Eos felt extremely intimidated by the council of men in front of her. It was split into three segments, each split again. The leftmost segment had five chairs, rising as they approached the center segment. The center segment had two chairs, the left one more than a half foot higher than the right. The rightmost segment had four chairs, again rising as they approached the center segment. Each chair- excluding the rightmost of both the right and left segment- had a man in it, none of them any younger than forty. The two men sitting in the centermost looked like they had just crossed 100, with the left man having a beard that came to a point. The man in the right chair in the center segment had a crazed look in his eyes and was nearly bald.
On the left, the men ranged from 60 to 80 years old in appearance, with the exception of the rightmost, who was an elf with shining blond hair, in contrast to Eos’s own dirty blonde hair. His eyes looked at her with malice, and he had a faint glow around him. On the right, the men looked to be the youngest of them, with the rightmost chair notably being entirely empty. Every human on the bench looked at her with a mix of fear and disgust, but she felt the most concentrated stare still from the elf.
The silence in the room lay thick, no one daring to speak the first word until the elf spoke: “Who let them in here?”
Murmurs came from the left and right benches, however, she could only hear snippets of words, but one stood out to her, “Demon”. After a few moments of murmuring, the bearded old man spoke, his words cutting through the chatter.
“While demons are uncommon applicants to our institution, there is nothing restricting them from attending. We will beg-”
“Demon?” The elf scoffed, cutting them off, “Adrius, you of all people should know better. Ignore the eyes, and look at them. That’s not a demon, that’s an Apepi.” His last word was laced with disgust. She felt the entire room, already staring at her, looking at her with a renewed focus. Not even a whisper left anyone’s mouth.
After an eternity, Adrius spoke again, “It seems that you are correct, Rhawn. However, our institution still does not discriminate in applications, so we must at least see this through.” He turned towards Eos, “What is your name, for the official record?”
Eos’s nerves jumped, her mouth becoming both full and dry at the same moment, with the complete inability to speak. She took a moment, thinking about her actions carefully, before speaking. “My name is Eos AuSkoll Apepi, elf of the Apepi lineage. Please, call me Eos.” She gently did as much of a curtsy with the small amount of loose fabric her clothing had.
“Eos, will you please demonstrate why we should consider you for acceptance into this school? Perhaps a demonstration of magic or sword fighting…” His voice trailed off as he looked at Eos, “If you have nothing to demonstrate, please let us know.”
“May I have something to write with?” Eos asked, her mind racing a mile a minute, and Adrius nodded. A man standing in the shadows off to the side brought a chalkboard on wheels over, stunning Eos. She hadn’t seen either of these when she walked into the room, and the man seemingly disappeared back into the shadows after placing the chalkboard next to her. She gingerly picked up a chalk stick, her hands shaking uncontrollably.
Eos continued, “I don’t know any magic. And my body,” She said, gesturing to herself, “isn’t exactly good for learning how to fight. My mind is good though.” Eos began to write on the chalkboard, “I taught myself mathematics, I’m very good at it.”
She wrote down basic formulas at first: Multiplication, addition, division, and exponentiation. She then moved on to drawing polynomial graphs, then drawing circles, followed by trigonometry equations. She stopped after writing sine x.
“Is this all?” Adrius asked.
“Oh, oh no not at all.” She replied, “I was just thinking about the best way to describe this. I think I’ve decided.” She began to write the Taylor series for sine. She decided she needed to define the factorial, and now that she had that, she could define e. Having e and trig equations, she attempted to naturally lead into imaginaries. She continued this line, going over complex analysis and Cauchy integrals before stopping. It was a few moments before she said, “Actually, can I have another whiteboard? This one is basically full, and I’d like to start another path.”
Suddenly the man came out with a chalkboard again, before disappearing into nothing. And she began to write, again. Beginning at set theory- admittedly, she couldn’t remember the formal axioms- she walked through real analysis and infinities. Cauchy sequences develop reals, functions, and sets. She stopped upon finishing the rigorous definition of derivatives, built off of limits and the properties of reals. Again, she asked for another whiteboard, starting again from where she defined functions in real analysis and began to develop linear algebra.
After the third whiteboard was filled up, she turned to the benches, “I could continue, explain the connections and distinctions between these concepts, or develop more of this. But it’s been a while and my hand hurts, I think this is enough to display how smart I am.”
“Adrius,” one of the men on the right bench said.
