"I was waiting for you, how can I help you today, Gold Guard Naoru?"
Zul'luz welcomed him into the private room beyond the reception with a deeply enchanting sweet dreamy voice. The room was not very large —compared to the rest of the premises —, about twenty-five square meters in total, adorned by purple tapestries, vases in the corners behind it, a large round table with a luxurious tablecloth embroidered with favorite phrases of the owner written in such exaggerated italics that hardly anyone could read it, as well as a good and wide variety of flowers in every inch in a circular pattern that enclosed a small and tender seed taking root.
The guest chair was very similar to that of Zul'luz, a piece of wood molded so that any adult —or not-too-short person —would sit and rest their back perfectly and relax. The wood was a glossy beige color and featured a wavy multi-tone pattern. Lastly, the room was illuminated by nothing less than crisp, neat golden Dingarsite stones on both walls adjacent to the table and one end hanging from the ceiling just above the center. On the table there was a small pile of white papers and a pencil on the left side, on the right there was a small silver tray with a candle next to a smaller one with matches arranged to order.
"Is it a matter of council or..." she paused as her silver eyes filled with an intense glow "personal?"
Naoru sat tiredly in the chair, rather, he dropped into it. He removed his helmet and placed it on his lap. Seng entered the room to deliver cups of fresh tea. Full package service, that is, he had a silver platter, silver fees, and a life-hating face like any other underpaid servant.
"Let's say… it's both." Naoru noticed the shackles on Seng's wrists and took a sip of the tea trying not to make eye contact with whatever he was wearing.
Seng left the room wanting to quit and the talk continued.
"Oh wonderful. Is it a love issue? Or business? Love business?" She giggled.
"The future of the city" Naoru rubbed his forehead, exhausted. "We need your help."
He grabbed one of the sheets and the pen, he was going to use the safe method, doesn't want anyone —not even Seng at the reception —to find out what is going to be discussed. The first thing he wrote down was a straightforward and simple question.
"Can you tell me about the future of Gregory and Samantha?"
Zul'luz read the paper. The joy was extinguished as Naoru lit the candle, the regret of her client was enough and more than enough to give her a bad feeling. She took out her own pen to answer him.
"Sure"
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Seng sighed with his face pressed against the wall. Nothing was holding him back from leaving, absolutely nothing. He pulled the shackle key from his pocket, Zul'luz had given it to him. He watched his right hand as a slight cold mist rose. And to think that the meeting of both after almost five years would be so... anticlimactic.
"Z-zuly? Did you… buy me?" Poor Seng's face wavered between slight happiness and a strange nervousness.
"Of course," she greeted after removing her hat and bringing it to her chest. "You can't imagine how funny it was to see you at the slave trade!" And so all her warmth and charm was gone.
"W-where did you get so much money? Did you/"
"You are not allowed to talk about that subject!" Zul'luz's tone and expression darkened. "Let's get out of here, my slave."
Perhaps the biggest surprise for Seng, was that Zul'luz's new home was a huge mansion in the central area of the city, three stories high, a front garden the size of several houses behind towering bars that, instead of being impassable, they shouted "I have tons of funds to satisfy my style" because of how unnecessary or how difficult the work of artisans and blacksmiths must have been to make a huge representation of her with her favorite dress and hat sitting in a field of flowers.
"My business has paid off" she sputtered as she was greeted by her butler and squad of four maids with masks covering her faces.
"Zuly..." Seng clenched his fist, he couldn't help it when he was taken to that secondary building on the mansion grounds, with that big sign "The great fortune teller Zul'luz."
"Yes Zenm?" She by accident spoke to him with all the affection she had for him. "I-I mean, what ails your mind, my servant?" she ran blushed.
"Why?"
"Huh? Why… what?"
"Have you made this entire fortune using your resonance?!" Seng took her hands, fearfully. Those little boyish eyes met hers on various levels, "With your condition you shouldn't…" Seng's voice was ripping just thinking about how much she'd used that damn resonance.
"I guess you must be worried..." She turned her face away from him to the side, Seng followed haunted. "Look at my neck."
The necklace she carried was identical to the Dingarsite shackles Seng wore on his wrists, the only real differences being that hers was thinner, did not have a hole to insert a key, and had carvings matching her mansion.
"A few years ago they discovered that the Dingarsite could be treated to suppress the soul, the resonances..." she straightened her head and leaned against Seng's chest. "Thanks to this I no longer have visions while I sleep, nor during the day when I am distracted" she looked up to meet Seng's eyes again and let her eyes widen. "Now I can, no, I must use it from time to time at will to be okay."
