Rising Shards

Oka opened her eyes as she woke up on her thirteenth birthday hoping her dream had come true. That somehow her birthday had cast a magic spell on the whole world, and she had a meal of giant pancakes that were served to her in a glamorous room fit for a princess. If she was awake and could choose instead of letting her subconscious choose a wish, she'd pick something taking her far away from her school to a much happier place. But instead, she was greeted by the dingy ceiling and dirty walls of her room, with no pancakes at all.  She wished she could sleep in a clean room, but things like clean rooms would be considered distractions for Atrian training by the staff at Tesata.

Even if she was stuck there, at least the day would be different than normal. Training would be paused in the morning for visitors. They were famous or something, and they were bringing kids to Tesata. Oka hoped they weren’t going to join the school; it was already more than full with the few students it had. That and she didn’t want anyone else going through what this school considered training.

Sore, she rolled out of bed. Mikkel had tried and failed to get her to conjure an entire tree the day before, and she felt like she’d somehow pulled all her muscles. Oka patted her comfort bunny before hiding the stuffed toy past a corner of her bed. She got up with some other students and left for hopefully a decent birthday breakfast.

She’d dealt with visitors before. Sometimes they just wanted to gawk at the Cani freaks, with their fangs in so early, which always confused Oka. Weren’t Kanibari always the way they were? Why were she and the others singled out to be considered so freakish for being a Cani so young? She couldn’t decide if a zoo day would be worse than a training day.

After a very not decent breakfast (stale toast with weird, grape flavored butter that tasted super gross), Oka and the other students were lined up in the training courtyard and instructed to act on even better behavior than usually expected of them, or they’d suffer severe consequences.

“The Kilanders are a very influential family, and they’re bringing a group of kids to see what young Cani are like.” An instructor said.

Yep. Zoo day.

The visiting group arrived shortly after. Led by a few adults in fancy looking clothes, a bunch of bored kids without fangs filed in.

What do they even expect us to do at these?

A few walked past her, but no one paid much interest. A girl with long hair asked if her fangs were strong enough to let her bite people’s fingers off and if they sucked blood like vampires, so Oka told the truth about one and lied about another to make things interesting for herself. The girl nodded solemnly before leaving.

Oka didn’t think much of any of the adults near her, finding the sand of the training ground more interesting to poke around with her feet. Most of them ignored her, just talking amongst themselves or telling the kids they’d brought to leave them alone and go mingle with the freak Cani. They didn’t say that specifically, but the tone was there. Only one didn’t seem completely bored or revolted by the Cani in front of them, a man with longer hair that actually walked close enough to the Tesata students to talk to them. Oka found herself watching him as he tried to talk (and usually failed, most of the Tesata kids were not ones for conversations) moving from kid to kid until he stood over Oka.

“Hi there,” the man said. “My name’s—” He blinked, something clearly distracting him. Oka traced the direction the man was looking over her shoulder, and saw he was actually looking at Mikkel, who was observing the students. Mikkel was Oka’s main teacher, and headmaster of Tesata. He was incredibly strict, and Oka hated him. Fortunately, Mikkel wasn’t looking her way, but at a group of Tesata students and the visiting kids who looked like they were having trouble talking. Oka did not envy how things would go for them the next day or even that night if Mikkel was feeling particularly mad. “Berin Kilander, sorry. Spaced out for a second.”

“I’m Oka,” she said.

“I actually grew up in a place like this,” Berin said. That was also weird, he said it like he just confessed something that he shouldn’t have. He did something between a wince and a smile as the gears in his mind apparently turned, grinding as he attempted to say…something? Oka noticed that he had fangs, so he was either a Cani or someone trying really hard to appeal to them with fake fangs.

Maybe there was a reason nobody else wanted to talk to this guy, maybe he was just a weirdo. Still, Oka felt bad for him because he was clearly trying. If he really was a weirdo, she’d have to figure out some plan to escape, but for now she figured talking couldn’t hurt.

“Aren’t you from some rich family?” Oka asked. “Why would you grow up in a place like this?”

“It’s a long story,” he said. “How do I make it…quick.” He squinted. “I wasn’t with my family when I was younger, so the place I grew up was…”

“Like this.” Oka said, hoping her flat tone conveyed that she wanted to say “like this terrible, awful, horrible, boring place.”

“Yeah,” Berin said. “But somehow, I ended up going on a long trip, and ended up having a reunion of sorts. With the Kilanders. My family.”

“Uh huh,” Oka said, trying to follow.

“But I’m not that interesting,” Berin said. “You on the other hand, a young Cani, all the potential in the world, that sort of thing." Berin paused. Oka couldn't decide if he was bad with conversations with kids/teens/anyone younger than him or if he was just bad at talking in general. "What sort of things do you like?"

