"So, Kelpie’s Blindness?"

"Kelpie’s Blindness." Horasil rubbed his eyes. "Worst possible situation." Wylinoris and Reynse murmured together. "The one thing rarer than life mana in some random girl I picked up, which, should I mention, can bend it too!"

"It doesn’t make sense." Horasil gritted his teeth. "She can't even activate fire mana, but then she just shows up and blows our ass out of the park?"

"You talking about me-"

"Shut the fuck up!" They both yelled out. "You-" Giethi stuttered. "You stay out of this."

She gritted her teeth. "What now?"

Horasil sighed and rummaged through the papers on his desk. "We could probably overcome Kelpie’s with extensive training;" He murmured. "Then again, there is the whole life mana thing."

"So, it’s useless?" Giethi blurted. "I mean, the Blindness."

"Huh?"

"It doesn’t do anything. It can be overcome with training." Horasil looked around nervously, glancing at their bookshelves. "Yeah." They brushed aside Giethi like they were nothing and began flipping through the dusty, hard-covered books. "You can- you can go now." He began scribbling on a sketchpad.

Kelpie is… ?

Wylinoris glanced at the note and stopped in their tracks.

"Kelpie is… Who?" They muttered.

Horasil scooted the notepad off the table. "Nothing. Go. You should be…" They awkwardly got up and sat on the desk. "Going. With Reynse." He nervously chuckled. "Seems to me you don’t know what you’re doing."

"Eh?"

"I mean, Who is Kelpie? This isn’t Where’s Waldo, just-" Giethi grabbed her arm. "We’re going." Wylinoris pouted angrily at him as she was dragged out the door.

She slumped into the car seat, Reynse still unphased. Giethi didn’t even glance at Wylinoris, stuck in the same position with both hands on the wheel. "What am I going to do with you?" Giethi whispered.

"This is the one who carries the vessel of Zeara.?"

"Correct, E."

"This is a skimpy woman!"

"Wha- She’s muscular! Not everyone is ten feet tall and has the muscles of Zeus."

"She’s idiotic and weak-willed! I- N lied to us!"

"You just watched her do it! We granted her Kelpie’s Blindness!"

"Zeara."

"Eh?" Giethi sat upright and pulled out into the main road. "Kelpie is no one. Zeara is what he means."

Reynse finally paid attention to what anyone was saying. "Wylin, what the hell are you talking about?"

"The- You don’t hear them?" Giethi stared into Wylinoris’s eyes. "E? And Noag?"

"Look at what you’ve done; this blundering fool can hear us!""I promise she cannot." M muttered."Then why in the everlasting fuck can she hear us?! I want you to call Noag here post-haste. The sooner we can figure this out-"

"What if it’s the Blindness?" The voice she knew as Noag blurted.

"We’ve never taken care of Zeara’s vessel before. What if she’s in control? That’s how she would hear us, right?"

The voices fell silent. "See? They’re talking right now." Giethi scoffed.

"Oh? What are they talking about?" She droned. "Uhm, calling Noag? And how I shouldn’t be hearing them?"

"See? See! We’re going to get deleted if Oz-" M panicked.

"No one is going to tell him anything! Right now, she poses nothing of a threat to us or her surroundings." E asserted.

"Mostly because M can’t cast Blindness properly."

"I am a great caster."

"Of what? The annoying wind for mortals?"

"Horasil decided that teaching you casting and alchemy is best for you starting."

"What does that guy know? He looks like I’d crush his head between my thighs in High."

Reynse and Giethi hesitated.

"Pause."

"What I mean is, he’s a total nerd." Wylinoris slumped in her seat. "I’m a total nerd," Reynse scoffed. "Will you crush my head between your thighs?"

"Yes."

…

"Pause."

Reynse lay back down in his seat, not saying a word. "So, what’s next boss?" She tapped Giethi’s shoulder. "Since, uh, Reynse turns seventeen tomorrow, both of you will probably begin training together."

"Leaving me alone? With her? After what she just said? I’m gonna suffocate!"

"Relax, I’ve seen your search history. You’d like it."

"You’ve-" He got flustered. "What?"

Wylinoris looked back behind her seat. "I said nothing." She chuckled. Giethi chuckled silently but awkwardly.

