Chapter 1 Book 1 The Beginning
The world of Dragonia was a place of breathtaking wonder and terrifying danger. In a land once separated by dimensions, the Heumane and the Magii now coexisted, though not always in peace. Cities and towns were protected by shimmering magical domes, a constant reminder of the Mana Beasts that now roamed the wild, a legacy of the destructive 2nd Magii War. In the quiet, unassuming town of Hollow on the Maen Continent, a small community thrived under its own protective dome, a beacon of simple life amidst a world of magic and monsters.
It was here, in this small town, that the story of Xu Mei began. It wasn't a grand, heroic beginning, but one born from tragedy. Her parents, a young couple full of hope and dreams, were caught in a sudden, violent thunderstorm on their way to the hospital. A single bolt of lightning, a freak accident in a world of controlled magic, struck their carriage. Her father was killed instantly, but her mother, with a last surge of strength that defied all logic, held on just long enough to bring Xu Mei into the world. In her final moments, she whispered a name, a name that meant "brilliance," and then her light faded.
The newborn child, an orphan from her very first breath, was brought to the Holy Hand Orphanage. Director Anya, a kind-hearted woman with eyes that held a lifetime of compassion, took the wailing infant in her arms. She saw not the tragedy of the parents, but the resilience of the child, and she named her Xu Mei, as if hearing the final wish of the dying mother. The orphanage became her world. It was a place of warmth and love, filled with the laughter of other children and the gentle guidance of the teachers.
Xu Mei grew to be a kind and bubbly girl, her infectious smile a stark contrast to the sad circumstances of her birth. She was a ray of sunshine in the orphanage, always ready to share her toys, her food, or a kind word with anyone who needed it. The children adored her, and the teachers saw in her a spirit that could not be broken.
Life was simple, a rhythm of morning prayers, lessons in the sun-filled classroom, shared meals, and games in the dusty yard. But everything changed on the night of her sixth birthday.
…
The day had been filled with cake and songs. Xu Mei had blown out the candles on a small, lopsided cake baked by Director Anya herself, her face flushed with excitement. The other children had gifted her drawings and small trinkets they had found. Exhausted but happy, she had fallen asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.
A flash of light, brighter and colder than any lightning, pierced through her closed eyelids. It was not a physical light, but something that seemed to bloom from the very center of her mind. She shot up in her bed, her heart hammering against her ribs. The other children in the large dormitory were sleeping soundly, their soft snores the only sound in the room.
"What?! What is happening?" she thought. She wanted to cry, to shout, but words would not escape her mouth.
Suddenly, she was startled as she noticed something had changed. Her vision, though, was… different. Right in front of her, floating in the air but perfectly still, was a translucent, shimmering window. It was like a sheet of pure light, almost invisible, but she could see it with absolute clarity. It displayed strange symbols and words.
Name: Xu Mei
Level: None
Status: Heumane
Abilities:
Telekinesis [0/100] (Novice)
Xu Mei stared at the window, blinking. Was she still dreaming? She pinched her arm. The sharp, stinging pain told her she was very much awake. She waved a hand in front of her face. The window didn't move. It was fixed in her sight, a silent, surreal companion.
She was afraid at first. She was a six-year-old girl in a world she thought she understood, and now she saw something no one else did. She tried to close her eyes, to make it go away, but when she opened them again, the window was still there, a constant presence. She buried her head under her blanket, trembling.
"What… What is happening?" she muttered as her heart was in constant fear.
But whenever she opened her eyes, she could see the window. As a child, Xu Mei was endowed with intelligence beyond her peers. She was a clever girl and knew how to adjust to her circumstances. That is the reason why she would always show a bubbly personality to others, as she knew that this was her advantage.
But right now, fear is holding her heart, and she does not know what to do. But soon, her anxiety tired her out as she fell asleep.
The next day, she once again noticed the floating window and started to fear.
"Hey, Qin. Can you see this?" she suddenly asked one of her roommates.
Qin showed a confused expression as Xu Mei pointed at something in the air.
"What are you talking about, Meimei?" Qin asked while frowning.
Xu Mei immediately knew that Qin could not see the window, so she changed her expression. "No, nothing…" she said, then showed a teasing smile.
