They came to a spacious room with rows of folding chairs, set in a semi-circle around the largest glyph Keynes had ever seen. His father whistled, “That’s some exquisite work. I can’t spot a single flaw in it from here and that says a lot.”
The glyph looked like a rough shard of obsidian as tall as a man.
“It must be the new composite everyone’s talking about,” his father said more to himself than anyone else.
“What’s its purpose?” Keynes asked, his curiosity prodded.
“I can’t be sure. They don’t advertise these things anywhere but I’d bet it’s something to do with mana consumption. It’s an open secret that the army has hybrid technology that runs on electricity and mana. Looking at all the advanced equipment in this room, I’m pretty sure my bet’s correct.”
It was odd how quickly Ewan Kid’s personality shifted when the topic of a conversation included glyphs. Keynes himself was only mildly interested in continuing to discuss the subject, after all Riccard Claus, an author of The World Incomplete, claimed that Talents and glyphs were the only magical things in the world, for some reason, refusing to accept runes, formations and consumables like mana pills.
Reginald Hobb not only disagreed with Claus in his book Secrets Within Secrets but also spoke about the inactive and detrimental Talents, and how they referred to strange although non-existent concepts like magical skills.
Keynes’s musing was interrupted by his father’s comment about the glyph’s potential output and a spike of fear shot through Keynes. What if he received a glyph-related Talent? That would be a nightmare.
Everyone took seats and waited for Specialist Frog who was in charge of the ceremony.
“Why are you so pale, little older brother?” Harter teased him.
Keynes squinted at Harter.
“I’m going to enjoy this ceremony next year when you’ll be in my place.”
“Unless you get a detrimental or inactive Talent,” Harter joked but the subject wasn’t considered funny and their mother descended on Harter like a hammer.
“If you cannot behave, you’ll have to leave,” she said, her voice quiet but dangerously tense. She didn’t fare much better than Keynes.
It was a big moment for their entire family. If Keynes got the Talent the Foxgloves had asked for, Keynes’s family would become rich and Keynes’s own future bright.
“Sorry.” Harter raised his hands and pulled the chair away from their mother.
Keynes paid him little mind and instead looked around, hoping to spot Vivena and her parents.
“Everyone, welcome,” said Specialist Frog entering the room in the company of several white-coated assistants. “I’m sorry for keeping you waiting. We’ll start very shortly.”
A murmur rippled throughout the room but no one objected despite being not happy with the turn of the events. Most parents didn’t like that their children were being subjected to military tests no matter how harmless they appeared.
Not every region or city took the change calmly. SolNet was full of videos of protests and clashes between people and the police. San Antonio was one of the quietest places in this regard.
“Are they going to tell us what Talent you get?” Harter asked.
“No,” their mother replied. “It has been changed and Talents are kept private by default. You may reveal it later on at your own discretion but not here.”
Their mother had been obsessively scouring the ceremony rule book in the last couple of weeks for some reason. Her anxiety was doubled by their dealings with the Foxgloves and their ‘novel’ Talent-affecting method.
Keynes didn’t like that they weren’t here.
Webster Frog cleared his throat bringing all the attention to himself.
“Welcome again,” he said as he stepped in front of the glyph. “And apologies for the delay. The glyph is a prototype and required more time to set up than expected.”
This wasn’t something the gathered parents wanted to hear.
Murmurs slowly changed into whispered complaints and then into openly expressed disgruntlement. Specialist Frog raised his hand.
“Your children aren’t lab rats,” he responded to someone’s accusation. “The glyph has no effect on their Talents. This is actually the safest environment for the ceremony you can find.”
One man stood up.
“All this equipment… what is it for then?” he asked, red-faced.
“For analytical purposes.”
His responses did very little to ease the tension.
“This is getting out of hand,” Keynes’s father whispered to his wife.
Ewan Kid wasn’t wrong. The situation got to the point where the base’s commander, Luke Winters had to intervene and gave the parents assurances that the ceremony was safe. Some tried to get a written assurance out of him that their children would not get an inactive or detrimental Talent but he dismissed such offers with a warning of imprisonment.
