Exploring the Gateway

The medics turned out to be mages capable of healing, somewhat similarly to Charlotte, but they still let her take care of Bass’ major wounds. When Charlotte had become tired however, one of the medics took over. A young brown haired man whose hands glowed with gold tinted yellow color. Her wounds healing with greater speed, Bass was quickly patched. It looked like the bullet had passed clean through and didn’t hit anything vital, luckily. 

While Charlotte was resting and Bass was being treated, John was handed the documents. Briefly reading them, he noticed they were quite peculiar, as he assumed they would just be dummy documents, but as far as he could tell they were very real. Using the same legal language he had seen before when signing the contracts. Before he could investigate further, however, Ember took the documents from him and congratulated them all on finishing their mission.

“I still would like to talk to you,” she added quietly to John.

“You ok Bass?” John asked, hesitant to leave when his teammate was still injured.

“I’ll be fine by the time we start our next class,” she chuckled, then coughed painfully. John wasn’t sure that was true, but he couldn’t help her regardless. Sitting around here would accomplish nothing, and Bass herself would tell him to go rather than stay with her, he knew that. 

“Good to hear. I’ll see you all there!” he said to his teammates, getting a few goodbyes as response and a grunt from Matthew. Then he turned to Ember and asked, “so, where should we go to talk?”

“My office will work,” she half whispered half said, and started leading him down a few corridors, and to a wooden door. On the outside and inside of the door was a golden nameplate with Ember’s name. The office they entered reminded John of Ingrid’s, but it was clearly less fancily decorated. A small shelf instead of the large bookcase, and the chairs were more simply made. She sat down and instructed John to sit on the other side of a smaller desk. 

“You already know from last night that Ingrid wants to speak with you, but I have something more... personal I want to discuss,” that came to John as a bit of a surprise, Ember was usually a bit distant but her tone was almost intimate. Whatever she wanted to talk about, however, he would listen. He felt he could trust her, despite her putting her job over most other things, something that perhaps now he could understand.

“Sure. What’d you wanna talk about?” he asked, trying to sound as casual as possible. 

“I wanted to say that I'm sorry. For threatening you when we just met and for what happened during the test, and everything else too. Even though I was just following orders and procedures both times, it was still wrong of me to trick you. Now that I know you John I think you deserve me acting better than that, more human,” the way she said it was almost odd, but the Gamer could tell it was genuine. She settled back in her chair and shook her head lightly, her normally frozen expression almost melting into a smile as she continued, “guess I’m not used being normal anymore, so all I can say is that I wish there was some other way to recruit you,” her voice genuinely showed remorse for the first time since John had met her.

"You could have told me," he said, a bitter feeling overcoming him despite wanting to see the good that she shared with him. 

"I couldn't, if the rest of the Council got word of how much we helped you already… They were supposed to kidnap you directly from your home before the test. And even then... The test, that was the only thing that stopped them from killing you. Since you weren't a mundane anymore they weren't going to let a potential info leak be left alive. Ingrid fought for you, that's why you're still here," her frozen look returned, but she was being brutally honest, John could see it in her eyes. And they both fell silent for a minute. The next one to talk was once again Ember.

"Anyways I… I don’t usually talk about personal stuff, usually just gets in the way of my job, but I n-need your help John,” she clearly had a hard time saying what she wanted, but her expression was replaced with a hopeful one, “I want you to ask Ingrid to assign me to your team, once it’s formed. She’ll probably approve it, after all, you guys will need someone with experience to start with, and I’m someone you know personally,” her voice had none of Ember’s usual professionalism, only some variance of raw emotion. John couldn’t tell if it was hope, fear, or something else entirely.

“I don’t disagree, but why? I do trust you, but I’d like to know what my future team members are thinking,” John wasn’t sure if he should be worried or not, but something felt off. Despite this being a positive sign by all accounts, his instincts were warning him to stay wary. 

“I’d rather not talk about it,” her closed off tone and look returned.

“Then I’m not sure I can ask Ingrid-”

“No! Please! Believe me, this is important…” Ember responded with genuine anguish, something was definitely wrong.

