While everyone else had left, Leo remained behind. He sat alone at a table that the guild had graciously provided for him. The instructions that he had received for his instructor was to wait in place, relax and be alone.
Of course that was harder said than done. After spending years alone in that hospital room, he had developed a strong aversion to being alone. Having the voices of Astra and Mors had eased this feeling slightly during the brief instances he had been alone but it wasn’t the same as having his friends by his side.
’Who do you think my Instructor is going to be Astra? Mors?
Silence. Nobody responded to his question which caused Leo to frown. He then reached out with his mind, trying to feel their presence and find out why they were ignoring him. Yet they were not there.
A sense of panic washed over him. When was the last time that he heard from either of them? Wasn’t that when they logged out the last time?
Come to think of it. They said they were excited to see what my world was like but they were quiet when I got back. A lot of stuff happened, sure. But that’s no excuse.
He began to feel an incredible sense of guilt. Had he taken their presence for granted? While they were sometimes annoying, he was always grateful for their presence.
’Fuck this! I am not waiting around for some instructor to come around. I need to go find them!’
He slammed his hands down onto the table with enthusiastic vigor but no sooner did the motivation strike him that he thought of the one of several problems with that.
He had no idea how to track them down and even if he did, how he would wrest them back from whoever it was that managed to take them away while he remained oblivious was another issue.
Leo stared at the empty space in front of him, heart pounding in a way that had nothing to do with danger or combat. The silence in his mind was louder than any battlefield. No whisper of a thought. No dry comment or gentle laugh. Just the dull hum of the room around him.
He leaned forward, elbows on the table, hands clutched tightly. "This doesn’t make sense," he muttered to himself.
Astra had always answered. Mors too, in their own...distinct way. Even when he wanted quiet, they were there, lingering at the edges of his thoughts like shadows and sunlight. Always watching. Always present.
He stood up suddenly, pushing the chair back with a scrape of wood against tile. Pacing helped. At least it gave his body something to do while his brain scrambled to process the growing weight in his chest.
"What happened?" he asked the air, though no answer came. "Where did you go?"
He rubbed his arms, as if warding off a chill that hadn’t touched his skin. They said they wanted to see his world. That they were excited. Had something gone wrong during the transition? Were they caught somewhere in between?
Or... were they taken?
That thought rooted itself in his mind like a thorn. Leo froze.
"No," he whispered. "I’d know. I’d feel it, wouldn’t I?"
He bit down hard on the inside of his cheek, drawing blood. The sharp taste grounded him, barely.
Maybe they were trapped. Maybe they were reaching out, and he just didn’t know how to listen.
He closed his eyes and tried again. Not with words this time, but with feeling. With intent. He pushed out a mental call, raw and earnest.
He opened his eyes and stared at the far wall.
"...I’m going to find you. I don’t care what it takes."
He turned toward the exit, jaw set with determination. Whoever this instructor was, they’d have to wait. He began to walk with purposeful steps but suddenly a gentle wave of energy surged from his heart.
His body lost strength and he face planted into the wooden floor, his forward momentum continued despite that which caused his lower body to try to continue moving forward until his feet slapped against the back of his head in a full scorpion.
For a long moment, Leo lay motionless on the floor, limbs tangled in a graceless heap. The pain registered a second later. First, his nose. Then his back. Then a throb across his entire spine that made him question whether the floor had risen to meet him out of spite.
A low groan escaped his throat.
he groaned into the wood, voice muffled by the floorboards.
A warmth spread from his chest again, not painful this time, just heavy. Like a thick blanket settling over his body without permission. The weight pressed into his limbs and Leo felt his thoughts begin to drift. The edges of the room softened, colors dimmed, and the pain in his nose faded into something distant.
He blinked slowly, trying to hold on, but the haze was swallowing everything. His eyelids fluttered.
"Wait... no... I still..." he mumbled, his voice melting into the floorboards.
Then a voice, low and deep, drifted into his mind. It was neither familiar nor threatening, more like a tide pulling him gently out to sea.
"Sleep for now," it said. "The children are safe."
Leo tried to speak again, to ask more, to demand answers, but the words would not come. His body had already stopped listening.
The voice remained, calm and resolute, like a mountain wrapped in mist.
"You will need your strength. They await."
And with that, Leo’s breath slowed. The tension in his limbs faded. The floor beneath him might as well have been a bed of clouds as sleep claimed him fully, carrying him into a deep and dreamless dark.
He didn’t know how much time had passed when he felt his name being called.
"Heyo Boss man! Get your ass up before you make me pull a prank on you!"
The voices were all too familiar to Leo, it was Astra and Mors! With a jerk, Leo instantly sat up but was speechless by what he saw. He was on a massive rock with 13 extravagant mountains arranged in a cylindrical pattern, the details on them almost made it look like they were thrones of some sort. The rock was smooth to the touch but seemed otherworldly.
"Looks like you’re up! Mother will be happy to hear that!"
"How can you call that woman Mother?!"
"We are her children so it’s only right we call her Mother or Mom!"
The familiar arguing was somehow pleasing to the ear this time as he softly whispered
"Thank Goodness. I am glad you two are safe.."
"Leo...We were never in any danger. Mother summoned us to get ready for when you hit Level 10."
Leo frowned as the voices were slightly different, he could definitely hear them but they weren’t coming from inside of his head. Focusing on where the voices were coming from, he looked up to see 2 balls of light floating in the air, they were the size of a small car but brimmed with energy alongside their familiar presences.
"Well shit...How the hell did that happen?!"
He grumbled almost on instinct. Getting them back into his mind as they were would definitely be a major challenge...and that was putting it lightly.