A middle aged woman wearing a black apron broomed the wooden floor of her restaurant. There were barely twelve tables within the shop, but none of them were occupied. She was alone.
The bell above the doorframe jingled as the door opened, grabbing her attention.
A handsome young man with silver hair and eyes wearing a gentlemanly attire stepped in. Following him was an extremely beautiful young lady garbed in a neat commoner dress. The shop owner was so engrossed in their looks that she almost forgot what she was about to say.
"I am extremely sorry." She bowed. "The shop is-"
Xavier flicked a medallion to her.
The shopkeeper caught it in surprise. She gasped when she saw a knife and a fork crossed and engraved on the golden badge.
After a couple of seconds, she woke herself up from the stupor and bowed again. "Please come upstairs." She gestured at the stairs at the corner of the room.
Xavier and Eulene walked up the staircase.
The scene at the upper floor was worlds apart from the one at the bottom. Grand wallpapers hid the old wooden wall, a lustrous red carpet covered the floor. An unlit chandelier hanged from the false ceiling.
What illuminated the room was the silver light of the full moon. There was only a handful of tables on this floor- four to be precise. They were nothing like the cheap furniture down there, rather it was extravagant- made from archaic wood and covered with white silk. The chairs were throne-like, with an intricately designed backrest and leather covered cushion.
Xavier was nonchalant while Eulene frowned.
"Strange," she mumbled.
Xavier gave her a questioning look.
"I was taught that eateries were divided by classes. Cheap eateries served the commoners while the expensive ones served the upper class. But this one…"
"We serve everyone." A young lady- beautiful, her face resembling the older lady from before- walked up the stairs with a candle in her hand.
"That's surprising," Eulene said. "I thought the upper class don't mix well with the commoners."
"They don't." The newcomer shook her head. "But against mother's cooking, everyone's defenceless." She declared in pride.
"So, the commoners eat downstairs while the upper class comes here?" Eulene scanned around the hall again.
"No. Everyone eats downstairs. Only the members of 'the society' are allowed to step here."
"The society?" Eulene squinted.
The young lady with the candle gave Eulene an examining glance before switching her gaze to the young gentleman.
"Leave her," Xavier interrupted. "Do your work."
The girl bowed. "Young sir, should I?" She raised the candle.
"Just light the chandelier." Xavier walked to the eastern window and sat at the table right beside it. The moonlight refracted through the glass and gave the white tablecloth a silver hue.
Eulene sat right opposite him.
The lady with the candle completely ignored Xavier's lack of gentlemanly etiquette as she walked to the crank handle on the wall and rotated it, lowering the chandelier to human reach. She torched all the candles with her own and cranked the chandelier back up.
The room was illuminated now as if it were day. The prismatic glass surrounding the candles shone light on every nook and cranny of the room. But it did not came into the way of the queenly light of the moon in any way.
The young waitress brought out two hard papers from the pocket in her apron. They had painted pictures of various dishes on the side with names, and of course- prices.
Xavier and Eulene took one each. Witnessing the pictures, Eulene barely leashed her hunger while Xavier skimmed through the menu.
Eulene, who learned a bit about Avarese norms, turned to the waitress. "I want all the lamb items. Make it extra spicy."
She had tasted lamb once, cooked by her auntie herself, and it was delicious. It's a shame that they were unavailable back in her own world.
Her peculiar order attracted strange gazes from both Xavier and the waitress. But they failed to pierce through Eulene's thick skin.
It was Xavier's turn. "A beef steak and as for the desserts- I want them all." He kept staring at the menu, not daring to look up.
Two piercing gazes crawled into his skin, surging his blood, making his cheeks hot. "Ahem." He tipped his hat, attempting to hide his face. "Sugar is good for the brain."
The waitress laughed. "Good choice young sir. Desserts are mother's specialty." She took back the menus, and also the trident candle holder on the table.
Maybe they were just business partners, she thought as she walked away, or a young couple too embarrassed to have a candlelight dinner.
But Eulene's words, when the waitress was just a couple of steps away, almost made her trip over.
"Hi. I am Yue Lin. What's your name?"
"Xavier Godwin."
Eulene clicked her tongue. "Have you not read books when you were young? The answer is-" She deepened her voice, mimicking his. "Hello. I am Xavier Godwin. How are you?"
Xavier gave her a condescending look.
Eulene shrugged. "I am fine. Thank you."
Xavier put forth his hand. "That crystal- give it to me."
"And why should I?" She smirked. She had snatched the crystal while it rose along with the boulders when they first made a move.
"You don't have the money to pay for all those lamb dishes, do you?" he asked with indifference.
"I-" Eulene's face twitched. Her tummy growled again. The mouthwatering pictures of all those juicy looking dishes flashed in her mind. She gritted her teeth and gave up. Her ring glinted as she passed the yin crystal to him.
The crystal was somewhat soft, malleable to the pressure of the fingers, with an icy cold surface. It did not produce any shadows like the Darksphere, as if it absorbed all light. But it's surface reflected his image nonetheless. "Tell me everything you know about this."
"Why should-"
Xavier looked straight into her eyes.
"Fuck! It's a pure yin crystal, condensed from a very high amount of pure yin energy."
"Yin?" Xavier frowned.
"Opposite of yang."
"Yang?"
"Opposite of yin."
"…"
"It's hard to explain. In short, yang represents male, hard, hot, sun, light, day, body and other things which can be taken as 'positive'. While yin represents female, soft, cold, dark, moon, night, soul and other 'negative' things."
Xavier recalled all the experiences inside the world of the Darksphere and everything started to make sense. "A fascinating concept." He fidgeted the core. "So because it's composed of the so-called yin energy- it's soft, cold, dark, absorbs all light, and I suppose the reflection on its surface is the 'negative' counterpart of reality or something along that line."
Eulene nodded.
"And I also presume that you entered the Darksphere without any resistance because you are a female."
She inclined again.
"This clears a lot." Xavier now understood why he did not find the lady close-by despite reaching the Darksphere fast. "Yin- it's interesting indeed."
Eulene's pupil dilated. She could not let go of this opportunity. "Did you mean 'Yin'teresting?" she asked with a smug smile, proud of herself to come up with that 'phun' thingy Sarah taught her.
Xavier stopped fidgeting the Yin crystal and gave her a weird look, as if he were looking at something even lowlier than an animal.
This time, even her thick skin could not protect her from a rush of blood.
'Why?' She was sure it was a good phun.
Remembering something, Xavier's eyes turned serious as he placed the crystal down on the table. "Where are you from?"
Eulene composed herself. "I came from across the Southern-."
"You are not of this world, are you?"