"I see your back."
The old man said, looking at the figure that appeared in his doorway.
A child whose hair put the light of the sun to shame, and whose gentle eyes held an ocean, with a calamity swimming deep down inside them. In the rays of the sun that was his hair, a striking silver moonflower bloomed. His features were soft and gentle, with his eyes piercing into your soul the more you stared. Needless to say, he was a charming young man.
"Was the water cold? You look like a wet dog."
The fisherman laughed, but then he coughed. It made it seem like he didn't have much time until he died of old age.
If time wasn't stuck, that is.
"Yeah, very funny..."
After finding out that time wasn't moving in this world. He realized how much time he had wasted waiting for a fish to bite.
But it did raise a question. He was fishing because he didn't know time was frozen at that time. But why was the fisherman doing the same thing then? It seems that he knows very well that he was stuck in a world without the precious thing we call time.
Why was he wasting it, knowing it won't lead to anything?
He gritted his teeth.
'Even if in this world, time is at everyone's hand, why would you wish to spend it in such ways?'
It didn't make any sense, but then again, nothing so far had made sense.
Aether threw a bucket on the floor. There were countless fish, all motionless. Then he took off his shirt, he twisted the wet cloth, but nothing came. They clung like sorrow, too heavy to lift, too still to move.
'I'm going to need new clothes...'
After tossing it aside, he looked at the old man again, seeing him with his brows raised, surprised, confused Aether.
"Well, this is... quite surprising."
With such a gentle and charming face, his body was quite gruesome. With scars trailing around his back and stomach. His arms looked like they were wrapped in barbed wire, and his skin was filled with bruises.
Just what could this child have gone through to gain this many wounds? They belonged to a knight, not some child.
Of course, the old man didn't know anything about the withered. After all, a child in the withered district has a lower chance of survival than any knight.
The chance of reaching adulthood in the withered is around ten percent. Most die from the usual survival means: life, hunger, thirst, exhaustion. But there is also the chance of getting killed. Either by stabbing or strangulation. The withered was a graveyard after all.
Most of Aether's wounds have been recently dealt. After Clarise's death, he knew he couldn't continue doing the same trick over and over again. He didn't have that pure burning hope inside him; if anything, his was corrupted, like any other in that place, a hope desperate for power.
The same dreadful hope that had made him enter the hell that this place is.
So he changed tactics, killing his enemies. But not all like Edric gave their life so willingly, so he had to fight. Luckily, his teacher had taught him how to fight for himself. It was the first thing he learned, but he never had to put it into practice, so he never got the hang of it.
So in reality, these wounds weren't those of a graceful knight, but a rat eating the remains of those in sorrow.
"Are you going to stare much longer. I did my part, now make us something to eat."
The man looked at him, his eyes gazing into him with interest.
"Y-yes, of course."
With that, he grabbed the bucket and went on his way to prepare something for the two of them.
If anyone saw them together, they would depict them as father and child, as they seemed to trust each other quite a lot.
Of course, this was just an act. Aether wasn't that stupid to put his trust into the first person he met, and someone who was as suspicious as him.
But he knew nothing but that the world was frozen, and his only way of gaining information was this old pervert. Neither did he trust him, nor was he going to eat or drink anything he gave him before checking to see if something was inside.
How was he going to do that?
Well, he learned to check for poison with Clarise, but he had a faster, yet riskier idea.
With the corner of his eye, he checked a shadow hiding in one of the corners of the cabin; there was also one resting on the couch, and many others sitting around the table as if waiting for the food to arrive.
Meanwhile, his affinity was gone, and his path changed; his skill still remained. He didn't know why it was still there, nor was he upset. After all, for the past months, he learned to rely on shadow speech, and to use it to most of its potential. He knew he still had a long way, but he knew when one was lying and when not.
Seeing the old man cooking the fish, well, cooking the jest of adding flavour and preparing it, as fire was impossible in this world. Aether sat next to one of the shadows, waiting for it to be done, and rested his head on his hands. Giving him a moment to think about all of this.
It was all a mystery to him. It was all so weird, time was frozen, animals stopped moving, yet humans were living as if nothing had happened, maybe even better than in the real world.
Did it not affect humans? He knew it affected the dead; the blood from the head hanged on the wall justified his claim.
Speaking of blood, if humans were affected, did they bleed? Did they breathe? Did they even have to eat and drink?
If this man went out of his way to cook for him and Aether, then they must be required to eat. But then again, it was the same person who had gone fishing while knowing time was frozen.
But the fact that the old man knew time wasn't working was made up by him; what if, truly, he didn't know?
He nodded his head.
'That doesn't make sense. If on my first day, I was able to make that up. There is no way he didn't, while living all his life inside.'
So then he was aware, yet still did all these useless things... why?
Also, if blood didn't flow, how were they alive? Was it that when time was frozen, their brains remained active? Did gravity even work in this place? I mean, he felt his arms get tired if he kept them raised long enough, but if time was frozen, then gravity, too, should be frozen.
'Damn it!'
He banged his head on the table. And soon blood flowed from his forehead. But stopped the moment it was about to fall.
Aether watched intrigued, before wiping his blood off.
'So if my blood flows, then humans must be an exception.'
But to what degree? Could they still age? Did they have to have all the normal necessities? Could they still repopulate?
And did his blood even justify his claim? He wasn't from this world, but at the same time, he took the place of someone who was. Did it have something to do with his path?
As his endless ramble ended. He saw a plate full of fish in front of him. And behind it, the old man rested in his seat.
"You know you should probably put something on..."
Aether lingered for a moment, unsure what he meant, before looking down at himself. Realizing he was still shirtless.
"Oh yeah, you're right."
He had completely forgotten he had taken off his shirt. The bad thing is that he didn't bring change. Well, it wasn't like he could, nor could have have predicted he would have to swim in a river to find fish to eat.
He sighed, and out of nowhere, a clock shimmered into being around him. He reached into it, retrieving a hood, then glanced into the shadows for signs of poison. To his luck, there was none. Or at least that was what they told him. But they didn't seem to be lying, see he took one of the cooked his, and buried his teeth inside.
'It's actually... good.'
But as he dug into his food, he heard the surprised words of the old man.
"Hey kid... how did you do that?"
The food fell from Aether's mouth as he finally realized his grave mistake.
One of the most important rules when challenging books is to make sure the people inside don't realize you aren't from their world.
And while using your abilities in most worlds wasn't strange, summoning a clock out of thin air wasn't normal. And he had done just that.
'I really hate fishing.'