(Kyla’s point of view)
Waking up felt similar to what I imagine newborns experience each day until they acclimate to the world. Within ten minutes I was already overwhelmed by my newly heightened senses.
A boy whispering outside my door sounded as if he were speaking directly into my ear. The smell of roasted jerky and dried berries still hung on his breath causing me to wish I couldn’t smell at all.
He was going on about how minor attacks on border cities had increased again.
The girl he was chatting with sat next to him disinterested, only perfunctorily humming every few seconds. Whenever he stopped talking she’d say something like, “oh really?” or “please, tell me more.” All the while she was typing messages on her comm.
Between the incessant sound of clicking and her obnoxious perfume, I couldn’t decide which was more annoying.
The click of heels and an approaching venomous aura told me Ms Nordblum was on her way for what I hoped would not become, but already seemed to be, daily visits.
These heightened senses weren’t all bad though. It was only because of them that I could no longer be deceived by lies. With Pyro’s guidance I was quickly learning to detect deception by listening for a person's heart rate and watching out for a few other subtle indicators.
Still an unfortunate side effect of the ritual I underwent was memory loss. I had a family, I knew that much, but whenever I tried to think of them I just drew blanks.
According to my comm records it seemed like I was once very close to my brother… but now he felt like a stranger and I didn’t know how to reply to the messages he sent.
I wondered if maybe I had started feeling this way even before the ritual because I hadn’t been replying to him since the day we got admitted to Sky Haven.
Maybe I was just frustrated because I failed?
“No! I didn’t fail.” I quickly corrected and expunged the thought.
Two taps on the already opening door let me know that Nordblum had arrived. “Hello Ky. You seem to be handling things a bit better today.”
“Two taps, is that all the notice you give before entering someone else’s room?” I chided.
“Come now child, we both know you heard me coming from down the hall.” She said with a practiced innocence. “Now, are you ready to begin today's session?”
I sat up in bed and removed the blindfold that was specially designed to block all sight. While wearing it, even mana couldn’t be seen.
I never thought I’d be grateful to be blind, but with my senses so heightened, I didn’t exactly need to see. I could paint a clear picture of my surroundings just with sound and smell. Adding in sight would overwhelm me almost immediately.
I was only able to remove the blindfold for a few seconds before I had to put it back on, but it was long enough to confirm the one thing I couldn’t tell by sound and smell alone.
Valencia wasn’t human, not fully. I had already suspected this, how else would she be able to understand what I was going through or help me learn to adjust and control the new abilities? Still it was disappointing especially since it wasn’t the only secret she kept.
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With wind magic, I lifted myself out of bed. There was no need to reset it, I didn’t sleep with any covers or sheets. “Sure, let’s get this over with.”
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Ms Nordblum wasn’t at all the gentle and motherly woman that she tried to pretend to be. Rather, I found her to be cold, ruthless, completely unsympathetic and wholly disconnected from any form of human emotion.
That wasn’t unexpected though. Since she was in fact not human. I couldn’t be sure of her true form, only that she was different from Pyro.
This was only my fifth day as an ‘awakened,’ a name I came up with to describe those who could see the true world. She already expected me to begin combat training and she insisted on conducting the training herself.
I should’ve said no when she asked if I was ready, but I didn’t want to appear weak. I wanted to show that I deserved this, that I’d earned it.
“Get up and try again.”
“Try what exactly?” I said in protest. “I can barely walk ten paces without falling to my knees and you’re asking me to dodge balls without stumbling and without using magic.”
“Well, perhaps if you removed the blindfold. It might be a bit easier if you could see.” She advised as I got back to my feet.
“I can see.”
“Yes, but you don’t know where the ball is going until I’ve already thrown it.”
I growled in frustration. “There’s no point to this, why am I even here?”
Valencia, probably wearing a condescending frown, scolded, “child… the point is to show you that you’re every bit as vulnerable as you feel. If you can’t dodge these balls, how are you going to dodge a saber’s fangs and claws? As a hero candidate you won’t just be fighting beasts either. You might have to fight a rogue mage, and that’ll be immensely more difficult.”
I took a calming breath. I understood where she was coming from, but no one was expecting me to go out and fight right away. I had time to adjust and I already knew how my senses had crippled me.
“I don’t need a lec—”
A smooth stone, no bigger than my thumb, shot through my shoulder. It completely shattered the joint and ripped out the other side, probably taking some of the bone with it. “Ahh!” I screamed in pain.
I’d never experienced an injury like this before, but if I had it wouldn’t have hurt nearly as much as it did now.
My sense of touch had been amplified several times, just as the others. The pain was so intense that I collapsed. I reached for my shoulder, but as soon as I touched it I was immediately overwhelmed.
I wasn’t sure if I lost consciousness, but I knew I spent a long while panting on the floor.
When I was finally able to process my environment again, the wound had healed.
Ms.Nordblum was sitting on the floor eating fried boar ears from the smell of it. The crunch when she chewed scratched inside my ears, not in a good way.
“What the hell was that for?” I demanded while sitting up.
“You’re weak Kyla, about as useless as the inept as far as I’m concerned. You won’t survive here.”
“Are you serious!” I shouted back. My fury ignited my hair, and the floor around me with brilliant red flames.
Immediately regretted my rashness because the sound of my own voice pierced my ears like a knife, sending me crumbling back to the floor in pain. The flames collapsed with me, disappearing as suddenly they’d appeared.
When I recovered Nordblum said, “It’s up to you how we train, I’m only trying to help accelerate your acclimation, but if you prefer a slow transition then you’re free to return to your cozy little bed and curl up. It’s only your life at stake if this takes too long.”
“No,” steeling myself, I stood up again. “I can do this.” I tossed my blindfold aside and opened my eyes to meet Valencia’s apathetic gaze.
Light and colors swirled nonsensically as I struggled to process my sight. Within seconds I developed a headache and became dizzy, but I refused to put the blindfold back on.
Before I was ready, another round of dodging tiny rubber balls began.