The one who laughs last

Julia was always the generic one, the one nobody cared about due to the fact that she acted just like the others and had always fit in. When she stood infront of the class and said she was moving, everyone said their good-byes and everyone pretended to be sad. However, it was clear they didn't care. The air of apathy hung to strongly around them, their eyes stared not at Julia, but somewhere in the space behind her, where they didn't have to say good-bye to the girl they didn't even know.

Julia had these thoughts in mind as she stared out the window into the simple countryside. Within an hour, the Cliffs of Usmere would rise from the distance, first a barely tangible shade of gray, slowly materializing into something more accesible, less menacing, and finally they would be passing the tunnel that separated Usmere from the rest of the world.

The country had a form of rustic pleasantness about it, now that she thought about it. The deary grey hills went on for hours on end, the sky was heavy and dim, but there was something insipiring in the quiet plants that grew in every other conrner and stubbornly refused to disappear. Or perhaps it wasn't the plants, but rather the way the whole country-side looked as though beeing seen through a dream, giving it a surreal nature of sorts. Layer after layer of dust collected on every crevice, making them seem like ghosts, and that is where the comfort of the place came.

At last they reached the cliffs, and they were a sight to behold. They rose miles over the earth, with a kind of humbling antiqueness that gave Julia a feeling of being completely meaningless. Every single crack, every single piece of texture that was part of the rocks helped magnify this feeling. Julia wouldn't have noticed them back home, but here the contrast was so sharp between the flat land and the cliffs, and the humidity in the air brought out every detail so sharply, it was impossible not to notice the way those cracks were covered in dirt, and the way the roots of that specific plant crumbled the whole boulder near the bottom in its wild fight for survival.

Soon, they were enveloped in darkness. These were the famous tunnels that ran through the hole cliff wall, she thought. Only dim lanterns lit each curve as Julia's cart rattled over the road worn by many others before her. She wanted to meet the others that were with her, but she had no choice but tuck her skinny legs over her bony knees and look out the window into the darkness that seemed to never end.

Here is one thing about Julia: Though she acted normal, she didn't look like it. Her spinal cord jutted out from her shoulder blades in an almost unnatural way, then slowly became less pronounced as it morphed into her spinal bone. Her skin was pastel white, her hair was ebony black, her eyes were green, but not emerald-green, rather the color of the ocean if it was made of green-tinged glass. She did not seem out of place in the country-side, as a matter of fact. Too bad they were going to live in a mining town from now on.

At last, the cart stopped. The force of the sudden stop jerked everyone around the cubicles where they were. The driver, the one with arms with bulging veins that seemed to dance when he showed any effort, opened all the doors in the cart with a push of a button. "We're here!"

They stepped out of the cart with tired steps. She scanned her eyes over the crowd, looking for any familiar faces that might have spent their childhood in Julia's cabin. She couldn't find a single one, all the faces looked almost excactly the same. She shrugged. Not that finding familiar faces was desirable. Secure, yes. Desirable, no.

She stepped into the large cavern that was the table room. Every step rebounded off the walls, was amplified a million times, then reached her tired ears. This was a good thing, since she could hardly see anything. The room was dark and brooding, and the few scattered torches did nothing to create lights, instead casting longer shadows on the walls, and the dust that was picked up at every lodu step simply created an illusion of swimming through brown clouds.

A senior at the underground city of Usmere stood behind the podium with a lean back and eyes deep within his sockets. His face was long and angular, his hands like a spider whose legs were too knobby. He opened his pale lips, then closed them again. With a sweeping motion of the hand he invited everyone to sit down. He coughed a few times, then began. "Good morning, would it be correct to presume you are all the kids from Poesin?" Everyone stood still. "Good, then we shall continue."

Another senior with jowls that gave him a permanent frown stood up from the crowd. His face was fat and round, something that contrasted deeply with his skinny body. "Excuse me sir, shouldn't we begin with the correct procedure?"

"We haven't begun with the procedure at Usmere for over thirty years! It is tradition!" He walked over to were the speaking man. Perhaps walked isn't the correct word. It was more of a deliberate scurry, or a crawl. The man was quite like a spider outside of his bony hands. "We should finish this as quickly as possible so the kids can start working! They're from Poesin, for goodness's sakes! I think it would be counter-intuitive to begin with the procedure," He walked -scurried- over to the podium and glared at the man.

"Do you even know the meaning of the word counter-intuitive?" The man frowned, which was something more like pursing his lips, due to his facial structure, and rolled his eyes. "Nevermind, I don't think you do. This is going to be recorded, so watch your words,"

The spidery man wrote a quick number of strokes on the table. He looked up and called names in a seemingly random order, although Julia knew it had a deep connection with how they would spend the rest of their lives. At last, her name was called. "Julia Mary!"

She stood up infront of the group, and she saw lethargy was already begginnning to set in. It wasn't obvious, for sure, it was trying it's best to remain hidden in the trenches of the mind, but it still came out in not-quite erect backs, glazing eyes, and sagging shoulders. Perhaps they was already enough ennui in the room to deafen their ears, she thought. Maybe they won't find out. Maybes piled up in her mind, one after another after another, and she regained her confidence. She was still careful, for sure, but she could no longer feel her heart trying to rip itself out of her chest.

The spidery man darted his beady eyes at her. He stood staring for a long time, and Julia could feel her heartbeat slowly synchronise with the rest of the room's, everyone breathing and everyone blinking at the same time. The weary eyes of most people turned to Julia. The fear came back with a jolt. What if, what if, what if... She looked at the spidery man for reassurance that all was going to be okay, that the day was almost over, but all she could find in his face was a penetrating severity that came down on Julia's shoulders like a whip.

There was no noise, no motion, no signal, just his hand darting into the hat annd ferociously, almost viciously, choosing a paper. He unfolded it with the same sinister determination and, instead of cawing out what was writen on the paper, smirked at Julia and muttered: "Come with me to room B-5 after this is done". Julia nodded. She knew what was next. She averted her eyes from the ones that continued burning into her back, but she could still feel the inquisitive glances of her trainmates. All traces of lethargy had been replaced with a nonchalant curiosity.

Perhaps the best thing to do is pretend nothing happened, thought Julia. It seemed like a good plan, smile and laugh, allow one's self to be lulled to sleep, shrug carelessly if confronted with the issue. She quickly put it into action, and it worked. Everyone quickly desintegrated into slightly chaotic disinterest, and Julia was left in peace.

