It was at least three weeks before Sjon realized he could use magic in his room. He suddenly remembered the small bag Pilar had given him, and found it to be absent. One would assume that they would use some sort of magic blocker, but that didn't seem to be the case.

Sjon tried summoning iron, and it worked. Unfortunately, he couldn't summon rare metals and there were none in his room to control, so it wasn't much use. The only thing he could do was summon common metals like iron and aluminum. It was entertaining after a while, but the metal built up quickly.

As usual, every two hours, a knock fell onto his door, and it was quickly opened. This time, a worker with a meal came inside. He took one look at the small balls of metal around Sjon, and instantly left the room, taking the food with him. Sjon frowned. Was he not supposed to do that? Well, if he wasn't, they should have put up some kind of barrier. A few minutes later, another knock sounded out into his room. This time, the door wasn't opened immediately.

"Come in," he said softly.

The door opened to reveal a very short person, with wiry red hair. She must've been only four feet tall, because she only reached up to Sjon's upper waist. Even her features were small, delicate, with a tiny nose and little eyes.

She looked down at a tablet. "Sjon? No last name. Experiencing a form of magic." She looked at him vaguely, scanning up and down. "We'll have to test your blood; do you consent to that?"

"I-I've already been tested—before this."

"Do you have the exact results memorized?"

"Well—no..."

"Then we'll have to test you again. Come here, follow me."

The woman strode down the hallway quickly for a person of her stature. Her hair rose up in an afro, surrounding her small head. As she walked, her hair bounced up and down, like a giant bouncy ball.

An awkward elevator ride later, they arrived at a room filled with nothing more than a table and a two chairs, along with some panels in the wall that appeared to work as a storage unit. Sjon sat down, as the red-haired woman grabbed a syringe from a drawer.

"Is it okay if I ask your name?" Sjon inquired, not moving from his chair.

The dwarf walked over to him with the syringe. "I'm Dr. Madsen, one of the leading doctors at this facility, but apparently I've been reduced to drawing blood."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Sjon replied hesitantly.

"No, no, it's really nothing. It's just that there's so many damn kids that need housing, and there's not enough grunts to go around." She paused, stabbing the needle into his arm and sucking out a decent amount of blood, watching calmly as it squirted into the vacant chamber. "We have over two thousand people here currently, with more people in need of care every day." She shook her head, her eyebrows lifting slightly. "The building is obviously already over filled, they've even started trading kids off kids to the military."

"The military? They can do that?" asked Sjon as she pulled the syringe out of his arm, and placed it into a bag. She dropped it down a chute of some sort.

"Of course they can, all of the kids here need assistance from the government, otherwise they'll die. It only makes sense they'll do what they want with them."

Sjon shuddered, his skin crawling.

"Actually," she started, "There's a recruiter here today, I believe. I hear it's for a pretty comfortable position, some giant ship in the Cailum system."

"Cailum?"

"The drug system? You haven't heard of it? Were you even paying any attention at all in school?"

"You haven't read my file? I was born on Earth," explained Sjon nonchalantly.

"You're the Earth kid?" she yelled, jumping in the air. "I have been putting in requests to talk with you for weeks!"

Sjon backed up a little.

"Well, you're here now, let's talk! I have so many questions, first, what was the socioeconomic climate like during the rise of the wormhole era and how did the common knowledge of the emergence of magic affect the general social climate? The other one I got to talk to didn't remember it at all, they didn't pay attention in history," she ended with a scoff.

"U-Uh... I think I died just before that all happened. If I understand your question, people with magic weren't taken seriously and, um, wormholes weren't super common then. I think."

"Really? What a shame. Well, what was it like in your lifetime then?"

"Well, when I was alive back then, magic wasn't that well known. I don't remember anything about my own life, so I can't tell you for certain what my opinions are—were. What I do know, is that magic wasn't a huge part of anyone's lives. I think a singer said she had magic, but everyone thought it was a gimmick. There were also the rumors that the ISA had discovered how to use worm holes, and it was all thanks to magic, someone who could—"

"The wormhole era came around because of some kid who had magic?" exclaimed Dr. Madsen, her eyes wide open, and her jaw hanging down from her mouth.

"I think so?" questioned Sjon. "I don't know for sure, but that's what all the media outlets were claiming at the time. Probably. My memory isn't the greatest."

