Advent - 1.1

The bus was not as full as she expected, a few seats still vacant. Nobody paid her much attention. Morgan sat down and looked around. Most people were staring off into nowhere, eyes unfocused and making weird faces. Less than half had their phones out. A surprise had it been a week earlier. With what happened five days before, though? Not anymore.

She sighed and looked out the window. The streets of Norwich passed by, people out and about in the early morning. Without masks, most of them. Morgan was one of the individuals that kept using it if only to avoid accidental interaction with strangers.

The pandemic was over, just like that. Nobody really believed it but with cancer patients having less than a month to live suddenly healed, it only took a few days to confirm. Mankind was no longer in danger from mundane sickness. At least if you believed the nonsense spread on online forums.

As the bus turned onto Castle Meadow, Morgan thought back to when all this madness started.

She was sitting in the living room with her family. Her parents had an armchair each while she was cuddled on the couch with both her little sisters. Livy, or Olivia, had turned 13 a few months ago while Ellie was nine and still in primary. They were watching the news as usual when suddenly a blue screen popped into Morgan’s sight. It was the colour of the sky and slightly transparent with white letters in black edging. At the same time, heat ran through her body emanating from the centre of her chest. It ran through her arms and legs, coming back up moments later only to culminate between her eyes. The heat wasn’t painful, it was rather pleasant in fact but it was also very distracting and the teenager had to narrow her eyes.

After what felt like an hour but was only a few minutes judging from the news still being on, the warmth petered off. Morgan blinked a few times and felt a slight pull in her nose. Then she looked around. Right in the middle of her view the blue box still floated and followed her eyes. She could see a little through it. The news hosts were staring into the air, confused. They were saying something but Morgan paid it little mind. Ellie was pulling on her arm.

“Morg, hey! What’s going on? Hey!”

She tried to make out the panicked girl but could only see a silhouette through the panel. Couldn’t that stupid thing just disappear?

“What does that mean, system access? What’s the multiverse? Morg! What’s going on?”

“Gimme a sec.”

She groaned and focused on the letters. It was only a single paragraph. What she read made her blood run cold.

Greetings, citizens of realm 893. Your world has been chosen for integration into the multiverse. Adults of intelligent species will be granted basic system access through a Relic. The multiverse integration will take five years. Use your powers wisely and grow strong!

‘What the fuck?’ She thought.

Then the box disappeared and was replaced by a bigger one. Annoyed she swiped at it with her hand. It didn’t react. Then she focused on Ellie still clinging to her arm. This time, the box gave way to let her see.

“I’m here, El. I’m here.”

The girl nodded hesitantly.

Morgan looked around. Olivia sat to her left, still staring into nothingness. Or at the blue screen that was most likely in front of her. Their parents were two very different pictures. Morgan’s mother was mostly calm, though a smile played on her lips as they traced the words only she could see. Her father on the other hand was breathing fast, nearly hyperventilating. His hand was clenched around the armrest.

Morgan stood up and shook him. When that didn’t catch his attention, she brought her face within a finger’s width of his.

“AH!”, he shouted.

“You good?”, Morgan asked.

“Y… Yes, I’m… good. I’m good, yes. Thanks, kitten.”

She nodded at her nickname and went around pulling Olivia and her mother out of their distraction.

They quickly returned to watching the news show, hoping to learn more details, but the hosts were just as surprised as they. Everyone had received the same message. The newsreader held his hand forward, palm facing the ceiling. On it, a small pile of dirt. It was slowly growing and a few crumbs were falling onto the desk. He had a face of childlike wonder while some assistant was trying to get his attention.

Nothing much actually happened that night. Everyone that was deemed an adult had gotten system access and with it some ‘magic’. The cut-off was apparently 13 years. Ellie was out so quickly because she had not felt the heat. She still saw the initial message but she could not pull up a status screen.

Humans had magic now. Morgan knew it was only a question of time until someone started to abuse their power.

The bus came to a stop at St Stephens Street and Morgan got off. She had to move to a different line to get to City College Norwich. Looking around, she spotted her old friend Sylvester. He waved as she approached.

“You know you don’t need that, Morg?”