Well, not quite. She could still see the spidery man behind the podium stare straight into her, narrow his eyes, frighten her with the swiftness with which he could send a whole range of emotions with just a sharp glance. Then again, he was the head child-keeper. It was his job. Most adults would have nothing to do with the kids from Poesin, or from anyother Poe- city. Most adults were in the Tha- cities, unless they were ready to go to the Lu- cities. To have a man ready to go to, say, Lumere pick up papers out of a hat and call out names with that monotonous, humdrum voice of his was quite astonishing.

At last, the day was done and Julia asked around for directions to room B-5. Most people at the centre looked at her queerly, and everyone in the mines were to tired to care. She roamed around aimlessly, looking for a number and a letter. Now that she wasn't rushing hectically she could take in her surroungings. They were clinical in appearance and smell, almost fake, surreal. They taunted her with wide passageways and and hidden corridors. The white doors melted effortlessly into the white surroundings, making her have to walk slowly in order not to miss one. At last, she found it. Room B-5.

A red-headed kid stood outside the door, rubbing his eyes. He looked... not quite human, actually. He looked as if someone had gotten a bunch of human limbs and haphazardly stuck them on a torso. The joints were too obvious, like a marrionete's, the eyes, when not rubbing them, glazed over with jaded apathy. His hair was much too thick, as if made out of yarn, and everything fit awkwardly together. It was worse when he began to move something other than his arm, though.

Tired step begat tired step with an awkward pace and no rythm. His head seemed to be attatched to his scrawny neck with only a piece of tape, seeing how it lolled back and forth and every step created a series of tremors through every visible crevice on it. Not knwing what to do with his hands, they twitched randomly, fingers splayed and like a robot's. He stopped, making his body spring forward, and he regained his balance wiht a quick adjustement of the legs.

Julia called. "Hello! What's your name?" The kid turned and looked at her-no, beyond her- and he opened his mouth. This motion was, instead of by a voluntary stretching of the muscles, created by relaxing his jaw, and letting his teeth hang ajar.

"Muh..." He muttered, as if the very action of blowing out through the vocal cords put a strain on him. Every part of his face was strained, and his eyes rolled back a little more. "Maaaaaah..."

A man that gave the impression of a mountain, but still with a short structure, walked out of a corner. You could hear him before you saw him, with the sharp tack, tack, tack, tack, of his soles on the floor. Then he came, with a cocky grin and devioud eyes, face stil very much like child's, but with the serenity of, again, a mountain upon his feautures. He glided from the intersection of two passways, and quickly all the calm on his face turned into menacing storm clouds near the peak. "Marcus, go back inside. Ah, Julia, wait here a while, is that fine?" Without waiting for her consent, he turned and, tak tak tak, led Marcus out of the passageway.

Julia waited quietly outside the door. She was familiar with patience, over the days at the institute they had become great friends. She was familiar with silence, though they were more like enemies. At her bed, when everyone was silent, doing work, while everyone was silent, that was the benign kind that Julia loved. But this one was the hostile one, the one brimming with sound, the one that held the secrets of the past and the future just out of reach. It surrounded the door, continuosly growing until it smothered Julia and left only a tired anxiety in it's place.

At last, the man came back. He performed a quick bow at Julia and entered the room, leaving a trail for her to follow. Inside there were a bunch of adults, including the spider man. He stood up.

"I'll take care of her," He said. Turning at Julia, he attempted a peacefull smile and said: "Hello, my name is Mr. Somque, and boy do i have a story to tell..."

Julia glared at him from underneath her bangs. She tossed them aside with a violent jerk of the head and asked through gritted teeth all the questions she was upposed to have but didn't. In truth, the feelings she felt were close to nil. Her mind functioned in just the most basic of commands, quiet observations of her suroundings.

She had run this scene so many times in her mind, in so many ways. It had never been Mr. Somque, as she hadn't even met him yet. It had always been a dark person, with average feautures that dissapeared into the background. And she had never been this stoic about it. Sometimes she was lashing out in violent anger, screaming at the world to fall around her. Sometimes she had been in deep consternation, and the person in front of her had been like a boundary, an obstacle instead of a friend. And sometimes, she had been quietly accepting, quietly knowledgeable of all that was going on around her. But she had never been this hollow. Never had her feelings been scooped out of her with such force. And yet, this is excactly how she felt, feigning anger, as she stared at the man infront of her.

"Calm down, I am no one to be afraid of," He said, still with that smile.

"Normally that would be the trigger for one to be afraid," Julia retorted mercilessly. There was no way Mr. Somque was winning this battle.

"Good point," he said, closing his eyes. "But relationships shouldn't be built on distrust, am I right?"

"Who said that-"

"I said that, and as an authority figure, you should listen to me, lest you want to end up like Marcus,"

"You did that to him?!" Julia asked, bewildered. For a while, she forgot the mask of anger , but quickly resumed the act. At least now she was feeling something.

"He did that to himself," Julia scanned his face for any tell-tale signs of lying, or of any clues towards the meaning of that sentence. His face remained unreadable, and Julia felt her muscles tense in a primeval reaction against danger, the fight-or-flight response in her brain firing up.

"Ah, I see," She said tensely. She averted her eyes once more. "so that's how it is," Mr. Somque stayed silent, as if he expected her to say more, but eventually saw she was determined to stay silent and opened his mouth. He took a deep breath and unfolded his legs, walking around the room. Now that Julia was perfectly calm, she could pay more atention to the deep lines in his cheeks, the black-hole-like quality of his eyes, and his height. He towered above her, half his body being legs, and he had to bend his knees completely to be at eye-level with Julia. Julia completely blocked out all Mr. Somque said, she knew it already.

"I know what you're thinking, Julia," Julia awoke with a start. "You think that I'm just here to dismiss you as a freak of nature, that you already know all I have to say. Perhaps if you paid attention to what I'm actually saying, you'd know better," Mr. Somque blinked twice, rapidly. "Is that understood? Good," Julia realized that Mr. Somque reminded her of the carekeeper from Poesin in so many ways, from the manner of speech, to the stark expression, to the hand movements like anguished birds.

"I thought I was here because you were going to tell me a story," Julia said, with a sarcastic attitude. She was rather dissapointed when Mr. Somque remained undaunted in his rythmic movements rather than cringe under the comment.

