Valia’s image shimmered before disappearing, leaving his bed desolate and alone. The silence was a heavy blow to his spirits. However, he didn’t stay sad for long. Knowing she was alive somewhere invigorated his motivation. No, his obsession. Lyde didn’t have time to mope around. The game has already begun.
Lyde observed the room, searching for an exit. He stepped towards the wall next to his bed. Recalling the last room, the white rooms were a natural illusion, with the door blending perfectly with its surroundings.
He placed his hands on the stone, sweeping from top to bottom. Eventually, his search bore fruit as his fingers brushed over a small divot unnoticed to the naked eye.
“Gotcha.”
With a little effort, Lyde pressed on the spot shifting the door sideways. He peaked from his location to survey the area. A long narrow hallway with numerous similar-looking doors aligned the walls. The distance between Lyde and the corridor’s end appeared far, with no cover if anyone happened to walk by.
Lyde rushed down the hallway silently and swiftly. He grimaced as his body reacted not the way he expected. His footsteps remained silent even with his current speed, but his stamina and legs couldn’t keep this up for long.
‘Ugh, this body is severely physically lacking. Should have listened to Pops about training. At least then, I wouldn’t be so weak.’
Lyde swung around the corner. Thankfully the hallway remained empty. He walked down the path for a few more feet before two large doors in a foyer greeted him. He sighed in relief as progress was a good sign. He walked briskly to the large doors, hoping this would be an exit from this white labyrinth.
The door rumbled as the intricately designed stone moved smoothly with a push. Lyde poked his head through. Numerous eyes stared at him as ten elders stood frozen as they observed their unexpected intruder in silence.
“Hi…” Lyde waved. “Well, have a nice day.”
Lyde slowly closed the door, walked to the wall on the side of the foyer, and sat on the floor.
‘3, 2, 1.’
The door slammed open as a giant black-haired man almost the size of the room burst through, nearly breaking the door off the wall. He stampeded through the hallway vibrating the walls with each step.
“WAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIT!!!”
Lyde stayed seated, watching the elephant disappear down the corridor. He imagined his fate if he ran the hallway instead. It’s not a pretty one.
“Cough, Cough. Argh, that blundering behemoth is going to frighten the child. Cough. Either that or make a mess of the place… again.”
An elderly man with short grizzled gray hair and spectacles walked through the entrance. He took out a white handkerchief and wiped the filth from his glasses.
“Hmm?”
The elder stopped as if sensing something, wore his glasses, and glanced to his right. Lyde smiles and waves at the tidy gentleman.
“AH!” The elder jumped in surprise.
"What is it, brother Nathaniel?"
A green-haired elder much younger than his counterpart walked beside the silver-haired elder with childlike curiosity. Upon finding Lyde, she grinned widely, fangs peaking from her lips. She drew closer to Lyde in a prowl, studying him up close.
"Wow, you found the golden-eyed child. Wait, that means someone needs to bring back Brother Bruce. I vote for Nathaniel."
'Golden eyes?' Lyde thought in confusion before shuddering with realization.
When he saw Valia, he didn’t think anything odd about it. Her abyssal eyes were more humanized, but still the same as he remembered. Now recalling, she didn’t question his change in appearance. She most likely assumed the same.
'This is going to be hard to explain to everyone.'
“Enough of that. I’m sorry if we scared you, child. Please come with us. We have some questions for you.” Elder Nathaniel exclaimed.
Elder Nathaniel walked past the green-haired elder and offered his hand to Lyde. Lyde looked at the hand. His mind raced as he contemplated any chance of escape. Taking a quick scan, Lyde knew the odds were non-existent. With reluctance, he smiled and accepted the elder’s hand.
The elder smiled as he led Lyde towards the open door, no hostility seen. Good, one option is still available to him, one that can solve all his troubles.
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“Are you sure you don’t remember anything?”
“I’m sorry.”
