I wake up early the next morning. Lay there in bed for a long time. I can't tell if Rio is awake or not. Normally I can tell a lot by listening to someone's breathing but Rio's always a bit of an enigma. Depending on where the pain is in his body and how it's affecting him that day, his breathing is hard to classify. I think, of all of us, Rio suffers the most. Except maybe for Addie.

  But on this morning something is bothering me. I was not born blind; I lost my eyesight and one of my eyes in an accident with fireworks when I was 5 years old.

  Side note: parents don't let your children play with fireworks. And don't leave young children with other children when they’re playing with fireworks. Just sayin’.

  Anyway, I can 'see' in my memories, in my imagination, and in my dreams although it’s always slightly out of focus. What's worrying me today is that I'm starting to 'see' something. But it's different from normal sight.

  What I can see is something like the auras of the people around me. Like blobs of color in a blank void. I can see that Rio is in the bed next to me. I can see that the girls are in their room next door. I can see other people moving up and down the hallways. I can see others who aren't moving. Presumably sleeping in their rooms. I even see the auras of people above and below me: presumably on different floors of the building.

  I can also see something like an outline of the area around me. A vague sort of sense of things there and not there. Not sure that makes any kind of sense.

  Each aura blob has an associated color. Most of the stationary ones are blue while the ones who are moving around tend to be green. A few are a reddish color. Rio is more of a yellow-brown color.

  I say all this like things are crystal clear. But really, it's a bit of a jumbled mess. Lots of overlap and fuzziness that I have to really concentrate on to interpret. Maybe I’m not up to processing it all yet?

  I don't believe this is actual vision. It feels more like I have a new set of senses that my brain is trying to interpret as vision. For lack of a better term, I'll call it ESP.

  I lay there for quite some time exploring these new senses and trying to improve the focus. Finally, I sense a presence coming down the hallway and stopping at our door. A brief knock, and a maid enters. She smells like apple blossoms and short grass.

  "Good morning," she calls out in a cheery voice. "I've come to take you to breakfast." While she's talking, she's moving about the room doing an impressive number of tasks in a very short time. "I’m setting out a new outfit of clothes for each of you. Change into these and I’ll be back to get you in fifteen minutes." She then takes off; presumably to the girls' room.

  Well, what's a boy to do? If a cute girl tells you to get out of your clothes there only seems to be one option. Well, her voice was cute anyway and her aura is a nice soothing color. Rio and I quickly get ready.

  The maid wakes us early the next morning. She gives us time to brush our teeth and get dressed before we head to breakfast. For this meal they bring everyone back together in a big room where we sit at large tables. There are eighty-three of us who’ve been brought here. A platoon of maids and busboys brings our food to us. Standard breakfast fare.

  Nobody's talking much. People are still a bit down. Rio’s especially agitated and I can tell he's in more pain than usual. Halfway through eating, he has a spasm - knocking his plate and some of his utensils onto the floor. He stands up to run away, tears streaming down his face.

  But before he can escape, Saki grabs him in a bear hug, pinning his arms to his sides. The maids are looking at us with shock and concern in their eyes.

  Acting on impulse, I try something I've never done before. Rolling over to him, I reach out and gently take his face between my hands. "Look at me, Rio. Look at my eyes." I say. He struggles for a moment but then submits.

  "I need you to relax," I say. "We're here with you." I keep talking to him slowly and softly for about a minute. His eyes take on a distant faraway look.

  "Rio," I say, "can you hear me?"

  "I'm here," he says.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  "How do you feel?" I ask.

  "Pain," he says, “always pain.”

  "Okay Rio. I want you to sit down. Saki is going to let go now." Saki releases her grip and he slowly sinks into his chair.

  "Holy crap," I hear Kari whisper to Saki. "I think she hypnotized him." Saki shrugs.

  "Rio, how bad is the pain right now?"

  "Bad. Worse than usual," he says in a monotone.

  "Where is it?"

  "In my neck and shoulders. I can hardly move."