“I know”, she answered.

He gave her a stare.

“Alright then. Suit yourself. Now, tell me. What power did you get?”

“They’re not powers. We’re not superheroes. It doesn’t matter.”

“But it’s so cool! Did you see that video with the guy punching through a steel plate with his bare fist?”

She nodded.

“Like, pretty much everyone can do cool stuff now!”, he gushed.

“That’s what makes it boring.”

“Ah, you killjoy! Let me have my fun!”

“Not like I can stop you.”

Sylvester grinned.

“Ah, so you don’t have a strength power!”

Morgan shook her head and looked down the street for their bus.

“Isn’t it a little late today?”, she asked nobody in particular.

“Yep. Maybe the driver got held up by some supervillain. Probably Doc No-Bus or some weird name like that.”

He made a face.

Morgan smirked underneath her facemask. Her friend had cursed his parents several times over for giving him such a weird name. Especially his mother that had abandoned the family as soon as she could stop breastfeeding.

“Or the Busnapper”, she said.

“You’re terrible at names.”

“Like you’re one to talk.”

They giggled, a few other students and early morning transmuters giving them glances.

Soon after, the bus arrived and they got on.

Getting to campus was weird. There had been a few weeks of school last year but the virus had mutated and forced courses back to online lessons. Morgan had enjoyed the quiet learning from home. She was able to surf the internet and watch cat videos whenever she got bored. Or raven videos. Those were always black. Videos of black cats were even better but she had to filter out a lot of others to get to the good stuff.

Now, everyone was back. Okay, almost everyone. The children below thirteen were able to get a preventive sick leave. They had not been healed. Apparently, that was happening because of the Relics and not the system itself. It was still way too crowded for Morgan’s taste. She liked the quiet, books, and no people. And black animals.

As they walked to their classroom, Sylvester and Morgan both had taken maths and physics, they spotted students standing around in groups. Most people were still normal and had not changed outwardly. Even those like her father, who had a Relic that increased the resilience of his skin, looked the same as before. But some had signs of small physical changes. One guy had roots of green hair growing out as if he had coloured it brown before to fit in. Someone else had six tiny horns in two small triangles on their forehead. Those were the ones everyone crowded around.

Everyone was talking about the same thing. The videos of flashy powers and what their favourite streamer had gotten. People shooting lightning out of their fingertips or someone flying with no assistance versus the nobodies with a simple increase in strength or speed. Tension was high, everyone waiting for things to blow up. Would there be villains, terrorizing the people and heroes braving adversity? Or would the fact that everyone was special make it so nobody was?

Morgan knew it was only a matter of time until someone deranged enough got the balls to use their Relic for evil. Maybe they would be looking to level up. That was the most common theory online: “Everyone was still level zero because you had to kill people to level up.” Still, people were not yet resorting to violence. Or the news stations were suppressing information. The forums had madmen and madwomen claim outrageous things but science was behind. They could not make sense of what was happening.

The friends rounded the corner to their classroom and ran into a group blocking off the hallway. Someone was talking in a loud voice, a wall of gawkers blocking their figures.

“You’re an idiot, Brad. Stop it”, a guy called.

Morgan didn’t recognize the voice.

“Ha! Why would I? Just because you feel inferior? Well, you are. You’re commons all around. No wonder you’re jealous of my power!”

That had to be Brad. He sounded like an asshole.

“Can we go around?”, she asked Sylvester.

“I don’t think so.”

“What are you even saying? Listen to yourself, damn it!”, other guy said.

There was supportive mumbling in the crowd.

“You’re weak! You guys are all weak and tiny and useless!”

Brad was nearly screaming at this point. Then, a freezing voice cut through the commotion.

“What is going on here?”

Morgan turned, along with the rest of the students. Behind her was Mrs Martin, their maths teacher. She was young for a teacher, maybe in her late twenties, early thirties at most. She wore a stylish skirt and blouse combo in black and ice-blue, hair pulled back tight. Her blue lips were pulled into a line, an icy glare scanning the students. Only when looking closer, Morgan saw Mrs Martin’s lips were not blue because of lipstick but because tiny ice crystals formed on them. She looked even more stringent than in the video lessons.

