"Ever the disciplined one, huh?" she asked, making it sound more like a statement than anything else. "Eh, Bernar would murder me if he saw the state of this blade, and I don't even want to think about what Taegin would do," I said with a shrug. She chuckled in response but gave me an understanding nod of approval as she turned around and took off her boots on her way to the washing area.
I turned my back to her momentarily as I began to undo the straps of my armor, which were designed in a way that I could take it off with ease on my own. Setting the lightweight armor down to the side, I could see the ashen dust marking lines where the armor had its seams, and realized we were out there for a much longer time than I realized.
Time works so strangely down here that I can't figure it out, I thought, undoing the top laces of the linen shirt I was wearing.
I looked out of the window on the far side of the room on a whim and accidentally caught a glance of Ysevel's naked back in the reflection of the mirror.
Not the time for that. Besides, she could just be teasing me because she thinks it's funny. Heh, women; not sure I'll ever understand them, I thought jokingly to myself.
Within a few minutes of cleaning my sword, Ysevel came out wrapped in a thick towel that wrapped around her just below shoulder height, and another wrapped on top of her head.
"How was it?" I asked, watching her daintily move across the floor on the balls of her feet. "It's not water," she said bluntly. "What do you mean it's not water?" I asked, visibly taken aback.
"I mean, it's like a protective coating. Like how you would oil your blade to prevent rust from eating away at it, I can feel this… liquid doing something similar to my skin," she said, observing how her arms were shining in the light of the mana-flame lamp. "Huh, I guess it makes sense, given everything around here is made of metal," I said, gesturing to the room as a whole.
"It's not metal," Ysevel said flatly. "It's not? It looks like it is," I said, tapping my foot on the floor. "No, it's a construct the hegraphenes can produce like bees would build their hives, except it's made with mana," she explained, tracing a line on the wall near the bed with her hand.
I sighed mentally, realizing that none of my initial perceptions were correct, no matter how obvious they seemed.
"I never would've thought that was even possible to do with mana," I said, now observing things a little more closely. "It's a similar process to how Myrdin was built, only that was done with techniques and abilities far superior to anything we know of at this point," she said, giving me a knowing nod. "Autarchica Primaria," I said quietly. "Exactly. But how this was even possible in the first place…" she let her words hang for a few moments.
Guess we'll have to find out, I thought in the beat of silence.
As the bitter's effects began to worsen, I realized that I hadn't even tried to remove the bottom half of my armor. I took both sabatons off and undid the pouch around my waist, which I placed on the floor next to the rest of my armor.
"If you turn the left knob, it will come out much warmer than the right, just so you know," Ysevel said, running her long, silver hair through the towel. It was the first time I'd ever seen it unbraided, and I was surprised at how much longer it really was.
How much does she tuck into the braids? I wondered briefly.
"Thanks. I'll be back in a few minutes," I said, taking my shirt off before rounding the corner of the stall. I heard an almost silent gasp when I turned around, as she must have seen the scar on my back from my fight with the ochelons.
By that time, however, I'd almost forgotten about it entirely.
After allowing the odd contraption that was vaguely reminiscent of the shower stalls at Codrean to pour out what Ysevel called a protective coating, I felt the ashen sludge immediately dislodging from my skin. To say that it was a relief would be doing this marvelous coating a great disservice, even if there are those who would think it could be used for other purposes.
I'll leave it at that.
Within a few moments, I was entirely cleaned again, but with the cleansing came mental clarity.
Shiiiit, Ysevel used both of the towels, didn't she? I thought, realizing I was now at the mercy of the prankstress herself.
"Ysevel?" I called out from behind the corner, but when no answer came from the motionless elf beneath the covers, I figured it was safe to move.
Nope. I don't trust that as far as I can spit, I thought, knowing she would likely try to pull some kind of joke on me like she had earlier.
I looked around the room briefly for anything I could use as a towel, eventually finding the small rack where the spares were neatly folded. I knew I couldn't use my Whip of Doom to grab a towel, as I didn't think I had that level of control over it if I used dark mana. There was only one other option left for me to try.
Whatever I'm going to do, I have to do it quickly and quietly. It's too far for me to risk doing this without using mana, I thought, realizing the risks involved in doing this.
I watched as the phantasmal hand of my consciousness reached out toward the sky through the window, pulling in a handful of gray and violet tendrils. I condensed the mana to my legs, preparing to dash forward, grab a towel, and dash back without her seeing or waking up.
It was a perfect plan.
I pushed off my back leg and grabbed the towel as planned. What I hadn't accounted for was the fact that Ysevel always took inventory of our things before going to bed, a habit my mother had instilled in her nearly a century before I was even born. This variable in the plan was, ultimately, the catalyst for what came next.
Needless to say, the protective coating made me slip a little, making me trip over my own belt of pouches before falling flat on my ass when I tried to dash back.
