That feeling, to not let the orb escape, presses hard on me like an urgent friend trying to convince me to do something. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, it’s not immediately instinctual, so I hold back as the pressure to connect with the orb grows and the brightness of it dims. Before the glow can completely disappear, I reach out in a way I don’t really understand and call the orb to me. Like it’s been waiting for me to do this the whole time, the glowing orb shoots straight through one of the nurses and splashes across my chest, sinking into me without resistance.
Nobody even looks at me. They haven’t seen it.
My heart rate spikes as adrenaline dumps into me, hard. It feels like everything inside me, all the way from head to toe, is rearranging itself all at once. It’s not unpleasant, it’s insistent and warm and unstoppable.
Before I can even really get my bearings a notification window appears in my vision and text appears on it rapidly, faster than I can read. There's no need though, the words are smashed and carved into my mind in a way that makes them a part of me instantly.
Soul Sparks Reclaimed
Reclamation degraded by 50% due to delayed activation and distance
Current range: 2 meters followed by exponential decay
Resonance: 100% (human)
Initiation pathways establishing…
Conversion underway…
Soul Sparks absorbed: 1
Soul Spark Reclaimer Class activated.
Power classification type: Absorption (Tier 1 Mythic)
Power name: Reclamation (Tier 1 Mythic)
Calculating required assistance activities…
Overview documentation created.
Interfaces created.
Current Soul Sparks Available: 1
Would you like to allocate your Soul Spark?
(Y/N)
Would you like to view your Status?
(Y/N)
Mythic? I’m confused, there are no Mythic Powers.
I shudder as inside me things slowly start to settle and the feeling of being rearranged inside dwindles, but there’s no doubt in my mind what’s just happened. I feel so different, like a latent energy exists within me that’s hard to put my finger on.
There’s another side to all this though. Did I just kill poor old Dorothy by sucking the life out of her? Am I somehow a vampiric, soul stealing monster? None of this is helping to clear my head so I sit up to lean against a wall and close my eyes to try to figure out what’s going on.
Someone cuts off the chaotic noise of the machines.
“We’re upset too, Calrik,” Lucy says to me, looking down at me sitting on the floor in a withdrawn state, although she doesn’t know why. Her Australian accent barely penetrates the focus I’m applying to understanding what’s happened to me. “But it was past Dorothy’s time. She’s been on the edge for weeks and was at peace with it.”
Her hand rests on my shoulder and I open my eyes then look up. Lucy’s expression has the same kind of concern for me that she might have for a patient.
“Your first time?” she asks. Her tone has softened and so has the expression on at least one of the nurses. Maybe people in this line of work who choose to look after others for a living are empathetic enough to see what I’m feeling and they assume I’m shaken by Dorothy’s death. No doubt in a place like this they see enough death that they’ve found ways to deal with it, but right now I’m still sorting through a jumble of thoughts and emotions about my Power and what I might have done to her. It’s my first time seeing someone die, but I’ve killed thousands of low Level Monsters in Dungeons. It’s just… did I do it? Did I just kill Dorothy somehow? I can’t shake the thought.
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“Yeah,” I mumble to Lucy with what I know must be a far off expression on my face. My thoughts are full of ‘what if’s. My parents defeated a lot of Villains and I know they killed thousands or more Galactic invaders, but I was never involved. A Powerless disappointment, I was never included.
I can’t help but wonder… if I had been included - just once - would my Power would have been Awakened? How different my life might have been! Still, after so long I have a Power! And if someone finds out I’ve killed an elderly person and stolen part of their soul from them, I have no doubt I’ll be going to jail or a laboratory to be experimented on - or both. Or worse.
Fabian walks into the room and surveys the situation.
“Back to work, team,” he says, not unkindly. “Dorothy was a fun, kooky old lady whose time came long ago. We’ll mourn her loss, but there are also a lot of residents at Saint Marianne’s who need care… and you need to attend to them. Corvin, get all this cleaned up for us with Mary? Let’s start now.”
Fabian’s encouragement for all of us to get going, as harsh as it is, is probably right. Two of the nurses give a short, friendly squeeze to Dorothy’s frail arm before leaving the room to attend to other residents and I get up off the floor.
