Chapter 3 - Awakening

Sylifan

It’s them again! The burny birds! There’s been a lot of them around our house lately, and Itha’s room is flooded with them. Don’t floods have to do with water? I thought that was why people didn’t want me playing with Ruru? I’m confused. Why do these words do the word thing in my head without me knowing what word things are? Well anyways, the birds still refuse to play with me. I feel like they’re trying to run from me or something. Kinda like when I run from my parents when they try to teach me stuff. Why, though? What did I do to the birds? Do they really hate playing that much? It can’t be. Are they scared of me?

Wait, do I know what fear is yet?

Yes… yes, I do. Why do I know what fear is? Something’s wrong.

I’m a year old now. My birthday was just 2 months ago. We held the party at home. 3 other families came to celebrate. 4 girls and 3 boys. Ages 6, 5, 4, 2, 2, 1, and 0.83 years. What do all of these mean? Why do I know this?

The adults wanted me and the kids around my age to be friends in the future. So that’s why.

But they knew so little. They spoke so weirdly- if you could call it speaking at all. They were so… carefree? …And incapable.

W-well, anyways… there was this really yummy bread thing. Think mom called it cake? Apparently it’s bad for our health so no one was allowed to eat more than one piece. What a waste.

Oh yeah! My mom promised she would teach me what aspects were soon. I don’t know how soon “soon” is, but it better be soon. But since she still hasn’t told me, I'm not gonna tell her about the birds. She’s keeping a secret so I get to too. Hmph.

Oh? The birds have suddenly all disappeared. Wait, no, they’re all going to Itha’s room. Looks like fun! I’m coming too!

Wait, it seems like something important. Would mom get mad at me if I went to look? Yup, definitely. Well there’s no point thinking about it more since, well... I already opened the door.

As I enter the room I see Itheia sitting on her bed, legs crossed. Thousands of firebirds flood the air around her, slowly going towards her, no… getting dragged towards her? Thin, almost invisible lines, kinda like spider silk, wrap around each and every bird pulling them towards my sister. Are they…? Yes, they are. They’re crying- crying for help. What is Itha doing? Are the birds evil? They… they must be. Itha wouldn’t do something bad! I hope…

One full hour passes by as I watch Itheia capture the evil birds and do something with them. When the last bird is taken, symbols I don’t know begin to form around her. I don’t know why, but they feel warm? Her red hair almost looks like it’s changing colors. Like a fire. How pretty! Her eyes are twitching, it seems like she’s about to wake up. Was she even asleep?

Slowly her eyes flutter open. Instead of the blue eyes I thought she normally has, her eyes seem molten. Lustrous reds and oranges flare within her sockets, while obsidian-coloring focuses her gaze into a burning flower. Can she go back to sleep? She looks scary now. And I also feel like I’m in danger. No, I’m definitely in danger. The birds are back, and they’re radiating out of Itha! This is gonna be painful.

“AHHHHHHHH!” I’m now shriveling in pain. Please send help. I’m just gonna go to sleep now. Ouch.

Itheia

“Huh?” I thought I heard a scream just now. Hm, I feel different. Mmhm, definitely feel different. Warmer somehow. Could it be?! It is! I did it!

On the back of my hand there’s now a symbol of fire. I now control the aspect of fire.

Yay!

After taking some time to internally celebrate my achievement, I finally remember what mom told me about awakening.

“Awakening your aspect is something that normally takes many years. Most people will awaken their aspect around the age of 15. But that shouldn’t matter for you. You’ll awaken naturally far sooner. We won’t know what aspect you’re going to awaken but every aspect can be very powerful. When you do awaken you’ll elicit an awakening phenomenon. That just means you’ll use your aspect unconsciously when you first awaken. Remember to call me or your father the moment you awaken, you’ll probably destroy a thing or two.” That’s what she said. I wonder what destruction I caused?

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Ok, there are some burn marks on the ceiling. Makes sense I did awaken fire. There’s a couple of fires still going, shouldn’t be a problem, mom can have that fixed in a matter of seconds. Lucky! My clothes are all fine, and so is my hair. What a relief! Oh, there’s also a blackened and burning object that kinda looks like a human.

