"You missed the briefing Mr Hart, what do you have to say about that?"
Luke bowed again, even though Master Rossa had her back to him.
"I apologize again Master Rossa, it was my mistake. I will ask one of the students for an update so that I do not lag behind."
She remained silent for a long moments, and all she said in the end was "Good".
Luke followed her as she walked across an extremely long hallway with hurried steps. After a few minutes of silence, her voice echoed across the hallway again.
"What is your number?"
"819"
Luke could not really see her face so she had no idea what was going through her head. She stopped in front of a door, with the number [800] written outside. She opened it and stepped inside, Luke reluctantly followed.
Inside there were dozens upon dozens of lockers that that stretched endlessly across the room. She walked towards the 19th locker and looked at Luke dubiously. He realized later that he was supposed to give her the key to locker.
After she opened it, she took out a pair of clothes that matched with the rest of the newly awakened, and gave them to Luke. She shoved his old clothes and his communication device inside the locker and locked it, and handed the key back to him.
Luke was still embarrassed from being forced to change in front of her. Such a shameless woman, truly.
He was led back to the spacious room, but something was different this time. The young awakened were now sitting on the floor – in a very specific formation he could not really understand – with their backs straight and legs crossed.
They had their eyes closed so they did not see him. He let out a sigh of relief.
One of the two women who remained, sat him down on the spot they had reserved for him. She assisted him on his posture –which was very hard by the way – and then moved on to the others. Just because they were rich did not mean they were perfect.
Even though they probably were.
He closed his eyes and waited for instructions. After what seemed to be an eternity, the instructions finally came. The voice clearly came from Gentry Rossa, and Luke had to try his best not to lose his form.
That would have been disastrous.
"We will now commence the first step on your awakening ceremony, accessing your Eplialtic Weave system. I trust you all understand what the Weave is and how it functions by now. If not, then that is your own issue you will have to resolve."
'Ah, such a cruel soul.'
Oblivious to Luke's thoughts, Master Rossa continued.
"You are all Commonalities now, and so you must behave as such. Your strength and virtue must reflect that. These lessons will be divided into three parts. This is the first one. This is probably the easiest, but also the most crucial because if you fail to access the Weave and thus your abilities, you are labeled a worthless piece of trash."
She was silent for a few moments and then walked in between the rows.
"You will be aware of the rest of training shortly, but for now listen carefully, if you do not wish to be a useless scum that is. You all have choices here, I would hate for you to regret the choice you have made today, as well as all the choices you are yet to make in the near future. So I will say this one more time, anyone who does not with to proceed is free to leave. But beware, you shall never be allowed back in these walls ever again."
Her tone was dark and ominous, but no one stood up nonetheless. Luke was tempted to, but this was his one and only shot to awakening his powers. Only then, would he bail.
"Oh, so none of you wish to leave? If so then let us proceed. Firstly, I want you to try and get rid of the Noise. It is not exactly too strong for you, considering you just recently awakened, but it should be there. It should not be hard though. If you fail to do so, just picture something you like or you would like very much right now. That should help."
Luke was so confused. Ever since he awakened, he had never heard anything at all. At first, he just thought it was common for newly awakened Commonalities to not hear any Noise, but now he realized that that was not the case.
He did not know what to do, or how to feel about the whole thing. What was he supposed to do now? Would he be able to access his abilities if he did not hear the Noise? Was he a true Commonality?
Dozens of thoughts assaulted his mind, giving him a headache. The Trace Rune was there for sure, considering that every time he excessively used his brain, he would get these splitting headaches.
That gave him a small amount of solace.
The he had Nightmare was definitely real, he knew that. And the fact that Captain Ville and Master Rossa believed that he was a Commonality at first glance should say a lot. Nothing could really escape Gentries after all. Especially a Gentry as daunting as that woman.
Meanwhile, the woman in question, continued.
"After you have done that, i want you to visualize the Trace Rune. The scar embedded deep in your mind, and even deeper in your consciousness. I want you to visualize it as a single string, shinning brightly in the nebulous darkness of your consciousness. I want you to then reach for that string with all the will you have, and grab it without letting go."
Luke decided to skip the first step and do exactly that. He tried visualizing the Trace Rune, only to fail miserably. He could feel it though, the scar embedded deep into his mind, but could not access it.
He tried again, and again, and again, until frustration started creeping up in his nerves.
'Argh what the fuck am I doing wrong? Why is this so fucking complicated?! Just breathe dammit.'
Unfortunately, even breathing did not help. He often even failed to follow his own simple instruction. Just breathe. Every breath he drew came out forced, hoarse and dry.
He was enveloped by silence.
All around him, not even a single sound. The silence was heavy and deafening, but at least it made him realize what his problem was. He was distracted.
Even though he could not hear the Noise like an ordinary awakened, his thoughts were still in turmoil. Even the relentless assault of the Noise was better that the mental state he was in. Probably.
It had only been a couple of hours since he survived his Nightmare, and so he was completely exhausted. He had not slept all night after that, and now he was competing with refreshed and well-rested teenagers.
Not even mentioning the mental capacity, as well as the nourishment of ones subconscious.
Awakening had taken a huge toll on his frail body, but he failed to account for the fact that him mind and consciousness were affected as well. Probably even more severely. So if he wanted to successfully awaken his powers, he would have to be patient and take it slow.
He let the darkness of his consciousness envelop him, and everything was silent again. This time, the silence was not heavy and loud, instead it was calming, soothing and light. Almost... comfortable.
He drifted in the darkness of his subconscious for a few long minutes, until he saw something. A noticeable rift in the fabric of his subconscious, causing his mind to drown in immense pain. He did not let the pain distract him though, and started floating towards the rift.
The rift was incredibly thin and bright, its unusual nature giving a small resemblance to a thread. As he got closer to the rift, he realized that it was not rift at all, instead it was the Trace Rune, the scar he was looking for.
He reached out and grabbed it with all his might, and he felt his whole world shift and rearrange, and if reweaving itself with the Trace Rune.
——————
On another side of the room, a young girl was floating in the dark embrace of her own consciousness.
She reached towards the bright thread and grabbed it. As she did, something else weaved itself into existence.
The Trace Rune weaved intricate threads that came together to form ancient symbols.
She had never seen these symbols before but instead of being confused, her mind translated the symbols for her.
It was as if she had seen them in the ancient past, or read about them somewhere. Even though she knew she had never seen them anywhere before.
Her eyes glistened with a bright earthreal light, as they reflected the symbols in from of her. She read them and almost bolted out of her own mind.
——————
The same happened to Luke.
He studied the strings as they weaved themselves into symbols he had never seen before. He was almost confused, but then his brain came to the rescue.
It translated every symbol even though he had never seen them before.
He could not believe what he saw. He even thought the translation had been faulty or something, but somehow he doubted that was the case.
The runes read:
Host: Luke
Title: The Architect
Rank: Commonality
Tier: 5
Potential: [Thamaturgy]
Attributes: [Scarred] , [Noiseless]
Abilities: [Ontokinesis]
Affinities: [The Void]