Chapter 7: Rude Awakening

“Nico, get down from there! You’re going to get hurt,” Ezia said, pleading.

His elder sister was always like that. She was never good at hiding her feelings. Anything that Nico did caused her worry. If he was too late for dinner, or even too early, she was concerned. He considered it odd. Why always him out of his other siblings? She never worried about Ahmel, nor Luria, Mare, or Marna. It was only him that caused her grief. He often apologized in a hushed whisper for making her worry. He didn’t want to worry her, but worry she did.

Nico balanced on the bannister. His body rocked too and fro, his arms out to keep him stable. Once he got his footing, he jumped in the air. He pivoted in place, spinning in the air. The world blurred as he came to a stop.

He landed on one foot, then looked over his shoulder.

“Did you see that, Ezia? Leo?”

Thaleo should have clapped, and Ezia should have been concerned.

He turned back.

They weren’t there.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. Thaleo was supposed to cross his arms, and smile. Ezia should be staring at him, slack-jawed. Not because she was impressed, but because Nico didn’t bust his head wide open.

They were gone.

“Leo? Ezia?” Nico swallowed air. He laid flat on the bannister, stretching his foot toward the ground. If they were here, he would have jumped. His bravado vanished with his siblings. Needles pricked at his face as his breath stopped short.

Nico gripped the bannister, regaining his footing.

“Where are you guys?”

He walked where they had been. Venturing through the unlit corridor, he looked left and right. The red wood of the porch chipped as he walked forward. The paint peeled itself off the ground as if it were an apple’s skin. It curdled and twisted, falling up into the air as if it were a soft rain. Nico didn’t care. He didn’t mind. He pressed onward into the corridor. The sliding door clattered as he pulled it open.

This wasn’t his house.

The long hall connected to the kitchen and dining hall was gone. In its place was a long, long red corridor. It stretched on and on, so far that he couldn’t see the end. Nico stepped forward.

A splash of water. His foot sank into the ground.

He had stepped onto the floor. Nico knew he stepped onto the floor. It was solid. It had to be solid. It couldn’t have been anything else. He looked at his hands. They were stained black with ink. The floor was red, red water. Or was it blood? He didn’t know. When did he stain his hands black?

Nico trudged forward. Each step put his head closer to the red water. The cold water soaked his shirt. It slowly rose, covering his shoulder. The water lapped his chin. It got into his nose. It invaded his mouth. He coughed to get it out. It wouldn’t leave. He clasped his hands around his throat, hoping to squeeze it out.

He coughed again.

The water rose above his eyes.

The faint lantern light above darkened.

He sank.

He coughed again.

Nico kicked his feet. He swatted at the air, hoping to breach the surface.

He coughed again.

He tightened the grip on his neck.

Only, it wasn’t his neck.

Rain assaulted his body.

Nico wasn’t choking.

He coughed again.

Tears fell down his face.

His eyes moved down.

A face he had yearned to see.

His heart pounded in his ears.

He didn’t want to see it. Whatever it was, he didn’t want to see it.

Yet, he had to.

The nameless girl, the person Rinzai called a lost one. The child he had been looking for. The girl he tried to feed, tried to care for, and wanted to protect.

Yet, he stood over her. She wasn’t looking at him. Her eyes were turned away, reflecting an empty sky.

The girl wasn’t breathing.

Nico’s hands clutched the neck. Not his neck, but someone else’s. He pulled his hands away and turned to face his palms.

They were stained black.

“Haah!” Nico gasped for air. His arms flew into the air. He flexed his hands, trying to dry them. Trying to get the black stains off.

However, Nico realized two things.

First, his hands were dry. In fact, he wasn’t wet at all. Second, he was in bed. He looked from where he sat. A familiar bookshelf sat in the corner with a sliver of daylight illuminating the drifting dust in the air. A consequence of him telling the servants not to clean his room.

“Oh, Serya,” Nico said, patting himself down. His shoulders, his chest, his legs and feet were all in one piece.“A nightmare. It was just a nightmare.”

