A Helping Hand

Forty students sat in a classroom, listening as the teacher gave the lesson. At least, most of them were listening. It was inevitable that there would be one or two who weren't paying attention in the slightest. And there were likely several more students who were only partially listening. Most of the students sat there passively, with only a few students who were actively listening with enthusiasm.

All in all, it was a typical school day. This was just one out of many classrooms in the school which in turn was one out of the many schools in Hermes. The teacher was delivering the lesson, writing on the chalkboard to emphasize important points or to draw diagrams.

Mary sat toward the side of the room, close to the door. She sat in her seat listening to the chemistry lesson. The teacher was explaining the specifics of covalent bonds and how they formed. It was a moderately interesting topic and Mary didn't have to struggle much to pay attention.

The teacher had drawn several picture of atoms on the board with rings around them to show the electron shells. There were some empty circles to indicate the absence of an electron. The particular lesson was explaining how there was a natural order to how atoms arranged themselves into molecules. Each atom either was missing a certain number of electrons.

The atoms could have the quality quantified with a number. Atoms would want to have a full shell which meant they would try to share electrons with other atoms. When it came to basic molecules formed from covalent bonds, much of the analysis is a simple result of counting. Whether or not a molecule was viable was dependent on whether each of the atoms could get a full shell.

With knowledge of the theory behind the formation of molecules, it was much easier to run experiments to synthesize compounds. While in the past, alchemists had basically gone around mixing random substances together, now there was a way to determine ahead of time whether a reaction was even possible.

The knowledge of these relationsh.i.p.s had shook the worldview of the alchemists when Roland had first introduced it. Many of the alchemists had felt that the wool had been lifted from their eyes. While in the past, they had been stumbling around blindly, now they could see the path. Some people like Kyle Sichi had become fanatical followers of Roland because of how dazzled they were by the wisdom shown to them.

These students sitting in the classroom did not experience any world shattering revelations. They accepted everything as something completely normal as they had not grown up learning otherwise. The young would be completely accepting of the information and seamlessly integrate it into their knowledge.

Of course, this was only the very basics. As the teacher continued to talk, she explained that there were still many more types of bonds that functioned off of different principles. However, those would be a topic for a different lesson.

Mary continued to listen, dutifully taking notes on the lesson. Finally, the lesson was over and the teacher assigned them the homework. There were a list of scenarios on the chalkboard and it was their job to figure out if the atoms would match up correctly. After Mary copied down the homework, she exited the classroom.

As that was the last class of the day, it was time to head home. She walked with a spring in her step, humming to herself as she walked along the sidewalk. She didn't live too far away from the school and she was able to return home in under twenty minutes.

As she was outside her house, a small mouse ran up to her. Mary was fascinated by the creature and she picked it up. Her parents weren't home yet so when she entered the house it was empty. It was probably a good thing she thought to herself since they probably wouldn't approve of the mouse.

After she entered the house, she put down her backpack in its usual location. The mouse had scurried out of her hand and was now running around the house. Having nothing better to do, she decided to chase the mouse.

After running around for a few minutes, Mary finally got the mouse back into her hand. She lifted it up and stared straight at it, with her face only a foot away. As she gazed at the mouse, she suddenly felt a strange feeling.

She didn't know how to describe it. It was like something had changed. She was mildly disoriented for a moment. Then she felt herself exert a strange force and suddenly, the mouse disappeared.

Mary was shocked for a moment. She didn't know where it went. She looked around, turning several times but still didn't see anything. She really wanted the mouse to appear again.

Suddenly, the mouse appeared. It was followed by another one which looked exactly the same. Yet more mice appeared from her hands. Soon, there were a dozen of them running around.

Mary was bewildered by the scene. Then, her puppy Rolf walked up. As she held him, she pulled with an invisible force and the puppy disappeared. Then, she made it reappear, this time making sure to only spawn one copy. Making the puppy made her feel very tired.

A fly landed on her neck and she absorbed it. Then, she was able to create more flies and soon there was a swarm buzzing around. Making a fly didn't seem to take much effort.

She tried again with a beetle. The beetle felt like it took a little bit more energy than the fly, but it was still very small compared to the mice.

Now more familiar with her ability, Mary was now aware that she could feel the living things in contact with her. It felt quite strange. There were so many things on her. They were the myriad of microorganisms that were ubiquitous. She absorbed one to see what would happen. She felt it disappear, only for its spot to be overtaken by the surrounding microbes.

She tried duplicating it a few times. She felt the organisms appear on herself. She created a few more, noticing that it took very little energy. However, her experimentation was soon interrupted when her mother came back home.

It was to this scene that Sally, Mary's mother, arrived. There were numerous mice running around and a swarm of bugs that filled the house. Needless to say, Sally's first reaction was to scream.