The Great

Evay Maver: I laid down and almost immediately went to sleep. I was really hoping to get some rest, but I felt myself slip into another dream. I closed my eyes and opened them to find myself inside a huge room. The ceilings were hundreds of meters in the air, and everything was coated in a deep lavish shade of gold. The pillars were made of snow-white marble, and at the end of the extremely long and wide room was a man. The man I had seen from my previous dream, and all the other ones before it. It was only when I saw him on his throne did I realize this was a palace, not a room. The man looked relaxed and very pleased. He rested his face on one hand and he smiled down at me. “Well, you have risen above my expectations. Being able to control my abilities like that is truly wonderful.” I walked towards him and tried my best to speak.

“Your abilities? What do you mean?” He laughed and flicked his fingers in the air—which immediately made a golden cup with wine in it appear.

“Yes, I suppose I should explain. You may want to relax for me, this is going to be quite the revelation.” He summoned a seat of marble which I promptly sat in and waited for him to speak. “Your abilities, they are not yours. What you can do, every single thing that you have ever done in combat was made possible by me.” I sat in silence, waiting for him to say more. “Your blueprint, that was etched into you by me, but that’s not what’s given you your abilities. Everyone else gains their abilities from their blueprints but you are different.” He smiled at me and I tried to speak but no words came out.

“So…where do my abilities come from?”

He grinned, “My blessing.” There was a long silence in the room—mainly because I was thoroughly confused. Where am I? Is this real? Who is this guy? What’s a blessing? I gathered my thoughts together and the man smiled again. He rose up out of his chair and the whole palace began to shake. I tried to grab onto something but it was hopeless. I fell out of my seat and I saw the whole palace begin to snap away. I felt my head spin and my world spiral into circles as I hit the floor. I opened my eyes and we were outside. I looked onward and before my eyes was a vast forest of lush green trees. Their high canopies blanketed the earth and the vines of the trees cascaded over the forest. It was beautiful, the sun and the bright blue morning light hit the earth with all its beauty. I was stunned, too much to speak. I looked up and saw the man descending down onto the earth. His light and glory made even the beauty of the forest crawl into the background. His power and shine made the color drain from reality, and his eyes glowed golden even in the sunlight. He smiled.

“Firstly, I feel like introductions are due now. My name is Hiem of Ventona. You may not know me or see me, but I’ve always been by the side of humanity.” My throat was dry, my legs numb, and my body didn’t work. I couldn’t do anything, but even so, words came out of my mouth.

“Who…are you?”

He held out a hand, and a golden scepter flew into it.. “I am the one all mankind desires. Hiem of Ventona, the symbol of wealth and power.”

My head went numb and my mind felt like it had exploded. “You….you’re a symbol. You guys really exist…I remember talking about you with Aurora..I thought you were an urban legend…” Hiem smiled and he thrust his scepter into the ground.

“Well, you humans used to be very attached to us. But as you got better at living by yourselves you tended to steer away from us symbols. It’s only natural I suppose—you didn’t need us anymore”. A huge throne of gold appeared behind Hiem and he sat down in it. “But we have always existed. We represent both the physical and ideological aspects of your world. What you humans want, seek, or need get manifested into us. We are the symbols of your reality.” I stared at him as he sat on his throne and started to feel more comfortable.

“I remember, you’re one of the big four symbols right. Time, creation, and wealth and power. The last one….I can’t remember.” He smiled.

“Ah….you humans always forget this one don’t you.” He grinned and he finally spoke, “The symbol of life. His name is Cara of Midahn, our king and ruler.” My eyes went wide and my brain suddenly turned on.

“I…I remember now…He was in one of my children’s stories. King Cara and his quest where he—“

“Made a beautiful lamp to give light for his daughter? Yes I know that tale. It was an easy explanation for how you got the sun.” I raised my eyebrows.

“So is that why we have the sun?”

Hiem laughed. “Of course not, but we had to keep you believing something.” He stood up and faced me.

“I chose you for a reason, did you know that?”

“No–I have no clue.” He titled his head,

“What do you mean?”

