All About The Gifts

Summary: Book excerpts and diary entries tell more about the Gifts
Warning(s): Minor spoilers for the book

###

The gift of memory unseen has also been called the gift of instinctual memory. Those people who have this ability are able to ‘see’ ancestral memory. Take a forest they might be unfamiliar with, for instance. If the person with memory unseen has an ancestor who previously explored the forest, he or she would be able to travel the same steps, without getting lost. They’d know where they were going, so long as they allow instincts to take over.
Excerpt from An Encyclopaedia of Gifts, by Laia

Many people claim that Giants and Dorig have no gifts to speak of. This assumption is but one of many reasons for the great divide between us and them.
My research has led me to believe both Dorig and Giants are capable of similar gifts to people. In my time spent among the Giants, observing them, I learned of many stories they tell each other. Of certain Giants called ‘psychics’, who can predict the future; though the Giants I spent time with laughed, as if they didn’t take seeing the future as seriously as they should do.
And there are other stories they tell each other, too. Stories of Giants being able to turn into animals, such as wolves or seals. While the Giants I interacted with treated all of these stories as a joke or a game, I believe these tales hint at a deeper relationship between people, Giants, Dorig and the gifts we have.
Excerpt from My Time Among The Giants, by Laia

Father was very angry with me today. It wasn’t my fault! I’m still learning to tell the difference between what they say out loud and what they’re thinking. Why can’t everyone else shield their thoughts like I can? Their minds won’t stay quiet and I can’t hear anything other than what they’re shouting at me!
Mother tells me I have to ignore it, but she doesn’t understand. No one understands. Except for the animals. I like to spend time in the forest, because animal thoughts aren’t as painful to listen to as people’s thoughts. I can block them out easier, because I don’t have to worry about controlling my reactions to what I’m not supposed to hear.
Excerpt from The Writings of Muin

Today was the first time I learned that my control over my gift isn’t as strong as I thought.
No one ever told me that I have to control all my emotions. I always knew it was easy to lose control when I get angry. That’s why I’ve always kept such a tight rein on my temper. Even when my cousins laugh at me and tease me, I stay calm. And walk away from them when I can’t.
But today was humiliating. My aunt wanted me to perform for her new husband. She wanted me to sing. And I enjoy singing, I truly do; but not when other people can hear me.
But I let her convince me. And my nerves got the better of me. When I opened my mouth, all I could do was croak.
And they all laughed at me. My cheeks burned with shame. And then the wind started howling outside and the storm erupted inside the hall.
Everyone and everything was soaked through by rain. The whole wedding feast was ruined.
No one told me I could lose control of my gift because I was embarrassed.
Excerpt from Narya’s Diary

Legends passed down through our people, along with the few bits of writing that have survived the years, indicate that the gifts have changed and evolved throughout the years. There used to be people who had gifts that would show them where they could find plentiful food, or water sources. But those gifts have disappeared from our people now. They can’t even be considered rare, as they simply no longer exist.
There are many theories about why this might be, but my own personal theory is that those gifts faded as we learned how to hunt and forage. There was no need to be led by our gifts towards a plentiful food source, or a river with clean water.
Excerpt from A History Of Gifts, by Laia

I discovered a secret when I’d reached my eighteenth year.
I spent as much time as I could in the forest still. But it was getting harder and harder to sneak away. As I got older, my mother and father seemed to find tasks for me to do. Things to keep me busy, so I couldn’t sneak out into the forest. I don’t know if they realised it was my safe space and decided to take it away from me, or if they just wanted me to take up my duties and stop playing in the forest as if I was still a child. They always warned me that the Dorig used the forest as a hunting ground, but I didn’t believe them. After all, I’d never seen a Dorig outside of the stories told.
On this day, I helped out with the preparations for the feast, but I was able to finally go out to the forest. I sneaked out when no one was looking at me and wandered around until I could no longer see any sign of home.
I wasn’t lost. I never get lost in the forest. And it all felt nice and peaceful. So quiet, away from people thinking at me. Or thinking near me, but they’re so loud that they might as well be broadcasting their thoughts directly at me.
And then I heard it. Heard her, I should say.
She was singing. Inside her own head and I could hear it. Could hear her. And the song was a melody. No words, only music. Music that came from inside her mind.
I’d never heard anything so beautiful before. Even the dead silence of being alone couldn’t compare.
Excerpt from The Writings of Muin

I don’t like it. I don’t like having someone who sees truth, who knows secrets, so close to me. When I told my aunt I didn’t know why I’d lost control of the storm, my cousin piped up and told her I knew exactly why. And that it was because I was embarrassed. And I got into huge trouble for it.
My cousin apologised later, but I haven’t decided whether to accept it or not. Even though she knows the truth, she didn’t have to speak it. She could have kept her mouth closed.
Right?
Excerpt from Narya’s Diary

It’s said that those who catch glimpses of the inner thoughts will find their equal in the song that person’s mind will sing.
Harmonies of The Gifts, by Laia

Gifts can and do evolve in people over time. No one is entirely sure how or why it happens. There are many theories, but the truth is that there is still much we don’t understand about the Gifts. Are the changes born out of necessity? Or can we learn more and different Gifts as time goes past?
Take the stories of Muin and Narya, for instance. When Muin found his wife in the forest, he brought her home with him. Sadly, their union bore no fruit; and it wasn’t until Muin died that the truth was revealed. That the woman he had wedded was in fact a Dorig and he was able to deceive his family and friends into seeing her as one of the people. And when the illusion was shattered, she fled…never to be seen again.
And now Narya, who found her Gift so uncomfortable that she eventually stifled it and lost her ability to control the storms. For the rest of her life, all she could do was talk about how happy she was that her Gift had fled.
I believe there is much we can learn from the history and writings of people with Gifts, such as Muin and Narya.
Excerpt from Historical Figures With Gifts, by Laia

The End