"I'm really sorry Natsume" Layd whispered to her stepsister.
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It was around eight at night, after Seng forced Layd to remake the hideout with triple the detail than before, to the point that what little was left of the day escaped into the sky. In the end the lack of coordination and individual weaknesses yielded their only chance to win Echsos.It was clear now that they couldn't do much against Seng.
"I don't care how much you love this boy, he and I have a pending deal and I won't let him go until he does his part" Was what Seng said when he finished exploiting Layd.
"What makes you think we'll give up?" It was what Natsume warned with restored spirit and breath.
Seng sat down at the newly made table in the new dining room, crossed his legs at the ankles and caressed the table with a deep, melancholy gaze.
"What makes you think you can with me?" He enunciated this and with the sound of a crack that penetrated the ears of all those present revealed one of the rarest faces of empathy or hatred.
Echsos froze and bit his tongue to keep from saying any of the macabre intentions he received from Seng's soul. Layd just looked at his partner and waited for her resolute response from him to do what's best for them.
Luckily Airys missed that strange show of sincerity from Seng because she had sent her to get her covers.
"All right." Natsume leaned back on the earthy chair that appeared to be comfortable.
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"No, it was my fault you didn't have support" she clarified.
They were leaning against one of the walls at the back of the cave, with a blanket that could barely cover them if they came together completely. On the other side, if they open their eyes, the only thing they could see was the moonlight that splashed the entrance of the hideout, which bathed Airys on the earth table struggling to find a comfortable position.
But what caught her attention the most was Seng's piercing silver eyes that did not stray away from them. Echsos was on the right side of him heading out, fast asleep with the only other available blanket. Natsume didn't quite make out, however, it was clear to her that he was using her shadow while he assimilated sitting.
"After all I know what kind of person he is…" she said fearlessly for Seng. " I have also worn that mask over" she wandered in her mind as she fell asleep.
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Dawn was accompanied by an annoying back pain for Layd and an unpleasant feeling in general for Natsume, especially since the first thing she heard when she had a notion of her surroundings was the arrogant voice of that subject.
"Are you two going to wake up yet?" Seng joked about using his resonance like a wretch to increase the noise of his voice to their ears.
"What do you think?" Natsume half-opened one eye and frowned as if there was even light entering the cave. "Where is Echsos?" she asked as she barely recovered while Layd was still in a limbo-like state.
"He's practicing self-perception with the Brat," he tossed them a couple of bananas and sat cross-legged on the table. "It's better in the morning."
Layd didn't wake up at all, but it didn't take long for his body to pick up the fruit and eat it. Natsume saw him with a certain anger for being carried near an enemy so she elbowed him to push him away and kept the blanket; obviously Layd fell to the ground and —surprise —did not stop eating in that state.
"I was coming to chat with the two of you…" he raised an eyebrow at the sight of Layd doing whatever that was. "I am satisfied with you."
"I don't like you, and you don't know it, but we has/"
"Yeah, yeah, I know" Seng interrupted. "Echsos has already told me the situation and the former matters as much to me as Layd does to eat dirt."
Natsume glared at him and snorted against her will.
"Well, what do you want?" She snuggled up with the blanket.
"A truce," Seng took a bite out of a banana carrying his shadow. "It's not that I can't beat you and that, it's that it would be a bummer if you tried to kidnap him/"
"We can't KIDNAP HIM ourselves, we are his family" she explained furiously.
"Anyway, the important thing is that I want a deal."
"Ok then…"
"Two weeks, no more, no less, I make sure he keeps his end of the deal and I keep mine, after that I won't help Echsos with anything else."
Natsume thought about it for a second, covered her mouth and sighed to warm her hands while Seng tried to avoid making fun of those disastrous hair. Layd opened one curious eye at what they were saying.
"All right…" she muttered. "Although I must know what your deal is."
"I will teach him to use his soul in exchange for a favor with his skill."
When Seng answered Natsume's doubt it was crystal clear that she was no longer the sleepy girl vulnerable, instead it was a viper expert at devouring slimy little brothers. Layd gave a little laugh and prayed for his brother, may he rest in peace.
"Really?! Aarghh! What an idiotic little brat!" She ruffled her hair so hard he choked someone to death. "It's okay if I hit him right?!"
