Anyway, I left the two of them doing their thing and went to find Cali. As soon as I arrived at the game room door, I could still only hear her breathing (I still think there's something wrong with saying that, even if it's just to me)
"Tock, Tock"
—Cali, are you okay there?
....
No reply
"Tock, Tock"
—Hey Cali, I'm going to come in, okay? Just to make sure everything is okay with you. — I said, turned the doorknob and put my face inside the room.
I soon saw Cali sitting at the table with several papers and writing materials spread out on top, as well as the tablet and the crystal that we got from that mounted demon, so far so good except that she didn't react when I entered.
And she definitely wasn't focused on her research or anything like that, she was just sitting with a blank stare toward the wall and breathing, as if in a trance.
—Hey Cali, are you okay? — I asked, shaking her shoulder, but nothing, she just continued breathing and looking at nothing.
—Cali?! — I shook her harder but it remained the same, the apprehension I was feeling started to get much worse. And if that tablet and crystal had done something to her head that wouldn't let her respond, I've heard of some artifacts that wizards found in ruins that could do similar things. Could this be the case with these items?!
If so, it would make sense for her not to respond, but that doesn't help finding a way to get her out of that state. What if she stays like this forever because of me, because I insist that I could guide them through the Ordeal and so that I can once again feel that strange feeling that this place provides even though I have seen how cruel this place can be. And if she ends up like this because of my idiocy, one of the only friends I've ever made...
'No, I won't let it happen. Calm down now Connor, there's always some way to fix things.'
I then thought about how little I knew about how these artifacts worked, and I remembered that the weakest ones could have their effects canceled by giving a strong stimulus to the person, preferably with an injection of external Energy to break the connection that the artifact could have established, but this method would have to be done delicately so as not to harm the person. I took a deep breath and thought about the feeling I usually get when I want to lower the perception that the environment has of me, but instead of letting it spread through my body I forced the Energy that was "born" from my heart towards my mothers who they were on Cali's shoulders.
Unexpectedly directing my Energy to find Cali's connection with the tome was not as difficult as I thought it would be, and I soon felt my Energy put itself in the middle of the connection like a knife. I just didn't expect that breaking the connection would cause a small shock explosion that sent me to the other side of the room.
"Thump"
My head hit the wall hard and I felt the air leave my lungs but I'm sure I broke the connection even more because I saw Cali blink and look around the room trying to get her bearings until she saw me on the floor. She quickly came to me, but if I expected any kind of thanks I was very naive.
—DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW DANGEROUS THIS WAS, AND IT WAS JUST LITTLE LEFT TO END!!! YOU IMBECIAL!!!— she screamed in my face, and came towards me angrily, but as soon as she realized the position I was in, she seemed to calm down. — Haaaaaaa... Ok, I'm sorry, I think I should have predicted that something like this would happen. Are you okay, Connor?—she asked, offering me her hand.
—Yes, it was more of a scare than anything, but what did you mean by there was little left to finish?— I asked, remembering the look of almost insane anger that she had on her face, just like when we fought the green demons and the beasts.
As soon as I asked, her eyes brighted and I could have sworn I saw her eyes double in size for an instant.
—Great question!!, in fact I was comparing the notes, with the letters on the crystal tablet and those in the tomes, after some guesses I came to the conclusion that the tomes could not be written in just one language, not only that too I considered that there might be some kind of code hiding some secret. Which was partially true, but in fact the tomes would have certain parts with other languages, one similar to the language that humans spoke but with variations, and another that the humanoid creature spoke. — She said everything in one breath and then continued.
—I needed some more time to be able to decipher what those words meant, and in the meantime I also managed to determine a good part of what the crystal tablet had, but the most interesting part comes now. After I realized the differences between the languages of the human groups and partially the creature, the tome started to suck my Aeter spontaneously out of nowhere, of course I was scared at first I tried to fight it but I couldn't, but the more the tome absorbed my The images seemed clearer, as did the letters. The next moment everything in front of me went dark but soon I found myself in that place where the humans were and I saw and heard them as well as I see and hear you now, even more so because almost every action they did seemed to be accompanied by music perfect for that moment. And during all this time my Aeter, which had been exhausted, had already recovered and on top of that it was being nourished just like when we fought the monsters of the Ordeal!!! Believe it!!!— she said with the biggest smile I've ever seen her give, and looking directly into my eyes while almost pushing her face towards me, honestly I was even scared of her at that moment.
It seems like she realized what she was doing as soon as she finished speaking and saw that I wasn't responding and then she walked away, ran her hand through her hair, cleared her throat and said.
—Huh-hm, sorry again, it's just that this is a huge discovery, not only can we now have an idea of what the tomes hide, but also the boards at the entrance, perhaps with this some of the secrets of the Ordeal will be revealed. — she said, looking at me through the eyes, but clearly avoiding looking directly at my face. Good thing, since I don't know if her face would be white from the fear she had given me or red from how close her lips were to mine.
—Well, honestly I don't try a lot of these things, but I know it's amazing that you discovered all of this in such a short time, Cali. If anyone still had doubts about their intelligence, they would have to do something even more incredible than discovering two languages alone in a few hours. — I told her.
—Huh, thanks, really let's see what the old guys from the temple of fists are going to say about me now, or those wizards. — she said with a fierce smile and her eyes sparkling, she had already heard that there is still some discrimination between genders in the order, apparently that is the case and her anger towards the magicians is easy to understand.
—But you know, you didn't need to be so angry when I brought you out of the trance, it's not like you didn't already know how the story ended, right?
—No, no, no, that wasn't the end of the story, there was still a little more, and I was almost able to see it when you appeared. — she said, slamming the pine on the table and looking at me angrily again.
As she was doing this the crystal tablet ended up hitting her hand and a faint glow appeared on it, and then letters appeared on the surface, letters that I obviously had no idea what they meant. But Cali apparently now understood better from the look of surprise she gave.
—What happened, was there a problem with the board, Cali?
—It's not that, I just think that now I understand better what this "status" means.
-Whow so?
—These letters that appeared here now are saying that I got a new skill.
—Heehhh unders-... Wait, what do you mean!!!????