The pain got intersected by the astonishment of seeing my irises flare red as the red slithered into the air like eager snakes hunting flies to fill their starving stomach. I pushed onto my arms and slid onto my buttocks as I faltered around, speechless from the sight before me.

Raghav, crossing the brink of unconsciousness, slowly grabbed himself back into the world as he rocked his head. Raghav eyed me with concern as the red line under my skin reflected onto his face. The pain vanished, but my eyes continued to flicker red as I tried figuring out Raghav’s facial expressions. I gawked at him like looking through the shattered glass as Raghav stood up composedly.

“It’s just probably a mechanical malfunction since the two lines ain’t seen the sun in a long time,” Raghav clicked his tongue as he came closer, reaching out his hand to pull me up. I obliged with an uptight mind as Raghav helped me with a rested aura.

“Why were you so surprised to see red? Is it bad?” I inquired.

“Very bad, so bad that the government would kill you on sight if they saw you,” Raghav retorted, taking the two lines off my cheek, clenching tightly on them as we walked over to a computer stored next to the door facing away. I wasn’t horrified to hear that. I was already on a bounty list where I’m sure a person would murder me for the princess’ lie.

“I don’t understand. I saw one guy with a grey left one and a green right one,” I said, watching Raghav type in the password to access the computer. As the password wasn’t wrong, a dark black and white selfie of Raghav and some Indian woman popped on the screen. They were hugging each other passionately. They are probably lovers.

“A drug abuser,” Raghav mumbled, opening a tab in a browser to begin typing away.

“What?” I had to make sure I heard what he said. I was partially correct then.

“If you see someone with a grey line under his eye, concurrently the left. The person has a history of drug abuse, for personal reasons or attempted to boost their powers using a drug,” Raghav explained, pulling up a page that said the Danger Ranking and the Power’s Strength Ranking, “Here, to save time explaining everything.”

I leaned near the screen after Raghav stepped away and started reading the descriptions of the lines on my face.

The two lines had a longer nickname for the device’s name - the Government's Power and Danger Detector, or GPDD for short. It’s a device mainly used to detect a person’s danger level and how powerful the user’s abilities are.

On the left, also known as Power Scan, the line uses the blueshift to rank the powers; SSS, SS, S, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Grey doesn’t have a category for the ability user with a history of using drugs to amplify their power(s).

On the right, the line, also known as Level Scan, uses the redshift instead to rank the person’s danger level, which practically determines how dangerous their ability is. Red and Orange ability users are the only ones where it requires a government official to kill on sight. Yellow ability users get arrested. Green and Blue are safe, but Green needs people around the user to stay alarmed. Blues are the medics of the Supernatural Society.

Why does this world hate me so much? Of course, I possess a power that would kill me.

While looking around, I noticed that the power I have - mind control - is in the Orange Ranking, also known as The Domination category, but my Level Scan is red and red is in the Motion category. I haven’t noticed any powers that could be a motion ability, just this Mind Control that I still don’t have control over.

So, I suppose Raghav is correct with the GPDDs having a mechanical malfunction.

“Since it is getting late, you should get going. I’ll see the problem with these GPDDs and mail them to you,” Raghav said.

Ah. I was so focused that I didn’t know my eyes felt like a sandstorm whipped them. I stepped outside, rubbing my eyes to clean out that irritating feeling and looked around the street, seeing lights that were on before now switched off. I turned around, getting a glimpse of Raghav working and started walking home.

“Why is this world so infuriating?” I muttered to myself as I left the forest and onto the path towards the village.

“What is so infuriating?”

AH! I bounced in dread as I locked eyes with Edylra standing a few feet away with her arms crossed. The moon glowing on her back complimented her green eyes that lamented as her hair waved like a tune with the tender cold wind. She tapped onto her forearm with her fingers three times before stepping closer.

“The fact that the city has so many restrictions and that I have to wear some annoying line thing in the richer areas of the city,” I somehow muttered a sentence despite still feeling spooked, “Why are you up so late?”

“I could ask the same question to you, but you already answered. So, it looks like you’ve met Raghav. What were your ranks?”

“Uh, white and red?”

“I figured your mind control would be above A-Rank, but red? Mind Control is in the Domination Category, not the Motion Category,” Edylra said, tilting her head as she questioned my danger ranking.

Wait, since I might have travelled the universe, swapping hosts with the original. Does that make me a Universe ability user to explain my red ranking? Then if I have two powers, what is the limit to how the number of abilities a significant person can have? And what kind of power does Edylra have?

“Do you have any powers?” I asked.

“Nope, I told you before. Only elves with noble roots can have abilities. Elf civilians are just powerless, which sucks because any human, regardless of their status, are born with supernatural abilities,”

“I’m sure I don’t have a noble family, so why do I have powers?”

“Because dark elves are the closest to the human line, they were created by parents that were an elf and a human with the Domination powers. That’s why there were only ten thousand dark elves throughout history,” Edylra explained, walking into her house as I followed after she had finished preparing the identity cards.

“For a small population, they seemed to have marked their presence in the elf history book,” I chuckled, feeling proud of myself as Edylra prepped tea as I sat down.

“Yeah, it took an army of one hundred thousand elves with the aid given by humans to take down one hundred dark elves. Dark elves were enhanced, and with every supernatural ability of a noble elf, the dark elves race had one that opposed the noble elf’s ability. For example, if a noble had healing power, that power is replaced with a killing power for the dark elves,”

“So, how did it go from dark elves having the Domination power to accessing every negative power of a positive power?”

“It’s called The Sanatical Curse. The couple to create the first dark elf in the 12th century had intentions, nasty ones. With the elf’s magical abilities, they placed a curse on the dark elf, then forced an Elven-Human couple to create another dark elf, kidnapped the victim’s baby and grew it up to be the first-ever dark elf’s counterpart,” Edylra grunted.

And now my pride vanished. I mournfully sipped my tea, finding out I am just a cursed project of psychopaths.

In front of me were two identical cards, the left one showed my elf ears in the portrait, and the right one showed my fake identity where parts of my face were adjusted so I would look like a different person. My nose was big, my elf ears were gone, my eyes were more open, and I had brown eyes with fat eyebrows. To the side of the portrait had my alternative name, Richard Davis.

“That is the whitest name I have ever seen,”

“Shut up. I struggle with thinking of different names,” Edylra moaned, snatching the fake identification card away.

“I keep this?” I pointed at the other card. Edylra nodded and pointed at the door. I turned around to look at the doorway, seeing nothing.

“Huh?”

Oh! She wants me to go. I crudely stood up and began walking out of the house with the card in hand.

“One more thing, Alvin.”

I turned around to see an affectionate smile.

“Welcome to the family.”

Again, my heart fluttered just last time.