“I’ll be back with some stuff,” Mary tells me, and I nod as I look at Dorothy.
I wonder how much of the baggage from resident deaths the nurses and caretakers carry around with them and how much stays in a room like this when you’re dealing with it all the time. The rest of them leave and I’m left with Dorothy on my own. I stand up and walk to the bed hesitantly. Wherever she is now, is she mad at me? I half expect her to sit up like in a horror movie and scream ‘murderer’ at me. She looks peaceful though. Old - very old - but peaceful.
As I’m looking at her I think about the Soul Spark and the notifications. When I think about the notifications I feel I can call them back whenever I choose to, so I do.
Congratulations! Soul Spark Reclaimer Class fully activated.
Power: Absorption (Tier 1 Mythic)
Calculating required assistance activities…
Overview documentation created.
Interfaces created.
Tier 1 Mythic. The only conclusion I can make, and I know a lot about Powers, is that I’ve somehow broken through the previous Legendary Tier limits into a new band. I can’t imagine the first people to break through to Epic or Legendary were alone in an old folks home looking down at a lifeless old lady that triggered their Powers; they were probably slaying Monsters or rescuing cities from devastation. As much as I feel bad for Dorothy, I push it aside. I never knew her and what’s happening to me right now demands all my attention.
Overview documentation and enhancement of my interfaces… I need to find a place to look them over as soon as possible. My mind spins up a bunch of thoughts about what I should do now. Go through Power testing to see if what I’m seeing can be validated? Head straight to a Dungeon to see if I can finally gain XP and Levels?
I feel the newly reclaimed energy deep inside me.
Current Soul Spark reservoir: 1
Would you like to allocate your Soul Spark?
(Y/N)
Would you like to view your Status?
(Y/N)
A paltry one Soul Spark that means so much.
Maybe when I allocate my Soul Spark something will happen with my Class or to me? Since I have no idea about what it means to allocate, I look around the room and wonder how I can escape to get some time by myself to work through this.
“Calrik?” asks Mary with kindness, and I realize I’ve just been sitting here while she’s returned and started to sort out the room. It brings me back to my situation. “Are you ok? Can you give me a hand with this or do you need some time?”
The reality is I can’t take some time out to work through all this, not yet. No doubt someone will be along soon to take Dorothy away, and I have a laundry list of things I need to do from Fabian. If I’m not going to arouse any suspicion around Dorothy’s death I should probably just put my head down and get on with the day, as crazy as that seems right now. Maybe there’s no need to be cautious since nobody is exactly accusing me of anything, but I want to understand more about my Power before it becomes known and I risk a lot of attention.
I do my best to clean everything up with Mary. We remove all the tubes and sensors from Dorothy and create some space by moving the machines and apparatus out of the way, then straighten the sheet across her and ensure everything is as tidy as it can be for any visitors or the people who will take her away.
“She loved cat shows so much,” says Mary as we work together.
As I look down on Dorothy, I wonder what her life might have been like and if she really was ready to go. Did I cut her life short? Were her relatives going to visit her tomorrow and without me around she would have been able to say goodbye? I work quickly, focused on getting the chance to go somewhere else to explore my Power, and also a place where I don’t feel so much like maybe this is my fault.
As we’re working to clean up, I go over everything that happened and the notification text a few times. I’ve got a practically encyclopedic understanding of Powers from all my research into how to activate one myself, and I’ve never even heard of a Power that absorbs Soul Sparks, or of an inkling of a Mythic Power. I wonder if I’m really the first, or if there are others that I just haven’t heard about.
So… is a Soul Spark Reclaimer something a bit different just with more potential? Totally different? The kind of Power that’s a curse? A blessing? I’m getting on with the jobs I have to do while underneath I’m deep in thought.
The rest of the day is probably normal for the rest of the staff, but not for me. It doesn’t really register as much as it should when people ask me to do things… my mind is elsewhere. At the end of a long day that I might have found frustrating or challenging in other circumstances, instead I’m excited and ready to have some time to myself.
I lock myself in my room as soon as I’ve had some dinner so I can dive in and hopefully understand it, and open up the documentation.
