Dinner was magnificent!
Compared to that slop they served at the police station, the meal that was on his plate was food of the Gods.
There was a wide array of meats, rice and vegetables that the Sleepers could pick from and it was all for free. There was even a beverage called Nightingulp which tasted just like black currant.
"I wonder if this is what Kai tastes like…"
"What was that?"
The person that second voice belonged to was sat across from Nathan. She had long pale blond hair which cascaded down her shoulders and complimented her charmingly exquisite face. She bore a graceful demeanour, but something about her cerulean blue eyes was off. They were hollow and distant. The girl was blind.
Sat across from him was none other than the blind oracle, Cassie, later known by humanity as Song of the Fallen. Oh - and her social worker who helped her get around the Academy.
Nathan cursed himself for thinking out loud and replied:
"Ah, it's nothing. I was just commenting on how good this drink is."
"Oh…ok. Uhh, which drink is it?."
Nathan couldn't help but pity Cassie. Right now she wasn't the enigmatic Song of the Fallen, who serves as the queen of humanity's right hand, but instead just a small and young girl who's had her entire world flipped upside down, struggling to retain some sense of normalcy.
Nathan could only hope to help her feel normal again by treating her as such.
"Nightingulp." Nathan replied and took another sip, "I'm Yoru, and you are?"
"Cassia, you can call me Cassie. But, Yoru may I ask you something?"
"Go ahead."
Cassie seemingly hesitated to go on but forced the words out:
"Why are you here? With me I mean…sat here with me. I don't know if you've noticed, but everyone else believes me to be a walking corpse so they've all decided to steer clear of me. But not you…why?"
Nathan stared at Cassie for a moment, trying to determine what was best to say.
"Where they see a dead blind girl, I see a Dreamer with a terrible Flaw. My personal belief is that the Spell wouldn't deal you such a terrible hand if it did not reward you with something great.
The Spell is fair after all, in its own cruel way."
Cassia remained silent, processing what Nathan had just said. After a couple seconds of silence she simply smiled at him and giggled.
"So you sat with me because you believe I'm strong?"
Nathan flashed a smile of his own. "Yeah that's about right."
"You don't think I'll die the moment I'm sent to the Dream Realm?"
"Listen Cassie, I'm a divine miracle, also the 'Harbirnger of fortune', therefore by association: you can't die."
Looking at him, or not looking at him since she's - whatever! Her eyes widened at his remark and her grin grew wider. Cassie began to laugh at the ridiculousness of that statement, she was laughing so hard many passer-by's threw her strange looks that said "The blind girl's gone crazy."
Nathan awkwardly scratched his cheek, half-hurt half-amused.
"Hey! I was kinda serious about that you know."
Eventually Cassie had finished her howling and wiped the tears from her eyes.
"Thank you for that Yoru. That's the first time I've laughed since Spell knows when."
Looking down at his communicator, he checked the time and saw that his Scheduled interview was coming up.
"Glad I could help, Cassie. But I've got to go now. I'll be seeing you around."
Cassie nodded at this, echoes of a smile still lingering on her face.
"Alright, goodbye…Miracle."
She began to laugh again and let out a snort.
Cassie gasped at her own un-ladylike behaviour and immediately stopped laughing.
"Not so funny now is it?" Nathan said as he stood up, imitating her snort.
Cassie turned away from him, her face flushed and covered by her hands.
"Please forget that ever happened."
"Sorry, but I don't think I can."
With that, Nathan left the cafeteria snorting as he went.
****
"I have no doubt that your First Nightmare was not only stressful but also terrifying. As you know, we offer Psychological counselling to Awakened who want it. Are you interested?"
"I'm fine without, thanks."
"Of course. Then I'll be moving on to questions involving your aspe-."
Nathan raised his hand indicating for the administrator to stop.
"I'll have to stop you right there. I know absolutely nothing about how my aspect functions."
The administrator furrowed their brows slightly, but remained professional and produced a warm smile.
"Maybe we can figure it out together. Would you like to share your Aspects description?"
"No thank you."
"Are you fine with sharing your ability's description?"
"Its another no."
"Well that's completely fine. I'm aware not everyone feels comfortable divulging such information about themselves, So don't feel bad."
"Thank you for understanding - Oh! Well there is one thing…"
The interviewer leaned forwards and picked up the clipboard that was resting on his lap.
Before the words even came out Nathan was already cringing at what he was about to say.
"I'm…Wish Upon a star."
The interviewer looked at him, blankly.
"What?"
"It's my rap name. You should check out my music sometime."
The interviewer sighed and massaged his brows, "Sleeper Yoru, this is a serious interview conducted by the academy to assort your timetable, not a chance for self-promotion."
"-Ah, right, apologies. May I leave now?"
"Yeah you're free to go."
Now outside the office, Nathan remained still and focused on the inner workings of his mind, listening out for the promised whispers. But to his dismay, there were absolutely zero voices in his head! None!
The reason for that little charade he had performed was to test his Innate Ability [Cricket] which apparently allowed him to hear the deepest wishes of those who know his True Name. But it didn't seem to work. Or perhaps he had done it wrong?
He could've just told the interviewer his True Name normally, but once he did that it would probably spread around not only the Academy but the globe like wildfire, considering he was one of the only 4 people to earn a True Name from their First Nightmare. He'd be hearing at least a thousand whispers in his head. That was enough to drive a man insane.
So he tried to inadvertently tell the interviewer his True Name but not directly addressing it as one. Unfortunately that plan didn't work and he had an idea why.
'The recipient has to be aware that it's a True Name. Otherwise, it's just a regular name with none of the mystical properties.'
If he was right about this then that made things a bit tricky. He could let people know of his True Name but not too many, otherwise his mind would simply become overwhelmed by the whispers of their desires.
Why is it that most of my abilities seem to be Flaws instead? Divine miracle my ass!'
Revealing his True Name also meant paying the cost of Fame.
Any Shadow Slave reader would know that the ability to be underestimated was one of the greatest trump cards one could have. The less people knew about you, the harder it was for them to combat you. But revealing his True name could produce the exact opposite effect, leading him to be overestimated. That didn't sound particularly appealing.
Grumbling to himself, Nathan slowly made his return to his dorm room. It was late evening so he assumed the halls would be fairly unoccupied, but that wasn't the case as there were still a couple of Sleepers lingering around here and there, discussing mundane things like they're favourite webtoons and what dramas were best nowadays.
Nathan didn't plan on sleeping just yet. If he wanted to survive the Winter Solstice then he needed to spend every waking second contributing to that ideal. So it was a good thing he had all these test subjects at his disposal.
It was time to become the genie he was always destined to be.
A/N: This was my first real attempt at a conversation so please tell me how it went. Wether it felt forced or rushed. And let me know whether my characterisation of Cassie was any good. Any feedback is gladly appreciated!