Silent Communication

And then the explosion of light ended as abruptly as it had started.

Max blinked a few times. All he saw was white; yup, he'd gone blind. He rubbed his eyes over and over to get his eyes to adjust, and finally, the veil of white cleared and shapes and colors started to show. The familiar sight of the dull concrete wall greeted him. But this time with an extra element.

A tiny, glowing insect was floating in the air, immediately drawing Max's attention. His eyes zoomed in, and he could see two pairs of wings beating so rapidly they made a blur. And the body of the insect was…

Wait, never mind. That wasn't an insect. That was…a person. Max's neck craned forward, his eyes squinted. He saw…a woman. With snow-white skin, long white hair, wearing a long white dress. Like an albino. She was also bare-footed.

And trembling, apparently. Max's mana viewing mode was still activated, so he could see the mana waves around her constantly rippling, when they were supposed to be pulsating in a steady rhythm. The quick ripples indicated her elevated heartbeat. Meaning, she was scared.

She had her tiny arms pressed against her chest, her hands curled into fists.

Max drew himself back, leaning his head against the wall, giving the insect-lady time to calm down. He looked away and tried to seem as relaxed as possible, hoping she could see that he meant her no harm.

After a few minutes of awkward idleness, the woman's heartbeat finally slowed to a crawl. She dropped her arms and just hovered in place, looking at Max curiously.

Seeing the once-erratic mana waves calming down, Max finally allowed himself to look back at the insect-lady.

It was then that Max realized, all of the woman's white physical traits weren't fully physical. They were partially a product of her mana waves condensing around the shape of her body. The skin, it slightly glowed white. The hair, the dress and everything, all of it looked like mana waves Max usually saw floating about in the air. It was a strange sight. It was as if she was made of mana, yet at the same time still had a real body made of flesh.

The only thing that completely looked to be made purely of mana was her eyes. They were basically just two tiny glowing orbs. Right now though, they were narrowed. And although they had no pupils, somehow Max could tell she was studiously looking at him.

Until suddenly, the glow of the woman's mana waves dimmed considerably and started dispersing from her body. He could still see her, though. Which meant she was indeed made of flesh, just with a tight cloak of dense mana wrapping her entire body. And that was also when he could finally see her actual eyes. They were…yeah no they were too tiny for him to see in detail.

The insect-lady's mouth then opened and closed a few times. It was as if she was saying something to Max.

This confused him. Usually, when the audio sensor planted in his left ear detected a speech, it would send a signal to his Iris, which would automatically activate its notification system. After getting a notification, normally Max would then avtivate the device using his mana.

This time though, the audio sensor didn't receive the speech the insect-lady had just uttered. Max switched his viewing mode to see the soundwaves.

The insect-lady spoke again. His soundwave sight detected a slight vibration around her face. Emphasize on slight. This explained why the vibration coming from the wooden chest when he had been carrying it around was so weak. If her normal speaking volume was this low, then she must have been screaming her lungs out when she had been tossed around inside the chest.

Her screaming volume must be equivalent to barely a whisper to a normal-sized human. No wonder his audio sensor failed to detect her voice.

He immediately opened his Iris, and typed a question. Before he allowed the text to be spoken over the tiny speaker below his left ear, he set the volume down to a minimum. Wouldn't want to spook the tiny lady with a sudden loud noise, after all.

[Hi there. I'm Max. May I ask who or what you are?]

To his relief, the insect-lady wasn't startled by the robotic voice coming out of his speaker. She tilted her head, staring at him in confusion. It would appear that she didn't speak Elysian language. And her previous speech had probably been in a language foreign to Max.

Max scratched the back of his head. Communication between the two of them was most likely going to be a little difficult. Her voice was so quiet she was practically a mute. Which didn't make any difference to Max since he couldn't hear anything to begin with. But then the problem grew when both of them realized they spoke different languages.

The insect-lady couldn't help but roll her eyes. Wait, did she really roll her eyes? It was hard to tell, but Max could've sworn she just rolled her eyes.

She then extended a hand and suddenly, Max felt a subtle presence in his mind. He quickly switched his viewing mode and saw an elongated mana wave reaching from her hand to his temple. The presence in his mind then conveyed the meaning of several things. They weren't literal words, but they were enough to let Max understand the basics of what the insect-lady wanted to say.

'Me, where?'

She was asking where she was. Max figured that being trapped within that wooden chest for who knew how long, she might not know that she had been transferred from The Ancient Ruins to Ardeim, the planet where Max lived.

Max wanted to give her the answer, but then he realized he didn't know how to do the telepathic thing she had just done.

The mana wave connection between her and him was still up, so she was somehow able to understand his struggle.

'You, speak, meaning, too.'

She was saying that he should just convey his meaning, as well. Yeah, that was easier said than done.

But then he got an idea. Since his late parents had gifted him with an Iris since he was young, he hadn't been bothered spending much time learning sign language. At most, he could only sign a few words and couldn't even form a coherent sentence. But he still remembered how it felt to try to convey meanings through his limited sign language vocabulary.

Maybe it would be the same as his situation right now. So he tried to replicate how it went when he was speaking in sign. His mind, which was already conditioned to type words on his Iris when communicating, forced itself to adjust to the absence of words and focus on pure mental information. He then relayed this information into the mana wave connection between him and the insect-lady.

'Where, you, another world.'

The insect-lady's face scrunched. It seemed she had already suspected as much. She then spoke again.

'I, cover, body, mana. You, see, how?'

It took a few seconds for Max to comprehend what she was trying to say. So he asked back for confirmation. 'You, cover, body, now?'

'Not now.' She then pointed at the wooden chest on the floor next to where Max was sitting. 'When, out, cover, body. Invisible.'

Max finally understood. Upon getting out of the wooden chest, she had apparently enveloped her body with mana, which explained why she was glowing white all over. It was supposed to make her invisible. And then he remembered her tuning down the mana cloak, and that was probably when she decided to let herself be seen, since he could see her even with her invisibility cloak activated anyway.

Ah, that may also be why she had gotten spooked. She had probably believed he couldn't see her, until his momentarily-blinded eyes recovered and instantly homed in on her form.

'My eyes, see, mana, when, want.'

Her head tilted. 'Everyone, this world, can?'

Max shook his head. 'Only me.'

The insect-lady raised her brows. She looked more intrigued rather than surprised. She then glanced at the wooden chest and back at Max. 'You, free, me. You, want, what, return?'

Max was perplexed. He hadn't expected her to interpret his curiosity-driven action to open the chest as him intentionally freeing her. Let alone expecting her to ask him what he wanted in exchange for that. So he simply replied with, 'No idea. Want nothing.'

If he had to be honest, he wanted money. But she clearly didn't carry any.

The insect-lady placed a finger on her chin, thinking. She then shrugged and said, 'I have, only, something.' She then cupped both of her hands and flew above Max's forehead. 'Gift,' she said before opening her hands, from which tiny white sparkles rained down on his head.

'Name, dust. You, now, immortal. You're welcome.'