Bedlam Chapter Sampler

“Well, I... I mean, I suppose being an Elemental would be, you know...” He trailed off. “Do you want to be an Elemental?” Miss Gnosis asked. “You don’t sound too enthused.” “Yes, no, I mean, sure.” “Is there anything else you’d rather be?” Omen shrugged. “Rack your brains, Omen. Is there any discipline other than Elemental magic that you would like to do for the rest of your life? Because that’s what we’re talking about here. The discipline you’re focused on when you have your Surge is the discipline you’re stuck with from then on.” She hesitated. “You do know how the Surge works?” “Yes, miss.” “Good, good.” “Like, it’d be cool to be a Teleporter,” Omen said. “I’m always late for stuff and I get car sick on long journeys, so that would solve a lot of my problems.” “Teleportation is one of the tricky ones,” Miss Gnosis replied. “You generally have to be born with the aptitude for it, like Never was.” “Yeah, I know,” Omen said, a little glumly. “See, miss, the problem is I’m just not very good at most things.” “Ah, Omen, don’t be so hard on yourself.” “It’s true, though. I’m not. I’m no good at Energy Throwing or—” “Proper names, please.” “Sorry. I’m no good at Ergokinesis and I did want to be a Signum Linguist, but I just find it hard to understand all the letters.” “Which is a problem when it comes to language,” Miss Gnosis said. “But you’ve still got time to decide. What I want you to do is come up with a list of seven disciplines – realistic disciplines – to

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