S2. Resentnt Wished Upon The Stars 5
Abrahams pupils trembled. It was the dismay of soone who had encountered an unexpected event. Every night, he had envisioned his daughters return in his dreams, but his mind, as radiant as a star, knew that sothing like that would never happen.
Hence, the embarrassed perplexity.
Abraham carefully chose his words. Were you expelled from that religion? Do you still believe in those strange things? Have you been hard in any way?
However, after looking into Isaacs eyes, he realized that such questions were aningless. Eyes were the windows to the soul, and inside her window, there was just one thing; a blinding white that scattered the human intellect. A boiling froth.
Therefore, the old man had no choice but to ask an obvious, commonplace question.
Have you been well?
Isaac smiled. That smile was not as if a daughter was happily responding to her caring fathers concern, but rather like watching a monkey play tricks inside its cage.
Yes, Father, I have been well. My soul is fuller than at any other ti in my life and I am spending each day with true significance. It is all thanks to you.
.
Are you still counting those aningless stars? Those rocks floating in space, rely made from lumps of dust.
They are not aningless, child. There is aning in everything in this world.
You still fail to see what needs to be seen, I see. Father.
Despite the conversations gentle tone, the atmosphere and the looks in their eyes did not seem like a dialogue between a father and daughter. Tara intervened between them as if to protect Abraham.
Who are you?
It seems my introduction was a bit late. My na is Isaac. And you are?
Tara.
And what about the rest of you?
Isaacs gaze turned to Bennett and Niolle. Bennett swallowed dryly at the vivid unease he felt and Niolle felt the universe through her gaze.
Darkness, the chillingly black void. Being, yet also not being. Like a swelling egg or a shrinking heart about to collapse on itself. A bizarre universe that human cognition could only observe in fragnts.
Aha. You too?
It seed like Isaac sensed it as well. A smile blossod on her face; not one of mocking, but one stemming from joy rooted deep within her soul.
Isaac approached leisurely, took Niolles hands, and kissed them politely, filled with affection.
I am pleased to et you. Your na?
.
Niolle twitched her lips with a blank expression. As if that itself was enough, Isaac nodded; a connection that continued through the dium of silence.
However, it was a one-sided connection. Isaac, through her deanor and gestures, seed to be probing Niolle, conveying sothing distant yet sinister. Almost as if she was a man courting a beautiful woman with piercing, violating stares.
And, just as she was about to say more.
Back off!
Thwack!
Bennett slapped Isaacs hand away and stepped back with Niolle in tow, wrapping his arms around her shoulders. It was to protect her. After all, it seed as though a white snake was baring its fangs at Niolle.
Isaac feigned a hurt, sorrowful expression, caressing her smacked hand as if it was in pain.
I had nowhere else to go, so I ca back. Even strangers welcod warmly, so surely, a daughter who has just stepped out for a while. Will be welco back, right, Father?
Yes, your room has always been kept ready.
Isaacs glance slid towards Tara, examining her from top to bottom. Her gaze lingered on the clothes she was wearing as well. Isaacs clothes.
But now, it seems that room is not for . It is fine, Father. I can forgive you for not believing I would return.
I. have wished for your return, even in my dreams.
Your words and actions do not seem to match. The storage room will suffice for . You can continue to use my room, Ta-ra. Enjoy your al.
Isaac politely excused herself and walked up the stairs to the 2nd floor storage room where Bennett was staying. She opened the door, entered, and closed it behind her.
No one moved until her white afterimage had disappeared.
Abrahams expression twisted in agony. The poor old man, who had always counted stars, covered his face with wrinkled hands and lanted.
I shouldnt have shown Isaac the stars
It was a belated regret, sothing that would be inevitably experienced by anyone who was human.
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Isaac seamlessly blended into daily life. Unlike the first day, when she was pointed and scathing, she behaved like a kind and polite daughter throughout. She fawned over Abraham and asked Niolle if she needed anything all the ti.
Isaac especially paid attention to Niolle. She initiated conversations and asked for her well-being. She laughed at her sentences and acted touched by every little thing she said. All with warm words and unchanged friendliness.
However, everyone at this place knew it was all a pretense. Despite the seemingly warm atmosphere, tension filled the air beneath the surface.
As if sothing could happen at any mont.
However, there was nothing they could do. Abraham seed happy, even if it was all just a facade. The current situation, with his estranged daughter returning ho and acting affectionately, was like a dream co true for him.
Therefore, neither Bennett nor Tara could intervene. Bennett, because he was haunted by a conversation he had with Abraham one night. And Tara, because she did not want to see Abraham saddened.
All they could do was take indirect actions, such as surveillance and preparations of counterasures.
Perhaps the one fortunate thing in this unfortunate circumstance was that the appearance of an outsider temporarily improved the relationship between Tara and Bennett.
We shall know if she does anything suspicious. I have placed magic at the threshold of the storage room and in Abrahams room. I have also prepared a familiar for surveillance use. And I hid a rat in the ceiling.
Ive laid sothing like Curse Defense too, but Werent you planning to abandon Abraham if needed? Youre putting in a lot of effort, huh. More than I thought you would. What are you thinking?
