For the next two weeks, it was the same daily routine. Breakfast, relaxing, learning the alphabet, learning to use technology, lunch, practical lessons using Presence, then more learning the alphabet and bedtime. I fell into the routine easily, and as I relaxed more and more, things became easier. It only took another week for me to learn all of the complicated alphabet and successfully passed the standard test. Both I and Emari were happy with the results.
It took me a month to successfully learn how to regulate the flow of Presence around me so that I didn't break or destroy what I was focusing on and trying to move. That is, unless that was part of the task. Those tests I passed with flying colors. It wasn't until the flash card game was introduced at school that I fell far behind the others. That's also when the teasing started outside of the classroom.
“Ha ha! Look at the prodigy!” One of the girls said and pointed at me. “He can't even do the simplest things!”
“That's not nice.” Her guardian said.
“It's the truth!” The girl said. “I'm not lying or exag... exag...”
“Exaggerating.” Her guardian said.
“Yeah! That!” The girl said and laughed.
Her guardian looked at me and then at Emari with a sad expression. She couldn't keep telling her charge that it wasn't nice to tell the truth, and they knew it. The other kids laughed and over the next few weeks had happily joined in on the teasing as they pointed out all of the things that I did wrong. Since everything they said was true, Emari couldn't complain to the teacher about it and none of the other guardians tried to stop them.
I became more reclusive as time went on, mainly because I was tired of having to deal with their immaturity. Emari became less happy over that same space of time, because she was failing as my guardian and she didn't know what to do about it to try and solve the problem. She then had the bright idea to get a set of the flash cards for me so we could practice.
“Emari, if I can't do it by now, I can't do it at all.” I said, the sound of defeat clear in my voice.
“No! Don't give up!” Emari said and tossed the pack of cards onto the floor of the living room as hard as she could, then she picked me up. “Oh, Aaron!” She said my given name instead of my family name as she hugged me close. “I wish I knew what to do!”
I didn't know what to tell her, so I just hugged her back and closed my eyes as I rested the side of my head on her shoulder. She rocked me back and forth several times to try and comfort me. I opened my eyes and lifted my head to ask her to put me down, then I saw that the pack of flash cards had broken open and had scattered. Some were face up and some were face down; but, that wasn't what caught my attention. It was the pattern the cards had left.
It was a perfect circle.
“E-Emari.” I said and pointed.
“What... oh, dammit! I made a mess!” Emari said and bent down to start gathering them up.
“Don't!” I exclaimed, and she stopped moving.
“What is it, Aaron?”
“Don't you see it?” I asked as I stared at the cards.
“See what?” Emari looked down at the scattered cards.
“Can you hold me above them?” I asked, and she nodded as she gathered Presence around her hands and then used it to form the same levitation technique that Jarod had used the first time I had seen him in class. I was raised up into the air several feet above her head and I stared down at the pattern. Now that I had a top-down view of it, I remembered seeing the fireworks display that Emari had shown me weeks ago.
“It's the same pattern.” I whispered.
“Aaron, I... I can't hold you for very long.”
“Hm? Oh! I'm sorry.” I said and quickly formed a tall box of energy below myself down to the floor and used Presence to make it solid. “Okay, you can stop now.”
Emari sighed in relief. “It's a lot harder doing it for someone else!” She said, then she caught her breath. “How are you going to get down?”
I waved her concerns away. “I'll worry about that in a little while.”
“But... what about...”
“Later.” I said and stared at the cards below me. I had summarily dismissed the fact that some of the cards were face up and some were face down; but, I knew I was wrong to do that. “I need to figure this out.”
“Aaron, we... you have to get to class soon.”
I didn't answer her as I kept looking at the cards. I knew the alphabet forwards and backwards by this point, and I could read it to some extent. The compound words or words that were made up or slang were beyond me, at least until I could get more experience in seeing them written out.
Some of the cards I could see only had a picture of something on it, others had a single letter, and the rest had words or phrases. The face down cards partially covered the face up cards in what appeared to be a random way, then I dismissed that stupid thought. I knew that it wasn't just a coincidence, just like the cards falling into the pattern of a complete circle hadn't been. I nearly giggled as I realized that the Presence itself was trying to help me learn!