Now, whether it was the pulse of mana or the sound of my body smacking into the cold, hard floor that woke Ysevel up, I didn't know, but the fact remained that she did. She lazily rose from the bed, covering her chest with the blanket and ultimately seeing me only just able to cover my groin with the still-folded towel.
"Bore da to you, too," she said wryly, trying to peek over the corner of the bed jokingly. "Thanks for making this even more awkward than it already is," I said, getting to my feet while still covering my groin. "You didn't even have to do all of that. That bitter from earlier knocked me out for a few minutes, sure, but you could've walked right by me," she said playfully.
"And risk just standing there with him exposed?" I replied in a similar tone. "Not like there's much of a difference to how you are now," she said sardonically. "Can't argue with that one," I sighed as I expertly wrapped the towel around my waist without… exposing myself.
Ysevel rubbed her eyes momentarily, still keeping the top of the covers up to her neck by pinning it under her arms. She looked around the room at the now-scattered contents of my pouches. There were only a few things I'd kept in there, as the rest were still inside my pack that I'd left in the woods before the attack, but one thing immediately stood out to her.
"What's that little flask for?" she asked, noticing the cerulean flask. "Oh, that? Ren gave Bernar and I one of these each before we made our way to Caegwen," I said, picking it up off the floor and checking for any damages. She looked at me curiously, cocking her head to the side. "Did he ever say what it was for?" she asked, adjusting her seating position to throw her legs off the side of the bed.
"Not really. He just told us to drink it when we got to Caegwen, but with everything that happened, I think we just forgot about them," I said, eyeing it carefully. "Whatever it is, though, it seems he meant it as a gift. There's plenty here for the both of us, so I can give you the other half if you want," I said, unscrewing the metal cap. "If it cures the headache I can already feel coming on, I'll graciously accept," she said.
"To curing headaches," I said playfully before taking about two full gulps from the flask. The flavor reminded me a lot of wild, sour raspberries, but a tingling feeling came along as an aftertaste that made me think it might have been some kind of liquor from his homeland.
"So? How does it taste?" she asked, inching closer to the side of the bed and leaning forward. "It's nice. Very fruity, but it's probably more alcohol if I'm being honest," I said, handing her the flask. She took a shallow sniff through her nostrils, and when her nose and mind agreed that it might be tasty, she drank the remainder of the contents.
She gave me a look of delightful approval, and I could've sworn I saw something twinkle in her eyes. "I feel better already," she said with a slight chuckle. "I'll have to thank Ren when we get ba-..." I paused, feeling an odd sensation stirring in my core. "Thoma, what's wro-..." Ysevel trailed off, likely feeling the same thing I was.
What the hell is happening to me? I thought, feeling a strange surge of mana beginning to flow through my body.
I looked over at Ysevel who was also looking at her own hands like she did before. "Do you feel any different?" I asked, still feeling the mana flowing through every fiber of my body. It wasn't painful by any means, but it made me incredibly more aware of everything both inside and out.
"I don't know what's happening to me, but it feels familiar," she said somewhat distantly. I thought about her words for a moment, coming to the quick realization that whatever was happening was getting much stronger.
But why does it feel so familiar in the first place? I thought, trying to place where I'd felt this presence before.
"Thoma, it's getting stronger. I can feel something in my core is… changing," she said, voicing out loud what I already knew to be true. "Wait, I know where I've fel-..." I said, getting cut off by the concussive burst of mana emanating from both Ysevel and I simultaneously. I could tell that it wasn't a small one, either, and I was sure that it encompassed most of the village at least.
Ysevel and I stayed perfectly still, waiting to see if perhaps Krozz was about to come bursting through the door to check on us. When no other sounds were heard and no sign of Krozz, we both sighed a heavy breath of relief.
"Thoma," Ysevel began, looking at me curiously. "Are you alright?" I asked before she could get whatever it was she was going to say out. "I'm fine, thank you, but something is different. I can… feel you. I can see you and physically touch you, yes, but there's somehow more to it than that; it's like I can feel you," she said, choosing her words carefully.
Hearing her words made me search my own feelings for a few moments. I closed my eyes and made sure that all of my senses were attuned to what she loosely described.
I let out a single push of air through my nostrils when I figured out what she meant. "You're right. I can feel you, too, and others, it would seem. I think there's even one in this realm aside from us," I added, still keeping my eyes closed and focusing on the feeling.
"You're right," she said after a few moments of doing the same. "You know, the next time Ren hands you something and tells you to drink it, maybe ask him what it is next time," Ysevel said half jokingly. "Yeah, no shit," I said with a half-chuckle that she mirrored. "But this, Thoma, this is something else entirely," she said, looking at me carefully, pointing to the flask. "You're absolutely right," I said, flexing my fingers momentarily.
"It's a tincture to connect to a different kind of mana," I said with a grin on my face as I said what I could feel we were both thinking.