Shadi entered the room, where she found the ritual platform in the middle and someone else waiting for her right next to it. However, since the other candidates had already talked about another person being involved, she wasn’t surprised by it. Instead, she was drawn to the scripture sigils on the cloth that covered the ritual platform.

Like many kids, she had written them when she was younger, but they never worked. She had still always been drawn to them though, both on the water sources and when the topic came up in school. Seeing new ones was very interesting. The mysterious scripture sigils that nobody understood, but which seemed to be able to do wondrous things. And even if someone might have had doubts about their purpose in the past, now there actually was a person who used them. The very guy who just closed the door behind her.

“Shadi, this is Fae,” he said as he walked past her. “She will help us with your ritual.”

“Nice to meet you,” Fae said.

“You too,” Shadi replied.

“Let’s see...” Tomar said, as he checked the papers on the altar behind the ritual platform. “Your father was a Researcher and your mother a Handiworker. In your application it says you thought you would become a Researcher, is that right?”

“Yes,”

“Alright. Before we begin, we will do a quick test to see which Calling you would have most likely received under normal circumstances, please step onto this circle,” Tomar said, as he gestured at the edge of the ritual platform.

Shadi nodded and did as instructed. After she was in position, he put five white stones down on the platform, onto several smaller circles. A moment passed before Calling signs appeared in between her and Tomar in a neat row. Three orange stacks of books for Researcher and two green spheres for Handiworker, indicating a relatively even split of the expected Callings. Mesmerized, she looked at the display, until the signs of light exploded into smaller particles and rained down around the room.

“Looks good,” Tomar said, “you would have received one of these Callings with a normal ritual. Now, please step onto this bigger circle, and Fae will stand on the other one. Remember, if you see the wrong sign, step off the platform and we’ll try again.”

“Okay,” Shadi said and took a step to stand on another circle, while looking down at the scripture sigils, arranged in various shapes around the markings. They looked a little different from the ones on the water sources, both in their form and how they were presented.

She briefly wondered if she should ask Tomar about them after they were done, both because she was curious and because she wanted to have something to report to Ten as well, but she couldn’t finish the thought before Fae stepped onto the platform, standing close to her.

Tomar placed another white stone onto the platform and a second later a red sphere appeared. “That’s the Worker Calling, please step off.”

Both did as instructed, while Shadi was starting to wonder what this process was about. To her, it seemed less like they were giving specific Callings on purpose and more like they would keep trying until they got the right one randomly, but she figured it couldn’t be as stupid as that, because a ritual could take ages that way. And then there was Fae, some girl who got onto the platform with her, to “help” with the ritual in some way. As the realization of what they were doing right now dawned on her, Tomar continued.

“Just wait a moment...” he said and became quiet for a few seconds until he said “Okay, let’s try again.”

Shadi and Fae stepped onto the platform once more, and Tomar laid down another white stone. Just before the script started, however, Fae corrected her stance a little, standing off center afterwards.

“Oh, Fae, you’re not standing right,” Tomar said.

“Oops, sorry,” she said as she looked down at her feet and quickly changed her position, to stand in the center of her circle again.

“We’ll probably have to start over. This will trigger the random ritual.”

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A moment passed as they waited for the sign, to confirm that they would have to try a third time. When it finally appeared, Tomar’s eyes went wide, and Shadi and Fae looked at it curiously. It was different from the other ones Shadi had seen and heard about. Instead of large bundles of light, it was a tiny, glittering sphere. It was so small that one might even miss it if they didn’t pay attention, but it was very pretty.

“Fuck! Both of you, off the platform!” Tomar shouted.

While Fae hopped off immediately, Shadi was startled by his sudden outburst and wasn’t moving. Additionally, having spent years with priests and lectures about the gods and all they did for the people, she was fairly certain that she knew all the signs. That meant that this was an unknown one, and only one Calling came to mind that nobody else knew the sign for.

“Shadi!” Tomar warned.

It was a gamble, but she decided to not step off the platform, and instead see what would happen. Only a second or two passed before the room was suddenly filled with a blinding light and an oppressive air, as a humanoid figure that seemed to be made of white light appeared in a corner of the room, its eyes shining blue.

Gallas... Shadi thought and froze. She had never seen a god before, but she had heard more about them than she ever wanted, and she immediately knew who this was. The god of rituals...

“God damn it...” Tomar said under his breath, as he turned in the direction of the god as well.

He seemed unperturbed by the aura Gallas gave off, but Tomar was very clearly angry and annoyed, indicating that this series of events was undesirable to him. Whether it was bad for her was yet to be seen, but Gallas’ eyes quickly scanned the room, seemingly in a slight panic, which didn’t bode well for Shadi. Especially when he focused on her. He ended up just standing there, however, watching, as the Calling sign slowly fizzled out.

The glittering sphere was gone, nothing had happened, Tomar was agitated, and Gallas seemed shocked. With a strained glance to her side, Shadi was at least able to confirm that Fae appeared just as confused as her, and that she wasn’t the only one affected by the air in the room.

Looking back at the others, she expected that everyone would be staring at the literal god that had appeared in their midst, but curiously, Tomar was observing her instead. Just like the divine being was.

“What have you done...” Gallas said.

Suddenly, her body relaxed, as if the heavy air had vanished entirely. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for just a moment. When she opened them again, she saw a white mist flowing around Tomar, and Gallas’ blue eyes had disappeared.

“What...?” she started whispering, just before a slew of information entered her head out of nowhere. Knowledge about the human body, biology, mana, scripts, and how to use them. She felt what her destiny was at her core, what she was supposed to do in this world. She had evidently received a Calling, but not one she had ever heard about.

“You let it happen...” Tomar whispered as he glanced at Gallas.

“You!?” Gallas said, enraged. “I sent you back! Why are you here!?”

“I have no idea...” Tomar responded hesitantly.

“Of course you don’t... And you kept playing with things you don’t understand, like a disobedient child!”

Shadi didn’t know what was going on, but at that moment she was more focused on her Calling. She felt the urge to try it immediately, though she wasn’t sure how. Then her eyes fell on Fae once more, still standing by her side like a statue.

“Mana...” Shadi whispered.

She took a step to the side and raised her arm, to point her palm at Fae. Mana began to gather in the air between them, forming a script. A grin spread across her face, as she saw Fae visibly relax and start to exude just a little bit more mana as well.

It’s working... she thought. Not in her wildest dreams could she have imagined such a Calling. It defied all logic.

“Whoa...” Fae said as she carefully looked around the room and the other people, and the deity, in it. With just a small mana boost, she was able to endure Gallas’ godly aura, which was exactly what Shadi’s script had been supposed to do.

“Enough!” Gallas yelled, and the air grew just a bit heavier again. It wasn’t nearly to the same level as before, but enough to get the message across that he wasn’t happy. “No more scripts, and nobody is leaving this room.”

He seemed flustered to Shadi, as if the situation was a bit too much for him. She certainly didn’t want to antagonize a god though, so she stopped thinking about scripts that she would like to test and focused on him instead.

“I was right, wasn’t I...?” Tomar said. “You guys can’t interfere when things happen naturally... That’s why you need them...”

Gallas was trying to keep his countenance, but whatever Tomar was talking about had apparently hit hard. It was obvious that this Calling was problematic in some way, but Shadi didn’t have enough context to follow their conversation.

“Luckily, your existence is not natural,” Gallas spat, as he began to write a script in the air with his finger.