For a second, a hush descended upon the classroom. Then, a hand shot up in the front row.
It belonged to a boy clad in silks finer than anything Sezel had ever seen, his voice a smooth, practiced melody. Raelion gestured for him to stand.
The boy rose, brushing an imaginary speck of dust from his collar. "The Spirit Meridian is a space that exists within the soul of an Awakened being," he began, his tone dripping with the easy confidence of someone who had never known a moment of doubt in his life.
Sezel immediately tuned out, slumping at his desk. Right. The 'space inside your soul'. Got it. Can we get to the part where I learn how to not die? He didn't need to listen to the long, rambling explanation of a privileged child who had probably been trained for this since birth. Inheritance, after all, played a cruel and significant role in the world of the Awakened.
For instance, children of Awakened parents boasted a 90% chance of joining their ranks. On the other hand, for someone like Sezel, who had no such background, the chances were almost zero.
But leave that all behind. Sezel had awakened, however so. His mind, a chaotic mess of half-formed thoughts and unanswered questions, snagged on the most pressing one: Who was that girl in the pond, and why did she help me?
He was bitterly aware that in this world, altruism was a myth. Every favor came with a price. Help without expectation? Almost impossible. But he had no way of finding out who she was or any way of knowing anything related to the girl.
The teen concluded his oration and sat, and Raelion's voice cut through the silence, this time not with an explanation but with a command.
"Close your eyes and sit straight."
Everyone obeyed his command. Sezel hesitated, the translating device humming in his ear, then followed, his crimson eyes shuttering.
The room stilled, the clock's tick-tock a relentless voice.
"Focus," Raelion's voice boomed. "Access your Spirit Meridian."
Sezel frowned. What? Dammit, I should have listened to the bastard's ranting. He was dumbfounded. What even was a Spirit Meridian? A personal space inside my soul. Right. Easy enough.
"Think of it in terms of a small fly trying to go inside a big cave," Raelion intoned. "Imagine yourself as the fly and your soul as the cave."
It isn't so simple, Sezel thought, his mind a turbulent sea. I need to stop thinking. He stole a glance at the class. Some students were already glowing with faint auras, their faces serene. Others grimaced, their bodies tense with effort. He sealed his eyes, his heartbeat a solitary drum in the darkness.
Darkness enveloped him, vast and eternal. A scintilla of light flickered, like a distant star. He drifted toward it, weightless, through nothingness.
The light grew, and he stepped into a surreal expanse. He was standing inside a small yet infinitely large place. A boundless plain encircled by obsidian mountains, their jagged spires clawing at a lightless sky. Sezel remembered the Spirit Realm's starless sky.
He spun around heretically. Is this... my Spirit Meridian? It's a little bleak, but I guess, its good i have one.
He looked up, and his breath caught in his throat. What in the hell is that?
Above, a black mass swirled, nearly indistinguishable from the void, but the fact that the darkness swirled made it look spectacular. Light erupted from its edges. It looked like a black hole, devouring, yet radiant. It dominated the sky.
Sezel gulped hard. That must be my Spirit Core. It's…uh... dramatic.
He didn't exactly knew what is was, but at least that's what he had heard they called something, and looking at the thing, he couldn't deduce any other name.
Then he saw a thread, shimmering with prismatic colors, an arc of impossible light that stretched from beyond the mountains and fed directly into the black mass, as if falling into oblivion.
Sezel's gaze snagged on something else orbiting the core like a planet around a star, its surface glinting with a surreal glow. A card floated in a perfectly orbital motion.
Sezel frowned. "A card?" Then he remembered the teachers words, Yeah, every awakened get's a card that binds their souls to Spirit Realm. That was it. Right?
He trembled, the oppressive atmosphere of his own soul bringing back a flood of half-forgotten memories of death and despair. But he didn't waver. "How do I call that thing here now?" he pondered, his eyes fixed on the floating card. He raised his hand, imagining it floating toward him. And it did.
He caught it, its surface hard as steel yet warm, vibrating with a power that hummed against his skin. It glowed with a golden light that filled the darkness. His heart roared, his ribs straining.
This was it. The answer to most of his questions… and maybe the start of new ones. Whatever the card held would decide his future.
The card's back was silver, its edges embroidered with gold, a masterpiece of otherworldly craftsmanship. He hesitated, then turned it over. The front was breathtaking. A crowned figure, carved in radiant splendor, silent and commanding. But there was nothing written on it. Not a single clue.
"Show," he whispered, the word escaping him as if guided by an instinct he didn't know he possessed. The card dissolved into a shimmering cloud of golden light, leaving his hand empty.
The card dissolved, shimmering into motes of light, leaving Sezel's hand empty. He squinted his eyes, looking around.
A window materialized before him, translucent, his name, Sezel, written at its top in glowing script.
What… what is this? He stumbled back, gasping.