“I can’t just do that. If you just tell me, I’m sure I’ll understand,” he wanted to believe her, but the lack of knowledge was nagging at him. Maybe it was his curiosity, maybe it was something else. 

“You know what, never mind,” she said quite coldly, “I’ll take you to Ingrid,” she got up with a fluid movement, and even without waiting for John left the room. He followed as swiftly as he could.

’The hell was that? Shit, maybe I should have just said yes… But something was wrong there, I know it. I hope I at least didn’t drive her away with that…’ John couldn’t stop wondering why she was so quick to forget about it and what exactly was this even about. He knew whatever it was would be a problem again, one way or another.

John was sitting in Ingrid’s office about twenty minutes later. Sitting there waiting as she dealt with was apparently quite a bit of paperwork to fill in his regard. She looked stunning as ever, but below her blue eyes had formed small dark bags since he last saw her.

“We need to settle quite a few topics. First of all, do you already have access to a mundane bank account or to the Abyss auction? Your wage needs to be put somewhere, and I’d rather not have to explain what we pay to your parents,” her tone was warm but she was clearly annoyed to be handling the whole ordeal.

“Shouldn’t someone else be doing this? Doesn’t really seem like a job for the leader of the organization,” John found it somewhat funny, but he was sure there was some explanation.

“We’re understaffed as always, and most of our clerks can’t handle the paperwork for a late bloomer. Given I know you personally I thought it would be quicker this way. I have to do my fair share of paperwork anyways, so I know how to handle it well. Now, please, let’s get on with it,” that did sound logical, but her scolding and rushing was also probably appropriate. 

“Ah, ok… I don’t really have any of those. And I don’t even know what this “Abyss Auction” is. But I do have a way of storing money inside my pocket dimension. Not sure if that helps…”

She looked a bit frustrated with his response, but regaining her composure in a second she started again, “it might connect to the Abyss Auction if you open an account there,” Ingrid paused for a moment, “give me your phone. I can use it to allow you access to the Auction. Mundanes might treat it as sort of an online store. Think Amazon but for the Abyssal community.” 

John quickly took out his phone and gave it to Ingrid. After typing a few things into it, she instructed him to place his hand on it. He did so casually and it informed him an account had been made based on his Mana signature. It installed an app onto his phone allowing him access and a popup also appeared.

Your wallet has been connected to the Abyss Auction’s bank services.

“It just told me it connected to the pocket space,”

“Good! That’s over and done with. You should expect your wage to arrive. It’ll be somewhat small until you finish your training, and afterwards it’ll be based on how well you do. For now you’ll receive... I believe fifty thousand dollars per month,” John’s mouth flew wide open, “you’ll have to take up any problems you have with HR, I’m not dealing with petty monetary complaints,” she dismissed his surprised expression with a wave of her hand. John obviously had no complaints, but the number was apparently real.

“Now, the next matter is slightly more personal. Have you thought about my proposal?”

“Yes. And I agree. I’m still not sure what it entails, but I trust you and it is true that my purpose is here. However, as long as I continue to have my family outside the Abyss I expect to be able to visit them,” he tried to keep his tone flat, not showing more emotion than necessary. Somehow he knew that was the best course of action, with Ingrid especially. 

“That will be fine. I’ll have someone order an Abyssal SIM card for you as well, which should let you get in contact with them while you are here,” her focus drifted slightly as she looked towards her blank well, and then she continued, “now, we will start your next lesson. As it is with me anyways,” John was once again confused, but she explained straight afterwards, “each one of the trainees gets a tutor for your specific type of magic, you included. To help you expand your abilities first and foremost. Seeing as that was your next lesson, and given our similar fields and my experience, I assigned myself as your tutor. I expected you to accept my proposal. Be aware, however, this will be extremely tough. You will be taught all that I know, but only as long as you put your all into it.”

“Ok…” John was still hesitant, but his choices were as limited as always.

“I will take that as approval, now then we need to move from here to a more suitable location.”

