Chapter 76 Questions
Isaac and Lenna both stopped in perfect sync. Isaac unconsciously rubbed his chest from the odd tingle he felt in his core and Lenna scanned the area around them with the focus of a hunting bird of prey. “You felt it too?” Isaac asked.
Lenna nodded. “Something strong was just here.” She affirmed.
“And powerful beyond even Judgment.” Isaac added. “Did you-” Isaac sniffed the air as he got a whiff of something.
Lenna took a deep breath in through her nose as well. “Cherries and… peaches?” Lenna spoke her aromatic findings aloud.
Isaac nodded in agreement. “Whoever it was, they’re long gone now.” A few people were giving them odd looks as their eyes swept every degree of visibility from their position. A black void opened up next to Isaac and a creature made of bones in the rough shape of an elf and dressed in a butler’s suit rose from the pitch black shadow. “Shamesh, do you know a spell to find out who was just here?” Isaac questioned his skeletal retainer.
“I am afraid that I lack a spell for this, my Lord.” Shamesh said with a graceful bow. Suddenly there was a lot more attention on them.
“Thank you, Shamesh, I will call on you again later.” Isaac told his familiar.
Shamesh bowed again. “As you say, I shall take my leave.” Shamesh replied and sank back down into the black void.
Once Shamesh was gone, Isaac tsked. “Damn, he has a lot of great attack spells but I guess he can’t be all powerful.” Isaac grumbled. “Let’s go see Alexander. His array should’ve picked up on whatever that was.”
Lenna nodded. “Agreed.” She replied.
They had both only taken half a step towards Alexander’s tower when it happened again. Isaac felt his core quiver under the barest touch of a power far, far, too vast and ancient. The hair on the back of Lenna’s neck stood on end and she felt a shiver run up her arms and spine. Neither of them had much time to process their own reactions because there was a woman standing a dozen feet in front of them. Her long black hair was braided to keep it tidy and as she bowed towards them in greeting her hair swung forwards almost brushing against the ground. She straightened and smiled pleasantly at the duo.
The woman’s clothes were strange but familiar to Isaac. She had a cloak that hung over her shoulders which hid some of her garb but plenty of the myriad of folds were still visible. Each half of the shirt was pulled across her chest in alternate directions and tied at her waist by both her sash and the skirt-like pants. Each of the pant legs consisted of a hundred folds of fabric much like a young woman’s summer skirt. When she was standing still they almost seemed to turn into one continuous stream of folds that wrapped around her lower half. Her boots were the same design as Isaac’s old ones, simple soft leather that tied halfway up the calf.
As the newcomer straightened and smiled at the pair she gave off this odd feeling of being out of synchronization with the flow of time itself, it got better as she continued but it was still disconcerting. “There is no need for that.” She told them. At first her words came out almost too fast but as her sentence continued her speech slowed down to a nearly normal rate. “I am right here.” By now her voice was almost at the proper speed for her. The main reason it was even noticeable was because she did not give off the feeling of someone who spoke quickly due to endless prattling, but rather, she felt like one who spoke merely at need instead of idly.
Isaac felt her power fade away into the background as if she was simply a part of the world around them. By the time she was done he couldn’t sense her presence, at all. “I see that.” Isaac replied. “And who might you be?”
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Her smile widened a bit. “I am Ori Jikan.” She told them simply. “You may call me ‘Ori’ or ‘Miss’ or ‘Lady Jikan’.” She waved down the street in the direction the pair were going before they felt her. “I believe you were about to go somewhere for dinner. Allow me to join you and I will answer your questions then.”
Isaac nodded warily. “Alright.” He told her. “Did you have somewhere in mind?”
“Yes, actually.” Ori smiled. “Dave’s Grill on ninth street, if you do not mind the walk.”
Isaac nodded. “That’s fine. They serve monster meat there a lot. Usually only locals go there but you are anything but a local.” Isaac replied to which Ori merely nodded in affirmation, if her timing was still off, Isaac could no longer tell.
“Thank you for obliging me.” Ori replied instead of answering Isaac’s other statement.
Isaac nodded and turned towards their new destination. As he did he and Lenna shared a look. Lenna’s seemed to say: ‘I don’t like having someone that dangerous behind me.’
