One could see the strokes of the paintbrush on the mountain; being as it was the centerpiece of the painting, it was easier to note those little details. The painting was still nice to look at, just like yesterday, and upon a second inspection of it, Luca denoted that yes, he still liked it the best among all the other paintings in the fortress, for now.
He sat down on the bench on the right side of the door to the training grounds. His own physical training had made time go by surprisingly fast, and after the shower and the inspection of the undry rooms his roommate mentioned, the rookie ran out of things to do, so he decided to just wait until the training of his role began. Luca was cautiously optimistic; the morning flew by compared to yesterday (probably on account of not having to navigate the new environment for groceries), but the difficult part of his first full day had been mostly in the afternoon.
He crossed his arms and leaned back, wondering what he would do in the dungeon delving training; he knew the one of the day before was just for the guild leader to see how they fared physically, but he didn’t really have any ideas on how one trained to go into an infinite dungeon. If physical training was about staying in shape, perhaps the delving would be about learning how to navigate the aforementioned dungeon.
“Why is she called that?“ Before the rookie could come to a conclusion about his training, besides him sat a familiar figure.
Still gazing into the crystal orb she held with two hands, Kenzie looked almost the same as yesterday; the two short twintails of blonde hair stood on her head, while her unnatural pink iris eyes focused solely on the orb. She also wore little clothing today, but this time it was more than a bra. This time, she was wearing a pink crop bolero jacket with puffy-ended sleeves, which covered her shoulders and arms but not her front, nor did it cover her back; probably intentionally, so as to let her long, diamond-shaped wings extend if need came to be. Luca noted that every other piece of clothing the quiet girl was wearing looked exactly like the ones she wore the day before.
“Oh! H-Hi Kenzie.“ Said Luca after noticing he had just been staring for a few seconds, a habit he knew he had to work on.
“Hi. Why is she called that?“ It was only after she asked the question a second time with her monotonous voice that the rookie noticed he was being asked a question.
“Wha- Who?“
“The mother.“
“Oh… Oh yeah! That’s right.“ The sudden appearance and the looks of the winged woman distracted him from a couple things, including from the fact that she was the only person Luca had ever met who didn’t know anything about the biggest religion of the modern world and of history, a fact that still stunned him. “W-Well, she uh… she created the world and, um, gave birth to the higher gods.“
“The what?“
“The higher gods are t-the gods that shaped the world, you know, made the seas, the mountains, that stuff. T-The mother is above them, then it’s them, and then every other one is called the lower gods.“
“Hm.“ A humm of acknowledgment was all she responded with. In the silence that followed, Luca noticed that no one else was in the hallway, and in fact he rarely heard footsteps echo through the halls; was the fortress always empty? And why was it so crowded yesterday? Would it happen again? One more question came to mind:
“B-By the way, where did you come from?“ Asked the rookie, looking down each side of the hall.
“Left. You were looking at the wall and didn’t see me, I think.“
“Oh, right.“
“This is fun.“ She said, with the smallest hint of a smile at the sides of her lips. “Now me.“
“Now you what?“
“Question. I ask, then you, then me, and all that.“ Luca didn’t quite understand how Kenzie’s mind worked, but he didn't have anything to do, and this was a good way to keep talking to her; therefore, he’d py along.
“Alright, ask away.“
“Who’s the father?“
“Aaaaah…“
“Like if there’s a mother, w-“
“N-No, no, I got it. It’s just… Alright, so the mother didn’t quite ‘give birth’ to the gods and the world? She created them, but she wasn’t like pregnant with them or anything.“ Luca shrugged, a futile move since she wasn’t looking at him. “Mother is because mothers create life, and that’s just what she’s called.“
“Hmm, got it.“ Like before, her expression remained unchanging, so there were little ways for the rookie to discern what she might’ve been feeling. Regardless, he felt like he answered clearly enough. “Your turn.“
“Okay. Right, so, you probably get this a lot, but-“
“No, I don’t have one.“ It took a few moments for Luca to understand what happened.