“Someone explain”, she demanded. A thin cloud of vapour blew out of her lips as if it was winter.

The crowd parted. Brad and other guy were standing there like deer caught in a headlight.

“N-nothing, Mrs Martin. Nothing at all”, other guy said and stepped to the side, “We were just talking about all the new stuff.”

“Right, the weakling retreats at the first sign of danger”, Brad laughed, “They were just jealous of my awesome fire-power!”

He made a fist and flames broke out from between his fingers. The heat clashed with the cold air as Mrs Martin spoke.

“No use of powers on school ground.”

Brad narrowed his eyes.

“What about you, Mrs Martin? You’re freezing the hallway!”

“Teachers may use their Relics to discipline unruly students. It’s all part of the new temporary house rules the board agreed on over the weekend. Now stop that fire.”

Brad showed his teeth and let out a low growl. For a moment it looked like he would further provoke the teacher. Then the flames stopped. He clenched his fist and scoffed before turning around and walking off. Mrs Martin turned to the rest of the students.

“To your classrooms, everyone. The changes to rules will be explained in your first lesson today. Which is starting in less than two minutes.”

She walked through and into Morgan’s classroom.

“Great”, she whispered to Sylvester, “Hope she’s not as cold when grading.”

He snorted.

“Not like we can do much about that. Let’s go.”

Morgan glanced at her friend. He looked far less confident than he tried to sound. His fingers were playing with the hem of his T-shirt and he was chewing on the corner of his lip.

“Right. Shouldn’t be too bad. Mrs Martin was much nicer in the video lessons, though.”

They filed into the classroom. It took a little for everyone to find a seat and soon after, the bell rang for the start of the lesson.

“Good morning everyone. It’s good to finally see you all in person.”

Mrs Martin still breathed out a cold cloud of vapour, ice covering her lips.

“I’m sure you have many questions, as has everyone in this strange time. I won’t be able to answer a lot of them but I will do my best to help you where I can. Though this is a school and most of you are trying for A-levels in maths. Lessons will continue as planned and I will prepare you as much as I can. The results for your AS-levels are published digitally as was planned before this all happened.”

She waved a hand gesturing to the world at whole.

“Now, there’s a few more weeks left for this term and I’m going to start on the A-level material you will need next year. I will also be available for any questions regarding school life, further education and career choices. Simply catch me after a lesson or send me an e-mail and I’ll try to help you where I can. Any questions so far?”

Several hands were raised.

“Any questions about school, so far?”

The hands went down.

“Good. Now, for the important part. Due to the… circumstances, the board has decided to expand the behavioural rules for our school life. Powers granted by Relics are, most of the time, relatively harmless. That is, for now. We don’t know what the future will bring. That said, there are several people in this school that have gained the ability to do some serious damage. For that reason, power use will be heavily restricted and monitored. Any excessive powers, like that fire guy, for example, are forbidden. Since most common relics seem to give simple physical benefits, their effects can not be observed as easily. I trust that you are all old enough to judge how far you can go. Injuring your schoolmates or damaging school property will be punished accordingly, much harsher now that the risks are higher. Teachers are allowed to use their powers to protect or help students as well as discipline those who disregard their fellow human’s safety. I hope that will not be necessary. Any questions?”

Her gaze slowly scanned the room. One by one, Mrs Martin met every student’s eyes. Most flinched back or looked away after a moment. Morgan found a particularly interesting spot on her desk. Someone had scratched a smiley face into the surface. It was very clean work, the mouth a smooth quarter curve with two near-perfect circles slightly above. There was no nose.

“You. I’m sorry, I can’t place your faces, yet”, Mrs Martin called on a student.

“Why are you using your power right now, Mrs Martin?”

He asked the question everyone wanted to know. Why was their teacher breathing freezing air and had ice crystals on her lips?

She smirked.

“I’m not. My Relic changed my body to require cold, rather than warmth. I have a blood temperature of around negative three degrees Celsius. I can’t tell you how it’s not frozen.”

“Mmmmagic! snort snort”, someone imitated a famous actor.

Giggles went through the classroom and even Mrs Martin’s lips pulled into a smile.

