A soft creak made me lift my head. One of the chamber walls opened on its own, letting in a rush of fresh air. The light outside was orange, different from the Cave.
Dusk… My heart lurched, I had lost all sense of time. How long had it been? Hours? Days?
I took a step toward the exit, but before leaving, I looked back. The chamber had turned white, almost transparent, as if the light had drained it of all excess, the monolith was gone and the roots as well.
The change was abrupt. The warm dusk air struck my face and, for the first time in a long while, I felt the real weight of the world.
The earth beneath my feet was solid, rough, scented with mud and damp leaves. Light filtered through the mist, staining the landscape in shades of orange and rose.
I took a deep breath. The silence wasn’t absolute, sounds slowly returned: a distant birdcall, the creaking of branches, the murmur of wind through the trees.
Everything was in its place. I took another step, and then I saw them.
Eldreich and Mr. Toshihiro were waiting near the entrance, as if they knew exactly when I would come out.
Eldreich, steady as a mountain, watched me without judgment. Mr. Toshihiro stood with his arms crossed and his head slightly tilted. He didn’t seem impatient.
“You took longer than I expected,” Mr. Toshihiro said bluntly.
His tone wasn’t harsh nor was it kind. Before I could respond, Eldreich spoke.
“Don’t be severe, Master. She has more than proven her worth.”
I turned toward him.
“Master? You taught Eldreich?”
Eldreich nodded once.
“For a time. Long enough to know when an apprentice ceases to be one.”
He added nothing more.
Mr. Toshihiro held my gaze for a few seconds, as if he knew I wanted to ask why he hadn’t taught me himself.
“Well?”
“I came out,” I replied.
He paused briefly.
“That’s not what I asked.”
The air tightened slightly.
I thought in the fire, the Nebenbei burning, in his wounded eyes inside the vision, about my… doubts.
I chose not to answer, I simply held his gaze.
Something shifted, almost imperceptibly. As if he had received the answer he needed without me speaking it.
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Eldreich smiled, the first true smile I had seen from him.
“My task here is complete, for now. The sprout is no longer only a sprout.”
He turned and began to leave. His steps carried the calm of someone who belongs to the ground he walks on.
I felt the urge to follow him.
“Eldreich! Wait.”
He stopped, without turning.
“I wanted to thank you… and ask you something.”
His voice traveled cleanly through the trees.
“Questions that are worth asking can only be answered in silence.”
I didn’t insist. I watched him walk away until he disappeared in the distance.
I turned back to Mr. Toshihiro.
He was still watching me, as if making sure I had truly returned.
“The spell to light your path is simple,” he said at last, almost casually. “Imagine what you wish to see… and say ‘Luxorbis.’”
I laughed softly.
“After all this, you’re only teaching it to me now?”
“Darkness teaches more than light.”
I didn’t argue.
“Go home,” he added. “Learning does not end when you leave a cave.”
His gaze lowered briefly to my bare, dirt-covered feet.
“The world did not stop.”
I felt that sentence weigh more than it seemed to… I didn’t ask what he meant. I bowed slightly in respect and started down the path back.
…
…
…
I didn’t return to Nebenbei immediately, instead I let the trail carry me without hurry.
The dusk light licked at the trunks, and the leaves, still heavy with droplets, flashed brief reflections. Everything looked the same… but the way I walked did not.
I found a small stream winding between smooth stones. I slipped off my shoes and stepped into it. The water was cold, It simply flowed around my legs.
“Who am I when I’m not doing?” I wondered.
At school, I study constantly.
At home, I do my duties without fail.
In Nebenbei, I have not stopped doing—learning, trying, failing, trying again.
Now the world was asking nothing of me. The thought tightened in my throat.
“I am here,” I told myself.
And that was enough.
I remembered Eldreich’s voice: Roots do not argue with the seasons. And Mr. Toshihiro’s: Darkness teaches more than light.
I let them settle inside me…
The water kept flowing, so did I.
When I crossed Nebenbei’s threshold, the interior welcomed me with its gentle dimness. The jars filled with drifting mist seemed to be practicing new choreographies. The clock without hands hummed faintly.
The sound of a feline paw brushing wood made me look up. Zenhaff was perched on the upper shelf, mid-yawn.
“You’re back.”
“I’m back.”
“And you’re not running, shouting, or demanding a spectacular magic show. Suspicious.”
“I’m hungry,” I admitted. “But for stillness.”
The cat descended gracefully and sniffed my hand.
“Patience… presence… and something else,” she murmured. “You smell like roots.”
I smiled.
I didn’t see Mr. Toshihiro until he spoke from somewhere I couldn’t quite locate.
“For someone who spent four days in the Cave of Silences, you seem calm.”
I turned slowly.
“Four days?”
My heart stopped for a second.
“I thought you’d be running home to your parents.”
Four days.
Four days outside the real world.
The initial relief —I’m alive— transformed into something else.
Responsibility.
Consequence.
“My parents…” I murmured.
Then I let out a short, nervous laugh.
“They’re going to kill me.”
Zenhaff tilted her head.
“Not literally. I hope.”
I didn’t answer… I thought of their faces, the questions waiting for me.
The world had not stopped, and I hadn’t been there. I gave Zenhaff a quick stroke in farewell.
“I have to go.”
“You always do,” she replied, without judgment.
I summoned the mizunkai. Before stepping through, I looked at Mr. Toshihiro.
“Thank you.”
He held my gaze a moment longer than usual, but he did not smile.
“Go.”
The portal opened. As I crossed it, the nervous laughter still trembled in my chest, but beneath it, emerge the certainty that leaving a cave is easier than returning to the world you left on pause.
And that some flames do not wait in the forest… They begin at home.
