10 Waking up

"Come now, it is time to go to bed, Calla." I can't see a thing but I'm hearing voices. Whose voice is this?

"But I'm not sleepy yet, mother." A child speaks. At last, a scene begins to unfold before me. I see the same woman and child that I saw in Calla's memories. Both of them lay on the bed, the young girl's head rests upon her mother's arms.

"Then I shall tell you a story." The woman whisper's lovingly as she strokes her daughter's white hair, the same as hers.

"I want to hear the Founding Tale, mother." Young Calla snuggles closer to her mother. For some reason, I feel longing and pain while watching.

"Are you not tired from hearing the same story every night? I have told that tale a hundred times already." The duchess' brows meet.

"It is because I love it!" Calla beams brightly in return — sparkles could be seen in her eyes.

"Alright, as you wish my princess." The young girl chuckles excitedly.

The duchess begins to relay the tale. Feeling intrigued, I listen with much curiosity.

"Hear 'ye mortals, hear 'ye the tale of how this world began. Before this world was birthed upon the bosom of Khloris, oh how her beloved brothers and sisters loved us genuine. How this deadly love turned against them and caused their fall and demise. Let us go back in time when humans need not spin aether for humans, where perithia spun itself without the aid of human hands."

The bedroom is silent, as if everything, whether living or non living, has stopped to listen.

"A long, long time ago, the world was rich in natural aether. The gods watched the humans and were often pleased and amused of how these unique creatures lived. Often times, they would descend from the heavens and walk along humans in the guise of our forms. These heavenly beings loved the humans as much as they loved themselves, but one day, one of the brothers, Eshu, God of Mischief..."

Wait a minute, I've heard of these words in my dreams. At some nights ever since I've awaken as Calla, I would always hear this story without seeing anything else. Yet it always stops around this part and then I would wake up. Only now it seems that I'll be able to hear the rest.

"...he plays with humans, just as he always would. He loved them just as much as his siblings. But it was a different kind of love. One that is dangerous and deadly. It started at the time when he came to know of our existence, but he did not love us instantly. Eshu only watched as his brothers and sisters take delight and cry for the mortals. Once, a human girl piqued his interest. He came down from the heavens and observed the girl closely. By the time he had learned to love the human girl and those around her, these very people met their unforeseen deaths. Eshu grieved, yet he learned to love once again. Unfortunately, the people he chose to love once again met the same fates and died horrible deaths. This series of repeated events went on for so many years. From time and time, Eshu would love again, he grieves, and then he accepts. Yet the patience of a god does not last forever. The young god went wild with rage. He envied his siblings whom loved humans freely without worrying that they'd die once their fate entangles with them. What happened next was disaster on land and sky..."

The scene turns to a blur. I was not able to hear the rest of the tale.

"Oh, you're awake."

I open my eyes to the familiar ceiling of my room. I turn to the person who had just spoken.

"Wh-who" I immediately rose into a sitting position- seeing that a boy I don't know completely is standing beside my bed. My eyes widen in shock at a black-haired boy that had the most perfect cheekbones in the world, he had very long eyelashes as well, wait- I'm getting distracted by his appearance! How did a boy get into my room? Seriously, why does this household allow just anyone into a young girl's room?

Realizing my startled state, his eyes show panic as well.

"Wait, no! It is not what you think. I had permission from your father to enter. Also, I only just arrived, i-it's not like I was staring at you while you were unconscious or anything." He looks away from me as he said the latter part of the sentence.

I observed him, deciding whether it really is safe to allow such a dashing young man to be here. He only looked a little more than fifteen or sixteen. Come to think of it, he is wearing a blue doublet that had little gold buttons sewn at the end of the sleeves and a black cape attached at the shoulders; his black pants made it clear that he had well-built long legs- snap out of it! I am in no position to be drooling at some stranger right now.

"Who are you and what do you want from me?" I ask directly. He gives a charming smile before he replies.

"So it is true that you have lost your memories. Introducing myself for the second time is tiring but oh well. I go by the name Erion, it's nice to meet you, young lady of Rosa." He does a bow of curtsy.

"Are you implying that we've met before?"

"Of course, we're also quite close." He chuckles faintly. What's he so happy about?

Before I was able to ask how close we were, someone had already opened the door and came in. I did not expect the midget to appear.

"Erion, why didn't you tell me beforehand that you were coming here?" The midget asks casually as he approaches.

"Sorry, I barely got the time to take a break from my duties. I came here instantly as soon as I heard what happened."

They're probably friends. As they stand beside each other, I saw that Erion was clearly taller.

"I see, not much we can do about that." The midget shrugs.

"Well then, I have to go. I will leave the young lady to you." Erion smiles to me charmingly before he pats the midget's shoulder.

It seemed like the midget and I had the same idea of talking only after Erion disappears through the door.

"Hey witch, what's with that look on your face? What, haven't you ever seen a prince before?" He asks as he drags chair from the study table and sits on it with arms and legs crossed. Isn't he too comfortable to be in someone else's room?

Wait- Erion... is a prince? A royal? Then that explains why he wore a cape.

"He's a prince?" It certainly is my first time to see a prince, and such a gorgeous one at that.

"Are you a parrot?"

I swear, he just gets on my nerves every time.

"Why are you here anyway? Where's Anette?" I narrow my eyes as a signal that I don't like him being here. This conversation has only been questions so far.

"As much as you don't want to see my face, you can't do anything but to deal with it. Everyone's so busy with everything that such an amazing wizard such as me is turned into a babysitter." He sighs.

"I don't need a midget to babysit me. And I am not a baby anymore, stupid. What's everyone so busy about anyway?"

"Did you lose your memories again? After you released a three-month worth of aether, everyone's been busy with the recovery of the Eastern region. It was too much for your body to handle that I had to stay here for three days to stabilize and help you replenish your mana. And no, you don't have to thank me for that." I actually felt a little bit of gratitude there, not until he winked after he finished talking. I just rolled my eyes at him.

So I had mana to be able to spin perithia after all, though I had to be knocked out for three days to be able to know. Everything that occurred that day came rushing into my mind. It all happened too suddenly that I forgot that there were people around me. How embarrassing, I can actually feel my face heating up upon remembering the time when everyone's attention was directed to me. But I have no time for that. I have something I want to ask him.

"Was it always possible to extract perithia from such a far distance?"

When I was skipping classes from Lady Elizabeth and the others, I'd satisfy my boredom to read the books here in my room. One book stated that a descendant must at least have one hand hovering ten inches above the flowers to be able to extract perithia. Three days ago, there were clearly not a single rose around me.

The young wizard looks away before speaking,

"Actually, I've — no, we've never seen such a strange phenomenon. No descendant has ever done that but you. In fact, the Elder Council and the Khlorisian Temple had already asked your father to investigate about it once they know that you've woken up."