"R-really?" A stream of relief flooded Seng's head.
"That's how it is!" Zul'luz pushed him and continued with her unattainable millionaire act. "They are the latest advancing wonder of the soul, best of all, they serve as much to disable criminals, like you," Seng frowned. "and help cases like mine."
"Well I wonder, because of whose fault am I a criminal in this city?" he grumbled.
"Besides, it has a third interesting use!" she broke her socialite lady act again, aside from ignoring Seng's comment of course. "If you try to use your resonance while using them, you might get better at it."
"Oh yeah? Like when do you do push-ups with someone on your back?"
"Exactly!" She jumped up and threw the key at him. "Try training with them, and if you need to use your resonance freely… you take them off!" She opened the door of the premises and invited him to come in. "Come, your work will be here" she announced with a ghoulish smile.
Then the rest happened, forcing him to dress up as a clown and work as his personal bodyguard and receptionist in case there was an appointment scheduled.
That's right, nothing was physically holding him back from leaving, not even morally or even logically. From any perspective, the best thing would be to go find Airys and resume her training or set a specific goal to prove that he is the chosen one; however, he… he didn't want to.
"How exhausting" he thought, not because he was wondering what to do, but because it really frustrated him that he couldn't make even a little ice. He had already hunched over and everything.
It is that, in truth, he nor crazy would prefer to spend time with that brat before accompanying his best friend.
Exactly. He never hid it, spending time with that childish, puny brat has only gotten him into trouble. He went from being the... the chosen one because she meddled in his life. Any plan to travel the world, meet again with Zul,luz, that gifted moron and...
"What is doing that idiot?" He wondered. "Wasn't he supposed to always take care of Zuly?"
He was silent. By what right did he say that?
During that time of introspection and boring meditation, he fiddled with the key on his lips making a duck face that he would NEVER show anyone. His shoulders dropped and he slid down the wall until he fell to the floor in relief. When was the last time he behaved like this...?
The sound of an impact took that peace from him by force.
"What the hell? A guard? Come on!" He rolled his eyes and leapt into action.
He smashed the door unaware of the price of it and got ready to fight, although well, the situation was... peculiar.
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Geniuses, gifted, anomalies, damned, special. Those are the words used to describe people like Zul'luz. Individuals who from the first moment of their lives can use their resonances to the full, people who have the worst of destinies sealed inside, the cursed souls.
How would you react to knowing that because of a skill you didn't ask for, one day your soul will just leave your body?
Zul'luz, resigned herself.
The first thing she saw at birth was not the midwife, her mother, or her father. It was herself, sitting on a porch, gray-haired, stiff and needy. As she grew older, she found out and understood how her resonance worked. What she saw every night were not dreams, it was someone else's future. At age five, when she still struggled to speak politely, she first applied her resonance at her will.
She knew the exact moment when her mother would return home. It was wonderful, being able to predict what was happening. She spent countless hours seeing the future of her mother, that of her servants, that of her guests.
Until the day she went blank.
"I didn't know she had a resonance "
"That is normal, she will return later in a day"
"My daughter is talented! You have to get her a teacher! "
But it didn't take a day, not two, not three. She spent an entire week in a coma. When her parents returned from her they received her in tears. Like a cursed soul, she lacks that "something" that allows the soul to recover from the expenditure of energy. Every time she uses resonance, conscious or not, she shortens her soul's stamina. Eventually, instead of days, it will be weeks, months, years... there will be no return.
Zul'luz's parents expected a fear-filled reaction from her daughter, so much so that her daughter's warm smile was etched in their hearts along with her words:
"Ah… that… don't worry, I had already seen it" A faint silver flash covered her eyes.
Since then, the thought that lingers in Zul'luz's mind is to alter that old vision of her, to make sure she's not alone in that inevitable future.
"It can still be changed!" Zul'luz had risen, flustered and hysterical. Tears leaked out of her eyes. "You're going to change it right?!"
Seng was narrowly beheaded by Naoru's sword which in a deadly reflex he drew ready to kill. Seng didn't hesitate to use his shadow either, but there was a little problem... he was still in the shackles. His shadow formed a small and ridiculous face, from which anybody could almost hear a "gwa grr".
"What are you guys doing?" Zul'luz held back her laughter at the cuteness on the wall. "You are going to take care of preventing that future, right Naoru?"
"Don't worry, we'll make sure of that." Naoru sheathed his sword and nodded with conviction.
On the tray the last piece of paper was being consumed... the death sentence that fate had in store for Gregory and Samantha.