"Of course, the lack of electrical stimuli between the time of death and cyro-storage would've wiped out pretty much every memory you had," pondered the doctor. "Very intriguing. Well, I'll escort you back to your room, we'll let you know when the results are back."

Sjon nodded, and silently followed her back into the bland cube that he spent so much time inside.

The time seemed to pass at a much slower rate than before. The visits appeared to take more time in between, but the people who visited him assured Sjon that wasn't true.

It was only about a day later when something interesting happened. He was escorted by a tall human (well, a regularly sized one, technically) and brought down to a large room filled with white chairs and red plants that resembled a cactus without the spikes. He decided to sit on one of the chairs near a plant, and looked at the rest of the room.

Around him were several other people, around fifty, that were all his age. They were all much taller than him, none of them being dwarves, and seemed to be mostly human. Though, Sjon did manage to spot a Seraph and a Felin among the crowd.

In fact, the Felin made her way over to him, past the rest of the rapidly filling up seats, and sat down. Her ears were a chocolatey brown, and a similarly colored tail stuck out from a hole in her pants. Her face was not much lighter than her skin, and her hair was such a dark color, Sjon couldn't tell if it was blue or brown.

She turned to him and smiled. "Never seen a Felin before, huh?"

Sjon's eyes widened. "Oh sorry, I didn't mean to stare—It's just—well you're right. I've never seen one in real life," he stuttered sheepishly.

"It's okai." Her grin was infectious. "Not many people have, believe it or not."

Sjon relaxed a little. "That's comforting to hear," he smiled at her as well, giving into her approachable atmosphere. "Do you know what we're here for?" he asked suddenly, curiosity taking over.

"You don't know? We're getting a chance to join the military!" she beamed at him.

"What? Why is that a good thing?" he stared at her, stunned at her pleasant reaction. On second thought, maybe this girl wasn't just naturally joyful, maybe she was just crazy.

"Where you raised in a different galaxy? Libran is known for its amazing military benefits, free housing, food, entertainment, basically anything, as long as you serve. It's nearly impossible to get in!" she explained in vigor.

"Really?" Sjon didn't know much about the military on Earth, but he knew that it wasn't a good place. After the thermonuclear war of 2154, the military was known as a radioactive funeral home, except the corpses weren't fully dead yet.

The Felin nodded her head. "I'm Ali, by the way. What's your name?"

"Sjon," he smiled.

She held out her right hand, the back facing towards him, similar to the motion the strange Seipy earlier had presented. He froze, and gently grabbed her hand and shook it, looking confused.

She laughed, her voice sounding like twinkling bells. "You must have really been raised somewhere far away!" she exclaimed, still giggling. "Here, it's like this."

She grabbed his right hand, moving it so the palm was facing inwards. She touched the back of their hands together, and moved them up and down.

"There, that wasn't so hard, was it?" she smiled again, showing a full set of teeth.

He grinned back, but was stopped by a sudden voice.

"Vyka Lariboor!" yelled the dwarf Sjon had seen earlier. She was dressed in a formal suit this time. A lanky girl stood up from the crowd, and made her way over to Dr. Madsen, who only came up to her hips, excluding the tall afro.

"I guess the interviews are starting already," commented Ali absently.

Sjon nodded along with her, staring ahead at the rest of the room. It was full, and much more interesting than the room he had spent so much time in. The people were tall and of all different shapes, some with light skin and some with skin as dark as night. Most of their fingers were long and thin, perfect for browsing a tablet. Their hair styles were usually fluffy and short, with the exception of a few people who had it long. Clothing adorned them that was light and fancy, with clear straight seams and high collars. They truly looked like the people of the future to Sjon. Superior in almost every way.

People began to be called by Dr. Madsen one by one, all of them walking into a door which withheld a mysterious room, where the interviews were taking place. Sjon wondered what it would be like, what questions would they ask. He also pondered his opinion on whether he wanted to join the military at all. Ali made it sound nice, but there was always a catch.

He thought back to his boring room filled with balls of metal and terrible table sketches, and decided that anything was better than staying another month in that place.

"Ali Noñ," called out Dr. Madsen, looking around the sparsely filled room. Sjon assumed they were led somewhere to wait once they were finished.

Ali jumped out of her seat. "Wish me luck," she whispered, winking at him. Some gestures never changed, he guessed.