“If that’s all, I’ll start the lesson now.”

The day proceeded mostly normally from there. The lessons were more boring, the groups coming together in between held more interesting discussions but the grand total was no different.

Morgan meandered through the hours. When the second break came, she and Sylvester met his girlfriend Hannah in the hallway. They had biology together next. Hannah was half-Asian and had been one of the school bitches when they were in tenth grade. A month before the pandemic began, Sylvester had asked her out and somehow the two had quickly turned into a couple. Hannah stopped using excessive make-up and wore less opulent accessories. Even Morgan, who only had the one friend in Sylvester, quickly accepted the new girl after getting to know her. Sometimes she felt like she was the couple’s mascot but she was fine with it. They were good friends, after all.

Hannah greeted her boyfriend with a quick peck on the lips and gave Morgan a hug.

“Good to see you! How are you doing? Everything alright?”

Morgan nodded.

“I’m good”, Sylvester said, “Great, even. Now…”

He trailed off. Hannah gave him a look and turned to Morgan.

“Hey, what’s your Relic? Got one of those standard things? Or something good?”

Morgan glanced around.

“You don’t have to answer here if you don’t want everyone to know, I get that.”

“Eh. It’s nothing special. One of the common ones.”

“Oh, I’m sorry!”

Hannah pulled her close.

“You’ll be fine, alright? I don’t have anything powerful either. It’s just an upgrade to my senses. Kinda overloads my brain a little.”

The girls chittering laugh filled the hallway. She turned back to her boyfriend and the two started whispering to each other. Morgan had half a mind to eavesdrop but decided to let them have their privacy. If they needed her help, they could just ask.

Instead, she pulled up her status screen. There was a lot of smattering and guesswork not only online but also in mainstream media. Everyone wanted to know what was going on. What did this mean? What was coming? How did you get stronger? Should you get stronger?

The first lines were basic information. They read name, age, level and alignment. For her, it looked like this:

Name: Morgan Moore

Age: 17:08:25

Level: 0

Alignment: United Kingdom

The age looked almost like she was 17 hours old which had made her laugh the first time she saw it. It was instead set up as years:months:days. Initially, it read 20 days for her. Today was the 6th of June, the start of the second half of summer term. There shouldn’t be much in terms of lessons but with how little they had progressed during online teaching, the teachers wanted to catch up as much as they could.

The level sitting at a fat zero made everyone a little worried. There were a few claims online of people having managed to get higher but pretty much everyone dismissed that as attention-grabbing with how disparate the information was on what levelling gave. All reputable sources of information were still looking for someone to bring proof. There were even bounties set up by some governments and a few people with too much money to waste.

The next set were attributes. Not the standard video game attributes everyone would expect but instead, a set of three without any explanation at all.

Will: 1

Renewal: 1

Harmony: 1

Once more, nobody had clear knowledge of what they did. Morgan suspected Renewal to be the cause for everyone being healed. Will was most likely how well someone could use their Relic and Harmony might be the power they could exert. How someone increased them was up in the air. Or in the blue box.

There were only two more lines in Morgan’s status screen. One of them, the last one, read ‘Traits:’ with a small dash behind. Those were something she would likely have to unlock as well. Just above was the important thing.

Relic: Crooked Nose (unique)

Morgan shuddered. The memory of her nose itching after the initialization, as the 1st of June was now called by everyone, made her wonder why it still looked normal. Along with the Relic had come instinctive knowledge of how to use it. Morgan’s brain was filled with recipes of potions and poisons. From some simple nutrient solutions and basic healing potions up to something that transformed the drinker into a frog for a few hours or a poison strong enough to kill a full football stadium with a single drop, she knew how to make it. She also knew what she needed. Morgan was, by all known measures, a witch. She wondered where she could find wendigo bladder. It was one of the key ingredients for Devil’s Blood, the most lethal poison she knew.

With a sigh, she dismissed her screen. At least it looked impossible to make the really dangerous stuff. That would let her avoid temptation.

“Hey, Morg! Where are you going?”, Hannah called out.

She turned around to the voice.

“Oh. Sorry. Thanks.”

Morgan had gone past their next classroom while sunk into her thoughts.

