Kallen awoke to the sight of a ceiling of plate slid over the rafters of a gymnasium. It was an almost euphoric thing to see modern technology, it meant he was in the waking world.
Sweet, sweet steel.
Still, there was a slight itch that persisted. Kallen reached a hand to scratch it, but it seemed that his arms and legs were bound.
On the ground of the gymnasium, were straps that each connected to several sturdy objects, including a pilar that was structurally integral to the roof of the building.
Since Kallen was strapped to the ground and looking up at the lights, he couldn't help the feeling of needing to sneeze. He tried to stop it, but he knew that holding it in was bad for the sinuses. So he sneezed.
Without his arm to cover, and his binds restricting neck movement, it traveled up, and then directly back down on his face.
His disgusted hack, as well as the struggle that came with trying to wipe his face clean, alerted the attention of a man, who in turn alerted the attention of another man. They were both apparently awakened.
He could hardly see them, only able to out of his periphery when he looked as far down as possible. The damn straps kept his head in place.
The two men were wearing dark blue uniforms with black leather boots, except the one in the back was sharpening his sword, despite the obvious fact that it was a memory.
The sword sharpeners partner began to head off somewhere after they exchanged a few words. Apparently, he was going to inform the headmaster of Kallen's school that he had woken and passed his nightmare.
Guess I'm still in the school.
Kallen thought It made sense to keep him there since transporting a ticking time bomb wasn't the smartest thing to do. It did, however, mean that the school was in shutdown mode once it had been evacuated.
The man with the sword stood up and dismissed it. There were two stars on his uniform, signaling his awakened status.
"I'm Awakened Belle, I've been one of the two awakened assigned to watch over your nightmare. Welcome back to the waking world, Sleeper Kallenir."
Kallen studied him for a moment. Whether it was his charming charisma, beautiful blond hair, or the casually attractive look he gave off, he was the shining example of what an awakened looked like.
"Ah, please just call me Kallen…" he thought back to the corrupted king and the way it's voice grated in his mind. "I'm not overly fond of my government name."
Awakened Belle smiled and nodded. "Of course."
"Also," Kallen said, nodding his head to the straps. "Can I please be released from my… ah, shackles. My nose itches."
The awakened man in front of him gave a blank look before laughing. "My apologies, Sleeper Kallen, but I don't have the equipment the remove you from them safely. Of course, I could cut them for you, but I'd rather not be billed for expensive nightmare creature binding material, as well as that medical apparatus that kept your sleeping body alive."
Kallen furrowed his brows. "Would the answer change if I played the Great Clan of Night card?"
"I read your file," Belle said. "You're just a distant branch member."
"How about bribery?"
"Not a chance."
"Can you itch it for me?"
The swordsman laughed. "I'm afraid not."
"What is there to be afraid of?"
Awakened Belle raised his brows, shaking his head and laughing. "Sit tight, sleeper."
It seems I don't have a choice... at least he didn't say the words: stay put.
~~~
Kallen was delighted to finally scratch his nose and wipe his face. It hadn't taken long for the government workers to get him out of his bonds, and he might have jumped the jolly awakened, Belle when he was released. Well, if he was confident he could take the man in a fight.
Which he decidedly was not. Divine aspect or not, he was a brand-new sleeper.
Finally standing and stretching his aching bones, Kallen asked the man what the proper order of operations was from here on out.
Awakened Belle had suggested that he was likely eager to learn about his aspect, explore his soul sea, and take a break—especially after the mental strain of the first nightmare.
Kallen hadn't argued. Instead, he headed to the school showers to wash up. A bath would have been preferable, but, of course, his high school didn't have a bathhouse.
He had been left alone in the training facility's locker room, the academy was still on lockdown, and it probably still would be until he got fully situated. And so, he stood under a scalding stream of water, savoring the simple luxury of warmth against his skin. Luxury seemed so foreign to him.
It feels like I was stuck in that nightmare for months.
