Marla didn't usually wake him up before dawn. She liked sleep more than she liked Cid.
"Up,"
Marla kicked his mat.
"Mom, i don't wanna go to school today. Leave me alone," Cid said half asleep.
She hit him slightly on the head.
"Up,"
Cid groaned. "Is this the afterlife?"
"Worse," she said. "You're going on a walk."
"I'm blind, how do you expect me to go on a morning walk."
"Quit your whining, don't you want to see?"
Cid jumped up like a kangaroo on steroids.
She gave him a piece of bread and dragged him outside.
They walked past the docks, past the market.
They walked till the stone roads turned to dirt. The smell of fish faded.
Cid tilted his head.
"We're leaving the slums?"
"You're gonna meet someone up the mountain."
She stopped at the base of a crumbling trail.
"He's old, maybe mad. But he knows and sees things."
Cid blinked. "Sees things?"
"I guess he's at least better than me at something."
Marla leaned down. For once, her voice was quiet.
"Some folks are born twisted, some cursed. Some blessed. You... I don't know yet. But you've got something. Go find out what."
Then she turned and left.
Just like that.
Cid stood listening to her footsteps fade.
"I guess i've to be serious," He thought to himself.
"Wait," he muttered. "How does she expect me to know my way?"
He started moving trying to grab a tree. Then he smelled the best aroma since he came to this world.
He followed the smell.
The mountain trail was long and steep. He tripped at least ten times.
Eventually, he reached a plateau.
"Sit," a voice said.
Cid flinched.
An old man sat by a fire. He hadn't made a sound until now.
"Who the fuck is this guy? He looks like shrek had a face surgery." Cid thought.
"I didn't hear you?" Cid said.
"You weren't listening right."
Cid frowned but obeyed lowering himself onto a rock.
Then old man stared at him for a while. Or maybe not. Cid couldn't tell.
The man spoke.
"There is a unit to life," he said. "Not breath or blood, but something deeper. A current, a pulse. Power."
Cid tilted his head. "That's...vague."
"Finally, i'm about to get an overpowered game system." Cid thought.
"Good. You're dumb. Most people nod like it's profound."
A pause.
"Power shapes everything. Fire, wind, rot. Everything. And if you have the right spark in you, you can shape it back."
"Magic?" Cid asked.
"No!" he shouted like someone just killed his mother. "Magic is for witches and fairytales. This is law, the rules of the world and the rare fools who bend them."
Pause.
Cid clenched his teeth. If this guy yelled one more time, he might throw a rock at him blind or not.
The old man chuckled. "Powersense. Power doesn't care for eyes. It speaks through everything. You've been using it without knowing."
"Huh?" Cid muttered.
"Do you really think you could have survived that city as a blind boy?"
Cid was silent.
Then.
"So, you think i have this magic sense?"
"Power sense," the old man corrected. "You'll see the world as it is, raw, cold, honest. If you train."
Cid thought to himself for a while.
"So this guy's saying I've been sensing the world through... power? Not magic, not chi, just power. Sure, why not. Sounds fake, but okay."
"Stand up, boy," The old man said.
Cid rose stiffly, arms crossed.
The man walked toward a single fist-sized rock; flat, heavy and dull.
"I want you to lift that."
"This fuck thinks i'm Baki Hanma." Cid thought while he rolled his eyes.
"I'm ten and blind, not a bodybuilder."
"Not with your own strength. Use Power."
Cid frowned.
"You're gonna have to give me more than 'lift it with feelings, dick,'" he thought.
The old man grunted. "Close your eyes."
"They are always closed."
"Then close your mind."
"That's not how heads work bro."
The man said nothing.
Cid sighed and knelt near the stone. He held it. Cool, cracked, ordinary. Nothing magical.
"Listen," the old man said. "Try to use all your senses. Feel the hum beneath things, the pulse, the push."
Cid went still.
For a long moment, there was only silence. Then...
Faint vibrations.
Not sound. More like motion without motion. The stone wasn't dead, it resisted the earth. Cid could feel something circling within his tissues and muscles, strengthening it.
He gritted his teeth and focused.
The rock twitched.
Just slightly. Then he dropped it feeling exhausted.
Cid gasped and yanked his hands back. "Did I...?"
"You did," the old man said.
"It was like the stone... talked. Not in words but it pushed back."
"That's Power. The shape of laws, resisting your will. And you made it flinch."
Cid felt his pulse race. He grinned.
Then the old man pointed deeper into the trees. "Next."
They moved to a shaded spot. A rabbit sat nearby.
"Feel its heartbeat, and tell me what animal it is."
Cid unsure. He couldn't see the animal so he tried to sense it.
At first nothing.
Then: THUMP, THUMP, THUMP.
He moved back. "Okay. That's creepy."
"That's awareness," the old man said. "You're starting to see."
Later, as the light faded , Cid stood up.
"That's enough weird for one day," he muttered. "I'm going back.
Marla's probably made fish soup.
He turned.
"You're not ready."
Cid frowned. "You don't own me."
"No. But you're dangerous now. Power Sense awakened halfway is worse than none. You'll feel things you don't understand and you'll panic."
"I've survived worse."
The old man stepped forward.
"You think Marla kept you hidden for nothing? You walk back there with Power humming in your chest, someone will sense it."