I blinked, there was a crazed bark akin to a whimper. In just a second, I found myself on the ground. My face was licked repeatedly as I blinked trying to see what was happening. There was no danger, but it happened so suddenly, so quickly that I didn’t know how to react.
“Blair, Blair, Blair!” Sun called excitedly as he finally stopped licking.
“Oh, so he is like a pet.” Elasia chuckled.
Lumina snorted. “Shouldn’t you be more dignified when receiving your lover?”
Sun paused, his ears twitching. “Lover?”
Lumina said nothing and saw the couch before plopping herself on it. She clearly had no intention to do absolutely anything as she closed her eyes. The Light Maker looked around for a moment, taking in what had just happened before he froze.
“Hey, why is The System basically saying that I will be snapped from existence if I interfere in the New World?”
Lumina waved. “It’s normal, stop complaining for once.”
Sun finally let me stand up as I simply rubbed his large neck for a few moments. His ears pulled back in some strange form of joy. I did abandon him after all.
[Blair! Blair!] Glim called in a hurry, flying to my side and perching himself on my shoulder. [Why didn’t you take me with you?!]
I frowned, instantly getting annoyed at Glim.
“How am I supposed to know you don’t get to know?” I snorted. “Doesn’t that mean that The System found you to be an undeserving assistant?” Glim went silent hearing that.
Meanwhile, Sun stared at Elasia, before turning to Lumina, and finally at The Light Maker. He blinked for a second but stood his ground.
“I am Sun! Guardian of Radiance!” He roared. “I am second in command here, if any of you cause trouble for Blair I will kill all of you!”
I inquired Sun, confused by his new bravery.
[Sun, Guardian of Radiance, Guardian of the Deep Dark. Lvl. 77]
Oh, he had gotten way stronger. Though in the face of the two he was a bit… lacking.
[The Light Maker. Lvl. 235]
[Lumina, the Dark Calamity. Lvl. 599]
Sun stood his ground with a death glare.
Lumina simply sighed. “There, I told you, not his pet.”
Elasia frowned. “I guess so…”
The Light Maker stared. “You do know I can kill you in an instant, right?”
Sun gritted his teeth, gnashing them. “Are you trying to take Blair from me? Over my dead body!”
“Oh?” The Light Maker’s voice was pleased. “Then let us do it, little dog.”
I sighed. “Enough, stop fighting.”
The Light Maker nodded stiffly and sat down. Sun relaxed and wagged his tail before moving towards me and rubbing for a moment.
“You should’ve said goodbye first Blair, I missed you.”
I paused for a moment, feeling a bit guilty. “Yeah… I guess I should’ve said something.”
[You should’ve said something…] Glim finally commented, clearly sad. [I missed you too…]
I shifted, feeling uncomfortable. I wasn’t used to having people caring about me. But at the same time, it made me feel warmth within my heart. At the same time, there was a feeling of wrongness in the air. Ah right, it was the fact that I had people from outside the New World as part of my faction, or rather part of my family? I was a bit embarrassed thinking about it, Lumina was my mentor and Elasia was my patron. They couldn’t exactly be my family.
With a small amount of sadness I sat by the couch, Glim and Sun by my side. Elasia’s ears twitched and she looked at me deeply.
“Is something wrong Blair?”
I shifted. “Nothing it’s just…”
“Back off!” Sun growled. “Blair is clearly deeply hurt by something. It is my duty to protect her!”
Lumina chuckled and Elasia gave Sun a weird look before turning to me. Her expression seemed a bit hurt but she took a breath.
“Blair, you can trust me.”
I paused, my brain buffering for a few moments as I remembered the conversation I had with Elasia about a month ago. Where she said she owed me her life and other things that made me uncomfortable. After a few moments of deliberation, I finally decided to speak.
“I was happy that Sun and Glim missed me, since they are like my family but…”
“But?” Elasia softly urged.
“When I thought about you three, even though I feel close with all of you, even if some are closer than others.” I alternated my gaze between the three. “One of you is here against his will.” I looked at The Light Maker, he averted his gaze before I turned to Elasia. “And you two are here out of responsibility. Neither of you are my family.”
Lumina sighed. “Blair, you really are stupid.”
I frowned, deeply offended. But before I could snap back, Elasia spoke.