The order was eventually restored but not without the help of several soldiers staying in the room.
Specialist Frog sighed and said, “Let’s begin.”
***
Everyone knew the procedure. Not only was it taught in school, discussed by parents and friends but also explained in a message from the government:
1. Sit next to the glyph.
2. Swallow a Talent Stone.
3. Focus on spiritual energy.
4. Gain access to a Talent.
It was dead simple and Keynes had seen it already when his cousin Ricko had received his Talent.
“Robert Atkin,” Specialist Frog called out.
A short guy, in an oversized tuxedo, stood up and on wobbly legs walked over to the empty seat next to the large glyph. Despite his dark complexion, his face was pale. He sat down on the chair as per the instructions, swallowed the Talent Stone he’d been given by one of the assistants and waited.
It was strangely uneventful; this was the most important moment in anyone’s life. Nothing else mattered as much as the Talent Unlocking Ceremony.
“You can do it!” someone shouted from the crowd but Robert Atkin didn’t hear it.
Keynes remembered the changes from his cousin’s ceremony with absolute clarity. The same thing was happening to Robert Atkin. His unfocused eyes stared at something in front of him while his skin was covered up in a delicate sheen. Interestingly, a body upon ascension to Level 1 didn’t change instantly. It was a slow process that took a few days.
Specialist Frog watched the tablet in his hands with satisfaction. Suddenly, Keynes, and certainly everyone else in the room, felt a gentle spiritual wave brush past them.
“That thing is on another level,” his father murmured. “Analytical purposes my ass.”
The spiritual pressure was a new thing and Keynes didn’t know what to think about it. Some other students looked ready to run for their lives.
Robert Atkin’s distant gaze vanished and Keynes noticed that his body transition accelerated… His skin became a little smoother, muscles denser and toned. Even the eyes gained a bit more contrast. Details were hard to spot but the total sum of them was more than visible. Was this the glyph’s doing?
The spiritual pressure completely disappeared a second after Robert Atkin’s head moved. His eyes narrowed and he glanced around the room.
His parents shot up to their feet, fear painted on their faces. Even Keynes was interested in what Talent the other student had received.
Robert Atkin smiled, which was the response his parents waited for. This removed a large part of tension from the room and other parents started to cheer as if it would make their children’s chances any better.
Specialist Frog thanked him and Robert Atkin returned to his parents. They didn’t stay as they weren’t required to do so. Seeing their happy faces, the general mood was uplifted.
The process was repeated six more times before Keynes heard his name. No one received an inactive or detrimental Talent so far. Keynes couldn’t decide what kind of omen it was.
His parents gave him words of encouragement, he hardly heard them. His heart was hammering in his chest. It was the most important moment of his life. In a couple of minutes, Keynes’s future would be determined. Talents were unchangeable. He never considered what Maria Brown had gone through when she’d received the worst possible outcome in this insane lottery. I hope Foxgloves’ method works, he told himself.
Keynes’s legs didn’t fare much better than Robert Atkin’s, his feet felt like they were laden with lead.
He made his way to the chair, looking at it with trepidation. There were still over a hundred people in the room, watching him.
“Please swallow the Talent Stone and take a seat,” Specialist Frog said.
Keynes sat down, swallowed the stone and waited for the pressure to appear.
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It didn’t.
In its place, Keynes felt his body go cold, then the world around him froze and words appeared before his eyes. They were suspended in the air. He tried to blink them away but the surreal vision remained.
He knew that something like this would happen. It’d been explained to him at school and home but experiencing it was vastly different.
Transition into a Level 1 Ascender (Human) initiated…
Basic conditions met.
Initialising…
Keynes lost the connection to his eyes and went blind. He still could see the text though.
A Level 1 Ascender (Human) body unlocked!
Becoming an ascender was a subtle but profound change as if nothing changed and everything did at the same time. It drained a lot of energy out of Keynes even though he didn’t feel exhausted. He just felt different…
It wasn’t over though.
