Chapter 114: A Little Lesson

Change the weather and stop the Blightfall.

I for one, couldn't think of any other seven-worded statement that more clearly fitted the bill, the literal definition of the saying easier said than fucking done. 

Not too sure really on how matter-of-factly the act was in the ever-growing bizarreness that was Kronocia, whether if it was customary or not to be switching off the rain the same way we do lightbulbs and television… but yeah, these otherworldly residents better catch on quick to the customs of us Earthlings here cause I don't think they're quite grasping the concept of mundanity just yet.

We don't do that here.

Here on our blue-green cloudy marble revolving around a big orange scorching bowling ball - we don't go around changing the weather to fit our convenience. It's actually the whole other way around.

If it snows, we shelter ourselves. If it rains, we shelter ourselves, if it's too damn blistering hot to the point of frying eggs in the asphalt… guess what? You're never gonna believe it, we shelter ourselves.

Of course… I was anything but mundane, wasn't I? I've lost the right a long, long time ago to claim the impossible as being impossible. No matter how I looked or acted, I couldn't deny that I was just as otherworldly and bizarre as they were, perhaps even more so - their customs were most definitely my own.

No doubt that everybody in this room - Irene, Adalia… heck even Amanda, was thinking the exact same thing. 

So really it was me that better be catching on to the customs quickly here.

Amanda decided to further elaborate in the silence that followed. "In the game, midway through - Terestra made an eternal rain to the kingdom of Astra, flooding it whole till it was nothing but a great big lake in the center of the map, and the only way to stop it was to find somebody else capable of doing what she did."

To the side, Adalia added on to the topic. "Terestra… clouded the days… for my sister and me… when it became too bright… for us…"

And Irene on the right, came to deliver the finishing blow. "I remembered there also being a month-long period of darkness where the sun never showed… I think perhaps Terestra was feeling a little moony during that point in time."

With all these examples, you'd think I'd get the message by now, truth was - I already knew what they were trying to get at from the start.

"It's all starting to seem like to me that you three know my mom better than I do at this point," I said, crossing my arms. "She never mentioned she was part-time weather girl to me before."

Heck, so she really was lying to my kid-self when she said she couldn't change the weather when it was raining that one time I wanted to go swimming at the beach. And there she was always telling me to be honest to people. My mom lied as much as she blinked.

What a hypocrite. 

Amanda's eyes kept widening by the second. "So err, point being, if she's capable - if your mom can do all that without a problem, following that logic…"

"Then so can I, huh?" I finished, feeling their stares like knives on my back. "Thinking perhaps I might be a chip off the old block, that what you getting at?"

"You're… Terestra's… son… " Adalia was starting to waver, every word a breathless struggle. "Her blood… in your… veins… you have… the… power…"

"Yeah, I know, I know..." I sputtered, hissing, ruffling my hair from all the pressure that was suddenly and abruptly placed on my conscious. "But it's all just a matter if I'm able to or not isn't it? Frankly speaking, I'm not sure if I can."

"Yes, you can." 

Not Adalia. Wasn't even Amanda that spoke out to me then. Those hazel-brown eyes I turned to face, briefly, fleetingly, unbridled fear stared back at me in-between the endearment and the tenderness dissipating as quickly as it showed with a little smile of encouragement.

Irene, maybe it was solely due to the fact that it was her, perhaps because she was the only one here that knew what happened. Just faintly, I could still see them, the scars present, faded, across her open palms, a small one right above her forehead.

They'll heal, she told me that day. Not fast enough, apparently. Looking at them, they were like painful reminders of what I really was capable of. So really, it was that more than anything, that made me finally believe it when she said it.

"I know you can do it."

Still so loving, still so adoring, in spite of everything… she kept that smile lingering for me. I seriously haven't the faintest idea why she was infatuated with me in the first place, but I suppose that's a question for another time.

Because right now, right then… it was time for me to play weatherman.

"Okay."

Amanda and Irene stayed behind inside, one to continue on breaking the trance the best she can, the other remained, bracing herself, and keeping safe in case of the worst-case scenario. 

Meanwhile, Adalia and I braved the approaching storm outside, standing beneath the flashes and the crackles recurring ever more often with every second's pass. 

The constant whistling breeze rendered her wobbling unsteadily in place across from me, her gasps and wheezes proving even more of a struggle than before. Like Irene, Adalia continued to endure the hardships forced onto her, pushing through in spite of it all.