"That's true, I'm sorry. Here's a poem you have to read in preperation,"

If you go to the past there is a river.
In the river only a boat.
Everything is haunted, and the boat sways.
Slowly things grow
Slowly things fall
It is an apocalypse.

Before Julia could say it wasn't much of a poem, everything was swathed in black.

It had always been a part of her subconsious, ubiquituous and yet barely noticeable among the sea of information that Julia was constantly battered with. And yet, if she paid attention, she could hear the word spreading from mouth to ear, using whispers as a method of transportation. It was always the carekeepers at Poesin who said it, not the students. Because, sometimes, things happened around her. Shadows no one else could see, water boiling, strange lights that nearly blinded her. These things didn't happen often, but they happened with enough consistency for them to become a part of her. However, they were balanced out by her generic personality, and Julia realized that if she treated them as normal, they would fade into the background, less important than so-and-so's birthday party. Rather then making Julia stand out, they reinforced her normalicry, an idiosyncrasy only Julia's among a sea of people who were all different from each other. It was her individuality that made her the same as everyone else.

However, this was only with the children's point of view. With the adults, her conversations with nobody were the reason for the whispers, the reason "Manteío" seemed so familiar. It was strange, how some events could gather a whole different shade of meaning depending on the person. Before they had left, a carekeeper had explained how the opening ceremony would be a little... different for her, and how she wouldn't be assinged a sector at the stage.

She clipped the piece of plastic to her shirt and waited. This assembly was to welcome all the new kids infront of the rest of Usmere. Julia saw that three quarters of the audience were in the mining department or the medicine department, as those were the specialities of this city. All the kids from all the buses came to the front, and were finally given a packet that they would use for the rest of the year.

It was horribly dull to watch person after person being called to the front for nothing other than a packet, especially since the amount of people were three times those in the morning assembly. The names and faces faded together, lost meaning, and she soon fell into a trance. Julia reconstructed the rest of the day in her head. After this, they would go to their areas, and they would just be shown around. Everything inside the bundle of cloth they would be given today would be explained, and if they had time afternoon classes would happen. Afterwards, a few hours in the bedroom, and then sleep.

At last, Julia and the other girl (Sarah, they called her) were called up front. It was a lot more simple than they excpected, just a simple handing over, then leaving the auditorium. Marks of boredom had began to appear on the face of the person who stood at the front, as well as in the rest of the audience. Julia had once again dissapeared from the attention of the other's attention.

Mr. Somque led them out of the auditorium with the same solemn expression he led them in. They passed the same winding paths back to room B-5, and at last walked into a dead end. Mr. Somque continued walking, seemingly heading straight into the wall, but swerved at the last moment, and was gone. Mrs. Ambersalde did the same, leaving Julia, Sarah and Mr. Thernall. Sarah ran after the two adults, and disappeared. Mr. Thernall looked at Julia smiled shyly, and nearly walked into the wall, shortly before a clumsy turn.

Julia was left alone, and she tried to mimic what the others have done. She ran straight into the wall, then angrily tried to shift her movements before tripping over her feet. She stood up and tried it again, this time with a cleaner cut. She fell onto the wall. She stood up, swearing, then tried one last time, with all her concentration, walking at a moderate pace, then turning, and felt as if being sucked into something else.

It was like entering a whole new dimension other than the 3 most common. A feeling of being made out of air spread througout her body, and her feet moved autonomously in a diagonal direction. She tasted plaster in her mouth, and her body felt cramped and claustrophobic, yet still like an air bubble in a bowl of water. She walked out of the wall, and fell flat on her face. numbness had taken over her body, but she slowly regained her senses as she stood up.

The place where she ended up was completely different from the sterile environment where she left, and from the musky conditions near the mines. It was plain, yet it let out a feeling of warmth that went unreplicated elsewhere in Usmere. The walls were a dull orange-brown, the floor plaster. A few wooden doors at equal distances from each other marked the corridor, each with run-down plaques above them. The air tasted strange, recycled, almost. It begat gagging and the feeling of eating dirt.

She looked around, looking for everyone else. After five minutes of looking around, she met them again and proceeded to the rest of the day. It was uneventful, with no variation, but it gave Julia a sense of relaxation that could only be given by absolute boredom. At the end of the day, she lay on her bed next to Sarah, staring at the celing until she fell asleep.

Julia woke up the next morning to a shrill sound. Groggily, she looked around. Then she widened her eyes. Where was she? There shouldn't be- Then yesterday flooded her with all that had happened and she relaxed. Sarah woke up a few second later, rubbing her eyes and yawning. She mumbled a sort of greeting, then took her packet.

Julia took hers too, and unwrapped the layers of plastic and thick paper that surrounded it. She saw three boxes, and took the largest. It was full of books. Setting it to the side, she opened the second one, which was full of assorted gadgets that Julia couldn't make sense out of. The third box was thin and long. She opened it and took out a blue shirt and pleated skirt. She ran the thick, practical fabric overher fingers and put it on. Sarah eyed her, disinterested. She yawned and flopped over on her bed. After 2 or so minutes of idle procrastination, she finally stood up and ran a brush through her hair. It fell into layers around her head and after a few minutes looked excactly the same as the day before. She spent the next half hour fiddling around with her makeup and trying to put on her clothes without looking "drab".

At last, they had finished and Sarah walked out the room. She stood there, looking around, muttured something under her breath, and got out a gadget that she had gotten from one of the boxes. She matter-of-factly punched some buttons and turned some dials. She stared at the narrow screen for a few seconds, then at last turned to Julia.

"Less'ave breakfast". It was the first time Julia had heard her speak, and was surprised at her voice. It wasn't quite whiny, or high-pitched, but the way she said it gave that impression. It was smooth and like a thick, flowing liquid, but she carried it with ennui, and with a slight tone reminscent of an aggorant strut. Seeing Julia's dumstruck expression, she rolled her eyes. "You do know where that is, right?" Julia shook her head. Everything her new carekeepers had told her had trickled out her ears. "Lolwut. WTH were you doin' yesterday?"

"I don't know," Julia asked, bewildered at her peculiar speaking style. "Just wasn't paying attention, I guess," Sarah sighed. "Sorry?" Flipping her hair behind her shoulder, she brusquely led Julia towards a room with two tables, and pointed towards a table with some food. Julia thanked her, but she simply walked away in that enfuriating self-centered manner she possesed.