“W- That’s… What did you think I was gonna ask?“
“If I have a boyfriend?“
“N-No.“
“Oh. Was it if I’m a virgin?“
“NO!?“ Luca asked himself, who does she take me for?, trying to understand who would even ask that to somebody in this scenario.
“Oh. Okay.“
“I-I wanted to ask i-“
“I’m not, by the way.“
“I wanted to ask if you don’t mind," Said the flustered man, raising his voice in a way that echoed through the hallway before letting out a sigh and controlling the volume. “What are you, racewise?“
“Oh, that was my next guess.“ Luca felt his face heat up, be it frustration or fluster he didn’t know, but the words she uttered next were enough for every other thought to leave his mind. “I’m a half-fairy.“
“... What?“
“I’m a half-fairy.“
“...“
“...“ Kenzie continued peering into the orb, not seeming to care in the slightest about the evident confusion present in Luca’s face.
“... I… Aren’t fairies small?“
“My mom’s a great fairy.“ Crified Kenzie, an act that didn’t help the rookie understand.
“... I’m sure she is bu-“
“She's big.“
“...“
“Like, really big, like some trees are shorter than her.“ Thankfully she apparently knew how tall her mother was; he hoped she didn’t have to see it in that weird orb of hers to know.
“... Alright. Fair enough. Half-fairy.“ They sat in silence for a few more seconds before Luca realized that he indeed wasn’t able to live with just that information. “So, if your mom is a big fairy, why aren’t you big?“
“My dad was human, bit short.“
“Huh… Hey, how comfortable are you with me delving deeper? You can tell me to stop if I get too weird.“
“I don’t care.“
“How did they... conceive you?“
“Great fairies live in kes.“
“Aha?“
“She pulled him in, and they did it.“
“Oh… I guess the size difference doesn’t necessarily impede that happening if the big one is the wo-“
“He died after doing it.“
“...“
“...“
“Kenzie.“ Luca spoke as respectfully as he could. “I’m sorry for your loss.“
“Hm.“
“... Wait, aren’t fairies evil? Like tricky and whatnot? How did your father and her come to... an agreement?“
“Fairies are nice; they don’t attack you; they just py with you.“
“Huh.“
“Pixies are the bad ones, but they don’t py tricks; they just steal things from you.“
“I see.“ For as many stories as Luca had memorized, he knew to not trust them as reliable sources for reality; apparently ‘the vagabond’s travels through the giant forest of the fae’ wasn’t as difficult as the story made it seem. That or the assaints were pixies. “What do you know, you’ve taught me something today, Kenzie.“
“You did that with me, but you are welcome, I guess.“ She spoke with the same monotonous tone, but after finishing the sentence she smiled; or something simir, she opened her mouth and showed her teeth, and it kind of looked like a smile to Luca. “Can I ask now?“
“Oh, yeah, yeah. Go ahead.“ There was a silver lining to Kenzie's bizarre behavior, though Luca did find it a bit rude for her to be looking at her orb all the time. It aided in the fact that, despite her beauty that still unnerved Luca, he was able to speak to her calmly; it felt like she barely even paid attention to him, and yet they had a very clear conversation; it was enough to trick Luca’s mind into rexing.
“Who are the kid gods you talked about?“
“The ki- The higher gods?“
“Yeah.“
“Oh. Well, they are the children of the mothe-“
"Yeah, but like, who are they, like names and all.“
“R-Right. Uuh, let me see if I can remember.“ Luca leaned forward and looked up, reminiscing about any religious teachings he didn’t space out on. “So there’s five; the first one was called Mitrí, and she was the one that made the seas and the kes and all.“
“She’s the goddess of water?“
“W-Well no. The higher gods aren’t the gods of the elements; even if they put them in the earth, you know, that’s others, usually children of them.“
“Hm.“
“Yeah, so Mitri is made—or depicted, I mean, as like this blue woman with long hair made of water and like a dress that ends in foam like the ocean. She’s the goddess of the seas, wisdom and women, if I remember correctly.“
“So the seas but not of water?“
“Uuuuh, yup.“ Luca realized that, though he found them very boring at times, he had retained more information about the csses than he believed. Even if it still wasn’t that much.