Isaac’s reply was: ‘It doesn’t matter if she is in front of or behind us.’
Ori was silent until they arrived at Dave’s Grill. Once all three of them had been seated by a rather cheery waitress, and they had been informed on what they were having for dinner by said cheery waitress, Ori finally locked her black eyes on Isaac’s silver ones.
“You are correct.” Ori began. “I am from very far away.” She informed them. “You felt my power so you already know what I am.” She said specifically to Isaac. Lenna remained perfectly still as her fears were confirmed by the mysterious woman. “No, I was not sent here by that child but I am here because of him.” She preemptively answered Isaac’s next question. At the sudden shift in body language from Isaac she smiled and bowed her head slightly. “I apologize. Continue and ask your questions.”
Isaac was nervous, very, very, nervous. The woman across from them could actively see or hear whatever he was about to do. He was sure that there had to be limits but he had no interest in trying to find them. Just from the brush against her power that he had felt he was entirely positive that she was the last person on the planet that he wanted to fight directly. “Time then.” Isaac stated the rather obvious conclusion on her identity.
“Yes.” She replied simply.
“What era are you from?” He wondered. He knew that it was impolite to ask a woman her age but part of him doubted that she had one specific age to give him in the first place.
“This most recent dragon surge.” She replied honestly. “Just like Space and Gravity. Blade is a bit older because he is actually from before the dragon surge, to correct your misinformation.”
Isaac forced down the desire to swallow at his past being directly referenced by someone that he didn’t think had actually been there. “Not to be rude, but why are you here?” Isaac questioned her directly.
“My oldest friend asked me to meet the ones who killed Judgment.” She explained. “The fact that your most recent exchange with the boy did not end in more bloodshed means that you are at least a decent person. I could have left it at that but I wanted to meet with you personally.”
“Why?” Isaac asked.
“Because there are only two ways to truly understand someone and this is the one that I prefer.” She replied.
“The other is violence.” Isaac surmised to which Ori nodded. It was at that moment that their food arrived so they all fell silent as they were served grilled shadow-wolf steaks with wild onions. The scent of garlic wafted heavily off of the steaks and Ori immediately brought her hands together in a silent prayer. Her prayer was over in a heartbeat and her fork and knife were in her hands a moment after that. Isaac and Lenna were a bit farther behind her but it was clear that Ori was famished.
“Is your friend a demigod?” Lenna questioned Ori directly.
Ori nodded with a mouthful of steak. Isaac had to agree with the look on the woman’s face, the steaks were far better than he expected. Dog meat, because that is what it was, was not at the top of Isaac’s list of foods to try. It somehow managed to maintain some of the innate magical properties of the wolf which meant that it was less dense than usual and thus broke apart easier. For Isaac, however, it also seemed to relive some wariness almost like a cup of mushroom tea.
“So, you are just here to sit and have dinner with us?” Isaac asked after he swallowed his first mouthful.
They had to wait for Ori to chase her steak with some water before she was ready to speak again. “More specifically, Klein asked me to make sure that you weren’t a threat to mortals as a whole, and to make sure that if you were, you would not be one for long.”
“That is quite… direct.” Isaac commented. “Am I, or could I be, a demigod? If I am, what would happen if Lenna and I bound our strands of fate together?”
Ori hummed in thought. “I do not know if you are but there is the potential for you to be. I will not tell you how, you must figure it out, just like the rest of us did. I have no idea how the binding of strands of fate will affect you.” She answered him as clearly as she could. “Only the Twin Deities could answer the first part of your first question. I did not ask Rei when we last spoke.”
“You spoke to her recently?” Isaac asked and leaned in slightly.
“Recently…hmm… Yes, I would say recently is accurate.” Ori replied.
“What does that even mean?” Isaac questioned.
Ori’s eyes seemed to glaze over as her focus left them for a moment. She blinked and then refocused on Isaac. “It was around three hundred hours ago from my perspective.” She told him. “That is recent for both of us, I believe.”
Isaac nodded though he was still slightly confused on what that meant exactly. “Well, Lady Jikan, thank you for answering my questions.” Isaac told the demigoddess across from him. “Do you have any questions of your own?”