The cab turned right before entering a broad avenue, slowing as it came to the curb in order to park.
Paying my fare, I stepped out onto the sidewalk and took a look around. The opposite end of the street was lined with shrubbery and a few trees here and there, but the main focal point would be the large lake in the center of this part of the city.
‘Wow… I can’t even begin to imagine how much it costs to live around here.’
Turning my attention to the building before me, I took in its scale—roughly ten stories tall, with a muted color palette of sleek grays and black accented by touches of white.
As the taxi pulled away, I stepped inside, greeted by the soft chime of an automated sensor as the doors slid open.
‘Let’s see, the Tenth floor, was it? And room number 901…’
I made it to an elevator to the right of the entry that led me up to the tenth floor. When the metallic doors slid open, I saw that there were only two rooms on this floor, both of which were opposite each other.
I went up to room 901 and rang its doorbell.
Ding-dong…
From the other side of the door, I could hear what sounded like heavy objects crashing to the ground. Thump—shuffle, shuffle…
Click. The door cracked open just enough that I could see a face.
Peering from the door was a gorgeous girl who looked to be around my age. She had crimson red eyes and black hair done in a loose side braid; she was wearing a coffee-brown over-the-shoulder shirt.
Her snowy face looked up at me, her red eyes blinking slowly, “Sorry, I’m not interested…”
She tried to close the door on me, but I slipped a hand through just in time to stop her; luckily, she wasn’t slamming the door, or else I might’ve had to pay another visit to that hospital. “Wait, please. I’m Nanik’s friend.”
“Oh…” She ran her fingers through her face and gave me a second glance,
“Ah! You’re that Tokei girl~. Sorry for my rudeness, I’m Eve—please, come in!” She opened the door up for me and ushered me into her place.
The inside was very spacious for an apartment with an open-floor plan. The flooring consisted of a toned down grayish hardwood floor that spanned the entirety of the apartment as far as I could see. The living room which I had entered had two couches placed on a single toned dark gray carpet with a marble topped coffee table placed in the center. On the wall opposite to a couch was a super large TV that was attached to the wall, making it look as though it was floating.
“So, what’s your deal?” Eve asked me as I was admiring the room.
“Hmm?”
She stared at me with vulture-like eyes, like a journalist who just found an inside scoop, “Are you Nanik’s secret affair child?! Or, or—”
“H-huh?! It’s nothing like that! Also, isn’t Nanik too young to be my parent?”
“Buh—so he’s fooled you, too. I’ll be sure to give him a stern talking-to later!” She harrumphed and crossed her arms,
“Anyways, what’re you here for?”
“...He didn’t tell you?”
“—That’s his modus operandi,” she said, as if stating something matter of fact.
“Let’s go to my office—you can give me more details there.”
We entered another door into her office, but it felt like we were entering an entirely different building. The walls were painted a soft pink color and had white shelves attached to them. Each of the shelves was lined with cosmetic products from various brands. At the heart of it all was a large desk with a triple-monitor setup. A large camera and ring light could be seen peeking out from between the monitors as well as a microphone attached to a swiveling arm on the table.
“What’s all of this for?” Seems like a lot of equipment for one person, if I was being honest.
“It seems like you don’t know…” She brought the microphone towards her face and pointed at me with her index finger, winking,
“I’m one of Listaria’s top White Sorcera makeup artists!”₍₂₎
“Sorry, but I don’t know what that is…” I elucidated her to my circumstances.
…
“Oh man, no wonder,” Eve said with shocked eyes. She took her phone out.
“Hold on, let me check something…”Snap~. It seemed like she just took a picture of me. She then typed something on her phone.
As she began furiously swiping up, I could see a frown becoming increasingly prominent on her lips. Eventually, she stopped scrolling, and showed me the phone’s screen.
It was a post of a less-than-HD photo of me at the lobby of Annual Hotel, standing awkwardly and fidgeting with the map of my keycard. Underneath it were the captions: “Who is she??? 🫢🔥🔥🥰”
“You’re such a pretty girl, so how come the only thing I can find about you online is this?!”
“I don’t know…” I said meekly, lightly shrugging my shoulders. I was embarrassed at both her comment and the photo.
‘I think the better question would be who took that photo… Can I get that taken down? My pose is not doing me any favors there…’
“But… I wonder, though,” I voiced my thoughts aloud, taking my gaze away from the phone and looking at all of the stuff around her office.
Eve raised her eyebrows and bobbed her head, “Yes?”
“This job you do—surely it can’t be sustainable, right? I mean, the older you get…”
I stopped speaking the moment I saw Eve’s face become frigid. ‘...Erm, I didn’t say anything wrong, did I..?’