“I like musicals, I guess,” Oka said. “I dunno Berin, I might also not be that interesting.”

"Well, that's not the worst thing in the world, you know?" Berin said. "Are you doing alright, here?"

Oka knew immediately what she went, and was shocked he'd even bother to ask. Could anyone from an 'influential family' care about this school enough to care? A lot of the people that visited seemed impressed with the harshness of the school, and then confirmed that seeming by outright saying it. “I’m trying, I guess.” Oka said. She sighed, ready for Berin to just leave. But instead when she looked back up to him, she saw a look that she didn’t remember anyone showing her.

Pity. That’s new.

“Well. Keep at it.” Berin said with the look of a man who desperately wished he had something better to say. “The time, though, unfortunately. I gotta…talk to…” As he trailed off, Oka didn’t need him to try, and looked away, hoping he’d leave already. She heard him start to walk away.

Normally when some visitor came to talk to the Tesata students, and somehow actually ended up talking to Oka, she left the conversation feeling worse. They’d be rude, mean, cruel, distant, uncaring, some combination of all of them. But this one was different. As Berin Kilander walked away, Oka's forehead felt tense.

“It’s my birthday!” Oka yelled. She didn’t want to yell, but for some reason she needed this man to hear it.

He’s not going to come back. Why did I say that?

Berin stopped, though, immediately proving her thought wrong. Oka didn't know what she could even say when he returned, so she just repeated what she said. "It's my birthday."

“Well, can’t leave you without a birthday gift then, right?” Berin asked. He started going through his pockets, starting with his suit jacket. Since he was rich, Oka wondered if she was about to get some money from him, but she’d feel like she was guilting him into a present that way. Still, when was the last time she’d ever received anything for her birthday? Berin sighed.

“Wait, I got something.” Berin said, pulling his right sleeve down. He pulled a bluish, teal cloth from his wrist and held it out to Oka.

“It’s not much,” Berin said. “But it means a lot to me. I’d be happy for you to have it as a birthday present if you want.”

Berin held the cloth out to Oka with open palms like it was something sacred.

“Is it just…a napkin or something?” Oka asked. “You didn’t like, use it to blow your nose or anything, did you?”

“No, no. It’s an I.S.C.” Berin said.

“Huh?” Oka asked. “I..s…what?”

“It stands for uh…it’s so dumb out loud, but it’s for ‘impression storage collector.’”

“Uh…alright.” Oka said. “Can’t you just say like…memory holder or something?”

“Probably, but where I grew up, they were big fans of initialing things.” Berin said. “Where I came from, the…this-like place, well. It wasn’t all...” He waved his arms around.

“I get it.” Oka said.

“There was some good stuff. Like there, when you wanted to remember something, the tradition was to tie a cloth around your wrist so you never forget it.”

“What, like to brush your teeth every night?”

“No, more like.” Berin said. “I’m not explaining this well. I had something really great happen, something that made me want to define myself by it, something life rattling in a way that I always wanted to think about."

“Something good?” Oka asked. “Did you brush your teeth for the first time and wanted to remember to keep doing that?”

Berin laughed. “It’s cheesy, but it was something more. Magical, I guess. Something someone told me. And I think I had it long enough that I’ll remember it. If you’d like that as a gift, that is.”

“I…I’m sure I’ll have something to remember.” Oka said, taking the cloth. It felt just like a normal cloth, but with the way Berin described it, especially calling its origin magical, she wanted to handle it with care. He could’ve just been making all this up too and had given her a handkerchief to try and make her feel better, but something in his voice told her he wasn’t lying. “Thank you.”

Berin ruffled her hair. Oka almost reflexively swatted him away like her training taught her, but she resisted. She'd never tell anyone it out loud, but of the musicals she liked had a scene where one of the main characters had their head patted after a good job. Nobody had ever done anything like that for her, but it was something she always longed for.

“Happy birthday, Oka,” Berin said. “I hope you have a nice one.”

Oka still felt sad watching Berin leave the second time, but she felt more like she’d accomplished something. She hid the cloth in one of her pockets so nobody would bug her about it. Nothing else of note happened for the rest of the event, and because they were all mostly good, they didn’t have to train for the rest of the day. When she was back in her room, Oka fished out her plush bunny from the corner of her bed.

“Here, bunny.” Oka said, wrapping the cloth around comfort bunny’s head in a bow. “Let’s share our birthday present.”

She’d probably never see the Kilanders again, but at least one of them was nice and maybe had a similar upbringing. If they could go from a place like here to some place better, maybe she could someday too.