Instead of being shaken by the fact that a voice not his own seemed to resound in his mind, Elias remained visibly calm, a smile appearing at the edge of his lips. "Did I wake up too early, or are you up too late? You can easily tell by the position of the sun that it's past 7 in the morning."

The voice in his mind seemed to scoff at his reply, its tone laced with sarcasm. "Yes, that is true, but it is also true that you usually wake up in an hour or more, Mr. 'Please wake me up when it's past 7:30 am and I oversleep'...

"Also..."

The voice seemed to slowly drift as it continued as if perusing certain details. "You look visibly pale, sweating so much that I'd believe you if you said you were in an overnight wrestling match, and your eyes tell me you are worried about something… Is everything okay?"

The voice turned a bit gentle, carrying a hint of care and concern, causing Elias to chuckle. "Is this you being worried about me, Lars? That's honestly very shocking."

As Elias finished his sentence, a ghost-like phantom, resembling himself, slowly materialized in the ornate silver mirror. The phantom possessed similar striking facial features as Elias, with the main difference being the color of its eyes and the length of its hair. His dark hair was cut shorter and fashioned into a curtain style reminiscent of the modern trends in the Kingdom of Wessex. Cascading freely on both sides of his face, it imparted a wild and playful demeanor, a stark contrast to Elias's calm and reserved appearance.

His deep, dark eyes threatened to suck in anyone who dared gaze into them for too long, while his lips further complemented his playful charm, giving observers the idea that a mischievous grin could appear at any moment.

He was Lars, Elias's 'twin' brother and his closest friend.

As his figure fully materialized in the mirror, his face didn't betray any reaction to Elias's statement as he retorted with a straight face, "If I don't worry about you, who will? A loner like yourself can't have any hope of friends or romantic relationships. I suspect that you will die alone at this point, wasting that perfectly looking-face you have. So I have to do this, or maybe one day you will fall into the pitiful ditch of depression that loneliness brings. Tell me, don't I deserve the award for the best sibling of the year, every year?"

Lars had a matter-of-fact expression on his face after he finished speaking, which prevented the tired Elias from coming up with any valid argument for his claims. Running his hands through his hair, Elias replied, "Yes, of course you do, if not you, who else?"

Elias was already used to his brother's peculiar way of showing care and concern, as Lars would rather get exorcised than admit straightforwardly that he was worried about Elias, which usually seemed amusing to him.

Elias and Lars had been together for as long as they could remember, and for some inexplicable reason, they had been stuck in the same body since birth. There had been different types of inexplicable cases of twin births within the various kingdom territories over the years; however, none was as mysterious as the case of these twin brothers. Elias and Lars shared one singular body, with Elias being the primary inhabitant and Lars being the secondary. They operated as entirely different people, not sharing senses. Lars could not feel, hear, or see what Elias did if he wasn't paying attention to it, and vice versa. Lars, being the secondary inhabitant, could either appear as a voice in Elias's head or as a ghostly apparition hovering around him.

They also noticed over time that Lars could not go beyond a radius of 5 meters from Elias's body as an apparition, which led them to speculate that even if their minds were separate and they didn't seem to share any direct physical connection, their souls were definitely intertwined. Lars also wouldn't get hurt from any physical injury to Elias, which further reinforced that theory.

Lars shook his head in resignation at the obvious reply, a curious glint appearing in his eyes. "So... What happened?"

Elias stayed silent for a brief moment, contemplating how to properly communicate his ordeal to his brother. "Well, I had a bad dream… and before you go off on me and say that we are used to this… it wasn't the regular type.

"This time it felt more vivid and… very, very real."

Lars's expression morphed into one of seriousness as he noticed the deep and harrowing tone Elias used to convey his last words. "Well… tell me about this ‘dream’ then”

Elias spent about thirty minutes filling Lars in on the details of the dream: the blank and gray world, the ‘Child’ shrouded in enigmatic mysteries, as well as the cryptic text delivered to him before he was expelled from the scene.

This caused Lars to fall silent for a while, a look of contemplation appearing in his deep dark eyes as he gazed at Elias, causing him to shift uncomfortably. Lars continued to peruse the details of the dream as his hands stroked his chin in adept concentration.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"This is way different from your previous nightmare episodes. Have you by any chance come into contact with anything different lately?" Lars's gaze seemed to drift to a book in the pile on the table titled 'Basic Spiritual Studies’, causing him to furrow his brows as he said, "I did warn you about reading too many books on the topic of spiritual awareness."

"Even if they were cleared by the Regional Library and don't seem to hold any type of negative effect, they could affect your psyche and make you have all sorts of weird dreams and hallucinations."

Elias sighed in resignation, making it quite obvious that he expected the scolding he had received from his brother. "I've always told you to let me answer your first question before you ask another. This is basic manners and very disrespectful to Father Bernard's teachings."