Julia picked up a plate with a sunny-side up egg and a cup of orange juice. She sat at one of the tables next to Sarah. She was playing around with one of the technology that had been in her packers, muttering to herself about how it was a different model, how obsolete it was, how it was better in Usrem. "What's that?" Julia asked, curious. Sarah just stared at her as if she was so groundbreakingly stupid that she didn't even deserve to be held to the same standards as her fellow human beings.

"You're from Usrem? I hear they don't make them well there, the people. All of them are so... Well, is you wanna know, look in a mirror. I assume you have one of your body at all times, so that shouldn't be too hard," It was a rather young voice, vibrant and with a certain tone of mischief. Julia swiveled her head aorund to search for the source of the comment, and at last found it. It was a boy, heavily freckled and with burnt orange hair. It was long and messy, covering his eyebrows and rolling behind his ears. He brushed it aside and sat down. He looked at Julia with hazel eyes and high eyebrows. Julia realized, suddenly, who he was.

"You're that guy!" She said, widening her eyes. "The puppet guy, I mean. Marcus, or something," She hid her face in her hands, dissapointed with her eloquence.

"Yeah, I'm Marcus. Are you new here?" Julia nodded quickly, not about to speak again and suffer another embarassing display of clumsy speech. "That 'puppet' thing, it's called being a koúkla. It's a punishment." He looked away, slightly biting his lip. "But only for really severe cases, like entering the weird room with a locked door. That's what I did." he added quickly, after recieving Julia's horrified stare.

"YTH did you do that? You're not s'pposed to open weird locked doors at the end of hallways. That's sort of why they're weird locked doors at the end of hallways. Duh" Sarah turned to see him with the same sort of superiority that she addressed Julia.

"It was an accident! I picked the lock! By accident!" Marcus cried, undignified. He turned at Julia again. "You just came from a Poe- district, right? Did they explain Us- districts over there?" Julia nodded, running the facts in her head. Poe- districts were where children went right after being born, and stayed with their carekeepers until 13 years of age, learning basic skills in all areas of specialization. Afterwards, they went to the Us- districts, were they recieved education specializing in the jobs that fit best according to your carekeepers. Once you had reached adult age, you went to the Tha- or Lum- districts, where you put your new knowledge to the test, unless you got designed as a teacher or carekeeper. Julia then tried to remember the differences between the suffixes in the districts over Poe-. -mere was mining and medicine, -line was for entertainment and sciences, -chawn was for government, agriculture, and electronics, -gen was for social services and shared entertainment with -line. Those were all he could think off from the top of her head. Sarah had mentioned Usrem, what did -rem districts work with?

Mr. Thernal cleared his throat and stood up. He opened his mouth and began to speak. "Today, we have recieved two new students into our ranks, I would like everyne to welcome Julia Mary Sirniou and Sarah Kaethmin, I see you have already met Marcus," he smiled feebly. It was obvious he was trying to emit a feeling of authority, but all Julia could see was anxious fear. "Ah, Sarah has been in another Manteío program before coming here, so I suppose she already knows what she is-" he then looked off into space, trying to find the right word, but then he continued. "Julia, this is your first year in Us-, right?" Julia began to nod, but Mr. Thernal continued without so much as a glance at her. "Then maybe I should explain. Uh... Nature, right?" Mr. Somque shook his head. "Alright, no, not nature. Well, in greek, "Manteío" means oracle. Oracles, the original ones, I mean, they were found in almost every culture. China, Celtic religion, Ancient egypt, India, Buddhist cultures (altough we already mentioned China. I think there are other buddhist places, right?), American Indians, Africa, Hawaii, and Norse mythology,

"So, um... The actual ones, the ones that weren't just hallucinating under drugs or something, they had a connection to nature, we think," He sighed, and rubbed his temple. "No, not like that, maybe someone else would be better at explaining this?" He looked around hopefully, but nobody stood up. "It's, sort of, there are two realms and..." he blanched, then sat down. "Ask Marcus, I'm no good at speaking in front of," he seemed to have lost his train of tought then.

Julia looked at Marcus, grinning. He laughed. "Basically, we need to keep contact with these weird creatures that live in the mines. The reason why so many things happen, Julia, is because Manteío are humans with an inborn ability to see and communicate to several different creature-thingymagigies, Ms. Ambersalde'll explain that part later, I can't pronounce the name," he leaned back. "Anyhow, the reason Mr. Thernal brought up the oracles is because most of them were Manteío. You see, in order to mantain balance between everything -that's our job, really- you need to be able to connect with 'the universe' or 'fate' or 'everything', or whatever you want to call it. I call it 'the-super-shiny-thing-that-noone-explains-and-occasionally-turns-into-these-colorful-ball-things', because that's what it is," He looked at Julia once again, then continued. "Then there were all these frauds and stuff, I can't really remember, but now we need-" there was another shrill sound, very much like what had woken Julia up in the morning.

"We butter getta class," said Sarah, standing up and leaving Julia and Marcus looking around them.

Marcus nudged Julia. "Do you have your schedual yet?" Julia nodded and pulled out a piece of paper she had found in her package. "No, that's your calendar. Keep it, though, you might wanna see it later," Julia shuffld around in her pocket some more and got out another slip of paper, with blocks of color-coded classes and activities. "Yeah, that's it. I think it has a map on the back, too. Just, check what your first class is," Julia scanned her eyes for "Thursday", then checked the first class. The words "Vaettir: Svartálfar and dvergar" were printed cleanly across the top. She looked at Marcus with high eyebrows and expectant espression. He laughed. "Old Norse, I think. They're the creature things, well, you should find out soon enough,"

Julia picked up whatever she thought she needed and ran out of the breakfast room, And checked her schedual. I said to go to room 8, but she couldn't find it. MArcus had said there was a map in the back of her paper, but she couldn't find one. Exasperated, he scanned the tops of the doors for numbers, only to be dissapointed with empty walls. She looked around for Sarah, but she was out of sight, having dissapeared completely and purposefully. She heard Marcus's jeering laugh from behind her and whipped around, furious.

