The next morning, I woke to laughter.
Not screaming. Not arguing. Not the sound of someone getting beaten in an alley.
Laughter.
For a few confused seconds, I just lay there listening to it. The bed beneath me was still soft. The blanket was still warm. No matter how many times I woke up here, some part of me kept expecting all of this to disappear.
Three rapid knocks struck my door.
Before I could answer, it opened.
"You're awake."
Liora.
Of course.
"I was sleeping."
"Not anymore."
"I noticed."
She ignored my sarcasm. Unfortunately, everyone in this era seemed immune to it.
"We have attunement testing today."
I sat up slowly.
"Should I know what that means?"
The silence that followed was concerning.
"You don't know what attunement testing is?"
"No."
"You don't know your wavelength?"
"No."
The silence somehow became worse.
"You are the strangest person I've ever met."
I sighed.
That was becoming a common opinion.
"Thank you."
"It wasn't a compliment."
The academy somehow felt even larger than yesterday.
Wave flowed through the grounds like water. Everywhere I looked, or sensed, students were using it casually, like breathing.
One group sat around a floating sphere of water, guiding it through the air while talking amongst themselves. Another practiced bending light into different shapes. Nobody treated it like a privilege. Nobody treated it like power.
They treated it like a school subject.
I still wasn't sure how I felt about that.
The lesson took place inside a large, circular chamber. At the center stood something massive.
A crystal.
At least I thought it was a crystal.
Wave moved through it so densely that it almost felt alive. Countless frequencies flowed through its structure, splitting apart and rejoining in patterns too complex for me to follow. The entire thing hummed.
"Welcome everyone."
The instructor rested a hand against the structure.
"This is a Prism Resonator."
Immediately the room brightened.
Wave surged through the crystal.
Several students cheered.
I nearly stumbled backwards.
The sensation was overwhelming.
The machine wasn't generating Wave.
It was organizing it.
Refining it.
Directing it.
The realization made my stomach twist.
I had seen technology like this before.
Or rather...
I had seen what it eventually became.
The lights in the mines.
The barriers separating districts.
The machines that controlled access to Wave.
All of it felt connected.
Like I was staring at the ancestor of the future.
The teacher continued.
"Prisma technology allows everyone to interact with Wave."
Everyone.
The word hit me harder than it should have.
A student raised their hand.
"What if somebody has weak attunement?"
The instructor smiled.
"Then Prisma technology helps bridge the gap."
He tapped the crystal.
Immediately something rose into the air.A small metallic sphere.Hovering effortlessly.
The class barely reacted. To them, it was normal. To me, it was impossible.
"Prisms naturally separate and refine wavelengths," the instructor explained. "Anyone can utilize their output with proper training."
Anyone.
Not nobles.
Not named households.
Not district elites.
Anyone.
The world really had gone wrong somewhere.
The testing began shortly afterward.
Students approached one at a time.
Each would place their hand on the Resonator.
A few seconds later, the crystal would react.
"Blue."
The room applauded.
Another student stepped forward.
"Orange."
More applause.
Another.
"Yellow."
The crystal flickered brightly.
The process seemed simple.
Eventually, my name was called.
I stood and made my way toward the Resonator. The crystal's hum grew louder with every step, countless streams of Wave splitting and rejoining within its structure. For the first time since arriving in Eden City, I felt nervous.
I placed my hand against the crystal.
Nothing happened.
A few students shifted in their seats.
Then the Wave inside the Resonator stirred.
A faint crimson glow spread through the crystal. Red. Soft at first, then steadily brighter until the entire structure shone with a deep scarlet light.
Whispers immediately broke out around the room.
"Red affinity."
"I knew it."
"That fits him."
"Really? I thought he'd be more of a Blue. Y'know he's so gloomy."
"Nah, he's definitely the quiet type to lash out, right? So, of course, he's a red Wave user."
I had no idea what that was supposed to mean. Or what they were exactly talking about. Knowing what I looked like, I didn't think I was THAT gloomy. Everyone in the slums had a similar appearance.
The instructor, however, wasn't looking at the glow. He was studying the Resonator itself.
The light flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then stabilized.
His brow furrowed.
"Interesting."
My stomach tightened.
"What?"
"Your attunement is Red," he said. "But your resonance pattern is... unusual."
The room quieted.
"Unusual how?"
He tapped the crystal thoughtfully. "Incomplete."
My fingers tightened against the smooth surface.
The word sent a chill through me.
The Resonator recognized the wavelength, but something about it seemed absent. Hollow.
After a moment, the instructor shook his head. "It's probably nothing serious. Significant stress or trauma can affect Wave development."
The class seemed satisfied with that answer.
I wasn't.
Because I knew where this Wave came from.
A lighter snapping open.
The smell of smoke.
The mine manager's screams.
This wasn't my power.
It never had been.
The instructor turned back to the class. "Based on the reading, Samael currently falls within Tier Five."
That sounded low enough not to attract attention.