Her interview seemed to take the longest before Dr. Madsen called another name. Ali didn't return, and he hoped that everything went well for her. He took a brief second to survey the room around him. The group of people had slowly dwindled, until there were only around twelve people left.

"Sjon," yelled Dr. Madsen, expectantly looking straight at him. It seemed that she remembered him, with the smile that spread across her face.

He stood up, and walked over to her. "No last name, huh?" he asked.

"We never received one, you could pick one if you'd like," she replied.

Sjon shook his head. "I'm fine without one, it sounds kind of cool, like a popstar or something." He smiled down at her. It really was great to not be the shortest person in the room sometimes.

She grinned back at him and beckoned for him to enter the door. It slid up, much like the ones at Cyrus and Pilar's house, and he entered inside.

The room really wasn't anything special. There was just a table and two chairs. What really surprised Sjon was the person occupying the space.

"You're the person who warped into my room!" exclaimed Sjon suddenly, pointing at him.

The Seipy nodded. "Ilo works too, but call me whatever you like," he smiled slightly.

Sjon was embarrassed. The statement just hopped out of his mouth, having a mind of its own. He sheepishly sat down in the chair, not wanting to ruin any chances of getting recruited.

"So your name is Sjon? I wasn't going to interview you, but after they gave me the updated records, I saw your magic report, and I just had to talk to you. Can you tell me more about your magic?"

Sjon nodded. "Yes—I can. It's really strange actually, I can summon common metals such as iron or aluminum really well, but can't control them. I can control rarer elements though—I practiced a lot on milium,"

Ilo nodded, looking down at a piece of paper. "Yes, I see, that makes sense. So you've been training?"

"Just a little."

"From the looks of this, you've been training more than a little. The middle elements in your chart don't seem to have much of anything, but iron and aluminum, as you said, are very advanced. It's very similar on the other side of the spectrum."

"I guess it's because I practiced them a lot. There's not much else to do in here," replied Sjon.

Ilo smirked at the last comment. "Interesting. Tell me, what can you do that would be an asset to the military?"

Sjon thought about it for a second. "Well, I can summon iron and aluminum, and probably other metals, like silicon or magnesium. I figure that's useful for making supplies. I can also control rarer metals, like milium." Sjon paused, looking at Ilo's face, searching for any affirmation. "Well, you know milium is used to make ships, and well—I've prevented a ship from falling before, I could probably help reduce fuel or something." He looked at Ilo expectantly, looking for an answer.

Ilo's eyes didn't quite meet Sjon's. They almost seemed fogged over, as if he were in a different place. Sjon cocked his head to the right a little, trying to see what was wrong. Suddenly, Ilo's eyes lit up again.

"Yes! That sounds great. Sorry, sorry, I was zoned out, just thinking about things." He took a breath. "Well, I'll get back to you if we need you Sjon, it shouldn't take that long to finish up the rest of the interviews."

Sjon nodded, smiling at the Seipy. He slowly stood up, and turned to his right, aiming for the exit door. He felt a sensation, like eyes boring holes in his back, but he tried to ignore it the best that he could as he walked out through the door.

Ali was waiting for him in a room filled with all the people who had been interviewed before him. It was very similar to the one they had been in before.

"So, did you do well? Do you think they'll let you join?"

Sjon shrugged. "I don't know, I think I could be useful, but I'm not really aware of any politics or that kind of thing."

"Well what's your skill set?" she inquired calmly.

"I have the summoning and controlling ability of metals, the rarer ones are easy to control, the common ones are easy to summon," he explained.

"That's so cool!" she cried, "I wish I was as interesting as that! I'm really good at engineering ships, my father taught me before he passed."

"That's such a useful skill!" Sjon smiled at her. He could see a twinge of pain in her eyes, obviously her father's death still hurt her. He decided not to say anything about it, he was sure that enough people had already expressed their guilt beforehand, and she was probably tired of it. Sjon knew he would be.

"I wish I knew something that interesting," he continued. "I used to have a lot of skills before... um... before I lost my memory." He tried to make it sound convincing. Ali looked at him with sympathy, but his nervous face seemed to ask for the same courtesy he had given her. She didn't say a word about it.

"Well I'm rooting for us to get in," she beamed, trying to give him some peace of mind.

He nodded silently as they took their seats, waiting for further direction.