"Having trouble?" He slouched over cooly, and tapped the folded the paper several times. With each simple turn of his hands, ink began to seep from the folds he created. He did it autonomosly, and after a minute or so, unfolded it. The paper was now soaked with ink, but with another shake of his hands, it began to return to the paper, except for some lonely lines that connected with each other to create a map.

Julia saw It was much more simple than she had thought, the facility. Sure, the paths folded over themsleves occasionally, and they were certainly long, but only a second glance at the map was necessary to discern the location of room 8. She got her schedual back, thanked him awkwardly, and ran towards the room.

The room was grey, with tall ceiling from which hung dim lights. Underneath, a few arbitrarily positioned lamps without shades lit the room more fully, and four wooden tables were in two rows behind a fenced-off area. Around the room, there were a few posters that either had diagrams of odd, human-like creatures or maps of the mines, with thumb-tacks hammered in. Sarah was already sitting bored at one of the back tables, flipping idly through the pages of her texbook. Julia sat next to her and tried to glimpse at the illustrated passages, which caused Sarah to surrepitiously close it with a bang and look at Julia with an accusing glance. She seemed to have recovered some of her old lively pride, and no longer seemed quite as tired.

They stared at each other awkwardly for a few seconds before Marcus interrupted the staring contest. He was grinning stupidly for no reason, but atlast he stopped and put his bag on a chair and went off to look at one of the posters with interest. Sarah eyed him suspiciously, as if trying to read his mind, then got out a small notepad and jotted down a few notes.

Ms. Ambersalde opened the door and entered. She surveyed the class, nodded once, and sat at the front. "All right, everyone turn to page 19, and once you're done, summarize the lesson to the person sitting next to you. Marcus, who was the sole occupant of his table, raised his hand. "You can share with me, Marcus," she said dismissively.

Julia opened the textbook and after a second or so of frantic flipping, found page nineteen and read the title. "The Níu Heimar and Yggdrasil," Julia sighed deeply and began to read the first few paragraphs of the page, but rather than perusing it with a watchful eye, she simply skimmed over it and worked hard to absorb information which might prove itslef useful. At last, she turned to Sarah and asked if she was done. She nodded.

"Alright, so summarize for me," Sarah said excpectantly. A few seconds slipped by them as the tanglible silence writhed aorund them. "Well? Didn't you hear the teacher? Do you have comprehension problems or somehting? Because if you do, then perhaps you didn't understand the passage an-"

"I understood it. Let me summarize," Juliahid her face behind her hair and began to speak, unsure whether she was doing so cerrectly. She could feel Sarah's eyes boring into her skull, along with a sudden petrification that nailed her eyes to the floor and prevented her from looking up. "The tree of life, Yggdrasil, is a tree in Norse Mythology around which exist nine worlds. Nowadays, it is generally agreed that Yggdrasil i s purely metaphorical, while the nine worlds exist asiinterconnecting dimensions. It is our duty as Manteío to make sure the worlds mantain contact," Sh took a deep breath. "Was that alright?"

She looked up to see Sarah was looking at her critically, but not necessarily in a way that heralded Julia's failure. "Yes, I think so," She still had that bored look upon her face which suggested she hadn't really been paying attention, but Julia ignored it as best she could. There were a few uncomfortable moments without movement, bvut at long last Sarah took out her notebook and began to write once again.

"Er... What are yo-" But Sarah whipped herself around and glanced at Julia loathingly before returning to her notebook. "Sorry?" She muttured under her breath. Having nothing better to do until the class ended, she got out her textbook and read through the pages. I should be freaking out. Julia thought. I mena, I just discovered that thisis all real. I have suddenly discovered the answer to the happenings that keep confusing everyone, I shouldn't feel calm right now, I should worry for my own sanity, this doens't make any sense by everyday standerds, Julia. Perhaps it was because she had already taken her insanity for granted that she was able to mantain such a bored look on her face, or maybe it was because she had already excpected something like this to happen. There was something about the fantasticness of the situation that soothed her.

At last, Ms. Ambersalde stood up from where she was interrogating a red-faced Marucs, and stood at the front of the class. "Marcus, you learned this first thing this year, how can you not know what you got wrong?!" she asked angrily. "I suspect Julia back there," she tossed her head in Julia's general direction. "Was able to summarize the chapter well, and this is her first day! I mean, they even finished early," Sarah grinned at Marcus with the same arrongance with which she smiled at everyone else, and then turned back To Ms. Ambersalde with a bit more pride than she had had before.

Ms. Ambersalde continued talking infront of the class, and after twenty or so minutes of explaining what we had just read, handed out a worksheet that was to be finished for homework. As they walked out of the room, Julia could hear Sarah shrewdly ask Marcus if he could do it by himself or if her needed any help. Marcus seemed to have magically turned deaf.

Julai sighed and looked at her schedual for her next class. "I have Mr. Somque next," she said, then attempted to fold it like Marcus had done. Ink seeped out of the fold she created, though it did not feel wet.She folded it in half again, opened it and flattened it several times, and at last attempted to shake off the ink with the same hand gesture Marcus had used. The ink was soaked up by the paper, but instead of revealing an elegant map, it simply left behins a few random splatterings of black. Marcus sniggered and took it from her.

"Listen, you have to already know your way alround this wing by heart for it to work," Julia looked at him incredulously. "Yeah, I know, it's really pointless," he sighed. "Maybe it was supposed to be pointless," he said, whilst folding the paper with that same automation he did last time. At ast, the map re-appeared in the back of the paper, which Julia took gratefully.

Sarah frowned. "I won't need any... tricks... Like that, Thank goodness," She smirked. "I would also like to mention that I have already been studying for a year, making me-"

"Yeah, nobody cares," Marcus answered, impatiently.

"You're just jealous," Serah picked up her stride a bit, however, and there was a certain indignance to the way she flipped her hair behind her left shoulder. Marcus laughed loudly, in a way Julia would learn was his signature, and they ran towards Mr. SOmque's room, Julia with heavy assistance from the map.

"So, what excactly do we learn in this class? It says 'spells' on the schedual, but I don't-" Julia was rudely interrupted by Sarah's whining voice.

"If you had been learning for as long as I have," she drawled, with a particularly annoying emphasis on "learning" and "I". "Which is, BTW, a yeaaaaaarrr,"

"Congratulations, do you want an award?!" Marcus groaned, then turned to Julia. "Well? What do you think it is? Awful lot clearer than 'Vaettir: Svartálfar and dvergar', isn't it?" He grinned again. "Or do you think it might refer to ortography or something?" Julia looked at her map once more, turned a corner, and finally reached Mr. Somque's room.

