The cold touch on his forehead faded. He could feel it take something from him. He was glad it was. For as long as he could remember Covy had always wondered.
"Am I cursed?"
The purple domain's finger like protrusion pulsed like a suction pump. It drew from Covy its essence and the tired look in his eyes. Once done the finger slowly retreated back into the domain.
Now to handle the pesky bug on its back.
…
As of now Lozo arm was entirely engulfed into the domain and the rest of his body was following, head first into the domain. Sooner or later Lozo would be necessitated to breath in domain ooze in place of air.
Behind him, just like her previous tries, Karin kept missing the flexible of the domain with more than one time nearly hitting Lozo.
"Watch where you aim that thing." Lozo screamed nearly plunging into the domain nose first.
"Shut up!" Karin reprimanded him. "I'm not the one who's caught in it."
Karin couldn't do anything else other that indirect attacks. Shooting her Tazugata spell rapidly and straight ahead into the domain would stop it but she would end up with casualties. From where she stood she could barely see Covy, only the twerking back side of Lozo as he struggled to escape the grasp of the domain. Any reckless attacks and she would hit Covy or even worse. Kill a Normal.
Thus, she made her stance and kept attacking to the side of the domain, trying to contain it and prevent it from escaping into the roof.
But that tactic would only hold for so long. Her internal natural energy would soon run out. And then what? Rush in and get caught just like Lozo.
No.
"The one time I need them and they aren't here."
She needed an odd variable. A sudden chance and she would maximize to its fullest.
Just as her wish formed an answer came instantly.
Out of the blue the Domain screeched. It shook and vibrating into smaller chanks, similar to the blobs from earlier, splitting more with each cry. The blobs shot uncontrollably into the air each having a tremor of its own.
The wonder and why didn't settle. They were interrupted by the sudden call of her name.
"Karin… Now!" her odd variable screamed.
There was no second to waste.
Tazugata.
She summoned once more a sudden flush of her black fluid like mass. The black mass circled into the air herding and rounding up the dispersed Domain. They swirled orbiting the large chunk of domain, from which the smaller split from. The mass closed and in snap had rounded into a floating sphere with the domain inside.
"Got it." Karin heaved, the glow in her hands fading like flickering light.
Lozo joined in the relief, wiping the cold sweat streaming down his face. He looked up to the floating massive blob before chuckling a bit. In his hand he felt a sharp pain. Not that big rather just a small splinter.
He then turned to Karin and asked.
"So that thing. How is it floating up there."
Karin looked to her little mini black moon floating in the middle of the alley. She looked to her hand then back to the "Floating" sphere.
Just then gravity came back to play, drawing the sphere back down to earth. Karin could only but scream.
"You'll have to catch it."
"What? I thought you…" Lozo frantically responded as he circled around trying… hoping to catch it.
The sphere currently spiraling down towards Lozo was close to the size of boulder hauled from a mining site. Thanks to its large size Lozo could swear he heard his back crackle when it fell into his arms and chest.
"Oh, come on." He said, waddling trying keep the giant ball balanced.
***
"Can't you make this thing smaller?" Lozo asked.
"No. I'm all out of energy. You'll just need to carry it back."
"Says the person who made it."
Karin shook her head. She sighed and tugged to Lozo by the shoulder and pointed into the shadows.
"We'll handle that later. "
In the shadows, to where Karin had pointed, a short and restless gasps for air hid. They were backed against the wall, relentless in their scavenge for fresh air. But that was futile because one everywhere one looked a trash bag laid unattended on the ground. With the ruckus that had just transpired most of the bags contents had been dispersed everywhere.
Second, for the boy cornered against the wall, he didn't deserve fresh air. He believed anything good was meant for only the good. And everything bad happened because one was bad. That was his understanding of the debated balance. That was his view as a child in this world of the Harmatia.
So, to him the answer for the question that had been gnawing him for a while was quite obvious. He just needed someone to confirm it to him.
"Am I cursed?" Covy asked, stilled cowering in the shadows.
The question was heavy to the two who he presented it to.
Lozo looked to Karin. None like him she didn't hesitate.
"No. You're not." She responded, her tone dropping to a gentler one. One Lozo hadn't thought had existed.
"Come. You don't need to hide anymore. The monster is gone."
Behind her Lozo tapped onto the sphere balanced next to him.
"But then why? "Covy said knotting his finger. "Why do I always make her cry?"
"Everywhere we go, she cries that the neighbors don't like us. That we have to move again… That bad things happen to bad people and we are not…. So why…?"
his voice slowly increased. His lips trembled as he narrated.
"I know it my fault. It's always my fault that we change houses and move all the time. It my fault… My fault for playing with the cats."
Tears glittered in the silver light as they watered his cheeks. He cried over and over and with each time a similar pain grew in Lozo and Karin.
It's a pain all Harmatia go through at first. Lozo with Hinari. Karin with the Mihane family.
This pain, a realization that in the world being special… being Harmatia meant alienation from the societal norm. And no matter who or what you are and where you are, it's pain you have to feel…
Karin was first to speak.
"You want to know a secret Covy?" She began. Covy didn't budge from the shadows. His eyes only streamed some more.
"In this world there are those who are special and are different from the rest. They do things normal people can't and sometimes… they don't have a say in it."
"That makes them strange to those who are not. Something that the others don't like or welcome. But you see… Being special means that you carry a little more weight than others. Whether good or bad that's up to you to decide but it's something you hold for being unique."
"So, No." Karin replied to Covy's earlier. "You are not cursed and never was. You are just… Gifted. And being gifted means you carry more responsibilities than other people do."
"Now do you want to hear the most important part of this secret?" Karin asked.
Covy had stepped out of the dark. Tears dripped from his young and normal eleven years old eyes, just the way they should be.
He shook his head as he drew closer to Karin. Karin stretched out her hands, ushering Covy to come closer.
"The most important thing for now is that you are a child. And being a child means you don't have to carry that weight alone… that's why we are here." she said looking back to Lozo.
"We'll Help you with that weight until you are ready to carry it on your own. Just like he's going to carry that big ball for us." she signaling to Lozo.
Lozo nodded. Something he immediately regrated on remembering the size of the ball.
Down below Covy crying hadn't seized. It grew and grew and so did the smile on his face. Tears of joy? No.
His tears weighted on the atmosphere, making it the eventful night one of relief.
For the first time in a while Covy felt his burden, the fact he could talk to the cats, being eased of his tired little chest. He was glad and willingly closed in for the hug Karin offered. Tight and close to her chest.
But once the words of a new presence echoed through the alley, the warm feeling in both Lozo's and Karin's hearts had an abrupt end.
"That was quite touching," the new presence started.
"Quite moving for vassals of the Fallen house Himo." It said as its footsteps clopped closer.