“Actually, um, me and Lumina decided to… be part of your faction Blair. We wouldn’t be subordinates per se, but we don’t really want commanding power over you either…” She averted her gaze. “You really saved our lives there…”
“Does that mean?” I raised my brow.
“Yes, dummy successor.” Lumina sighed as she opened her eyes, her crimson rubies stared at me as her gaze softened. “We wish to be your new family.”
“Ah…” I gasped.
“I do want to be part of it too…” The Light Maker commented. “With permission of course.”
“Just admit your feelings already.” Lumina scoffed, her annoyance obvious. “You have a crush on Blair.”
“Ridiculous!”
“I will maul you to death! Light Maker bastard!” Sun roared and nearly pounced as I raised my hand to stop him. His look of betrayal was real.
What had gotten into him? I had no clue. Still, I stared at the three figures, all three of them vastly more powerful than me, and all three had saved my life to some extent before. And yet they wanted to be with me? I couldn’t believe it. I felt warmth go through my chest as I got a bit teary eyed. Elasia said nothing and got closer, though she seemed unsure.
Before I could react, Lumina sighed and a random plant appeared from mid air and shoved Elasia into me. She hugged me with some hesitation, and soon, everyone joined. Except for one person.
[Hey no fair! I don’t have arms! Let me in!] Glim barely squished in between all of us. Flailing his metal wings and randomly saying how he made things better.
Needless to say that, I felt happy,
◇ ◇ ◇
The group hug lasted who knows how long before we finally decided on roles. The Light Maker ended up being a supervisor for the town, basically approving or removing or whatever buildings. Elasia was an administrator, Lumina said to give her whatever and became a Guardian for the town but her status did not change one bit.
Time passed as I finally decided to chat with Elasia and Lumina, truth be told I didn’t really know them all that well. At the same time, sometimes Lumina or Elasia would grow quiet depending on how they replied to each other. Sometimes one had dominance, and sometimes the other had it— it was a bit weird all things considered.
Elasia told me some tales about the different Regions in space, but more importantly she told me about her adventures and how she met Lumina. Apparently they had met in the Crimson Stretch when the both of them were C Grades, though they had already heard of each other for some time. Both of their races — the dryads — were extinct now, and the two kinds were on a sort of permanent war of sorts.
It was a bit confusing but it was interesting nonetheless. Meanwhile, The Light Maker decided to butt in and ask more specific things such as what the corruption was. Sun meanwhile, started being even more weird and asking things about planets i had never heard before. Clouds on the ground, lakes of lava, storms that lasted thousands of years.
The Light Maker answered to Sun with some semblance of happiness. Turns out, he was also a massive planet nerd much like Sun. The real question to me was, when did Sun become like this? Eventually, we got to the most interesting topic.
“So, Light Maker, what is your name?” Lumina asked. “You kind of know everyone’s.”
He coughed. “It’s—
“It’s The Light Maker, yes, yes, get over it.” Lumina waved. “What is your name?”
The Light Maker let out a snort before pondering. “I do not wish to reveal it, it carries many burdens.”
Elasia frowned. “Perhaps your name is Raymas? The Executioner of Light?”
He instantly scoffed. “No.”
“Then are you the Adjudicator of Light, Laos?”
“No!” The Light Maker denied once more. “Look, I am not any of those light bastards.”
“The Light One?”
“No!”
“What about Rume, The Light Touched?”
“NO!”
◇ ◇ ◇
The questioning continued, both from Lumina and Elasia. At first it was only Elasia, but Lumina got onboard as she noticed The Light Maker’s increased annoyance. He was sitting down, taking deep breaths, shoulders slumped.
“So, you must be Reek, The Flashlight!”
The Light Maker clutched at his head. “NO! Fuck!” He screamed, swinging his arms before finally sighing.
“My name is…”
All the background noise vanished, as we all waited with bated breaths. The Light Maker was taking in deep breaths as the atmosphere became heavy. The outside darkened and the room became an isolated space as he finally breathed.
“Ronald.”
The silence was stiffening and then Lumina simply snorted.
“Is that so? Waste of time.”
Elasia agreed with a nod.
“So much for that?” I asked with some disappointment.
Sun sneered mockingly. “At least have a rare name if you are going to do that.”
[Guys, even if his name is normal he could still be a fugitive.] Glim explained.
“We are all fugitives, Glim.” Lumina sighed.