  "Okay Rio, I want you to take three slow deep breaths. Every time you breathe in, you will take some of the pain from your body into your lungs and then you will breathe it out. By the end of the third breath, your pain will be gone. Okay? In ... out ... in ... out ... in ... out. How do you feel now?" I ask.

  "Okay," he says.

  "Wonderful. I want you to sit there and rest with your eyes closed for three minutes. After three minutes, you will wake up, feeling relaxed and refreshed. The three minutes starts now."

  "I didn't know you knew how to hypnotize people," whispers Nix as I roll back into my place at the table.

  "I watched a YouTube video once."

  “Doesn’t seem like it should be that easy,” he responds skeptically. I shrug. What can I say, I don’t understand either.

  After three minutes, Rio wakes up and looks around. "Why is everybody looking at me?" he asks.

  "No reason," we all say in a ragged chorus. The maid brings another plate for Rio, and we finish our breakfast.

  They take us to a temple. Everybody in this world goes to a temple to be assessed on their coming of age day. Which means their fifteenth birthday. Since we just arrived and we’re over fifteen, all the Summoned will be tested here today.

  I guess there are a few different Gods in this world. We’re here to get a Blessing. I do not fully understand what that means. Our experience does not extend to the concept.

  One by one, we and our classmates walk into a little chamber. There is a white glass orb there which we put a hand on. Right hand for boys. Left hand for girls.

  Words appear on the surface of the globe and a priest records them. What is written there is the name of the God who has claimed you. Sometimes there is also a Blessing, which can be Hero or Saint. Warriors and protectors, those are. Historically, those Summoned have the favor of the Gods. Everyone summoned from another world receives a Blessing. An especially strong Blessing gets you the Great Hero or Great Saint title. Blessings come straight from the Gods. Or so they say.

  Gods can grant any or all types of magic power. That’s the only way to get access to magic in this world: through a God.

  We all hold back. Let our other classmates go first. They go in nervous, come back chattering excitedly. As expected, all of them have been claimed by one of the Gods. All of them will have access to magic power. Everyone has a Blessing: Forty-five Heroes, including two Great Heroes and thirty-three Saints, including two Great Saints.

  Excerpt from Saki's journal

  This world has magic. People from another world average ten times higher in the strength of their magic compared to people from this world, which we have found out is called Emulgren. That’s their justification for kidnappings summonings, at least. I wonder how it really works? Are there really Gods behind it all or is it some other sort of agency?

  We lined up like good little boys and girls to get our Blessing. We were the last to go. The results are surprising. None of us were chosen by a God for a Blessing. And we all had one thing none of the other students had:

  Aoede Westridge

  Curse: [Unbreakable]

  Karina Saraiva

  Curse: [Unbreakable]

  Nixon Sordes

  Curse: [Unbreakable]

  Ilarion Partidon

  Curse: [Unbreakable]

  Sakura Tsubaki

  Curse: [Unbreakable]

  I guess the broken ones isn't the right name. Turns out we're the cursed ones.

  Wait! No.

  The Accursed. That sounds better.

  After all the Blessings are finished, we go back to our little conference room. We’re a little bit stunned, to be honest. Cursed? What the hell?

  And unbreakable? Plus no Blessings at all. Are the Curses preventing us from being Blessed? Or is lacking a Blessing the reason we’re Cursed?

  We ask, but they have no answers. They don’t really seem to care, anyway. Since finding out we’re Cursed, they’ve lost interest in us. That hurts, I guess, but I’m used to pain. Prejudice and discrimination are human traits that cross worlds. No surprise to us.

  After another few minutes, they inform us that we’re done for the day and leave us in the care of our maids.

  We’re all angry. But Saki is absolutely livid. To be honest, her default state is angry but I’ve never seen her so pissed in my life. She really wants to learn magic….

  We head to bed tired and angry. We have a restless night ahead of us. Our position here is now doubly ambiguous and insecure.

  Did I mention we’re angry? Because we are.