Alienation

Chapter 4

It’s been eleven days since I woke up in Ashyron. I already met Mike and he explained to me that we are, indeed, not on Earth anymore. He insisted on calling him just Mike. Which I found uncomfortable at first but got the hang of it later on. I feel like disrespecting him for calling him just by his name when he’s way older.

He looked like he’s on his seventies but I can’t be sure. He must be older than that since he fought in the World War II. He was a former Air Force soldier of the US. And he remembered crashing in the seas. He thought he was already dead, but just like me, he found himself in this place.

He also said that people in this place are not so technologically-advanced. They do not venture much in sciences and stuff. They don’t have automobiles, planes or anything. Because they do have magic.

But he explained that everybody has magic, even the people in Earth, even us. But we were not just taught how to develop it.

He said, and I quote, “Everybody has magic inside them. They just need to concentrate and know how to use it properly. While people on Earth focused on and developed the things around them, people from this place focused on the energy, magic, inside them.”

I’ve pretty much accepted the fact that the sky is green – sky green, there are two moons, and magic exists in this ‘Nameless’ place. I’ve seen people doing it left and right, everywhere. But I’m still in awe.

In fact, the reason why I can understand Hiamda – the woman in white cloak, and cloaks really are their everyday wear– when I woke up the third time in Ashyron, was that they added a new language in my head. That was also why I woke up with a headache. Information overload?

Of course, that made me feel like a storage device. Like they have the right to tap my mind like that. But Hiamda assured me that they had just ‘stored’ another language in my brain and nothing more. And entering another person’s mind is strictly prohibited. They have this magical detector that would determine if a person’s mind was violated. The violator and the violated one could also be detected by that magic. And besides, entering another’s mind requires really strong magic.

But I was a special case, they had no other choice but to do it. Or there’s no way that I can communicate with them.

I also wanted to meet the person who found me in the forest of Enalde. But whenever I broach the subject, Hiamda manages to evade it.

I also learned that there is an Academy of Magic for kids who are 15 to 19.

I doubted if a nineteen-year old person can still be called a kid. But anyway, everybody is required to attend. So it means that I have to go to that school too, if I can’t find a way back to Earth. It’s for free anyway. There, ‘kids’ can learn to develop their magic. It’s dangerous for those who have undeveloped magic when they are in a magical environment. The magic can destroy the person. I would also learn in there how to block my mind from outsiders.

Mike was nineteen when he came first in Ashyron. He had already missed the ‘specialization age’. The ‘specialization age’ is eighteen. In Ashyron, when a person reaches eighteen, their ‘special element’ would first manifest. The elements are: soil, water, wind and fire. The ‘soil’ is the earth as it is called in Earth. A person could only have one element. Well, as far as they can remember, there never had been a person who had more than one special element.

I guess that makes sense, how can it be called special if there are many?

So Mike doesn’t have a special element. But he can do magic just the same. He still had attended the Soomir Academy of Magic. Though he only stayed for one year – for his fifth year.