Year 1, Month 6:
...
-Ai
--
On a cliff overlooking a radiant pier, Bie, Aimee, and Domingo were cloaked by the yellowing violet rays of dusk, and the environment was filled with the babbling of a nearby brook. The young Guide stood nearest the edge; face directed towards the horizon and arms shifting near his chin. He fiddled with the crisscrossed thread on his rightmost wrist, waiting for Aimee to question why he had asked them to be here.
"So what's the big deal?" She said, her voice slightly hoarse as an uneasy feeling crept up her spine, "You've been evading us for a week..."
Domingo fiddled around with his chestnut locks, lips pursed and eyes grim. He already had an inkling as to why he was leaving, and so he spoke up and made his thoughts known.
"You're not from this world, are you?"
"Domingo!" Aimee's face reddened in a fluster, her lips trembling as she started to shiver in anger. She was sure he was making a joke once again, in a time where it would be improper. He would always do this, so what made now any different?
"You're right. I'm going soon..." Bie's voice trailed off as he kept facing the fading sun, sadness evident in the way he spoke. It was today when he received a mental indication in the form of a weird voice, telling him that it would soon take him out of the Path of Renthia. Seeing all that had changed in the world during his stay, he felt somewhat content at all he had done for the people here.
"What are you two talking about?!" Aimee was nonplussed, her visor gleaming red as she darted her head back and forth between the two. The uneasiness intensified in her heart when the two remained silent for a minute, before Domingo chose to elaborate to her.
"That power doesn't exist in this world. It defies the concepts of what this world was built on, so he can only be an outsider." Domingo carried on with a monotonous cadence, his expression like an empty slate compared to Aimee's apparent distress. He stood tall and unerring, his spine as rigid as stone.
"Yep! You're smarter than you look, you know? Hehe...it was Abram, wasn't it?" Bie's voice became cheerful, somewhat breaking the tension between the three. His pupils were white crosses, slowly rotating clockwise as he spoke, and before him a small yellow branch glimmered faintly. He was performing one of the abilities the Cassius Eyes had given him, known as Eyes That Pierce The Fade. With enough understanding of something, he could 'gaze' into some of its properties further, and illusions would become progressively ineffective on him.
That was why he knew of the effects Domingo was experiencing from Abram Overlapping. It gave him an insight into the properties of the world with each use, enlightening him as it were. As such, Domingo could detect the odd properties of his own abilities as they did not match with the alignment of the Path at all.
"What does that matter?! Otherworlder or not, you're here now, right? You can stay here..."
"Nope! I really can't, though it's nice that you chose to tell me that." Bie turned around, a black tear falling down solitarily from his left eye. His blue violet lips were brought into a small smile, and he shoved his hands into his pockets as he took a step forward.
"I really have to leave, though I'll remember you two if no one else does. Thank you for everything." He took small strides forwards, his smaller frame almost traversing the gap between the two completely before Domingo put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him.
"Aimee. Don't you have something to give him?" Aimee jumped a little while her shoulders arced upwards, before she hurriedly grabbed an ivory white weapon out of a small pouch, runes snaking towards the air as the pouch opened. A pearl as large as a head laid on her palm, a small fissure opening to reveal a solid lake composed of bony armaments, blades peeking out of the marbling cracks. She pushed it into Bie's arms, who held it to his chest as he turned around.
"B, you can always come back here, alright?" She said, her voice tinged with complete and utter sadness. She took a step back, her toes pointed to the side as if she would look away at any moment. But behind her visor, her eyes were locked onto Bie's expression, not daring to miss even a second.
Domingo nodded, reaching out a hand to ruffle the black part of Bie's hair. The boy simply stood and accepted it, feeling the trembling of the man transmitted through his shaking palm and locked wrists. Seconds passed before Domingo stepped back, reaching out a hand to comfort a similarly shaken Aimee.
Bie nodded, stepping backwards one final time. The black part of his hair was illuminated by the dying rays of the sun, the dijon yellow strands behind the dark curtain curling and unfurling as if to wave goodbye. His eyelashes were curled as well, intertwining as they drew fine lines in front of his closed eyes brought up into crescent arcs, underneath similarly arced eyebrows.
On his face was a dazzling smile, his cold lips effusing warmth unnatural to his constitution. From the ends of his pert nose, he became as particles as the very space around him warped, as if an invisible hand had stolen him from where he once stood.
A few seconds passed before he faded inti nothingness, not a trace of him to be found. Domingo's face suddenly scrunched up as thick tears fell from his darkened orbs, plopping down heavily upon the ground. Aimee cried as well, withdrawing her journal before she began writing, her brows locked as she hurriedly wrote.
--
Bie was hurtling through an imperceptible space, his knees brought up to his chest as he clutched the orb. Wind whistled through his ears as he rapidly flipped in the air, performing the first half of a somersault as strands of his hair clung to the sides of his face.
-An unknown force has taken notice of you.
Suddenly, the caterwaul stopped, and his body immediately stilled. Suddenly, his Inner World seemed to have materialized right before his eyes, and Ekulech floated over towards him while weakly flashing. A pile of assorted royal objects laid in a heap near the Sconce encircling the Torch, and Ekulech abruptly shone bright before pointing the handle towards the orb.
-It has decided to gift you something.
Then, everything before Bie faded into nothingness, and the last thing he saw was Ekulech engulfing the orb within its light, and the phantasm of a creature with a vaguely feminine face that otherwise resembled a slate, and below her neck was a sleek body similar to a dog. On the head was a grey mane of hair, which immediately nestled itself under his fingertips.
--
Lapil stood up, his hands dusting off his white speckled pants as he observed the Seer who had foolishly decided to fight him. The man wore a thin cloth that seemed to erase the features of his body, yet it was tied tightly all the same as the imprint of a chain bound him tightly. From within the portal, Bie's figure emerged face first, before he landed squarely on the ground.