Creatures of the Light

Second Light

Second LightCreatures of the Light

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##### Second Light #####

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No matter how many nights you have spent

Time is never yours at all

The hands of hours are your arch enemies

As the moment is never perfect

But always pragmatic.

It is so bright.

All I can see is the light.

It invades my sight, shining so effortlessly with its intense blaze.

I raise my hand to block my eyes from the amplified glow, until it starts to dim slowly. The light then muffled into a much calmer lambency, mercying me from its inclusivity. And next thing I know, I can see snowflakes everywhere, falling from the endless white sky and down to the hoar infinite land.

Each fragment is so sublimely crafted. The crystal armlets are webbing beautifully, pointing at six different directions. When one snowflake falls near me, I raise my other hand to reach out to it. The snowflake burns my finger with a freezing temperature. But despite the little torture, I still enjoy the wonderful close-up sight.

But then suddenly, just like that, I remember who I am, and where I am supposed to be. Instantly, the piece of heaven darkens like a withering plant. The world I can see is turning to a color so black, it wakes me up from my slumber.

“─sene, it’s already in the afternoon,” Banri voice dimly starts to inform me.

“What?” I mumble, raising myself from the bed sleepily.

“You’ve been sleeping for a few hours now. I think it’s time for you to wake up.” He comes from outside my room, bringing in a tray of food for me. He places the tray on my lap, before I start grabbing a bite of a garlic bread and sip the sweet mushroom soup.

“Thanks for the food,” I manage to say.

“Well, I’m glad you liked it.”

“Any news from Valline yet?”

“Not as far as I am concerned. He hasn’t come back ever since he left.”

“What do you think is taking him so long?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps with the fact that the entire members of his family is to be suspected, it might take him a while to finish his investigation. Geez, Arsene. Ever since you changed, you changed. It is almost as if someone has replaced your genius brain with a lunatic’s,” Banri rolls his eyes at me.

I only stare at him, which seems to frustrate him even more.

“Exactly. You can’t even be mad at me after insulting you. What is wrong with you? What had the culprit did to the Arsene I knew? It feels as if someone has replaced you on the spot with someone else entirely different. And it’s not just because you have white hair and blue eyes right now. It’s because your personality is starting to change as well. You were not like this the first day you arrived. But I can see it in you ─ the change. You are turning into a Blancort,” he says the last part in horror.

“Is that such a bad thing?”

“Is that such a bad thing? Is that such a bad thing?” he repeats angrily. “Of course it is, Arsene,” he snaps at me, grabbing me by the shoulders and starting to shake my body back and forth. “Don’t you see? You are turning into someone else that I don’t even know off,” he says with panic in his eyes.

“Don’t be so concerned, Banri. I’m okay. At least I’m not dying, am I?” I say with a smile, which reaction seems to make him a little taken aback as he stops shaking me and only stares at me with wide eyes.

“I can’t believe you,” he mutters. “I can’t believe that this is really happening.”

“But Banri, this is real. And maybe me changing is for the greater good. If this is what fate wants me to become─”

“Fate? Ha! The normal Arsene would have fought fate back with all that she has, just so that she won’t have to be miserable,” he interrupts.

“But I don’t want to fight anymore, Banri. I’ve realized that my actions in the past were wrong. I don’t want to be that violent wizard anymore. I am not the old me, but the new me. I desire peace instead of war,” I say.

“Well, at least the last part is still the same. You’re still preventing the war between Noirmelns and Blancorts, aren’t you?”

“Of course. That is why I want to know how Valline’s doing,” I answer with a steady tone as I stare into his frozen magma eyes.

Banri stares at me for the longest time, something building in his eyes. Is it.... fear? But that does not make any sense. Why would he be afraid of me, his best friend ever since we were children?

“Please stop,” he pleads as if he is in pain out of nowhere.

“Stop what?” I ask, confused.

“Stop looking at me with those look in your face, please. No offense, but the new you is starting to creep me out here,” he says.

“None taken,” I say, dropping my gaze.

I finish my soup in silence when no conversation is occurred. Banri is about to take the tray back to clean it up, when suddenly an idea crossed my mind.

“Hey, Banri, I have an idea,” I say to him, keep my eyes from meeting his as he likes it. “Why not instead of waiting in here like a damsel in distress, we visit him?”