[Hey! I was just contributing! And how do you know my name?!]
“You said it every three seconds when I was within Blair’s head.”
[That makes sense!] Glim conceded.
A question formed in my mind at that moment. “Lumina, do you remember everything?”
She nodded. “I remember your mockery and stupidity clearly, yes, but I also remember how you persisted in the quest even though you didn’t have much of an obligation to.”
I was taken aback. “Right.”
“I owe you a mountain of debt Blair.” Lumina closed her eyes. “A ton really.”
I tilted my head, wanting to ask what she was on about, but Elasia simply nodded at me with a small smile.
The Light Maker crutched at his head in annoyance. “Is that it? I was prodded for over an hour just for those reactions?”
“It's your fault, should’ve said it as soon as we asked.” Lumina shrugged. “Consider yourself lucky that I find you pathetically funny or I’d kill you for wasting my time.”
The Light Maker snorted. “Try it.”
Lumina let out a grunt in response and The Light Maker winced for a moment.
“Ha, nothing!”
“Now you will test positive to dark plant affinity checks, you are welcome Ron.”
“My name is The Light Maker, not Ronald, not Ron.” He crossed his arms. “Also, it doesn’t matter if I test positive to those since I am not only the servant of one of the users, but her master is the Dark Calamity herself. It hardly matters.”
“Whatever Ron.”
He grumbled.
Everyone chuckled at the sight, except for the two in the discussion. I felt as if we had grown closer in just a few moments.
Family? I smiled. I like it a lot.
We laughed and chatted for a bit, before we all heard footsteps. Except for Glim who kept speaking.
[Y’all clearly need to learn better, it is clear that mana is ever-present and controlled by The System—]
“Excuse me?” Elei, the Woodland Elf peered through the broken window, she met my gaze. “May I speak with Blair for a second? It’s about the Dark Elves.”
I had a bad feeling about this, and Elasia for some reason seemed a bit pleased with herself. However, everyone turned to me, clearly my decision to make.
“You may.” I finally agreed.
“Alone.” She added. I felt a weird sense of foreboding but…
With a small sigh, I agreed. “Let’s talk outside.”
I blinked, there was a crazed bark akin to a whimper. In just a second, I found myself on the ground. My face was licked repeatedly as I blinked trying to see what was happening. There was no danger, but it happened so suddenly, so quickly that I didn’t know how to react.
“Blair, Blair, Blair!” Sun called excitedly as he finally stopped licking.
“Oh, so he is like a pet.” Elasia chuckled.
Lumina snorted. “Shouldn’t you be more dignified when receiving your lover?”
Sun paused, his ears twitching. “Lover?”
Lumina said nothing and saw the couch before plopping herself on it. She clearly had no intention to do absolutely anything as she closed her eyes. The Light Maker looked around for a moment, taking in what had just happened before he froze.
“Hey, why is The System basically saying that I will be snapped from existence if I interfere in the New World?”
Lumina waved. “It’s normal, stop complaining for once.”
Sun finally let me stand up as I simply rubbed his large neck for a few moments. His ears pulled back in some strange form of joy. I did abandon him after all.
[Blair! Blair!] Glim called in a hurry, flying to my side and perching himself on my shoulder. [Why didn’t you take me with you?!]
I frowned, instantly getting annoyed at Glim.
“How am I supposed to know you don’t get to know?” I snorted. “Doesn’t that mean that The System found you to be an undeserving assistant?” Glim went silent hearing that.
Meanwhile, Sun stared at Elasia, before turning to Lumina, and finally at The Light Maker. He blinked for a second but stood his ground.
“I am Sun! Guardian of Radiance!” He roared. “I am second in command here, if any of you cause trouble for Blair I will kill all of you!”
I inquired Sun, confused by his new bravery.
[Sun, Guardian of Radiance, Guardian of the Deep Dark. Lvl. 77]
Oh, he had gotten way stronger. Though in the face of the two he was a bit… lacking.
[The Light Maker. Lvl. 235]
[Lumina, the Dark Calamity. Lvl. 599]
Sun stood his ground with a death glare.
Lumina simply sighed. “There, I told you, not his pet.”
Elasia frowned. “I guess so…”
The Light Maker stared. “You do know I can kill you in an instant, right?”