"Okay, so what if you guys are sharing a room?"

"This is practically a kid!"

Giethi and Wylinoris bickered back and forth.

"I wouldn’t mind sharing a room with… Uhm…"

Reynse rubbed against Wylinoris’s shoulder. "What about the room I was locked in?" She pulled her arm off him.

"You locked yourself in! When you were just spazzing out!"

"Oh god." Wylinoris stared at the two beds put together. She stumbled over and fell face-first into the cushions. "Hey, E. Hey, M." They mumbled into the pillows.

"You were saying?! This is obviously not Zeara! The vessel can hear everything."

"Relax, she couldn’t hear us during the car ride. It must be selective."

"I can hear you too. Stop talking about me being just a vessel."

"What was that?"

"I can talk to you while thinking, I guess. Who are you? I can’t see you."

"I… am Eommoneig. They are M."

"Just M?"

"No, M."

"I do not permit them the pleasure of hearing my name out of the voice of another One."

"I- I’ve heard of you. Serpent of the Earth?"

"That is correct, vessel."

"Uh, Wylin. You, erm, okay?"

"Ope- Yeah, yeah. Never better." Wylinoris got up from the bed. "He sleeps on the floor if we're sharing rooms." Reynse choked. "Eh? I'm not sleeping on the damn floor- Giethi- erm, are you sure there aren't any other rooms?"

"Unless you want to sleep on the bathroom floor. Oh wait, you jammed a pair of scissors in the lock."

"It's not my fault that you lock every goddamn door in this house."

Giethi sighed. "Horasil, just grab a blanket and sleep on the couch."

"Huh?!"

"You wake up every morning and go sleep on the couch for an hour anyways. Just go."

Reynse pouted at her, looked back at Wylinoris, and stormed out of the room.

"What did Horasil say about me?"

"Eh?"

"You were talking about me. And uh, that whole thing."

Giethi contemplated lying to her. "Erm, don't worry about it. I've got to… go to the store." She muttered 'yes' under her breath like she was confirming to herself. "So… alright. Bye." She quickly but gently jolted out of the room. "Hey, uh, so, tell Horasil that I'm sorry."

"Yuh." At this point, Giethi was so far gone from the room that anything she said was muffled and hard to hear.

"Oh my fucking god. Why the hell am I acting so calm like this? I should be like- having a breakdown on the floor right now."

She got up from the bed– slowly. Her vision was getting worse by the hour, but she thought nothing of it; at the moment. The house ran silently with only the creaking and

flexing of the lumber within the walls.

"Hello?" Reynse didn't answer. The house felt larger than before; all of the doors were now open, revealing larger parts of the house. "Where's that… damn robot…" The floor chilled. "Hello? Uhm, E? Are you there?"

…

No reply from the voice either.

She walked back to the space-themed room.

It felt more gloomy. Even just being gone from it for perhaps less than a day, cobwebs and a hearty layer of dust had already piled up on all of the rock representations of the planets. She ran downstairs.

"Reynse?"

…

"Boo."

Wylinoris jumped and turned around quickly. Reynse stood behind her, slouched with a candy bar in his hand. "Y'know, everyone thinks I'm an idiot with his console, just fidgeting with their games and shit…" He walked past her and jumped over the couch. "They're some of the most idiotic people I've seen, you feel me?"

"Huh?-"

Reynse took a knife out of his pocket and threw it at the wall behind her, just barely grazing her cheek. "Oh god, don't tell me you're one of those idiots too. Whatever Horasil writes about you- probably his madman scrabblings says otherwise."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“What… did he write about me?”

“Bunch of ‘ooh, you’re so special’ and whatnot. I, personally, couldn’t give two shits about that. Here. I took some of the pages out.” He threw a pile of crumpled-up pieces of paper at her head. The handwriting on them was barely legible, half of them she couldn't understand, and the stuff she could lead to quotes from books, and runes.

"I couldn't care less about these. He probably forgot about the pages already. Keep 'em."

Wylinoris examined the notes and shoved them down her pants.

"Anyways, Giethi is out, and I need a cover for driving a car. You up?" Reynse threw a pair of car keys at her. "Stop throwing shit at me! And where the fuck did you get the car keys from?!"