Elder Nathaniel sighed as he opened another door. Lyde followed closely, appearing apologetic though he struggled to hold back his smile. Lyde spent the last hour being interrogated about what had occurred before he went unconscious. Once Lyde stated, ‘I can’t remember anything,’ the flow of the conversation was set. One of the elders let slip a ‘not again,’ and he knew he would be fine. Apparently, everyone else who awoke had no recollection of what had occurred. The elders only knew something went wrong when the next rotation of pages discovered everyone unconscious.
Suspicion passed to Lyde as he was found closest to the Records and was also the last to awaken. However, nothing could be done without evidence, and the book was functioning as expected. Though not everything flowed so smoothly. Some elders refused to accept the results and demanded Lyde and every child involved be imprisoned until they uncovered the truth. The old men squabbled vigorously, spitting sputum at each other, coating the table in a layer of agitated saliva. Never had Lyde seen someone squirm as badly as elder Nathaniel when a glob of spit landed near him.
Though both sides argued for the entire hour, there was one argument the opposition could not absolve. They had no authority to prevent the children from leaving and were required to set them free. Lyde and the children involved were all those who had yet to reach Novice, and as determined by the rules of the Origin Ceremony, they must be allowed to leave to begin their journeys. Nothing could be done.
Lyde and Elder Nathaniel arrived at a door that Lyde finally recognized, the entrance. Exiting the hall, an open amber skyline above the red and orange of the forest greeted them. The sight was breathtaking, even in both lifetimes. The sky and the trees formed a world on fire. Lyde raised his arms and cheered.
‘Finally, no more white!’
Elder Nathaniel saw Lyde’s expression of joy and shook his head.
‘How could we suspect such a young child? Look at him. So innocent and full of life. He was probably the most afraid out of all of us.’
Elder Nathaniel felt shameful about his previous thoughts. He patted Lyde on the back in comfort and snapped his fingers. Bubbles started foaming at their feet, growing until one suddenly expanded to encapsulate them. The elder swung his finger, and the bubble floated, carrying them along, gliding down the peak towards the meeting spot Lyde originally came from.
“Wow, can all the elders perform a skill like this?”
“Simply a trick of the trade. One must be prepared for anything in this wide world. Speaking of preparation, you will need to prepare yourself. Due to the location and nature of the phenomenon, Truth Seekers will seek to speak with you soon.”
“Truth Seekers?”
“Ah, yes. It would make sense you would be unaware of them. Hmm, where to begin? Ah. You know of the church of Olena, the goddess of truth and order, correct?”
Lyde nodded his head. How could he not? Not only did his mother have previous history with them, but the scale of their religious order also made them something everyone knew. Located in every country, their doctrine claimed responsibility for maintaining peace and order. Most nobles, in fact, follow their religion. The nature of their position of overseeing the populace made following the order highly desired. Whether they followed for peace or for profit, Lyde wouldn’t know.
“Great. Well, the church consists of two divisions, the Orders and the Seekers. You are aware of the Orders as they publically maintain order in every city, including Yrine. They consist of the clergy, the followers, and the nobles. The Seekers, however, are the exact opposite. Elite units seek the truth using any means necessary. They say their goal is to protect the world, but who knows. Some say they work under the goddess herself.”
“Oh, that’s interesting,” Lyde stated casually.
A group with the sole purpose of seeking out the truth is coming to him. It seems his troubles won’t end anytime soon. Well, who would want to play an easy game anyways?
“When will I be meeting those Truth Seekers?.”
“Truthfully, I am not too sure. They are an elusive bunch traveling from city to city. You never know when some will be in Yrine. All I know is a formal request will be sent.”
‘Damn, that’s not any help. I’ll have to hurry up my plans.’ Even though he reveled in the challenge. He was currently a weakened cub forced to face his natural predator sniffing for blood. He had none of his abilities that could assist him in this situation. At least not yet.
Lyde placed his hand on his chest. During his time with the elder, he noticed that none reacted to the chains, even with their obnoxious glow. Most likely, this was a natural ability of the chain. He wondered if anyone could touch it but decided not to test that theory anytime soon.
Amid thought, the bubble underneath his feet rumbled as their flight speed slowed. Lyde focused on their surroundings and noticed they had arrived back. The bubble barely touches the ground before popping, dispersing in the air. The two landed softly as Lyde looked around.
