"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." – Lao Tzu

  As the butler opened the door, I laid my eyes upon a small dining room about the size of a garage in my previous world.

  In the center of the dining room, there was a relatively large wooden dining table that had 5 chairs.

  Sitting on those 4 dining chairs was a man with short white hair and red eyes, a woman with black, long, flowing hair and brown eyes, Alexia, and a boy that looked to be about 13 years old with white hair and brown eyes.

  Alexia then turned behind her and remarked, “So you’re finally here, Elliot?”

  I replied, “Yes, I’ve arrived,” and sat down in the empty chair across from my family, trying my best to hide the awkwardness building in my chest.

  Then, as soon as I sat, the man clapped his hands together, and the waiters quickly brought out a large amount of food that could feed a family of 15.

  There was rice, meat, stew, and vegetables amongst the food on the table.

  I decided that I would eat the vegetables and rice, as I was a vegetarian in my past life and didn’t like meat. The idea of eating meat here felt strange to me, almost foreign.

  Everyone stared at me while I heaped the vegetables and rice onto my plate, carefully avoiding the meat. The man’s confused voice broke the silence.

  “Why aren’t you eating your meat?”

  I realized that Elliot, before I possessed him, might’ve liked meat. I was trying to keep the act up, so I swallowed my pride and added a small portion of meat to my plate. I didn’t want to raise any suspicion.

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  The man then turned to the older boy. “How are your studies doing at the academy?”

  The older boy replied, “Business is running well, Father.”

  My heart skipped a beat. Business? Running well? What did that mean? And the way he referred to the man as ‘Father’ confirmed something I had been slowly piecing together—this must be my family. The older boy must be my brother, and the woman with dark hair must be my mother. Alexia, my twin sister. This realization came with a strange mix of relief and confusion.

  I decided to stay quiet, opting to observe and gather as much information as I could about this new family. The more I heard, the more pieces of the puzzle fell into place. My father was in charge of the Salsberry province, my brother attended the National Academy of Alecia, and Alexia and I were born as twins—our fifth birthday coming up soon, as my parents mentioned it in passing. The idea that we could be born on the same day, but in different years, seemed incredibly unlikely. I couldn’t help but wonder what that meant in the grand scheme of things.

  Dad then remarked, “Aren’t you and Alexia about to go through with the blessing ceremonies later this year?”

  The blessing ceremonies? I had no idea what those were. Alexia and I exchanged a brief glance, and I nodded my head along with her, trying to seem like I knew exactly what he meant.

  After a moment of awkwardly poking at the meat on my plate, I excused myself and stood up from the table, relieved to leave the uncomfortable atmosphere behind.

  Retracing my steps, I opened the library doors once more. This time, I took the nearest language book, a history book, a magic book, and a ceremonies book. I couldn’t ignore the burning curiosity about the blessing ceremonies. What were they really about? What did receiving a ‘gift from god’ mean?

  I flipped to the page in the ceremonies book that discussed the blessing ceremonies and read aloud, "The blessing ceremony is when we receive our gift from god and the power of magic."

  Magic. My mind raced with questions. Is this a literal god we’re talking about, or a cultural deity made up by humans? And more pressing, Does this confirm the existence of a god?

  The questions only deepened my fascination with this world and its strange rules. Magic, gods, blessings—this place was far more than what it appeared to be on the surface.

  With my pile of books in tow, I headed back to my bedroom. Dumping them on my desk, I flopped onto my bed, the weight of the day catching up with me. My mind spun with the new information I had gathered, but my body craved rest. Sleep would have to come first.