Exuviate

Exuviate Chapter 1

"It is better to live in your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection." - Bhagavad Gita(1784 P.E., Charles Wilkins)

Different.

What a useless word to sixteen year old Jin, every time the matron introduced him to a new school or class that was the first thing she said. As if being different was the only flaw in an otherwise unremarkable child.

He struggled to hold his tongue as the matron's well rehearsed introduction droned on, "This is Jin from the Chromatic Orphanage, please treat him with care as he's a bit different but still a wonderful boy in the Light"

The curiosity in the sea of teenage heads swiveled in his direction took on varying degrees of emotions. From sympathy to mockery, Jin endured it all having been made accustomed to this nauseating process. He plastered on his fake smile and said the words by rote, "My name is Jin, it is a pleasure to meet you all. I hope we get along in the future"

There was no incongruence between the words and the cheerful voice it was said in but the girl seated next to him noticed the smile never met his eyes.

"Don't worry about them" she whispered loud enough for only Jin to hear.

"Let's all give a hearty welcome to Jin, class" the subject teacher, a rotund bespectacled woman who had introduced herself as Mrs. Balroo. The class broke into applause but Jin only had eyes for the girl who had spoken.

The girl who looked at him like she had found an interesting specimen for an experiment only she knew. There was none of the usual judgements in her gaze.

No sympathy, no false empathy just actual curiosity and Jin couldn't help but be drawn to this exception.

"That's Loriel, she'll be next to you all year so no need to stare, so let's try to focus on the Math for now" the teacher's cheerful voice interrupted his study to muffled snickers from the class.

She had clearly noticed his attention and with a master's touch managed to refocus thirty students on the mysteries of algebra.

Jin did the same burying his face in his second hand workbook on the indicated chapter. Jin's own curiosity simmered just under the surface as he stole glances.

Caramel skin, curly hair and full lips currently pursed as she frowned at some misbehaving variable on her page. It was no exaggeration to say this was one of the most beautiful girls Jin had ever seen in his life. He was obviously being biased as this was the first girl who didn't judge him based on circumstance.

So immersed was he in his covert reconnaissance that he only realized the class had ended by her neatly packing away her books. He scrambled to put away his own, stuffing them into the backpack he always wore.

"Come...I'll show you around" Loriel stood with arms folded, head c****d as she watched the state of his meager belongings. Again Jin was floored by the lack of judgment she displayed, if this girl was simply acting she could be called a savant.

"T-thank you" Jin stammered in absence of a rehearsed script. The initial shock of her beauty slowly began to fade as he slung his pack on his shoulder.

"Where to now?"

The first genuine smile creeping into his face, he had forgotten when last he felt actual excitement to meet someone new.

“I have something on my face, don’t I?” Loriel couldn’t help but notice the intensity of the boy’s gaze.

“Well it is pretty ugly” he teased with a smile on his face ignoring the usual pain in his chest that was indicative of a lie.

She gave him a light punch on the arm “I can already tell we’re going to friends kiddo” assuming the older sister's role in a heartbeat.

“Kiddo? We’re the same age aren’t we?”

“Yes but I was here first therefore as far as I’m concerned you’re my new junior!” Confidence oozed out of the girl who exuded the indescribable air of someone who had been well loved.

She proceeded to guide him to the cafeteria where she pulled a seat opposite his and lowered her voice “So what’s your story? How’d you get kicked out of your old school?” she rudely inquired “And before you answer, yes I know you were kicked out why else would you join the term halfway, let me guess punched someone in the face? Called darkness on a teacher??”

He could tell by the timbre of her voice that both options excited her and he hated to disappoint but he could only handle one Lie Pain for the day. “Wrong and Wrong! They kicked me out because I didn’t lie for someone” he braced himself hoping a half truth wouldn’t hurt as much as the usual Lie Pain,a term he used internally to describe the almost physical tightening sensation in his chest that grew anytime he told a lie. A moment passed without any sensation, he breathed a sigh of relief and continued “Someone broke into the meditation room of the school using Darkness and I told the principal exactly who did it”

Summarizing the hellish last month of his life into a simple sentence should have been award worthy.

He remembered the lashes from the matron even as he accused the physical education teacher of using Chaotic energy.

He remembered the look of shock on the teacher's face when he had been discovered,after all how could a child detect Chaotic energy! He remembered trying and failing to convince the principal that his senses were never wrong.

Most of all he remembered the judgements from his fellows as a freak. He vowed as usual that he'd just stick to himself and keep a low profile.

He could see her jaw drop at his hasty explanation and before she asked the inevitable questions, he cut her off "Please don't make me talk about it now, still trying to get over the trauma" he said with a practised laugh attempting to lighten the mood. Yet the absence of any lie pain testified to the veracity of his statement.

"Fine but only if you swear under the Light to give me the full s********e time" she said with a smile.

"I promise" he deftly replied,nimbly dodging another painful experience.

Not for the first time, Jin wished he knew exactly what was wrong with him, why he couldn't lie like other kids nor could he make promises under the Light. Just some more of that different as he often joked to himself.