Adrius looked down at her. He snapped his fingers, and the boards disappeared. “You spend two hours writing meaningless symbols and wasting our time,” He said, his voice growing deep, “And expect us to be impressed?”
“It wasn’t mea-”
“Adrius,” the man repeated
“Eos AuSkoll Apepi, I would say you embarrass your family, but I suppose you validate the Apepi’s reputation. You have wasted our precious time, and I think it’s the unanimous vote of our council that you be removed from here immediately. But, regardless, let us take it to a vote.”
“Adrius!” the man said, his voice being ignored.
“Raise your hand if you would like for this thing to be removed from our site.” Every member, except for that one man, raised their hand. Suddenly, two men from the shadows appeared, and each picked up Eos by the arm. It was clear to her that any attempt at resisting would be met with immediate failure, and potential retaliation.
“Do you understand me?” The man shouted at Eos, however, something was different. It was something she understood but hadn’t ever heard. She saw the entire council looking at the man, who was standing up out of his chair.
“Yes, I understand you.” She hesitated, finding the words, “Why do you speak English?” she replied in perfect English.
Relief flooded his face, and the men holding her gently set her down. He walked out of his seat, and down to the central auditorium where Eos stood, and faced Adrius.
“Eos AuSkoll Apepi, of the Apepi line, speaks the Awoken Language. Moreover, what she wrote wasn’t meaningless- it was advanced mathematics, beyond even me, from her previous life. I believe you can understand why we should admit her based on those facts alone.”
“What’s going on?” She asked the man in English.
“I want details on your previous life,” He replied in English, “so please do as I say, if you want to be admitted to this school.”
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“What’s your name?” Eos replied, still taken aback.
“Now’s not the time for you to ask questions- how old were you?”
“20 years old when he died”
“He?” The man looked puzzled, before turning back towards the council, “She was previously a twenty-year-old mathematics prodigy, and was unfortunately reborn into her position.”
Adrius’s face still had scorn on it, but it was Rhawn who first replied, “Unfortunately, the council has already made the decision to remove her from the premises. Please, get rid of that filth.” Eos felt the men’s arms on hers tighten.
“Fine then,” the man stood defiantly, “She will be my special admit.”
The entire council looked stunned, but it was the man to the left of Adrius to speak first, “You know it’s not proper for Junior Council members to exercise that right”
“It’s not proper for the council to not vote for readmission upon learning facts that change a candidate’s value in our institution either. Neither is it proper for us to accept an Apepi or for an Apepi to even try to get in.”
Rhawn was again the first to speak, “Varen! Silence yourself this instant, or be prepa-”
It was Adrius this time who cut off Rhawn, this time with a small laugh that erupted into a hearty chuckle. The entire room looked concerned at this, before Adrius stopped laughing, and began to speak. “Varen, you remind me of myself. Are you sure about this decision of yours? And are you prepared to take all consequences enacted thereof?”
“Of course, Prime Speaker Adrius.” He said, his tone swiftly shifting from defiance to respect as he bowed.
Adrius turned to Eos, “Eos AuSkoll Apepi, of the Apepi line of elves, the council approves your admission to Avivenorlin” Adrius began to address the council, seeming to revel in what just happened, “It seems this admission session went far over schedule and had an excessive amount of drama. Let us wrap up for today, and continue tomorrow with vigor.”
Adrius turned back towards Varen, and continued, “Varen, can you please show your special admit around tonight, and ensure they have a place to stay?”
“Of course, Prime Speaker.” He replied.
Rhawn looked stunned, “Avivenorlin isn’t the place for Apepi!” He shouted, “There’s no way we can admit her even under special admission! It just isn’t right!”
“Silence, Rhawn.” Adrius said, raising a single hand and his voice cutting through Rhawn’s arguments, “The decision has been made. If you continue to labor the point, your own suitability to sit on this council will be brought into question.”
Rhawn stood up, frustrated but silent. Quiet anger radiated from him as he stared daggers at Eos, before hastily leaving the auditorium. Other council members slowly filtered out of the room, and Varen looked at Eos.
“Shall we go?” He asked in English, “I’ll get someone to get you a dorm room- but for now let’s just talk.”
“S-sure..” Eos responded, still trying to process the display that just happened. They wandered out of the room and walked to a large garden on the campus. As they walked, she blurted out a question, “What just happened?”
“Ah,” Varen responded- much to Eos’s surprise for no reason- in English, “I just broke procedure in a thousand different ways and was let off with a small warning. However, I am now directly responsible for you for the rest of your time here.”
“I see,” She responded, “Did I cause that much trouble?”
