"Would you like some tea?" Qeff smiled. Sitting on his chair behind his desk gave him a sense of security unlike before.
He felt rather refreshed after a suffocating ride with Nein. He had tested the latter numerous times, fearing he could be faking his amnesia, but he hardly slipped.
"No Sir!" Rua sheepishly shook his head, his sweaty fingers fiddled around. Settled next to Seff, the only thing he wondered was why the heck he had to come here.
"You? Seff? Nein?" Qeff glanced toward the other two.
Before Nein could reply, Seff grumpily retorted, "Address me by my rank."
"I will have some juice." Nein licked his lips, he had a wretched scent coming from his body and his mouth had deep-rooted shit like taste.
"Posseto!" Qeff glanced at his secretary. The latter nodded and took off.
As the door closed, Qeff became cozier in his chair and looked toward Nein, "So, you must be piling a bunch of questions you want to ask."
"Yes," Nein straightened up, "So let's start with--"
"Ahem! Sadly I won't be able to satisfy them." He hurriedly shut him down, looking at him so piqued.
Nein clenched his teeth, forcing himseld to flash a smile. "I-I see."
"But, first and foremost, I will answer the questions you would be most dying for- What happened to you? And is it normal to lose your memories?"
Nein nodded, those were indeed crucial questions.
"First, you were put into a state termed 'Slumber' in a catastrophe that struck long ago."
Qeff searched for any nuance changes to his expression but... the latter had an outright bewildered face. He wasn't feigning shock. He had been shocked!
He faked a cough and continued, "I won't go into details about the catastrophe. For the second question, you were at a facility that looks after the 'Slumbering Ones', a national one. Now! This is crucial." Qeff leaned forward in his chair.
"There are two kinds of 'Lab' as we differ them. National and private. Private Labs are run jointly by large families who have some relative who has fallen into 'Slumber'. They mainly only have their own families admitted into it. Now, the national Labs are run by the government. They Slumbering Ones are treated freely from national funds."
His eyes glinted, "Can you get what I am implying?"
Nein's eyes fluttered, clasping his lips, he shook his head.
Qeff sized his expression in silence before slowly blurting it out, "You don't have any family."
Nein's eyes peeled wide in surprise. But, deep down, in his heart, he didn't feel anything.
But still, he replied with his same surprised face, "I-I... see."
"You took that quite easily. It means you either didn't have any family in the first place or... you don't care." Qeff glanced at him thoughtfully.
"I...I don't know." Nein shook his head and glanced down, his eyes glowed subtly, 'He saw through me... I truly don't feel anything but I honestly don't know anything." His expression was complicated.
Qeff sighed, "Well, either way, even if you had a family. They wouldn't exist now, not after three centuries."
Nein's head leaned sideways, "Three centuries?"
"Do you wish to know the current year?" Nein maintained his silence.
"According to the past calendar, it would be the twenty-fifth century. And year 376th of the new Awakened calendar." Qeff added a fine touch of melodramatic tune to his words but still, the latter hardly reacted.
"It seems you... don't feel surprised?" Qeff's brows creased in, 'I don't get him.'
"Um... I really don't know what to expect." Nein laughed embarrassedly, "I guess... if I were to name it... I would say I lack common sense. I don't know what to expect."
"I see." Qeff had a twisted face, "So you... lacked the sense to react to the loss of your family?" Qeff voiced his thoughts.
Nein glanced up, straight into his eyes, "I... guess?"
Qeff fell silent, "Anyways, it's not normal for you to have amnesia. Its the first, if ever, I have come to know of a case where a Slumbering One lost his memories. There may be a few cases where the hybrids had memory loss but... they were those whose heads had transformed, depriving them of a functioning brain, to say." Qeff browsed for the appropriate words, "You are a special case... a very special case!"
"Special!?" Nein chuckled, "I don't think so."
Qeff didn't respond and posed his own question, "Can you, umm... feel any sort of power inside you?"
"Power!?" Nein's expression shifted.
"Oh! I see, I forgot to mention about the powers we humans received after the catastrophe." Qeff leaned back and sent him a charming, enigmatic gaze.
In a crisp snap of his fingers a radiant chart consisting of dots and lines pulled into thin air. Mystical, puzzling and most importantly, surreal.
"Wha--" Nein's body instinctively moved back, "Wha-What is this?... Magic?"
Qeff chuckled, "This is our gift. After the catastrophe, which, according to some was a Serendipitous event. Those who managed to resist falling into Slumber managed to awaken into this. We call it... The Power of Craft!"
"Craft!?!?" Nein repeated, dazed by the dazzling lights. His heart went pitter-patter. His senses overcome by incredulity.
"Yes! We humans can use Crafts. But those who fell into Slumber end up in two situations. One, do you remember what you killed earlier? That thing is one of the two, we call it- Hybridization. Humans who became partly beasts that spread after catastrophe. And secondly, which I presume you to be, an Infusionist."
"In simple terms. Humans, like me, are versatile. We can do lots of things with our Crafts. But Infusionists, can only use one thing, but they can reach into its every field and depth. They are especially skilled in it as well. If you are an Infusionist. You should naturally be feeling something resonating inside yourself. In your case, I doubt it to be strength. Can you feel it?"
Nein looked at himself before chuckling, "Even if there was... I doubt I would manage to pinpoint it."
"Well, thankfully I have a way to test it then." Qeff flashed all his thirty-two teeth.
He reached out his hand, open for a handshake and asked in his humble manner, "May I?"
Nein gulped and hesitantly offered his hand.
Qeff's eyes flickered, 'Let's see now... what you've got.'
As the hands connected, the sensation of something prying inside him reappeared, 'There... It's there again...' Nein felt something encroaching inside him. But strangely, his body didn't resist it.
But allowed it to invade... and that, which laid dormant inside him... devoured it whole.
He had a tingling sensation, something was going to happen. Something deep asleep... it was about to burn! It was... awakening
"Th-that's enough!" He shook off the hand. His whole body trembling from the weird sensation coursing throughout him.
Qeff's mouth hung loose. As if to flick him awake, the door opened, revealing Posseto causally swinging over a glass of juice and placing it in front of Nein.
Without saying anything further, she moved behind Qeff.
"Unbelievable..." Qeff glanced at Nein awkwardly reaching out for the juice and gulping it down. The later had been visibly irked out having no clue about what just happened.