As the shower washed off the stench of his nightmare, it couldn't drown out his questions. Like what was a Leviathan core? Why did his soul sea look like something dredged from an eldritch fever dream? He flexed his fingers.
Kallen's mind soon wandered to the person he'd seen looking back at him in the mirror. His formerly blue eyes had deepened to a dark indigo. His beach blond hair had been dyed black, just as it had been in his nightmare.
Additionally, his tan skin had smoothed, and it seemed numerous imperfections he'd always struggled with had diminished. Straighter nose, slightly tightened eyelids, and his hair fell down messy, but not in its usual insolent disarray… it almost felt deliberately disordered.
While subtle, he couldn't help but notice these changes as if there were a glowing neon sign pointing them out.
But those eyes…
He looked like a true scion of the House of Night. A Nightwalker.
Tilting his head back, Kallen let the din of the shower's spray mask his sighing groan. Divine aspect, true name, leviathan core, scales, it felt like someone else's story, an absurd tale. It was hard to grasp the reality of it.
"Speaking of my aspect…"
He waved a hand to test if anything happened. His flaw [Fish out of Water] told him that his aspect abilities were inaccessible when he was out of water. Kallen didn't know how to read runes translated by the spell, so the words 'out of water' could have meant several things.
And so when he had waved his hand, he wasn't too surprised to see water bending to his will. As the shower continued to spray him, he moved his arm as if he were controlling the liquid telepathically.
Next, he stepped out away from the shower's line of fire. He tried to manipulate the water again, but his control over it lessened significantly. Then, he dried himself off with a towel and tried once more. Nothing.
"Hmm."
The semantics of the description was vague, it meant something slightly different than what it said. Which wasn't surprising. Language and direct translation was a messy business.
'Out of water' in runic language might not imply full immersion but instead suggests being surrounded or touched by water in a meaningful way. A steady flow from the shower seemed to moarly fit the requirements, but just being wet after I stepped away diminished the effectiveness of my aspect ability.
Then would it not be more appropriate to say my aspect abilities do not work unless embraced by water? Does being wet after a shower really count as being in water? Or more appropriately, 'not out of water'.
It didn't really matter what he called it, however. The flaw would work the same way regardless.
In any case, Kallen decided it was time he dive back into the soul sea.
It was a little jarring to go from standing to suddenly submerged… but it also simultaneously felt nothing like being truly underwater. There was no weight to the countless tons of ocean above him, and there was no fear of horrors from the depths. He was strangely calm.
"Fish out of Water huh?"
He floated silently in his soul sea, a frown on his face as he focused. When I'm completely submerged, do I consciously have to focus on the water… or can I just… Kallen waved a hand, launching himself several feet to the side while a mass of water stirred in the opposite direction.
It was immediately obvious to him that the first and third of Newton's laws of motion applied to, [Ocean's Wrath].
Most importantly, Newton's third law would be a pain to deal with. Any force that he applied—especially underwater where he wouldn't have footing to ground himself—would be applied right back to him.
Thus when he had tried to force the water to the left, he had been shot to the right at the same time.
"Then I'll need to stabilize myself by pushing the opposite way any time I'm trying to manipulate the water while floating freely."
Kallen let out a sharp breath, ignoring the bubbles floating endlessly upward.
"If, 'water bends to my will,' means that I can apply force supernaturally to the water around me, then can I create a faux ground beneath my feet by…"
His train of thought immediately shifted.
