“Yes, child?”

“Uh…can I know how this works?” I tilted my head to the direction of his voice.

I heard a soft laugh beside my ear before the light, warm hands on my shoulders patted my back. “I assume you’re asking about why it is capable of doing what it does. Each of these runes channel distinct streams of the energy of the universe. They come from very special places—very rare, really. But before we get to the rest of the explanation, I want you to focus.”

I felt him move, his body shifting towards the large table before us. He took my wrists and had me extending my hand forward—not enough to touch anything.

“Are you ready? If yes, we will begin. Keep your hand forward like this, but do not move.”

“Okay,” I replied, hand awkwardly hanging in front of me. I spread my fingers and restlessly rotated my wrist, wondering what we were about to do.

“I’ll open the transmission in three, two…one,” Laksa’s voice resounded.

The moment the count ended, I was dunked in a sea of unfamiliar energy so potent that I almost began to drown. It was like suffocating because of having too much air, but not quite. This was something different altogether.

“Focus, Evyionne. It can get overwhelming. Hold your hand out firmly towards the table. Don’t fight what you’re feeling. Let it come to you.”

I nodded and did as he instructed. The table made groaning noises—something similar to a spinning top. Or maybe it really was spinning. It brushed on my dress when I tried to come near. The sound was almost hypnotic, add in the faint bells that seemed to ring all around me. I could not really determine where they were coming from either.

I began to feel varying degrees of sensation at my fingertips. I recognized that…these sensations weren’t really things in the corporeal side of the world. They were…the immaterial.

One was feathery light like a blown kiss, though it flew away before I could grasp at it. The next one that came was cold, gentle and encapsulating but turned icy and drifted away from my touch. What came after it was warm and rock solid, stiff and stable. Unfortunately, it crumbled away when I touched it.

I chomped on my lower lip in frustration and leaned forward more aggressively, trying to catch the fleeting things that were brushing against my hands.

When I finally grasped at something, it was so hot that I almost burned myself.

“Ow!” I withdrew my hands, discouraged.

“Are you alright, Evy?” my mother asked.

“That one didn’t like me,” I said in a frustrated whisper.

I heard chuckles on the side.

Still...something wasn’t right.

It wasn’t my burned fingers or the weird fact that I was standing here with a blindfold on.

It was like having a compass exposed to…too much magnetic friction. The table in front of me kept spinning around, not knowing the right direction.

I stayed there for minutes on end, standing, hand held out to the table in confusion. None of the elements would stay, no matter how long I waited.

“Odd,” Laksa began. “This should have already stopped by now. Let’s try this again. Evy. Please step back for a little bit.”

I did as I was told.

There was some shuffling in front of me—the sound of smooth stone slabs brushing against one another. Laksa stopped the spinning table and asked me to try again.

I did. Only to get the same result.

“I am stumped,” Laksa stated. “There are only two possible results. If you are not a Conduit, there will be no reaction. If you are a Conduit, the table will spin and stop on your affinity. The table…is just spinning. It reacts, but rather weirdly.”

A couple of tries and they all ended in disappointment. After the fifth one, my blindfold was taken off, and I was escorted down the pedestal. My mother had a look of concern while Sir Laksa was full of questions.

“Has this happened before?” my mother inquired.

“No. I’m afraid not. It’s only either one of two.”

As they were contemplating, knocks thundered on the door. Sir Laksa broke out of his reverie, went over, and opened it. He greeted a man and a girl around my age with a bow.

“Good day. I assume you are Steward Anson?” Laksa inquired politely.

“Indeed.”

I looked on with interest and happened to meet the eyes of the girl. She wore a green dress that would make anyone else…well, green with envy. What caught me, however, was her pile of bright, fiery locks. They were far brighter than mine, almost taking on that plum orange tint. It was impossible to say considering her hair was pulled up, but it seemed her waves were more tamed.

That dress made her look a little pale though. Or was she really like that?

“I apologize, sir. Were you busy? If I wasn’t mistaken, we had scheduled a test for my young madam,” the man said as he eyed my mother and me from across the room. He took a glance and disinterestedly looked away, setting only Sir Laksa in his sights.

“Indeed…” Laksa looked over our way, motioning to my mother with a soft, apologetic smile. “Why don’t you wait in the next room? We’ll figure things out later when I’m done here.”

“Of course,” my mother began. She took my hand and led me away, lifting my hood to cover my face. We passed by the man and the girl on our way through. The latter’s eyes lingered on my back as we left.

They finally door closed on the testing room.

“Mama, what happened?” I asked, looking up at my mother. I was mildly frustrated at the unexpected turn of events.

“I’m not sure, darling.” She patted my head. “But we’ll find out after a while. Let’s wait for Laksa, yes?”

“Okay,” I replied and began fiddling with the ends of my dress.

I was guessing that girl was some sort of nobility with how she was addressed—and she seemed to have been dressed that way too. I could also recall Sir Laksa saying that the testing room was for handling particular people.

The arrogance of that steward said that the stature of his young miss shouldn’t be simple even amongst the not-so-simple. I mean, for sure, he would have at least regarded my mother and I with some tact considering we were there too. However, he totally dismissed our presence. Then again, it could be that he was just…plain arrogant. I didn’t know enough about how the nobility of this world worked, anyhow. I probably didn’t judge correctly.

It was a plain sitting room, but there was a jar of biscuits on the coffee table. I eyed the treats intently and gazed up at my mother’s face for permission—to which she answered with a nod.

Leaning forward, I took a bunch of cookies and shoved them into my mouth. I found the taste quite familiar. If I wasn’t mistaken, this was some of the regular stuff that my mistresses frequently had in the House. They were plain sugar cookies and tasted very similar to the ones I had in my previous life.

After some time, Laksa finally came to get us.

“Sorry it took a while,” he said. “I’ve been doing some thinking…” He closed the door behind him. “It is really quite an interesting problem, yes? You see…the results were the same no matter how many times we tried. Now, my initial suspicion was that there was something wrong with the artifact. Unfortunately, it worked well with the person that came after you.”

My mother faced him fully with concern, eyes following his face as he sank on the couch across from us. “Do you think you can find out what the problem is?”

Laksa sighed. “I might have an idea—even though it is very ridiculous.”

“What is it?”

“We’ll have to use…a very ancient device,” Laksa told us. “Probably older than our grandparents. And their great grandparents’ parents.”

My mother frowned.

“Don’t worry. It’s actually already here,” he said. “It’s in the storage room, though—where we keep the things we’re no longer using. Old technology, really. Relics. Come with me.”