The scroll was blue.
Bright blue. Like someone dipped it in sky paint and added sparkles.
Shunya held it carefully, like it might bite him.
"This… activates by itself?" he asked.
Naomi shrugged. "You hold it. Focus. Let the scroll know you're ready."
"That's a lot of pressure to put on paper."
He sat on a flat stone in the training yard, Vikoria sitting cross-legged a few feet away, watching him like a worried tutor. Naomi leaned against a tree, arms crossed.
"Alright," Shunya muttered. "Let's do this."
He held the scroll out in front of him and closed his eyes.
"I am ready," he whispered.
Nothing happened.
He peeked with one eye.
Still nothing.
"Louder," Naomi said.
"What— no! I'm not going to shout to a scroll like I'm confessing my love to paper—"
"LOUDER."
"OKAY, OKAY!"
Shunya stood up, raised the scroll, and shouted:
"I AM READY!"
BOOM.
The scroll exploded into light.
A tiny orb hovered above his head.
Then, a calm robotic voice spoke inside his mind:
