Around an hour had past and mostly silence loomed over the heads of Mist, Foxy and Hearth. Mist asked a couple more questions related to concepts but eventually left him alone as heard the kids voice crack up as if he was barely holding back tears.
Mist smiled at his own intrusive, depressing thoughts about his family and life on Earth but kept on a calm posture already having accepted the absurdity of his situation and wanting to know more about what got him here.
Mist, no, Jake perused through his memories for a little bit of self reflection and when he felt the sound of his own heartbeat he was pulled himself out of the hole his mind was falling in.
Given the fantastical nature of this world he thought he'd give concepts a try out. If there was one thing he was sure of was that he already finished the first step of learning concepts and knew his position in the universe, and where his beliefs lay.
It was definitely important to have an opinion that was morally correct in the 21st century but Jake always enjoyed thinking in ways that didn't fit the mold of his younger generation. He set up principles for himself to follow and given his introverted nature, he had lots of time to think about his view of the world.
So what was next after that? The evocation part, right? Jake thought of novels and anime he watched back then, and even his own characters who he made to be an 'improved' rendition of himself.
He calmly thought of as many ideas as he could, from magic systems, to chakra, and crazy ones like nen.
Unfortunately the time he spent in his imagination was only so limited as Hearth's voice sounded clearer but more quiet than before. Mist could have sworn that he looked like mother when she was pissed.
It gave him shivers just to thinking about it and decided not to get on Hearth's bad side for the time being.
Eventually, in the distance, Mist noticed a large pillar of water, falling and rising from the centre of an urban city. The water dissipated into clouds that had a bioluminescent, white light over the entire city.
There were skyscrapers of varying sizes that matched those of Earth, but they twisted in weird shapes, that seemed incredibly difficult to replicate in humanities level of architecture.
"Where is this place?"
Mist asked Hearth, to which Hearth, in a prideful tone said, "This is the greatest city on our planet of Babel it's name is... Eden."
If there could, there would be loud orchestral music playing in the background as Mist gulped at the wondrous sight of this city, it struck him as odd that despite being as advanced if not more so than Earth that they still rode horses.
Besides that point, Mist took in everyone's appearance in Eden. If these human-like people were to somehow not be discriminated against, then each 'normal' person from Babel would be 10 slaps across the face to every good looking person on Earth.
Truly heaven shattering if the name of this city implied that heaven exists. Mist silently appreciated the world, as it was not so different from Earth on the surface. People coming in and out of stores, carrying bags presumably with clothes, groceries and the like.
It felt more natural, the pavements were made of a tough brick material which made the sounds of galloping horse easier to hear. Every building had different shades of blue plants on their windows, doors and other crevices. The air felt fresh without even a hint of pollution.
Eventually Hearth's horse came to a halt as they stopped in front of a large building, Mist heard him make a 'tsk' sound and asked one of the men at the front door to take his horse to a stable.
They walked into the building without any trouble and Mist wasn't detected since it's not exactly the norm for people to look to see hiding shadows... on this world.
Hearth walked to the front desk and a young lady who seemed to be in her twenties looked up from her interest, laptop like device and simply a shape to fit her hand in.
Around 10 seconds passed as the woman, whose glasses had fallen to the tip of her nose, was staring at Hearth and suddenly.
"Yeee! Hearth is that you??!"
From a calm, professional demeanor she instantly became excited. She hopped over the desk and pulled Hearth into her healthy bosom. Mist stared with dull eyes at this show of affection and left to find Foxy who was still sleeping on Lucky.
=====
While Mist went off, making sure to avoid everyones shadows and as a precaution avoiding people's line of sight, Hearth took a shuddering breath.
"Fori, I need to meet grandpa- father, grandfather."
Hearth changed his tone to a serious, mild one which caught his cousin Fori off-guard who had not expected Hearth to have such a stern face.
"... I'll inform him... do you want to meet dad first? He'd be happy to see you."
Hearth shook his head, "No. Maybe later, I need to meet grandfather first."