Reynse looked around and pulled his collar. “Well… erm, Giethi is a rich idiot. She wouldn’t notice if I’ve been daily driving a couple of her cars…”

“Actually, why should I give two fucks about anything? I just helped fight two giant ass salamanders. Whaddya need?”

“Mostly… shopping.”

“I shouldn’t have trusted you to drive-!” Wylinoris rocked around in her seat. “Relax, it was just a small bump in the road.”

“My brother in Eommoneig, that was a speedbump!”

“And? Small speedbump. This car can do anything.” Reynse mashed down the accelerator and slid the car through the tight and winding corners of the clustered sprawl. Despite being a massive and modern city, a decent majority of the area was built like an old town with slopes and roads winding up hillocks.

“It’s my damn gas, so I’m gonna drive it!” Wylinoris sighed. “Well… maybe not my money-” Reynse muttered under his breath. “Anyways, you fought those big salamander bitches, right? Giethi kept talking about it.” She thought back to getting stuck in between the teeth of the beast. “Yeah.”

“So you can fight?” Wylinoris let out a short blurt before being cut off. “Good, because I have a couple of people who owe me money-”

“Huh?! You are like… fifteen! Who the hell can owe money to someone like you? You’re wimpy!”

Reynse looked at her with the biggest grin on his face.“Yeah, that's what they think. Then they lose big time after gambling all their money on a kid like me!”

He chuckled to himself before fake-wiping a tear from his eye. “I cheat.”

Wylinoris stared out of the window awkwardly.

“Oh come on, what’s that for? It’ll only be a couple of minutes, all you need to do is act tough.”

He pulled the car into a sketchy-looking part of town, with shady individuals staring at the hot-orange BMW driving slowly on the poorly-maintained road.

Reynse parked the car in front of a decent-looking house– at least when compared to the buildings surrounding it.

“Well, erm… There you go! Reynse patted her on the shoulder.”

“Huh?! Without you?”

He groaned and stared at Wylinoris blankly. “They aren’t going to take me seriously… Doofus. Now you, on the other hand, you’re decently muscular. Just go in there with an… I dunno, a strong Russian accent and demand my money. Make sure it’s fifty-thousand trywrin.”

“Jesus Christ, fifty thousand? How much did he fucking bet on you?!” Wylinoris exclaimed.

He reached across the car and opened the door for her. “What if they have weapons?”

“Not my problem. Figure something out.” Reynse pushed them out of the car onto the grass and slammed the door behind them.

“Hey!” She got up and banged on the car window. “I’m not doin’ this shit for free, damn you!” Reynse turned up the music in the car and locked the door. “Aw, fuck…” The house appeared to grow more significant the more she stared at it. “Now or fuckin’ never. At least if I die, that little fucker will get his ass beat by Giethi.” She approached the large door, with big wood planks barely keeping it stable. They swallowed their pride and rang the doorbell.

Everything appeared to pause for a moment as the jarring buzz from the doorbell rang in her ears. There were some murmurs from behind the door; nothing she could pick up on before the door finally creaked open. “Why are you here?” The gruff voice spoke from the dark. Wylinoris’s eyes darted to the metal baseball bat in the crack, covered in dents and red marks.

“I- uhm, I’m here to get… well…”

“Hurry the hell up and spit it out! I haven’t got time for scum like you!”

“I’m here for Reynse’s money!”

“...”

The man behind the door paused.

“I didn’t think that little twerp had the balls to even try getting this money.”

She caught a glimpse of the man's eye, appearing to glow compared to the pitch darkness of the house. “I guess he didn’t, since he sent his little slut to get his money, huh?”

“Just give me the goddamn money, man. I’m not looking for trouble.”

He eyed them up and down her clothes.

“Broke-ass whore.” The door shut briefly, before being slammed open. The man was already out of view, and rustling filled her ears. “Right… The…” He chuckled. “Five hundred trywrin.”

“You know damn well it’s fifty-thousand.”

“Liar! He just wants all of my cash! I ain’t payin’ for shit!”