Elder Nathaniel tapped his shoulder and pointed to his left. Before he fully turned his head, faces of worry and relief rushed toward them. Lyde smiled as his sister and mother tackled him in a hug. His father trailed behind, lacking his usual carefree spirit as he inspected Lyde from afar.
His mother, on the other hand, took a more direct approach. She inspected every inch of Lyde before landing on his face, where Lyde kept his eyes closed.
“Honey, what’s wrong with your eyes!? Why was he kept for so long? This was supposed to be a simple ceremony! What happened!?”
Sylvia snapped towards Elder Nathaniel as a suffocating pressure radiated from her. Her eyes flared in malevolent silver as the surroundings slowly turned silver. Elder Nathaniel felt surprised, but he did not budge. He had no need to. A hand grabbed her shoulder, disrupting her aura.
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“Mom, it’s ok,” Lyde stated as he rubbed his sister’s head, who refused to let go. This was not the place to talk about his eyes. Too many people were around from the festivities, and he didn’t want to draw any more attention.
“Mom, Pops, Ruby, I need you to stay calm. I’m fine. I will open my eyes, but please don’t react too strongly. People are starting to stare. We can talk more about everything when we are back home. Especially you, Ruby. I know what you’re going to ask. I will answer your question later.”
His sister’s grip strengthened, and his mother's face tensed. However, they remained quiet, so he could only hope they agreed. Lyde slowly opened his eyes.
“See, everything is finrr—“ Lyde groaned as his sister squeezed the breath out of his stomach. A collected gasp emanated as they gazed into his shining eyes. Sylvia’s fingers trembled as she reached for Lyde’s face. Monica clasped her mouth to prevent herself from screaming, freeing Lyde from her grasp.
“Yes, we were surprised as well. We elders are unsure but believe this has something to do with the phenomenon that occurred. We suspect whatever happened caused a rare case of origin materialization. We have never seen it in someone so young, but the symptoms are similar to what we know. Nothing adverse has been noticed, but do keep an eye on him just in case.”
“I blame my mother. She always called me a star, and now my eyes shine.”
Elder Nathaniel chuckled and bowed slightly toward the family. He twirled his finger, summoning a bubble, and floated away into the air. Lyde watched the bubble fade from sight before he turned towards family.
“Yes, they’re gold. No, I don’t know why. They called it origin manifestation. Something about my body reflects my origin. I don’t really know what it all means, and no, Ruby, I can’t make things sparkle.”
Monica's mouth closed. She pouted and head-butted Lyde’s chest.
“That’s not what I was going to ask….” Monica murmured.
“Yes, it was. Now, can we go home? I didn’t get to eat lunch, and I’m starving.”
Lyde walked toward his home without confirming, dragging his sister in tow. His parents looked at each other before quickly following behind.
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“His eyes are gold! How can we not talk about this!?” Ellyas shouted as the family cleaned after dinner.
Lyde was surprised. He didn’t expect his father’s patience to be the first to run out. He would have bet money on Monica cracking first. Sylvia finished the last plate and dried her hands before turning to her husband.
“Talk about what exactly, Ellyas? His eyes are gold. How or why is something we may never know. What’s important is that he's safe.”
“For how long, Sylvia. What if this is just the start?”
“Then we will deal with it if it happens. Lyde, how are you feeling?”
“Huh.”
Lyde failed to react. He didn’t expect his mother to be so calm. Lyde wished to skip past this conversation, but his mother’s piercing gaze didn’t leave him much choice.
“I feel fine. I can still see, I don’t shoot sparkles, and the elders examined me and stated I was fine.”
“But…” Ellyas commented.
“Dad, it's ok. How about this? I know I joked earlier about training, but let’s start training tomorrow morning. You can use that time to see if there is anything wrong.”
Ellyas stayed silent, contemplating. Lyde knew by the look on his face his father had already agreed, though another push couldn’t hurt.
“Did I mention the Truth Seekers will be summoned? Maybe they could find out more regarding the situation.”
