Living in a town as small as Airedale required a trusty car with how far away important businesses could be, but Kaze didn't trust his old rust bucket to do the job this time. Even if it did carry him all the way to Vedere, he didn't want the stress of worrying it would break down during such an important trip. Thankfully, there was a train line close enough for him to hitch a ride from a friend to the station.
Kaze didn't use public transportation often. It was easy enough to find his way around at first -- the Airedale station was small and there were few people -- but once he stepped off the older train into Eskal Central, it was like entering a whole different world. The place was crowded, noisy, and spotless in a way that felt disturbing against the throngs of sweaty, hurried people. Everything was brilliant white and blue, save for the color-coded stripes along the walls and floors guiding travelers to the different train lines.
He'd never seen so many Craftborn in one place. Back home, they were considered a rarity and often garnered unearned suspicion, but here, it seemed like every other person he laid eyes on was one of them. The brilliant hues of their skin, each race a different color, made the station walkways feel like enormous shifting rainbows. Kaze had often wondered if the increasing prevalence of Sensecraft would lead to Craftborn replacing humanity entirely, but he tried not to dwell on the philosophical concerns. It wasn't exactly his specialty.
The train that Kaze boarded was delightfully advanced. He'd read up on it before he left; it used massive electromagnets to propel the train without any friction, capable of traveling at hundreds of miles per hour. These maglev trains were common in and around the Terminus hubs, but Kaze had never seen one for himself; he knew his gawking made him look like a tourist, but he couldn't help his excitement. The ride was smooth as butter. They even provided refreshments!
Kaze had packed light so as to better immerse himself in the city, so he only had his backpack to carry and chose to take the rail directly to the Terminus in the middle of the city. It was one of the main reasons he'd come here, after all, and he could benefit from the extra practice time with the Visimancy he'd be gaining.
A huge crowd of people, all humans and Visiborn from what Kaze could see, got off the train along with him. Though most of the city was dense with skyscrapers, tram lines, and farm towers, it all abruptly stopped near some invisible line circling the Terminus. This meant that Kaze would be waiting outdoors, though at least there were simple shades set up throughout, all fitted with solar panels.
The lines to get anywhere near the Terminus itself were absurdly long. But Kaze could still see it: an enormous hemisphere of deep crimson energy five stories tall, gently swirling like a dome full of simmering water. It had a purplish tinge, preventing it from looking too much like blood, and Kaze found himself staring up at it in awe until someone smacked into him from behind. He stumbled forward, blurted out an apology, and joined the line, clutching the straps of his backpack tightly out of habit. He was surprised to see an old-school queue rather than a ticket system, but surely there was a specific reason for it.
As Kaze waited, he busied himself with studying the Visiborn waiting in line near him. He'd seen them online and done some research, but only encountered them in person once or twice, ever. They were easily distinguished by their burgundy skin, bald heads, and four large eyes arranged in stacked pairs. Kaze had read that one set was adapted for daytime vision, and the other for night, though all four were used at once to form a picture far more detailed than what the human brain could capture.
There were other features unrelated to sight that characterized the Visiborn, too. In place of lips, they had a short, downturned beak similar to that of an owl, with the nose flattened and fused into it. They also possessed claws, though these were retractable and often remained hidden in day-to-day life. Some of the more mutated among them saw their spines lengthened, leading to an elongated torso and hunched back.
They spoke Skallen, like Kaze -- and why shouldn't they? Many of them had likely lived in Eskal longer than Kaze himself. They wore clothes of the same style as the humans too, all crisp lines and clean colors. Kaze even spotted a few chromatex outfits, able to change color or display different patterns with the flexible nanoscreens built in.
If Kaze looked closer, he could also spot a few partially-mutated humans throughout the line. The vast majority of them were on their way to becoming Visiborn, with ruddy skin, distorted mouths and noses, and even third or fourth eyes in some cases. But there were also a scattered few who bore features of other Craftborn, which made Kaze fear for their safety. While absorbing a new type of Sensecraft was possible after expending all the old power, it caused explosive, painful mutations that sometimes required weeks of rehabilitation. Kaze had never attempted Sensecraft before this because he'd heard conflicting stories on how long it took before a new type could be absorbed without complications.
As Kaze got closer and closer to the shifting dome of Visimancy, he finally saw the line split to lead into eight different booths of sorts, each painted burgundy and large enough to hold three or four people. He also noted that more long, winding lines snaked away from the dome in other directions, likely leading to other possible entry points he could've taken.
Ahead, a young woman with skin bearing the bluish tinge of Gustamancy or Propriomancy entered one of the booths surrounded by armed guards. Kaze swallowed a bundle of nerves, and then sharply looked away out of respect when the booth began to shudder. Inhuman roars and snarls sounded from within. The woman never came back out; Kaze assumed there was some sort of hidden exit in the booth to safely extricate troublesome mutants.
Finally, it was his turn. A guard with black body armor scanned him with some sort of handheld device, which beeped twice. "Booth two," they said, waving Kaze through. Squeezing his bag straps, he scampered on and found the booth he'd been ordered to after some fretting. The numbers on them really should've been larger.
Once he was inside, the door to the booth automatically slid shut behind him. The only sources of light were a single white LED near the left wall, and a short hallway that led from the back of the booth directly to the edge of the Terminus. The raw Visimancy bathed the entire room in a sinister reddish glow.
Kaze had researched this part, of course, but he found all that knowledge momentarily leaving him. This close, the dome of energy appeared more like churning magma, barely held back by some invisible force. Some saw the absorption of Sensecraft as a religious experience, which was the reason behind the individual booths; it was a long-standing tradition, one that Kaze understood now more than ever. Surely, if he made contact with that roiling energy, he would see God, burn alive, or both. And yet he now had to do exactly that.
Finally, he noticed that the LED on the left was illuminating a set of instructions. They were slightly faded -- whether from age or exposure to the Terminus, Kaze wasn't sure -- but still plenty legible, even in the low light. Only use one hand. Take deep breaths. Stop immediately and alert a guard if you experience fever, chills, or unusual aggression. Keep the line moving.
Well, far be it from him to make others wait. Making an effort to control his breathing, Kaze stepped down the short hallway until he was face to face with the Terminus. Here, all the Sensecraft flowing through Serus's mantle erupted in a form its residents could use. How it stayed in this dome formation, no one yet understood, but humanity was fortunate that it did. Kaze took another deep breath, in, out, and then thrust his hand into the shifting energy.
It began flowing into him immediately. Slipping through the pores of his skin like water sucked through a million tiny straws. It wasn't particularly hot or cold, but it did feel invasive, crawling up through his arm and all the way up the back of his neck until it settled somewhere deep inside his head. It felt like ages, but Kaze figured it only took about ten seconds before energy stopped streaming in, prompting him to withdraw his hand.
In a moment of sudden panic, Kaze pulled his phone from his pocket and turned on the camera so he could see himself in the screen. Everything looked normal. No mutations. It would take more than one visit to see any changes, of course, and the earliest ones were always temporary anyway, but he couldn't help but be nervous. The thought of permanently becoming a Visiborn terrified him.
It took a moment to find the way out, but Kaze finally spotted the switch that opened a side door across from the instructions. The light outside momentarily blinded him. As he was funneled away from the Terminus and back out onto the street, he laughed to himself at the realization that he could've intentionally weakened his vision and brought it back up gradually to better adjust to the sunlight. He had plenty of practicing to do.