She stood up and instructed him to follow her to a nearby room. It was a training room of sorts, built like a Japanese dojo, in quite a departure from the rest of the building. On the far end were training dummies. In the middle stood a table with a bowl of water on it, and to the left were packed various seemingly random objects. Books, chairs, balls of various sizes and so on.

Ingrid stopped in the middle of the room, standing over the table in the center, “first, let us cover Mana. Every person has their own type of Mana, which is usually one of the elements, though exceptions can be found. Mana is what allows people to cast spells, the way it is shaped, formed, and manipulated is the application of most magic. It is occasionally tied to personality but more usually tied to the soul. Or as some people believe, the true self. I am not one of those people, as there are different aspects to every element, and different people represent many aspects. Therefore personality cannot be so easily judged by the type of Mana,

“Regardless, the way we discover what sort of Mana each person has is a concrete test that I will show you now. Even though we all are fairly sure the majority of your Mana, at least, is Psychic, it is customary to perform the test on any Abyssal of age. Most Abyssals, which are those that are somewhat competent in magical matters, can manifest their Mana in one way or another, so it is part of our basic schooling. The water and the leaf in the bowl are enchanted to react to the Mana the body naturally generates. In other words, using it we can determine what type or types of Mana one has,” she sounded like she was giving a lecture, but she kept moving with elegance in her place and looked at John the entire time. 

She then instructed him to step towards the table. He now noticed that a leaf was placed in the water bowl, as she had mentioned.

John began feeling nervous as he approached it. It seemed crazy to him that his world now had magic systems in the vain of his favorite fantasies, but nonetheless that was the case. Maybe somewhere inside him he still denied he had it himself. That everything up to know was just some sort of fiction allowed by those around them. Once Ingrid told him to hold his hands above the water and he did so, he couldn’t deny it anymore.

The leaf began floating in the air. It pressed against his hand before he could see it floating in the water, and when he moved his hand up to view the leaf in more detail it moved with his hand, following at a close distance. Ingrid began talking, but John’s attention was elsewhere, something was pulling him as it pulled the leaf. Some force within him demanded his focus.

“We were correct. Your Psychic Mana is clearly quite strong as well.” 

John heard her speak, but it was all muffled, as his mind still focused on the mysterious pull. Honing in on it more and more, things began to happen around him. A blue flower spawned from the leaf, then died off, and instead of sticking to his hand it started moving in the air as if affected by wind. Below it, the water in the bowl expanded as more was created. Steam then rose up as part of water evaporated, and the water that spilled onto the floor in the process became muddy. On the water’s surface a rainbow was barely visible, as the water itself became darker and more opaque. Almost absorbing the light instead of reflecting it.

Ingrid’s shocked expression matched John’s own, and with a flick of her hand she pulled the table away from the Gamer, stopping everything that happened. She ushered him away from the table with a soothing touch as he found himself frozen. 

“I believe that’s enough for today. I promise I’ll explain what happened next time,” she said calmly after staying quiet for a minute, letting them both collect themselves. 

“Ah, ok....” John wasn’t sure what to do. Then he remembered what he had wanted to ask, at least, “oh, one more thing. can I see Orianna?”

“Yes, of course. I’ll have one of my maids take you to her straight away. She’s recovering in one of our wards,” she still looked just as surprised as before, but somehow she still sounded just as composed. 

A maid came in a few minutes later and escorted John out of the room. He followed her through the usual industrial and mansion corridors into new ones. The walls of these hallways were painted entirely white, and medical personnel were busily roaming them. Eventually, they reached a small room in a corner of the area. Orianna was laying on the only bed inside, awake and eating what looked oddly like a pudding cup.

“Hey, Orianna!” John asked once the maid left them alone, he was glad to see she was alright.

“John! It’s good to see you. I was wondering when you’d come by,” she said, chuckling. It looked like whatever force had possessed her earlier was now gone, though John still didn’t know what it was in the first place.

“I’m glad you’re alright. It’s good to see you’re recovering well,” he said, stepping towards her bed with a bit of hesitation. 

“Yeah… Though I don’t have much time left before I need to go back to the Federation. Need to finish my training, same as you,” her smile faded for a second as she looked up at him, only to come back in full force,  “so, how’s that going for you?”