Both parents snapped their heads towards Lyde’s, disgust evident in Ellyas’s expression and concern in Sylvia’s. ‘That’s unexpected.’ Lyde thought.
“What!? Those dogs are coming here. Ugh, and to think this could get worse. They think they can walk into town and do whatever they like without consequences. Don’t even get me started on the last time they were here. They walked straight into the Hunter Guild’s food storage and destroyed the place on some phony cannibal tip. Spoiled the entire batch.”
Ellyas grew agitated as he remembered the stacks of paperwork he had to complete as the Treasurer. Lyde observed with fascination as he jotted the information in his mind.
‘The Truth Seekers seem to have a reputation for being thorough to a fault. They must have quite the authority to access the Hunter Guild’s storage without father’s permission.’
Lyde needed to gather more information before the Seekers visited him. His family is already worried enough about the situation, so asking them is out. He’ll need to find a source from a trustworthy third party. For now, he needs to calm down his father before his rant goes on any longer.
“So does this mean you’ll help me, Pops? I’d like to get started as soon as possible.”
Ellyas nodded in agreement. “Alright, we will start tomorrow morning at 5am. Enough time for training while leaving the rest of the day to explore your options for your path. Yes, I didn’t forget, so go get some rest. You have a big day tomorrow.”
Ellyas left quietly towards the bedroom. The room was silent and tense, lacking the usual jovial atmosphere Lyde grew to love. Sylvia sighed as she started collecting the plates. “Go get some rest, honey. I’ll handle the cleaning tonight. Make sure Monica is dressed and put to bed.” Lyde nodded and took Monica’s hand, leading them to their bedroom.
Monica barely reacted as she let herself be led by him. Though she did not wholly understand what was said at dinner, she was still empathetic to the whirlpool of emotions around her. Monica grasped Lyde’s arm once they reached her bed. She gazed into his eyes, unable to hide her curiosity and fear.
“Lyde, are you ok?” Monica asked.
Lyde smiled as he picked her up and tucked her in bed. He sat down and petted her red mane, calming the worry in her heart. Drowsiness threatened to overtake her as her eyes struggled to remain awake.
“Yes, Ruby, everything is fine.”
“Are those eyes the same as the ones in your stories?”
Lyde chuckled. She kept her promise and waited until the last moment before asking the question. The waiting must have been agonizing for her.
“Yes, yes, they are.”
“That’s so cool. Maybe you won’t… get those… nightmares… anymore.”
Lyde paused, stuck by a tiny seed taking root in his heart. He watched the innocent little girl fall asleep peacefully, unaware of the impact of what she said. An unknown feeling broke loose as he sat there stunned. Even his chain, invisible to all, glowed rhythmically, matching the beating of his heart.
Lyde felt uncomfortable. No, that was an understatement. His focus waned, and his thoughts fell back onto the twelve years of his life. When his memories returned, He also remembered everything since he was born in this life. He remembered when his sister was born. Growing up, she had always been by his side.
Lyde shook his head to rid himself of the confusing thoughts. Here he was in his room when he should be out progressing his skills. He had a game to win. Speaking of winning, Lyde glanced at the chain and flicked it twice. He only needed a simple touch, but watching the links wiggle was always fun.
The card rippled into existence, shimmering in splendor.
“Hey, enough. My sister is trying to sleep.”
The card immediately dimmed and drooped as if upset at the interruption. Lyde’s eyebrow raised as the card slugged toward him.
‘Great, it's depressed now.’
Lyde waited patiently as the card stopped before his face and listed the rules. Lyde scanned for any updates and noticed changes under each main objective.
Main Objective 1: Complete pertaining achievements to unseal abilities related.
Player Lyde First Link: Art of the Soul (???)
Player Valia First Link: State of Mind (???)
Lyde looked over the information several times but couldn’t make sense of it. He navigated his memories to search for the slightest correlation and found… nothing.
“Alright, enough of this.”
Lyde left the bedroom annoyed. He closed the door slowly and tiptoed towards the front door. He would only understand how to complete the objectives by going out and exploring. Lyde laid his hand on the door when a silver star smacked the door right next to his hand.
“Where do you think you’re going, honey?”
