…
"What the hell is that?" Gill said, flabbergasted, mouth hanging open.
…
"That, coming out of you, isn't it?" Ran chimed in while holding her finger to point at the fish. There was bewilderment glued to her tone.
"Uh, I don't know myself," El replied. His lips twitched constantly in confusion.
Then, the trio saw the fish move, swimming to the little girl's corpse. It swam, circling the pole that had already pierced the side of her cheek. Spiraling from the little girl's corpse to the top of the pole. And when it had done so, it swam to the side.
Afterward, they witnessed a magical scene.
The pole started to melt like candy from its top, gradually falling below. On the other hand, the melted iron moved like water, guided by an invisible force, only for it to be reconstructed again on the side.
El, Ran, and Gill watched with mouths open as the newly recreated pole fell, clanking on the floor of the sewer.
"Cool," Gill uttered while dazed in his spot.
After it did so, the fish lit up with a faint white light and hints of blue at the edge of it.
Subsequently, the dirty running sewer water gurgled and then moved, floating in the air. Behind the trio, the water flows stopped, as if there was an invisible dam that held it back.
On the other hand, the waste that was divided from the floated waters separated from its source and then landed on the side of the dry ground. The now clear water advanced and proceeded to swallow the fish in mid-air.
And then they saw the faint white light from that fish spreading to the rest of the water like tendrils of white light.
The fish moved with the water toward the little girl's body, which was already on the dry ground. The water covered the corpse as the fish moved from above the top of her head down to her legs.
The trio moved closer, seeing that, with little worry that the fish would do something to the little girl's corpse.
But much to their astonishment, bit by bit, her cheek flesh regenerated. The bits of wounds marred on her face, arm, and body, along with her detached eye, slowly restored. The dirt on her clothes and body was washed away by the water.
At the end of it, the fish used the water to bring it in front of El, who caught the body with his hands. The rest of the clean water itself was sucked into its mouth, leaving nothing behind. The fish's light dimmed until it returned to its original appearance.
The fish and El then exchanged glances with each other. The former opened its mouth, blowing an air bubble. It floated upward, only to burst when it reached the ceiling.
Looking down toward the little girl in his embrace, as if she was sleeping peacefully, El's attention then returned to the fish.
"What are you?" El asked.
The fish then blew a bubble again, but this time, it was bigger. The bubble moved in front of El and covered his head. Simultaneously with the burst of the bubble, a voice, neither male nor female, echoed inside his mind.
It said, "I'm a gift from your mother. My name is Nerith, I represent her Emotions…"
Subsequently, El widened his eyes in astonishment. It glimmered with faint happiness.
"So, I have a mother after all," El whispered to himself with a smile.
The fish, Nerith, then swam fast to El's forehead.
Eventually, it left nothing behind in its existence.
Currently, the trio's tranquil gaze was directed at Jewel's body, which looked like she was just sleeping. They only awakened after finding the shallow water of the sewer running again, splashing against their boots.
Stepping away to the side, Ran checked for her heartbeat or any breath from her nose. But she found nothing.
The trio exchanged complicated glances and then moved toward their original path.
…
"So, what should we do with her?" Gill asked from the side.
"Let's go to Sir Giles and Aunt Celine first. Bringing Jewel's body to her mom is our priority for now," El replied with solemnity.
Ran and Gill looked at each other. It was the first time for the two of them to see El decide on his own, without asking for other opinions first. This side of him was something they had never seen before.
"Alright, we'll go to your house later then…" Ran agreed.
"Uh-huh…" Gill nodded his head.
…
Moments later, they arrived back at their base, much to the astonishment of Aunt Celine.
As Sir Giles had already left to handle some business in the underground city, Aunt Celine was the one who listened to their narrative, recounting the whole story of what had happened to them earlier.
"… 'a cursed' that can move far from its dead body. That was something new. Not even those—tangible 'cursed' are supposed to move far from their original place of death. It was something I had never heard of before," Aunt Celine said with her legs crossed on top of each other. Her eyes, though, were directed at the three of them, particularly at El, who, according to the story, was the first to approach that 'cursed.'
She then stood up from her chair and moved to the bed, where the little girl's body was currently laid.
He looked at the peaceful face of the girl with a complicated expression. Even then, she still shivered from the revelation of what she had found inside her.
Something was glimmering inside her flesh, blood, and bones, preventing anything from harming her even though her life was already gone. It had stopped the natural process of decomposing her body.
It was a high-level magic that even she couldn't ever perform. It possibly was equal to the magic of the Priest/Priestess of Origin's Church, which they could only perform once a year, with many procedures to strictly follow even just for the commencement of the ritual itself.
"I wonder if this is the beginning of a blessing or an onset to a disaster instead,' she muttered to herself.
…