.I just thought that woman nad Isaac was dangerous. After all, her eyes were not normal.
Right, well. Its your turn to be on shift today, isnt it?
Do not try to sneakily pass it off to . Since it is you today.
As ti passed like that, it had reached the 5th day.
Their date of return was approaching. Tara insisted on visiting the university with Abraham today and Bennett, feeling the need to gather information, agreed. At the dinner table that day, they asked Abraham.
Abraham, could we possibly visit the university?
Are you interested in the university?
Yes. There is sothing I want to look into.
You seem more interested in the library than the university. Very well. If you can wait until classes are over I can guide you myself. Lets go.
Abraham happily agreed and the three of them were set to head to Miskatonic University. Right as they were preparing to go out and Tara caused a bit of a commotion, insisting on carrying Abrahams luggage
After noticing that Niolle seed strangely lost in thought, as she absent-mindedly picked at her food Bennett nudged her shoulder. Niolle turned her head without showing a hint of surprise.
Did you hear? We said we are going to Miskatonic University.
[Ah, yes. I heard.]
If you are not feeling well. It might be better to co with us. If you are attacked while you are in such a vulnerable state, there would be nothing we could do. If it is too tiring, I can carry you. If not, you could stay in the hideout that was ntioned in the report.
[Im okay. I just didnt sleep well last night. And you need my abilities in places like libraries, right?]
Bennett nodded. Niolles ability to quickly grasp even minor details would be a great asset in their investigation; she would undoubtedly be of help this ti as well.
Despite being worried about Niolles sowhat strange attitude, he felt it was better than just leaving her to her loneso. As such, all of you followed Abraham into the noisy machine called a car and headed towards Miskatonic University.
Tara asked if she could try driving and Bennett interjected, telling her not to talk such nonsense. And amidst all this bustling, Niolle remained quiet. The whiteboard and pen did not move.
Niolles strange behavior was due to sothing that happened the night before.
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#4 : Pitch
Late at night, a whisper reached Niolles ears. Co here. Co here. She woke from a shallow sleep and looked around, only to find Tara sleeping soundly; there was nothing else in her vicinity.
Co here.
The voice in her head even provided a direction to head to. Niolle judged it to be so kind of magic. She carefully left the room and followed the direction that the voice was leading her to.
And at the end of it, she arrived in front of the storage room at the end of the hallway.
Niolle knocked quietly. When she did so, the door opened smoothly, as if slithering. When she stepped inside, she saw Isaac stretching under the glow of the moonlight. She gave her a benevolent smile before speaking.
Do you believe in God?
[I believe in the fact of their existence, but not in the worship that cos with it.]
Have you ever seen God up close?
[No.]
What a pity.
Isaac fluttered her eyelids, as if to find such a belief regretful, and gazed at the vast night sky through the window. Niolle turned her head as well. There was no surveillant in the yard today.
The woman in the white dress rattled on, imrsed and drunk on religious fervor.
Humans cannot possibly understand God. It is because they have inferior sensory organs. With their ears, they can only hear a very narrow range of sounds, and with their eyes, they cannot see colors beyond the spectrum of the rainbow.
[.]
However, sotis Very rarely, there are those born with the fortune to see a bit more. The chosen ones. People who see what others cannot. People who are so very close to God. You and I. Even if we cannot reach full understanding, we can grasp at least a part of it.
She seed to firmly believe that she was one of these chosen people. And that was the particular driving force behind her religious fervor. While fidgeting her thighs, Isaac sent adoring gazes to the night sky, her excited eyes akin to a person deeply in love.
That clingy affection. The sticky desire that felt almost tangible, as if she would intertwine tongues at any mont if just given the chance to. A flower born from a muddy, depraved mixture of various emotions. A froth, boiling, seething.
Niolle knew what the na of that was. Fanaticism.
I hope you, too, can.. experience this joy. Now is a very good ti, you see
Isaac extended a book towards Niolle; an inauspicious book, bound in so kind of leather. When running a hand over its surface, it seed to emanate a warmth that dead leather should not possess.
Niolle quietly nodded, then left the room with the book held closely in her embrace.
[.]
Niolle had not lost her mind. It was true she held a deep reverence for the vastness, the dizzying difference in scale, the sothing of the universe. However, that did not an she had any intention of throwing everything away for it.
Whether in the otherworld or her original world, there had always been sothing that existed beyond the common sense of those ordinary. Sothing that re humans could not touch nor do anything to. Whether it was the power of the Imperial Family, monsters that had reached Sublimation, or the death that one would inevitably face, all of such were sothing that could not be defied. Sothing that could not dare to be resisted.
Yet, her belief still remained quite simple; she just believed in the righteousness of saving people and the wrongness of harming them. She also had the courage to act on such beliefs. Therefore
She intended to read this ominous book, obtain information from it, and help Bennett, Tara, and Abraham. Perhaps. Even Isaac. Maybe she could be helped as well.
Niolle opened the book in a corner of the room.
The mories of that night were not all that /genesisforsaken
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