Lyde froze. He didn’t dare to try to run. There would be no escaping her. He turned around to face the last obstacle of this disastrous day. The final boss.
“Hey, Mama, I didn’t see you there.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Lyde twitched as he struggled to rein his emotions under control. His mother was not going to make this easy.
“I’m going out. There’s still plenty to do before the day is over.”
“I’m sure it can wait until tomorrow.”
“It really can’t. I have to do something quickly. I’ll be back shortly. There is still plenty of time to sleep before morning training.”
“Then do you want to tell me what it is?”
Lyde paused. Here he was, the ultimate liar, losing a conversation with his mother. Where was the composure when Lyde faced a dozen of elders? Why does he feel so helpless? Silence filled the room. Lyde and his mother stared at each other, waiting for the other to speak. The air thickened with every passing moment. Finally, Sylvia could no longer hold herself back.
“I know about the eyes, Lyde.” She watched Lyde waiting for him to react. He remained stoic, not a twitch on his face. “Your father doesn’t remember the small things when he’s too focused, at least not at first. But he will. Monica only stopped talking about them a few days ago. She has been too busy being excited about your origin day to talk about anything else.”
Sylvia circled her right finger. The silver star behind Lyde changed trajectory, orbiting around Lyde's head. After each cycle, the star shifted between the moon and the sun.
“The nightmares plagued you, night after night. Sometimes, Monica burst into our room crying. Lyde’s dying, she would say. Only then would the screams start.”
Lyde’s heart twitched, and a crack formed in his poker face. Sylvia’s left fist trembled as she recollected the turmoil.
“We tried so hard to find help. We really did. But everyone said the same thing. Your boy’s fine. He just has an overactive imagination. Right, an imagination. They didn’t see your bed drowned in sweat. They didn’t see you be rushed to a healer because you drew blood trying to claw your heart out.”
Tears dripped onto the floor as she clutched herself, her entire body trembling. Sylvia didn’t break eye contact with Lyde, though. She wouldn’t allow herself to.
“I can’t even understand why. You refused to tell anyone about the nightmares. Only the dreams. Never sharing the burden, only the happiness. We only knew that the nightmares and dreams were about the same person. A nameless man with golden eyes.”
The star diverted once again as it circled each golden iris before continuing back on course.
“So tell me, Lyde, are you still in there?”
And there it was. The dreaded question. One he didn’t know the answer to. If she had asked a few hours ago, the answer would have been easy, even if it wasn’t true. He had many ways to spin the tale and lie with complete confidence. However, now, he couldn’t bring himself to even attempt. His father’s outburst, his sister’s relief, and his mother’s tears. Bombardment after bombardment. His shield was broken, and his defenses were down.
Lyde was prepared to take on the entire world, not this. None of his planning prepared him for this. No lie was good enough. So all he could do was follow the original plan. He had to wing it.
“There is not much I will say, at least for right now. I’m still getting used to this, if you believe me. The most I can tell you is that my answer is the same now as when you asked that question this morning.”
The star stopped and hovered in place, trembling as she slowly stood up and walked over to him. She reached for Lyde but didn’t touch him, both too afraid and hopeful that what he said was true.
“I… I am still your mother?” Sylvia asked, practically begging.
Lyde placed her hand in his own, causing the star to fizzle and disappear. He led her back into her seat, calmly kneeled, and looked into her eyes.
“The only one I’ve known.”
Tears fell as Sylvia could not hold them back any longer. She hugged Lyde and held him, afraid he might disappear at any moment. Lyde let his mother hold him for a while before he removed himself and hurried towards the door.
He couldn’t stand to stay for one more second. This was no longer about the achievements. His sanity lay on the brink, and he didn’t know the consequences after destruction. Unfortunately, his escape was too slow.
“Lyde, I love you.”
Lyde stopped just before the door, mind frozen as the dam holding his emotions finally broke.
“I…I love you too.”
Sylvia burst into tears of sweet sugar as a broad smile descended on her lips.
“Thank the Goddess. Thank the Goddess,” she murmured repeatedly in an empty room all to herself.