February 21, 1976
The Holy Kingdom of Soreh, Riad's Estate
(One Week Before Present Day)
(Yamir's POV)
Taking it easy and making sure to approach the source of the signal with great care, I visualized the wavelength of the energy.
The last time I tried using Perception Magic for this, it was, what you could say, through "brute force".
If the person we are searching for are sensitive to their surroundings, then it's no wonder how they were able to flee before we could even arrive.
This time however I believed its about time I do this through a less obvious approach.
While I visualized that wavelength, I eventually noticed that for some odd reason, it had spiritual properties similar to my own powers.
Knowing that, a random idea came to mind.
Instead of trying to "hunt" down the signal, why not "sync" with it?
Was this idea farfetch'd? Definitely.
But maybe it was crazy enough to work.
By slowly fusing my own energies with it, I tried "merging" with it. But the moment I did, I felt something was off.
It was extremely faint, but for some reason, I could hear a female voice somewhere off in the distance.
It definitely didn't sound like Via or any other woman I have met before so who was it from?
I was unsure, but whoever this person may have been, she was trying to say something to somebody.
However, the words that came out of her were so incoherent and inaudible, not because they were too quiet, but rather, far too loud to make any sense of.
And as if that alone wasn't bad enough, it wasn't only jumbled words and nonsensical phrases that I had to deal with. Several yet rather vague images of unknown events flickered into my mind all at once.
Events that I have never witnessed before. One that felt so foreign that I would have mistook them for memories that belonged to somebody else entirely.
In this moment, it was nigh impossible to try and unpack all of the miscellaneous information that flooded in. Nevertheless, try and figure out the meaning behind it all.
Despite that however, there was one butchered phrase I could barely make out in the midst of the chaos.
".....Daz---!!!??"
But before whoever was speaking was able to finish, everything abruptly faded to black.
"Yamir!?" Via cried out in worry.
"Huh!??"
A great wave of surprise and confusion warped my face as my eyes widened and brows greatly shifted upwards. A sense of dizziness and a terrible headache followed soon after.
My legs and knees buckled like jello and the world felt like everything was being turned upside down.
Was I falling over?
I couldn't even understand that much. That's just so out of touch I was with reality. My distorted senses prevented me from even noticing Via moving swiftly to catch me from falling.
"You good!?" She asked aloud, being extremely concerned about her.
Who, the hell....
That was a question I wanted to ask, but surprising I was too out breathe to speak up.
This incident was extremely random, but my vitality had suffered a surprising blow like never before.
Although nothing seemed to make sense anymore, one thing was clear to me.
Something mysterious had occurred when I tried syncing with that energy. But the question was why was this happening now?
Despite the multiple occasions I tried doing this before, this reaction was a first for me.
And what was this sensation?
Was this what people called, "homesickness"?
For a temporary minute, an intense feeling of missing some sort of home engulfed me.
It was a type of grief one could only feel when witnessing the destruction of your family and friends with your own two eyes.
But in my case, feeling this type of emotion shouldn't have been possible. That's because I have no friends to care about in the first place, let alone family.
Regardless, this foreign sense of trauma left such a painful impression on me, rendering me unable to subconsciously handle the pressure.
It got so bad that my mentality couldn't take it anymore and forcibly cut the magical link, hence the reason as to why everything faded to black.
The swift return back to reality afterwards however gave me enough whiplash to create a distorting effect which messed with my eyesight and sense of balance.
The headache was also a side effect.
As frightening as it may sound, all of this happened in the span of less than a minute.
Even though I managed to return back to normal, I could tell that my heart that I thought was all null and void felt something peculiar.
Perhaps this is what they called the "taste of life".
"What happened to you?" Riad asked me.
Though capable of speaking, I wasn't sure if I should immediately respond.
Instead, I held my mouth shut for a second and held my head up with one of my hands before eventually getting lost in thought.
"I heard somebody." I later replied.
Riad crossed his arms while his eyebrows shifted upwards.
"Who?" Via asked while helping me up.