“Geez, phones were bad but this stuff is much worse, isn’t it?”

Hannah nodded.

“Better just don’t look at it when you’re not sitting down. I heard some people already got into accidents because they were lost in their menu. Gives blue-screen-of-death a completely new meaning, huh?”

Morgan snorted.

“Right. At least you could see when someone was distracted by a phone.”

“Not like it’s hard to see someone staring off into thin air.”

They giggled and found their seats. Unfortunately, Brad, the fire idiot, was sitting in the same classroom. Morgan sighed and made to sit as far away from him as possible. A few minutes later Mr Sanders came in and started the lesson.

At first, it looked like it would be another normal lecture mainly reviewing the questions from the AS exams. Halfway through, the discussion went off the rails. One student had asked the question how the initialization had healed everyone who gained a Relic. Soon, a small group of students were locked in a debate with the teacher about the long-term effects of Relics on human physiology. Someone cited Mrs Martin’s cold blood as an obvious outlier. Just as the teacher looked to wrap it up, Brad piped in. The hothead had been gazing out the window and playing with his fingers. Morgan could see a small plume of smoke coming from his empty desk before he slapped a hand on top of it.

“Bullshit! All you’re saying is bull! Shit! I don’t believe for one second there’s an explanation with our traditional science for fucking magic.”

“Mister Walker!”, the teacher admonished.

“No! Listen to yourself! You’re sitting here, trying to figure shit out without even trying anything. That’s not scientific! That’s fucking religion at best!”

“Oh, and you’re so much better. It’s been five days”, one of the other students said, “Get off your high horse, man.”

Brad raised an eyebrow.

“High horse? I’ll show you how fucking high it is, moron!”

Morgan had shifted her chair even further away from the maniac, trying to keep her distance. The air around him was getting hotter by the second and around his fist flames started to greedily devour the oxygen.

“Brad Walker, cease your power-use this instant!”, the teacher said. His voice was near shouting but the man looked scared like someone staring into the fires of hell.

“Fuck no! You’re scared of this shit? Huh? That’s why you have no fucking idea what’s going on with us! I have used my power and I will keep using it. I know what I can do. Don’t you fucking tell me!”

“Brad!”, the girl sitting to his left screeched, “Stop it!”

The folder in front of her was starting to smoulder, small plumes of smoke rising to the ceiling. He turned to her, flames flickering around his face.

“THE FUCK DO YOU WANT?”

Then, all hell broke loose. Brad shot out of his chair, bringing his fist forward. Hannah, who was sitting closer to the commotion, shrieked as Sylvester jumped forward, pushing his desk into the charging boy. A burning fist turned on its path and struck the new threat on his chest.

Hannah was half out of her chair as Sylvester’s shirt caught fire. Brad jumped back and tumbled over his desk, hitting his head on the ground, the flames and heat around him dissipating quickly. Sylvester ripped the burning cloth off his body as Hannah started fussing over him. Morgan looked around the room, aghast. Had that really just happened? She spotted their teacher cowering behind his desk, only one eye half-peeking from behind it. He was shivering despite the lingering warmth.

She shook herself and rushed to her friends’ side. Sylvester’s shirt was lying on the ground, someone had stomped out the flames. He was sitting between the legs of his tipped-over desk and breathing hard. Hannah held his hand and shoulder, slowly whispering into her boyfriend’s ear. He was nodding slowly with wide eyes.

“Are you okay?”, Morgan asked.

He looked up and blinked. Then he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. She saw the blistering burn on his chest. It had the approximate outline of a fist with some red skin on the edges.

“That looks really painful”, she remarked.

“No shit”, Sylvester hissed through his teeth, “I’ll be fine, though. Don’t worry. ‘S just a burn.”

“Syl, come on. Let’s get to the infirmary. Mr Sanders, you don’t mind, do you?”, Hannah said.

“AH”

The teacher flinched and completely hid behind his desk.

“I-i-i… don’t mind. Not at all. Lesson ‘s over, everyone. Out! Out, I said!”

The students closest to the door were gone in seconds. Morgan couldn’t fault them. She would be away from this madman already if not for her friends taking their damn time.

