Both of them stayed silent for some time. Arthur was organising his thoughts, thinking about what he should ask, whilst Niles was visibly enjoying his Latte and raspberry cake slice. 'Niles'
The name sounded off to Arthur, but he let it go. His name wasn't important. Niles decided to break the silence. "You know, back in my time it was rare to consume sugar, so I can't handle too much sugar but this cake, this cake is amazing. And this latte tastes like heaven to me." Arthur wasn't expecting manners from him, thinking back to the shows he used to watch about vikings, gladiators and other people from the past, but Niles seemed to be well behaved. He thanked the waiter, ate with his mouth closed and only talked after he finished what was in his mouth. Even the way he was eating was clean, not leaving any crumbles of cake fall anywhere other than the plate and silently drinking his latte.
"Yeah I can imagine." Arthur responded, and now his questions were ready. "Who are you?"
"I was a sort of policeman in Egypt, a medjay."
"Did you cause humans to experience supernatural feats of strength?"
"No not me per say. I don't decide on who gets Chosen, but the power was locked with me when I went into deep slumber. They awakened when you woke me up."
"Chosen? Chosen by who?"
Niles took a sip from his latte as he was eyeing his slice of cake. After using his fork to cut off a piece he responded; "By the world I guess? I don't know. At the time that was the biggest mystery to us. 'Chosen' might not even be the right word, we just repeat what our forefathers told us."
If Arthur remembered correctly, Niles told him that he didn't accept the choice or something, and forced him back to sleep. That was not a satisfactory response, but it was good enough for now. He didn't even know if the man in front of him was telling the truth. "Ok, what can you tell me about this power and why is there no mention to it in any historical books or anything?"
"I don't know what the proper word for this power is in your language, or any other language in this world for that matter, but you can call it aura, or soul power, or whatever is best for you. An entity that was believed to be an incarnation of the world appears in people's dreams, taking the shape of their bodies and questions them to see if they're worthy of 'their' power. 'They' as in the entity." Niles took another sip of his latte as Arthur was waiting for him to finish. This information might be false, but this man was probably the best source to ask.
"I have no idea what he questions them about. You see, the entity makes people forget about these dreams and only minuscule fragments of this memory remain in their minds. If a person passes, they have access to this Aura, and their body painfully rebuilds itself to accompany this ability. Your eyesight and hearing get way better, healing any deafness or blindness and your limbs grow if you were an amputee. These enchanced humans go above the natural limit of humanity. If the person fails however, they are just left alone and remain normal for the rest of their lives with no chance to pass ever again."
This time Niles ate some of the slice of raspberry cake. It annoyed Arthur. He wasn't patient enough for this, but he waited. He was yet to respond to the other half of that question.
"As for why no one knows of this power, it seems like any record of it disappeared. You know the library of Alexandria, right?" After a brief confirmation from Arthur, he resumed; "The library of Alexandria housed a plethora of books on this, and I'm speculating it's why it was actually burned down. Before I went to sleep the library was still fine. I'm estimating I went into hibernation somewhere between 100 and 50 BC. Though after some research, it seems some of these elite people have always been aware of this power. I'm guessing that after the entity was locked with me and humans couldn't use aura anymore and reverted back to their normal selves, they banned this knowledge and made anything that was proof of its existence disappear, whilst selfishly keeping this knowledge." The man chuckled a bit. Whatever he found amusing, Arthur couldn't relate, he was not finished with his questions. But Niles wasn't finished with his answer either.
"Actually I'm sure that some of these crimes that have been committed by enchanced people was actually their doing to get even richer and harm their enemies. And now they're surely going to try to monopolise this power. I actually have something to say about that. We'll talk about that after we're finished."
Arthur ate one of the croissants all in one go and gulped down all of the cappuccino. Despite it being boiling hot, it did not have an affect on him. This information was a lot to take on, especially having to accept that this increased crime rate where people have been murdered and robbed, was because of him.
"Don't blame yourself. If anything it's my fault. I would've woken up soon anyways." Niles reassured Arthur, as if reading his mind. Arthur did not feel better, but he had more to ask. Somehow knowing this, Niles said to him; "We'll talk more about this power and yourself when we leave this cafe. Anything else?"
Now Arthur was done with questions about the past and the present, they would talk about it again soon anyways. But he still didn't know how he got to England with no passport, whose bank card that is and how he can speak English so well. Without even letting Arthur state his questions, Niles responded.
"In case you're wondering, yes I have a passport. I'm quite resourceful so after finding the right people and, between me and you…" He leaned closer to Arthur and whispered; "Breaking into some government facilities and altering their database…" Niles relaxed again and finished his slice of cake. "I was able to procure myself an identity under the name 'Nil Malik', Nil meaning the Nile river. I made myself appear like I was an orphan who was taken into an orphanage which now doesn't exist, so there is a valid excuse for any missing document. After you were taken by your class when you fell unconscious in the library and flown all the way here, I made myself a citizen of this country and got a flight to here." He finished the rest of his latte.
"I was focusing mainly on learning about this foreign world and procuring myself legal documents, assimilating myself with society and even getting a bank card. I had some gold down in the tombs with me so I'm just using that for money. Bank cards are really convenient. Currently got a place not far from here." Niles got up.
"Good talk. Let's take in some fresh air." Arthur got up as well and brought the dishes to Alexia and asked her if he can take the croissant he left 'to go'. She happily packed his croissant and smiled at him, and Arthur returned a polite smile and told her he'll talk to her later.
Now he was outside with Niles, in a not-so-awkward silence until Niles once again broke it.
"So here's my deal."