"You're almost late," he said once they entered, not looking up from a paper he was poring over. "Take a seat, wherever you like," With a large, sweeping gesture, he stood up and began to talk. Julia tried to pay attention, pinched herself when she felt falling asleep, but Mr. somque was fond of using words and concepts he had no intention of explaining. Julia turned around to see Sarah playing with her nails and Marcus staring at the ceiling as if the most interesting thing he had ever seen was hanging from it.

The class ended, and they filed out of the class. Julia looked at her chedual once more. "Hey, Marcus, why do we only have three classes?"

Sarah came in. "That's because there isn't a lot to learn. Most things you need to know for this is just natural. Altough the practice sessions are long,"

"We're having one today, aren't we?" Marcus's freckled face caught up with them, and though he had hurried to talk to them, he had now recovered his usual, slightly cocky meandering pace. "I mean, Ambersalde said so," he examined his fingers silently. "I think we're going to the mines? There are a lot of..."

"Hello everyone," Mr. Thernal waved at them from his post near the door. "Please enter," He stepped aside to let them in. "Do you all know what we learn during techinque lessons?" He looked around expectantly, and when nobody answerede, he began to talk. Julia listened to him explaining, and suddenly realized she understood. It felt like such a random, trivial thing, but it caused her innumerable joy. For the first time today, she understood something out of the random noise that was going on around her.

then she felt frigthened. Once the blanket of apathetic obvliviousness had been lifted, her brain had begun to comprehend what had been going on around her since she had woken up to the shrill alarm, and it frightened her.

Yes, it was good that she understood why strange things loved to trasnpir ein her presence, but only in a way that heralded the fulfilling of curiosity, but not other than that. Everything had been hilarious up to that point, from the fantastic and impossible nature of things that had been happened, to the wildly quirky characters that surrounded her, it had seemed almost like a clichéd fantasy. But once coaxed by Mr. Thernal's words, the severed connection between Julia's body and superficial mind and her disbelieving subconscious was spontaneoudly fixed. She could feel her eyes growing full with the liquid representation of the overwhelming weight of it all.

"Are you all right?" Julia, surprised, looked up to see Mr. Thernal having stopped, looking at her quizically. He didn't seemed concerned in the least, however, simply mildly curious, and Julia felt incredibly grateful for this.

"Yes, I'm fine," Julia decided to pay attention at him once again rather than at Marcus's wide-eyed glance or Sarah's barely supressed smirk. Then again, Julia guessed that surpressing it wasn't excactly a priority for her. After the class had ended, they hurried outside of the room, only to be greeted by a slight pain above the earlobes and then a lous noise that shook the walls.

Chapter 2:

They stepped out of the cart with tired steps. She scanned her eyes over the crowd, looking for any familiar faces that might have spent their childhood in Julia's cabin. She couldn't find a single one, all the faces looked almost excactly the same. She shrugged. Not that finding familiar faces was desirable. Secure, yes. Desirable, no.

She stepped into the large cavern that was the table room. Every step rebounded off the walls, was amplified a million times, then reached her tired ears. This was a good thing, since she could hardly see anything. The room was dark and brooding, and the few scattered torches did nothing to create lights, instead casting longer shadows on the walls, and the dust that was picked up at every lodu step simply created an illusion of swimming through brown clouds.

A senior at the underground city of Usmere stood behind the podium with a lean back and eyes deep within his sockets. His face was long and angular, his hands like a spider whose legs were too knobby. He opened his pale lips, then closed them again. With a sweeping motion of the hand he invited everyone to sit down. He coughed a few times, then began. "Good morning, would it be correct to presume you are all the kids from Poesin?" Everyone stood still. "Good, then we shall continue."

Another senior with jowls that gave him a permanent frown stood up from the crowd. His face was fat and round, something that contrasted deeply with his skinny body. "Excuse me sir, shouldn't we begin with the correct procedure?"

"We haven't begun with the procedure at Usmere for over thirty years! It is tradition!" He walked over to were the speaking man. Perhaps walked isn't the correct word. It was more of a deliberate scurry, or a crawl. The man was quite like a spider outside of his bony hands. "We should finish this as quickly as possible so the kids can start working! They're from Poesin, for goodness's sakes! I think it would be counter-intuitive to begin with the procedure," He walked -scurried- over to the podium and glared at the man.

"Do you even know the meaning of the word counter-intuitive?" The man frowned, which was something more like pursing his lips, due to his facial structure, and rolled his eyes. "Nevermind, I don't think you do. This is going to be recorded, so watch your words,"

The spidery man wrote a quick number of strokes on the table. He looked up and called names in a seemingly random order, although Julia knew it had a deep connection with how they would spend the rest of their lives. At last, her name was called. "Julia Mary!"

Chapter 3:

She stood up infront of the group, and she saw lethargy was already begginnning to set in. It wasn't obvious, for sure, it was trying it's best to remain hidden in the trenches of the mind, but it still came out in not-quite erect backs, glazing eyes, and sagging shoulders. Perhaps they was already enough ennui in the room to deafen their ears, she thought. Maybe they won't find out. Maybes piled up in her mind, one after another after another, and she regained her confidence. She was still careful, for sure, but she could no longer feel her heart trying to rip itself out of her chest.

The spidery man darted his beady eyes at her. He stood staring for a long time, and Julia could feel her heartbeat slowly synchronise with the rest of the room's, everyone breathing and everyone blinking at the same time. The weary eyes of most people turned to Julia. The fear came back with a jolt. What if, what if, what if... She looked at the spidery man for reassurance that all was going to be okay, that the day was almost over, but all she could find in his face was a penetrating severity that came down on Julia's shoulders like a whip.

There was no noise, no motion, no signal, just his hand darting into the hat annd ferociously, almost viciously, choosing a paper. He unfolded it with the same sinister determination and, instead of cawing out what was writen on the paper, smirked at Julia and muttered: "Come with me to room B-5 after this is done". Julia nodded. She knew what was next. She averted her eyes from the ones that continued burning into her back, but she could still feel the inquisitive glances of her trainmates. All traces of lethargy had been replaced with a nonchalant curiosity.

