They’re still leafing through books after dinner, surrounded by hardwood mahogany shelves in the Blackwood library. A light rain drizzles outside. 

Just in case Edward’s imaginary friend is not imaginary and is who or what Ryo thinks they are, he is listing the…more mystical ingredients on his list in random order— without all the Esse explanations Mingyue gave.

Edward hums. “Dragon scales, huh? I wish dragons were real…” Glancing up, he nods at the space beside him, listening with rapt attention. “My friend says they exist elsewhere.”

I mean, if his friend isn’t exactly human and tells him a lot of stuff, maybe he actually knows something that Mingyue doesn’t. Ryo’s pretty sure his logic is sound and that Edward is, well, airheaded enough to not pick up on the strangeness of his questions.

“My friend also wants to know what kind of project this is.”

Ryo startles. Code of Silence, right. “Uhhh… I guess I was reading some books on medicine and got curious?”

Edward blinks.

“A-And I was trying to find a way to help my sister?”

“Ohh.” Edward nods. “Satori, right? Is she okay?”

“S-Sort of?”

“How can she be sort of okay?”

“...It’s kind of hard to explain. Don’t worry about it!” I dug my own hole there.

Edward turns to the space beside him. “He’s not lying!” He turns back to Ryo. “Sorry. My friend just called you a liar. It’s okay, I believe you.” He turns around again. “Why are you being so mean today?”

Ryo’s lip twitches in a dead smile. “Your friend is very talkative all of a sudden.”

“They’re not usually like this.” Edward blows a raspberry at the empty space beside him.

“So, your friend says dragon scales exist somewhere else? Do they know where?”

“...They said it’s near Eden in a place called the Village of Ea—Eternity.” Edward gasps. “Wait! But Eden is like Heaven or something! It’s in the Bible!”

Ryo groans. “I don’t understand what you’re talking about. So, you mean I have to die to get there?”

Edward gasps, louder. “You’ve never read the Bible before?”

“I’m not Catholic or Christian. But I know what Heaven is, you idiot.”

“Oh, yeah. Let me go find one,” he replies, standing up. He walks past the sofas situated in the middle of the room and towards the opposite shelf. His imaginary friend must have said something, because he calls over his shoulder, “Just so you know, my friend says it’s not the same Eden as the one in the Bible!”

Ryo yawns. The warm glow of the lamps in the room flicker gently on the pages of the book he’s reading about herbs. He doesn’t actually know what the words say, but he can understand the pictures. Things would be a lot faster if he could read English. 

Or maybe, Mingyue can invent an Esse pill to let him read and understand any language.

“Here,” Edward says, handing him an illustrated Bible. He plops back down next to him, flipping through the pages and translating the rough meaning of the key points. “I’ve never heard of a Village of Eternity before, but Eden was a paradise for the first humans. Look, angels,” he exclaims, pointing to the winged figures on the page. “They protect us. They protected Eden. My friend says the place they’re talking about is kind of similar, but it’s not the same as the things in the books.” 

Edward pauses, raising an eyebrow at the space beside him. “If Father Thomas heard you say that, I bet he’d throw a book at you. But true, I guess it’s possible that humans can change the words… Huh, you’re right, this Bible is an 1823 edition…”

Ryo tunes his friend out as the brunette engages in a spirited discussion with his probably-not-so-imaginary friend. His eyes hone in on the inked art, the cross-hatching shading the figures with great precision.

At this point, insisting on its non-existence is the more unlikely option; what kind of imaginary friend knows so much regarding the taboo topics that Edward isn’t supposed to know about: Esse and Eden…and who knows what else? Sure, maybe Edward could have overheard something or seen something he isn’t supposed to, but after listing so many of these ingredients, Ryo’s sure Edward would have recognized the recipe for Enoia.

The fact that the brunette boy doesn’t is telling that he doesn’t know the basic principles behind Esse or Enoia and the implications of adding more ingredients to the recipe: tampering with the effects of Enoia, the medicine Edward’s father needs, and according to Mingyue, tampering with it in a way that allows a human to become like a god.

Ryo’s eyes stop on a particularly ominous looking angel, one with horns protruding from its head and crimson eyes. He shivers, suddenly remembering that crimson gaze on the ship. It was Lucifer’s gaze, an akuma’s eyes. “Who is this?”

Edward pauses his debate. He leans over, shoving his head forwards so that Ryo has to lean backwards. “Oh, that? It’s Satan, the Devil. Capital ‘D’ Devil. Kind of like the boss of all the demons. That’s him when he was still an angel. His angel name is Lucifer.”

So he is right, then. Ryo peers carefully at the two contrasting images, one of a beautiful and glorious being, the other a creature so grotesque and…evil-looking. Did Dad really make a deal with a demon? A Fallen?

The Fallen— akuma, as they are called in Japan —are the enemies of the Seven Families. They want the Artifacts.

“...I will make you one of us. I do not break promises,” Lucifer had said to his father on the ship.

Ryo pales. Dad wants to become a Fallen? Why?

“...ellloooo?” Edward waves his hands in front of Ryo’s face.

SMACK! SMACK!

“Ow!” Ryo cries, rubbing his swollen cheeks. “What’d you do that for?”

“You were daydreaming.” Edward pokes his cheek. “What’s wrong?”