Her face remained like that for a few seconds before she started laughing boisterously, “Y-you’re so right! Alright, let’s stop talking about that sore subject,” she pointed at the office chair,
“Please sit down over here and place your arms on the armrests. I’ll start evaluating you.”
“Oh, okay…” After I sat myself down, Eve lugged another chair over with some difficulty. She faced me as she also got seated,
“Hold your hands out like this for me.” She demonstrated by turning both of her palms flat and upwards, with arms straightened out. I reciprocated, imitating her.
She placed her hands atop mine, “Okie-dokie! I’ll be transfusing my Sethnine into your vessels.”
Looking down, I could see a somewhat-clear pink “vapor” forming between our palms. The vapor traced our hands, forming a slim bubble-like exterior that enveloped them.
Eve resumed, “Now, you may feel something like paresthesia, but that’s totally normal. And don’t worry—nothing will happen to you; I’m a bona fide Eminent Sorc—”
“Could you explain in more simple terms? Think like you’re explaining to a toddler.”
“Oh, right~. My bad, that was out of habit,” Eve said while giggling,
“I’ll be doing a thingy, and you’ll probably feel a little weird. It will help see if your memory problem is related to magic!”
Okay. Maybe “toddler” wasn’t the right word to say there.
Suddenly, I started feeling a prick that originated at my palm. It started to move, propagating upwards through my arms.
“Why’s it so itchy?” I exclaimed.
“Right?” Eve agreed with me,
“…Though, it must be because you haven’t put your vessels to use in a long while; it shouldn’t be that itchy. Doesn’t it feel like you’re taking a walk on a sunny afternoon?”
No. It feels like something’s crawling under my skin. What kind of walks do you have, lady?
The sensation continued to travel, but instead of spreading out like I’d feared it would, it coalesced at an area over the left side of my chest.
“Let me give you a quick rundown on things: Sethnine is normally intangible, meaning we can’t see it with conventional sight or touch it. However, there is an organ in our bodies that facilitates the process of making it tangible. It’s called the “Mansian”,” Eve continued,
“It’s like a secondary heart, but specifically for magic. It does what’s known as “Sethnic Respiration”, where it takes in unrefined Sethnine and converts it to the magic you’ve probably seen normal people and sorceras using every day.”
“So you’re pouring Sethnine into my magic vessel so it can get to the mansian?”
She corrected me, “—Almost. My mansian’s already refined it, so I’m sending you refined Sethnine. Are you getting a feeling similar to heartburn?”
“It’s tingling there a bit…”
“Okay! Please stand up, then—now, start taking deep breaths… Slowly-slowly!”
“What’s this going to do?” I inhaled sharply. I wanted this irritating feeling to subside.
“This will help you release Sethnine from your mansian and kick-start it again. Your mansian has a limit, which is called the Sethnic Capacity, and I gave you around a half-dosage for average Neophytes—just a fancy word for a beginner.”
I closed my eyes to concentrate, making sure that every cycle was as breathy as can be. ‘In and out…’
“Hoo~…”
“Ha~…”
“Hoo~…” Snap.
“W-what was that sound?!” I yelped. I jolted my eyes open, but Eve was no longer in front of me—in fact, the whole place seemed to be gone... The floor and walls became replaced by different gradients of grainy white pellets spread evenly about. Between and beyond the grained dots, there was just an endless expanse of darkness.
Then, ripples were made in the fabric of the “air” in front of me that spread out in all directions. The ripple carried with it strange… Features? They were peculiar blue notes—or symbols.
They trailed past my side and beyond my sight.
<“Hey..! Are you alright..?”>
I could hear a distant voice coming from the ripple, which I presumed was Eve’s.
I turned around, watching as the symbols were carried away, becoming more red in coloration as it disappeared from sight.
“Can… Can you hear me?” I called out. It took a moment before I could “see” her response come through again,
<”Yes… I’m right… here… What… are you… seeing..?”>
“My sight became weird… I-I—how do I stop thi—Ugh! “ I groaned in pain as a relentless pulse hammered behind my temples, interrupting me.
It felt like a drum was beating inside of my head, exacerbating the pain with each bound. The grainy environment around me teetered in and out of view as my vision became hazy. I wavered slowly until my body became slackened.
Thud.
I could only hear the fading echo of my heartbeat as I slipped from consciousness…
…
…
#include <iostream>
int main() {
std::cout << ">> Status: Active. All modules engaged.n";
return 0;
}
console.log("Hello world,");
echo "I'm Neuro!";₍₃₎
Footnotes:
“Listaria” is a social media platform. It is similar to platforms such as Instagram® and TikTok®
A few programming languages were used here: C++, Javascript, & Shell Script.
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