“Glad to see you’re awake, Nico.” A familiar voice. If he heard her, that meant that part of the dream was definitely real.

“Oh no.” Nico fell back onto his bed. “What now?”

“Nothing, just checking to see that you were still alright.”

“No, not that.” Nico grumbled. “Why aren’t you at the shrine?”

“Because I followed you. Does that answer suffice?”

“No, no it doesn’t.” Nico buried his head in his pillow. “Weren’t you bound to the shrine? How did you leave?”

It was the first question to spring to mind, but certainly not the only one.

“How to explain this…” Rinzai’s words danced off her unseen tongue. He didn’t have to see her to see her expression. “An eidolon is like a moth to a flame, and each person a flickering torch. Some people burn brighter than others. And you, Nico, burn the brightest I’ve ever seen.”

“So, you couldn’t leave the shrine, and you hitched a ride on me?”

“Yep!” Rinzai said, sounding pleased with herself. Nico groaned. “Now, I can experience all the world has to offer, and I’ve got you to thank, Nico.”

“Don’t thank me for anything,” Nico sighed.

“Now, what does that mean?”

“It means I couldn’t keep that girl safe. Maybe my brother’s right.”

We shared a tutor, yet we both turned out so differently.

Thaleo’s words echoed in his mind.

What do you know?

“Nothing,” he said, his eyes firmly on his open palms. The weight pressed into his hands. He felt her neck. He saw her lifeless eyes looking away. It was a dream, but it didn’t feel like it. It felt real. The weight felt real. Nico wanted to brush it off, act like it didn’t mean anything—go back to being ignorant. Go back a day when the little girl was in the cabin, and she was just really obstinate about not eating. A wish that not even the mighty Serya could grant.

The flickering lantern on Nico’s nightstand dimmed. A faint, white mist rolled in from the open window.

“What now?” Nico stared. However, instead of the room overflowing with mist, it flowed into a singular form. It pooled at the foot of Nico’s bed before dispersing. The eidolon of the shrine had appeared. If hearing her voice wasn’t enough to convince him that this was happening, her appearance certainly would. However, something was different. She had a gourd in hand.

“I must say, your father has wonderful taste,” Rinzai said, falling onto the foot of Nico’s bed.

His father Taizu? It had nothing to do with what he was just talking about. Some part of him expected Rinzai to comfort him. Not whatever this was. He wasn’t sure if he should feel stupid for expecting her to do that, or insulted that she wasn’t paying attention to him at all.

“This rice wine is splendid.” Rinzai brought the gourd to her lips and tilted her head back. Afterward, she pulled it away, offering Nico a drink. “Do you want some?”

“No.”

“Fine, more for me then.” Rinzai shrugged.

“You don’t care, do you?”

“About what, exactly?”

“About me, or…” Nico hugged his knees close. “Never mind. Sorry. I shouldn’t be getting mad at you.”

“You’re human, and emotions are as erratic and chaotic as the Sea.” Rinzai sipped from the jug. She exhaled a thin mist that lingered in the air. “If you apologized for every wave that ebbed and flowed — forget dying to a lost one, you’d be dead from old age before you finished prostrating.”

“You’re weird.”

“As are you, but you don’t hear me complaining, do you?” Rinzai quirked her brow.

She wasn’t. The fact that she was freed from the shrine meant she could see the rest of Serya. The logistics of him burning ‘brighter’ aside, Nico frowned. The dream concerned him, but it was like anything in the mind — it only had the meaning that he decided to give it. If Nico didn’t act on it, didn’t let it tempt him to make that kind of awful choice, then it wouldn’t happen. It was that simple.

Knock.

Nico’s eyes moved toward the door, then to the foot of his bed. A plume of mist dispersed in the open air. Rinzai vanished without a trace.

Knock. Knock.

“Who is it?” Nico said.

No response.

Then, the door crashed open, nearly sliding off its hinges.

“Nico!” A small girl, about half of Nico’s height, stood defiantly in the door. “Why are you still asleep? Wake up!”

“I’m awake,” Nico said. “Why are you so loud this morning, Marna?”

