Adanic: Chapter 8

I stood completely out of touch with the mortal world on the football field, in a rough circle with my friends but not actually engaged in the present conversation. I stared off at the overcast sky, not actually seeing the gloomy gray and purple-lined clouds that covered the blue sky like dismal cotton candy. I mindlessly twisted the ring Topaz gave me as I played the end of our conversation over again in my head:

“Anyway, these aren’t the only changes you’ll see. You’re still coming up to full Adanic form. Normal full Adanic form, anyway. You’re going to have powers, like we do, that came from the gods”, Topaz said with a very serious face.
“What gods? What powers?” I inquired.
“Every Adanic possesses their own god. We act as a sort of vessel for their souls. We’re all born with it, and each Adanic possesses a different god. No one person has the same god, and therefore everyone has different powers. They vary with the god”.
“So what god do I possess? What do you?”
Topaz stared at me with the same intense curiosity through her pink eyes that I had seen earlier. “This is another particular thing about you. You possess the power of the Ice Goddess. You might associate her with that old fantasy you created when you were little called ‘Sailor Snowflake’”. She continued, registering the confused mask I wore, “She’s one of the most powerful gods we’ve ever heard of; she's extremely powerful. Both of our bodies are hardly strong enough to withstand it. It would be impossible for any Adanic to carry her soul for more than a week, and those aren’t even the statistics for someone who’s half human. Any human would probably die shortly after being born”. She eyed me as if I were a miracle.
“I’m the vessel for the Ice Goddess’s soul?” I asked breathlessly. I must have been some sort of freak of nature to live for so long.
“Yes”, she said, ending it there. “Oh, by the way, I harness the Sun Goddess’s powers. Technically, we’re supposed to be rivals and enemies because we’re practically opposite”, she said smiling. “You wouldn’t believe how opposed to training you I was, but seeing as you are in possession of the second most powerful god ever and I have the fifth most powerful, I was the only one to do the job”.
We both sensed that we were cutting it too close for time; any minute now someone would come looking for us, and we’d both be in trouble for sure.
“I need to give you this”, Topaz said in a rush, thrusting a ring into my hand. It was beautiful; the heart-shaped stone in the center of the gold band wavered between green and purple, depending on the lighting.
I admired it for a long while before I said, “This looks really expensive. I can’t accept this”, and held it before Topaz.
“But it’s yours”, Topaz said. “It shows you are a registered Adanic as well as it helps control your power, with you especially. Here, put it on this finger”. Topaz paused to slip it on my right ring finger. “It’s a sort of Adanic tradition”.
“It’s too big”, I said, worrying that I’d lose such a beautiful and valuable piece of jewelry.
“Hm”, Topaz said, lips pursed. “I’ll have to get you a gold chain for you to hang it on your neck temporarily. Or we’ll have to get it fitted. But that might take a while…”
“I have a gold chain”, I said suddenly.
Topaz smiled. “Great. That will do until we can get it fitted”. She stared more equally at me, despite me being shorter. “Take good care of it. It’s mystic fire topaz. All Adanics possess a ring like that one”. She held up her hand so that I could see a silver band with a pink princess-cut stone. “Pink topaz”, she murmured, beaming proudly at it.
Suddenly, something connected in my head. “”Topaz”, I repeated.
“Yes”
“You’re Topaz. The stones are Topaz”.
She laughed. “So you noticed. My parents liked the name. I wonder if you caught that my last name is Cinada, which is ‘Adanic’ backwards”. She laughed again. “Of course it’s just a cover last name. My real name is Topaz Aiden. Nice to meet you”, she said, smiling and shaking my hand as we walked towards the field.

I looked over to where Topaz was standing now, in the middle of a large group of some of my classmates. She saw me and flashed me a quick, friendly smile, which I instinctively returned.
Could what she said be true? There seemed to be no other explanation for my appearance. But I was so mellow and quiet. How could I possess the spirit of the second-most powerful goddess in the universe? Nothing made sense. Yet I felt that I remembered something of that incident with the scientist and Adanics somewhere in the back of my head. What was it?
As we made our way back to class, I truly felt like I had become someone else. Like an ice goddess did possess a portion of my soul. Or maybe it was the realization that it had been there all of my life to be awakened by Topaz.