That evening, I stopped by the pet store to purchase sorely needed items for Ani, including food, a litter box and litter, some feather wands, and bowls. For good measure, I grabbed him a collar and some bells, too. Seeing a spray bottle at the counter, I grabbed that as well.
The cashier, watching me, said, “You know that, like, only ruins your bond with your cat, right?”
I gave her a flat stare and placed it on the counter. She shrugged and finished checking me out.
Once home, Ani ignored the new items and ran to me, meowing. Obligingly, I patted him on the head. “Thank you for leaving when I asked.”
He gave me a proud little chirrup.
“But seriously, don’t show up at the office again.”
Ani continued to thread and wind himself through my feet as I set the groceries down, rolling the ache from carrying the litter out of my shoulder and unpacking all the items. Ani didn’t exactly appreciate the collar, but I certainly did. It jingled when he moved, making it far more difficult for him to sneak up on me.
We ate dinner, then sat on my leather couch for some relaxation. The Silmarillion sat on the side table to my left, bookmarked where I’d paused in reading it. My fingers hovered above the cover. I remembered leaving it there the evening before I’d ended up in Heirs. It felt like an eternity ago, like a snapshot from another life.
At the same time, my time in Heirs felt like the events of a dream. The sights, sounds, and smells contrasted sharply with those of this reality, and the time we spent felt rough and unfinished, like an uncut and unpolished gem. If it hadn’t been for the physical reminders, would I have played it off as a dream?
My fingers twitched above the book, and I withdrew them.
Silence echoed throughout my room, so different from the sounds and smells of Heirs. So…empty. Lonely. Violently, I shook the thoughts out of my head. I spent the entire time there working on getting home. I was cleaner and happier here. I wasn’t missing my time there. I wasn’t.
How did they react to my empty room in the morning? How did the speech go?
…Did they miss me?
There were still so many unanswered questions I had. I felt like I’d just barely gotten to know them.
I picked up my phone and opened the browser.My thumbs hovered over the screen. Before I realized it, I was searching for Heirs.
Naturally, the first page that popped up was the Wikipedia article. Opening it, I scanned through the page.
“Heirs (Japanese: 相続人) is an ongoing…”
Skip.
“The series…”
Skip.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“Sky (previously: Sora) is the main protagonist of the series. Originally born…” His name was Sora? I guess it had never occurred to me that he had another name. The name wasn’t very original on the writer’s part.
I continued reading.
I don’t know what I expected reading it, but I was disappointed. Maybe it was because the page left out a lot of the details that made them, them. I shouldn’t have expected any different. Reading the biographies and the plot overview of people I knew and events I’d been a part of gave me a strange, disconnected feeling. Some details, like Sky’s original name and the details of Millie’s rebirth, felt like cheating. They were details I wanted to know, but it felt wrong learning them from a Wikipedia article. The article was devoid of nuance, and it felt a little like those parts of them were gone too. A few characters–people–weren’t mentioned at all, like Aquila, Octavia, and Aurora. It left a bad taste in my mouth.
I closed the article and went back to the search page. Scrolling. Scrolling. Scrolling. Finally, Heirs Chapter 1. Unsure of what to expect, I clicked on the link. It brought me to an unofficial-looking site that looked clunky on my tiny phone screen. Even with an adblocker, I had to be mindful of where I tapped.
Clicking on the main page, I checked out the series' specs. It was divided into five volumes, each associated with a different element. Air, then Fire, Earth, Water, and finally, an ongoing one, simply titled The Heirs.
I pulled the page down, then up, then down as I thought, not even reading the words on the screen.
Finally, I scrolled back up to the top, clicked on chapter one of Heirs: of Air, and began reading.
The series started off with Sky narrating his death on Earth and awakening in the world of Heirs. It was a classic example of telling, not showing. It wasn’t the only error I noticed either–frankly, the series was littered with writing mistakes. Heirs had grammatical errors, awkward sentences, inconsistencies, and plenty of telling and narrating instead of depicting a scene. Basically, it was everything I hated in a novel.
And yet.
Perhaps I was biased for these characters and their world. I’d been there, after all. I’d made friends with them. I knew how they spoke, how they dressed, how they moved. Now, I knew how they thought. My mind filled in the blank description, fueled by the world's beauty. And, despite its flaws, I found the writing charming. A refreshing earnestness and passion for the story bled through the pages, beating into my heart. Despite their technical ability, the writer’s love for their series was etched and typed into every sentence, along with their determination to finish the story they told. It was different than the rigorously edited and thoroughly published books I usually read, but charming. In a way, it reminded me of the differences between polished booksellers such as Barnes and Noble versus the unpolished uniqueness of a local bookstore or resale shop.
The writing, flawed as it was, drew me in, and once I got past the initial discomfort of reading someone’s thoughts, I found myself enjoying Sky’s story.
But it caused me to wonder. If Sky had changed so much so quickly, how much had I changed in my few weeks?
I didn’t know then, but I would find out. Much, much, much later.
That night, flashes of steel and blood haunted my dreams.
----------------------------------------
Over the next few days, I could not figure out how to prevent Ani from randomly showing up at my job. I tried: bribing Ani, spraying him with water when he showed up, talking at him, ignoring him–everything I could think of. He just ate the bribes, then continued to do as Ani did. He thought the water was a game and grew more insistent the more I ignored him. By Friday, I was at the end of my ropes.
The only thing that kept me from getting in significant trouble was that he graciously disappeared when my boss showed up. Still, I spent the entire rest of the week on edge, wondering when I’d get caught and written up.
On my way home Friday evening, I made a last-ditch effort and called my sister, who had trained her cats and explained the situation–minus the magic and interdimensional travel.
She burst out laughing. “Your new kitten sounds like a regular escape artist!”
“Look, can you help me or not?”
“What will you get for me?”
“What do you want?”
She answered instantly. “A new phone.”
My response was just as fast. “No. Buy one yourself.”
“If you don’t want my help…” She pulled the phone away as she spoke as if she were planning to hang up at any second.
What a brat. “Pick something else.”
“Hmmm….then I want you to pre-order the first few volumes of the limited edition for Heirs.”
Heirs, huh? And a limited edition at that. So far, I’d managed to plow through the majority of the first volume and had just started the second, which was to focus on Sera’s rise to the throne. It was the volume I was most curious about, as I suspected the volume covered the events I’d lived.
“Fine.”
“For real?” I could hear the excitement in her voice
She didn’t have to sound so shocked about it. “Yes. For real. I did mention that my job was at risk, right?”
“What time do you want me?”
I pulled the phone away, checking the time. The store I’d bought Ani’s food from the day I met him sat up ahead. Making a few mental calculations, I said, “I’ll be home in a few, so whenever you’re free.”
“I’ll be over in 10.”
Then she hung up without bothering to say her goodbyes. I breathed out a slow, long-suffering sigh and picked up the pace.