He crooks an eyebrow by the choice of my words. It feels as if he is saying out loud that I am the damsel, and does not want him to be included. “Visit him? Arsene, do you even know what you are saying. It is dangerous and risky─”

“Yes, but what good can we do by hanging around in your house all day, without doing anything? Honestly, I think the war will happen even if I stay here. The Blancorts will find a way to make it happen if they want to, trust me. They are not exactly idiots. And what is the better way to end this boredom by going out? In fact, I think the Blancorts must be thinking that I am a coward who already raised up her white flag, just by hiding myself in here. So, instead of letting them being satisfied by my absence, why don’t we just show them that I am okay, despite my appearances?”

“Arsene, this is crazy. Do you know what I have been through just to keep anyone from knowing your current location?”

“I have no idea,” I admit honestly. “But if you really have been trying hard to make my presence unknown, Valline shouldn’t have found me here. Not that I am being ungrateful or anything, but it’s the truth.”

Banri puts a hand on his waist, while the other is still holding the tray that I ate. “Okay, now you’re just being as annoying as a Blancort. It’s the truth,” he copies my words.

“Don’t be mad at me,” I say looking at him, for an instant forgetting to not look at him in the eyes. He takes a couple of steps back from where he is standing as I raise from the bed and approach him. “I won’t force you to follow me, but I am still going.”

And with that, I walk out, bringing my cloak along.

“Wait!” Banri calls for me when I try to open the front door. It is the only boundary between the inside of the cave with the open world that lies out there, and a crack is already made. I just have to push it and step out from my hiding place. He is no longer carrying the tray when I turn to look back at him.

“I can’t let you leave alone. You are vulnerable on your own at this state.” When he ends that sentence, I raise my palm and summon fire from it. The flame is white, but it has a pretty intense heat coming from it. “Okay, maybe not so much, but you get the point. Think about what they will do once one of them sees you.”

“I do not plan on being seen by one of them,” I answer, letting Banri sighs in relief. “Instead, I want each of them to see my current state,” I exclaim, making him chokes in his own spittle.

“What? Are you out of your mind? I can’t let you go out like this,” he says, pulling me back into the cave.

“No, I can’t. I have to do this,” I pull away my wrist that he is holding. “You have to understand. I can’t let them win. My family’s safety is at stake here. Their lives will only be in danger if I am absent for too long. The Blancorts will think that I am giving up, which will give them the reason to think that it will soon be the time for them to attack my family.”

I stare into his eyes, trying to seek understanding from him. His dark eyes soften from the anger and worry he is feeling, and soon turns his head away when I catch a blush raising to his cheeks. I have never seen him blush before, though. At least not from any reasonable cause.

“Fine,” he says through clenched teeth, making me cheer slightly. “But I am coming as well, whether you like it or not. Someone this have to keep an eye on you when you are about to do extreme activities.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t do anything stupid. My actions and personalities, and even my looks, might have been effected by the exchange potion, but deep down, I am still me. I still want the same thing as before, and that is to keep the peace between the Noirmelns and the Blancorts. I don’t want mine and my husband’s family to be in a war. I can’t stop them from hating each other, since the cold war has already started a long time ago, even before I was born. But I will try to solve this.”

“What? Are you going to find out the cause that started all of these?”

I nod. “There must be something that caused the feud. It might take awhile to find out, but with the knowledge I have and the histories I have read, I’m sure they will help me find out about the other half of the ancient records that is related to our two families.”

“You mean you’ve read your family’s other half? Wasn’t the book of record like one thousand pages long?”

“Three thousand,” I correct him. “I was stuck in the library for a week.”

“Wow, I don’t even know how you managed to read the whole thing, but I have a feeling that it will take you longer to read the other half that the Blancort possesses in their own residence. You don’t know their ancient language, after all.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that part. I have got it covered. Valline taught me how to understand and read them a while ago, at the same time when I taught him how to read the Noirmelns’ ancient language.”

“And your family was okay with that?”

I raise my shoulders and drop them down. “They didn’t know, so how can I?” I say with a smile.

“You’re playing with fire, Arsene. Think about what they’ll do once they find out that you’re giving away their secrets,” he warns me.

“Well then I guess you just have to keep this secret to yourself. Only I and Valline know about this. So if they happen to know, and neither of us has revealed the secret, then I will know that you are the one who do it,” I say.

Banri sighs again in defeat, before asking, “So where are we heading?”

“Why, the Blancort Residence, of course,” I answer instantly with a smile on my lips.

He doesn’t have to say how crazy my idea is this time, and only hold the door open for me to step outside. Once I do, he turns to lock the door with a simple spell before turning to face me again.

“Let’s just go before I change my mind,” he mutters while I only smile satisfiedly at him.

Before we go, though, I take the time to use a spell to change my clothes into a white dress, which I am sure will really match my look this time.