THE MOMENT
"Congratulations," the clerk nodded with a smile as he slid Meyer's certificate under the safety glass. "You're the first ever documented Photomancer, you're just a little bit more special than most," he said.
"Photomancer?" he was surprised and mildly confused. He hadn't heard of that before, and when he was getting his powers tested, no one reacted in an unusual way. "What's -," he was about to ask for more information, but he was interrupted by another employee. It was an older man with silver hair wearing a blue suit.
"I can help you," he smiled. "As a newly minted Photomancer, I'm sure you have some questions," he said as he offered Meyer a friendly handshake. "Name's Edwin."
"Hi, I'm uh, Meyer," the teen replied. He'd wanted to go get his certification alone without his parents, but now that unexpected things were happening, he was wishing he'd brought them. Unfortunately for his shyness, the entire process was seen as something of a 'coming of age' tradition. The first thing to do as an adult was to go stand in line and get acquainted with bureaucracy. After the introduction, Edwin led Meyer to his small office, and they each sat on one side of Edwin's desk.
"So, Photomancy!" Edwin chuckled. "It's kind of a big deal being the first documented case; so I hope you're ready for your name to be in the history books," he said.
"What? What's photomancy? What's special or different about it?" Meyer didn't want to think about the impending fame he was about to experience and instead focused on trying to get answers.
"You, my dear boy, have the ability to control light. Make it light, make it dark, make it take shape, you can learn to do any of that."
"Oh," Meyer spent a lot of his free time in his mind anyway, and he had a habit of not thinking things through deeply enough. Once Edwin described some of the things he'd be able to do, it was easy to get carried away with the power. He was the first ever photomancer. There was no one else that could do what he could do. "Wow, I'm pretty awesome...," he chuckled, and Edwin smiled with a nod.
"I'm sure you're a very rad young man," Edwin replied. "Although, I hope you won't let it go to your head."
"I'll try not to. But, after all, I am the first documented photomancer,"
"The first of many, I'm sure," Edwin replied with a smile.
"What?" Meyer asked. He wasn't ready to hear that yet.
"Well... 'first' kind of implies more...," Edwin nodded. "And, I think maybe you're missing a little bit of context."
"How so?"
"I told you that you're the first ever documented photomancer. What did you hear?" Edwin asked.
"What?" Meyer felt like one of them was getting dumber as the conversation went on, and he wasn't sure which one. "I heard you clearly, I'm the first ever photomancer."
"Ah, there's the issue," Edwin replied with a shake of his head. "You're not the first. You're the first person to be officially documented as a 'Photomancer'. But, that's only because it's a new designation this year. There's been some debate about whether photomancy is truly separate from pyromancy or electromancy, and the debate was finally settled. Photomancy has been added to the list as of this morning, just in time for you to be the first one ever documented."
"Wait... so I'm not special?..." Meyer asked. He was back to where he started, which wasn't necessarily bad. But the entire journey of getting his hopes up and wanting to feel special was not worth it.
"You have the ability to manipulate light...," Edwin reminded him with a smile. But, Meyer shrugged it off.
"Yeah, but apparently, so can plenty of other people."