Chapter 2: Resemblance

“Where are we going?” asked Khael, concerned and unaware of where the old woman was taking him.

They arrived in front of a room along the long hallway of the mansion. In the meantime, Khael persuaded himself to hold off his questions and wait for her to explain.

“Here,” Dessia gestured for Khael to follow her until they somehow reached what seemed to be a bedroom. This far, deep down, the mansion wouldn’t be her room(he guessed). Because unless there’s a shortcut, it will tire anyone for a mere walk outside.

And then… Khael saw a young woman in a bed lying in a deep sleep peacefully. She wore a long childlike blue dress that compliments her lightly wheatish skin.

Dessia slowly and carefully sat on the bedside and leaned closer to the sleeping lady. She caressed her long curly hair and gently rested her hand on her pale cheeks. “Why did you bring me here, and… who is she?” Khael whispered faintly.

The old woman looks nonplussed. But her expression softened immediately as she slowly looked at the girl and turned back at him a few times. As if looking over something Khael wasn’t able to get.

“Is there something wrong?” asked Khael awkwardly, and curiosity began growing in his mind. Khael waited a bit until the old woman finally broke the strange silence.

“At first, I thought it was just a mistaken resemblance. After I met you that day and got to see this lady again when I returned here,” she sighed midway. “I realized that you and she really much resembled each other.”

This time, Khael stands there motionless as he tries to comprehend what she just said. He wasn’t sure what she meant about that. And now… he was intrigued and badly wanted to look in the mirror.

“Don’t you feel anything?” she mused. “I know it is absurd for such superstition to feel some connection to someone you might not even know. Of course, considering you don’t even remember anything in your life, but still….”

Khael doesn’t know what kind of response he would have. He just glanced at the sleeping lady until his vision blurred out tiredly. And then, finally, he asked the old woman. “Tell me… where are you getting at this?”

“Well, it can also happen that you resemble someone despite not being related to them at all,” she said convincingly. “But for my eyes… Khael, I just didn’t simply see it.”

“Huh?” was the only word Khael mumbled.

“The thing is… I can see every nook and cranny regarding specific details of a person’s face and expression,” she said dead-serious. “I don’t know if you would believe this, but it etched deeply and profoundly on my mind as if Krano sketched a masterful portrait.”

“I don’t… get it,” said Khael as his mind succumbed to cluelessness. “and who’s Krano?” he added. His confusion and distress were now totally transparent on his face.

“Krano is a famous artist in Nozula. His popularity was across the whole continent of Hibran,” she said and a smirk formed on her lips. “Though, I might be more capable than him when it comes to having this insane memory imagery.”

Khael remained silent and let the old woman tell him more about what she was talking about. And then she continues…

“Khael,” she called him quietly. “to make it simple. I can see even the most minor things through my eyes. The smallest details, movement, and even remember it for a long time.”

The old woman gazed upon him while he listened. Khael’s attention stood unswerving but a little tensed at the same time. That moment had only left Khael agape and in a great mental puzzle. He then returned to his senses when he realized she was already done talking a few seconds ago.

“So do you mean… you can tell even the smallest resemblance we had through your eyes? That… you were convinced how close it was and we might be related to each other?” Khael asked, but no matter how much he wanted to gauge or take away any explanation behind it, it just… doesn’t work for him that way.

“That’s right,” she said merely. “believe it or not. I had relied on it for numerous crucial times in my life.”

*****

Khael changed from the pair of clothes lent to him, a fitted plain white shirt paired with dark blue trousers. He studied his appearance well with a specific goal in mind. It was to look at any resemblance with the lady he saw with Dessia Adhilla the other day.

Khael has a lot of things to ask regarding that encounter. But the old woman seems to have something to do immediately and promises him they will talk about it some other time. They left the bedroom and told him to keep quiet about it for the time being.

And it beats him to think further about why.

To be fair, he doesn’t want to be biased about whether they genuinely resembled each other. In fact, the very moment he got the sudden look on his face again. Khael admitted that they(him and the girl) did somehow own the same appeal if he would describe it.

Khael had the same dull black hair, though less curly than hers. Their nose was also distinctive with their smaller size compared to the pointy nose of the people he met throughout. And finally, their narrowed black eyes and wheatish skin make the center of the distinct appeal noticeable.

For now, nothing is progressing in his predicament. It only added to the things he’ll be concerned about. Though Khael would be lying if he said he was not intrigued. Frankly, he was now more intrigued than before. But utterly anxious and uneasy about what he would find out next.

Khael lay down on the bed and shut his eyes as he pictured her image. Did he even feel anything to her? He wasn’t sure about it, but he was somehow relieved--finding someone might be related to him or, instead, to the person he was now. It brought him a somewhat warm, familiar feeling inside.

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Khael ignored it only at first. But the pounding inside his head slowly became intense as time passed. It became intolerable, so he abruptly jolted up from lying down in haste. It was the same sensation back then in the strange prison. Khael started to get worried.

Until….

Something from the depth of his mind reminded him, and it also has the same sentiment he felt about the awareness of his identity. The same convinced feeling he felt as he genuinely believes who he is… as Khael.

“Kana…” he said with a sense of familiarity.

Again, he called the name.

“Kana.”

Khael didn’t personally know that name, but he was somehow convinced. It was her name.

*****

Two wooden chesterfields are situated in front of each other, with the same length occupying the centermost of the red color carpet in the well-lit living room. Khael was seated in front of two guests wearing traditional formal attire in Ubec, just like himself.

“Khael, I want you to meet Mr. and Mrs. Protacio,” Dessia Adhilla introduced.

Khael bowed as he greeted the two persons in front of him. These are the person he needed to meet for an essential matter. “It’s my pleasure to meet you,” said Khael as he smiled warmly.