Lars's face quickly took on an annoyed disposition, quite shocked that Elias would worry about manners when they were talking about something so serious.

As he was about to offer a retort, Elias's calm voice broke through. "To answer your first question, no, I haven't come into contact with anything too different from my normal day-to-day schedule lately.

"As you know, I work different odd jobs daily from early in the morning till late afternoon. I then try my best to feed the stray cats and dogs around the neighborhood as well as spend a few leisurely hours in the meadows outside the city practicing the flute. I then come home in the evening and help the kids with their numerical exercises before proceeding to commence my study sessions."

As Elias said all this, his hand steadily ran over the amber wooden reading table, feeling the texture of the few cracks on it between his fingers.

"I then spend an hour or two reading books on spiritual studies and awareness, which, mind you, have had their contents cleared by the kingdom's Institute of Learning, so no, I haven't come into contact with anything relatively different lately.

"Besides…" Elias's gaze leisurely drifted outside his window as he observed the scene of the leaves and trees swaying in the calm morning breeze, the chirping of birds adding to the vibrant scene. "

I doubt a couple of hours of that would be able to cause such an intense reaction when I get to enjoy this type of view every morning."

Lars's gaze then seemed to follow Elias's as his eyes settled on a similar scene of bright rays of sunlight, swaying trees, alluring flowers, and singing birds. He spared his brother a contemptuous glance and said in a low voice, "Such an optimist…"

Elias pretended not to hear what Lars had said as he continued to take in the beautiful morning scene. After a bout of calm silence, Lars said with a carefree manner, "Well, if those books aren't the cause of it, then what is?"

After hearing the question posed by his pessimistic brother, the soft and calm look on Elias's face vanished, replaced by a look of seriousness and confusion. He then carefully pulled out the worn-out wooden chair slotted under the table and gently sat down. "I'm not entirely ruling out the assumption you came up with, Lars. It is possible that I might have missed something that happened around me recently, which my psyche picked up and transmitted to me in the form of a vivid dream.

"It is also possible that the details of my spiritual studies, which are usually descriptive and very harrowing, sparked a reaction in my mind and soul, leading to the creation of a vivid nightmare."

Even if Elias was not an expert in the domains of psychology and spirituality, he had read enough books on both topics to come to this reasonable conclusion. Books such as 'First Logic of Mind' and 'Basic Spiritual Studies' were books on both topics that could be easily borrowed from the Regional Library of the city at a low price, and were books Elias read quite frequently.

As Elias mentioned his detailed assumptions, Lars took on a quiet role, prompting Elias to continue with his perusing. "However, a part of me is leaning towards this being a vision or a prophecy because the details of the dream seemed to take on a prophetic setting, similar to how the seers and mystics in the books I've read about see the future."

Elias shifted his gaze to that of Lars, his voice taking on a grave and deep tone. "Especially with that cryptic and eerie text displayed to me at the end… It wasn't in Sexian, the official language of this kingdom, which prompts me to automatically dismiss the first two scenarios we discussed."

Lars seemed to nod in agreement, a sly smile adorning his lips as he said, "But you aren't a seer or a mystic, are you? How can you, my dear brother, receive visions like them? That's an error in your assessment."

Instead of offering an immediate response, Elias stood up and carefully slotted the wooden chair back under the reading table. He then turned his attention back to Lars, who was still waiting for a response with the same crafty smile adorning his lips. "I guess that's what we have to find out then."

"I plan to start with learning some of the other popular languages to see if they have any similarities with or are the actual languages the text was written in."

Elias then paused, tilted his head backward, and closed his eyes in an attempt to feel the calming morning breeze wafting through his window at a steady pace. After a couple of seconds of respite, Elias then opened his eyes again, his peculiar-colored eyes shimmering with clarity. "I have a feeling that finding out the meaning of that cryptic text is more important than analyzing the meaning and context of the dream itself."

He then paused and added in a low voice, "At least for now…"

Lars stared at him for a couple of seconds in silence, and then, after offering a silent nod in approval, started to dissolve from his phantom-like state back into the mind of Elias. "I want to rest for a couple of hours more since I am still quite tired. Don't disturb me if it's nothing important."

His voice slowly started to trail off, causing Elias to chuckle and say to himself, 'He must also have been studying into the night as well and only woke up because he felt something was wrong with me… What a funny guy.'

Elias attempted to stretch his arms and legs when the voice of Lars abruptly echoed in his head once again, carrying a hint of mischief and hidden delight. "You should probably get ready."

"Get ready for wha-"

Before Elias could question Lars about the reason for such a sudden and cryptic warning, the door of his room was flung open with full force as five small figures swiftly dashed inside from different angles, tumbling him down to the floor before he could say a word, causing a loud crash to echo around the room in the process.