"Sure," Seng just said, Natsume got up ready to give Echsos a very motherly beating. "I just want to know something" Seng stopped her midway.
"What?" she growled herself.
"What happened to those who followed you?"
"Ah," she straightened her hair in some embarrassment because she felt the chaos above her head. "We lost them before we reached the foot of the mountain."
"Yeah, I don't think they'll find us," Layd added, with the empty shell in hand.
Seng stood up ready to escort Natsume up. It did not matter too much to him that there were other groups of people interested in using Echsos —partly because of how difficult it is to guess where he is and not even say on the mountain —however, Echsos had told him that because he could not control himself, he revealed his power to so many people that word spread everywhere. That's why he had that concern in mind, because if you really want to find someone, there is no doubt that individuals with that kind of resonance will come to ruin the day.
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In the early morning hours of that day, Seng forced Echsos to wake up with a kick, the truth was he didn't think about it and he got the bad habit that he had been applying with Airys for months. Echsos complained, rubbing his butt, and Seng acted as if it were part of his way of training —taking into account that this is how he trained Airys— and he repeated that action with Airys to prove it.
The brat started screaming, but thanks to Seng's third resonance they didn't wake the other pair.
Seng had a total of three resonances apart from how standard it is with his own body:
He can manipulate his shadow by following the limits explained earlier.
He can create ice, however, the starting point is always his hands or feet and from then on he can give it the shape he wants. Instead of melting, the ice evaporates over time, lasts longer than an ice takes to turn into water in exchange for being inedible at all, and lasts less when compared to the evaporation process after being water.
And the last resonance he discovered at sixteen is altering sound, specifically altering where and with how much "force" it travels. The concept of sound traveling through waves was a serious problem —it still is —at first for him, however, he is able to prevent the sound from spreading as it normally does and the opposite as well.
That is why he can say anything in front of someone and that another person behind that listens to what he says without the first hearing anything.
"That's what I know about your resonances" Echsos concluded after talking about the situation in general and Seng asking him to tell every detail of what he knows.
"W-wow ..." It took Seng a minute to deal with the sense of loss and shame that was being deduced in such a short time, although of course it was not because his rival was a genius, but that he had one if not the most convenient resonance in this world of infinite possibilities.
The sun was just about to rise, the three of them were above the renovated hideout.
"What about me?" Airys asked anxiously.
"That your brother is your idol."
"I mean my power; I mean resonance" she modified her words before Seng's severe look of reproach.
"That you have quite a lot of creatures to summon."
"Hmm…" Airys pouted, thing that caught Echsos off guard for sitting nearby. "That doesn't work for me, I want to know my resonances" she whimpered.
"Here we go Brat." Seng said as his shadow lifted him to stand up without moving any of his limbs. "The first thing to do is for Echsos to be able to detail his resonance like mine."
"And how will we do that?" Airys said.
"Self-perception."
"Ehh?! Again…?" she protested fed up.
"Yes," Seng used a deep tone like the sea because he too was up to his neck with those complaints. "Again."
The practice of self-perception in short is meditation. It is used as a tactic to awaken, and in case of having already awakened, as a method of searching for resonances. Luckily Echsos had woken up earlier and the obvious consequence of that was the uncontrollable resonance of him.
It is customary to carry out self-perception in the morning because sleep and serenity help to enter that zone between the laziness of the body and the recharged energy of the soul. There is no universally accepted pose to perform it —Seng recommends a pose where you could fall asleep but is inherently uncomfortable —so after ordering them it was their decision.
"What are you doing?" Echsos questioned as he watched Airys climb a tree.
"Try" she replied hanging upside down.
Echsos watched her curiously, his resonance did not indicate anything to dispel his doubt and the only thing he supposed was that she had never actually managed to enter that such zone. He gave up and lay down on the floor, the normal thing is that lying down you fall asleep easily and that the ground had rocks and was rigid, annoyed him what was necessary so as not to end up asleep.
Seng prepared to go to the hideout to speak with the pair of stepbrothers.
"Hey Seng," Echsos said with his eyes closed and his hands on his stomach. "Is two weeks really enough?"
Seng stared at the sunrise and with an expression full of determination and desire that he was not wasting time demonstrating the obvious.
"It's up to you boy."
Seng was sure that he himself was the Chosen One.