"What does that mean?" I asked. I knew what it meant. You had to have a decent memory if you were going to practically be blind in the slums.
But I wanted to hear it again. Once again, directly from someone of this peaceful era.
Several students stared at me.
Right. Apparently, everyone else already knew.
"It means you've established a connection with your wavelength but cannot manifest its element directly."
A small red glow formed above the instructor's palm.
"No fire."
The light vanished. He pointed toward a nearby training torch.
"But if fire already exists..."
The flame twisted free from the torch and spiraled through the air, dancing around his hand before returning to its place.
"You can influence existing manifestations of your wavelength."
My gaze hardens a bit.
Fire.
My thoughts immediately returned to the mines. The smoke. The heat. The manager.
Tier Four users could create fire.
Tier Five users could only control it.
Which meant I was on the same level as the Mine Manager bastard.
Now I truly understand the power I have taken.
Maybe I should carry around something to produce fire.
I don't know if it should be a lighter. It would remind me too much of that pretender.
Then Liora's turn arrived.
She walked forward with far more confidence than I would have expected.
The moment her hand touched the crystal, Wave surged.
Green.
Not a faint glow.
Not a flicker.
The entire chamber filled with it.
Somewhere near the windows I felt several plants shift and straighten toward the light.
The instructor laughed.
"Strong Green affinity."
Liora practically skipped back toward me.
"Did you see that?"
"No."
"Oh right."
I frowned.
"Not literally."
"Then?"
"It was... impressive."
She froze.
Actually froze.
I could practically hear her brain stop working.
"You mean that?"
"Maybe."
Her grin was immediate.
I regretted speaking.
Later that afternoon, training moved outside.
Students sat beneath trees wearing what the instructors called Focus Bands.
Simple bracelets embedded with tiny prism fragments.
Apparently, they helped stabilize Wave during training. Depending on your tier, a different sized prism or prisms would be given to you. If your Wave goes higher than that limit without getting a larger one. It will slowly absorb your Wave bringing your level back down to a stable condition.
I was beginning to realize everything in this era involved prisms somehow. It did in the time I come from as well. It was just much more well hidden from us slum born.
Seeing and interacting with it this close would have been almost impossible for me before.
Liora sat beside me on the grass.
The sensation was still strange.
Grass shouldn't be this soft.
Nothing should be this soft.
"You think too much."
"I am learning."
"No."
She pointed at me.
"You're overthinking."
I frowned.
"That's not a real thing."
"It absolutely is."
I leaned back against the tree.
The bark pressed against my shoulders.
For a while, neither of us spoke.
The silence wasn't uncomfortable.
That was new.
Eventually, I found myself asking a question.
"Why is everyone here like this?"
Liora tilted her head.
"Like what?"
"Nice."
The answer escaped before I could stop it.
She didn't laugh.
Didn't make a joke.
Didn't tease me.
For once, she was quiet.
"Were people not nice where you're from?"
My chest tightened.
Images flashed through my mind.
The mines.
The manager.
The slums.
Eda.
My uncle.
Darkness.
Hunger.
Fear.
"No."
The word barely came out.
Liora didn't respond immediately.
Then she lightly bumped her shoulder against mine.
Not enough to annoy me.
Just enough to remind me she was there.
"Well," she said softly, "you're here now."
For some reason, that hurt more than anything else I'd experienced since arriving in Eden City.
Because a small part of me was starting to wish I could stay.
Classes ended just before sunset.
I intended to return directly to North Garden.
Instead, Liora grabbed my sleeve.
"Come on."
I frowned.
"Where?"
"You'll see."
Those words never led to anything good.
Unfortunately, she was stronger than she looked.
Several flights of stairs later, we emerged onto a rooftop.
Wind brushed across my face.
The city stretched around us.
I couldn't see it, but I could feel it.
Wave flowed through Eden like blood through veins. Millions of vibrations pulsed throughout the city. Homes. Vehicles. Streetlights. People. Life.
Every part of the city resonated together.
No barriers.
No districts.
No walls.
Just people.
Liora sat beside me.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?"
I focused my Wave sense.
For a moment, I forgot to breathe.
I could feel children playing several streets away. A musician performing somewhere below. A family eating dinner. An old couple walking together.
The entire city was alive.
And happy.
Something tightened painfully in my chest.
"Yeah," I breathed out.
Liora smiled.
"I come up here whenever I'm sad."
I didn't answer.
Because I was thinking about Eda. About my uncle. About the slums. About how none of them would ever believe a place like this existed.
After a while, Liora nudged my shoulder.
"What are you thinking about?"
I swallowed.
The answer came out before I could stop it.
"I'm thinking..."
My voice felt distant.
Across the street, a mother and her child holding hands. She's carrying freshly baked bread. Happy.
A worker returns home to a waiting lover or family member.
"I'm thinking this world deserves to survive."
Liora laughed softly.
"What a weird thing to say."
Maybe it was.
But I couldn't shake the feeling.
For the first time in my life, I understood exactly what had been taken from us.