On Ascension Day, Dev woke up early by himself. It almost felt like he could feel the planet gathering itself, a tension that was almost ready to be broken. He got dressed and wandered out of his room. He was unsurprised to see his parents and sister already up. He wouldn’t be surprised if the entire planet was awake. That was how palpable the energy in the air was, Dev could really see why they said that this could reforge fate.
“Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad.”
“Hello, sleepyhead,” His dad answered with a lopsided grin, “I’m surprised you slept through the tension for so long. I figured that excellent affinity would make you more sensitive.”
“It’s supposed to. But I also only have the one affinity. Most people have a bunch of affinities. I couldn’t find useful information on people with single but high affinities.”
“I’m sure you’ll do great,” His dad said, sharing a worried glance with his mom.
“Hey!” his sister interjected, “Aren’t you forgetting to greet someone?”
“Does anyone else hear a strange shrilling sound?” he asked nobody in particular.
“Mom!”
“Dev, be nice to your sister.”
“Fine. Hi, Kaley.”
“Hi to you as well,” she said, still grumpy.
“Dev, are you sure you’re going to be fine doing this at the school?” his mom asked, worried, “We can still pull you out so you can do it at home.”
“I’ll be fine,” he grumbled.
“Okay,” his father said, before changing the subject. “Since everyone’s up, we can go ahead and get started on breakfast. Who wants pancakes?”
So they made pancakes. Dev fired up the stove while his sister mixed the batter under supervision from his mother, who was also slicing fresh fruit. Meanwhile, his dad was getting out eggs and bacon to cook. Before long, they had a full meal going, and got everything set on the table before digging in.
“You did better this time,” his dad commented, “The pancakes are much lighter than last time we made these.”
“I think that’s on Kaley, more than anything. I read that overmixing can mess up your pancake batter.”
Kaley half nodded, too occupied in devouring the sweet treat to comment.
“Well,” Dev said as he finished his meal, “I need to get ready to go. The bus should be here any moment.”
He went to his room to get shoes on and brushed his teeth. He wouldn’t be needing his backpack today, as there wouldn’t be any class today. As he finished up, he heard the bus arrive outside, much earlier than usual. He made a quick round of goodbyes before running out to catch the bus.
When he got on, it was immediately apparent why the bus was early, as only half the seats were occupied, indicating that over a third of his classmates had chosen to stay home for the ascension.
It was a short ride on the bus to school, but by the time they arrived, the world felt like a pot ready to boil over. The school was much quieter than usual, even accounting for the missing kids. When he walked in, he was immediately confronted by a teacher holding a clipboard.
“Name?”
“Devikan Cantor.”
She spent a minute searching the list for his name.
“Ah, Devikan, you’ve been assigned to the theatre for your ascension. I trust you know your way there?”
He nodded, “Yes, ma’am.”
“Then get going, the ascension starts in an hour, and we’ve got to process all the students to their place.”
He nodded again, then hurried past, navigating through the mostly empty hallways to find the theatre. Along the way, he stopped for a bathroom break, as he had a feeling that mid-ascension was not the time for bladder problems.
When he arrived at the theatre, he found that it was fairly empty, with only half a dozen other students in there, sitting quietly.
Over the next thirty minutes, individual students trickled in, until there were around twenty to thirty students in the room, which still left the room feeling empty.
“Students,” one of the teachers called, “The ascension will begin in thirty minutes. Please prepare yourselves. Go to the bathroom if needed.”
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Devikan went to the bathroom. He might have gone already, but you can never be too sure. It was just like taking standardized tests.
At the fifteen-minute mark, they spoke again.
“It is now fifteen minutes until the ascension. This room has been set up specifically for those with anima as their main affinity. If your main affinity is not anima, please come speak to us. For the rest of you, there are assigned seats for you, if you would find them now.”
Dev got up and started searching, finding his assigned seat near the center of the theatre. He settled in, getting ready.
“It is now five minutes to ascension. Everyone should be in their assigned location. You will not receive any more instructions until after the ascension.”
Dev was starting to feel sick to his stomach. Is it just nerves, or the world’s tension? Or maybe I actually got sick on Ascension Day, wouldn’t that be a laugh?
Dev never got an answer to that question, as suddenly, it felt like the world was swept out from under him.
