The Hanged Man

Today I had a lesson on Pneuma’s. I have written notes below:

Pneuma are abilities that lie within the souls of living things. Humans are unique because of the blessing of the Spirit; they are able to possess any ability descended from the 7 schools of magic. These seven schools are commonly taught as: Water, Fire, Air, Earth, Light, Dark, and Pressure. The non-human races are limited by the magic school associated with their race, their abilities being defined by that power. As an example, I used my aide, Uda. Her ability allows her to control the wind to be more arrow dynamic. This ability, though singular in its application, leads to her flight being faster than others of similar skill. That brings me to the 2nd most important concept behind Pneuma, their strength. Pneuma can take almost any form, especially for humans, meaning their strength varies depending on the person. One could allow control of the very lightning itself, another could be as simple as breathing lighter. The importance of one’s pneuma relies not on its strength, but on how they apply it to their other abilities.

-Excerpt from the recovered journal of Absalon Ramorski.

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“Thank you so much!” I hear a familiar voice say as I slowly wake up. The sun shines into the alley, meaning I hadn't been out long.

I sit up quickly, reaching to my chest. I don’t find my chest plate there, but I continue searching. After another moment, I grasp it, the necklace. Locke's lesson echoes in my head. I'm glad it wasn't broken.

“I'm glad you're awake,” Eris says, appearing next to me. I look around the alley. Next to me is a destroyed chest plate, shattered in multiple places. Scanning to the left, I see the Lizard Man tied up on the ground. On top of him is an unfamiliar person dressed in all black. Her facial features are the most surprising; she resembles a Japanese person!

“H-hello.” I bow slightly. “Gah.” Pain shoots through my chest.

“Yeah, don’t do that. Do you remember what happened?”

“I- I chased a thief into an alley, and he…” Kicked my *ss, I started to say.

“So you remember you're an idiot, yeah?” Eris harshly says, placing her hands over my chest. A warmth descends onto me, a ticklish and itchy sensation fills my chest. “Hold still, alright.”

“Thanks.” Is all I can say in response.

A few minutes pass as Eris heals my chest.

“Healing magic…” A soft, unfamiliar voice interjects. The woman dressed in all black leans over to look at us.

“Y-yeah,” Eris replied.

“You’re using the Irisian style, yes?” The Irisian style involves using water and light magic to speed up the natural healing process of the body.

“Y-yes,” Eris replies. “Okay… That’s about the best I can do here.”

“O-okay, thank you,” I say, attempting again to sit up. “And thank you, you stopped him, right?” I look at the lady.

“... Yes, I'm glad you're okay.” She says, standing up from on top of the man. She turns around and grips the ropes, tying him up. The thought it should have been me, not him! Fills my head before I can stop it.

“Um… He stole something… Do you know what it is?” I ask the lady, I hadn’t seen anything in our fight.

“Hm.” She holds out a small key in her hand.

“A key?”

“Yes… I’ll return it to its original owner.” She says, closing her hand.

“They're up the road… At least the knight that was chasing-”

“I know, they asked me to come for you.” She says, bowing and walking towards the exit.

“W-wait!” I call out to her, it's just a possibility, but if she's Japanese, then…

“Hm?” She tilts her head back at me.

“Your name! What's your name?” The woman looks back at me for a moment.

“Wróbel. Uda Wróbel.” She said, disappearing into the alley.

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“You know what I’m going to say, right?” Eris says in a stern tone.

After watching Ms. Wróbel leave the alley, Eris and I had begun cleaning up the aftermath of the fight.

“That I shouldn’t be so reckless?”

“Oh, so you do know? Then act like it!” She yells at me. “The only reason you aren’t dead is that chest plate, which is shattered if you haven’t seen it.” That’s two things on my chest that saved me today.

“I know the Arch-Bishop told you Demons are tougher and enhanced than most people, but you can die. This isn’t a game!” She scolds me.

“I know…” I look at my katana and the massive ding in its blade. My mind was jumbled, not just the fight I barely survived, but the words of the old man at the inn, and even the man this morning. The day had been full of losses. That man this morning… I couldn’t cut him… I’m glad I didn’t, but…

“Hiiro…” Eris looks at me, her angry face shifting to one of worry.

“It’s okay, I'll get it fixed.” I grab the sheath of the Katana and take off its wrapping, tying it to the sword itself, and tying that to my back. I use the sheath as a crutch to help me stand up. As if on cue, the pain in my arm returns. “Gah!”

“Hiiro!” Eris stabilizes me. “Let me help you walk.”

“No, you take the chest plate, we shouldn't leave it,” I tell her, finally making it on my feet.

Eris gathers the pieces of the chest plate and places the smaller pieces in the larger one, using it as a bowl.

“Let's go, we need to get back on the search.”

“First, we’re going back to the church to get you proper care.”

“But!”

“No buts! You need to get properly healed.” Eris says, leading the way out of the alley. I hear her mutter under her breath, “They're gonna yell at me…”

We reach the first turn, this time much faster than before. We continue, following the strange lines of shifting colors. They shift from red to purple, the entire spectrum of the rainbow. We reach the second turn, the same.