“Because you got hurt, so I came to check on you!” Marna exclaimed.

“L-lady Marna, please, do not disturb Lord Nico!” The newbie maid from the night before pulled at Marna’s waist. The child didn’t budge.

“I didn’t get hurt.” Nico pulled off the furred covers and threw his legs over the side of the bed. He stood up, stretching his arms toward the ceiling. “See? Good as new.”

“Oh.” A long-haired boy poked his head around the corner, peering into the room. “Stop bugging Brother, Marna.”

“I’m not bugging him, I’m just concerned!” Marna said, her hands resting on her hips. “If he stays in bed all day, he can’t eat!”

“Um, Miss Cathis, I’m sorry about my sister.” Mare apologized to the maid.

Her name was Cathis. Nico frowned, realizing he hadn’t asked her name the night he met her. Another drop of guilt in the well. Corralling the children seemed like a terrible job. Baqus, the cook, took it in good spirits. Nico wasn’t sure about Liz’s decision to thrust the new girl into the deep end so quickly. Then again, she knew more about the job than he did. Maybe she saw something that he didn’t.

“Oh, Lord Nico, I have a message for you!” Cathis said. “May I?”

“May you…?” Nico quirked a brow. “Oh, yes, come in.”

Cathis stepped inside the room, her footsteps deliberate and measured. When she was a step away from the bed, she bowed, her arms stretched out as far as they would go. In her hands rested a red envelope bearing the insignia of the three-eyed dragon. It was an envelope often used for official business.

“You don’t have to do that, Cathis.” Nico scratched his reddening face. “You can stand up.”

“At once!” Cathis didn’t stand; she jumped.

“Oh, another marriage proposal?” Marna snaked her way into the room at some point. She grabbed the bottom of the letter. Nico snatched it back.

“It’s for me, not you.”

“Come on, let me know who the lucky girl is! Or, oh, maybe it’s like forbidden love or something?” Marna mumbled.

“M-Marna, please. Stop harassing Nico,” Mare said, making a futile effort to drag his twin sister away.

Nico ignored the bickering twins and high maintenance-maid. He ripped the envelope at the seam and read:

“Dear Nico,

The events of last night have made me realize something. I knew you were hiding something. I’ve served as your personal servant for half a year, so any odd behavior became apparent. Over the last two weeks, you’ve been running off deep into the forest behind the Verconis manor. I wanted to respect our positions as Master and Servant. It was not my business to pry. However, after being made aware of what it is you may have been doing… I cannot stand idly by, and neither can your sister Ezia. The Pathfinder Alexandria has warned us not to speak of this to anyone and to keep this between us. That’s why I’m sending this letter. Alexandria and I are heading into town to reconvene with her fellow Pathfinders to see if we can gather any information about the ‘lost one’ you may have been looking after. I may be overstepping my station, but I’d like to ask you to wait here for me. Please.

Your friend, Liz

P.S. Burn this letter when you finish reading it.”

How was he supposed to just wait? Nico frowned, shaking his head. She left with a Pathfinder to go find the nameless girl. More questions with no answers. Nico stood up. “I’m heading out.”

“What was in the letter? Oh wait!” Marna jumped. “It was a proposal, wasn’t it?”

Nico hovered the paper toward his nightstand, then held the paper over the dim lantern’s flame. A hungry fire licked the corner, slowly dying it a deep black. The growing ember moved from one corner of the sheet to another, continuing its conquest until nothing but a ball of ash remained. A ball of ash fell into a metal receptacle at Nico’s bedside.

“W-well, whatever it was…” Mare sniffled. “It wasn’t good.”

“No, it wasn’t.” Nico walked toward the door. “I’m heading out.”

The letter asked him to stay. As much as it pained him, he couldn’t simply stand and do nothing. Not while the little girl could still be out there, not while Liz could be in danger. Nico eyed the rolling mist at the window. Even if he couldn’t do something, he knew someone who could. A smile pulled at his lips. He wasn’t powerless, far from it. If he worked together with Rinzai, maybe he could make a miracle happen.