A little shocked by how quickly my thinking moves from one topic to another now, I focus once again on the woman behind the desk. She seems to have finish reading the document through as she puts it and down and stares at me for a few moments.
"Yes, I am Julie. I am also the manager of this office. One of the associates needed to take a break at the busiest time of day, so I had to fill in." She seems to speak loud enough for the people in line behind me to hear.
"This will take a little bit of time to process for you. So we will need to head upstairs to finish the processing." Shifting to the side so she can formally address the people behind me, she continues even louder, "Excuse me everyone, the usual associate should be back in just a few minutes. Please wait in line until she comes back and takes care of you."
A general groan rolls through the line. Someone at the very back looks around and quickly moves to another one of the lines.
Standing up she starts walking to a set of stairs at the side of the room.
Letting it go, I hope she meant for me to follow her and proceed to do so. At the top is a strange room with four desks in the center. Each desk has a chair on either side and they're arranged in a loose square. On top of the desktops are an identical set of four pieces of equipment. The shapes range in shape and size.
A large circle is embedded into a rug on the floor with an intricate design around the edge. Through the center are a series of interweaving lines. Each line connects with another at the edge of the circle creating an intricate design. At these connecting points there is another circle with a crystal or stone placed inside. The entire design does not cover the whole room. All the desks, however, do seem to be inside the outer edge.
Off to one side of the room is a set of wooden cabinets with file drawers, and the other consists of a couple bookcases filled with large, incredibly heavy looking books. This provides a strange juxtaposition between the outer edge of the room and the inner circle. Outside was a perfectly organized office space with the inside being a strange and mysterious fantasy area.
Coming to a quick stop, I take a long look at the only other person in the room, Julie. This time, it's out of curiosity and cautiousness instead of intrigue. Everything in and on the rug makes the hairs on my skin raise, while the rest of it makes it all seem more surreal.
"Excuse me, Miss Julie. What are we doing here exactly?" I finally ask her.
"You do not seem to have any identification, even from a foreign country. This means we will need to start from scratch. This room is identical to what is used when registering new citizens. Most of the time it used only with people who are coming of age, so you are a bit of a special circumstance. He wrote down that you seemed to be unfamiliar with a lot of things on that note. It seems he really was not wrong in that aspect."
I retort back with the only thing I can, "We do not have anything like this in my country. Everyone receives a certificate at birth and that is used as registration. Everyone born in the country receives something called a social security card as well. This holds an id number that identifies them as a citizen. If either is lost, the government holds copies that can be acquired through certain protocols."
"What country assigns certificates at birth? Wouldn't that be a waste of effort towards those that die before coming of age?" she asks as if it is common sense for a plethora of individuals to die as children. Or maybe they just do not consider children to be people as well? The entire concept is rather foreign to me. It jars me to realize how ancient just a couple hundred of years can make things feel. I then realize that I may have to worry about disease immunization, but something from my subconscious calms me into thinking that I should not be concerned with it.
"A place far, far away from here." My eyes refocus back on her. "What is the next step for me then?" I respond.
She sits down at the chair closest to the door, on the side of the desk facing the outside of the room. She motions to the chair opposite her, "Please sit down and we'll start with the criminal history check. This will reveal any criminal history for you in this country or crimes registered with any of the international guilds working within the country's borders."
I sit down at the indicated chair and wait for further instructions.
She opens a drawer of the desk, looking inside and quickly pulling out a knife and a crystal. Inserting the crystal into a receptacle on the large metal box on the desk, she hands the knife to me and proceeds with the instructions, "Please drop some blood onto the crystal here." She motions with her eyes to the crystal she just placed inside the metal box.
I grimace at the thought of using the same knife as others have to cut themselves open.
Biting a bit of the skin at the base and back of my thumb, where it is not callused and easier to pierce, I squeeze out a few drops of blood onto the crystal.
She manipulates a handle on her side and the crystal tumbles through the device out onto the other end looking the same as before. After examining it for a few moments, she finally pipes up cheerfully. "Good! if your blood matched any of the records it would have come out burnt. Next let us test your age."
"You can test someone's age accurately?" I respond with a bit of surprise. That is deemed incredibly difficult even on Earth.
