Kalen was puzzled by the meaning behind Sarah's words, but it was easy for him to infer it had something to do with his origins.

It also confirmed she must have been seeing his memories just as Kalen was recollecting them. He decided to stop resisting any idea he thought impossible, but If he was to accept someone could anchor their soul to the World of the living at the time of their death — which it seemed more and more like he had no choice but to do so — then a plethora of questions had just sprouted in his mind.

'Yes, I have been reading your mind.' Sarah said. 'Also yes, I just sifted through your memories. Slow down. I'll tell you what I meant by you being hidden away. By the gods' eyes! You do shift gears quickly don't you? A minute ago you thought you were going crazy, now you're already thinking of dozens of questions before I even started explaining things.'

'I'm.. sorry.' Kalen said hesitantly, still not sure what to make of the absurd experience.

Sarah sighed. 'We have a lot of ground to cover, but first, something needs to be out of the way. I am sorry, there is no easy way to say this so I won't beat around the bush. You are not in Athrea anymore. I believe the blue light you saw when the cliff collapsed came from a warping gate activation. This cavern you woke up in — where I died and left the amulet — is in the Novarus continent.'

Kalen froze. Between all the impossible things he was already expecting to hear, he definitely hadn't considered the one Sarah told him. His thoughts spiralled out of control, trying to grasp the scenario he was in while struggling to believe her words.

He knew enough about warping gates, although there wasn't supposed to be one anywhere near Iroyama. Kalen himself had never seen any, but one of his father's books explained these gates were incredibly advanced technology which manipulated the fabric of spacetime and allowed humanity to travel between set locations instantly.

The book, however, also mentioned there was a limit these gates were able to reach. Such limit — coupled with the resources necessary to build and maintain a gate — had prevented the most remote cities in Athrea from having one. A gate capable of sending someone across the oceans, to another continent, was unthinkable.

'Trust me, I used to believe the same thing.' Sarah continued. 'I can only speculate on what happened to you because I was investigating irregular gates when I died.' She paused, giving him some time to come to terms with her words. 'Look, I know this is difficult to hear, but unfortunately, it's just the tip of the iceberg.'

'I am guessing the part about me being hidden away comes in now.' Kalen said numbly.

Sarah nodded. 'From what I saw in your memories, you already wield anima. You just didn't know that's what you were doing. What you kept referring to as 'a calling', was in fact Gaea reaching out to your soul. Gaea is the ethereal embodiment of nature — its own soul, if you will. Living beings are able to connect with it by wielding anima, which in turn is the manifestation of their soul's will over the physical plane.

'Normally, those with aptitude need years of studying and training until they gain their first insight.' Sarah paused, pointing at him. 'You — interestingly, I might add — was able to do it passively, and without noticing. Not only that, Gaea even reached out to you, instead of you needing to create a connection to it first.'

Kalen tried to make sense of the reality-shattering explanation Sarah had just thrown at him. A part of him had always suspected there was more to the World than what his parents had taught him. Before, he had chosen to not try understanding what the calling was because he didn't want anything to change. It was different now, his life had changed despite of him.

Sarah eyed him quietly. Kalen knew she had already read his thought but he asked anyway. 'What does this mean?'

'It means that you, my dear Kalen,' Sarah said, her smile widening. 'are a very special person.'

Kalen lowered his gaze, remembering Shiori's doubts about his eyes and how he scoffed at the travelers' stories. The irony that he was hearing about the truth behind his existence on that same day did not escape him. If he was special, then maybe the reason was—

'Exactly.' Sarah said. 'Your real parents. You belong to the gods' lineage. I have no idea why or how you ended up adopted, but the fact is, you are a descendant of a god. With those eyes of yours, there is no doubt about it. I should know, after all...' She paused, pointing at her own violet eyes.

'Are you also...'

Sarah nodded. 'I am a descendant of the goddess Isperia Silverblaze. However, I have never seen or heard of any god with scarlet eyes.'

Kalen frowned. 'Then how can you be so sure I am also a descendant?'

'It's simple.' Sarah said. 'All of us with unique eyes are. The teachings say when the World was faced with the Reclamation, the gods ascended and did everything within their power to protect humanity. It was then that they learned how to wield anima for the first time. During their struggle to defend us while seeking a connection to Gaea, their physiology went through small changes, most notably, the color of their eyes.

'Unfortunately, some of the gods lost their lives before they were able to appease Gaea's wrath. Looking at you now, I am forced to believe their lineage was kept safe, and by the looks of it, hidden from the rest of the World for centuries.'

Sarah's theory made some sense to Kalen. As much as he still felt somewhat overwhelmed by the sudden revelation, he had to admit there were a number of signs pointing in that direction. Even still, a descendant of the gods? Him? He was only a nobody from a forgotten city at the corner of one continent. 

Kalen could believe he was able to wield anima — whatever that meant — but he didn't need to be a descendant to do that. According to the travelers' stories, wielders were regular people which had trained their whole lives to surpass mankind's limits.

'You are forgetting Gaea actively reaching out to you your entire life.' Sarah said. 'I have never heard of anyone claiming that, not even among descendants. Trust me, that is something any wielder would think of boasting about.'

Was he just being stubborn like Shiori always complained? Accepting her words meant he needed to believe he was some kind of special being. But if that was the case, his real parents had also been descendants who had been in hiding. Did they leave Kalen to protect him from a threat? Were his adopted parents people who served the descendants? It seemed the more he heard from Sarah the more questions he had. 

Then, he remembered.

'The man I fought before I ended here.' Kalen said. 'Why was I attacked by another descendant?'

Sarah's body seemed to flinch when hearing about the man, and her facial expression hardened. 'Can you focus on his face for me?' She asked.

Once Kalen played the fight over the cliff in his mind, she paused, closing her eyes again. Kalen inferred she was sifting through his memory one more time and wondered how Shiori would react if it was she in his position. Learning about his real origin, about anima, souls of the dead connecting to the living and reading their thoughts, searching their memories. She would be amazed, he thought.

Kalen had no doubt she would accept everything in a heartbeat, smiling through her teeth and enjoying every detail of it all, as if it was a mystery novel she had just started reading. Maybe Kalen would be reacting like that as well, had he not come across this situation in the way he did. The memory of Shiori's desperate scream as he fell with that man ached more than any injury he had sustained in the cliff's collapse. However, if it meant he had protected her, he would gladly bear it. Shiori was safe. He had to believe she was.

'Everything makes sense now.' Sarah said, bringing Kalen back from his thoughts. 'It must be interconnected somehow.'

'What?'

'The man that attacked you...' Sarah said, opening her eyes.

Kalen noticed something different in them. They were radiating a level of emotion which wasn't there before. Maybe because he was so used to seaching Shiori's eyes for any indication of what she was thinking, he had become very good at detecting subtle patterns in people's gazes.

Sarah clenched her fists and tilted her head, looking at the nothingness above Kalen's head. '...was also the man who killed me.'