Chapter 106 - Sisika’s Mysterious

  We ehe single-room . There was an old stoove in the er, and a poorly finished single bed domihe space.

  “Unfortunately, this is the only memory this pce mao restruct,” Sisika ented, walking around the small wooden space.

  I don’t uand anything anymore.

  “Memory? What do you mean by that?” I asked, my fusion growing.

  She went over to the stove and opened a worn wooden et, grabbing a pot with calm movements.

  “Let’s just say this was the where I grew up... but it’s not real. It’s just a recreation made by this pce,” she said while tinuing to hahe pots, as if it were perfectly normal.

  None of this made sense.

  “ you expin what’s going on? I’m trying to cooperate with you,” I said, trying to get clearer answers.

  Sisika walked over to the door and looked out at the forest in front of us.

  “Nathan, your way out is there,” she poio a path fnked by trees. “You leave whenever you want, but I’d like you to stay a little longer. Soon, I won’t be here anymore... and I want to talk to you while I still have time.”

  I looked at the corridor of trees, their opies closing in, hiding the end of the trail.

  “In this pce, we’ll have food and we’ll be safe. Time here moves differently, slower than usual. The days we’ve spent here amount to only a few hours iside world. I guarantee you, the monk hasn’t even reached the vilge to seek help yet. Stay with me for a few more days, that’s all I ask,” she said before heading toward the river.

  I watched as she disappeared betweerees, leaving me alone in front of the small . I stood there, my gaze shiftiweerail and the spot where she had gone.

  What do I do? She seemed to be telling the truth. Should I leave?

  The mysterious redhead koo much about me, more than I was fortable admitting. There was something in her eyes, a depth that reminded me of fear...

  The fear of death.

  The same look I had seen before in someoo me, in aime.

  I sighed, turning toward the as I thought about my family.

  I walked to the dng at the small wooden space before murmuring to myself:

  “Guys... I’m going to be a little te.”

  ***

  Wheurned and saw me sitting, a wide smile spread across her face.

  “I thought you’d left...” she murmured.

  “So did I,” I replied.

  Sisika was carrying some fish and what looked like fruits and leaves she had gathered from the forest.

  “I’ll prepare the food. It’ll take a little while, but don’t worry,” she said as she began anizing the ingredients.

  “Just use your fire magic to fry the fish,” I suggested, trying to lighten the mood.

  She shook her head gently. “It’s been a long time since I cooked... especially being ba this pce. This is where I spent part of my life, and before I leave, I want someoo know a little about me.”

  There was something strange in the way she spoke, and I noticed she was f a smile.

  “What do you mean ‘before you leave?’” I asked.

  “Don’t worry about it,” was the only response I got.

  She tinued preparing the food while I sat on the bed, watg her every movement, trying to uand more about her. The sense of mystery surrounding Sisika alpable.

  “ you tell me what you are? How do you know so much about me?” I asked again.

  “I’m your friend, Nathan. I’ve already told you how I know about you, it’s through a loophole. Only I access this loophole, and when I leave, I’ll take the little I’ve learned with me,” she replied, without taking her eyes off the pot.

  I tried to get up to help, but she gestured for me to stay seated. With not much else to do, I closed my eyes, trying to feel my Mana Gem. It felt stra sensing mana flowing through my body, something that had bee since I was eight years old. It was as if an essential part of me was missing.

  The sensation was simir to when you have to manually trol your breathing — strange and unfortable. I tried, in vain, to grasp the thin thread of mana that was still left, but it was so faint that it seemed impossible to recover. I spent a long time fog my entire body, trying to perform the exercises taught by Professor Adrihna, but after exhausting myself mentally... I gave up.

  “It won’t work,” her voiterrupted my thoughts. “The reason your mana isn’t w is because of me, Nathan.”

  I opened my eyes and looked at Sisika, surprised. I didn’t know how long I’d been in that state, but it felt like I had lost track of time.

  She approached with a pte of food and a cup of water.

  “You’re still influeng my Mana Gem?” I asked.

  “I accelerated the awakening of your special eyes. Your eyes are already awakened, and the color of your pupil has already ged,” she said calmly, catg me off guard.

  “Then why hasn’t my mana replenished yet?” I insisted, trying to uand.

  Sisika pced the pte beside me and handed me the cup. “Because I’m passing on new eyes to you,” she said, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

  “I don’t uand... what do you mean by ‘passing on new eyes’?”

  “These eyes I’m passing to you are being cultivated. For that to happen, we o stay close to each other for the process to occur. That’s why I you here.”

  She stood up, walking over to a et.

  “Why are you giving me new eyes?” I asked, fused and even more intrigued.

  “It will all make sense wheime is right,” was her only answer as she rummaged through the et.

  “There are clothes here you wear. Don’t worry, when I was younger, I only wore boys’ clothes. You bathe in the river, and if you’d like, I wash your clothes,” she said casually, as if we were in a normal situation.

  I remained silent, trying to analyze this mysterious woman. But the more I tried to uahe more questions arose without clear answers.

  “You said you wao talk to me. What do you want to know?” I asked, still intrigued.

  “Eat a little first, we’ll have plenty of time to talk. I still have a few days left,” Sisika replied calmly, but at the end, she coughed ahe wooden , leaving me alone in the small, quiet space.

  I ate in silerying to make sense of what she meant. Her words were cryptid my mind wandered between various theories and guesses. Just as I finished eating, Sisika ehe again, holding something in her hands.

  She tossed a small objee, and I caught it in the air.

  When I looked closely, I realized it was a leaf. I found the object odd, expeg something more signifit.

  “It’s a green leaf, a bit heavy, even though it’s thin,” I observed, notig that the weight didn’t match its appearance.

  “This is a special leaf, taken from the tree of the pce where I was born. It’s not the real one, but it’s an accurate representation. The learning process will be the same. It reacts to mana poured into it, and it’s an excellent ductor,” she expined.

  As I held the leaf, I began to notice it being lighter, as if it was losing the weight that had previously seemed abnormal.

  “The leaf stored my mana for a few seds, that’s why it was heavy,” Sisika added.

  The idea of a leaf reag like this to mana vaguely reminded me of my Akonium stone.

  “This leaf reacts only by being heavy ht,” she tinued, pg a cup of water on the small table near us aing the leaf float ier.

  She looked at me seriously. “I need you to take advantage of this temporary defi your mana els and practi exercise. I want you to pour mana into this leaf.”

  I shook my head, fused. “My Mana Gem is empty. I ’t pour mana into anything.”

  She wagged her fi me, like scolding a child, and poio my eyes. “You no longer have ordinary eyes. You now have Special Eyes on your face. They work simirly to a Mana Gem. If your mana ran out, you would go blind because they would stop funing. That’s why your eyes gee a small amount of mana all the time, just enough to maintain minimal funs, like the thread of mana keeping you alive. I want you to use the mana from your eyes to influehe leaf.”

  She pushed the small table with the cup and the leaf closer to me. “By the time our time together is up, I want you to have mastered the process of activating your mana with your special eyes, so that you’re ready to receive these... other eyes.”

  Her words lingered in the air, and I khere was no esg it. If I wao uand what was happening and what Sisika truly wanted from me, I would have to accept the challenge.