Sylvester was slowly catching his breath while Hannah collected their belongings. Morgan helped pick up the items from the ground. They were awfully close to Brad’s prone form. As she was reaching for one of the last pens, the boy woke up with a groan. He laid awkwardly hunched on the tipped over table and had to shift his body a few times before getting his bearings. Then he met Morgan’s eyes. He held her gaze for a moment before moving on. When he spotted Sylvester’s chest, his eyes widened. He turned back to Morgan. Then back to Sylvester. The boy lifted his hand and stared at it, flames sputtering in and out of existence in between his fingers. They had lost much of their heat. He looked at Morgan.

“… did I do that?”, Brad asked.

She nodded.

He sunk in on himself, bringing his hands up to cover his face.

“Fuck…”

“Great control you have there”, Morgan remarked before picking up the last two pens and turning away.

“Let’s go”, she said to her friends.

A minute later the bell rang to signal the end of the lesson. They were just about to leave when Morgan turned around. The teacher still cowered behind his desk, Brad despairing in the room by himself.

“Might you let me pass?”, a cold voice asked.

For the second time that day, Morgan turned around to the freezing breath of Mrs Martin. She stepped aside. Then, Hannah called out.

“Come on Morg. Let’s go.”

Morgan turned away and ignored the icy voice coming out of the classroom. Later that day, she would learn Brad was expelled without further notice and would have to find something else to do with his life. Their biology teacher, Mr Sanders, took a sick leave until the end of the school year. He wanted to avoid conflict with anyone and everyone and didn’t leave his house other than to buy the base necessities.

The three friends made it to the infirmary. Mr Lee, the P.E. teacher, let them in, Sylvester being ushered to a cot. Morgan and Hannah watched from a few steps away as the teacher treated the wound with some ointment and a bandage.

“Looks like that healing thing was one time only”, Sylvester joked, “Maybe I’ll get a cool scar at least.”

He wasn’t the best looking but he wasn’t fat either. Morgan scanned the room for some spare shirt or something else to cover him up. His T was completely ruined. Mr Lee had one and gave it to Sylvester. It was a little too large but that only meant the wound would not be pressed down.

“Right, let me clean that up”, Sylvester said looking at the leftover ointment on the teacher’s hands.

A soft glow started to emanate from it and moments later, the man’s hands were cleaner than coming from a shower.

“That was technically a violation of the new rules but I’ll let it slide”, the teacher said.

Sylvester nodded, his face showing he hadn’t even thought about that.

“You have magic?”, Morgan asked as they made to leave the school for lunch.

“Yup. House magic. My Relic is called Burning Hearth. It’s an uncommon.”

“And I was supposed to stop you? From what? Being a househusband?”

Morgan snorted.

The others started giggling as well.

“Please don’t stop him from that”, Hannah complained, “I could really use the extra time for studying.”

“I think we might have other things to worry about than school in the near future.”

“Always the pessimist, Morgan. I tell you, just look at the bright side for once!”, Sylvester said.

She felt the corner of her lips pulling up.

“Thanks, Syl, I’ll try. You guys got any more lessons today?”

Sylvester grunted.

“Technically, yes, but I think they’ll let me go.”

Hannah snorted.

“They better do. Else, I’ll drag you out of here myself! I’m done, what about you?”

“I’m free. Tomorrow is a long day, though”, Morgan said.

“Want to go somewhere, after?”

“I think I need some rest”, Sylvester said.

“Yeah, same. Today was a little too... exciting”, Morgan joined.

Hannah sighed.

“Alright, then. We can do something when Syl is back at full power.”

Morgan glanced off to the side.

“Yeah. I’d like that.”

Morgan was glad to see her friends again. Despite being a loner, she didn’t hate people. She just enjoyed them in small doses. Having been unable to meet them in person was tough, even with her loving family. She could not imagine how hard it must have been on Sylvester. Though he and Hannah probably still met quite regularly, the boy needed much more contact. With most of his friends ending up somewhere else after O-levels, he had been getting more and more depressed about not having a proper send-off party. Now, things looked to be better, despite the burn on his chest. And Morgan already had an idea how to fix that.

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