Isaiah
“Okay. Let me see if I have this correct.” As Mila finished explaining about her and Aalam’s lives as they ran through a forest, Isaiah thought hard about how to make what he was about to say not sound offensive. “In your previous lives, Aalam was basically a young Alashan…”
Isaiah still wasn’t sure how to say the next part, and Mila took his pause to ask a question. “Alashan, the rune master?”
She then raised her hand as they continued running, indicating for him to not answer, and, about a dozen seconds later she explained. “Sorry. Nana Xara was explaining the reference. So, Alashan was also a genius on the autistic spectrum. Got it. Please continue.
“And don’t worry about insulting me.”
Isaiah took a deep breath. “So, you noticed Aalam’s talent as it was budding, approached him, became his friend, and then his dao companion, all the while stealing everything he invented. I guess the question I most want to ask is why does he still seem to trust you?
“I was manipulated my whole life, so I can kind of put myself in his position, and I absolutely want to destroy the Gale Clan. Demons below, I knew a lot of the people you’ve killed, yet I don’t feel any kind of sadness now that they’re gone other than that I didn’t get to do it myself.” It had taken him a while to get there, mostly because he hadn’t believed the truth, but after coming to terms with what had been done to him, Isaiah was angry.
“Do you want the truth or the lie?” Mila sounded a bit sad and Isaiah had no way to read her aura, so he decided to go with his gut that the emotion she was showing was genuine.
“Why do you do that?”
Mila turned from looking forward to look at him. “Do what?”
“Ask if I want to hear the truth. I thought about it a lot when I was thinking back on our interactions, trying to figure out if I wanted to trust you, and I think that type of question sounds like a psychological trick to put my mind in a mode where I will be more likely to believe you.”
“Oh.” Mila looked forward again, frowning slightly. “I hadn’t realized I was doing that.”
Isaiah felt confused, and Mila started to explain.
“You are right. It is a psychological trick.” Mila’s frown deepened. “My grandfather taught it to me when I was five along with quite a few others, and a few of them have entered into the way I speak normally, even when I’ve been deliberately trying to tone down the manipulation.”
She sighed. “As you might have guessed, I didn’t have the most normal of childhoods.
“To your original question, that’s probably part of the reason Aalam’s not really expressed any extreme anger toward me and is okay with us working together. After I ran away and he figured out what I was, you can be assured he found all the information he could get on me, and that would have included things like my psychological profile, upbringing, and probably the fears of my government about our relationship.
“More important, however—and yes, I am somewhat deflecting here—I’m pretty sure my death occurred about seventeen days before Aalam’s. He hasn’t talked about it, and I haven’t pried, but those seventeen days must have been Hell.
“He contributed quite a bit to me getting killed, sending my information, along with that of everyone else who stole from him, to all the intelligence agencies on our planet. His intention was likely just to make us unable to do our jobs, but there is a good chance I wasn’t the only one killed as a result, and that would weigh on his conscience.
“Then add to that his sister getting sick with mana overrun due to the effects of the integration starting, the symptoms not matching any known disease on our world, and he probably thought someone was deliberately trying to poison Diana for his release of their information.”
Tears started to form in Mila’s eyes as she continued. “Given what I know about Aalam, his anger toward me would have shifted from being about me lying to him to me not being there when he needed me most. Then that anger would have shifted to himself because he is an utter idiot when it comes to handling his own emotions, and that’s why he killed himself.”
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Mila wiped the tears from her eyes and then took a deep breath. “To fully answer your question, however, probably the main reason Aalam hasn’t expressed any extreme anger is that he doesn’t feel it as strongly as a month before the integration. And, as to why he trusts me, that’s mainly because he didn’t have any better alternatives.
“He was in a berserker state and thought he was dreaming throughout the tutorial, so he made choices he wouldn’t have otherwise, and I had to keep him from accidentally killing himself, so I didn’t stop those choices either. As a result, our powers are more linked than most people.
“Due to some particulars about our classes and their future progression, if I abandoned him, Aalam wouldn’t be able to choose one of the classes he wants for D rank in the future, a class essential to his build, not to mention having no way to get back to our home planet, so he probably doesn’t feel comfortable completely showing his anger, what little of it is left.
