I was floating.

I am not sure where or how, but I was floating.

The wind was carrying me over plains of infinite, white sand. The sky above me was warm, dark and purple, with no sun in sight, and yet there was a radiance illuminating from every direction. Maybe the purple were clouds? Covering the sun?

The moment I started rationalizing is when I realized that I was dreaming. But this isn’t like the dreams I usually have, it was no memory of the past, no fantasy of the future. It wasn’t an inspiration for a new story or a grim reminder of the works I have abandoned… no, this was brand new and, what’s worse, it felt awfully real.

I looked around myself, trying to understand more of my surroundings in this strange vision, but I could barely make sense of the desert itself! There was nothing but sand and sky… until in the distance, I saw the Tree.

The biggest tree I have ever seen, bigger than an entire city, its roots and branches spreading like wriggling tendrils. That’s when I suddenly realized, the things covering the skies weren’t clouds, they were leaves from this huge tree, floating in the stratosphere.

A long and tranquil river was born from the base of the tree, flowing with bright blue water and soon getting lost among the dunes.

The wind was carrying me closer and closer to the tree, to the point where for a moment I feared I could crash with it, but my body stopped right in front of its trunk.

The bark of the tree was covered in markings, carvings made a long time ago. My hands softly caressed the symbols, the very same I had seen somewhere, sometime ago…

One of the symbols was shining though, calling for me. My body floated up until I was right in front of it.

image [https://i.ibb.co/whJMgDj/rune-1.png]

I stare at it. So simple in design… even simpler in meaning. It means ‘To ignite’ or ‘Turn on’. It’s… dependent on context, I think.

“Golthoi…”

My eyes suddenly opened. I was no longer floating, no. I am just laying on the floor of my living room, awakened by the blaring of my alarm clock. I really gotta turn that thing off, considering I am technically on vacation.

My body hurts, I feel tired even if I slept for a whole night. I barely have the energy to stand and take a look around myself. The place is an absolute mess, the table and the chairs are all over the place, my computer lays upside down on the couch, the pages of my notebook are scattered everywhere!

The good news though: this confirms that it wasn’t a dream at all. Any of what happened las night.

“I am not sure what you think this proves, beyond the fact that you can make a mess out of anything and everything.”

Sigh.

“Magic is real. It’s absolutely, completely real! Do you have any idea of the implications this has? It’s the discovery of the century!”

“Too bad it literally has no way of fixing your broken life.”

“Maybe it does? This honestly means we have to keep checking that book!”

I start to pick up the pieces of paper around me, trying to repair the binding of my notebook before sighing and shaking my head. I will just staple this all together later.

Eventually I get to the page where I made my latest discovery… The Butterflies of Creation… The symbol was smudged now, burnt, but I still remembered it. And I still have no idea what that spell did, if anything at all.

A part of me wanted to try luck again, see what would happen.

“I wouldn’t. Last time you tried, you blacked out. Remember?”

Of course I remember.

I also remember my dream. The tree, the many symbols on its bark… I scramble to pick up the book, only to confirm that the symbols in my dream were the same as the ones here… I even see Golthoi, the ignite symbol!

What I don’t see as much as I thought I would is Asu. Considering it should be the equivalent of ‘the’ in this weird language, I would assume it would be used rather frequently, right? Then why is it so scarcely present…?

Was it not ‘The’, then? The whole moment last night would suggest I was on the money about it but, maybe I am still missing some key detail, or a cultural significance?

“Before you do anything stupid, remember the notes in Humiko’s note. You need to look for the ‘Elysium’ before experimenting.”

Oh that’s right!

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Shit, does last night count as an investigation…?

What if I got the wrong attention from that?

In fact, did anyone in the building hear what happened last night? It’s impossible it just happened in a vacuum, right!?

I can start feeling the anxiety mounting and building up in my chest, my heart pounds loudly and my hands tremble… The fear is such that I even leave the book down, and even forget about my computer. I just slide out of the living room and back into my bed, turning off the alarm as I sink into the warm embrace of my covers.

“Sleeping will not take away the fact that you just made yourself a target, homeboy.”

Is this my life now? Will I have to live in fear of my own phone now? Afraid of being perceived, found? I don’t even know who these ‘Black Cloaks’ are but, honestly, considering magic is real, they must be the magical equivalent of the Men in Black or something of the sort…

“You didn’t even translate that phrase properly and already made a mess of things. Why don’t you just give your notes to someone else and save yourself the trouble?”

Honestly, that didn’t sound like a bad idea…

“You are working hard to do something special here, don’t just let him take it from you like that!” She sounds indignant. “Besides, if someone wanted to come, they would have come in the night, right? If they really are as infallible and well informed as you think they are!”

