Silver Eye

Chapter 4

Year 2210

"Spirits: What are they? Many theories were made on the subject. In the beginning, religious groups thought they were 'the evil within us'. Some other groups believed that Spirits were our souls, or at least a part of our souls, while some believed they were gods or deities. Of course, later these religions were dissipated for their ramblings; Spirits are far from divinity and are essentially harmless. The famous researcher Carl Miller's theory was that Spirits are the manifestation of our unconscious selves. My personal favorite is Wolfstein's original theory: the untapped potential of mankind. Which one is true? In the end, they're still only theories; it's just a matter of what you believe in. But we're getting slightly off-track; we're here to explain, and later demonstrate, the different ways of summoning Spirits. We'll start with the basic way, commonly known as 'Beast Summon', which is simply summoning the spirit itself as a separate entity. Then we'll gradually look into more complicated ways, starting with 'Partial Summoning'. Partial Summoning lets us use certain abilities from our Spirits without having to physically manifest the Spirit in question. Finally, we'll show you some examples of both types of 'Morphing'; 'Partial Morphing' which yields a part of our body to the Spirit, and 'Full-body Morphing' which transforms the entire body as the name suggests. Remember: Full-body Morphing carries extreme risk; only 0.5% of people survive the experience without mental repercussions and even less without physical damage. Even Partial Morphing carries risk as it can lead to a Full-body Morph through loss of control. You should never, ever-"

The screen went black. "Hey! I was watching that." Catherine looked at her mom in annoyance. She was standing behind her with the remote in her hand, which she had sneakily taken away.

"Didn't you hear the door? Your teacher's here; it's time for your lessons." Mary Taylor, Catherine's 43 year-old mom, stood behind the forest-green sofa at five feet and a half tall, same height as her 17 year-old daughter. Her brown eyes, curtained by her shoulder-length straight brown hair, stared at Catherine's green ones as if it could transfer some sense through them.

Mr. Fisher, the private teacher, waited in the living room's doorway while awkwardly watching the scene. He was wearing his usual black suit and tie from the last century and held his tablet under his arm in a timid fashion.

Mary gestured towards Mr. Fisher impatiently. "Go on, I'll record it for you."

Catherine got to her feet with a grunt. She tied her long auburn hair in a ponytail and walked away saying: "You better."

"Don't be rude." Mary told her.

"It's rude to say I'm rude." She replied.

Her mom sighed as she watched the both of them leave the room. Teenagers... Normally she wouldn't have recorded the documentary on Spirits; she believed the less her daughter knew about them the better. But, lately Catherine was getting more and more defiant and Mary knew that she couldn't keep it from her forever. "Well, she might already know more than I do on the subject." With that in mind, she recorded the program.

Meanwhile, in her mom's old office, Catherine was studying with her private tutor. This room had been rearranged to home-school the child starting from middle-school level; before that she went to school like normal. The reason for that was because her mom believed that when the kids start having their Spirits the schools become what she calls "a bloodbath". Of course, it was obvious to Catherine that her mother was exaggerating and probably acted that way out of fear. Personally, Catherine had never wanted to be home-schooled. She had lost most of her friends that went on to middle-school, but at least she had managed to stay in contact with her closest friend. As numerous graphics and equations were shown to her, she could hardly concentrate on them while she thought about her friend Melany and the fact that they were finally seeing each other tonight. They always kept close contact, but it had been almost a year since they last met.