As we reach the third turn, however, a slight change occurs. The lines of color do something I had yet to see them do: go white. For a quick flash.

“Hey…” I call out to Eris next to me.

“Yeah?”

“Did the lines just go white?” I ask her as we make the third turn.

“Huh, I wasn't loo-”

It was then we both saw it. It was definitely not there before. Both Eris and I freeze.

A shop front in the back alley. A large window carved out of the plain light blue concrete wall. However, it was not just its sudden appearance, but its sign in the window that made us pause.

Tickets for sale.

Above the store is its name:

The Hanged Man

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“We have to go in,” I say.

“No.”

“We have to.” The entire point of the search was to find tickets; now a store appears selling tickets. It may be too good to be true, but it’s the best chance we've got.

“No, we-” Eris begins to say, before she is cut off by the ringing of a bell as I open the door.

Ring

The door opens into what can only be described as an antique store. Shelves and walls are lined with every type of item under the sun. Weapons, books, flowers, and medicine stacked up against the wall. A counter is just barely visible behind all the stuff.

“Hello!” No answer. I step further into the store, Eris trails in after me.

Shelves of items fill most of the store, visible now are gems, big and small. Artifacts like a golden scarab, a set of golden weapons bearing the image of dragons, and a staff topped with an owl carved out of wood.

“What can I help you two with?”

“!?!” Suddenly, a voice calls out from behind the counter.

“My bad, didn’t mean to scare you guys.” A stout man with rosy cheeks says. He's wearing a loose-fitting plain white shirt. His hair is a dirty-blond and is styled in a way that matches its color. His eyes are a light blue bordering on gray. He looks at us with a friendly smile.

“U-um, it's alright… We were wondering about the tickets on the sign?”

“Tickets? Oh…” he says, descending deep into thought. “Let me see if I can find them, one sec.” He says, disappearing into the back.

“Um…” Eris says behind me, clearly uncomfortable.

In the minutes that pass as the man searches, I look around once more. Next to the counter is a bookshelf. I walk closer and find several books on the shelves, their spines reading: How to train a Umi Bozu, Noland’s The Princess, 100 concubines who really (x12) Hate you, and a book titled The Sable King.

“Found it!” The man says, returning to the desk. “One ticket to Delphoscere.”

“Just one? The sign is plural.”

“Listen Hiiro, I only have one, it’s all I could find.”

“Well, did you only buy one? Did you sell some?” I doubt it in this backwater alley.

“I probably only bought the one.”

“Probably?!”

“Take it or leave it.” The man says, holding the ticket out.

“Fine, we’ll take it.” I reach to grab the ticket.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” The man says, taking the ticket away. “We're in the Merchant city, aren’t we?” Oddly, the man phrases it as if he’s unsure himself.

“Yeah..? Do you want me to buy it?” I begin to grab my wallet.

“No, no… Let’s trade.” The man says.

“What do you want? We don’t really have anything…”

“Well, first, I want the chest plate Eris has,” the man points toward Eris.

“Really, you're sure?”

“Yeah… But that ticket was probably expensive, so…” The man looks me up and down, until his eyes fall on my wrist. “How about that?”

“This..?” On my wrist is a white scrunchy. “I can’t… It’s not mine…” It’s Katsumi’s, I can't give it away…

“What's more important? Getting home, or keeping your girlfriend's scrunchy?” The man's words cut deep.

“... Fine. That's all right?”

“Yeah, that's all I want from you… But since I feel bad, I'll give you these.” The man reaches under the counter and takes out a small felt bag.

“What are those?”
“Magic seeds.”

“I don’t want to grow a bean stock!”

“Those are beans.”

“Ack!”

“Still, take 'em.” The man places the bag on the ticket and slides it over the counter. I place the scrunchy and grab the chest plate from Eris, who whispers to me in a shaky voice, “Let's go.”

I quickly grab the two items and begin walking out of the store. Step after step, I feel the wooden boards creak under my feet. After each step, an uncomfortability that was missing returns to me.

Eris makes it through the door, I grab onto the door and am about to make it out when-

“Hey, Hiiro.” The man calls out. The once friendly voice was replaced with one pregnant with emotion. “It was nice knowing you. I hope you make it home.”

I step out of the store without looking back, the door shutting behind me.

“Hey…” Eris says to me, standing on the other side of the alley.

“Yeah..?”

“Did you ever say your name?” Eris looks at me, her expression one of horror and confusion.

“?!?”

I don’t know what’s scarier, that he knew our names and such personal details about my life. Or that our conversation felt so natural to me, as if we had done it hundreds of times.

I look back at the store, but all I see is a wall. A plain blue wall.

The store disappeared, as if it were stuck in that moment in the past.

“Let's go.”

Eris and I rush as fast as we can out of the alley. We finally reach the exit and find ourselves on the same street we had come from.

I want to believe that it had been a dream, brought on by a concussion from the fight. But the ticket and bag in my hand won't allow me to do that.