Owen entered from the back of the room. Inside, a white floor and white walls dominated the interior. Dozens of tables and chairs were neatly arranged in a semicircle with a space reserved for an instructor at the front. There were already people at most of the seats, sitting around with their attention focused at the front.

With his hands stuck in his pockets, Owen went to go look for a seat. As he glanced around the room, he could already feel the stares of other people looking at him. From the looks of it, they were all close to his age.

"Looking for a seat?"

Owen turned his attention to a teen who had spoken. It was a boy with light brown skin and braided dark brown hair tied back into a bun. He gestured to the seat next to him, which was vacant.

With nothing else to do, Owen sat himself down beside the other teen.

"Thanks," said Owen.

"No problem. You're new here aren't you?"

"Yeah, I just got here yesterday."

"Name's Isaac. You?"

"I'm Owen."

At that moment, a door slid open to the side of the room, and a woman dressed in a white uniform came striding out. Dark skin, piercing black eyes and raven hair. She marched right up to the centre of the front row and clapped her hands.

"Alright everyone, now that we're all here, we can get started."

She took a sweeping glance across the room and as her eyes made their way to Owen, her gaze lingered a bit longer. She pulled out a small tablet from her inner pocket and tapped on it a couple of times before speaking again.

"Owen Walters. I can see you're new, so allow me to introduce myself. I am officer Sonya Hilton. One of the instructors for wing two."

She looked back down at her tablet, reading some notes. She raised her eyebrow curiously.

"The assessment report I've got back says you've scored a zero in the loyalty score," a chuckle escaped her lips, "well that's a first. What did you do? Attack the officers that were assessing you?"

A smirk crossed Owen's face.

"Yes. I tried to kill them."

Audible gasps were heard throughout the room. Sonya narrowed her eyes.

"Well, I suggest you drop any notions of rebelling while you are here. It will not do you any good." Her gaze turned to the other inmates in the room.

"Alright everyone, since we have a new addition to the class, I bet you are all curious to find out what his insignia does, right?"

Her eyes fell back on Owen. "Are you already trained in the use of essence?"

"Of course I am," Owen replied, almost offended at her question, "who wouldn‘t be?"

"You’d be surprised at how many come in here, without a clue on how to use essence. But that is to be expected. The majority of people have no need for it in their normal lives, after all. Alright then, Owen. I'll start by explaining what insignias are."

She raised her hand into the air. On the back of it, the imprint of a grey four sided star was visible on her dark skin.

"Insignias appear anywhere on a mark bearer's body. When essence is concentrated in the area where it is, the insignia begins to glow."

As she spoke, the mark on the back of her hand pulsed with a white light.

"When a sufficient amount of essence is fuelled into your insignia, you can then manifest its unique ability."

"Ability?" asked Owen.

"That is correct. Every mark bearer gains an ability that is unique to that person alone. Now for what that is, is determined by what the individual desires most. So as an example, take my insignia. In life what I wanted most was to heal others, and so as a result my insignia has given me the ability to control the concept of health."

Owen raised an eyebrow. "You were just granted that power just because you wanted it?"

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"Yes. Though to gain the power, one must desire it the most out of anyone else in the entire world. There cannot be two people with the same ability."

"I see." Owen said as his mind wandered to his own insignia. What could its ability be?

"Now, then," Sonya said, "I can pretty much guess what you're thinking right now. You want to know what your insignia's ability is, don't you?"

"Yeah. But how am I supposed to figure that out?"

"Well, that's actually pretty simple to do. All we have to do is find out is what you desire most. It should be at the forefront of your mind. Just close your eyes, and think of what you desire the most."

Owen did as she instructed. Closing his eyes, he thought of what he wanted. What did he want? As he pondered on this, he began to hear a voice in his head.

It was faint at first, but it grew stronger. The more he focused on it, the louder the voice became, until he could finally make out the words.

'Fight.'

His eyes snapped open. His heart began to race, and a thrill surged through him.

"So what do you desire most?" asked Sonya.

"To fight."

She nodded. "Yes, that makes sense considering what you did during your assessment. So in theory that means you can control the concept of 'fighting' Owen. In any case, now that we know what it is, we can start training you on how to use your insignia."

She paused in thought for a moment, before continuing. "So, why don't we try it out right now during a spar? With one of your classmates."

Sonya's words seemed to surprise the other inmates. A couple of them looked worried.

"Sure, I don't mind." said Owen.

"Great. Now then everyone, please stand up and clear the centre of the room."

The others all stood up and moved to the sides of the room. Owen got up from his seat and walked to the middle. Once the area was cleared, Sonya picked up her tablet and tapped on it a few times. Then a second later, the desks and chairs in the room began to sink into the floor, making way for an empty space.

"Now then," she said, "Any volunteers? I would prefer someone with an offensive insignia."

At first, no one stepped forward. Owen glanced around, wondering if anyone would. Everywhere his eyes roved, they averted his gaze, except for a single girl. She was an older teen, probably around his age, with long pink hair that cascaded down her back. Her insignia mark was on the side of her cheek, with the points of the star crossing over her nose and under her left eye. Her bright blue eyes stared straight back at him, seemingly unfazed. She had a slender frame, but she still carried herself with a sense of confidence.

With a smirk, she stepped forward.

"I'll fight him."

Owen matched her smirk as he stared back at her.