"Don't know, but it sounded completely new yet extremely faint. I can't say who, but it all felt so...familiar, I guess? The energy that I sensed, it was like looking in a mirror." I explained.
Feeling these types of emotions for the very first time, I wasn't exactly sure how to word it, but the feeling of familiarity and homesickness still roared strong over me.
Not to mention I wasn't too sure as to what the voice was referring to when she said "Daz".
And since the events that transpired beforehand would be even harder to explain, my intuition told me it would be better to omit those details altogether.
Despite knowing full well what the possible consequences were, this was an action that the me in the future was going to be grateful for.
"Mirror? So like some sort of reflection?"
"Yeah, something like that, but it was a real person. No, maybe some sort of god?" I speculated.
Not to sure why the first thing I thought was the word, "god", but for some reason, it felt the most natural.
Perplexed, Via glanced towards Riad, hoping for some sort of answer.
His deadpan face had suddenly changed to that of amusement.
It reached a point, he started trying to hold back a laugh or two, but was unable to stop a chuckle from leaking out.
As the seconds passed, it became more difficult to keep quiet. The chuckles grew louder and more intense.
Until suddenly….
"HAHAHAHAHAHAAH!"
For some ominous reason Riad couldn't help but chuckle aloud, almost laughing hysterically like someone told a witty yet twisted joke.
His laughing didn't seem like it was going to settle down anytime soon, either. He continued on as his hysterical spouts forced his face to look upwards towards the ceiling.
As if trying to hide his real emotions from being seen, he covered his eyes with his left palm.
"God, you say? Now this is rich. Perhaps too fucking perfect!"
"What's your deal all of a sudden?" Via asked him with raised eyebrows.
While they have heard this chilling voice pattern of his on certain occasions before, they were still a bit on edge from it coming out so randomly.
Me, more so then Via.
"My deal? Oh hoh hoh. Oh my sweet Via. Pay close attention to our beloved Yamir, why don't you? Perhaps then you'll see why."
"To Yamir? Hmm…"
Following his instructions, Via looked back toward me.
Though she gave me a slow and detailed full body assessment, nothing physical particularly stood out to her.
Got to say though, her intense gaze made me a little uncomfortable.
However, when she became a little bit curious as to why I was holding my head up with my palm, everything seemed to click for her.
"Hm....? Hey, wait a second!" She exclaimed, her eyes popped open with realization.
Seemed like Via finally noticed something out of the ordinary, but to me, I was still kept in the dark.
"Did you just resonate with somebody?" She later asked me.
"Did I do what now?"
Don't get me wrong, I know what Resonate is.
It's a special technique that allows a person to sync with another person who stands on equal measure.
Course, it's a somewhat ancient technique and isn't widely practiced anymore since it was too gimmicky for many to effectively master.
The only reason why I even knew about it in the first place was because I seen Via and Riad use it every so often some time in the past.
"If that's what happened to you, then I guess it would make sense why you heard some sort of voice." Via explained.
Yeah, that sounds about right. If the connection is strong enough, telepathy is theoretically possible.
My thing is, resonating requires atleast two people, and both must be standing in each other's nearby vincinity in order to pull it off.
And from what I can tell, Riad and Via are the only people here, and it wouldn't make sense if I resonated with either of them.
But despite me being clueless as to what's going on, it seemed like Riad knew the answer all too well.
Chuckling a little under his breath, he walked up behind me in order to grab me firmly by the shoulders. And once he rested his face beside my cheeks, he looked down towards Via.
"And she didn't just Resonate with no ordinary bumpkin. You see, our precious Yamir just resonated with a Goddess!"
What?
While I was still lost in the dark about what he was talking about, hearing that last sentence from Riad made Via's eyes widen out of utter surprise.
"A goddess?" I couldn't help but ask.
"So we finally found her huh…" Via mumbled aloud.
She had a small moment of surprise but it wasn't long until she started letting out a small grin. Meanwhile Riad slid the map over in my direction.
