A few minutes had passed since Adriel left Ethan in the closet.
I'm a cursed sword! Ethan fumed. How dare he leave me here?!
Gentle heat began rising from him, warming the surrounding clothes.
I should just use my anger and burn through his things, like I did to that monster! Then who'll be laughing, huh?!
Actually, scratch that. That's exactly how villains start their descent arc. Nope. You won't catch me slipping today, narrative.
"Whoever's gettin' all hot an' bothered… please stop," a voice lazily drawled from somewhere deeper in the closet.
Ethan almost yelped, somehow sending a sudden wave of energy outwards. He clattered to the bottom of the closet from his previously upright position.
"Are you another sentient artifact…?" he whispered, his heat fading.
"I guess… but whaddya mean, another? Are ya new here?" the voice mumbled.
"Yep. It's my first ten minutes, actually."
They yawned sleepily. "Oh. My condolences. You'll be here for a while."
How long have they been here? Ethan wondered.
"Name's Jean," they offered. "What are ya? A magic textbook, like me? Ya don't sound like those high an' mighty wands."
"I'm a cursed sword," Ethan admitted.
Jean paused, but when they spoke, they didn't seem fazed. "I see… I always had a hunch that boy would up an' get himself cursed one day. Never would've guessed he'd shove a cursed sword in here, though. But ya seem calmer than the rumors about them swords say."
"Another sentient artifact said the same thing."
"Mm. Well, if Adriel ever comes back for you, see if you can talk to some artifacts around here. Tell me the latest gossip… I'm going back to sleep."
"Wait! I have some things I want to ask you!"
But Jean didn't reply.
Ethan sighed. So this has gone from a level 2 weird straight to a level 5. They're saying there's more sentient artifacts out there? And they want to hear "gossip"?
Adriel had denied the existence of sentient artifacts when he tried to ask him after the detector test. Was he lying? Or did Ethan just stumble into some kind of secret object society that nobody knows about?
"This feels like a suspiciously placed sidequest," he said to himself. "What next, rescuing someone's lost kitten for five gold?"
"Adriel!" Ethan yelled through telepathy. "I have something to ask you, and if you ignore me, I'm going to start a fire!"
Huh. No response. Adriel had been ignoring him while he yelled about being in the closet, but surely he'd react to a threat.
He tried again. "I'm destroying your precious… whatever… right now!"
Still nothing.
"Bro, if you're just trolling me--"
The silence smoothed over Ethan's words, like someone decided to flick off the switch of his voice. A tiny prickling feeling began to make its way into the edge of Ethan's mind.
Ethan dialed the telepathic channel harder. Small waves of energy leaked out, just like what had happened when he'd fallen down.
Jean stirred. "C'mon… stop shaking the closet…"
Then, the darkness wavered like a flame. The smallest of colors still visible flickered back and forth. Dizziness decided to return to Ethan, for the first time in a while.
I'm gonna be sick, he thought, dazed.
It wasn't just dizziness this time, however. It felt like the fabric of the world was being stretched thin--as though Ethan was a string being pulled beyond its limits. The air smelled faintly metallic without reason.
Each moment, he felt like his essence, or magic, whatever kept him alive, was reaching further and further like a phone searching for a cellular connection like life depended on it.
The more he stretched, the more the darkness became wrong.
The wardrobe door burst open, and somehow Ethan rolled out onto the floor. He stared up at the ceiling, lit by the still-on massive lamp on Adriel's desk.
But the light was flashing, dimming, then brightening again in a random pattern. Ethan felt unstable, like the light was a metaphor of his current state.
"J-Jean! What's happening to me?!"
Now on the ground, Ethan could see Jean's form clearly poking out of the closet, half-covered by clothes.
They were a large book of magic, faded letters decorating their cover.
"Adriel must be too far away from ya…" Jean said lazily. "Judgin' by the light flickering, I'd say he's about eighty meters away? More or less."
"But he said bad things would only happen if we were a hundred meters apart!" Ethan panicked.
"He must've skipped the parts about cursed sword distancin'. That's only the limit before you start permanently corruptin' the environment."
An assortment of pens fell off the desk, but rather than hitting the floor, they began floating through the air haphazardly.
W-what the hell? When did this become a horror movie??
Jean sighed. "If only he hadn't given up readin' me halfway through, he woulda' known."
Oh, you've gotta be kidding me! That's twice now--things happening 'cos of unfinished reading!
The strange effects intensified, and an unusual purple glow began emanating from Ethan, of all things. Time seemed to slow down, keeping this awful moment going for ages.
"ADRIEL!!! Come back!!" Ethan wailed, feeling like a child who'd just lost their mother in a store.
As if summoned by his yells, Adriel charged through the door, stomping rapidly over to him, looking pale.
He slammed the door shut and snatched him up from the ground--and everything came to a stop. The pens fell from the air, the purple glow dissipated. Ethan's dizziness faded, and relief flooded through him.
"What the fuck did you do?" Adriel hissed, pressing a hand to his forehead, panting. The color returned to his face, and he glanced around the room, gaze catching on the open closet.
"It wasn't me!" Ethan protested. "I was literally about to throw up!!"
Adriel glared at him. "Tell me the truth, you goddamn metal demon! How did you get out of the closet?!"
"It just opened, okay?!" Ethan snapped defensively. "Must've used my powers accidentally. It's not that deep."
"Tell him about the cursed sword bond distance," Jean reminded Ethan sluggishly. "Perhaps this is my chance to be used again."
"This happened 'cos you got too far away from me," Ethan added.
"Are you kidding me? I felt physically sick, and I don't know what possessed me to even make me run here. And you're telling me it's because I was too far?!" Adriel's eyes flashed angrily. "I was less than a hundred meters from you. Don't be ridiculous."
"But that's only the maximum limit you're supposed to be from me," Ethan insisted. "Go read that book in your closet. It'll tell you."
"How did you find out that's in there?"
"I talked to it."
"Books don't have minds, you lunatic," Adriel growled.
He really doesn't know that the book is sentient?
"You really need to stop saying that," Ethan muttered. "Next thing you know, you'll be telling me main characters don't have plot armor."
"What's plot armor?"
"Eh, forget about it. Bro, just read the book! The part about cursed sword bonds."
Someone knocked loudly on the door. "Uh, Adriel? It's me, Henry," a timid voice said from beyond.
Adriel froze. "Henry? Why're you here?"
"Um… Liora asked me to check on you, after you ran off so suddenly. You didn't look very well."
The boy paused nervously before speaking again. "I heard you talking to someone in there."
Adriel glared at Ethan. "You idiot! You should've spoken telepathically!"
"You're the one who yelled out loud first!!"
"I was just talking to myself, that's all," Adriel said, barely holding back his annoyance. "I'm fine. Go tell Liora to mind her own business."
"But she also told me to give you your report papers. You left them there," Henry added awkwardly.
"Just slide them under the door. I'm tired. It's been a long day. Henry, just go to Liora and tell her to come after me herself next time," Adriel insisted stiffly.
After a moment of hesitation, Henry complied. "Uh, well… goodnight, I guess. See you in class tomorrow."
Ethan watched as a thin stack of paper was pushed under the door, before Adriel shook him.
"Now, you want to tell me exactly what the fuck you said about sword bonds?"