Dev lost track of the theatre, then lost track of his body, as his mind was suddenly slammed down. He could feel his mind being crushed against what felt like his self, something he quickly concluded was his soul. Thinking was suddenly cramped, and it felt like his mind was being overwhelmed as pressure built and thoughts were blocked.
What do I do? What did they say? He strained himself to remember. I need to reach outwards, towards an aspect.
He tried doing so. His mind pressed outwards, but it felt like heaven and earth were closing inwards, becoming an impenetrable barrier. He felt for a way through, but all he found was pressure and obstructions. Frustrated, he turned inwards.
If reaching outwards towards an aspect won’t work, perhaps I can look inwards to find an axiom. I’ll just need to work extra hard to learn to manifest it afterward.
He did so, finding that things were much easier. While there were sections across the surface of his soul where he couldn’t go, he found that in the places his mind covered, there were sort of gaps, which he could slip through. It was even easier than he expected, perhaps aided by the pressure coming from the outside.
He was now inside his soul, which also meant he could feel the pressure bearing down on it directly. It wasn’t painful, precisely. It felt like one of those electric shock prank toys, but covering most of his soul.
No. he didn’t want that horrifying pressure wreaking havoc inside his soul. He started rejecting it, forcing it back, but as he pushed back one section, it filled another. He kept on pushing back and the pressure kept pushing in. There were only a few points that the heavens weren’t invading him, and each of those held a different sort of pressure, one he couldn’t understand or meaningfully resist.
No. Only I decide things in my soul. Having made that declaration, his soul convulsed, throwing him off. His soul changed, and was left both drained and vibrant. The alien pressures lessened, and as his mind drifted off, he felt the crushing force of heaven and earth begin to release the vice around his soul.
-----
Dev woke up with the worst headache of his life. It was worse than when he had broken into his parents’ liquor stash. As he came to himself, he found that he was still sitting in his chair in the dimly lit theatre.
He sat there for an indeterminate amount of time waiting for the headache to abate, periodically being talked to by the teachers making their rounds and ensuring that students were okay. He seemed to be one of the worst off, with a couple of students even getting up immediately.
When he finally was able to look at the clock without his vision swimming, he saw that it had been 37 minutes since the ascension.
“Teacher?” he called out.
One of them bustled over, “Yes?”
“How long did the ascension take?” he got out, gritting his teeth as each word slammed against his bruised mind.
“Three minutes,” she responded, “Are you feeling alright?”
“Other than my head feeling like it’s been split open, yeah.”
“If you wish, you can take pain suppressants,” she said.
“Oh.” If his head wasn’t so muddled he would have thought of that before. “Do you have…?”
“Yes, we’ve been provided with some for students. But be warned, it won’t help with soul pain.”
Until she said that, he hadn’t even realized that he could still feel his soul. It was sore, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as his head, which still felt like it was overfilled.
“Thank you,” he said, accepting the proffered pill and water.
After that, she moved away, and he felt his pain slowly decrease over the next hour. By that point, he was down to a mild headache and his soul was still nearly as sore as it was at the beginning.
“Okay, if everyone is ready, we will make our way to the front of the school for your testing.”
He got up, slightly unsteady, following them out of the theatre. He blinked rapidly as the hall light sent stabs of pain through his eyes. They were led to the front office, where the machines from a few days before were set up.
He got in line, and a minute later, felt the needle-like feeling of the scanner. This time, he was tested by Mr. Serenata. It could have been his imagination, but the poke felt gentler this time. The results were printed off and handed to him. He was surprised to see some significant changes. He now had a perfect anima affinity and low affinities in runes, life, and fire. He had no aspects detected, but that wasn’t a surprise after his failure to push back against the heavens.
“Ah, rough luck,” Mr. Serenata said, speaking at a mile a minute, “But with that affinity, you certainly shouldn’t lack for interest if you visit the empire proper. Not many have a perfect Anima affinity before they start cultivating. Do you want to sign up for the aspect manifestation training?”
Dev stared dumbly at him for a moment, his head still too muddled to keep up.
“What? Oh! Yes.” he replied after parsing what Mr. Serenata was saying.
“Okay, you’ll need to sign this form and take this paper, it has the scheduled times on it.”
Dev did so, before tottering out the door. He went to the bus lane, and found his bus waiting for him, him being the last person who needed to get on.
He made it home, and after fending off his mother, he went straight to bed, sleeping for nearly 16 hours straight.