judge this system. I watched as a stream of priestesses came in; they each walked around and collected a group of young girls, leaving only me and 5 other girls remaining as they each took their groups out of the main room.
“The six of you will be coming with me, it seems The Great Mana has given us a large number of unusual gifts this season, I pray that you all can uncover the gifts that have been given to you.”
I thought about what she could’ve meant by unusual gifts. It probably meant that we had strange *elements for our magic, or there was some other unknown factor that made the six of us different. I tried to push my thoughts back to when I was awakened; the vague memories of the storm through that strange feeling made me think that my *element was likely electricity or something to that effect. As I thought back to the memories, I considered how weird it was that these memories were as vague as they were. I could perfectly recall everything that I put my mind to, so why did it feel like there was a veil over this? Was it a side effect of the awakening?
The Priestess brought us all into a much smaller classroom and took her place at the front of the class.
“Well then, since, you all have been given unusual gifts, the normal methods will not work here.”
She pulled out a board containing a pattern that seemed familiar to me. I dove into my memories to try to remember where I’d seen this pattern.
“Instead I will teach you about the world so that you may better understand the meaning of your gift and the message from The Great Mana.”
I was only half paying attention. I think the pattern is incomplete; I feel like it’s missing some parts and been rearranged from how I’d seen it before.
“Everything in the world comprises of two things, the elements which determines the physical form and the *essences which reflect its function. The Great Mana has bestowed upon you an attunement to one *essence, it often reflects your experiences in life or your passions, you must attempt to feel where this essence is present so you can understand its nature.”
I remembered now; her explanation made it click. That was a periodic table. It had some missing entries, was organized differently, and only went up to Uranium, but it was, without a doubt, a periodic table.
*I had previously understood the word for essence to mean elements like the four Greek elements or the five Chinese elements. I’ve changed it to be understood as essence so it doesn’t conflict in my head with the elements of the periodic table.