“As a result, for the last six months, we’ve been working together, communicating daily, but we haven’t really dealt with the big issue, mostly avoiding it entirely. And, as you’ve observed, we’ve entered into a lot of our old habits, teasing each other and generally acting like friends.”
Isaiah didn’t say anything for a bit. Then he decided to just say what he was thinking, as Mila had almost certainly already read his aura anyway. “That doesn’t sound very healthy.”
“No. No, it is not.” Mila looked over at him again. “And that’s part of the reason I wanted you to join us. Like you said, your situation and his were somewhat similar, and Aalam, despite how well he’s hiding it, really needs someone to talk to. And that someone can't be me.”
Given Mila was able to read his emotions like an open book, Isaiah decided to just start saying whatever he was thinking. “What is it you want?”
“Logically, just for Aalam to get better, a part of which is to get him back to see his sister. I feel I need to atone at least that much.” Mila smiled slightly. “Emotionally I’m a bit more of a mess and what I want is something I’m still debating with myself if I even deserve to pursue.”
Isaiah thought about it for a few minutes as they continued running. He’d decided to take everything Mila said at face value and, if that was the case, Aalam’s situation and his were quite a bit different. First, despite both being after material wealth, the people manipulating him wanted to kill him, while Mila’s manipulation of Aalam hadn’t put him in any danger. Second, the people who’d been willing to sacrifice him hadn’t shown any remorse, while Mila seemed to very much regret her actions. Third, and probably most important, the people manipulating him had constantly put him down his entire life, limiting his potential, while, from what he’d seen from their interactions over the last few days, even while manipulating Aalam Mila had most likely lifted him up. Isaiah wasn’t going to ask the question, but, from getting a sense of their personalities, he was guessing Aalam had benefitted more from their relationship than Mila had stolen, at least materially.
The actions and betrayal were still inexcusable, but, unlike in his case, they were forgivable, so long as that is what Aalam wanted after a lot of thought and a bit of distance.
“I’ll talk to him.” Isaiah nodded. “But, technically, I’m his knight, not yours, so I’m going to take his side.”
Mila just smiled and they continued running.
Then, four days later, they caught up to Tomin Amoranth, who they found sitting in a cave under a mountain. The two dragon earrings on Mila’s ears transformed into a pair of pistols, a weapon type rarely seen in the universe, and she infused them with a death element Law Larva and started firing.
Tomin couldn’t fight back due to their contract, so he just dodged, and Mila didn’t give the prince any orders, even though she could kill him easily if she did, so Isaiah realized she was using Tomin to help her master her skills. About fifteen minutes later, she finally hit Tomin, the prince running out of resources, and then she killed him.
The prolonged fight would have been troubling to Isaiah had it been someone else, but Tomin had been planning to sacrifice him, so he didn’t have much sympathy. Mila, he gathered, thought much the same, and he felt she likely wouldn’t have prolonged the fight had her victim not been such an ass.
“Well, that’s done now.” Mila turned to look at Isaiah. “Thanks for coming with me even though you didn’t gain any primal energy.”
“No. Thank you for bringing me.” Isaiah felt himself smile slightly. “I feel like I learned a lot.”
“Alright then. Let’s at least find a way to help each other practice our skills together on the return journey.”
They started running and, three days later, they arrived at the inheritance again, quite a few of their skills noticeably advanced from having dueled with their extra resources almost all the way back.
“Alright, Isaiah, you lie down there.” When they got back to the inheritance, they found a formation activated in the main room, seemingly having been modified by Aalam while they were away, and there was an indentation carved into the D rank stone ground perfectly the right size for Isaiah’s body. “Mila, you move against the wall.”
Not seeing anything wrong, and not even thinking about how Aalam could have carved into D rank stone, Isaiah lay down in the indentation, and he didn’t even react when Aalam reached down with his left hand and stored everything he was wearing into the Left Hand of the Runescribe.
Isaiah only started to notice something was wrong when Mila began speaking slowly. “Aalam, Nana Xara is saying this array formation looks like it’s made more for torture than—” But she was cut off by Aalam telekinetically slamming her into the wall of the room with no warning, not even looking at her and instead focusing on the formation he was activating.
This of course disturbed Isaiah, and he tried to get out of the indentation, but, as soon as he did, a telekinetic force grabbed his entire body and held him in place, feeling even more unmovable than the D rank stone under his back.