Perhaps the best thing to do is pretend nothing happened, thought Julia. It seemed like a good plan, smile and laugh, allow one's self to be lulled to sleep, shrug carelessly if confronted with the issue. She quickly put it into action, and it worked. Everyone quickly desintegrated into slightly chaotic disinterest, and Julia was left in peace.

Well, not quite. She could still see the spidery man behind the podium stare straight into her, narrow his eyes, frighten her with the swiftness with which he could send a whole range of emotions with just a sharp glance. Then again, he was the head child-keeper. It was his job. Most adults would have nothing to do with the kids from Poesin, or from anyother Poe- city. Most adults were in the Tha- cities, unless they were ready to go to the Lu- cities. To have a man ready to go to, say, Lumere pick up papers out of a hat and call out names with that monotonous, humdrum voice of his was quite astonishing.

At last, the day was done and Julia asked around for directions to room B-5. Most people at the centre looked at her queerly, and everyone in the mines were to tired to care. She roamed around aimlessly, looking for a number and a letter. Now that she wasn't rushing hectically she could take in her surroungings. They were clinical in appearance and smell, almost fake, surreal. They taunted her with wide passageways and and hidden corridors. The white doors melted effortlessly into the white surroundings, making her have to walk slowly in order not to miss one. At last, she found it. Room B-5.

Chapter 4:

A red-headed kid stood outside the door, rubbing his eyes. He looked... not quite human, actually. He looked as if someone had gotten a bunch of human limbs and haphazardly stuck them on a torso. The joints were too obvious, like a marrionete's, the eyes, when not rubbing them, glazed over with jaded apathy. His hair was much too thick, as if made out of yarn, and everything fit awkwardly together. It was worse when he began to move something other than his arm, though.

Tired step begat tired step with an awkward pace and no rythm. His head seemed to be attatched to his scrawny neck with only a piece of tape, seeing how it lolled back and forth and every step created a series of tremors through every visible crevice on it. Not knwing what to do with his hands, they twitched randomly, fingers splayed and like a robot's. He stopped, making his body spring forward, and he regained his balance wiht a quick adjustement of the legs.

Julia called. "Hello! What's your name?" The kid turned and looked at her-no, beyond her- and he opened his mouth. This motion was, instead of by a voluntary stretching of the muscles, created by relaxing his jaw, and letting his teeth hang ajar.

"Muh..." He muttered, as if the very action of blowing out through the vocal cords put a strain on him. Every part of his face was strained, and his eyes rolled back a little more. "Maaaaaah..."

A man that gave the impression of a mountain, but still with a short structure, walked out of a corner. You could hear him before you saw him, with the sharp tack, tack, tack, tack, of his soles on the floor. Then he came, with a cocky grin and devioud eyes, face stil very much like child's, but with the serenity of, again, a mountain upon his feautures. He glided from the intersection of two passways, and quickly all the calm on his face turned into menacing storm clouds near the peak. "Marcus, go back inside. Ah, Julia, wait here a while, is that fine?" Without waiting for her consent, he turned and, tak tak tak, led Marcus out of the passageway.

Julia waited quietly outside the door. She was familiar with patience, over the days at the institute they had become great friends. She was familiar with silence, though they were more like enemies. At her bed, when everyone was silent, doing work, while everyone was silent, that was the benign kind that Julia loved. But this one was the hostile one, the one brimming with sound, the one that held the secrets of the past and the future just out of reach. It surrounded the door, continuosly growing until it smothered Julia and left only a tired anxiety in it's place.

At last, the man came back. He performed a quick bow at Julia and entered the room, leaving a trail for her to follow. Inside there were a bunch of adults, including the spider man. He stood up.

"I'll take care of her," He said. Turning at Julia, he attempted a peacefull smile and said: "Hello, my name is Mr. Somque, and boy do i have a story to tell..."

Julia glared at him from underneath her bangs. She tossed them aside with a violent jerk of the head and asked through gritted teeth all the questions she was upposed to have but didn't. In truth, the feelings she felt were close to nil. Her mind functioned in just the most basic of commands, quiet observations of her suroundings.

She had run this scene so many times in her mind, in so many ways. It had never been Mr. Somque, as she hadn't even met him yet. It had always been a dark person, with average feautures that dissapeared into the background. And she had never been this stoic about it. Sometimes she was lashing out in violent anger, screaming at the world to fall around her. Sometimes she had been in deep consternation, and the person in front of her had been like a boundary, an obstacle instead of a friend. And sometimes, she had been quietly accepting, quietly knowledgeable of all that was going on around her. But she had never been this hollow. Never had her feelings been scooped out of her with such force. And yet, this is excactly how she felt, feigning anger, as she stared at the man infront of her.

"Calm down, I am no one to be afraid of," He said, still with that smile.

"Normally that would be the trigger for one to be afraid," Julia retorted mercilessly. There was no way Mr. Somque was winning this battle.

"Good point," he said, closing his eyes. "But relationships shouldn't be built on distrust, am I right?"

"Who said that-"

"I said that, and as an authority figure, you should listen to me, lest you want to end up like Marcus,"

"You did that to him?!" Julia asked, bewildered. For a while, she forgot the mask of anger , but quickly resumed the act. At least now she was feeling something.

"He did that to himself," Julia scanned his face for any tell-tale signs of lying, or of any clues towards the meaning of that sentence. His face remained unreadable, and Julia felt her muscles tense in a primeval reaction against danger, the fight-or-flight response in her brain firing up.

"Ah, I see," She said tensely. She averted her eyes once more. "so that's how it is," Mr. Somque stayed silent, as if he expected her to say more, but eventually saw she was determined to stay silent and opened his mouth. He took a deep breath and unfolded his legs, walking around the room. Now that Julia was perfectly calm, she could pay more atention to the deep lines in his cheeks, the black-hole-like quality of his eyes, and his height. He towered above her, half his body being legs, and he had to bend his knees completely to be at eye-level with Julia. Julia completely blocked out all Mr. Somque said, she knew it already.

"I know what you're thinking, Julia," Julia awoke with a start. "You think that I'm just here to dismiss you as a freak of nature, that you already know all I have to say. Perhaps if you paid attention to what I'm actually saying, you'd know better," Mr. Somque blinked twice, rapidly. "Is that understood? Good," Julia realized that Mr. Somque reminded her of the carekeeper from Poesin in so many ways, from the manner of speech, to the stark expression, to the hand movements like anguished birds.

