Opening the door, Jessica walked into the old and almost musty smelling house. Unpleasant at first, the smell soon washed over her, and she found it hard to move. In that split second, any and everything worry and stress disappeared. No longer did she feel that lingering pressure on her back, nor did she feel any fear or discomfort. Everything that could possibly bother or cause her to feel unsafe was gone. All that remained was that stale air that smelt of old paper. This was the smell she found the most comforting.
No matter what happened, no matter what she did, didn’t matter what problems she was involved with. The second she reached the door and stepped through the threshold, nothing mattered. With the old man here, she felt that nothing and nobody would be able to hurt her. This was home.
Very quickly, it became apparent that they weren’t the only ones in the room. Instead, what the boy saw was an old gentleman sitting at the table with a cup of steaming tea in front of him. In his hands was a book that he would turn the page to every so often. Being completely absorbed into the book he was reading, he didn’t look up even once. Not even when he turned to the side as he reached for the handle on the teacup, brought it up and took a sip, barely looking away from the book.
As Jessica came back to herself, she smiled care freely without the slightest bit of discomfort as she sat down at the table. The strangest thing was not that the old man had ignored her. Seeing from the way the villagers treated her, and her attitude towards them, it was as if they didn’t acknowledge the others' existence. The first sign of any acknowledgement was when the little girl named Aderyn showed up. Therefore, even when she was being ignored. The boy couldn’t understand the exact situation, but he had one major question. Why was there two cups of tea and even a pastry on the table?
Sitting down, she took a sip of the tea, and grabbed the pastry without saying anything. Slowly as she was just about to finish the pastry the man picked up a bookmark on the table, after saving his place he put the book down. There was suddenly an invisible pressure in the room. It wasn’t anything to do with mana or a type of authority. While the boy could feel it, it was clear that the one really feeling the pressure was Jessica. She had her head lowered as if she was a child that caught doing something naughty.
“You’re too old to get grounded… So what am I supposed to do with you?” His voice held a lot of anger, but it was very quickly dissipating into helplessness. “Just look at you. I won’t be here forever. If you don’t take care of yourself, who will? Once you’re done eating, go take a shower and sleep.” Without the slightest gap for arguing, the man spoke in a voice that told her there would be no talking back.
As if watching this woman turn into a child, she sheepishly nodded before standing up and politely excusing herself. As she was opening one of the three doors in the large room, the man spoke up once more, “Jessica.”
Turning around, she spoke with a defeated tone and expression, “Yes?”
“Welcome home.”
With a smile that had put down all her guards, she turned around and walked into the room. The boy didn’t wait and followed, but not before dissipating with an unreadable expression. It didn’t take her too long to shower. Once she was done, she came back to see the boy sitting at the desk that held a small gray stone and a cracked sword. Seeing this, she moved towards the desk with a strange expression.
Once she reached the desk, she carefully picked up the sword and was looking at the numerous cracks on the blade. She glanced at the boy, but he didn’t have any cracks on his face or hands. Therefore, she looked a bit puzzled, “Isn’t there more cracks than before?”
With no change in expression, the boy spoke while keeping his hand on top of the desk where the stone was placed, “You know as an owner you would think you would be able to tell if your property was damaged or not.”
Yawning, she had a bit of a helpless expression, “I don’t know how to use a sword. Also, your body was utterly cracked from the beginning. It is hard to tell what was already there and if there really are some new ones. The last time you showed signs of it on your mana body. Why is that?”
This time, the boy really did stop injecting his mana into the stone. He didn’t move, but he did focus on the conversation, “Even I don’t know that. When I first came to, I was already inside the room. It was only later I came to terms with the energy I felt. Once I learned to control it, I was able to make a body of fog to move. Later I refined my control and the body I had was always just something I assumed had to do with that bastard.“
“Is that so?” Speaking rather absentmindedly. Trying not to probe too deeply into the touchy subject.
“All I know is that when I was absorbing mana and storing it. My body started to increase in strength, this was seen physically as the blade became shiny and fancy. While I am a sword, it appears that I am still alive, as from the reflection I could see an older person. This was When I refined my mana body into a person. The bastard said, he had created an entire new life form. And it appears he was right. When I broke through the door I lost the runes and so my strength fell and the body you see now is the results of that.”
Seeing the interest in her eyes and emotions, he could tell she was holding back. Since she was trying to be considerate, he decided to share more, “Once I left that place I used the same path you did. In the beginning, I couldn’t leave the room or even make it to the door once again. Only I made a breakthrough in my fog body technique. I learned to use it to control mana, in doing so, it required a piece of my soul to be transferred to this body. They stay linked so if something happens to my body it is shown on my mana body.”
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It was easy to see that her eyes became more lucid as she became less sleepy. With a bit of hesitation, he kept going, “This also means that my mana body is connected to my body. This is important as I had to find a way to get out. Like I said before, once I found out that there was a fake wall, I had to go to each wall and find a way to believe the wall was fake. For you, it was a slap at best, but since my body was, in short, an extension of my soul. Each time I walked into a real wall, the pain I felt was probably something along the lines of being set on fire.”
