Carol had an ugly expression on her face. She knew that this was inevitable but the timing was faster than she anticipated. John had just arrived a day earlier and his sister was not even there when he made the announcement.
"What do you mean?" Minerva took the initiative to ask.
"You've just been here a day and you re already leaving?" Carol lamented. At that moment Ursula the sound of a pickup could be heard by the drive way and after a few minutes Ursula walked in to find everyone in standing in the living room.
"Whats going on?" she asked.
"They're leaving?" Malik said
"Can you manage, what we talked bout earlier?" John asked.
"Already? You should know that there's not much I can do."
"You knew about this?" Malik asked in disbelief.
"He might have mentioned it earlier today at lunch, but I didn't think it would be this soon," she said, "Wait how soon are we talking?" she added after some thought.
"Tomorrow or the day after." John said stiffly. He didn't want to linger on and give his mom some false hope when he knew it was something he had to do.
"What about school?" Carol asked, having partially resigned to the possibility that she might see her son in a long time. The entire concept of magic had only ever been a fantasy for most if not all people on the planet but now her son was a practitioner. Even she knew that something much greater than her was at work.
John took two steps and stood in front of her and placed his hands on her arms and looked her in the eye. "Mom, over the past period of my life I always felt like there was something out there in the world than only I could do, and I think this might be it. Its something I have to do." There was a resolute look in his eyes and at that moment she recalled that night when it was just the two of them and she held her crying son vowing to protect him forever. At this moment however he looked like he matured a decade in the past two years. He had the same look as his father and she knew she couldn't stop him.
"John, be safe and promise you'll come back to me." she was struggling to hold back her tears. The undertones of her voice did not escape John and he pulled her in for a hug since he knew that he might not see her in a long time, but he had to see his mother. He would come back to her, he vowed in that moment.
Minerva was standing there at this moment looking at this exchange of love. Over the past day she had gotten to experience the true depths of the word family after watching John and his. Since she was accompanying John she knew that his mother meant alot to him and him to her. She had to bring him back. Malik looked at Ursula as if to ask what they had talked about earlier but he had a feeling that he already knew. Having seen John grow up as a quiet boy he was able to notice that this change of his was for the better.
Sometimes a man needs to walk his own path to understand the depths of his persona, he thought to himself. He walked off towards his study and came back a short while later holding a compass.
"John, I love you like you were my own, this may not be magical but if it guides your way in any small amount, I will be rest assured." He said as he tapped John's back who had just let go of his mother.
No one else said much that but the silence and lingering looks spoke volumes and John took them all in. This was his family. He grabbed a glance at Minerva who had been looking at him the entire time before he walked off towards the stairs. Everyone else followed soon after that.
.....
John was sitting on the floor in his actual room taking it all in. He ran his hand through a nearby canvas wondering when was the last time he painted something or even made a sketch. To grab a brush and to feel inspired, to paint a world from thought and to give it life. He remembered the paintings that led to the painted world. There was a thought in his mind that he couldn't reach so he abandoned it and lifted his blade from the ground. He unsheathed the long black blade and looked at its surface.
He did this sometimes when he was deep in thought. To an onlooker he might look as though he was admiring the fantastic craftsmanship or the intoxicating color of the sword but his mind was far away. He was looking for Noira. He felt his presence in her realm but he couldn't see her. He didn't call out to her since he figured she already knew what he was thinking.
Ursula was in the hall when she noticed that study lamp that she bought was on in Johns room. She opened the door wider and stuck her head in only to find John sitting on the floor admiring his long black sword. He was holding was moving the sword along his hand and his eyes were tracing the shapes of different engraving that ran through the blade. At some point she winced as she saw him grab the sword by the blade but relaxed when no blood came out. Her curiosity arose. The swords grip was away from his hand and she tip toed wanting to touch it.
John didn't seem to notice her but was now stiff like a statue. She approached him and was about to touch the blade when John shifted suddenly.
Shwing! the blade rung as it cut across the air. John was now Holding the grip near his face and looking through the blade from the tip grip to the tip. Unbeknownst to him Ursula had be nicked slightly and had entered a daze. Her eyes were rolled back revealing only the white part. She looked like she was having a seizure.
Visions passed through her mind. First she was in a large white hall, John was in there too and did not seem to notice her there. It was to brief though and in a fraction of a second she was already pulled into another vision. A vast majority of things that Noira had showed John flashed in front of her eyes. They were very fast giving her no time to comprehend or understand what she saw. By the time it took to snap ones fingers she was already back in the white room only this time there was a white throne and on it sat a white haired girl with red eyes.
She was looking a her and suddenly it felt as though she was pulled into her eyes as she was surrounded by redness with a slit in the middle before she suddenly woke up, panting. She had this indomitable sense of dread that made goosebumps rise all over her body and she shook like a leaf. In the next instance John awoke from his stupor and looked at her with a worried look.
From what he could gather she had touched his sword and was accidentally cut. He was well aware of the power Noira held and what is could do to her.
"Are you alright? How do you feel? Breath in and out slowly." he said covering her with his jacket seeing as she was shaking terribly.
"What did you do?" his question was directed at Noira. John was fuming. He couldn't take it he he had indirectly caused harm to his sister.
"We need to leave, your world is not a place where I'm supposed to exist, something even worse might happen." Noira explained. being in a new world even then sword without the auxiliary support of John was strong enough. What John was unaware of was that Noira was absent from her throne room to suppress her blood thirst. When Ursula came into the room she saw how John was looking at his sword and a deep unnatural curiosity washed over her pulling her towards the sword. She was not an idiot that would grab a sharp blade with her bare hands. When she was cut she had involuntarily pulled her consciousness in and had she not controlled herself Ursula's soul would have been separated from her body leaving her as an empty shell.
"What was - that? What did - I - just - see?" Ursula asked mid shivers.
"Don't worry too much, my sword shows illusions." he tried to ease her mind.
"Those seemed too ... real to be illusions. Is ... Is that where you were?" the feeling of dread she felt was so strong that she couldn't shake it off.
"Don't worry too much, it happened a long time ago." he sighed. John was now aware that he needed to leave not only for the sake of the painted world for because he didn't want to cause harm to the people in his world. Accidents tend to happen more often.