‘We need a tree,’ Miles said the next morning on the way to the water source.

“We already tried wood,” I responded.

Miles had gotten just a tad more talkative once more. Apparently he had come up with new theories that I was supposed to test for him. And now he wanted to test painting sigils on wood again for some reason.

‘We tried dead wood, I want a live tree.’

“Where am I supposed to get a live tree from?” I said exasperated.

‘... just go to where there’s a tree?’

There we go with the suicide plans again, I thought we were behind that.

“We can’t go outside the walls! That would definitely be a mistake!”

‘What? I didn’t say anything about... wait, there are no trees in town? None?’

It seemed obvious to me. We had told him about the beasts. How they roam the fields and especially the woods, which are in the Wildlands. There also hadn’t been a tree in sight while I kept walking around town with him in tow.

‘Well, that sucks,’ he said, accompanied with a tinge of pain flaring back up in my head.

I had been thinking about the sigils as well. The “Omega Script.” Even if I didn’t fully believe in what Miles was trying to do yet, I ended up being curious. Especially with how excited he got while talking about his theories. We had tried “scripting” on almost anything we could find, and with all the painting solutions we had available. The new theory was that the surface needed to be “alive.”

“The water source is a stone... and we did try painting on my body,” I said, unsure where this theory fit in.

‘Actually, I think the stone might be alive.’

“Oh, sure. Let’s ask the stone how it works then,” I said jokingly.

I arrived at the square, where two girls were already doing laundry. It was unusually early in the morning for it, when the sun hadn’t even risen above the horizon yet, to dry the cloth afterwards. As I went up to the water source, Miles said something weird.

‘Put an ear on the water source, close your eyes, and concentrate.’

I glanced over at the girls. They weren’t paying attention to me, but... “Why?” I whispered.

‘Just do it.’

Hesitantly, I did as he said. A moment passed. Then several moments. It must’ve been almost a minute before it happened. “What is this supposed to—” BADUM. There was... something. My eyes shot open briefly, but I quickly closed them again and kept listening. This time it easily took two minutes before I noticed it. BADUM.

As I backed away, I kept staring at the water source increadiously. I was in a daze, until I noticed a little girl beside me. “What are you doing, Tomar?” she asked curiously. She had apparently come over after seeing me acting weird.

I snapped back to reality and waved her off. “It’s nothing, Riala.”

She tilted her head and appraised me, before making her way back to her and her sister’s tub. I heard her older sister say “Weirdo,” before they resumed their washing.

‘See what I mean?’

“What was that?” I whispered, turning away from the girls.

‘Feels like a heartbeat to me,’ Miles said matter of factly.

A stone with a heart? I thought, looking at the water source again. As my eyes fell on the script, they focused on one sigil in particular. “ITL...” I mumbled.

‘That’s right,’ Miles said in a suspicious tone. ‘Internal, I presume.’

I stepped closer to the cube, touched it, and followed the sigils with my fingers. “You don’t know exactly what every single one of these means,” I said, before coming out of my trance. Splashing around some water as I picked up my bucket in a hurry, I made my way out of the square.

***

Mother had already left for work when I got back. I paced around the house, trying to make sense of what was happening to me.

“Miles, are you doing something to me?” I asked carefully.

He stayed silent.

“Miles!”

‘Huh?’

He hadn’t been listening. “What is happening to me!?”

‘Beats me.’

It hadn’t been a fluke, or my imagination, I had read the sigils. Not only that. To some degree, I appeared to even understand what they were referring to. How or why I didn’t know, and Miles either didn’t know or he didn’t want to tell me.

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“I’m scared...” I said in a low voice.

At this prompt, Miles tried to appear understanding. ‘Right...’ he started. ‘I don’t know what is happening exactly. But it’s not a bad thing. You’re learning something new, that’s good, isn’t it?’

“I’m not learning though. It’s just there. You have a theory, don’t you? You always have a theory.”

Silence. This was really starting to irritate me. However, that anger pushed away the fear a little. Unexpectedly, Miles did respond a few seconds later, with a question. ‘What does a Calling do?’

Realization dawned on me. A Calling gives you knowledge. Things you didn’t know before, abilities you didn’t have. Miles was my Calling, he knew Omega, so... “I know Omega as well?”

‘I don’t know if it’s quite that clearcut. But you asked for a theory.’

It makes sense, I thought. But that was as far as he was willing to indulge me. I was entirely unsure if I even wanted to understand the script. The priests say it’s not for humans to know, it’s coming from the gods. What if knowing it would be dangerous? With worry in my mind, I took the money Mother had left me on the kitchen table and made my way to the market district, to a well-respected tailor that specialized in suits for men. I would need some new clothes before starting my job next week.

