Chapter 22 : The Quiet Watcher

For the next 5 minutes, the teacher continued bowing. He stayed in a 90 degree bow, not moving, but his facial expressions showed that he was getting confused and embarrassed. Kieran simply just stared at the teacher, confused.

“Um, sir, why are you still bowing..?”

Mr. Anavos stood up straight, putting his hat back on and fixing his clothes.

“The question I’d like to ask is why aren’t you clapping?” he asked, then started whispering “maybe he's not as smart as I thought he was..?”

Not knowing what to do, Kieran started clapping slowly in confusion, though Mr. Anavos appreciated it.

“Thank you, haha, please stop, you embarrass me,” he said.

“Is he a pervert??”

“Wait, but what's that grade 2 Sinner thing you said about yourself earlier?” Kieran asked.

Mr. Anavos paused, before understanding something.

“Ah, so you don’t know what that is. My apologies, you just acted so mature for your age I forgot you were only 6. That makes sense now.”

“Well, I believe they call them Attuned now for the children, but the real term for it is “Sinner.” As the Gods were sinners, those who inherited the ability to use their powers were also called Sinners.” he explained.

“Remember what I said about the Gods?”

Kieran nodded

“Well, as there are seven gods, there are seven paths. Each God represents a path, and within those paths, there are also sub-paths.”

“For example, Sinners who follow the Everlasting Sun Path can have pathways that relate to the Gods path they are on. Does this make sense?” he asked

Kieran shook his head in disappointment. Mr. Anavos continued to explain it to Kieran, but to no avail, Kieran was just confused. He needed to see it in action for him to understand it, and Mr. Anavos realized it as well. 

Mr. Anavos sighed, “Alright, it’ll be easier to show you than explain it.”

He closed his eyes, put a finger to his mouth, like shushing someone.

                     “Sleep, mortal eyes, and dream the truth awake,

                                                                                            grant me eyes unbound by flesh or fate.”

                                                                         “The Quiet Watcher”

…

…

…

Nothing happened. Kieran thought that he was perhaps chanting some sort of cool magic, but really, nothing happened. The teacher put his hands down, but kept his eyes closed. Kieran looked around, but saw nothing. The students behind him were still playing, fully out of their seats, screaming and shouting.

“Was something supposed to happen..?”

“Why do you look disappointed, Kieran?”

Kieran looked back at the teacher.

“I thought something cool was going to happen. You said all those chants for nothing to happen, it’s just a-” he paused.

“Wait, how do you know that I was disappointed?”

His eyes were closed. Kieran didn’t say anything, so he couldn’t have told from the tone of his voice. How did Mr. Anavos know that he looked disappointed? Kieran looked around, but saw no devices or anything that looked like a camera.

Mr. Anavos laughed and chuckled, before shaking his head.

“Child,” he said, “You are looking in the wrong direction.” he pointed upwards, still facing Kieran.

As Kieran looked up, he saw it.

A black shadow looming over the ceiling, within it tens of thousands of eyes staring back at him. It was a never ending gaze, each eye piercing him. He felt stuck, he couldn’t breathe. Though he could tell they weren’t physically there, he saw them. The ceiling was fully black, shadows and scratches everywhere. Within this dark shadow, it truly felt endless. Eyes of all sizes, staring straight at him. They were pulsing, and Kieran couldn't handle it. He started to hyperventilate, his heart pounding out of his chest. 

“O-hoh, you can see them? You have a good relationship with the Laylines if you can see my eyes,” Mr. Anavos said intriguingly 

Kieran was about to lose consciousness, his vision blurring and sight fading. The immense pressure paralyzed him in fear, all he could do was stare back at the abyss as it slowly swallowed him in. Just when Kieran thought he was going to pass out, Mr. Anavos put his hand over his eyes.

“That’s enough for now, child.”

When he removed his hands, Mr. Anavos's eyes were open, and the eyes on the ceiling were gone.

“That’s the power of a sinner, child,” he said as he walked back to the board.

Kieran couldn’t believe it. Magic. Magic existed in this world. Though it wasn’t called Magic, it really existed in this world. Would he be able to learn it one day?

“Kieran, do you remember how I said I was a Grade 2 Sinner?” Mr. Anavos asked.

Kieran rubbed his eyes, still a little traumatized and afraid of what he just saw, and nodded in silence.

“When you first begin your path as a Sinner, you begin as the lowest grade, Grade 1. Each grade represents an evolution of the Sinner. Typically, the higher your grade, the more powerful you could be. This means you could unlock more abilities as well.” he explained.

“While the highest Grade obtained publicly so far would be the 8th grade, there are rumors of people hitting numbers in the teens. We believe there is no limit to grades, and could go on forever so long as you keep getting stronger.”

Kieran calmed down and processed all the information silently. God paths? Sinners? Grades? In his mind, it was just magic. Grades? Magic ranks. Sinners? Another word for sorcerers or magicians. God paths? Elements. They were just synonyms, names and explanations with extra steps.

“Alright, I understand, Mr. Anavos.”

Mr. Anavos simply looked at Kieran. He was truly fascinating. If anyone his age were exposed to something like that, they would instantly go into shock. But all Kieran did was just hyperventilate. Loretti was curious. Such a child, so mature for his age, no, extremely mature for his age. The way he quietly stores information, and how he can understand it all was suspiciously genius. That was the only way he could explain to Kieran. He was a genius.