’I’m sorry.’ Enoch couldn’t help but inwardly apologise, his expression twisting into a frown of pained compassion.
He knew that for someone as sharp as Uriel, unless he directly pierced into his core, there would always be a faint wall of distrust, one that would take far too long to grind down.
In situations of survival, the both of them needed to trust one another from the get-go.
In fact, it was none other than Uriel himself, much older and wizened, who had recommended he cut this deep.
’I’m sorry.’
The silence stretched on for a long while.
Wiping his face, Uriel reopened his eyes. "I understand."
"I trust you."
He nodded slowly, again and again, lips pressed tight as his jaw tightened, teeth grinding against one another.
"I trust you."
He repeated the words, and Enoch sighed in relief.
"So now what?" Uriel asked. "I don’t suppose you can tell me much else about the situation for as long as we’re in the settlement, right?"
Enoch let out a short exhale in agreement. "You’re right. There’s not much else I can say about the past, ours, at least, but there are a few things I can explain."
He paused, a few thoughts flashing across his mind, before suddenly changing course.
"You know what, actually, never mind. Go sleep on what we just talked about. Then we’ll go into depth tomorrow morning."
"Don’t forget, you haven’t slept in a really long time. It’ll do you good. Clear your head."
Uriel’s expression didn’t change, but he spoke. "Alright. I am tired."
He stood up, groaning as his bones popped and creaked.
Shaking his legs, he tried to get blood flowing through them once more.
"Right," he said, "so how exactly do I get out?"
...
A flash of light sparked, and Uriel exited Enoch’s dimensional space, returning to the Emporium’s highest floor.
But he didn’t immediately go to his own space.
Instead, he walked toward the floating platform in the middle of the hall, the building’s strange lift. He hopped on, and just like Lady Ayah had shown him, asked to go to the lobby.
WOOP!
Liquid metal encased him, and the platform began to tremble. Moments later, it stopped, and he began to descend.
Uriel, still shirtless, still wearing his ridiculously large grey pants, stood unmoving, eyes vacantly staring into the void.
’I died ten times. Each death horrible. I failed ten times.’
He raised a palm to his face, examining his bony fingers, his dehydrated skin, his long nails, the trembling of his flesh.
’Did they die too? Because of me?’
His hand fell.
’He came to me first. Did he come to protect me because I’m the weakest of all, or did he come to make sure I didn’t derail?’
’I eventually survive all that is to come, to a certain degree... then die. Horribly. That means I’ll get into conflict with someone, conflict so intense I’d die to see it through.’
His lips twitched. He blinked, almost as if his face were short-circuiting. Slowly, it twisted into an ugly scowl.
’And the only thing I’d die for is...’
His breath grew erratic. The aether around him thickened, the world darkening, growing heavy.
DING!
The lift reached its destination.
He exhaled, and rapidly, the darkness clouding his mind faded. His expression returned to something relatively neutral.
The semi-bubble encasing the platform dissolved, and warm air from the lobby washed over him.
He stepped off and made his way toward Lady Ayah, who was focused on reading and annotating a stack of documents.
Sensing his presence, she looked up. He couldn’t see her face, but he could tell she smiled.
"Hey! What can I do for you?"
Uriel stopped at the counter. His gaze drifted left, toward the entrance of the Emporium, where the rain still fell harshly outside.
"The others still aren’t back?"
Lady Ayah tilted her head and giggled. "Little Uriel, are you under the impression the test is supposed to be fast?"
"Usually, it takes a day or two to complete, you know. It’s quite an important step. It’ll decide your future housing, food, and just how much you know about the world you’re currently in."
He lingered on the falling rain for a few seconds before turning back to her.
"Usually?" he asked. "Do you do this often?"
Her curiosity shifted into confusion.
"Did you not read the information given to you in your rewards?" she asked. "Are you okay? You seem tired." Her voice carried equal parts concern and uncertainty.
"I’m alright. Just really hungry," he said with a small smile. "And no, I didn’t really check. I will tomorrow morning, though."
"For now, I just want to decompress."
Noticing his strange mood, Lady Ayah hesitated before making up her mind.
She waved a hand, and from her dimensional space summoned a chair, placing it behind the counter beside her.
"Come and sit," she said. "We both could use some company, hm?"
Uriel’s smile warmed. He didn’t hesitate, sliding behind the counter and taking the seat beside her. From there, he could see her workspace clearly.
It was cluttered with documents, office tools, and trinkets he’d never seen before.
"Have you started thinking about what ascendant path you’ll be walking?" she asked, refocusing as she resumed her work.
"Ascendant path?" Uriel frowned. "What’s that? If you’re talking about the strange ability everyone got, I didn’t get mine, for some reason."
Lady Ayah froze.
She turned to him slowly.
"Your core is dormant?"
Uriel scratched his neck. "I guess...? I don’t really know what that means either."
Her eyes trembled. "T-then how did you get first?"
"I just ran," he said. "And along the way, I started sensing aether. It helped a bit."
"No. No, no, no—no way."
She turned sharply and tapped the air. A holographic screen appeared before her, displaying the still-ongoing trials.
She pulled up the leaderboard and clicked on Uriel’s name at the top.
His trial replayed.
She watched him stumble, run, heave, struggle. She noted the effort, it was valiant, but that wasn’t what held her attention.
What she focused on was the aether.
The way it wrapped around him, pushing him forward. The way it coiled tightly whenever he fell, cushioning the impact. The way it sank into his flesh, invigorating his cells, accelerating healing, stretching stamina far beyond its limits.
Her mouth hung open.
She turned back to Uriel.
"..."