Awakening

Claire looked back at the house fondly with mirror eyes, wishing she could write the image of the house in her memory. 

As her gaze roamed over each nook and cranny of the house, she noticed the smallest glint of magic on one of the tiles on her apartment. 

She immediately set to opening the magic tile, despite running late to the school. 

There was a journal, and a ziplock bag consisting of a phone and SD card. 

She checked to see there's nothing in the little pile other than these, then put the items in her school bag. If she were to follow her heart, she wanted to open them right now and find out what's going on, but it's time to go to school. 

She could run a little late, but not much. 

Zayne already left, taking the children to school. She dropped off Brea and the twins at middle school, then Robin and Dolce at the primary school. The children liked walking the road. They skipped along, circling around Zayne, sporadically breaking into singing and laughter. 

She joined them once in this dropping off. It's very much a healing experience, with the soft breeze rifling through the bamboo leaves, soft grass under one's feet, and children's laughter in the air. A perfect pre-exam calming down routine. 

She raced through the stairs, seeing that no one's on the road, she floated an inch above the road, and zipped to the school. She slowed down just as she reached the bustling area, and settled on her feet. From there, she walked forward. She never noticed amidst all this hustle, her teddy necklace had popped out, settled on her chest. 

As soon as the morning assembly was over, the graduating class were carted off to the awakening center, where the awakening will take place. 

Claire took her seat besides Zayne, feeling nervous all of a sudden. She had a dread descend over her, like a premonition. 

Is this because this is not what happened in the last life ? Did she fast forward to future disasters because of her choices ? 

What is this feeling in her heart that's squeezing like a ball, unable to swallow, unable to spit out ? 

She focused on the third eye, for sheer distraction. 

 ⁕

There was a man walking in the corridor in front of her. There are weapons on his body. ' Ah ! This is my chance. ' she thought as she looked at the man. She's been lost in the tunnels for too long, and it's all clerical workers no matter where she went. She knew that the security offices would be on the periphery. Moreover, as long as she got to the security office, she would be able to look at a map at one time or another, wouldn't she ? 

So, she followed the guard.

 ⁕

" Claire ! Claire " Zayne shook her. 

She came out of her reverie, she shoved the third eye to a corner before opening her eyes. 

" It's your turn. " Zayne told her, gesturing towards the podium. 

She nodded, setting aside her school bag besides Zayne. She walked to the podium, walking to the covered screen. The screen is made of a special magical barrier, making sure to absorb any excess magic released in the process of awakening. The awakening officer waited for her. 

She recognized him as soon as she saw him. It was the police officer who interrogated Zayne and her. For that moment alone, she was completely focused on him, with all her senses at super alert. If not for that, she would have not noticed what happened next. 

The police officer's eyes fell on her face. He was a bit surprised. Then, his eyes roamed down, his eyes widened in recognition, then his expression turned into utter total shock, the next moment, his face morphed into that of an expressionless machine. 

The transformation was as fast as a face changing performer. 

If she did not have the super senses, she would have missed it entirely. 

" place your hand on the orb, through here. Do not touch the awakening orb at the moment. " The officer said, pointing to the metal handcuff. 

There was an awakening device, which looked like a metal ball with runic etching. It was placed on a podium, upon a small pedestal pin. In front of the podium was a long rod with a hexagon in the middle. The top part of the hexagon opened like a gate, through which she put her hand. Inside the hexagon was the round shaped hand locking mechanism. Once she putsm her arm through it, the top part locks her hand, which makes sure she can not pull it out during the awakening. It had a child lock, which could be opened by the awakened candidate himself. 

" After I exit the room, we will inform you. At that point, you may touch the awakening orb. When you open your eyes again, you should open the lock by yourself, and exit the room to receive your hunter license. " The officer informed her. 

" Yes, sir." Claire answered obediently. She kept her face up with incredible control, so that the officer would not catch on to the fact that she caught him. 

' Damn ! I will never ever be a spy in my life. This is too stressful. ' she cursed, as she controlled her involuntary reaction of following the officer's gaze. 

She looked down as soon as he left the room. 

' Teddy bear necklace ?! Hey, isn't this a reaper item ? Why does he know that ? ' She thought surprisedly. 

" Place your hand on the orb. Meditate if possible. That will help fasten the process of awakening. " The voice sounded from the outside. 

Claire placed her hand on the orb, still half immersed in thinking about how and why the police officer knew the reaper information necklace, and what his reaction implies ?

Since they said meditation helps, she opened her eyes in the inner world. 

There was a gigantic prisoner's arm cuff, with two round hooks, made completely of the spirit energy. Once the cuff formed, it started manufacturing 'S' hooks by using her mana. One of the S hooks hooked itself to the round hook. The next S hook hung itself to the swaying S hook. Like this, they are going to repeat the process, till they put a chain around her mana core. 

It seems like the awakening is meant to put a chain around their mana core, binding it to the base, or owner of this awakening orb. 

' As expected, all governments are assholes at their core. ' Claire thought disdainfully. 

The next 'S' hook that's manufactured, instead of letting it fly to the freely swinging chain on the right side hook, she shifted it to the left hook, and hung it on the left side round stake. 

Outside, on the screen, the awakening process turned from red to green, and started showing progress. 

The awakening worked like this. The chain links that are put around the mana core are considered total mana a person has available. In Claire's case, this turned to infinity as the chain broke. Once the chain is put around the mana core, the cuff pulls it taut. When it's snug, the mana starts flowing back into the awakening orb, which starts the identifying process for the elements. Even after Claire removes her hand from the orb, this mana reverse flow to the orb continues, with the orb always taking a part of their mana till the end of their life, at which point it takes it all. 

' As expected of these capitalist greedy bastards. ' Claire thought as she looked at the orb. 

Does the base have to do this ? obviously not. But their base has bought the cheap-ass slave awakening orb with a complete skill library. The slogan says that it has the complete skill library, but in reality, this is a moot point. 

The awakening works like this. 

A person has thousand points of mana. Then, he will only be eligible to copy spell circles below thousand points. All elements would get a rune, which just allows them to be output willy-nilly. It's not useful unless you have good control, or patience to go through the motions. After runes, the elemental mana is measured. Unless elemental mana has a hundred points, the spells will not be etched into the innerworld. As such, a person with thousand points of mana comes for the awakening, he walks away with runes on his elements, a chain around his mana core that saps away ten percent of his mana all the time, and zero skills etched in his innerworld. 

At the same time, one could say the chain could be broken any time. However, this is infinitely harder if this is not done during the awakening process itself. How many children who are entering the innerworld for the first time would have enough sense to break this chain ? or just enough sense like her, to hook through the left ring, stopping the chaining process ? the answer is none.