"Think it compares to what you awakened?"
Mark's face lit up like that of a child.
"Of course! Look here!"
Mark lifted his left robotic arm, palm up. Above it, jagged gears appeared, forming a crude metal sphere that spun with mechanical life, each gear rotating at its own rhythm, yet creating a harmonious pulse.
Watching this ball intently with a childlike joy, Mark shifted his gaze to Adam.
"I doubt you awakened anything half as cool as this."
Adam shrugged, a half-smile tugging at his lips. He wasn't about to admit how proud he actually felt. "Sure, whatever you say." He, too, was happy for his friend.
He watched the sphere spin for a moment, remembering how Mark couldn't even look at his prosthetic left eye, arm and right leg without flinching.
But over time, he'd started opening them up, tinkering late into the night until they felt like his own creations.
Back then, no child wanted to befriend the cripple with metal limbs. They looked at him like he was something broken.
But Adam didn't really care since his father had one as well.
"Jokes aside, I'm glad you got what you wanted - a mage."
Mark's lips changed into a faint smile. "Yes, I don't know what I would have done otherwise."
They both knew how it was for fusers - lose a limb, and you might as well bury your dreams along with it.
Ether could only flow properly inside flesh for them.
Yet healers capable of restoring those lost limbs were few and incredibly expensive.
For average people like Mark, prosthetics weren't a choice - they were survival, no matter how much of their dreams had to burn.
Even if he awakened as a fuser, no sane person would decide to gamble the astronomical amount of money that it took to restore a limb on a newly awakened cripple.
Now, itching to prank his friend a little, Adam placed his hand on Mark's shoulder, face suddenly as grave as a doctor delivering bad news.
"Good luck in there."
Knowing Adam never told complete lies, Mark's grin faltered, a bead of sweat trailing down his temple. "What do you mean? You just report to her if you awakened something good."
"Yeah, sure... keep believing that, buddy. But I gotta go home to break the news to my parents." He removed his hand from Mark's shoulder and made a thumbs-up gesture.
"Don't worry, you've got this." Adam chuckled under his breath and darted off before Mark could respond.
Not even left with time to react, Mark could only pray Adam was joking when he entered the principal's office...
'Can't wait to hear what he'll say.' Proud of his little prank, Adam was directed towards his house.
While not wealthy, his family was relatively well-off, so he lived in a decent-sized apartment about 20 minutes from the district center, where FM was located, using public transportation.
"Not bad... but you could have done waaaay better." Proud of Adam, Eve was flying here and there, clearly enjoying her time.
"Careful... I don't need extra headaches because of you."
"Hey, it's my first time actually flying! Show some leniency, will ya?"
"I'll do so as long as you don't cause me trouble... come back, we're almost home."
"You're such a killjoy..." The remark only made Adam sigh. 'Does this bird really have to be so... bratty?'
Standing before his house's door, he wanted to ask his parents for answers, but he knew better.
He couldn't.
The principal would always know when someone violated her orders, no matter how much effort they made to keep it secret.
And he wasn't one to think of himself as above everyone else, so he planned to keep his mouth shut as long as the principal said so.
Knock-knock...
"Honey, who is it? Oh... is it Adam?" A middle-aged woman with blue eyes and long, crimson hair tied in a messy bun was cooking. The knock disrupted her focus, making her hope it was Adam who had come home.
"Let me go and see dear..." Adam's father, Clark, approached the door. He had black short hair, a faint beard, and black eyes. He reached for the doorknob with his left prosthetic arm, revealing Adam behind the door.
"Come in son! Dinner is almost ready and you still have to tell us how things went!"
"Coming!" He removed his shoes and went to the kitchen.
The apartment was small - two bedrooms, one bathroom - but the smell of old books and warm spices made it feel like home.
He remembered his mother's voice weaving stories through the thunder to the moments his father played with him as a child...
"Dinner's almost ready, dear. Sit down." His mother smiled reassuringly at Adam as she moved a large wok back and forth, the smell of garlic and soy filling the kitchen. "While I finish cooking, tell us how it went, dear - you've been quiet since you came in."
Adam's parents knew how much weight this day carried.
The state distributed a soul-awakening pill to every student, though not everyone was cut out for it.
Like them.
Adelaide kept her eyes fixed on the pan, Clark's hands busy chopping beside her.
Yet Adam could sense it...
Their failed attempt at hiding their worry, that is.
Seeing them like this, a soft warmth bloomed through his chest, one that made him feel... loved. Even Eve saw it -
The thing she was denied her whole life, now freely given to someone else, right before her eyes... once again.
Her chest ached, a hollow weight pressing down where her own warmth should have been.
It never faded - instead, it spread, filling every corner of her cold chest.
'Not yet, not until I have a body again.'
And she knew it was impossible - that knowledge only made it hurt more.
Even so, in spite of all of this, her heart clung to the faintest thread of hope...
'Let's not make them worry any longer.' Adam thought, a smile as warm as sunshine on his face.