One more thing remained – his Talent.
Talent unlocking initialised…
Talent detected…
Unlocking…
…
…
Error detected.
What the hell is going on?! His thoughts were slow and seemed to come from far away.
…
Anomaly detected…
Analysing…
…
Talent Unlocked!
Accessing the Talent Interface…
Talent
Type
Affinity
Details
Lockpicking
Active
Error
Ability to open locked objects and locations. Mana cost: highly variable.
Keynes’s eyes greedily read the name of his Talent and its description, and his heart sank with each word. Lockpicking Talent? Opening objects and locations? Was it trying to turn Keynes into a thief?
He was screwed. He realised. No mind-related Talent as everyone hoped meant no bright future offered by the Foxgloves. He didn’t think they would have any use for Lockpicking. Neither would Keynes.
The more he thought about his Talent the more he understood how bad it was. Just a step away from an inactive one…
He gasped as the world unfroze and he was back in the room with a hundred people, their eyes weren’t on him though. He turned his head to find out what they were looking at.
Webster Frog stared bewildered at his tablet, his mouth was working but produced no sound. What was going on? Keynes glanced back at the gathered people, finding his parents standing. Their faces verged on panic. Others looked worried as well and Keynes noticed Vivena and her mother standing near the exit. Both of them had concerned faces.
“What’s going on?” Ewan Kid asked. A murmur swept through the room as some parents started to look worried. No one could blame them. This shouldn’t have happened, right?
Specialist Frog cleared his throat.
“Please do not worry, everything’s under control. I can assure you, this young ascender received his Talent and it isn’t an inactive one.” But it’s close. It’s totally useless to me.
“Then why did you look like you saw a ghost?”
Others picked up on the question and repeated it, demanding answers. It’s the error affinity and the anomaly, Keynes realised. Is this the Foxgloves’ doing or did the military screw something up?
“It’s an internal thing,” Specialist Frog said and for a split-second Keynes thought the other man just read his mind but he merely replied to the questions from the crowd. “I cannot share more than this.”
It evoked more protests from the gathered parents but Keynes couldn’t care less about the whole commotion. The weight of his Talent was growing heavier in his chest.
“You can return to your parents,” someone whispered from behind him. No congratulations, no grand words. He felt like a failure.
Failure. A strange and alien feeling to him.
He stood up, expecting his legs to feel weak. They were not. There was strength to his body now. He was Level 1 now. What did it matter though? His life was over.
Keynes met his family on the way out of the room. They peppered him with questions but he didn’t know how to deliver the bad news and stayed silent until they reached Vivena and her mother.
“Well?”
Keynes opened his mouth to answer but Vivena’s mother stopped him from replying.
“Don’t speak. Show me the System screen.”
He was about to ask how when as intuitively as breathing the System screen appeared in front of him with an option to share.
Keynes shared his Talent with his family, Vivena and her mother. They looked at it in silence.
And the silence stretched.
They must have realised that his Talent was useless.
“This is unfortunate,” Vivena’s mother said. “You understand what this means?”
The deal was off the table. He understood this much.
“That’s unfair,” Keynes’s mother said. “You’ve used him and--”
Her husband placed his hand on her shoulder, silencing her.
“This isn’t the place,” he muttered.
Just as he said it, they heard angry voices erupt from the ceremony room. It was time to leave.
***
Billions of light-years away from Earth, ancient ascenders stirred from their slumber. They were awoken by the persistent alarm that blared in their minds.
One of them quickly accessed the Control Interface and found a wall of red warnings.
Unlock Affinity detected!
Emergency Protocol initiated…
Erasing the Talent failed…
Changing the Talent failed…
Corrupting the Talent failed…
…
Access denied!
Access denied? The ascender bypassed the Control Interface and reached directly into the Code that underwrote the rules and laws of this Universe.
The Unlock Affinity, among many other categories, should be erased from the Code.
And it was.
The ascender had personally removed these dangerous categories from the code aeons ago and apart from him, no one else in the Universe was capable of the feat. No one else crossed Level 75.
“What is the matter?” asked others who accompanied him. They called themselves the Endless although the System didn’t have a name for a person who breached the hard Level cap.
“Someone in the Universe received a forbidden Talent.”
“How do we proceed?”
“We erase the offender from existence. We do not want the Code to adapt and mutate again. We cannot allow history to repeat.”
“Agreed,” six other beings voiced their consent.
They were formless lumps of energy. Unless they had a need to assume a physical form, they could remain like this forever.
“I will do it.”
The leader of the Endless reached to the Code and found the location of the Talent. He did not bother travelling conventionally because it would take him weeks to get there even at the top speed. By manipulating the Code he got there in an instant.
He appeared above a blue planet packed with human ascenders. From this distance, he could see the exact location of the person who received a forbidden Talent. Before he erased the offender, he needed to understand how the Talent had come to be. A glitch? Glitches happened all the time. Most times, they were harmless and left to their own devices the System took care of them.
His mind touched the offender…
Access denied!
This was new. He increased the strength of the connection. It would destroy the offender’s body and soul but it mattered not.
Access denied!
This… this was not normal. More. It was impossible.
He once again checked the Code, searching for the trace of past manipulations. If this was a glitch it would not stop him from touching the offender and his Talent. Nothing in the Universe could stop the leader of the Endless.
Another try was blocked. If he used more power, the Spiritual Core of this world would be affected. It could destroy the planet. But he had to understand what had happened to ensure it would not occur again. A hundred billion humans were well worth sacrificing for that kind of knowledge.
He concentrated his power in a single thread…
“I wouldn’t do it.”
He froze. No one could see him while he was hidden from the physical reality and yet a man in white fur and crude weapons stood nearby, watching him. His red beard spilled over the front of his chest.
He slammed his spiritual aura against the intruder and… was completely rebuffed! Impossible.
The intruder laughed.
“Silly thing.”
“What are you?”
“Adventurer, traveller, explorer… I guess. Call me Traveller though. I like the sound of it.”
“Have you meddled with the forbidden category of Talent?”
“No idea what you’re talking about.”
“Then why have you stopped me from investigating it?”
“Because given the strength of your Spirit, it’d shatter the world, kill everyone on it and destroy their souls. Destroying souls, seriously? That’s low.”
He was looking at the intruder bewildered. His senses told him nothing. As far as they were concerned, he didn’t exist. The same thing occurred when he checked the Code. It didn’t see the intruder.
“I have done it thousands of times before. Why would you care now?”
The intruder shrugged.
“Timing I guess.”
“I must remove this Talent from existence.”
“"Oh, you simply must, mustn't—”
Access to the Code revoked!
Access to the Milky Way Galaxy revoked!
The blue planet disappeared and the leader of the Endless was hurled into a vast space among distant stars unknown to him.
***
Somewhere in a secret base in Jamaica, a quiet alarm flashed red. Specialist Willow Croft snorted, spilling coffee all over his desk. He didn’t bother wiping it as he stared at the monitor.
Specialist Croft’s job was to supervise the new Talent Evaluation System. On the surface level, the system assigned Talents a rank from 1 to 10 with 1 being detrimental or passive and 10 being essential to the government or the military.
But there was another, secret side of the project, led by the government’s covert organisation Hidden Hand, it searched for a specific group of Talents and assigned them a hidden rank, rank 11.
In truth, this was the aim of the entire Talent Evaluation System.
He read the short message. It ordered him to contact the man in charge of the secret project.
Lord Waxilium Earl.
A few minutes later, he managed to get through.
“Sir, our system just pinged a Talent with a rank eleven.”
“Where?!” Waxillium Earl cut in sharply. “Where?!”
“Military base in San Antonio.”
Waxilium Earl immediately dropped the call. Willow Croft remained in his seat, staring at the alert. They didn’t expect a hit so early.
He attempted to check the Talent but the system denied him access. Of course, secrets within secrets. The World Government was an endless pit of them. Perhaps, even the President couldn’t see the bottom anymore.