Since she could feel his emotions, there was a large likelihood this was true. She couldn’t help but remember her reaction during that time and felt a little ashamed. Trying to move away from this topic, she asked something she had always wondered, “You said before that you learned about the fake wall from the stone. So, how did you get out of there the first time?”
Flatly as if it was unrelated to him, “I didn’t. In fact, it is a little sad, but I was so angry that the number is engraved into my head. It took me somewhere around a hundred and twenty attempts to climb up that hole. It was somewhat easy to count as when I reached around ten foot, each fall felt like someone was stepping on my existence and I could feel that if I let go at that moment I would have disappeared.”
Hearing this, she felt like the room had become colder. Trying to think of something to change the subject, she blurted out, “Ah, so how did you climb?”
He didn’t even need to feel her emotions as she was showing how flustered she was from her face. When she realized she was further digging into the same topic, she seemed to be able to panic. It was really eye-opening. She had truly put down all her guard after returning home, “Suction. It was an idea I had about some things from my old world. I didn’t remember the principle behind it, but I was able to mimic it. Used mana to seal the area around my hand and made a cup, then played with it until there was a suction force.”
Learning her lesson, Jessica didn’t ask again. Knowing it couldn’t be just that simple, he had clearly glazed over it, so she wasn’t going to make another blunder and keep talking. There was a bit of an awkward silence, without waiting for the situation to get worse. The boy closed his eyes and focused back on the gray stone. As if given a stay of execution, Jessica let out a happy sigh.
As the drowsiness was starting to overcome her, she lay down in bed. As her eyes started to feel heavy, she looked over at the boy. Maybe because she let her guard down, or maybe because they were here at home, she couldn’t help but talk in her haze, “Goodnight Leo.”
It didn’t happen immediately, but within the first ten seconds he snapped his eyes open before turning to look at the bed. After registering exactly what she said, he had many thoughts go through his head. If Jessica wasn’t unconscious and felt the seal, she would notice there was panic and discomfort and a large mix of emotions. While not seemingly important, for the first time the insanity and madness at the center of his soul was overpowered by the chaotic things he was currently feeling.
Maybe she had forgotten his relentless teasing. She had mistakenly blurted out the name of the imaginative brother she sometimes dreamed about. The significance of the name was by no means small. Of course, rather or not she stuck to the name would have to be seen. Standing up, he moved towards the bed before lifting the blanket up to better cover her up, “Goodnight.”
Outside the room, the old man looked up from his book for the first time. His face was no longer gentle or was there a slight upturn to give himself a hint of a smile. There was no expression on his face. The eyes that, from the moment Jessica had showed up in the village, filled with love. Were also gone, instead all that remained was coldness. Only after a few minutes did he look away from the door.
As the birds chirped and the sun came in from the window through a small crack in the curtains. For the first time in many months did Jessica wake up completely at peace, without the slightest intention to get up or even get into a guarded position. Not even a hint of anything other than relaxation. As she listened to the birds outside, she could even smell food. It was clear the old man was telling her to get up, but she found it rather difficult. The best was so warm and comfortable.
Sitting up, she looked around the empty room. Only once she went to the bathroom and washed her face did she look up at the crystal clear substance with a reflective back coating. Very quickly her eyes bulged, and she turned white with shock, this was replaced within seconds with red on her cheeks to the tips of her ears as she finally remembered what she had done right before falling asleep.
When she exited the bathroom, she had braced herself for the worst. She once regretted greatly letting it slip what that name meant. In the end, she had to threaten to physically snap the blade if he didn’t stop his teasing. Stopping after that, even though he knew it was a bluff. While in the inn a day before that, she had been making fun of him for not realizing that the gray stone was written in a language from his old world. She was making dumb jokes the entire day…
Looking at the sword that was laying on the desk, while it was true his soul was in her arm. If she sealed it, he couldn’t leave or even see what was going on. Instead, if she left his body out and sealed the mark, he could still stay with his body and read the gray stone. Since he could transform into a person, even if he wasn’t one anymore. She was uncomfortable with losing her privacy. But most importantly, she saw that her waking had caused him to wake up and/or come out.
Bracing herself for the worst, she just watched silently. Only, what she was expecting never came. The boy stretched before sitting back done at the desk, as he put his hand back on the gray stone without saying anything. She knew he was trying to remake the rune he believed was what would allow him to once again store his mana. With him not starting a conversation, she refused to do the same. Thus, the room turned into an awkward silence.
It would be weird if she left on her own. Therefore, she reached a stalemate, as she didn’t want to distract him from the gray stone. Anything she did could make him turn his attention onto her and, more importantly, what she said last night in her drowse haze. It was at that moment there was a knock on her door. “It is time to get up. Come out and eat.”