Qin knew that she had been tricked and pouted cutly. "Naughty Meimei…"
Xu Mei smiled and walked out of their dorm room.
As the days passed, she began to experiment. She would hold her breath and try to ignore it. The window remained. She would try to focus on it, to understand the strange words. "Telekinesis," the word seemed to hum with a quiet energy. Beside it, a progress bar showed a small, barely perceptible sliver of light. She didn't know what it meant, but she felt a curious pull, a desire to fill that bar.
One morning, sitting in the classroom, she looked at a small wooden pencil on her desk. Right now, Xu Mei was feeling lazy and did not want to write. So she wanted the pencil to move on its own and write for her. With a child's imagination, she decided to try it out.
She squinted, concentrating on it with all her might. A feeling, like a tiny electric current, sparked in her mind. She thought, "Move." The pencil didn't move. She tried again, thinking "move, move, move!" with a child's desperate concentration. The pencil trembled slightly, a millimeter shift that no one else would notice. Her status window, which only she could see, flashed a message: Telekinesis progress +1.
A gasp of pure, unadulterated wonder escaped her lips. The girl next to her, a timid boy named Leo, looked at her.
"What's wrong, Xu Mei?" he whispered. "Did you see a spider?"
Xu Mei quickly shook her head, her face flushed. "No, no, nothing!" she said, her voice a little too high. "I… I just remembered something funny."
"Funny? You mean when Gong fell while walking down the stairs this morning?" Leo chuckled.
Leo, satisfied, turned back to his lesson. But Xu Mei couldn't. Her mind was racing. She wasn't just seeing things. She had done something. She had moved the pencil with her mind. The word "telekinesis" suddenly made perfect sense. She had power. A magical power.
However, she did not want to expose it because she feared that something might happen if she did. It was an instinct that she could not explain but would rather trust, as it had helped her many times while growing up in the orphanage.
…
Her favorite teacher, Teacher Elara, was a woman with kind eyes and a stern, but fair, demeanor. She was an older woman, her hair streaked with silver, and her hands were always busy, either mending clothes or tending to the small garden behind the orphanage. Xu Mei loved her stories, her gentle corrections, and the way she smiled when a child finally understood a difficult lesson.
One afternoon, a group of children was huddled around Teacher Elara, asking questions about the world outside the dome.
"Teacher," a boy named Ren asked, his eyes wide with a child's curiosity. "Are Magii really powerful? Can they fly and shoot fire?"
Teacher Elara's face hardened, a mask of something Xu Mei had never seen before—anger, or perhaps, disgust. She put down the sock she was mending.
"Children," she said, her voice low and serious. "Do not romanticize magic. Do not romanticize the Magii. They are the reason our world is as it is. The reason our towns must hide behind these domes is. The reason your parents and my husband were taken from us in the war."
A somber silence fell over the children. The cheerful afternoon light seemed to dim.
"Magic is a curse," Teacher Elara continued, her voice trembling slightly with emotion. "It is chaotic, and it leads to destruction. They call themselves special, but they are just… aberrations. We, the Heumane, are the ones who build and care for this world. We are the ones who cherish life, not end it with destructive spells."
The words struck Xu Mei like a physical blow. The small, glowing window in her vision seemed to pulse with a guilty heat. She looked at her hands, the small, innocent hands, and her ability that could now move a pencil. Was this power a curse? Was she an aberration?
Ren, looking frightened by the teacher's intensity, mumbled, "But my father said they were just defending themselves."
Teacher Elara's eyes flashed. "Your father saw a battle, Ren. I saw a world ripped apart. A dimension shattered. The Magii's pride and power destroyed everything in their path. And for what? For a small disagreement over a mana crystal?" She sighed, her anger dissipating into a deep sadness. "I pray that none of you ever have to witness such a thing. And I pray that none of you ever become one."
She picked up her mending again, but the warmth had left her. The children, sensing her deep-seated animosity, dispersed quietly.
Xu Mei felt a cold knot tighten in her stomach. She loved Teacher Elara. She respected her. But now, she had a secret, a part of her that her beloved teacher would despise. This was not something she could share. She had to hide it, protect it, and keep it buried deep inside her.