“You caused more than your fair share of trouble already,” He laughed, “Especially for a walk-in candidate. Normally we don’t even consider them beyond what we have to.”
“Sorry,” She looked down, “but thank you for sticking your neck out for me.”
“I had to, I could tell you were awoken.” He said, gently patting Eos’s head as she looked up. “I knew no one else on the council would be able to tell and would dismiss your ravings as mad. I just got lucky that you spoke English in your last life.”
“Awoken?” She asked, “I suppose that means I remember my previous life. But why is English the ‘Awoken language’?”
Varen chuckled, “It’s just what we decided. The Linguist had some arguments why but I’ll be damned before I remember them.”
“The Linguist?”
“Yeah Otto- we have a small community of Awoken that meet together regularly in the capital- this month’s meeting will be this weekend, I’ll make sure to bring you along.”
“How many are there?”
“Only six of us- seven with you.”
“Huh.. So what’s your story? Err, I guess I should tell you mine first.” Eos said, walking back her question.
Varen just laughed and assured her, “It’s fine. How old are you now?”
“I’m eight… I guess 28 counting my previous life?”
“You're still young for this school,” He responded, “Normally admits are 10 years old. It’s fine though, you're a special case. As you said, you're really 28. I suppose I should tell you about myself though.”
Varen sat down at a small gazebo that Eos didn’t notice they were walking towards and began his story.
“I was born Varen Firestone, of the Firestone merchant family. Raised to be a merchant, didn’t like it too much though. And I was a fairly successful one too- part of being in the family. I never got the chance to go to a school like this one- I was educated, don’t get me wrong, but as a merchant. Never learned sword fighting or magic or the like, just accounting, business, and economics. We were doing a trade caravan. Bandits attacked. We lost everything- my children even lost their mother. It was horrific. The only reason me and my kids lived is I protected them with my body, my arms and legs being slashed, and…
“And, during this ordeal, during the worst moment of my life, I awoke. In my old life, I was a coach for a middle school in China… I died almost the same way I was in life at that moment- protecting some innocent kids from thugs who were trying to rob them. It’s hard to describe what it’s like to remember a lifetime of things in a moment; I guess you’d know though. And that was not the moment to remember them if any. It was… too much. We were saved by some wandering adventurers. Apparently, we were the only survivors of the raid, and all of our goods had been taken away.” Varen had a forlorn look on his face, “I needed a lifestyle change. I needed to use what I knew. I needed to take this gift that was given to me in my worst moment- so I became a professor. It’s not hard to get into prestigious positions when you're Awoken, and you can prove it. The hard part is proving it.
“I found the Awoken society, and I could prove it to them. They had already made an English learning textbook, and the Linguist already spoke Chinese. It took me a few years but given I was already in the association, I got an entry-level job at Avivenorlin, and worked my way up. It wasn’t hard- again, being Awoken is a boon.”
Eos looked at his face, as he looked off in a forlorn way. He seemed engrossed in his own memories, lost in thought. Silence hung in the air for a moment, Eos not wanting to push the subject.
“People say I’m a demon…” Eos said, trying to break the silence.
“Demons are nothing like the visualizations from your past life, they’re essentially as human as an elf. Most have horns and all, but they’re not evil.”
“Still, can’t I just meet one before I’m called one…”
Varen sighed, and silence hung in the air once more.
“Who’s t-” Eos began, before being cut off.
“I’m surprised that you lived,” Varen said, suddenly. “Kids can awaken like anyone else of course. But a child’s mind? Impressionable and fluid, with a lifetime of memories being pressed upon them. The children who awaken don’t have a defined enough personality, and having the sudden surge overwhelms them, and they always, inevitably die.”
Varen finally looked at Eos, who had an image of fear across her face, and tears welling up in her eyes.
“Ah- I mean, “ Varen hurriedly began trying to rectify the issue, “They die but you have already survived! You’re the exception- not the rule. I mean you’ve gotten this far, I wouldn’t vouch for you if you were to just keel over an-”
Eos burst out crying, and Varen tried to console her to the best of his abilities. He gently held her head, as she cried into him.
“It’ll be okay, you’re safe here.” He said after a few minutes.
Eos looked up at him tearfully, “Promise?” She sniffled, her eyes still wet.
“I promise. No one will hurt you here.”
She nodded gently as Varen continued, “I should take you to your dorm room. I imagine that’s been sorted out by now.” Eos nodded once again, and they began to walk down the garden path toward a building.