"If I could change the pressure, then I could increase it opposite to where I'm applying force to mimic an anchor of sorts that would hold me in place…
"I could create a whirlpool with push and pull in all directions to stabilize…
"What if I could take advantage of the buoyant force acting upon me while I'm submerged…
"Of course, I could simply push or pull simultaneously in the opposite direction… it would be the simplest solution in terms of…
"Oh! If I can affect the pressure, then I could make a barrier or shield of…"
"Since water is generally incompressible… but what if I applied force to it on a molecular level and packed them closer together, theoretically I could increase the pressure by way of condensing the surrounding…
"But then… when you compress something like water, you force its molecules closer together, which would push them into a smaller space, thus causing frequent collisions which may have unintended heating effects…
"But what if I could draw that heat away into the surrounding water and…
"And then what about [Amplifier]? There's probably thousands of things I can do with [Amplifier] underwater…"
Kallen recognized that he was slowly spiraling into the theory of how his aspect worked, without actually trying it. Who was to say he could even manipulate the pressure? Who was to say he could affect the heat?
He'd have quite a while for theory… but he had things to do.
~~~
The academy gymnasium was quiet, save for the faint hum of emergency sirens and the soft tread of his new shoes on polished wood. Kallen had changed clothes, dressed in sweats and a hoodie he'd kept in his locker.
Awakened Belle was sitting against the wall, sharpening that sword of his, blond hair catching a beam of sunlight through the window—now that the plating had retracted.
"Feel better?" He said with a knowing smile.
Kallen smiled. "Better. Not great."
Belle laughed, the kind of easy, practiced laugh of a veteran who'd seen it all. Lived it all. "You've just woken up from your first. No one's expecting too much."
"Good," Kallen said, coming to a stop. "Cause I don't know what to do. Never thought it'd happen to me I guess... "
"I'm sure you'll figure it out… you legacies have it better than most."
Awakened Belle didn't seem to know that Kallen didn't have some of the luxuries most legacies did. Though education and knowledge of the spell and how to survive were the most prominent advantages… he didn't get to enjoy the memories and funding that came with it.
"Of course, according to government protocol, I'm required to let you in on a few things as a formality."
Kallen nodded.
"You are entitled to free psychological counseling…"
Kallen cut him off with a wave. "I'm alright."
Awakened Belle smiled. "So bad you don't want to talk about it? Too easy that you're ashamed… or guilty that you survived when others didn't?"
"It sucked."
The government awakened in front of him laughed. "That seems to be the consensus, doesn't it?"
"I can't imagine why."
The man proceeded to divulge several bits of information, most of which Kallen was already privy to thanks to an educated upbringing. It was late February, meaning that he wouldn't have to wait too long for the awakened academy's opening ceremony on the first of March.
But there was one thing burning on his mind when the man was done with his spiel.
"And so… my family," Kallen finally said, feeling a little guilty that he'd been so distracted that he hadn't thought to see them. They must have been worried sick. "Do you have any information on where they might be?"
The man's expression suddenly darkened. It was as if he had just remembered a piece of bad news that he had been supposed to deliver.
"That uh…"
Kallen's heart sank. "Are they…"
Belle shook his head. "Your parents are fine… they've been notified that you're alright. But, um… they're a little busy at the moment. One of your siblings fell asleep… she's infected."
What.
"Where… which…" Kallen shook his head, slowly, feeling his heart thump rhythmically in his ears. What did the man mean… his sisters were both far too young. There wasn't any way…
"The older of the two," Belle said. "Your sister Sera fell asleep only moments after you did. She, however, still appears to be under.
She's only eleven!
Kallen was moving in an instant, but Belle was faster. The awakened had dismissed his sword and appeared in front of him quicker than he could make it a few steps.
"She's at a secure police precinct." The man applied a small amount of force against Kallen, keeping him securely in place. He wasn't overtly trapped, but it was obvious Awakened Belle could stop him with ease. "It is unwise to go rushing in there. It's locked down. I'm sure you were pretty impressive in your nightmare, but you're just a sleeper. It's not safe."
Kallen grimaced but nodded reluctantly. "I'm still going."
"Of course. But if I may, a piece of advice from a senior can't hurt?" Noticing that the sleeper in front of him wasn't going to rush out, Belle continued. "If she makes it out of the first nightmare… well I've never seen someone so young carry the spell. Take good care of her."
"I plan to."