“I’m a peasant, I’m no good, I couldn’t even run a couple meters without passing out from exhaustion a couple months ago. I don’t know how to fight very well yet, and I’m not used to anything in this world. So why me? For what grand plan did you give me these abilities?”

He smiled. “You are from the peasantry which meant you had no blueprint. It was perfect for me to give you a brand new one since you didn’t have one before. You were an empty canvas, a blank sheet.”

“What…when did you give me a blueprint?”

“Remember…the library? Your first dream? The burning sensation you felt in your sleep. That was me, etching a blueprint into your body. I have been with you ever since then and I had a plan all along. Of course you’ve never had a drop of liquor in your life so you haven’t unlocked your blueprint yet. Not that liquor from this Earth would do anything for you in particular anyway.” I was too shocked to speak. I did remember, I had just ran away from that noble Wyren, and I had just hit rock bottom. No food, no shelter…I remember I had worried where I would sleep in the winter, and at that time I had never thought I’d have a school and friends to keep me warm and comfortable. But if he was with me from all the way back then...Then I was a cog in his plan. From day one, I was given a power…a power from out of this world.

“So…..for all this time…..it was you?” He laughed at the sight of my speechless face.

“Yes. You may be wondering why I gave you a blueprint if all you could use were the powers of my blessing. Well that’s a plan I’ll tell you about much later.” He winked and began to turn away.

“Wait! What’s a blessing?”

He turned back around. “A blessing is a gift from a symbol that ties your soul to theirs. It gives you, the receiver, the abilities of the symbol themselves. It ties us together through something closer than blood, I am a part of you.” I stood there, feeling both numb and shocked.

“So…I have your abilities? I’m…a symbol?”

“Yes, blessings are very rare, they are usually only given inside the families of symbols. But I have made an exception”. Suddenly a light turned on in my brain.

“You…with that woman…that’s what you were talking about…a blessing..in my dream.” He smiled and shook his head.

“Ah yes ... .she is a hassle that one ... .Many do not know my dealings with you but they will soon understand.” He turned around and began to fade away.

“So if you need a little power, you know who and what to think about.” He smiled and the world began to fade away. Everything began to shrink and close until I opened my eyes and sat up—gasping for breath.

I was back…back in reality.

The morning was clear and the skies were bright blue as I met with the rest of my team to eat breakfast. Everyone was well rested since we had all slept until noon, so technically, we were eating lunch. Aurora told me about something called brunch, or a meal between breakfast and lunch. It was a little confusing and weird. We never used to have one meal, much less three a day. Having time to eat was pretty strange to me. But I wasn’t complaining as it was our rest day today, and we would be heading down to the arena to watch the other matches. This match was really important as the winner of this one would face us…Geon piled on flat shaped cakes called pancakes onto his plate and ate them whole. He chomped down on one before folding and eating another one. “Man, this match is supposed to be crazy right? Volimen, and Betezar are some pretty strong nations.” They all nodded. I did too but I had no clue what any of those countries were.

Aurora picked up a strawberry and spoke. “I think we’ll face Volimen, they shouldn’t lose. Only one of them scares me though,” she tossed her strawberry in her mouth and took a sip of water. “His name is Lyen. He’s apparently really strong. The only reason why Volimen even qualified.” I took a big bite out of my waffle and contemplated things for a while. We have two more rounds, one against Leona, and the semi-finals before the finals. If we lose it’s over… It never hit me how serious these matches were. We only had four of them and we couldn’t lose one…I tried not to think about it too much but it was hard.

Savian spoke, “Well it should be fine. We got our first match jitters out and we’ll win all our other ones.” He got up and we all started to head towards the arena. We saw hundreds of people in chariots and lines trying to get into the arena. There were seven hours left before the match started but there were still so many people already here…We climbed up into the V.I.P box and relaxed. We weren’t planning to stay here all day but we still wanted to see more of what it was like here. Geon opened the door and my eyes widened in surprise. Fellen, Doner, Ally, Mia, and Cain were lounging in the room. They looked towards us and all had mixed reactions. Mia stood up and looked furious, Doner smiled, Cain nervously scratched his fingers, Ally waved indifferently, and Fellen walked towards us.