She gives me a weird eye. "Obviously, it is not hard to read how accustomed ones body is to magic and determine their age relatively accurately from there."
"Alright, what is next then?"
"Just hold onto this crystal ball. It will resonate with the magic flowing in your body. The color and brightness it gives off will be an indication of your age."
Holding onto the device as she described, it only gives off a dim white light.
"This crystal must be defective, there is no way this reading is correct." She gets up and brings another one over from a different desk. "Here, try it again."
I hold onto the new one and the same exact thing happens.
"What is the reading?" I ask inquisitively.
"I have never seen a reading such as this. It is almost like your a very young child with almost no attenuation to magic." She then hands me the crystal that was used with the criminal history check earlier. Searching inside another drawer, she finally finds small booklet and opens it to a certain page before passing it to me as well. "Hold the crystal and recite this phrase here while you do so. Keep an image of the ancient script in your mind while you recite the pronunciation written below."
Looking at the page she indicated, I can read both the top and bottom lines. I can see there is a slight discrepancy in how the words in the top script are meant to be pronounced as opposed to the indicated pronunciation of the modern language below. I think for a moment and just decide to read the top script aloud as it is originally meant to be pronounced in case I am missing something.
Halfway through the recitation, Miss Julie seems to be surprised by what I am saying, but I continue along without stopping. Shortly after finishing, the crystal in my hand glows a brilliant, almost blinding, red light. In extreme shock, I almost drop the crystal onto the desk. Thankfully my mind recovers quickly and grasp onto it again before it falls.
It is hard to tell with how bright it is glowing, but it seems the parts of crystal that soaked up my blood are glowing brighter than the rest of it. The whole thing is quite strange indeed.
"What was that that you recited just now? I have never seen the crystal shine that brightly before."
"I just read what was on the page. Besides that, why did the crystal just shine right now. The script says something about holding the essence of a certain ancient being. What does this all mean?"
"Since the age indicator was giving a strange reading, I was worried that you were of some species that I know nothing about. But only pure human blood could make the crystal shine like that."
A few moments tick by before she recognizes the implication behind the second part of what I asked.
"Do you mean you understand the script at the top of the page?! You can read that ancient script?" She yelled out excitedly.
"Of course, I know many languages. That is just one of many, why?"
"There are only a handful of people in the country who can read that language. That's why we have a pronunciation for it down below."
The written language is logographic like Chinese Kanji. I understand why it would be difficult for a lot of people to read the language thoroughly. There are literally tens of thousands of such Kanji characters. Without an advanced education system, most people would not be able to easily distinguish the characters, let alone read the language. That is why Kanji was mostly only used by nobles and government officials in ancient times.
"There are several languages that use logograms where I am from. Once you learn each of the characters and their combinations, it is not that difficult to learn," I finally admit.
"That's still amazing. I can see why you were recommended to be pushed through with a special visa. Considering the test is not giving a valid reading for your age, I have to resort to asking for your age."
I am surprised it took this long to ask me what my age was. "Oh, that is no problem. I am about to turn 28 soon."
She scoffs at the remark as if I am lying. "That's ridiculous, you do not look anywhere near old enough for that. I think 20 is the oldest I can go and still make it believable."
The large criminal testing machine has a shiny enough surface that I can use it as a roughshod mirror. I look closely at my reflection and realize that I do look a lot younger than I did before. It is hard to tell because of irregularities in the reflection, but I almost look the same as I did when I was just entering college. Without wishing to discuss the issue any further, I simply acquiesce, "Twenty it is then."
She nods and starts filling out the form in her hands that she acquired from somewhere without me noticing. I was also surprised with the speed that she filled it out, filling out several parts of the document in just mere moments.
"Alright, I will get this stamped and verified. Give me a few moments." She gets up and walks over to the side of the room with the cabinets. Pulling out a device, she stamps the document and it shines dimly. Once the shining dies down, the ink on the page has turned a different color.
After she comes back I take the document and bow down to her. "Thank you for all the help. If there is anything I can do for you in the future, please let me know."
"Please, I am just doing my job. If we meet again, you can just buy me a meal or something."
I smile broadly, "Deal. I hope to see you again soon!" I walk back downstairs in a happy mood. Before moving out of sight, I turn back and give her a wave goodbye.