After losing my family, Melina was the first person to help me. She took me in and guided me to the hospital on the other side of the European Union Bridge. The reason they planned to go there was, Reus knew the head doctor of the hospital and thought that he may know something about the impact and the deaths it caused.
Soon after arriving at the hospital, Melina took care of me. I was unresponsive and only acted on impulses and reflexes. Melina tried very hard to push me out of that state. She fed me, washed me, slept next to me and would always talk about the things that were going on outside my "world".
The days that Melina took care of me always passed the same. By her words, I had "a thousand-yard-stare" in my eyes and "acted like a plant".
I had no memories of the time in that trance-like state. I only remembered bits and pieces of stories about strange lights and powers.
When my mental state stabilized again, the first thing Melina did, was hug me. I felt empty at that moment. My emotions felt numb, like I had dulled a sharp blade that was once my emotions. After that, I got an explanation from Melina.
I learned about the existence of Mana and special powers you can get from it. Not long after, I got to consume a simple and small gem. Doing that, allowed a person to obtain a Mana-Core. The core usually manifested inside an organ like the stomach or the heart, but it was different for everybody. My Mana-Core manifested in my heart, Melina's in her liver.
We started to train with others in our age. Our trainers were Reus and Gustav.
The training was harsh and kept my mind off of the thoughts about my family. After everyday of military-style training, Melina and I slept in the same room, and that was the standard for a while until we were soon sent out to scout Central Superio for anything of importance.
When we were sent to scout out Central Superio for the first time, I got to experience how different Melina can be. Her usual caring self was completely non-existent when she got to order us around. Trying to imitate her father caused serious problems for us scouts.
I had already awakened my Salan ability at that point. The first thing that happened after awakening and becoming a Bearer was, my Salan ability giving me a suggestion to not tell anyone about it. I became a Bearer after being only a Mana-Wielder for a while, so I just kept my Salan ability a secret and made them think I was still a Mana-Wielder like most of them were too.
That's what I did. I kept it a secret from everyone and learned about my Salan ability more and more as time passed. I learned about its uses, its strengths, its weaknesses, its Mana consumption and its limit.
***
It had been more than 3 months since the impact and I was in Central Superio, scouting. It was a normal day, with normal weather and the normal sights I saw each time. We never expanded over the territory marked by Reus. But on that day, my intuition told me to go outside of the marked territory.
When I was at the place my intuition wanted me to be in, I just observed a normal suburban neighborhood. All the houses had collapsed and there was seemingly nothing out of the ordinary until a violent vibration shook me. After that, I was able to observe Niam build his Mana-Core. I had done the same when Reus awakened.
I completely ignored my intuition that day and didn't sleep for 3 nights, as I was accompanied by gut-gripping regret.
When I then fled the European Union with Niam, I always slept when he was around.
***
'I'm scared to lose someone important to me again. I woke up from my trance-like state back then, when I unconsciously started to care about her, because she treated me kindly. After she passed, I created a bond between me and Niam. Sleeping in a room together with him seems to calm me.'
After remembering everything that happened to me after the impact, I started to feel my intuition telling me something.
Niam was still inside the building I was in, and he was safe. Sleep poured over me like an ocean-wave and covered my whole body. I didn't show any sign of struggle, I just let it be. I drifted asleep.
*Tana Zaman*
Something happened to my father after the impact. He had lost millions of his citizen, no proud Emperor would be in a good state after an event like that.
First, he started to act weird. He would mess up sentences and would forget what he was talking about from time to time. Then, a month after the impact, when Bearers and Mana started to spread on a big scale, his personality changed completely. He became a savage man, full of blood-lust. His plan was to conquer Superio completely. Something we, the Arabs, wouldn't think of doing, as we were the most passive and peaceful Land of all the other Lands. My siblings noticed this as well but the only ones who could stand up to our father were the eldest sons of the royal family. They weren't there when it all happened, when everything changed. As soon as my younger brothers awakened the powers of Mana, they each went to one of the 3 borders of the Arabic Empire. The First-Prince went to the north, the Second-Prince went to the south and the Third-Prince went to the west, to Siran Bridge.
"Go to Central Superio and kill anybody you see, bastard. I've only let you live so you can be useful as either a weapon or political figure." My father ordered me.
My younger siblings, who remained with me at the capital, were feeling our father's tyranny first-hand. The oldest of the 4, the Second-Princess was 17 years old and had never learnt to fight or anything alike. The other boys had barely reached puberty and were being manipulated by our father.
I had to act, I had to do something.
'I need to wait for one of the princes.' I told myself. 'If he comes back, he will realize how fucked everything here has become.'
When the 2nd prince came after 6 weeks, things took a turn. He was on the brink of death, cuts all over his body. I expected a worried expression on my father's face, but when it never appeared, I knew what to do next.
In our family's history, when someone with power acted in a way that risked his people, he or she must be killed in order to prevent more unnecessary bloodshed.
When this thought came to mind, everything turned hazy and lost its detail. It was me who had to do something. The Second-Prince was injured and we had no information about the other 2 Princes. I had to do it, it had to be me specifically.
I was the the princess of the Arabic Empire, but I wasn't seen as one. My mother was a servant of my father while he was still a Prince. He fell in love with my peasant mother and I was born later. My mother played no role in my life as she died soon after giving birth to me. And my father paid no attention to me because he ascended the throne when I was still young. And like in most stories, the illegitimate daughter of the Emperor was treated like shit.
I endured all kinds of discrimination, and the only time my father "helped" me, was when he noticed that I was old enough to receive combat training.
"Insurance." He called it.