The man, still covered by shadow, came out and grabbed her by the neck. “You tell that little shit that he isn’t getting a cent out of me. Fifty-thousand trywrin my ass.” She was promptly chucked out of the house onto the wet grass. They wiped the dirt off their face and looked back to the car. “I’ll share half if you get it!”

Wylinoris gave a death stare at the car. “Twenty-five grand.” She walked up to the vehicle and tapped on the glass. “Ya got a knife?”

“That’s what I like to hear.” Reynse rolled down the window and threw a pocket knife at her chest. “So, I take it’s not going well?”

“Who is that guy anyways?” She pointed back at the house.

“I’ll tell you later. Just… I dunno, do something.”

Wylinoris walked up to the door and knocked again. “Get the fuck out of here!” The man yelled. “Just give me his damn money!”

There was a short pause– and before she could blink, the man had already slammed the door open and shoved the barrel of a gun in her mouth. She could now look at his tired, bloodshot eyes and poor shaving on his face. He peeked over her shoulder at the bright orange BMW Reynse was sitting in. “That little shit.” He pulled the barrel out of her mouth and pointed it at the car. “You bitch!” He unloaded the magazine into the car door, shattering the windows. Reynse ducked. “Ay! Ay- Chill, damnit!” Wylinoris froze for a moment and put the man in a headlock. He tried to wrangle her off him, while Reynse attempted to jump out of the car. Wylinoris kicked the gun out of his hands.

“Listen, dude, I just need the money you owe him!” He grunted. “Like- Hell, I will! Urk.”

“Reynse, go in. I’ll-” Wylinoris squeezed his neck tighter. “Keep on him.”

“Why are you bothering yourself with such… Feeble matters?”

Wylinoris didn’t answer.

“You can hear me. Why get yourself involved? You barely know this… Child.”

“I- Uhm. It’s just a favor.”

“You gain no benefit.”

“Shut up, E.”

She slapped her ear and shook herself. “I’m being held by some schizophrenic whore?!” The man thrashed again. “Woah- hold on!” He threw Wylinoris over his head, picked up the gun, and ran into the house. “Reynse! Watch out-”

“Chill, Barun!”

“You fucking bastard child! You can’t just keep your stupid mouth shut and know when you need to leave shit behind!” The gun clicked a few times before Wylinoris caught a glimpse of the flash from the gun.

She barged in and tackled the man and kicked the gun across the room.“I’m outa bullets anyways…”

Reynse lied motionless on the floor. “You bastard! What did you do to him?!”

“What does it look like, Sherlock?” The man chuckled. She panicked.”Reynse! Get up!”

He didn’t move. “You bitch! Get up!” She nudged his head.

“You fucking-” Wylinoris pinned the man to the ground and grabbed the gun. “You just shot a fucking kid!” She pulled the trigger and pointed at his forehead.

Click. Click. Click.

“I told you… I’m out of bullets.” She panicked, again, and smashed his face in with the gunstock. “Reynse! Get the fuck up!” They turned Reynse over. He quickly crouched up, covered his stomach, and bit down on his lip. “Don’t fucking scare me like that!” She wiped the tears off his face.

“S- Sorry.”

“Jeez, damnit! I’m about ready to rip this motherfuckers head off!” She used the edge of the barrel to break their nose.

The man’s eyes widened. “Woah-woah-woah! We can talk this out, Negotiate or something!”

“Too late for that.” Wylinoris scouted the room. “Reynse, give me that rope.” He looked up at her, wrapping his shirt tighter around his wound. “You gonna be alright?”

“It– didn’t hit anything important… I think. It just hurts really bad.” They limped over to the rope and chucked it at her. “I’m tired of hearing the bullshit that’s coming out of your mouth…” She muttered and tied his hands together, before stuffing some of the rope into his mouth.

“Alright, their name is Varun, right?” Reynse nodded, confused. “Okay, Varun. I’m gonna get that kid’s money, then I’m gonna deal with your ass.” He snarled at her. “Yikes. You sure this guy isn’t… feral?”

“Why would you care? You took down bigger stuff.”

“Uh, yeah. Of course.” Wylinoris stammered, hesitated– and nudged Varun’s head with her foot. “Let’s just get this over with.” Reynse spat in his face and left him behind, with Wylinoris tailing behind him.