"Alright Grace, thank you for stepping up." Sonya said, "Now, I'll set up some ground rules for you two to follow. First of all, I'll not allow the use of essence enhancements or your essence abilities. This is just a test to find out what Owen can do. Also, no lethal attacks. I'll stop the fight even if I see a single drop of blood. Understood?"

They both nodded in unison.

"Good. I'll turn off the inhibitor bracelets on both of you. You can begin when you're ready."

Sonya tapped a button on her tablet, and the bracelets on their wrists blinked and deactivated. She stepped off to the side of the room, keeping her eyes on the two.

Grace stretched her arms over her head and then rolled her shoulders. Owen watched her carefully as she started to pace around in a circle. Then she stopped moving. Suddenly without warning, she rushed at him. She dashed forward at incredible speed, her fist drawn back as she closed in.

Owen reacted quickly, throwing his arm up just in time to block the punch. But instead of connecting with his arm like he expected it would, she pulled back her arm and slipped around to his side. The mark on her face glowed white, and a metal chain materialized out from the palm of her hand. She grabbed hold of it with both hands and wrapped the chain around his right shoulder. Then she pulled tight with all her strength, wrenching his arm behind him as she kicked the backs of his legs, causing him to be airborne for a second.

But Owen recovered quickly from the sudden attack. He shot out his other arm behind him towards the ground and pushed himself up. Like a breakdancer performing a move, he tucked his body in and spun around, his foot connecting with the back of her head. She lost her grip on the chain, and it dissolved into white light as she was sent tumbling across the floor.

Owen jumped back up onto his feet. He was going to go for a follow-up attack, but he hesitated when he noticed her insignia glowing again. She was crouched on one knee, her hand on the floor and her head hanging low. The floor beneath her suddenly began to ripple, like the surface of a pool of water. Then four chains burst forth from the floor and launched towards him.

He dodged out of the way, narrowly avoiding being snared by them. The chains however continued to fly past him, before changing their direction mid-air and coming right back at him. Owen jumped up and kicked off the floor, flipping over the chains as they flew by beneath him. When he landed on the ground again, the chains stopped. They hung there in the air for a moment, before collapsing into white light.

Meanwhile, Grace was already back up. Another chain was in her hand, which she swung around casually.

"You're not bad," she said. "Didn't expect for you to avoid that."

"Same to you, I've seen nothing like that before. But what, you can just create chains?" Owen asked, "So what you most desired in life were chains? How stupid."

Grace's eye twitched at the provocation. Her insignia mark glowed in response, and the chain in her hand began to gain speed as it spun faster and faster. As it grazed the floor, sparks flew as it ground against the hard surface. The other students watched with their eyes wide and their mouths agape as the chain began to leave a trail of smoke as it whipped around.

"Grace!" Sonya shouted out, but her words fell on deaf ears.

Owen decided it was finally time to test out his insignia. He gathered essence from his soul and channelled it into the mark on his chest. He felt his essence being sucked in like a vortex, as his insignia drew it in greedily.

He wondered what he should do now. Remembering what Sonya had said, he could theoretically control the concept of fighting. So what did that mean? What could he do? To him, the answer was simple. In a fight the superior fighter was the one with the better skill, technique and physical prowess. So what if he could gain all that?

His mind made up, he focused his mind on that thought.

'Be stronger.'

His insignia glowed with white light beneath his shirt. Strength surged through his body, filling him with power. He could feel the difference immediately. His limbs were stronger and felt more responsive. His heart thundered in his chest, pumping blood and energy into his every fibre. He felt incredible.

Grace noticed that something was different with Owen. She knew she needed to attack while he was distracted with whatever it was he was doing. So, she gripped the chain firmly and stepped forward before hurling the chain at him with all her might.

The red-hot chain whizzed towards Owen at an incredible speed. It was almost too fast to see, but Owen saw it clearly. He could track its movements like it was moving in slow motion. Without thinking, he raised his arm up and flicked it away, as if swatting an annoying fly. The chain was redirected, hitting the ceiling and cracking the tiles there.

Grace was dumbfounded. Her attack had been deflected, and by such a simple motion too. She watched as the chain dissolved back into white light, and when she looked back at Owen, he was staring right at her. She tried to prepare herself for anything else, but something unexpected had happened. Owen had disappeared.

She wondered what was happening, until she felt a tap on her shoulder. She spun around quickly, finding herself face to face with Owen, who stared back at her with an amused grin.

"Too fas-" Grace started, but she wasn't able to finish her sentence, when she felt Owen's fist slam into her gut, knocking the wind out of her.

She was sent flying backwards across the room, and would have almost crashed into the wall, if not for Sonya instantly appearing next to her and catching her before she hit the wall.

"That's enough!" Sonya said sternly.

Owen lowered his arm and let out a breath. He could feel the strength leaving his body, and suddenly he felt exhausted. Just being in that state had drained him of all his essence. He sat down on the floor and leaned his head forward as he caught his breath.

Sonya placed Grace down on the floor and turned to Owen. "Are you alright?"

He nodded.

"Good. Now that we've determined what your insignia does, we can move on to training. Though, I have to say doing that drained you of your essence. It won't be possible for you to use it continuously in a prolonged fight. You'll have to figure out a way to conserve your essence."

Owen nodded again, acknowledging her words. He'd think about that later. Right now, a grin was plastered on his face, as he basked in the afterglow of that fight. He had finally attained it. A path to power.