“The pleasure is ours as well,” Mrs. Protacio responded. Her lovely rounded facial features relaxed. The faint outline of wrinkles around her eyes gave more of a motherly impression to her. Though the stoic man with her still remains silent, his narrowed brown eyes thoroughly observe Khael with inquisitive intensity. He reminded him somewhat of Baron Gelfand, though his auburn hair was more likely to have gone naturally as some were still left on the flank of his head.

“Would you like to have breakfast first?” asked Dessia courteously. “or would you rather talk about the possible arrangements already?”

“We ate already back at home, and… it wasn’t an intention to decline, but… the wasn’t needed anymore,” Mr. Protacio finally spoke. The look on his face wasn’t an easy one to tell.

“I see…” Dessia expressed despondently. “Can we at least have a thorough talk about it first? I know this request of mine wasn’t that simple.”

“D-don’t worry, Dessia. It’s not,” Mrs. Protacio waved her hand and seemed to correct the old woman’s interpretation. “What my husband means is… we already decided to accept your request from us.” The middle-aged woman let out a gentle smile and held Dessia’s hand.

“Do you mean…” Dessia muttered.

“Well, we had an immediate summon to the palace today. It was about the seasonal outline transcript at the farm that we need to report to our majesty,” said Mr. Protacio this time, still holding his stern demeanor. “We only came here to tell you that we already agreed to your request.”

“Are you sure about that? But we haven’t even had a talk about-”

“It wasn’t even something to talk about, Dessia,” said Mrs. Protacio in a soft, affectionate tone. “You have already done enough for us in the past.”

“But still… This isn’t some ordinary request.”

“We trust you,” Mr. Protacio assured, and he was narrowly smiling this time. “You don’t have to worry about us. This will be our way of repaying you.”

“And besides… you wouldn’t do this for this young man’s sake if he didn’t badly need it, right?” asked Mrs. Protacio as she turned to Khael. “Well, of course, if he is also fine with us,” she added lightheartedly.

“Thank you so much, Teodora and Francisco,” said Dessia. She looked so delighted that it somehow went well than they had expected. The old woman hugged both of them tightly in bliss.

“And so, pardon us for the sudden leave. We wanted to talk thoroughly with Khael once we concluded all the arrangements.”

The rest of the talk pass by as a further greeting, and they leave not for long.

The arrangement they were discussing was one of the most crucial matters Khael had to take care of at once. Sayasiv, being under the rule of another country, had then an utterly strict nation when it came to its people. No one can live covertly, as every person should be kept on track from birth until death. So it was an important matter to have an identity. In simple terms, a background of where you came from, a family.

At least, Dessi Adhilla and the Empyreans are powerful and influential individuals. The kind of things such as fabricating a background history or him having a legal family was an easy undertaking. Khael needed this until he found his real identity or, if he still had one, his family.

The idea of simply looking for his relatives will be a big misstep due to the current complicated situation in the country. A missing person with no recollection of his memories will be a primary target for suspicion at worst. The reason why he was treated in caution back in the strange prison was because of something heinous.

The prison, or rather the once enormous mansion of a wealthy noble, was bombarded by living sacrifices as an act of aggression from terrorists or, might be worse, a warning from the other state, Naodamin. Many people lost their lives in that tragedy, including civilians in a nearby settlement. The horrible act was to make sacrificial humans with overloaded negative mana in their bodies explode altogether, resulting in a massive explosion and fire across the territory.

Not only that, his history with the current Monarch of Ubec, Hector Adhilla, is a concern that cannot be overlooked. Fortunately, Dessia convinced Hector to compromise Khael’s freedom in exchange for a portion of land in Natcam. That when Khael learned about it, it only made him feel more indebted to them.

And, of course. Where it all had begun. The time Khael saw the woman in the portrait….

Astelta. The manifestation of the worst root of curses and one of the first Forsaken born.

In this world, deities, or what they called the Soreians, are the highest form of existence that humans praise and even become their rulers. The latter were primarily rare due to their absolute rule of not involving themselves much with humans. This is because of the fact that they are too proud and conservative of their kind.

The deities, or Soreians, were the product of everything humans desired. It was theorized they existed due to an enormous amount of desire manifested in their very origin with the help of mana. Those magical particles act on one’s desire, but if only they have the attributes of bending one.

An example of this was the origin of the Goddess of Memory. Back when Natcam is still an unprogressive town. Many calamities and epidemics made its citizens suffer, falling into deep suffering and despair. Those who desire to forget their unfortunate misfortunes find their way to the massive forest of Darnh to end their lives. They hadn’t even been able to kill themselves there at most. It was the magical beast who ended those lives in the process. But with that, all those desires to forget an awful life--gave birth to the deity that can manipulate someone’s memories. And that goddess’s name was Aisnetra.

The book “The Birth of Roots” wasn’t easy to understand. Still, Khael started slowly picking up the context as he read it until he somehow understood at least what it was about on a particular topic. He really hopes he interpreted all of that precisely.

It also said that the two races were incompatible and never had been able to produce offspring. Only when the first forsaken--the product of a human and a deity--came into the world. Unfortunately, this occurrence resulted in a great calamity that the world faced for over a few hundred years. And the reason why Astelta, one of the first forsaken born in the world, an immortal and powerful entity, was being sought.

Now, Khael finally understood why he experienced all of those mishaps. Nonetheless, it wasn’t a valid reason for anyone to suffer as he did. Though, come to think of it. If the person he was now is somehow related to Astelta. Then he was indeed in grave danger.

The best conclusion he came up with was the thought of him reincarnating and ending up with his memories stolen somehow, except the recollections of his past life. But even guessing for eternity won’t get him far from learning the truth about his identity.

Khael wished he had really nothing to do about all of it.