“Emari, can I have a datapad?” I asked, and suddenly there was a datapad hovering in front of me. “Thank you.” I said and started to write down the letters and words that I could see.
I worked at it for nearly half an hour before I had the distinct feeling that I was doing it wrong. I closed my eyes and performed a mental relaxation technique to clear my head, and a feeling of rightness filled me. I opened my eyes and looked at the cards again. I started over and only read the outermost ring of letters and words as I recorded them on the datapad. When I skipped the first picture, my rightness feeling ebbed slightly and I smiled.
“Emari, what's that picture right there?” I asked. I could have guessed at it and might have gotten it correct; but, I didn't want to take the chance, now that I knew what to look for.
“It's a wrench.” Emari said.
I closed my eyes as I felt the rightness feeling fluctuate. “That's right, but... it doesn't feel right.” I said as I opened my eyes and then saw her confusion. “What's another word for wrench?”
“Another word for... what would it... oh! Its a tool!” Emari exclaimed and I grinned at her.
“Yes, a tool.” I said and added it to the datapad. The next card had the letter 's' and I wasn't sure if it should be a part of tool or not, so like all the others, I kept it separate for now. I finished adding everything I could see on the top row of cards and looked at the datapad. It was a jumble of letters and words.
“What is it?” Emari asked.
“I've got the first row done; but, it's not making sense.” I said and held it out for her to look at it.
“That is a mess.” She said and looked down at the circle of cards. “Where did you start?”
I pointed at the spot and she nodded, then walked around the circle to check everything.
“You have everything that's showing.” Emari said, then she smiled. “What you don't have is what's not showing.”
“What do you mean?” I asked and looked down. “I didn't miss anything.”
“You did, sweety.” Emari said. “Look at the blank cards.”
I looked at them and didn't understand what she meant.
“They're spaces between words.” Emari said, and my mouth dropped open.
“Oh, my GOD!” I yelled. I completely missed Emari's reaction to my yell as I quickly added in the 'spaces' between words and took out the spaces that weren't supposed to be there between the letters. The sentence looked wrong and realized that I had started at the wrong spot. I shifted the words around to where I thought it should have started, and smiled.
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“Emari!” I exclaimed and looked at her. “We did it!”
“Wh-what does it say?” Emari asked.
“In order to learn the tools needed to!” I said and laughed.
“Aaron, I...” Emari looked down at the floor, then back at me. “Keep going, sweety.”
I nodded several times and did the next row of cards that were closer in. I needed a lot more help with the pictures and the parts of phrases this time. Emari didn't complain as she did her best to help me figure it out. The bing sound that signalled the time to go to afternoon classes came and went as we kept working.
Figuring out where to start on the next row of cards was easy when you knew what the last word of the previous line was. We finished after an unknown amount of time, since neither of us were keeping track, and I rolled off and fell into her outstretched arms. We both laughed at the simple solution for getting down off of my perch. I absorbed the solid box of energy, hugged Emari around the neck, and kissed her cheek.
“Look at what it says!” I said and handed her the datapad.
“In order to learn the tools needed to do what you need to do, seek that which is above all others and ask for their help.” Emari read, then she gasped. “No, it... it can't...”
“What is it?” I asked.
“You can't see him.” Emari said.
“See who?” I asked.
“The Wise One.” Emari said.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Only members of The Order and their apprentices can visit with him, and then it's only once a month for a very short time.”
“Well, I've been here for a long time now and I'm tired of being picked on for not knowing how to do things.” I said. “You're my guardian and I need your help.”
“Aaron, I...”
“Are you going to refuse to help me?” I asked, and she stared at me with wide eyes. “Will that mean you might fail in your duty?”
“Wh-what you ask is... it's impossible.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why is it impossible?” I asked.
“You're not in The Order and you're not an apprentice.”
“No, I'm not.” I said and then smiled. “However, you are.”
*
The Wise One sat in the lotus position as he watched the latest holorecording of the children participating in lessons at school from the day before, then he heard a beep from his terminal.