She nodded and hopped back over the desk, making a call. A few seconds later she informed, "He'll be free in 10 minutes... Hearth what happened? Where's aunty?"
Hearth's face darkened underneath his bangs, "S-sorry I'll tell you later."
Fori felt like it would be awkward to push it so she left it alone, while Hearth stood, his stature carried a strange emptiness, it was extremely deep for a 12 year old.
"Hearth! He's free now."
Hearth nodded and entered a cylindrical space that shut infront of him. A bright light shone for a split second and then the it opened on the 50th floor, the highest point of the building.
He took a right turn, in front of him an ebony door. He knocked 3 times and heard, "Come in."
The voice sounded young, very much so. Hearth pushed the door open and entered the large office room. In front of him was a luxurious desk with engravings similar to fireworks.
Hearth kneeled on the ground, "First son of Flame, Hearth Flame, greets the patriarch!"
Behind the desk a robust man with shoulders that felt like they could cover the sun looked down on Hearth. The boy gulped under his stare since he knew the reason for such a pressure being borne on him, "You understand what it means to address me as Patriarch young flame?"
"...Yes patriarch."
"...I see. You may stand."
Hearth did as he was told and felt a gust of wind, and his head being on a hefty chest.
"What happened to my daughter in law?"
Hearth choked and he grabbed the large man's garbs,
"T-they were-"
"Shh. Sorry, you don't need to answer... I already know."
Hearth nodded, unquestioning, he broke down hugging the man, his grandfather, the patriarch of one of the three great knight families, Hestios Flame.
=====
Meanwhile Mist had already got Foxy back and decided to go around the city, near the building. He found something akin to a library. For the first time he realised, 'How do I know the language?' He'd spoken so naturally and was even able to read. After much thought he'd assumed it was something granted by the ones who brought him here.
It was a small store, that could be found at the end corner of this commercial district. Mist pulled out two books, one from the kids section, and a book with knowledge about concepts.
He'd read up on other general knowledge later he decided, after all it was a chance to learn something supernatural that didn't exist on Earth and for some reason he felt like competing with the remaining million humans from Earth.
'The Universe For Babys' and 'Concepts general knowledge' are the books he chose, after a bit of page turning he confirmed that the first stage to earn a concept that he was confident in. Next was to find a 'channel', it was important to note that almost everyone chose 1 or 2 channels. The first almost ALWAYS being the brain. It was the place to directly conceptualize in the first place and hence the most efficient, as imagination and understanding did a in manifestation of a concept.
So after a bit of thinking, Mist chose 3 channels after taking some inspiration from other examples given. His first channel was going to be his brain, since it was apparently scientifically proven method he deemed it trustworthy.
Not like he'd question what could be centuries worth of experimentation and testing. His second channel was a unique one and with the 'proven' idea he chose his second channel to be his 'soul' or his 'spirit' as he felt like calling it.
On a pure whim he chose to do this, since it was something so outlandish for the human mind to comprehend, he knew it would be difficult and yet still chose it, plus since when was soul power not OP in stories?
Finally he chose to complete the phrase mind, body and spirit, choosing his entire body as a vessel. In his mind he created a visual map of how it works.
The mind, in charge of creation and organisation, the spirit in charge of transformation and modification, then finally, the body was the final output. As if his body were a computer of sorts, his existence itself, an AI.
Mist was very proud of his conclusion and it gave a CLEARLY logical path he rubbed his nose in satisfaction. In the middle of his ego feeding however he didn't notice a shaking woman pointing.
"A-a-ahhh! there's a flying book and fox!"
Mist turned his head and cursed, without a care he threw a book at the woman's face, signalled Foxy to hop in the light plane and took the two books with him.
He slithered out of the mall all snake-like and heaved heavy breaths. He then looked back at the mall and grinned, his eyes a bit maniacal, "Muahahaha! I am the legendary thief, Mist!"
He spewed cringey lines that no one would hear except for a young girl from the first floor of an apartment building, who simply looked at a wriggling shadow doing the moon walk on the ground with sparkles in her eyes.