Leaving the tent I confronted a sign proclaiming

1. This site is now a military security zone. Anybody entering and leaving needs a permission issued by the site commander. Use of lethal force is authorized.

2. Assembly of the remaining candidates at 19:30 in conference room A

Well, if you are drafted you are no longer a free man or, these days, woman. It didn’t hit me. Trading some freedom for perfect health looked like a good deal to me. I suppose I am an authoritarian at heart. It felt good. All the little aches were gone. Closing my eyes I faced the sun. I sighed.

My ears were assaulted by a distinctly female squeak combined with a loud whooshing sound; my wardrobe by a shower of warm and cool droplets and my vestigal personal dignity, having sold out to the establishment for free health care, by an urgent need to remove the scorched flower of a waterlilly from my face.

If you want to know how burnt waterlilly tastes, I am able but unwilling to tell you. That knowledge needs to be earned.

A young woman, dutifully wearing her badge identifying her as Johanna, turned to me.

J: O my good, I am so sorry, it just felt like it needed to go out there and I sort of touched the water and it kind of stung and there was water everywhere

P: Don’t worry. I am a vegetarian.

That line actually made her chuckle. I wouldn’t have expected that.

P: What needed to get out?

J: You are covered in plant debris.

P: I know. It can wait. What needed to get out?

J: I can feel the heat.

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She half turned away from me, raised her hand and a wiggling thread of fire about five meters long came out of her hand, reaching towards the sky.

An annoyed amplified voice burst from behind the row of tents.

„Yo, you there, cut that out. No essence abilities on the testing grounds!“

We exchanged a look and agreed wordlessly on a tactical retreat.

J: That was incredible. This … . I had that very ability in my favorite avatar playing the game. Do you think that is the reason I got it for real?

P: I have no idea.

J: You should change. I’ll wait for you in the lobby

That suggestion was impeccably practical and having her wait for me to drink coffee at the government’s expense was nice. I had actually forgotten about the essence. What has happened to my sense of wonder. I felt old.

She was indeed waiting.

J: Coffee?

P: Hot chocolate if they have it. Getting magical powers is an occasion that calls for sugar. By the way, that raises a point. Do you have any idea what would happen if anybody of this group would get really drunk?

She paused. I was getting smart person vibes.

J: I won’t participate in finding out. I can feel my power. I can sort of ask about what I can do. It only answers about now and real stuff, though. I can’t feel out how it would act against a ghost, because there are no ghosts. You?

I had indeed quickly tried in my room, pointing my hand at the sky out of the window. I was not going to risk firing a machine gun in an elevator. Should I admit I had gotten nothing?

P: Are you sure about ghosts not existing?

J: … An hour ago I would not have taken that question seriously. We will have to find out. Your power?

Have I mentioned that I am not good at social interactions and manipulating people?

P: Nothing. I got the feeling I am missing something.

J: Missing something?

P: As if I were a railway engine with nothing to pull.

J: You got a railway essence?

P: No. Gun. The test supervisor told me.

She looked at me with her head slightly tilted

P: I picked it by chance.

J: Until an hour ago my views on random chance were a lot more certain than now.

P: Well, I can’t help it now. Done is done.

J: True. Have you considered that maybe, you know, you need a gun to use a gun essence?

I was getting old. There is no other explanation. A doctor had just assured me that it cannot be a neurological disease.