I have to do my best too. That's why she was here. Quivering… standing… teaching…

"Magic…" She began feebly, drawing out a trembling arm in front of her. "Think of it… almost like… a third arm… an extra limb. You control it… almost as you… would… your own hands..." 

As demonstration, she began to exude a faint silvery wisp from the tip of her fingers. "You don't... force it… you don't strain… just… think… like breathing… like moving… focus on doing it… and you will…"

A lesson in trickery was not something I had planned for in the early hours of dawn, the claps and rumbles from above kept me from straying focus, her words were like law now, an incessant repetition ringing in my ears, my mind, I kept them in mutters.

"Focus, focus… like breathing, like moving," I looked back up at her again. "How do I know if - ? "

But Adalia wasn't there. The meadow where she once stood, not a soul in sight. Then from behind, her voice softly sounded.

"You'll know it… you'll feel it…" 

Then the left. "Magic's… your blood."

The right. "Your bones…"

To the meadow, a ruffling in the flowers, legs stumbling, keeping balance, then a pair of misty eyes stared back at me again. "It is… everything you are…" 

I blinked, processing what the heck she just did. "So you can teleport… one of your abilities?"

Adalia slowly shook her head. "I never… moved…"

Oh.

"Terestra can never be… affected… by any of my… illusions… nor sister's..." She muttered. "Hide and seek… was always unfair… when she's… seeking…" 

Sudden backstory. Wasn't expecting that. "You and your sister played hide and seek with the Demon Goddess?"

"We'll play hide and seek… now…" Her fingertips glowed once more a silvery ethereal hue. "Close your eyes… seek my presence… if you can… sense mine… then you'll be able… to find… yours…"

I could see the struggle, the strenuous burden she was placing herself under, expending so much energy, energy she didn't have staving away from an impending collapse.

Time. Her time was of the essence. I can't fuck this up. Got one shot at this.

"Are you… ready?" She asked, her breathing faltering.

I took a breath, heeded the resonating rumbling in the skies, and firmly clasped my eyes shut.

"Ready."

Darkness. Eternal, infinite darkness was what greeted my sight behind closed eyelids. Saw nothing, heard nothing, felt only the chilly breeze caressing the skin of my cheeks.

Focus, focus. Magic is your limb, magic is your bones… your blood.

If I'm being frank, what she was telling me just sounded like vague meaningless nothings… what does it mean to feel? What does it mean to sense?

I thought maybe I wouldn't be able to grasp it just yet.

But strangely enough, I did. I could. I understood exactly what she meant almost as if I've been doing it my whole life.

Nothing's happened yet, couldn't feel anything yet. But her words resonated inside of me and I clung onto it like water in a barren desert. 

I began to walk, one step… still sensing nothing. Another few steps, and I reached my arm out front.

Adalia spoke again.

"Don't will it…" Her voice echoed from everywhere. "Let it…" 

Took another stumbling step, seeing darkness, seeing nothing. Another arm outstretched.

"Don't…look… for me..." Left, right, front, back, center. "Feel for… me…" 

Feel… I felt… 

There was a pull. Something pulled me left. I pulled me left. Like a magnet, like gravity… it just felt… right… to move.

Darkness still shrouded all around me, but it didn't feel like I was stumbling, wandering around nothing. I couldn't see anything, but I felt everything… felt it in my skin, in my bones… in everything that I am.

The grass, the wind, the skies… everything manifested in the nothing.

Even Irene, a red smoky trail swirling in the wayside of nothingness. It wasn't her I was supposed to looking for though, it wasn't her that was hiding herself from me.

Adalia was much, much harder to feel.

But I continued to walk, I still felt the pull, leading me on to directions that felt very random and wrong, and yet so meticulous and right.

Left foot, right foot. Still seeing nothing, but sensing everything.

I stopped at once. It was brief, instantaneous, but it was there - a sliver of silver in the vast empty nothing. For all knew, I was simply standing in front of empty space. If I opened my eyes now, I'd see only nothing, that I'm sure of.

Nevertheless, I reached out my arm again, letting it reach, letting it flow, sensing, not seeing, and felt a soft sensation grazing the skin of my palms. Locks of smooth silky strands intertwined between my fingers.

Adalia's hair.

I felt a smile forming on my lips.

"Found you."

Found magic too.