"I thought I was here because you were going to tell me a story," Julia said, with a sarcastic attitude. She was rather dissapointed when Mr. Somque remained undaunted in his rythmic movements rather than cringe under the comment.

"That's true, I'm sorry. Here's a poem you have to read in preperation,"

If you go to the past there is a river.
In the river only a boat.
Everything is haunted, and the boat sways.
Slowly things grow
Slowly things fall
It is an apocalypse.

Before Julia could say it wasn't much of a poem, everything was swathed in black.

Chapter 6:

Slowly, a few colors began to appear in abstract shapes. they were muted, barely visible, but colors notheless. They began to take a more concrete form, they began to brighten, shading began to appear in some places. In 20 minutes or so, they had begun to approximate to real life colors. A scenery was slowly becoming visible. It was an old fashioned town, and there was a dull-colored house with brick red shingles. A woman, seeming to be the same age as Julia, stood outside, looking around and occasionally jotting something down into a piece of paper.

She folded the paper and went inside, and Julia found herself traveling inside too.. She seemed to be listening for something. She seemed to finally be satisfied with the thing she heard, then turned around. A few wisps of a light gas collected into a simple sphere. The girl stared at the sphere for a while, then she unfolded the piece of paper, and held it infront of her. Julia could feel the girl's lips moving slowly.

Then, a strong light came from the paper. It was barely visible at first, a light red, but it slowly grew in strength. It slowly changed colors and passed through the entire rainbow, red fading to orange to yellow to green, until it reached purple. The purple grew in intensity, but Julia realized with a start she suddenly couldn't see the light. The sphere continued slowly bobbing in the air, as if nodding. Suddenly, the sphere let out a hidden energy that revertebrated in Julia's bones. It took her back, it felt as if every part of her was about to burst with the collected force that continued plaguing the air. She wasn't surprised, though. She had been there before.

Once she had recollected her strength, she looked around wildly. She couldn't find the girl. Then, she felt a slight tingling feeling in her extremities, as if they were slowly going numb. Soon enough, the tingling feeling left, and so did all feeling in her fingers. Slowly, slowly, the pins-and-needles feeling crept upwards, until gradually her sight and hearing disappeared.

A few images swam in and out of focus for a while, and colors were dulled for a while. Slowly, they brigthened, and Julia could begin to see what the images were. Then, there was a sharp jank, and she was thrown onto the frool. Her vision blurred, her headbegan beating quickly, and a deafening screech filled her ears. The image faded to black in half a second, then the blurry outlines of room B-5 were seen. She lay on the ground, lazily staring at the leg of a table.

It was like a mandala, and the more she stared at it the emptier her mind went, until she was alone in the universe with the table leg. Julia is still unsure as to how long she stayed there, but Mr. Somque roughly janked her out of her trance. Julia grogilly ran her eys over the surrounding room. She could hear Mr. Somque talking with a person with a throaty female voice. Angrily whispered words shot from their mouths, and Julia could imagine narrowed eyes, vicious body language and facial features gathered in the easily recognizable expression of hatred.

At last, she gathered her strengths and found Mr. Somque and the woman with whom he was arguing standing in a corner. The woman was holding hands with a young teenager, who seemed impatient and desperate for the arguing to stop.

The woman had curly blond hair, gathered into a messy bun, with stray hairs dangling around her, catching the light, giving her a halo, or an aura of fire. She was mildly overweight, and her facial features seemed soft and kindly, even when she was as passionately bitter as she was right now. Dressed in a formless green dress, and with some modest shoes, she seemed deceptively motherly. And I say deceptively, because Julia was soon to find out it wasn't like that at all. The only clue towards this were her eyes, originally a deep summer-sky blue, that had toughened with time until they seemed to be glass, until they locked on to anything she was focused on with the same concentration with which a predator watches prey.

The girl next to her had stringy light brown hair that spiked up at the edges. Julia felt as if she could count the individual hairs by sight alone. She had pinched-up features that gave her a permanent scowl and a scornful expression, as if she placed herself above everyone else. Her garish clothing tightly hugged her body, and the myriad bracelets and necklaces that hung around her neck and wrists were blinding. Her face seemed fake, somehow, the shadows too deep, the skin too perfect, the lips too bright. Everything about her represented a perfect human being, and that is what made her seem fake and artificial.

At last, the discussion was over. The woman had a certain condenscending attitude about her, and seemed quite happy, but her narrowed eyes and smug manners indicated otherwise. She turned her head with a jerk, and widened her eyes. She curled her lips upwards in welcoming. "Hello, who might you be?"

"This is Julia," Mr Somque growled, obviosuly still bitter over his apperent loss. He turned his head slowly, and gazed at Julia with penetrating pupils that she will become familiar with during her stay at Usmere. "Her name is Ms. Ambersalde, she is one of the three mentors here at this specific sector of Usmere," He stood for a short while before beginning to speak again. "All right, let's go now," With great bounding steps, he led Julia and the other girl out of the office and into the hallway. Due to the length of his legs, everyone else either trailed behind him or ran, as Julia did. Mr. Somque knew the halls and walked with an unfaltering precision, taking them to a large room with a large amount of chairs.

A young man, probably in his 20's, came running into the room after almost everyone had filed in. He had light brown hair and some black glasses that lay on the tip of his nose. With a quick, clumsy gesture, he adjusted them and sat down next to Julia. He stayed there, panting, for a a few seconds, before finally realizing she was sitting next to her. He nearly fell out of his seat, then grabbed Julia's hand and violently shook it while haphardzadly greeting her. After doing the same thing with the brunnette girl, he relaxed in his seat. Julia saw Ms. Ambersalde roll her eyes.

"Mr. Thernal, you forgot..." She raised her eyebrows, and glanced at him through slitted eyes.

"OH! RIGHT!" He dug through his bag, then brought out some square qhite pieces of plastic. "Put them on your shirt," He said, handing them to both girls. Julia examined hers for a while. It had her name on it, then underneath it had a single word: "Μαντεíο".

"Mab... Mab-TAY-oh" Julia read. "What?"

Mr. Somque, without turning his head to look at her, nonchalantly corrected her. "It's Manteyoh, not mabteyoh," He looked at her, slightly. "Man-TEH-yoh,"

Julia stared at him, disbelieving. She'd heard that word before.