Ryo swats the boy’s hand away. “Nothing.”

Edward pokes him again. “I think you’re lying this time.”

“Nothing!” Ryo growls, suddenly in a sour mood.

“Okay, geez. Calm down,” Edward mutters. “My friend says you should give up looking for those ingredients and stick to common herbs. If Satori isn’t hurt too bad, she won’t need a complicated healing tonic.”

Not a chance. “Okay. I’ll think about it.”

“—ster! Young master Edward! Ryo! It’s getting late! Your fathers want you both in bed,” a man’s voice calls down the hall.

Edward groans. “Oh no, not William.”

William, the head butler around Blackwood Manor, is a stern man, from what Ryo’s observed on previous visits. Poor Edward doesn’t have his mother, so it seems the servants have taken it upon themselves to mother him a bit. Their relationship is more intimate than those of normal servants and their masters.

If he’s being honest, Ryo rather envies it.

Footsteps resound against polished floors and the tall, stern-faced man appears in the doorway moments later, suit still stiff and hair slicked back at this late hour.

“Can I have a glass of milk at least? With cookies?” Edward pleads, flashing big, round puppy-dog eyes up at the man.

William twitches. “I’m sorry, young master, but it is not good for your health to eat so late.”

Edward pouts, looking pitifully up at the man.

“...Don’t tell your father I let you into the kitchen.”

“Yay!” Edward drags Ryo with him out the room and down the stairs.

“Be in bed before ten!” William calls after them, already putting the books back on the shelves.

Edward only sighs.

“I was expecting you to suggest we sneak off somewhere.”

He shakes his head. “I have classes tomorrow. Father hired this new governess and now I have to wake up early and spend every day reading a bunch of books I don’t care about and doing stupid math problems.”

Ryo whistles, part of him lamenting the fact that he doesn’t have the luxury of a formal education back at home. “So, is she strict?”

“Very. Ever since she heard me play some stuff I heard on the piano, she suggested to my father I should learn it properly. So now I have to do piano too.” 

The kitchen is dark save for the moonlight when they enter. The staff have already headed to their rooms to sleep, leaving the whole place to the two of them. Edward stands on a stool and opens some cupboards. He brings out two glasses, handing them to Ryo, who puts them on the counter.

Edward makes his way to the ice box, rummaging around for the pitcher of milk. Finding it, he pours them two cups. “Ah,” he suddenly says. “I forgot that I can’t use the stove.”

“So we have to drink it cold?”

A mischievous glint enters Edward’s eyes and the pale blue moonlight shining into the room from the windows only makes his mysterious intent more obvious.

“Do you want to see something cool?” Edward asks, bouncing on his feet in excitement.

“Uh…” No.

“Come on! It’ll be a secret, between the two of us!”

The last time Edward said it would be a secret between them, the brunette had shown him a dead animal’s skull in his secret collection of…weird things. Honestly, the kid has a habit of collecting the strangest, sometimes most disturbing, things.

Apparently, Edward has since mastered the skill of begging, because one look into the brunette’s eyes has Ryo nodding his head in a trance.

Grinning, Edward raises a hand to his glass and tells him, “Watch this.”

A dim orange light shimmers for a brief second around his glass and if Ryo wasn’t paying attention, he’d have missed it.

“Feel it,” Edward urges him.

Ryo reaches for his glass. He gasps. “It’s warm! How did you do that?”

“Oh, easy, I just changed some squiggles.” Edward warms the other glass with the flick of his finger.

Ryo nearly chokes on his milk. “What?”

“Yeah, I’ve been seeing squiggles all over things these days. My friend’s been teaching me how to read the squiggles.”

“S-Squiggles?” Ryo croaks.

“Yep! Everything in the world has them. Like the milk, and the cup, and the table, and the moon…and your hand, and your face.” Edward scrunches his nose. “Basically all of you. And me as well.”

“Uhh…” Ryo takes a step back.

“It’s apparently a lost power called Aeon.”

“L-Lost power?” So it’s not Esse?

Edward nods at the space beside him. “Yeah, I know.” Turning back to Ryo, he explains, “Aeon is the power of creation itself. It’s a better version of Esse. You have to follow a lot of rules if you use Esse.” Smiling smugly, the boy puffs up in pride. “Only special people like me can use Aeon!”

“D-Does your father know you can do this?” Oh no, Edward knows about Esse. Oh no, the Code of Silence is already dead. Oh no—

“Nope!” Edward exclaims. “I’m keeping it a secret from Father, so don’t you dare tell him!”

Oh no, this is not supposed to happen.

“Seriously, don’t tell anybody!” Edward whisper-shouts. The brunette’s smile turns sharp. “I’ll know if you do…”

A cold sweat breaks out on Ryo’s forehead as his friend seems to enlarge like an ominous dark shadow under the moonlight. “O-Okay, I won’t.” He glances at the empty space beside Edward. “How…does your friend know how to read the, uh, squiggles?”

“Dunno.” Edward turns to ask his definitely-not-imaginary-now friend. “How did you know what squiggle to change?”

A silence settles.

“They’re not telling me anything,” Edward pouts. He shrugs and downs his glass of milk in one big gulp. “Paaahh! That was good!”

Ryo sips his own glass, eyeing the space beside Edward warily. “Yeah… It’s good.”