“Hm.“
“Yeah, so there’s her; then the second is Eski’, who’s the god of war and strength and bravery. The third is Pagitè, god of food, seasons and men. Fourth is Tro`vilos, goddess of clouds, change and beauty. And finally there’s Korí, who’s the goddess of family, love and... knowledge, I believe.“
“Hm. Cool.“
“... Yeah.“
“Your turn.“
“...“ The rookie felt weird about the ck of talking now; perhaps if he knew her better, he’d recognize how she was feeling more accurately, but right now he was pretty lost. Did he bore her? Or was she fine? She did tell him to ask something, but Luca didn’t have any questions at the moment; maybe something she was interested about. “... What’s with the ball?“
“Huh?“
“T-The orb, why do you look at it all the time?“
“Oh. I see things.“
“... Could you eborate?“
After asking, a minute of silence passed, but before Luca could say anything to break it, Kenzie began scooching over to him, pressing her arm against his, making him swallow saliva at the closeness; however, the rookie got even more nervous when she leaned over and grabbed his hand while she moved to put her arm against his chest. Before he could process it, Luca was now holding the orb with one hand alongside her, while the woman sitting by his side leaned onto him, still peering into the orb. It took him a few seconds to calm down, which he tried very hard to do when he came to the fact that she could probably feel his heartbeat.
“Do you see it?“ Her words confused him, but looking down, the young man started seeing something inside of the orb. The image of a small dog seemed to be represented inside the slightly blue crystal ball; he could see through it, and yet the sight of the animal was very clear. The dog was lying on its side, and a good amount of puppies were feeding from her; everything in the scene was of a lighter blue color, and focusing, Luca noticed he could also see through them. They appeared to be in some alley, and in the distance, Luca felt like he could almost hear the small sounds of the newborn creatures as they fed.
"K-Kenzie, what is this?“
“Mama dog.“
“No- I mean yeah, but how are we seeing it?“
“The orb reacts to visionary magic; it’s an orb of peering.“
“An orb of peering... Wait, so this is happening right now?“
“Yeah.“
“That’s incredible!“
“Yeah.“
The two continued looking at the warming scene. One of the puppies, hunger satiated, slowly crawled their way towards the mother’s face, who was tired from the delivery. The puppy yelped and pressed its face against his mother’s, who, when feeling him, began licking the newborn with care. The sight warmed Luca’s heart.
“Awwww.“ Though the image cked color and the sounds were faint and distant, the scene that the orb presented was very pleasant to behold. “Where is this? We could go see them.“
“I don’t know. Might not be Zenith.“
“Oh!... Wait, so this looks into any city?“
“Anywhere.“
“Anywhere on the continent?!“
“World.“
“IN THE…! Wow.“ Though he was sitting on a bench on a floating fortress that stood afloat with nothing but magic, Luca still found himself fascinated by what people could achieve with said magic.
Suddenly, the scene changed; now it showed a crowd of people, all looking at a man on a stage who was speaking with a booming voice; they all appeared to be in some sort of town square, and by the man was something of great stature, being covered by a cloth.
“W-Wait, and the puppies?“
“I got bored; now it’s some people.“
“Huh. Hey, they aren’t speaking in common.“
“Wonder what they’re doing.“
“Hmmm. It seems that guy is the mayor, and they’re unveiling a statue, I think.“
“You understand them?“
“Uuh, yeah. They are talking in human; I speak a little bit.“ Luca used to be able to speak in his race's nguage in the past, but as soon as the csses for it stopped, he ended up losing the knowledge on how to speak it little by little.
