Athelei was searching for a hideout for his other identity, leading him to a small building at the foot of a hill.
The streets here were calm, tranquil, and exuded an atmosphere of the mundane. It was a residential area for those of the middle class.
'This should be what that mister had been speaking of,' Athelei thought to himself as he looked at the open door of the small building.
Warm light and the smell of wine and roast beef leaked out. Athelei stepped close, but he did not enter just yet. With a gloved hand, he knocked on the doorframe.
"Hello? I heard I could rent a room here?" He asked, Sway already drawn.
"Oh! Master, you have another one looking for ya!" A voice reacted and Athelei heard footsteps walking down a set of stairs.
A figure appeared in Athelei's vision. It was an old man with whitened hair and a long white beard that reached his chest. The man looked mellow and Athelei bowed when the old man looked to him.
"Might you be mister Cerven?" Athelei asked, "Is there still a room for me available?"
"Mm," The old man nodded before flicking a key towards Athelei, "Third floor, at the very end of the hall, door to the north. Three silvers for three months."
Athelei clumsily caught the key, not expecting it to fly at such a high velocity. He observed that the key was hot to the touch which was something only Evolvers could do.
"Thank you, mister Cerven." Athelei smiled and handed the old man three silver coins. He then made his way to the room he would own for the next three months. He scaled two sets of stairs and then moved through the thin corridors. As he made the short trip, he vaguely heard the chatter downstairs as they placed him into the focus of their conversation.
"Did you see him? He's totally grey except for his eyes!" A voice exclaimed.
"Come on, Akurai, that was clearly a girl. Her voice has a certain charm to it that your single bum can't ever come to know."
"A girl? No, he was clearly a guy, right? Some noble son sent out into the wilds because of a problem in the family!" Akurai answered with a slight slur to his speech.
"Now that's just your imagination speaking," The second voice said before laughing out loud. "And you've had too many cups of booze again! We still have work to do tomorrow!"
.
.
.
It was now midnight as a regular, light fog blanketed a grand mansion sitting on a hilltop.
The frosty white fog swirled with nigh-invisible wisps of grey around different works of art. Particles danced under the starry night sky and a multi-coloured Cosmic Interface flickered to life as if a ghost was in possession of it.
Athelei was going through the statues and frescoes that littered the noble mansion he stayed in. At first, he used Inspect with varying intents. Some paintings he asked for its creator, and some carvings he asked for the day of its creation.
He was not granted any experience for his attempts... that was until he asked for an artwork's [Message]. He came across such a question simply because more than once was he unable to understand why someone would make such strokes or shapes. It had been an accident.
An unintended yet welcome event.
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Moonlight Waltz
- "I made this for you, my dear lover from afar, in the hopes that you can see this from the stars that had taken you. May you one day shine once more."
[ +1 Exp to Analysis Skill: Inspect (Current Exp: 11/15) ]
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"...Curious," Athelei couldn't help but mutter when a realisation dawned upon him, "Have I been using Inspect in a crude manner since the start?"
In some way or form, it was always,
[What are you? What materials compose you? What are you called? What's your history? What are your abilities? Characteristics?]
So much so, that Athelei glanced over the questions of,
[What are you meant to be? Why have you been created in this form? What were you made to do?]
Now, with Inspect, he realised that the sculpture he had been looking at seemed alive. He felt emotions tug at his heartstrings as a phantom moonlight spotlight seemed to be shining down on it. The sculpture was that of a young woman, with flowing long hair looking up into the sky.
Athelei could now clearly see the terror in her gaze as she looked up. He then looked up along with her and realised that a constellation lay exactly where she was looking.
'Coincidence?' Athelei asked himself as he felt compelled to execute Inspect on that suspicious group of stars.
"How are you related to the Moonlight Waltz?"
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Grasp of Time
- Primary Warden of Oxhor
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Athelei's eyes gleamed as bright as the stars. He mumbled that four-word description as he recalled a similar phrase of mystery and haunting.
=o=o=o=o=
The Gods are not gods.
=o=o=o=o=
It brought back a few memories.
Because of that, Athelei's thoughts had begun to wander as he used Inspect on many of the works of art. He had discovered another world as he was enlightened of what [A picture is worth a thousand words] could mean. He felt the depth of each stroke of paint, each chisel mark, and each subtle choice of colour.
All of these 'revelations' subsequently brought his Inspect close to its maximum level.
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- Trinity Analysis Skill: Inspect (Level 4/5) (Exp 8/20)
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While Athelei still had many works of art to inspect, he suddenly felt a familiar sensation fall upon him. Someone was summoning his wings and opening a path for him to tread. It gave him a vague feeling of freedom as if he suddenly had another direction to move in after factoring out all three dimensions of movement.
"I wonder what it is this time," Athelei spoke to himself as he stepped through the spatial pathway and began a trip that spanned several hundred kilometres yet would last a single moment.
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.
.
Irene Vistas had come across a small problem.
A monster was chasing after her.
It was a weird one. She could not see it, but she could feel and hear it. It was a constant buzzing noise that seemed to move around, playing notes of many different pitches. It bore no substance, from what she could observe.
Just simple sound.
'I shouldn't have read that weird text out loud,' Irene cursed to herself as another wave of sound threatened to burst her eardrums. Only the special aura borne from the infant wings on her back was providing her with reprieve.
=o=o=o=o=
"Oh, Angel of grey,
With a smile so sweet,
And eyes filled with interest;
Please guide this lost soul,
Guard me against harm,
In the name of all that you serve."
=o=o=o=o=
Irene sang a prayer of her own creation. She fashioned it after ancient texts, grabbing phrases that seemed to fit the Angel she knew, and grafting them into her sentences. It was quite awkward but it had done the trick, and Angel did not seem to mind it.
As long as she could call that curious creature, Irene was satisfied.
Fwoosh!
Irene felt her wings suddenly get dwarfed by another pair of 5-metre-wide wings of grey smoke and fog. A fierce gust of wind blew, accompanied by a brass-coloured aura.
The noise that had been plaguing her ears waned for a brief moment as the particles in the air were so violently tampered with.
'Angel's here!' Irene was happy when she felt the familiar presence of a companion she had never expected to have.
"...Why have you angered a song?" Irene suddenly heard that mischievously childish voice among the buzzing sounds that surrounded her once again.
"A song? What song? That's just noise! Help!" She hurriedly said as she forced out another wave of golden Tangible Will. She tried messing with her surroundings just like the way Angel had done when it made its entrance.
Another lull in the noise occurred, and Irene was overjoyed.
'I just need to overpower that little shit and all will be fine!' She inwardly screamed, hurling an almost solid golden sphere towards the locus of all the noise.
"Angel, help me blast it!" Irene yelled out, and she watched a faint brass-coloured Tangible Will suddenly appear.
It encircled both her golden sphere and the unseen monster.
GONG!
Irene shuddered in pain when the shockwave of her attack hit her. It shook the loose pebbles that lay all around the underground dungeon she was exploring. And unfortunately for her, there were more shockwaves incoming.
GONG!
GONG!
GONG!
Irene fell to her knees, clutching her head. Blood dribbled out of her ears, and a fierce ringing assaulted her brain.
A hand fell onto her shoulder, making her flinch. She was expecting another round of auditory pain.
"...Are you okay?" Instead, it was Angel's baffled voice, "What was that about?"