That’s Sylifan isn’t it? Why am I not surprised?

OH! He’s not fire-resistant is he? That’s a problem. I need to go find mom, fast.

I run into the living room calling out to mom as I go. Thank goodness today isn’t a market day. I find her in the kitchen where she looks at me confused.

“What’s wrong dear?” she asks as she takes a glance at me.

“Well...:” I’m not allowed to finish the sentence when my mom interrupts me; “You awakened! That’s wonderful!”

While a smile blossoms on my face from hearing my mom’s joy, I try to remind myself of the reason I came looking for her.

“Some stuff was burned.” I tell mom.

“Oh! Don’t worry about that. We’ll replace it.” She tries to comfort me.

“No- but, Sylifan!” I blurt out.

“Hmm?” Mom's eyes squint in confusion and concern. My little brother has managed to get himself the reputation of a troublemaker among everyone in the town.

“I burned him.” I specify slowly, an uncomfortable heat settling into my gut.

“WHAT!?” she releases a panicked and confused scream that makes me wince. And now she’s running, no- teleporting over to my room. I’m a little bit slower than that.

When I finally arrive back at my room, mom is holding a soaking Sylifan who is very much awake and in pain.

“Is he okay?” concern fills my voice.

“He’ll be alright. Haaa… Can’t say I didn’t expect this to happen.” she answers as she sits down on my bed, slouching in fatigue.

“Alright!? I definitely don’t feel alright!” comes the pained shouts of my little brother. What a handful. It’s kinda funny though.

Looking at me with a small smile, my mother says, “He’s definitely alright.”

That gets me to laugh. Glad neither of them blame me for what happened though. It’s not the first time I’ve hurt him by accident. Babies are just too fragile.

“Mm, little brother is tough, right?” I jokingly add in.

“If this is what being tough requires, I don’t wanna.” he replies with a huff and a wince.

“Alright, alright, what can your sister do to make you feel better?”

“Uh…” he pauses in thought, “can you let me play with the fire birds?”

Fire birds? What’s he talking about?

Equally confused, my mother remarks, “Hmm? What do you mean by fire birds?”

“The firebirds mom. The ones that Itha captured before all the weird fire stuff happened. Itha, you know what I’m talking about right?” He attempts to explain.

Absolutely confounded by what he’s talking about, I direct a question at our mom, “Could they be related to my awakening? I did awaken fire after all.”

“T-that… that should be impossible! Sylifan shouldn’t be able to interact with the aspects at all, and I’ve never heard of anyone being able to see the aspects.” she hesitantly replies, confusing me even more.

Before I can ask, Sylifan inquires “What do you mean I shouldn’t be able to interact with the aspects?”

My mom’s expression suddenly hardens, “Sylifan, we’ll talk about this when your father comes home, ok?”

“O-ok.” his timid reply comes.

I’ve never seen my mom like that. Well besides that one time I uprooted her flowers… I couldn't resist, they were so pretty! Definitely worth it though! But anyways, what does she mean when she says that? Is there something wrong with my little brother? I’m a little worried.

After we all calm down and Sylifan is in a bit less pain, mom asks, “Oh Itheia could you watch over Sylifan for a moment? I need to finish cooking dinner.”

“Yeah, I’ll watch over Sylifan. I don’t think he can move much right now anyways.”

“Thanks Itha.” Mom says while ruffling my hair up a bit.

The moment mom leaves, I turn to my trouble seeking brother and ask, “Hey, wanna test out what I can do now that I’m awakened?” Despite being a little caught off guard, my little brother just stares at me. Hey, it wasn’t my fault he decided to walk into my room when I started lighting everything on fire, I just conveniently took a couple of moments to figure out he was screaming on the floor in pain. No big deal.

I saw him move. I’m going to take that as a yes. No, he definitely wasn’t trembling in fear. I mean I didn’t know what fear was when I was his age. …I also don’t remember anything from when I was his age. Anyways… let’s see, how do I channel my aspect? ‘Feel the power within the world around you, and channel it into your mark.’ That's what I was told right? Ok. Three, two, one!

'Fire Pulse!'