Chapter 16
I start to gain consciousness and when I come to I realize I'm on someone's bedding, but I don't recognize it or the room I'm in plus the injury seems to have been treated and bandaged. I try to sit up but the pain from the stab wound still lingers. I start to smell some strong alcohol and as I look to the side of the bedding I see a bottle of alcohol, I take it and sniff it and whooo is that some strong stuff. I assume it was used in disinfecting my stab wound which is why it was left here, I mean why else would they leave a bottle of cheap ass alcohol close to me, I hope they don't think I'm an alcoholic though. regardless I chug on it and not only is it strong in smell but in taste as well, I manage to get on my feet and make my way to the door way while leaning on the wall for support. I open the door and head for the stairs and on getting there I start to hear chattering, it seems to be codala talking with someone downstairs,a human, a woman, or atleast I assume it's a woman from the voice. as I approach them,the floorboard makes a creaking sound, she notices me and quickly covers her face with a scarf as if trying to keep me from seeing her face.
" I see your awake, how do you feel ? " codala asks
" honestly I've been better " I reply, while looking at the mysterious figure, then I ask the question on everybody's mind.
" who is she ? "
" that should not be of concern to you at the moment " he says
the hell it shouldn't be of concern to me, I barely know codala and I wake up in what I assume is his house with another stranger who I don't know in the same house. to make it worse she doesn't even want me to see her face, wouldn't it be funny if I actually knew this person. codala assures me that they both mean me no harm, he asks that I sit at the table with them, so I sit. he asks if I'm hungry, well he doesn't ask, more like " you must be hungry, let me get you something to eat " in the creepiest way possible, but I am hungry so I don't decline. he brings me some porridge he made and tells me to enjoy, I taste it and it's honestly not that different in taste from what my mother makes. as I eat he can tell I'm enjoying it and tells me that if I'm still not satisfied after that serving he can get me another one, I giggle at the offer like I wouldn't like another serving. as soon as I finish the bowl of porridge I ask to get another serving and while he goes to get it I ask a question I shouldn't have asked.
" what's the recipe ? "
" oh, it's quite simple really, I used rice undigested from rat stomach " he says.
oh my god, my expression instantly goes blank, the disappointment is evident in my facial expression. there is no way I haven't been traumatized by this, I push the dish to the side while asking him for the direction to the restroom but before he can even give me directions I burst through the front door and start to vomit outside, my mouth starts to taste like crap. that's when I notice that there's something wrong with the sky, it's color is different from what I remember it to be. now unless me literally being stabbed in the back somehow affected my mind, I believe the sky was supposed to be blue and white but for some reason it's empty. you could argue that it's night time but there are no stars, I can't even see the moon. I don't need anybody to tell me this is the work of magic, I also notice the house is resting on nothing but a floating rock. while I'm outside amazed and terrified at what I'm seeing, codala comes out the house with his mystery guest and tells me not to be afraid. he tells me not to be afraid, like that's enough to comfort me, I think he has too much faith in his own voice. he explains to me that we are currently in a different space, a space between spaces, not that I understand what he's saying but he says that there are different dimensions and that we are in a dimension in between dimensions. he says that he brought me here because it was the safest place he knew to bring me to without having the capital guards breathing down our neck. I ask how long I've been here and he tells me that we've been here for barely six hours. then I ask that he explains to me more about the dimensions, he goes on to explain that most of the creatures on our world are not even originally native to our world but from most of those other dimensions/spaces. I ask how they got there if they were not native species but he says that knowledge is beyond him, according to him in most magic chants the verses explain how to draw power from both the caster and the residual energy in these other dimensions, this is what makes magic possible in this world. it's starting to make sense to me, the magic system that is. wow, I never really even had any interest in dabbling in magic but this is pretty cool, I think I might start taking magic lessons even though I know my mom will be against it. he says that this space is where he lives, where he hides from the cruelty of the capital and the king. now that he mentions that I can't help but feel some way towards the king, there's no way he can say he doesn't see what's happening in the capital. it's right under his nose, he has to be able to see everything that's happening, unless of course he just deliberately ignores it. with all that happening, whose to say the king will even give a crap about the looming threat of the Wakaani. for all we know he might even be involved with the Wakaani. now I begin to wander how xel is doing on his end to inform The High Lunar Judge about their distant cousins, one can only hope they're making some progress.