"Are you okay?" Liosa's question was soft, her voice stripped of its usual booming confidence. She saw the storm in Niata's eyes, the way his body was coiled tight with a burden she couldn't see. Her playful demeanor had vanished, replaced by genuine concern.
The question broke something in him. He stared back at her, his eyes wide, his fists clenched so tightly his knuckles were white. "I... I don't remember my parents," he whispered, the words catching in his throat, raw and painful.
"You don't remember your parents?" Liosa slowly stood and approached him, her expression softening. "The Origin Stone should only scramble the memories from the day of the procedure." She gently took his hands in hers. "There must be an error. It should only affect a day's worth of memories, before and after..."
"No," Niata whispered, pulling his hands away as if her touch burned. A single tear escaped his right eye, tracing a hot path down his cheek. "It's not the Stone. I don't remember my parents. I don't recall any of my childhood. It's always been like this. Just... a blank space where everything should be."
"Oh, kid..." Liosa's voice was filled with a sorrow that mirrored his own. She sat back down on the floor. "Sit. We can talk about it. I'm human. I can understand." She offered him a small, sad smile.
"Nah..." Niata let out a light, hollow chuckle. He wiped the tear from his face with the back of his hand, a gesture of defiance against his own pain. He wasn't going to break. Not now. He raised his arm, mimicking the gesture Liosa had made, his hand cupped. He didn't follow her instructions. He didn't think about waterfalls or gentle flows. He just reached for the raw, aching void inside him and pulled.
A brilliant turquoise orb, the same color as the eyes from his nightmare, ignited in his palm. It started small, the size of a tennis ball, but it grew rapidly, pulsing with an unstable, furious energy.
Liosa was completely speechless, her eyes wide with shock. The orb was now the size of a soccer ball and still swelling, its violent light casting frantic shadows across the room. Her face shifted instantly to one of alarm. "Niata, that's enough! You have to stop now!"
"I can't!" he grunted, the words strained. The orb was impossibly heavy, weighing him down as if he were trying to lift a massive metallic sphere. His arm trembled under the strain. He tried to use both hands to support it, but its power was too wild, too immense. It slipped from his grasp.
The orb hit the ground. For a silent second, nothing happened. Then, a deep, guttural rumble shook the very foundations of the floor, and the orb exploded.
A wave of turquoise energy erupted outwards, a silent, blinding detonation that instantly consumed the entire football-field-sized room.
As the light faded and the energy cooled, Niata found himself standing in the center of a glowing, transparent barrier of stone-gray energy. Liosa stood beside him, one hand outstretched, her expression grim. The barrier flickered and died, revealing the devastation.
"You almost killed yourself," she said. Then, her serious face broke, and she let out a loud, booming laugh that echoed through the scorched and silent hall. "And me!"
Niata stared at the blackened walls, his ears ringing. I couldn't even see her move, he thought, let alone cover me with this barrier. What ridiculous speed.
He was frozen, not in shock, but in a moment of absolute, terrifying clarity. The doubt, the fear, the dreamlike haze—it was all burned away by the raw power he had just unleashed.
There's no doubt, he thought, a new resolve hardening within him like tempered steel. This is all real. And I'm going to figure everything out. Just like I promised.
"At least you got the basics right," Liosa said as her barrier rapidly dissipated into nothing. "Your progress is quite staggering. It would have taken the average Guardian Program student hours to do that." She unleashed another echoing chuckle.
"At this rate, you can take on Derivatives tomorrow!" she said, patting Niata's back with enough force to make him stumble. "And it's fine. If something is troubling you, speak to me or Tiamoth."
The name jolted him. "Fight Derivatives tomorrow?!" Niata yelled, his newfound resolve cracking under a fresh wave of panic.
"Why tomorrow? Isn't it too early? I know the early ones are weaker but what if they fuse and become bigger and stronger? I might not be able to do anything, plus my Essence is highly unstable, there's no way I can master it by then—" Niata mumbled rapidly, his hands gesturing wildly as his anxiety spiraled.
"Whoa, Niata, breathe!" Liosa cut through his panicked rant. "These are Tiamoth's orders. He believes you can do this." She turned and walked towards the scorched wall where her screen had been.
"I don't even know Tiamoth! What the hell?" Niata followed her, his body stiff and his fists clenched again.
"I know you're confused, and the rapid requirement for your development is nerve-racking," Liosa said, turning to look him in the eyes, her expression comforting. "Tiamoth doesn't know you personally, but his judgment is to be taken seriously. That's why he's the Overseer of the Guardian Program."
Niata sighed, a sound of weary defeat. "All I know is that he's a detective with the NCPD and he's rumored to be a telepath."
"I trust him. You should too, okay?" Liosa raised her fist. Niata hesitated for a second before raising his own, bumping it against hers. A mild chuckle escaped Liosa.
"Okay, Niata, let's continue. Make another orb," she said, pressing a hidden button on the damaged wall. With a low hum, the structure began to retract back into the floor.
Behind her, Niata focused. He took a breath, reached for that inner core of power, and gently pulled. A perfect, tennis-ball-sized turquoise orb, glowing brightly but stably, formed in his hand.
"Look, I did it!" he shouted excitedly, the orb's glow reflecting in his gray eyes.
"You see? That was easy, wasn't it?" Liosa turned, a slight smirk on her face. "You should be careful, though. That little orb wasted a ton of your Essence... though..." She paused, rubbing her lips as her eyes squinted in thought.
"Though...?" Niata asked calmly.
"Your Essence is peculiar," Liosa explained, pointing at Niata's chest. "Your average Essencer can access one hundred percent of their power directly from their outer-soul, but you... your Essence is at eighty-five percent. Fifteen percent less than any human. That, accompanied by your unique biology, makes you a very special case. So try not to strain yourself."
"At this point, I can't say I'm surprised," Niata mumbled, more to himself than to her. "Toro already told me something like this."
"Your brother, Toro," Liosa mused. "I find him quite interesting. Being allowed to be a Guardian without any Essencer capabilities is a bold move."
"Yeah, big brother Toro is ridiculously smart," Niata said, a proud smile touching his lips.
"I can see that," Liosa nodded. "Anyway, your next task is to form an aura around you and keep it that way for a few minutes. It's the same logic. Just imagine that flowing water enveloping your entire body." Her own body began to glow with her stone-gray aura as she slowly sat on the floor, folding her arms and legs, ready to wait.
Niata closed his eyes and focused. A moment later, his body began to glow with a dim, turquoise light. "I... I feel stronger," he mumbled, a note of surprise in his voice.
"Yes, this is the whole point of the exercise," Liosa said from her seated position. "Now, keep that aura active. While the water is flowing, imagine diverting a small stream into your hand. Let it form another orb."
Niata slowly lifted his hand, and within his palm, a small orb of turquoise energy ignited like a contained flame.
"Now, copy the gesture I made," Liosa instructed, her voice calm and steady. "Focal point of the thumb, middle, and index finger. Don't think about the target. Just imagine the energy in your hand collapsing and exploding forward from that single point."
"Ngh... it feels so heavy," Niata grunted, using his left arm to support his right as he aimed. He copied the gesture Liosa had made. For a second, the energy in his hand felt like it would tear his arm off, but he held on.
A flash of violent light, and a raw beam of turquoise energy erupted from his fingertips, blasting across the room and slamming into the far wall with a deafening crash.