“Hm? What's this?” The Wise One asked as he received a formal request for a meeting. “I'm much too busy to...” He stopped talking when he saw it was from a guardian, then he chuckled as he checked her Order profile and saw who her charge was. “Then again, perhaps I could spare a few minutes.”
*
“By the Goddess!” Emari exclaimed and put a hand over her heart.
“He agreed, didn't he?” I asked, and she nodded several times. “When can...”
“We need to get there right now!” Emari nearly yelled and picked me up as she ran from the living room.
We were out the door of the apartment and halfway down the hallway when she formed Presence around us and ran as fast as she could. I could feel the Presence being sucked into our fronts and being pushed out our backs. I could also feel that she was pushing her ability to its limit. I was surprised that we didn't have to leave the building we were in as she snaked her way down several hallways and started to slow down as we approached a large set of ornately-carved stone doors.
“We have... an appointment.” Emari managed to say between her gasps of breath and the glow of Presence faded from around us. The two guards on either side of the large doors wore helmets and made what I thought were laughing noises.
“The Wise One is expecting you.” One of them said with a muffled voice and pulled open one of the heavy doors.
“Thank... you.” Emari said and walked into the dimly lit room behind the doors. It kind of looked like a lobby and even had a reception desk, which was confirmed when she walked over to the red bulbous alien that sat there.
“Main garden, second door.” The alien said and pointed.
Emari nodded and walked past the desk and went to the second door, knocked twice, then entered.
“Wow.” I said at the lush greenery that was so many different colors that I couldn't name them all.
“It's amazing.” A gruff voice said from somewhere inside the dense foliage. “You wouldn't think that it could grow so well inside such a stark and sterile building.”
Emari stood there in the open doorway and didn't know what to do.
“Don't be nervous, Emari.” The gruff voice said. “I am not to be feared.”
“I... Wise One, I...”
“She's not afraid.” I said. “She's in awe.”
A coughing noise responded and I thought I heard a bit of throwing up, too.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“I am fine.” The gruff voice said. “Come forward. The foliage thins out in the middle.”
Emari walked into the garden and deftly avoided hitting any of the plants with either her own arms or me. After a few moments, we entered a clearing of sorts and I saw a really tall and large robed figure with their back to us.
“You requested to see me for a reason, I hope.” The figure said without turning around.
“You're the Wise One. Shouldn't you know that already?” I asked.
“Aaron!” Emari exclaimed. “Ah, I mean Ullir. Ullir! You shouldn't be disrespectful to the Wise One.”
“I wasn't being disrespectful.” I said. “I only asked a question.”
“Being wise does not mean I'm all-knowing.” The figure said and turned around.
“OH, MY GOD!” I yelled as I saw a giant fly's head on one of the tallest bodies I had ever seen.
“Ah, so you do know there are other beings in the pantheon of gods and goddesses.” The Wise One said and nodded approval. “Good, good.” He said and walked over to us. “What is the reason you wanted to see me?”
I stared up at him and couldn't speak, and all I could see were hundreds of reflections of my shocked face in the thing's segmented eyes.
“This is why, Wise One.” Emari said and took the datapad from my frozen hand and gave it to him.
“Interesting.” The Wise One said. “Why is this message significant?”
“It's because of the attached picture.” Emari said. She had calmed down from the exhausting run and could now speak normally.
The Wise One opened the picture and stopped moving. “Where...”
“My apartment.” Emari said. “We even missed school as Ullir figured it out.”
“Ullir did?” The Wise One moved his head slightly and looked at me. Well, I assumed he was looking at me. I honestly couldn't tell because I was still in shock from his horrific and grotesque appearance.
“We even missed afternoon classes.” Emari said.
“Hm.” The Wise One closed the picture and read the sentence again, then handed the datapad back to Emari. He turned around and walked across the clearing and stopped near a tree.
“S-sir... I mean, Wise One, can you...”
“Quiet.” The Wise One said, and she closed her mouth with a snap. “I believe the words clearly explain what needs to be done.”
It took me a couple of minutes to get over the shock of seeing an old horror movie monster, then I took several deep breaths to calm down completely. I waited another few moments to compose myself and to keep my voice at an even level.
“Great and knowledgable Wise One.” I said reverently, and the large creature's back straightened as he stood tall. “Please help this unworthy soul in his time of need.”