“I know dealing with crackheads isn’t your area of expertise, mostly big monsters, but whatever. Help me break down his dressers.” Reynse pulled out the wooden and misaligned drawers and threw out the tattered clothes through the window. “Go look for cash.” She froze up for a moment before scrambling through the room and looking under shelves. “Geez, you’re fast. You’ve done this before?”

“I’ve had my fair share of breakups. There’s no money in this room.”

“Huh?”

"You couldn't find a dollar in here if you tried." Reynse stared at her, blankly. "You- erm, wanna check under their sinks."

"How the hell do you know that?"

"I just said."

“Right. Of course. Obviously.” Reynse jittered. “Just- help me find the money before Giethi gets home.” Wylinoris sighed.

“Aye aye, captain,” she muttered. “By the way, I’m getting half.”

“Shut up. You get a third.”

“That’s, erm…” Wylinoris pulled out her phone, which had a giant hole pierced through it. “Man- What the fuck?!”

“Yeah, uh, it kept pinging, so Giethi smashed it.”

“I’m gonna fucking kill her,” she whispered under her breath. “Get me an axe, I’ll chop through that sink.”

“I have uhm… Some explosion mana that Gieth’ dropped…? Would that work?” Reynse handed a white sack to her. “How do I…” She muttered.

“Hey. You. E.”

“What is it, vessel?”

“I- Uh, need to use this.”

“Right. Is this one of my issues?”

“Do you- uh, know how to use this? I don’t.”

Wylinoris walked over to the kitchen sink with the bag.

“Hurry up. I don’t want to embarrass myself. Just like- start it or something. Please?”

The voice sighed.

“Stand back from it, vessel.”

She tossed it near the sink. “You aren’t gonna like, use it?-” All of the orange powder in the bag suddenly caught fire and blew off the wood panels. “H- Huh?! There wasn’t a huge explosion…” The dust vaporized into grey smoke lifting brilliantly shining ash. “How the hell did you do that-”

“Don’t ask questions. And look, cash.” Reynse skeptically stretched around Wylinoris to the pile of neatly organized cash. “Y- Yeah.” He picked up the bands of money, flared the cash, and shoved it into his jacket pocket.

“Ten, twenty, forty… forty-five… fifty.” Reynse held the oddly crisp money. “Go wait in the car.” He muttered through his breath. “I’m not gonna leave you in this crack house–”

“Just– go. Please.” Reynse’s eye twitched. Wylinoris stepped back and ran past the tied-up man. He had gone silent with black marks running down his face. They glared at Wylinoris before closing their eyes. “It’s all I have. Stop that monster before he does anything stupid.”

“Huh?”

“You see it in his eyes. A child that has dealt with a god.” Wylinoris crouched down to his level. “I don’t know what you’re on.” The man opened one eye and gazed into her vision. “And you… You. You’re even worse than that demon.” He pushed back the cabinet he was attached to. “You don’t know it, but they speak to you, do they not?”

“... Are you insane?”

“You know what I mean, vessel.”

“You’re weird,” she said before walking out of the house and stuffing herself into the car.

“Sigh.” Wylinoris tapped all of the leather padding surrounding the interior of the coupe. “That kid takes forever.” Reynse finally busted open the tattered house’s door and walked to the car. “What the hell were you doing?”

“Just picking the money up.” He wiped the blood off his knuckles on the back of the car seat. “Right, erm…” She looked away. “Remember, tell Giethi nothing about this. I don’t think she’ll handle seeing me doing stuff like this.” Reynse said. “I already slipped up once at the bar.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t worry about that. We gotta get out of here, I hate these slums.” He stepped on the gas and swung the car around, throwing up graven in the air before pulling off.

“What do you mean by not telling Giethi?” Wylinoris tugged on his shoulder. “She– erm, doesn’t know what I do.” She looked at him, confused– before nodding slowly.

“Horasil was right,” she thought, as Reynse merged with the crowd of boring economy cars. The BMW stuck out like a sore thumb. “Hey, uh, where’s Deri? And P-Sed?”

“P-Sed? Huh? What’s that? Deri is somewhere off, he never tells anyone.”