Chapter 104 - The Dilemma of a Life
Sisika:
We had walked for an entire day. The silence between us was thick, almost tangible. Ever since I pushed the boundaries with that conversation, he had shut down and hadn’t spoken to again. A part of felt a deep pain for reopening that wound in him, but I knew it was necessary. I had to make him face what he had sworn to forget, that truth that consud him silently. Deep down, I knew it would be crucial for him and his future.
The truth about the death of his beloved... the truth that left him alone in the world, devoid of any motivation to keep living.
He still needed to overco it, and I resented not having enough ti to help him process it. But I couldn’t afford to be negligent. Ti was against us, and he needed to be ready for what was coming, even if it ant causing him pain now.
I was pushing my own limits. I didn’t want to involve him, I didn’t want him to carry the weight I bear, but there was no other choice. Fate had pushed toward him in the middle of all this chaos, and now... he was the only one I could trust with this burden. I knew my ti with him was short, that our journeys would soon take different paths, and that pained .
Maybe, if we had t under different circumstances, things could have been different. Maybe I could have enjoyed more ti by Nathan’s side. Maybe I would have had the courage to tell him how much I love him.
But fate had other plans, and I could only move forward, preparing Nathan in the best way I could.
Nathan Evenhart:
It was night, and I found myself leaning against a tree, staring at the stars. Sisika had tried to interact with earlier, as if it were easy to just move on. But after everything she revealed, how could I? I had thought that secret, the truth that ate up inside, would die with . Now I’d learned soone else knew.
“You need to eat,” she said, approaching again, holding a piece of at from so animal she had hunted.
“I’m not hungry,” I replied, trying to push her away as if I were pushing away the shadows she had brought to light.
“You’re weak. If you don’t eat, you’ll get sick and die,” she insisted, unfazed.
“Maybe you don’t understand how human biology works…” I said, more to myself than to her.
She stayed there, unmoving, with a knife in hand and the at skewered on it, watching with those eyes that seed to see more than I was willing to reveal.
“Fine…” I muttered, giving in more to exhaustion than to hunger.
“Good boy,” she said, patting lightly on the head before walking away to sit further off.
I’m not a dog... She definitely doesn’t know how to handle soone going through such conflicted emotions...
As I chewed the at, half-heartedly, I realized that one of the few things I had managed to absorb was that Sisika was definitely not just human;
If she’s even human at all...
One thing I knew for sure... I wasn’t ready to discover what—or who—she really was. Not after learning that she knew about that secret, the one that made question everything about myself in my past life.
Out of reflex, I tried once again to use my magic, but nothing happened. I concentrated on my mana channels, trying to feel the flow of the Gem that should be coursing through my body. What I felt was only sothing moving up to my head, and I realized it had to do with my eyes. The final stage of awakening, as my teacher had once warned about.
I rembered Adrihna and how she had told that, as a child, she was considered ‘defective,’ since every high elf is a mage, but she couldn’t access her own elent. That only changed when her eyes awakened. Maybe that’s what was happening to now. My mana was completely blocked, channeled solely into my eyes. I was trapped, powerless, with no idea when I’d regain control.
I lay down, still holding the piece of at in my hand, but my mind had drifted far away. I thought about my family, wondering how they were doing.
Sifu and I had taken just a day to reach that part of the mountain, but now it had been two days since I disappeared. He must be wondering what happened, imagining the worst possible scenarios.
If Sifu had already reached the village by now, my mother would surely know that sothing had happened to . He’s probably already alerted the others. Without needing to stop and track every step, his return to the place where I disappeared would have been much faster. If I were in his position, I’d gather as many soldiers as possible, maybe all one hundred n from the village, to march to that enemy base and search the entire area. Or perhaps he managed to interrogate the soldiers he captured and learned sothing about the person who ordered the attack on the village.
They might think I was kidnapped by those soldiers...
I was stuck with that thought, completely unable to predict what they would do. If they followed the wrong lead, they might attack the enemy, thinking I was there, when in reality, I’d been kidnapped by this strange woman, Sisika. I didn’t know what to think of her. Too strong, too fast. There was nothing I could do to escape her, and it was clear she knew that. The only reason I was ‘following’ her was because, in truth, I had no other choice.
My options are shit...
I looked around, taking in the strange landscape where the day had two suns and the night had two moons. It was only adding to my confusion. Every step I took was in her direction, not because I wanted to, but because I had no other alternative. I was relying 100% on Sisika to get out of this place, but I didn’t know what she really wanted from . Her questions, her hidden intentions, all of it kept in a constant state of tension.
I couldn’t do anything but follow her, hoping that sohow, this absurd situation would end soon and I could return ho.
***
Another day had arrived, and as we walked, my thoughts tried to process the strange landscape we were in. We hadn’t descended at all, only moving in a straight line, leaving with no reference to understand how Sisika planned to get us out of this surreal place. The discomfort lingered, as if sothing didn’t quite make sense in what she had said.
“Nathan, if you only had one more day to live, what would you do?”
Her question snapped out of my daze. After all this ti with hardly any words exchanged, I didn’t expect that to be the first thing she would ask.
“Are you starting again with the questions?”
“Yes. I promised I’d take you back while trying to get to know you better. But you decided to stay silent. I respected that, but I’m in a bit of a complicated situation... I really need to know more about you. Can you answer a few questions?”
I sighed, ntally preparing myself for the interrogation.
“I won’t answer what I don’t want to. You know too much already, and I’m not in the mood to revisit my past.”
“That’s fine. You have the right.”
She stopped walking for a mont, watching .
“Then tell , what would you do if you only had one more day to live?”
I stopped, thinking about my answer. This was a question I had already asked myself in another life.
“If you know well, you know I’ve asked myself that question before. This is still digging into my past...”
Her eyes widened, as if she had stepped into forbidden territory.
“No! I’m sorry. I didn’t ask with that intention, I really don’t know everything about your past. I’ve only seen so key monts... I don’t know it all.”
I stared at her, trying to read more from her than she was letting on. Sisika looked young in appearance, a red-haired soldier who seed to be around 25 years old, maybe a bit older. But sothing about her didn’t follow human norms. She could be like the High Elves, whose real age didn’t match their youthful exterior. I knew she wasn’t an ordinary human.
No human could see Athena. No human could teleport. No human could accelerate the awakening of my eyes like she did, and no human could know my secret…
“I’ll answer your question if you answer mine. What were you doing on the day of the incident at the market and at the prince’s party? And what, exactly, are you?”
She hesitated for a second, but then replied.
“I was watching you during those monts. And at the party... let’s just say only you saw .”
“What do you an by ‘watching ’? Actually, forget it. You’re not going to explain. So tell what you really are.”
“As for what I am... I promise I’ll tell you, but, unfortunately, it’ll happen when I won’t have ti to hear your answer. That’s why I need to know more about you now. Can you answer the question I asked?”
She dodged the question again.
I sighed, realizing that getting answers from her would be nearly impossible.
I thought about her question, recalling my past life. Back then, that question didn’t hold much importance. But now, in this world, the answer was clear.
“If I only had one more day to live, I’d spend it with my family.”
Sisika looked at from the side, analyzing my answer as if trying to extract sothing more.
“But what about soone who’s an orphan and never had a family?” she asked, almost as a challenge.
“I’d spend it with my friends.”
I thought of Chloe and Kinue. They were both friends and part of my family.
“And what if soone lost their only friend?”
“Then I’d spend it with the person I love.”
She smiled at , as if satisfied with my answer.
“That was a good answer,” Sisika said, smiling as she continued walking.
And so we continued our journey, each of us lost in our own thoughts.
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