"Boiled eggs." I can almost feel the frown weighing my face down, but it's not for the reason you may think. Eggs are awesome and I haven't had a home cooked meal since my- … actually nevermind, that's a mood killer.
As I reach for the fork laying upon the wood table I hesitate. Looking upwards I see Raine eating his choice conjures medium rare steak and soup, and Luna munching on a cracker.
The bread crumbs from her turkey sandwich are littered across the paper plate in front of her.
"So why am I only allowed to have an egg again?" I blurt out with a lack of emotion. "Now don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I haven't had anything but school lunches for years so it's most definitely an upgrade." I stop my sentence just long enough to push the entire egg in my mouth at once, then continue.
"I don't really get the whole, don't eat food because it might mess up the mana expansion process, thing." My voice is muffled from the egg and I can't help but cough.
Luna looks at me and then opens her mouth to say something. But she catches herself and looks at Raine instead. Muscle man over there has a bad habit of cutting off people's sentences to both finish and respond to them. I guess it's a mind reader thing.
A couple seconds pass and Luna speaks. "I feel I should tell you that whatever that machine does hurts your stomach. I'm glad I didn't eat first." And successfully she finishes her sentence with a sigh of relief.
But before I can respond another voice sounds from behind me and I turn to see a woman.
"Heyyy! If I'm not mistaken there's more people at the lunch bench than usual." This is Ayla. Golden blonde hair, brown eyes, and shining yellow irises.
Her face resembles that of a sunflower without the petals. An aura of light and warmth surrounds her so much so that the lights in the living quarters seem dull.
I try to speak but cough a piece of my egg out of my mouth instead. "Born to say hi, forced to just wave." My mind utters and seems to laugh at me.
"How are you feeling girly?" Ayla asks Luna. Her shininess reached her hand out and a handful of grapes landed in her palm. Raine smiles and I can tell the two of them have either been practicing that for a long time, or they have insane synchronization.
"Her mental state is normal, I'd argue that she seems more calm than before." Raine says this after glancing at Luna for only a moment. Oh I almost forgot he can read minds.
"YOU'RE WEIRD!" I shout within my head to see if I can get a reaction from him. But he either ignores me or just doesn't look at me.
Luna takes this chance of silence to mumble her response. "Well I'd be better if you could stop doing that. It gives me anxiety." She frowns and looks up at Ayla.
I can't help but wonder how he does that. His explanation was like a scene from a horror movie, except it was way too vague for my liking. "I had a stone implanted in my forehead, found The Left Lens, fused it with The Right Lens, then unlocked my mind." He had said that it was simple.
I find it hard to believe that's all that happened but I am not one to force things from people. So I just let him be and gave Luna a pep talk for her mama expansion thingie.
"The test said that you have an immense amount of mana, as well as fine control over it. And although your spell power is low, Ramus Glacius more than makes up for it." Ayla reads from a piece of paper.
"Ramus Glacius…" Luna mutters with a face laced with both curiosity and disbelief. Raine looks at me and conjures a mirror. My face is plastered with an emotion I don't use often, disgust.
"I don't need to read your mind to tell you're disgusted. You heard the name?" Raine asks me and the rest of the group turns towards me.
Then Luna makes the situation both better and worse. "Why don't you read his mind and find out? You seem-" Raine cuts her off and answers her question with something I really wasn't expecting.
"I can't." That's all he said. No follow up. No snarky comments about my thoughts. He didn't even start the sentence with a much needed finisher to Luna's speech first.
Ayla looked visibly startled by this statement and reached for my hand. I guess she doesn't like the look on Raine's face either. "We should go get the mana expansion done on you too Skye. Maybe we can figure out why that is as well." She smiles at me and then pulls me away from the group.
"Hey no need to drag me there! I can walk!" I shout in protest but she doesn't let go until we get out of both sight, and earshot. Then she stops and spins on her heels.
"What did you see?" She demands with her eyes locked onto mine. I'm not sure if this is normal for Ayla but I can almost see the fire in her eyes.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm one of the most powerful Alchemists in The Tower. When I touched your hand I felt not only cold, but a spark, as well as something I've only ever felt once before." She finishes her sentence and I look down at my hand. There's a small mark on my wrist that seems to burn.
Then I realize what Ayla is talking about. But something isn't right here. How did she know about the dreams?
"Why don't you just ask Raine, he can read minds right? Wait…"
"Exactly."
"How do I even explain this?"
Ayla's body flashes and my eyes are hit with a bright flashbang. "Hey! What was that for!" I shout but instead of a verbal response, I'm shoved into a hard surface.
Blinking rapidly I notice I'm in some sort of glass cage. The way I came in is shut and I bang on the glass. My hand bounces off and I shout. "Ayla! I don't even know what I saw! Let me out!" My voice grows louder and I can almost feel the panic rising in my body.
It's hot. But then a sharp pain engulfs my stomach. My vision goes completely blank and then I see a spark of light. It's a fiery carnelian color and it seems to engulf my body completely.
The energy swirls faster and faster and then stops. Emotions begin to well up from deep within my body. A deep sense of understanding overtakes me, then it dies down.
The absence of feeling is then replaced by a strong anger. My arms feel like they want to smash open the glass and I try to yell but my voice doesn't seem to work. The anger grows and then just before I hit the glass a voice from within my soul speaks to me.
"Shhhh. It's going to be okay my love. Thunder might be loud but since it's not in here it can't hurt you." The woman's voice echoes from my soul and then a feeling of trust overwhelms the anger.
Lingering just above my chest where the feeling of a finger's touch stays. Then my entire being seems to feel floaty. Bliss overtakes my senses and I relax deeply.
I feel a mix of energy surging out from my body, so much so that a crack forms on the glass. My consciousness fades in and out as I hear a shattering of glass. My legs crumble underneath my body and the feelings I felt dissolve in the open air.
"Skye!" I hear Luna's voice shout at me. "What happened here?" Raine shouts and Ayla stammers out a reply. Although I can't hear what she says due to my fading mind.
"Am I going to die?" My head seems to go numb and I feel a cold hand on my wrist. Then a new voice sounds from what seems like underneath me.
"Whatever you did woke me up." The man's voice growled from the darkness. "I'll make sure to increase the training camp difficulty just for this. Make sure you get some rest Skye Storme. You're gonna need it."
Then I black out.