Sun gritted his teeth, gnashing them. “Are you trying to take Blair from me? Over my dead body!”
“Oh?” The Light Maker’s voice was pleased. “Then let us do it, little dog.”
I sighed. “Enough, stop fighting.”
The Light Maker nodded stiffly and sat down. Sun relaxed and wagged his tail before moving towards me and rubbing for a moment.
“You should’ve said goodbye first Blair, I missed you.”
I paused for a moment, feeling a bit guilty. “Yeah… I guess I should’ve said something.”
[You should’ve said something…] Glim finally commented, clearly sad. [I missed you too…]
I shifted, feeling uncomfortable. I wasn’t used to having people caring about me. But at the same time, it made me feel warmth within my heart. At the same time, there was a feeling of wrongness in the air. Ah right, it was the fact that I had people from outside the New World as part of my faction, or rather part of my family? I was a bit embarrassed thinking about it, Lumina was my mentor and Elasia was my patron. They couldn’t exactly be my family.
With a small amount of sadness I sat by the couch, Glim and Sun by my side. Elasia’s ears twitched and she looked at me deeply.
“Is something wrong Blair?”
I shifted. “Nothing it’s just…”
“Back off!” Sun growled. “Blair is clearly deeply hurt by something. It is my duty to protect her!”
Lumina chuckled and Elasia gave Sun a weird look before turning to me. Her expression seemed a bit hurt but she took a breath.
“Blair, you can trust me.”
I paused, my brain buffering for a few moments as I remembered the conversation I had with Elasia about a month ago. Where she said she owed me her life and other things that made me uncomfortable. After a few moments of deliberation, I finally decided to speak.
“I was happy that Sun and Glim missed me, since they are like my family but…”
“But?” Elasia softly urged.
“When I thought about you three, even though I feel close with all of you, even if some are closer than others.” I alternated my gaze between the three. “One of you is here against his will.” I looked at The Light Maker, he averted his gaze before I turned to Elasia. “And you two are here out of responsibility. Neither of you are my family.”
Lumina sighed. “Blair, you really are stupid.”
I frowned, deeply offended. But before I could snap back, Elasia spoke.
“Actually, um, me and Lumina decided to… be part of your faction Blair. We wouldn’t be subordinates per se, but we don’t really want commanding power over you either…” She averted her gaze. “You really saved our lives there…”
“Does that mean?” I raised my brow.
“Yes, dummy successor.” Lumina sighed as she opened her eyes, her crimson rubies stared at me as her gaze softened. “We wish to be your new family.”
“Ah…” I gasped.
“I do want to be part of it too…” The Light Maker commented. “With permission of course.”
“Just admit your feelings already.” Lumina scoffed, her annoyance obvious. “You have a crush on Blair.”
“Ridiculous!”
“I will maul you to death! Light Maker bastard!” Sun roared and nearly pounced as I raised my hand to stop him. His look of betrayal was real.
What had gotten into him? I had no clue. Still, I stared at the three figures, all three of them vastly more powerful than me, and all three had saved my life to some extent before. And yet they wanted to be with me? I couldn’t believe it. I felt warmth go through my chest as I got a bit teary eyed. Elasia said nothing and got closer, though she seemed unsure.
Before I could react, Lumina sighed and a random plant appeared from mid air and shoved Elasia into me. She hugged me with some hesitation, and soon, everyone joined. Except for one person.
[Hey no fair! I don’t have arms! Let me in!] Glim barely squished in between all of us. Flailing his metal wings and randomly saying how he made things better.
Needless to say that, I felt happy,
◇ ◇ ◇
The group hug lasted who knows how long before we finally decided on roles. The Light Maker ended up being a supervisor for the town, basically approving or removing or whatever buildings. Elasia was an administrator, Lumina said to give her whatever and became a Guardian for the town but her status did not change one bit.
Time passed as I finally decided to chat with Elasia and Lumina, truth be told I didn’t really know them all that well. At the same time, sometimes Lumina or Elasia would grow quiet depending on how they replied to each other. Sometimes one had dominance, and sometimes the other had it— it was a bit weird all things considered.
Elasia told me some tales about the different Regions in space, but more importantly she told me about her adventures and how she met Lumina. Apparently they had met in the Crimson Stretch when the both of them were C Grades, though they had already heard of each other for some time. Both of their races — the dryads — were extinct now, and the two kinds were on a sort of permanent war of sorts.