The large alien turned around and faced us. “As if directed by the Goddess Chaiya herself, I will do all that I can to help you.”
“Thank you.” I said and bowed my head, so I wouldn't have to keep looking at the horrible thing. It walked over to us and put one of its clawed forelegs on my shoulder, and I held in my shiver.
“I have watched your lessons over the last few weeks.” The Wise One said. “I know why the other children make fun of you for not being able to perform basic tasks.”
“You... you knew?” I asked and felt a tingle go down my spine. My horror at the thing was quickly replaced by anger at it. “Why didn't you do anything about it?” I lifted my head and stared into it's gigantic segmented eyes and imagined swatting it with a giant fly swatter.
“As others have said, it was the truth.”
“They teased and bullied me about it and you let them.” I said.
“I wanted you to understand that even if you excel in something, there will always be those that will not see you as special.”
“I hope you saw that I didn't tease or bully them because I did so well in other things.” I said.
“Do you believe that makes you better than them?” The Wise One asked.
“No, I don't believe that.” I said, honestly. That's because I know I'm better than them. I thought and kept the smile off of my face.
“Good.” The Wise One said and finally removed his leg from my shoulder.
I feel like I need a shower. I thought in disgust.
“They make fun of you because you have missed a very crucial step in your understanding of Presence.” The Wise One said. I didn't say anything, because I knew he was pausing for dramatic effect. “You know that Presence is in all things and you know that Presence can flow through all things.” He paused again and nodded.
“I do know that.” I said.
“You have Presence in you and it is yours.” The Wise One said and poked my arm with a claw, then he pinched my sleeve. “Your clothes have Presence in them, separate from yours.” He said and waved at the air. “Presence is everywhere.”
I didn't respond, and he reached into his robes and pulled out one of the flash cards.
“This has Presence in it as well.” The Wise One said and held it up with the blank back facing me. “I assume you are using your detection technique?”
“All day, every day.” I said, and Emari caught her breath.
“Then you can see the slight glow that all things have?” The Wise One asked and I nodded again. “So, do you want to know the secret to the flash cards?”
“Yes.” I said, without even a hint of eagerness in my voice.
“It's this.” The Wise One said and turned the card around. On it was the symbol for the number 1.
“One?” I asked, confused.
“No, young one. You have made the mistake of assuming that what you see is all you can see, and missed a subtle difference that I'm surprised no one has told you about before now.” The Wise One coughed several times as if laughing. “The card has Presence in it... and the ink has its own Presence.”
I gasped as my mind was blown.
I stared at the card with a blank expression for nearly a full minute without moving or saying anything.
“Ullir, are you...” Emari started to ask if I was okay, and the alien stopped her.
“Let him work it out on his own.” The Wise One said, wisely.
It took me another five minutes before the concept of a completely separate Presence for everything sank in. I concentrated on the card and the ink glowed slightly more than the card itself, which let my mind see the difference in the two Presences. Once my brain adjusted to the fact that I could focus on an entire object and I could focus on the things that make up that object and could determine what they were, I smiled.
“I believe you have it.” The Wise One said and put the card away. “What's on this one?” He asked and took out another one.
I let the flow of Presence show me that there was ink on the other side, and it glowed in my vision. It didn't matter that I was looking at it from the other side, because the flow of Presence moved through everything.
I smiled as I saw the image. “It's a spaceship.”
The Wise one quickly pulled out another card, and another and another.
“The letter B. The word 'gravity'. A planet.” I said.
“You did it, Aaron!” Emari said happily and kissed my cheek for several seconds. “Good job!”
“I think that's all the time I can spare today.” The Wise One said and turned away from us. “Good luck at school tomorrow.” He said and walked across the clearing. “Oh, before I forget. Could you stop leaving invisible boxes all over the classroom? Xuglach hurt herself last night when she ran into one.”
“Oops.” I said and looked at Emari. “I keep forgetting to absorb them.”
The large alien waved a foreleg at us in dismissal, so Emari carried me out of the garden and we left. We learned later that it was the Wise One's private space and that he never let anyone else in there. Ever.
It took me an hour to wake Emari up after she had fainted.