… Now that’s a good point.

“Yeah! Besides, are you really going to give up now? After feeling that magic coursing through you? Remember how it felt? To decode those little words? Tell me… didn’t that remind you of the good old days?”

The days when everything made sense, when I could see through most questions with the effort of my brain…

“So that’s what this is about? Reliving the good old days? News flash, Santino: Those are over. You’re a burnout, no amount of magic will change that.”

I feel the air leave my lungs again. With a groan, I wrap myself a little more with the covers. Why do I even try to do things? Why do I even get up in the morning? Every Saints damned day is the same, I feel the same, I hear the same. The pills may stop it for a moment but, are they really enough for me to get a normal life…?

Am I really going to live my life forever like this? How does Pepe do it? How does EVERYONE do it?

Am I the one who’s built wrong here? Or did I ruin myself on the way here?

“So much self pity… get over yourself.”

I tremble for a moment, stifling a sob. I don’t want to cry, I don’t have the energy for it.

“Let’s go have some breakfast… okay? We got those Tavs you like. You can take them with your pills.”

“And grow bigger and fatter as a result.”

Honestly, I don’t feel like eating at all… but sleep is not coming to me. It probably won’t come during the day anyways. So, with a defeated sigh, I stand right up and start walking back out of my messy bedroom and into the messy living room, then straight into the kitchen. I serve a glass of milk and some Tavs on a plate, mostly to give myself the illusion of a proper breakfast, before I walk back out.

Ah. Right. I need to put the table and the chairs back in place.

“It’s a good thing nothing broke!”

I guess so…

One by one I put the furniture back in place, sighing in relief when I set the computer on top of the table and it actually turns on again. The case is a little battered but, the insides are still working! So that’s all that matters.

“Clearly you don’t care about how it looks anyways. Look at how filthy the keys look.”

With a sigh I go get my breakfast, swallow my medication, and sit down to start browsing.

The screen opens back to the translation I had to transcribe. Oh, that’s right, the book. I pick it up from the floor, dusting it a little bit before passing the pages.

“Congratulations, you can read the title and the word ‘Butterfly’ in the text. Don’t feel too proud of yourself.”

“It’s a start. Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

I go from the Glyphs to the Transcription, and from the Transcription to the Epilogue. It feels so bizarre to be holding this after last night. My eyes narrow for a moment, letting out a deep sigh… and then, I notice it. The strange colour, the mix of purple and green, sliding from my fingers and staining the last page of the book. I drop it out of fear, did I ruin it!?

But then, the colourful stain begins taking form…it becomes words.

http://dejima08646F6E2774.pmkn

A… pumpkin link?

“Isn’t that the browser people use for crimes and stuff?”

It’s way more complicated than that, but that’s not the point. That’s a link. It’s something I can understand! And soon, there are more words underneath!

* edge router, tripolar

Tripolar? What the hell is an edge router?! I am not that kind of nerd! Technology has never been my forté!

“Do you even have a forté?”

Not the point!

With my curiosity piqued once again, I start checking on Gaggle… to my surprise and infinite delight, there are results this time!

An edge router seems to be a special kind of modem that specializes on… blah blah blah… it’s more intensive and specialized than a regular modem, and it doesn’t have Wifi with it, only ethernet cables.So far, so good… but what the hell is a ‘tripolar’? What does that even mean!?

Looking for it on FreeMarket.net, I actually find people who sell them for…

“FOR HOW MUCH!?”

The numbers on my screen are outrageous, even for technology! I can afford it yes, but it would take me a lot of my savings for that damn black box. Frustrated, I start checking what makes a tripolar router so special… and it takes me straight to several technology magazines and sites debunking the “Tripolar Craze of the Nineties”.

Apparently these things were all the rage back in the day, but the difference in materials used to generate the ‘Tripolar effect’ (whatever that is) cause no improvement in the signal whatsoever. So it’s just a myth, a technobabble term to make things more expensive for no reason.

Maybe Humiko just let herself be swayed by those things? I mean, mages are not savvy with technology, are they? That’s how you balance them and keep them from being too powerful.

Just for now, I will simply work without it… see if I can advance.

Downloading the Ermes browser is the easiest part of the day. When I connect to it, I can’t help but feel a little… cool. Like I am some sort of hacker, avoiding the mainline internet to go into the depths of the so-called ‘Dark Web’. It takes a short time to download and install, but actually accessing it takes a long while. It’s not as fast as the internet, at all…

“Maybe I should get a VPN…” I mumbled to myself a little bit, waiting. “I don’t wanna get in trouble for th– Ah, it’s open!”

Now all that is left is accessing the proper link, and…

INVALID LINK

Of course.