***

The market district was off-limits to children. This was actually the first time I had been here. The reason for that was the Charmer Calling, which typically produced entertainers, merchants, and prostitutes. It’s said that they can sell you anything if they want to. Or make you do whatever they want. Though I wasn’t sure how over exaggerated these claims were, as the imagination of children would quickly run wild if they were forbidden from going somewhere. My mother had told me to be careful, but assured me that I would be fine.

The streets looked ordinary enough, with shops and market stalls everywhere, and a mass of people standing in front of them, browsing the wares. I didn’t have to go too far before I saw the tailor I was looking for, a few houses down the street. At a corner two houses further down stood a man and a woman in revealing clothes, looking appraisingly at the passersby.

I made my way to the tailor, trying to avoid eye contact with them, and just as they noticed me, I ducked into the shop, letting out a sigh of relief.

“Good Morning, sir!” came a voice from behind a counter. The shop was filled with suits, some on racks and some displayed on mannequins. In the middle of the store was a platform, raised from the ground. A man was standing on it, as he had his measures taken.

“Good Morning,” I said as I approached the counter. “I’d like to get a suit for my new job.”

“Certainly! Do you have the requirements on hand?”

I put the piece of paper with the information about my job on the counter, which included a description about the attire I was to wear. Up until this point I had always worn simple cotton shirts and pants. Generally, you weren’t looked down upon for that, as long as you and your clothes were clean. At work that wouldn’t fly, however.

The man behind the counter took a quick glance at the information, nodded, and walked around the counter. “Please follow me.”

We made our way over to his colleague, who had just finished the measurements for the other customer. “Another Simple Fit,” I heard him say before he turned around to me. “Aran here will take your measurements. Please come back over once you’re done.” He walked back to the counter with the other customer, while Aran directed me to step onto the platform.

While he was measuring my body, we made light smalltalk. He asked me about my new job, but I kept my answers vague, not actually knowing what I would be doing exactly. It was a little awkward.

Ten minutes later I walked back to the counter as well. Aran and the man, who I guessed to be the owner, nodded to each other and he turned to me. “Preparation of your suit will take three days. Will that be acceptable?”

It would be just in time, two days before I was to start my job. They were probably quite busy this time of year. The store would be closed one of the two remaining days, so I had to get here on the appointed date.

“That’s alright,” I said.

“Thank you, sir!”

I paid for the suit and left the shop with a copy of the order and a receipt. After a quick glance at the now empty corner down the street, I hurried back in the direction of the main square, when Miles broke his silence. ‘Vegetables!’

“What?” I blurted out, garnering me weird looks from the people around me. The awkwardness continues...

‘Get a tomato or something. Not exactly what I had in mind, but I guess it’s technically still alive.’

I had a little bit of money left over, so I did as he asked. Approaching merchants turned out to be nothing special at all, and I wondered what all the rumors were about. Maybe you wouldn’t be swindled left and right, but there had to be some basis for the bad reputation of Charmers.

A tomato in hand, I finally walked back home.

***

The vegetable test was a success! Writing on it proved challenging, as did balancing a stone on it, but after wiping the ink and paint off of it, you could still eat it, without too much of an aftertaste! Amazing!

As to be expected, it didn’t suddenly start producing water, however. Miles had been in a bad mood ever since that failed test. My understanding was that he now believed the water to actually come from the cube itself. That it wasn’t the blue stone that was converted to water. Though he hadn’t told me his latest theory on what he believed the stone to be for yet.

“What if the stones are an offering to the gods?” I suggested. “Even if the script does something, maybe they can only accept offerings that we place on the cubes. And then the script activates.”

Miles snorted. ‘I don’t believe in gods.’

That one took me by surprise. “What do you mean you don’t believe in gods?”

You could hardly deny their existence. Granted, I hadn’t seen one in a while, but it’s not like you would go out of your way to meet them. When I told Miles this, however, I felt like he was frozen in place.

‘You have seen gods?’ he asked after a few seconds.

“Of course. You haven’t?”

My last time had been a few years ago, when one of them had appeared in the main square, to bless their followers. The god was human-shaped, but without any defining features, and their entire body glowed a blinding white.

My family wasn’t following any gods, because it didn’t appear to have any real benefits. However, some people believed their blessings would bring good fortune. And then there were the priests, of course, who truly worshiped the gods.

‘Can you show me one?’

“I’d really rather not,” I said.

It’s an unpleasant experience. They have an oppressive, suffocating air about them. Even from across the main square I felt like my head was about to burst open last time.

Their appearances were also kind of random. The priests would occasionally try to summon them, but I had been told even that didn’t produce reliable results.

My description convinced Miles that I had seen something powerful, but he was still hesitant to call it a “god,” and said he’d wait to see it for himself.

I continued on with my day, until Mother came home.

“You paid how much for a tomato!?!?” she screamed at me while we were eating dinner. I had known how much she usually paid for vegetables, yet I hadn’t noticed at all. Charmers must not be underestimated under any circumstances.