"Fine I guess I'll settle for that", empty words which didn't mask her curiosity. The petri dish was clearly open for business.

"But enough about me," He held his palms open in a gesture of surrender "Tell me about you. Let me guess? Chosen acolyte of the Light? Bishop parents? Young ascendant in the making?" He quipped, mimicking her previous dialogue.

“Is it that obvious?” she frowned.

“Not to the blind” Jin laughed, enjoying finally having the upper hand in their duel of words, he knew he wasn’t her match in attractiveness so he tried extra hard to be interesting.

So even her frown is cute, check. Jin could already see himself provoking her just to see her brow furrow and her lips pout, it didn’t hurt that she seemed an open book which to somebody with as much secrets as Jin was a refreshing change.

“Well congratulations, and for bonus points my mom isn’t just a bishop...O no! My mom just happens to be the first female Judicator! Yup I just so happen to be the daughter of Judicatress Loranis, the Valkyrie.” Loriel continued pausing for his expected gasp of surprise at this bombshell.

“Burns! That must be horrible ”

He laughed at her surprise; she was clearly expecting a different reaction from him at her bold proclamation but he honestly imagined that type of pressure would be more of a bother than anything else.

“Exactly! So guess who gets to listen to the Mantras and Doctrines of the Light every night because the blazing daughter of The Valkyrie should be able to recite it by heart.” shocking him with her language as the tirade erupted “ Ding Ding! We have a winner! That's right! This Girl!”

“Damn! Do you know what I have to say to all of that?” He beckoned her closer, both of their lunches forgotten in the thrill of discovery.

“We are all impure…” The first line of the first doctrine of the Light and he started to laugh as soon as her mouth opened to complete this verse “Only the Light is--”

“Blazes!” rubbing his shoulder where she punched him, “Sorry couldn’t resist”

She glared at him and pointedly opened her lunch from home in silence, her eastern roots revealing themselves in the spread of the lunch unpacked. Some form of Roti and channa which made his mouth water and was a far cry from his boring cheese sandwich.

The rest of the meal passed in relative silence as no amount of goading or apologising would get Loriel to do anything more than glare at him. Clearly she had learnt the imperial art of silent treatment from the Penitent ones themselves and he was just about to remark as such in a last ditch attempt to get her to talk when she abruptly started packing away her food.

The bell rang moments after, and he scrambled to catch up with her on the way to Pre-Exuviation Studies.

“Wait up!”

He pushed past unknown faces and bodies, panic rising as he feared he might lose her in the rush to get to class, the grey walls of the building resembling the pictures of a P.E. prison he had seen a book once. He caught sight of a shock of curly hair pushing open a door in the distance and fought his way into an auditorium where a wizened man with owlish spectacles smiled at him before starting to orate.

“Today we continue our series on Pre-Exuviation Cultures with one of my favorites, the Egyptians. Ancient Egyptians were perhaps the oldest culture pre-exuviation who glimpsed the true Divinity of the Light. The major god of the Egyptians, Amun was only given full authority over all divinity in the later years of the Eighteenth Egyptian Dynasty when his worship was combined with Sun God Ra, further deifying him as Amun-Ra.

It is even more curious when you consider that even Amun-Ra was only fully elevated because he upheld Ma’at which as we learnt last class was the word the Egyptians used for order and law and justice.” He paused, glancing around the class with excitement “Do you guys understand just how amazing that is? It means that long before we even had printed paper, a civilization divined that Light was the highest ideal and was linked to order which we now know as fact and not as mythology. In fact, today we are going to read some of the core beliefs of the Egyptians and compare and contrast it to what we know post Exuviation. Take out your textbooks and turn to chapter four. I want us to spend the rest of the session reading and taking personal notes. I want a page from each of you tomorrow on the similarities between Egyptian Mythology and the Light’s Doctrine. You can even discuss it in pairs or groups as you see fit”

His barely contained excitement was infectious and he sat down beaming at the students who immediately sectioned themselves off according to their cliques. Jin rushed for the seat next to Loriel and could see actual joy in her eyes, clearly the petri dish therefore wasn’t just for him.

“Did you hear what he said, it means that Egyptians knew about the Light nearly five millenia ago?! That’s wild!” She exclaimed, her own enthusiasm causing her to forget that she was never talking to him again.

“It is but I bet I know something about the Ancient Egyptians that even the teacher doesn’t know” Jin replied dangling irresistible bait in front of Loriel and braced, waiting for the pain that would come if he was wrong.

No pain so he decided he would go one step further and prove it to her, after all he knew he couldn’t hold her attention with looks so he decided to impress her with his knowledge after all who knew more about religions than the friendless orphan with unlimited access to the public library.

He raised his hand and patiently waited for the teacher to notice him as more and more heads turned to watch him in confusion. The teacher finally realized the oddity and pointed “Name?”

“Jin, Sir”

“Okay Jin, do you have something that you wanted to share with the class?”

The entire class turned to him, the new student was breaking up the monotony of Mr. Ali’s usual read and discuss tomorrow class format. He could see Loriel looking at him expectantly and gave her a mischievous smile before his uttered sentence caused the room to erupt.

“The Egyptians had Ascendants.”