2060, Month of Zephyr, 18th

  frrshh… fffrrt… rustle-rustle… shff-shff…

  "Alice, wake up, it's already 7:00. Freshen up fast and come downstairs for breakfast."

  I got up, rubbing my eyes groggily, the exposed parts of my skin almost numb due to the cold.

  "Uh, did I die?" I said, looking around my surroundings.

  "Nope, you haven't died, and stop talking about death in the early morning, you idiot," Arna's voice said, her hair tied in a ponytail with a few strands covering her face as she made her bed.

  "I had a dream, Sis."

  "Everybody does, but somewhere along the line of life, it died away."

  "You said not to talk about death early in the morning."

  "That applies to you, not me."

  "Hypocrite"

  "You sure know your vocab for a kid."

  "This dream was strange, but I don't remember anything."

  "You never really remember the beginning or end of a dream? You always wind up right in the middle of what's going on, and by the time you wake up, it's all gone." she said, reaching up to take her hair out of its ponytail. It fell loose around her as she shook her head gently and gave a cheeky look.

  "Isn't that from a movie?"

  "It's not like that everyone has done a PhD about dreams…now get out of the bed," she said, leaving the room.

  What's with that weird dream? I was somewhere else, some place with peace and comfort, but why can't I remember it?

  Wait a minute, how did I know about a film released in 2055 when I died in 2053? Are my memories from Siku? But I haven't tried to reach them yet. Are they flowing into my mind automatically? That explains why I was able to solve math yesterday. Duncan's memories and knowledge flowed into my mind when I was in him, but I don't remember much from the rest of the lives. So the longer I stay in a body, the more memories start to flow in my mind? I might lose my own mind.

  *****

  tap-pat tap-pat tap-pat

  Why is she taking so long? It's already 11:00. How long does she plan to get ready? Is it really necessary to bathe before learning stuff? I went in and came out in five minutes, and she has been inside for an hour already! What's there to wash on a body for an hour?

  Click!

  Ah, she finally came out. Time to learn to control my ability!

  I turned towards Arna; she was wearing a sky blue long-sleeved t-shirt with a snowflake pattern on it and dark blue shorts as her bottom, wrapped with a white towel with bunnies on it.

  "Give me five more minutes, Alice,I need to do skincare and make my hair.

  Not again! Didn't you do some skin care before entering the bathroom? When did getting ready become this time-consuming?

  *****

  "Okay! Let's get started," she said, stretching out and letting out a groan.

  "Where shall we start now? Uhm, why are you staring at my face, Alice?"

  "Eh? It's nothing, you did some sort of skincare for an hour only to look the same."

  "I did skincare, not makeup. There is a difference, dummy. Plus, I am a girl, I have my own priorities, and it's Saturday, the only day I could rinse my hair and do everything to maintain my beautiful face!" she exclaimed.

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  "Whatever, let's get started. I am getting hungry again."

  "Why don't we start after having lunch?"

  "Oh, come on, let's get over with it."

  "Haha, just kidding. Okay, so how much do you know, Alice?"

  "Hmm, I know that swirl count is used for efficiency; the more the swirl, the more the efficiency, and ability is the superpower."

  "You are close, but ability isn't a superpower but a curse."

  "Hmm, I do remember people praying for the messiah, right?"

  "Yep, well, as you know, we are divided into five castes based on the swirl count. This is all regular stuff; you and I are hearth, the lower are blights, etc., etc."

  "Now, before i tell you how to control your ability, you know the reason why we have this ability and why it's a curse, right?"

  "No idea, sis, but isn't it linked with the Luminaries? But I can go through Siku's memory quickly."

  "DON'T YOU, LITTLE BASTA*D," she yelled.

  "You don't know? Isn't it like common knowledge? Fu*k, I forgot history comes into the curriculum only around grade eight anyway. Let me tell you about it," she said and pulled a whiteboard.

  "Alright!! So basically our history is divided into two eons," she said and drew a line dividing it into two sections.

  "Eons?"

  "Yep, you know our dates, that is, 2060, 2061, etc., are in the ACH era, while the others are in BCH, but BCH is irrelevant since most of the events of BCH are destroyed and lost; it's ACH that matters. You know the cataclysm of heavens, right?"

  "Mhm, kind of. From what I remember, the Luminaries protected humans?"

  "Exactly!" she exclaimed, snapping her fingers.

  "We were always worshiping the Luminaries even before the cataclysm. The events of the cataclysm are what led us humans to be cursed," she said and drew twelve huge figures for the Luminaries and small figures for humans.

  "The cataclysm of heaven in a nutshell is when the Luminaries joined forces to defeat the devil and protect mankind," she added, drawing another figure, this time with horns.

  "Our planet was a huge chunk of land. Then came the Cataclysm. The battle between the Twelve and the Devil was so overwhelming that the land itself shattered, breaking apart into many kingdoms scattered across the oceans. Each kingdom became distinct and with extremes. Evercold, with endless cold. Everheat, scorched by relentless heat. Most of the world's history was lost in that destruction. We have a vague understanding of what truly happened before the Cataclysm because most of it was destroyed. As for our abilities, it's because of Devil's death. It is said that in his final moments, he placed a curse upon us. That curse is what granted us abilities. And the swirls. Got it, Alice?"

  "Mhm...yeah, I did, and, uhm, you are bad at drawing, sis."

  "It's not the point of discussion here," she spat out and continued to scribble on it.

  "Now the lower the swirl, the less they are cursed; the higher the swirl, the higher the curse, and that's the reason why people with high swirls are treated with respect since they are suffering more with it, while people with low swirls are not respected well because they have it easy."

  "Hmm, but the messiah has zero swirls, right?"

  "I don't know, I am not into this hardcore religious stuff, but the Messiah exists and has zero—that's what I read and heard."

  "Now that you know the basic history and understand the actual concept, let's get into the control part. There are three general ways to learn to control an ability and use its swirl efficiently. I don't know the other two, so we can use the one I know," she said and pushed the terribly drawn whiteboard aside.

  She lifted up her shirt all the way till her navel was visible, and there were fifteen swirls around it in her toned midriff, which narro-

  "Eyes up here, perv."

  "Oh, sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to," I said, my face burning a bright red as her navel was exposed.

  "Haha, you look cute when you blush...although I've seen Siku blush, but this feels different. Maybe because you have the mind of a nine-year-old, I guess, but it feels cute rather than weird." She shrugged.

  "Uhm"

  "Okay, look at my tummy."

  I tentatively looked at her tummy, and it glowed with blue light and dimmed again.

  "See that? I turned on and turned off my ability by focusing my mind."

  "Uhm, but nothing happened," I said, looking away

  "Well before that, sorry for hitting you yesterday. I used my ability and slapped you."

  "But it felt like a normal slapping to me."

  "You weren't able to sleep well, right? and let me guess, you weren't able to eat well either? That's because my ability messes up a person's internals when I hit them."

  Is that the reason why I am constipated?

  "Scary"

  "Ha...okay, let's begin then. This method is known as the Labyrinth."