He held out his hand. “Good match, we must pay respects when they are due.” Aurora looked slightly shocked but smiled and shook his hand, “Of course, I’m honored.” It was as if the tension in the room had broken. I relaxed a bit and I felt my shield go off. I was surprised…Am I so tense that it’s been on the whole time? Lila and Geon let out a nervous laugh while Savian rolled his eyes.

Fellen smiled, “Well, with that I feel as if we can enjoy the match together, yes?” All of us nodded and we all began to talk. It was weird, talking with them…Our only goal had been to beat these guys ever since we met them. Getting to know them as humans was strange, but also nice. They were very good people—when they weren’t trying to murder you… I saw Geon, Savian, and Doner all on the couch together. Doner laughed with a boom. “Yes! It’s true, I am what you call in your country, a giant. But I do have liquor abilities. They granted me my immense size and strength—they are my blessings.”

I looked over at Lila, Fellen, and Ally talking. Lila chuckled, “Geon’s strong but he’s kind of stupid. Maybe that’s just how I feel but I think everyone knows it.” Ally and Fellen laughed and I smiled. But there was only one person that wasn’t happy, Mia. She sulked in a corner looking angry and despised. Maybe it was her competitive spirit, or maybe she just really hated her teammates… I sneakily crept around the room, rolled over a couch, knocked down a vase, and finally sat next to her. She saw me and jumped a little. “What…what are you doing?” She sounded angry and offended, as if I had insulted her.

“Nothing…you just seemed lonely.” She scoffed and her angry eyes pierced into me.

“I do not need company. Go, do what you please with them.” She went back to sulking away and fiddled with her necklace. I wasn’t mad or angry at her for being cold to me though… I–of all people–had no right to be mad at other people for being angry. I looked at her necklace and spoke,

“Your necklace…is it common to wear something like that in your country?” She looked at me with a puzzled expression.

“Why does it matter to you?” I spoke.

“Well nothing really. I mean things don’t really always have to matter. Sometimes I just want to know things, so I can understand and appreciate the people and the things around me. We’re not enemies anymore…I don’t know anything about you…So it would be nice if I could finally see what type of people you truly are.” She was quiet.

She looked down at her necklace and spoke. “You knocked us out, you were the one who threw me out. We failed our country, we failed our people. We lost to you who are all so young…I am mad at you but more ourselves. I am mad at myself. For being overconfident, I’m mad at my team for being so content with our loss. On top of that you’re all so “nice,” and so how can any of your talk make me feel better? Why would I want to talk to you?” I looked at her stone cold eyes and tried my best to speak.

“I understand–a lot actually…I'm really good at losing…Too good. I’ve lost all my life at everything..Nothing good had ever happened to me until almost all my childhood had passed away. I never felt like talking then. It felt unproductive, no one would listen to me. Talking to the very people who would never help me felt like admitting defeat.” She stopped fiddling with her necklace and listened.

“My point is, from someone who's lost all their life…it never helps to wallow in your pity. Things don’t get better until you try to make things better.” I smiled and she looked up at me with a cautious look.

“And why are you saying these things to me?”

I leaned back in my chair. “I’ve been in the same spot as you. I know how you feel, might as well try to make you feel better right?” She didn’t speak for a long time. I faintly heard the conversations around me but I kept my focus on Ally.

She finally spoke. “This necklace was a gift from my grandmother. In her time it was meant to bring you victory, and it was worn into battle by warriors. Of course it’s just a piece of rock but I’ve always worn it. I feel like bad things will happen if I don’t.” She looked at me with a serious expression, but all the anger and hate had left her eyes. “But you guys proved to me that bad things can still always happen.” I saw her caress her necklace and spoke softly.

“I think you just feel attached to the feeling of the necklace. It’s a gift from family, something to remind you of better days. When you remember the good people in your life, it helps right?” She nodded and she looked at her team.

“Good people…” She whispered and looked longingly at the others. I smiled.

“Try to be a team. Get to know them, it helped me..maybe it will help you.” I smiled and got out of my chair. My teammates were gathering near the door and we all waved bye to the others. We would be back in a bit to watch the match, but the time spent here felt memorable. New friends and new people always made me feel like I was finally beginning to live. Making enemies was easier but, making friends sure felt a lot better.