“I thought all humans knew human.“
“I mean… It’s a nguage; you either learn it or you don’t. I don’t think one can just understand a nguage like that.“ In the past, when poputions were divided by races, every race came up with their own nguage; when peace and retions started being established, however, it was popurized to speak a single common nguage, one that all could understand and speak.
“Fairies don't have a nguage, but we can read the magic surrounding each other, and we understand each other that way.“ The rookie had never considered other ways of communication beyond talk. But if fairies were as magically inclined as he had heard (which appeared to be the case so far), it would make sense for them to find a way to talk with just magic somehow.
“Cool. Is it like reading someone’s mind?“
“No.“
“... Oh, okay... Hey, they're showing the statue!“ The alleged mayor pulled from the huge rag and revealed the statue of some sort of rodent with a big tail, standing on their hind legs and looking forward. “What is that?“ He said after a short pause.
“Beaver.“
“Beaver? I-Is that an animal or...?“
“Yeah.“
“Hm.“ To Luca, the statue was a bit tacky, but the crowd cheered at the sight of it, so perhaps he just wasn’t appreciating the greatness of such a creature.
“I don’t like it.“
“Yeah…“
“Gold doesn’t suit it, I don’t think.“ Said Kenzie, whose head was now resting on Luca’s shoulder—an act that flew past the rookie’s head, who was too distracted by the viewing of other parts of the world.
“How can you tell it’s gold?“
“The color.“
“Oh, you can see the color?“
“You can’t?“
“N-no? Am I supposed to?“
“I don’t know. I see it.“
Between this and the fact that Luca couldn’t see the waves that apparently the diamonds that kept the fortress lifting emitted, he was starting to wonder if he would have to develop some type of sensitivity to magic.
The following minutes were filled with just the two of them looking into the orb; time flew by as they observed various scenes from across the world: a gigantic mountain covered in snow where an avanche took pce, a fancy kitchen in some pace where a single chef cooked a simple meal and then proceeded to eat it, a family spending some time on an incredibly big ke that Kenzie informed Luca was a beach, etc.
“So you just look at this all day?“
“Yeah.“
“And whatever you wanna see the orb shows?“
“It’s random what it shows. I don’t know how to make it so I can see something specific. I also like it more this way.“
“Fair enough. And you don’t get bored of doing it all day?“
“Nah. Why? Are you bored?“
“No, no, just wondering.“
Even more minutes ter, before Luca noticed, some of his peers had gotten to the fortress and were now approaching. As soon as Kenzie stood up and Luca took his hand off the orb, it stopped showing any image.
“Oh wow, is it time for the training already?“ Said the rookie once he realized who the voices and footsteps belonged to.
“I’m going; I’d rather not be here when the guild people start their thing. It gets noisy.“
“Yeah, it’s training we start soon. Hey, that was really fun!“
“Yeah. Next time I’ll ask you more questions, okay? I gotta think them first.“
“S-Sure! But if it’s about religion, you could ask an acolyte. They’ll know more, and apparently there’s many-“
“No thanks. I’ll ask you.“
“I- Well alright.“
“Bye.“ Luca waved at Kenzie as she left, so he stood up and stretched a bit while he waited for his peers to-
“Ask me a question.“ Kenzie’s voice caught him by surprise.
“What? Uuh.“ The young man still had some questions, of course, but none were coming to mind at the moment; he decided to just be polite. “How are you doing?“
“I’m good. What’s your name?“
“Heh, Luca. No st name.“ Did he not tell her? Or did she forget?
“Okay, see you sometime, Luca.“
“Bye Ke-“ In a fsh, the rookie’s world turned white, and he experienced the familiar feeling of Kenzie’s lips on his cheek.
For all his life, Luca had gotten many hugs and a couple kisses, but for some strange reason, when it was Kenzie who gave him a peck, his mind seemed to completely empty in a second, purged of any thought or idea. A white void filled his perception—a void that slowly filled with sounds of chatter and the sight of the same painting he had been admiring before.