His vile and twisted smile gave off a menacing aura of dread. One that almost intimidated even me.
Suddenly, he slapped his palm on the table.
"You know where don't you!? Point! Tell me now!"
As he demanded, his face became a disturbing mixture between fury and psychotic...pleasure?
Despite witnessing his body tremble with a strange sense of excitement, Via looking dead at me with gleeful, yet unforgiving expectation.
To make matters worse, the two of them slowly positioned themselves closer to me, subtly making sure there wasn't any possibility for me to escape.
Whether or not this was an action they consciously took, it was clear that they demanded a sufficient answer right now.
Though I was a little bit uncomfortable, I wasn't exactly afraid.
If anything I was too busy being confused by the mysterious voice I heard earlier. However, I wasn't stupid enough to forget my current situation.
After turning one deep breath into a sigh, I looked towards the map yet again. Mainly in the bottom right corner of it where it showed off the general location of The Holy Kingdom of Wüder.
Paying closer attention to the details, I cross referenced the information with the energy that I synced with from earlier.
"...Here....?" I said aloud, but an unfortunate hint of doubt was laced inside my voice.
There was a bit of hesitation in my voice, but I was at least eighty percent sure that the area I was pointing to was correct.
Eighty percent, huh. Honestly, that's still pretty risky odds considering the gravity of my situation.
"Where's here?" Via asked.
To answer her, I pointed to a small city state located around the black lines that marked the border of the Wüder kingdom.
"Cheshire?"
"You're sure about this!? You're not lying are you!?" Riad eventually asked me with a furious voice.
Ow, ow, ow, that hurts.
As he asked me that question, he tightened his grip on my shoulders. His fingernails almost clipped through my shirt and dug sharply into my skin.
This time, he wasn't too focused on suppressing his own "wrath". From out of nowhere, that demon of his quickly returned back.
This time though, it's destructive influences had him dancing in the palms of it's hands.
And in case you was wondering, contrary to what Riad may think, Via was not the one who was watching him from earlier today. If anything, her being there was just a coincidence.
The person who truly was watching Riad from the shadows was actually me. That's how I know of his prior struggle with his inner demons from earlier.
So to see that same man who prevented himself from losing control to suddenly become possessed by it's chaotic miasma was ironic in of itself.
So much so that I kind of wanted to laugh.
"I'm sure. There is no doubt in my mind." I eventually replied, standing firm as best I could in the face of his rather violent approach.
Our eyes met yet again as tension grew even thicker than before. My eyes stared deep into his crimson pupils, showing no signs of fear or any emotion for that matter.
As if successful beating him in this stand off, Riad backed off and accepted the answer. Feeling somewhat reassured, he took a moment to calm down and relax.
His wicked smile started to turn to something more genuine. As if feeling proud of me, he gave me a "reward" by massaging my shoulders. You know, the same ones he was was about to crush, had he got just a little more angrier?
Finally, he tried suppressing that miasma again.
"Fail me one more time Yamir and your days are numbered I swear." He told me.
Despite his warnings, I wasn't the type of girl who would just take threats without a word.
"That's only if I fail, correct? Then what happens if I get you what you want?" I asked, entertaining the situation with crossed arms.
Riad didn't respond however. All he did was scratch the side of his head and sigh a little under his breath.
After regaining his composure, he turned to face me with a more calm and collected expression.
"Then I guess you get to live another day."
Once he told me that, he tried hard to return to normal and address me with his usual happy demeanor.
But knowing him, it was probably no different then him puting on yet another perfect facade.
After all, everything about our dear "Captain Riad" was fake. Nothing more but another mask for the true man beneath to wear.
But it makes you wonder. Who really is the man who lies beneath?
"We'll get cookies when we get back to Cheshire. If I remember correctly, there's a good bakery in town that opened up not too long ago."
"In the meantime, I suppose that means you want us to get packed?" I asked.
Riad chuckled.
"Of course. After all, if you aren't careful, then that would mean, this would be our "final" trip together~"