It was a bit confusing but it was interesting nonetheless. Meanwhile, The Light Maker decided to butt in and ask more specific things such as what the corruption was. Sun meanwhile, started being even more weird and asking things about planets i had never heard before. Clouds on the ground, lakes of lava, storms that lasted thousands of years.
The Light Maker answered to Sun with some semblance of happiness. Turns out, he was also a massive planet nerd much like Sun. The real question to me was, when did Sun become like this? Eventually, we got to the most interesting topic.
“So, Light Maker, what is your name?” Lumina asked. “You kind of know everyone’s.”
He coughed. “It’s—
“It’s The Light Maker, yes, yes, get over it.” Lumina waved. “What is your name?”
The Light Maker let out a snort before pondering. “I do not wish to reveal it, it carries many burdens.”
Elasia frowned. “Perhaps your name is Raymas? The Executioner of Light?”
He instantly scoffed. “No.”
“Then are you the Adjudicator of Light, Laos?”
“No!” The Light Maker denied once more. “Look, I am not any of those light bastards.”
“The Light One?”
“No!”
“What about Rume, The Light Touched?”
“NO!”
◇ ◇ ◇
The questioning continued, both from Lumina and Elasia. At first it was only Elasia, but Lumina got onboard as she noticed The Light Maker’s increased annoyance. He was sitting down, taking deep breaths, shoulders slumped.
“So, you must be Reek, The Flashlight!”
The Light Maker clutched at his head. “NO! Fuck!” He screamed, swinging his arms before finally sighing.
“My name is…”
All the background noise vanished, as we all waited with bated breaths. The Light Maker was taking in deep breaths as the atmosphere became heavy. The outside darkened and the room became an isolated space as he finally breathed.
“Ronald.”
The silence was stiffening and then Lumina simply snorted.
“Is that so? Waste of time.”
Elasia agreed with a nod.
“So much for that?” I asked with some disappointment.
Sun sneered mockingly. “At least have a rare name if you are going to do that.”
[Guys, even if his name is normal he could still be a fugitive.] Glim explained.
“We are all fugitives, Glim.” Lumina sighed.
[Hey! I was just contributing! And how do you know my name?!]
“You said it every three seconds when I was within Blair’s head.”
[That makes sense!] Glim conceded.
A question formed in my mind at that moment. “Lumina, do you remember everything?”
She nodded. “I remember your mockery and stupidity clearly, yes, but I also remember how you persisted in the quest even though you didn’t have much of an obligation to.”
I was taken aback. “Right.”
“I owe you a mountain of debt Blair.” Lumina closed her eyes. “A ton really.”
I tilted my head, wanting to ask what she was on about, but Elasia simply nodded at me with a small smile.
The Light Maker crutched at his head in annoyance. “Is that it? I was prodded for over an hour just for those reactions?”
“It's your fault, should’ve said it as soon as we asked.” Lumina shrugged. “Consider yourself lucky that I find you pathetically funny or I’d kill you for wasting my time.”
The Light Maker snorted. “Try it.”
Lumina let out a grunt in response and The Light Maker winced for a moment.
“Ha, nothing!”
“Now you will test positive to dark plant affinity checks, you are welcome Ron.”
“My name is The Light Maker, not Ronald, not Ron.” He crossed his arms. “Also, it doesn’t matter if I test positive to those since I am not only the servant of one of the users, but her master is the Dark Calamity herself. It hardly matters.”
“Whatever Ron.”
He grumbled.
Everyone chuckled at the sight, except for the two in the discussion. I felt as if we had grown closer in just a few moments.
Family? I smiled. I like it a lot.
We laughed and chatted for a bit, before we all heard footsteps. Except for Glim who kept speaking.
[Y’all clearly need to learn better, it is clear that mana is ever-present and controlled by The System—]
“Excuse me?” Elei, the Woodland Elf peered through the broken window, she met my gaze. “May I speak with Blair for a second? It’s about the Dark Elves.”
I had a bad feeling about this, and Elasia for some reason seemed a bit pleased with herself. However, everyone turned to me, clearly my decision to make.
“You may.” I finally agreed.
“Alone.” She added. I felt a weird sense of foreboding but…
With a small sigh, I agreed. “Let’s talk outside.”
