The next day, I opened my eyes only to realize it was already afternoon. It seemed like I was really sleep-deprived and worn out from the constant nightmares. Zei was still asleep, it seemed. I carefully slipped out of bed and got up, feeling revitalized. I left the room.
"Hah, I must be losing it," I muttered inwardly, remembering what I did last night. I let my emotions get the better of me. Though …it didn't look like she hated it or anything, perhaps she also felt the same.
"Guess who decided to show up?" Kristen greeted me in the hallway, leaning against the wall, and I snapped out of my thoughts.
"What do you mean ?" I asked, confused by his sudden remark
"Oh, nothing," replied with an exaggerated nonchalance, "Nothing wrong about shamelessly flirting all night with your wife or girlfriend, whatever, I don't care. Sigh, you are making me miss my dear wife even more. "
"W-we were not flirting, we just—" I tried to explain, but I was cut off.
"Sure, sure, whatever you say," he interrupted, clearly enjoying himself. His smirk softened slightly." I am just glad that girl is fine now."
"Oh, Asher is waiting for you— he said to bring her too."
After a while, I returned to Zei's room with a tray of food in my hand. Opening the door, I found her still in deep slumber.
Keeping the tray of food on the bedside chair, I tried waking her up, but she didn't budge, watching her sleeping face, a small smile tugged at my lips. My fingers caressed her face.
Damn it, I need to get a grip.
As I was lost in my thoughts, suddenly a hand pulled me onto the bed, and before I knew it, I found myself wrapped in her arms.
"Taking advantage of a girl while she is asleep? How shameless, you need to be punished," she mumbled playfully, her voice teasing despite its raspiness.
Despite everything we went through, she seemed to be in a lighthearted mood, it seemed like her face didn't bother her anymore, which alone filled me with relief.
"Asher is looking for us, so hurry up and eat," I said, struggling to regain some composure.
A sigh escaped her mouth as she looked at me in disappointment. "Can't you play along for a while?"
"Such things can be left for later, right now the priority is for you to regain your health, so hurry up and eat," I replied firmly.
Another sigh escaped her mouth as she released me from her grasp.
A small part of me regretted it, however, I didn't dare voice it out.
After a while, I helped her walk through the corridor and led her to the room where Asher was seemingly waiting for us.
"You are here, " Asher uttered, completely engrossed in the book in his hand. I couldn't determine which language it was written in.
"How are your injuries?" he asked Zei.
"It's still difficult to move… it should get better in a few days," she answered.
"That's good, which means we can finally return to Eleithiya."
"When will we depart?"
"A minor crisis has emerged, so we will depart in a week from now after resolving it."
"That's fine with us," I nodded.
"However," Asher murmured, closing his book as his gaze met ours, "that's not why I called you here."
"Let's start with telling you the truth."
"What do you mean by that? " I asked, anxiety creeping up in my voice. Did he find something unusual about us?
"As I told you, the power is divided between two races on earth, the Aeriths who can use aether and the elves who utilize runes."
"That's right," I confirmed
"Aether and Ember are fundamentally incompatible—like oil and water. There has not been a single being in existence who can utilize both of them simultaneously.
His gaze sharpened as he uttered in a serious tone.
"Until now"
Zei's brows furrowed. "What do you mean?"
"Your bodies can contain both aether and runes at the same time," Asher said, "For reasons unknown to us."
The air grew heavy
"If you surrender yourself to Eleithiya, they will most likely capture you instantly and run gruesome and perhaps experiments on your bodies to replicate more beings like you to have an edge in the war against Aeriths."
His words hung in the air, a strange silence enveloped the entire room. His gaze locked onto us with the same indifferent expression on his face.
"Stop scaring the kids, Asher," a voice suddenly said from behind me. It was Kristen.
"I was just telling them the truth," he replied calmly, "It's better than being comforted with fake promises only for them to be broken later."
"Since when did you become the herald of truth?" Kristen said mockingly.
He turned to us, "Anyway, what Asher told you… It's just a possibility of the worst-case scenario, it's not necessarily what will happen, so you don't need to fret over it."
"I was getting to that part if you didn't barge into the room," Asher said, annoyingly.
"Were you? Well, anyway, the point is that only the higher-ups can differentiate an Aerith from a normal being, not everyone has the ability to sense or see Aether or Aetherian blood with their naked eye, so as long as you avoid those with that ability, you'll be safe."
A wave of relief passed over me as my tensed-up body relaxed, however, a thought occurred to me —it seemed like both Asher and Kristen were at a high position in the Elithiya, which might work in our favor, or not, depending on the situation.
"So what do we do now?" Zei asked.
"First of all, heading straight to Eleithiya is too risky," Kristen said, "since you don't have I'Ds yet, you will be staying with Asher in his house which is located on the outskirts of Eleithiya and is a rather peaceful place, meanwhile, we can help you get your I'D.
After a pause, Kirsten asked, his tone serious.
"Are you going to join the military? Or have you decided against it ?"
Asher's voice was softer but steady. "We won't force you to join the military. It can be brutal, perhaps even life-threatening at times. You can live a life peacefully on the outskirts. The choice is yours."
I hesitated, then asked the question that had been burning inside me for a long time.
"Why are you helping us? What is it you intend to do after we enroll in the military?"
"Would you believe it if we said it was just out of goodwill?" Kristen said with a smirk
"No", I replied bluntly. "You went to such lengths to make sure we were safe, I believe you have a well enough reason for doing that."
Both of them simply stared at us, not uttering a word.
Finally, Kristen sighed, "Well, you are right. We do need you to achieve something, however, I can't reveal it right now." he added, "But don't worry, we don't harbor any sort of animosity against you."
As I guessed, they wanted us to achieve something that might be dangerous, but we had no other choice but to comply.
"Fine, " I said, steadying my voice.
"We'll join the military. "