Henry ran towards Lewis with the basket as he panicked upon seeing him. Concerned, he opened his arms wide and the child jumped onto him with the basket held behind his back. After lifting him, he moved to a much quieter corner and managed to get the kid calmed down then asked some questions to figure out what went wrong.
"What got you so scared? You are not always creeped out with such things like walking through that corridor." He smiled to comfort him as he rustled the little child's hair. He trembled as he recalled the way she had told him to remember to do a number of things upon exiting the door and finally spoke up in order to secure themselves from danger.
"I met with our sister, she told me to inform you to stay out at our seperate rooms and keep the basket of food outside in the hallway. After the guards check around our rooms, we can only leave after five or ten minutes later." Henry calmed down as he looked towards the nearing room, his own room.
"Were there people following you guys?" Lewis spoke while opening the door to the room and setting him in the bed while he took away the basket. The child nodded as he hid inside his blanket with his face turned towards the window. Once he was tucked in unintentionally, he placed the basket inside a cabinet outside and walked towards the direction of the kitchen, the corridor they had just come from.
Many of the guards on duty were gone and soft sounds of metal clicking was heard. He threw open the door, making everyone turn towards the other side, opposite to where they were walking. They had their guns pointed out, shotguns, pistols or even some carried slingshots. Time ticked as it clocked around two thirty at night, and it was completely unknown why she would be awake around this time.
It wasn't a missed fact that she had been unconscious for a week since that time when she had appeared with a bleeding appearance. And even a week was an astonishing speed for someone that badly injured to be able to recover. Her medical files showed that at least a month and half was needed for her full recovery.
On his way to the corridor was the medical room where Aefia was staying, so he thought of a visit just to confirm it was her that Henry had met. He creaked open the door and peaked inside, to find the maid servant who was regularly by her side, sleeping with her head against the table. The catheter was missing, and so was she.
His Whale element had a skill that allowed him to stealth and he used it to throw debris around the ground to allow a space for him to move through. Reaching the other side was slightly difficult, while trying not to bump against the guards and being silent, even with his breathings. Eventually, he was on the other side and made a run for it, which made a lot of noise following that.
The guards chased after, now aware that this was actually a haunted sort of tunnel and only moved because they wanted to exit through the kitchen's more frequently used route. Their steps were much faster around this time and they managed to overtake Lewis while he was trying to sneakily run. Right after they had all gone away, he spotted a small red flower blooming right next to him.
He tried to grab it, but was distracted with a arrow that mistakenly shooted towards his direction and he shut his eyes while looking away to the other side, but the arrow never reached him. His eyes opened out of curiousity, more red flower buds, which meant she was really around this corridor and was moving around.
While turning his head towards the direction where the arrow was supposed to be approaching him from, he noticed more of those flowers. Glancing up, she was standing there with glowing red eyes which contrasted with the dark area, slightly far away and holding the arrow. The hand holding it was stitched and with no bandage, making him curious how she was using that same hand.
She walked past him towards the way she had entered from. It hadn't been long since her entering, but time flew past very fast and it all seemed a short amount of time had past due to it. There was no warning, no greeting, just pure silence and ignorance. Just when she was reaching the exit, she stopped to ask just one question. "Is Henry still traumatized?"
"No, he was tucked into bed and it might be that he is already asleep." Lewis answered, not knowing which tone to use. "What are you doing up late around this time? And your wound aren't really healed, so why are you using that hand for hard tasks like that?" A concerned tone suddenly echoed through the corridor.
"I happened to just wake up, so I was just wondering around, thinking maybe I could go get a snack. But I seemed to have entangled myself into a situation which took away my appetite. And to clear your doubts...my injuries are not your concerns." She didn't make eye contact and held her hand out towards the handle. There was already willingness to leave, but suddenly she was dragged back into the corridor.
"I don't understand if it is my concern, if you are here to do something, finish it and then leave." Lewis angrily grabbed her wrist and pulled her towards the kitchen again as her heels clunked rapidly against the ground. "As a family, it would sincerely be my concern to have uncompleted tasks to be completed. Once I apologize, I will not apologize again and consider that you have forgiven me."
"That is alright and all...but I am also very egoistic." Aefia yanked her wrist away, held it with her other hand and stood with a dead stare at him with her dark eyes, not red this time. "But I appreciate your try, I will go by myself if I am hungry again. I believe that if I haven't returned to my chamber in time, they will find me and slit my throat the next day. Honestly...I feel disgusted to call you a family."
She turned towards the door once agian, and this time, a long silence was left behind as she left without any hesitation. Her words hung in the air as Lewis was left wondering what to do next. Walk towards his room, or walk towards the kitchen. "I feel disgusted to call you a family." The words repeated inside his mind and only cleared around a short while after.
Around two fourty, he left the corridor and walked towards Henry's room just to ensure the kid wasn't scared or upset. It was an easy chore to have him afraid of something, but if he were to face it, he would be left traumatized and that was another more impossible thing to have him recover from. The door swung open a short while after and he noticed the child scrolling through list of downloaded movies in his own tablet.
Noticing his elder brother, he smiled and patted the space next to him with his two hands, gesturing him to come over and sit next to him. Lewis had no other option and walked over, but upon reaching him, extended his fingers and switched the screen off. Annoyed, Henry threw it in front and folded his hand, "what was that for! What did it do?"
"Let's talk, about our sister. How do you find her as a person?" He spoke while rustling the child's hair like they all did to each other. Henry's face radiated with curiosity, thinking he suddenly spoke up. "She seems to be a good actor, good at hiding things and a very smart person. Although, something about her feels like there is another life of hers that is currently being led."
"And what makes you think that?" Lewis asked while thinking about whether the child was actually telling the truth or he was simply not wanting to speak about this. Henry, who seemed to feel a bit angry and annoyed at that question, grabbed the blanket while flopping under it on the bed.
"I don't know...I can't just say how I think of her when I haven't gotten a chance to informally speak to her!" He spoke with a low and muffled voice that was left unheard as the room felt silent within the next second and the door seemed to creak open before shutting back close.
***
Empty-handed, Aefia walked back to the doctor's chamber while summoning the catheter and trying to reconnect the wire back. Due to the rush back then, more then half the bag was gone, and apparently, it was useless. She couldn't disguise it or lie about it to her maid servants, or she would think that there is no room for respect from the person she was currently taking care of. Afraid of it, she hesitantly chose to wake her up.
Even by tapping her softly, the maid servant didn't stir nor did she seemed to be awake. Knowing that the past few days were stressful for her, Aefia stepped back and left the catheter next to her bed while trying to pick the needle out of her wrist. It had turned a redish purple colour and spread across her skin underneath. Her vein had been pierced from either sides then.
Knowing how a blood clot will form to block the bleeding any time sooner, she left the matter to worry about another time. This was the reason, Aefia recalled, that people don't use the hand with the catheter much when they are using them. Whether it was a major injury or not, her wrist alongside her other body parts were hurting a lot since the last run. It could have been because she hadn't moved in a week's time.
While sitting on her bed, with no amount of sleep hovering over her eyes, she clicked open her system and walked through the different functions she had gotten. Somehow, multiple major notifications had appeared and mostly of them were where a few of her skills had levelled up. Out of them all, one of them caught her eyes the most.
[Important Notice!
Skill type (Special Skill: System) has been levelled up. Current stats for the corresponding skill has been increased to Phase Three]
Seeing this, she immediately closed her message inbox icon and reopened her screen. Not much had changed, but there were new sorts of designs that hovered above the frames of the rectangular invisible barrier. All of them showcased a unique pattern that she had seen while using her skills.
One of them was her flowers and vines on the corners while the other was just patterns with two simple daggers in two opposite corners. The most captivating one was the butterfly with a flame-like wings and a phonix with its beautiful trail that was made of blue and red lines with stars in the visible blue areas. In total, there were four, with the last one resembling a small puppet...where features like creepy eyes were seen.
Within the instant that she had seen it, the screen showed a loading symbol, a chest which was trying to be unlocked as it bounced up and down. Then the previous window returned and it showed only three of those designs. Shocked, Aefia stared with a blank mind for a long time as her mind seemed to stop itself momentarily. If I am not wrong, all of them were something related to me or my magic. So what did that mean?
She trembled in place while shutting off the screen and stared out her window. Maybe I was just hallucinating. It's still midnight and my mind is probably still trained to be in a sleeping state like the usual times. I will take a walk if the situation seems to be a bother again.
She rubbed her eyes while reopening her system and went into the shop that it featured. Unknowingly, a new option had bounced to the surface where now it rearranged to show items, skills, cart and checkout. The new thing was the skills and she wondered whether it was now possible to purchase skills too. Her fingers hovered over the panel until the confidence returned and the slightly cold surface could be felt at her fingertips.
[Skill types available: Ability, Special Skills.]
She clicked on the ability section and new options appeared as it were labeled, legendary, relic and artifact-grade. What is this! Now there is a new function that tells me what type the skill would be? Does that even matter? Because at the end of the day, they are just attacks that have a different way of injuring or healing someone. But as an experiment, I think I want to try out a relic ability.
While clicking on the relic option, a small speech box containing informations hovered. "Any relic ability would mean the user is purchasing or using a skill that has been granted by the guardian of the corresponding element."
Aefia curiously selected a skill that she already had, 'Space Shifting'. Her fingers tapped on the box and immediately, a different interface appeared. Knowing this was going to be something depending the next time, she read through it carefully, every aspects to the smallest fullstop.
[Name: Space Shifting
Skill type: Ability
Grade: Relic
Function: Allows the person to move the space they are in or for someone they want to send to that space.
Price: 50 Bucks for submitting request.
Number of request left: 3
Corresponding Guardian: Guardian of Space
Earliest receiving time: Depending on the intent of use.
Request informations:
Name: Aefia
Magic type: Elemental (select new)
Element: Wolf (select new)
Intent:_____
Reminder: After the number of requests has been rejected, the skill will be disabled for the person requesting.]
That's a lot of work. But I will just submit with the intent stating 'experiment'. And like she thought, a request was sent and the screen was closed. Within that time, she tried to lay back and closed her eyes. Sleep was still far apart but she had nothing else to do, so she decided to stay in bed and wait for six to tick on her watch.
Suddenly, within seconds of the request being sent, a message came back and she immediately jolted awake to click a tap on the panel that read 'view'.