14 Waking Up

Pain. Darkness. Light. Colour.

Pain.

And Kyvas was awake.

He did not recall falling asleep, only the pain. He remembered getting tired, and then all of a sudden everything was overpowered by the pain. It seared his senses shut. He couldn't remember hearing anything or seeing anything after that.

The pain... It felt like it was conscious. It fought with him over... something.

Kyvas fought against it, desperately, and lost.

Then fought again. And lost again.

What was he losing to? What did he lose? He didn't know. But he knew whatever it was, he knew it mattered to him.

But he lost.

Again.

And again.

Until he lost it all.

And then came the light. His vision flooded with white. It seemed to resonate with his acceptance of his loss. So bright, yet so helpless. In a sense, it felt even darker than the darkness that preceded it.

And then the colour hit. Washing away his senses and filling them. The pain this time was more visceral. Like tearing something apart and sewing it back up again. And doing that again, and again, and again.

The colours floated around him. Picked at him. Became one with him. Every single time one touched him, integrated with him, he felt everything get clearer. More vibrant. More intense. More painful.

And painful.

And painful.

Until only pain remained.

And then he woke up.

===

Jach prodded at the knife again. His mind received a static jolt.

"Tsk!" He clasped his head.

Kyvas had been 'sleeping' since the evening of the previous day. At least Krys and Jach had been hoping that he was just sleeping. He had stopped responding to anything not long after he and Krys returned from the Headmaster's office.

More concerningly, Kyvas had also started emitting enormous amounts of mana. Krys and Jach had to pull shifts to watch over him throughout the night. Unexplained phenomenon with mana... Well, it could be scary.

Frankly, Jach felt like Krys didn't have to pull any shifts. Jach couldn't sleep through the entire night, anyway.

The two's holiday couldn't get extended further. The Academy couldn't cancel classes forever, so Krys and Jach still had to teach today. Krys was teaching the 8th years Summoning right now, while Jach did not have any classes yet. So, he stayed behind, watching over Kyvas.

"... At least the static is getting weaker now," Jach mumbled, still massaging his head.

The static—that was something that started during Kyvas' sleep, too. Jach had no idea what that meant. Jach had no idea what any of this meant. He just knew that he felt terrible for everything.

He had to head to the 7th year classes after this slot. Krys would look after Kyvas for that one. Then was lunch and one more class. Krys and Jach would both have to leave for that one. Jach hoped the situation would be resolved by that point. He did not want to have to leave the dagger in the hands of the Headmaster.

He didn't trust that Lyre.

Jach sighed and groaned. The static might have been weaker, but it still hurt. He stepped out into the kitchen to get himself a glass of water.

"Please, just respond already..." He muttered, taking a sip. There had been no news from the Immortal yet, he wanted at least some good news today.

A low, quiet groan echoed in his mind.

Jach blinked. Then rushed inside the living room again.

"Kyvas?" He asked before he had even reached the knife. "Are you back?"

He reached his hand out tentatively, slowly getting closer to the knife. But before he could touch it, a voice murmured in his head.

'Good... morning?', Kyvas mumbled, with no apparent need of contact to communicate. 'Am I...? Oh, I'm still here.'

Jach broke out into a soft smile. "Thank the Immortal you're awake! We were worried sick about you!"

===

Kyvas looked around the room. Jach had left him alone for a moment, something about having to send a letter to the Headmaster. Kyvas decided to explore his sight until then.

It was hard not to notice that his sight had fully returned to him. He could now see everything normally.

Well, almost normally.

No longer was he limited to just outlines. He could now see the light shining on these objects. He could now see the colours of the objects again. He could also see a whole lot more. His field of view had increased drastically, and he could focus on anything he wanted to as long as it was within a certain range of him.

Yes, he found he could see objects behind other objects. He could focus and see the entirety of a rug, even though half of it was concealed by a metal table. He could read the words inside of a book on the bookshelf underneath the stairs, even though the book was closed! He could even...

Wait, no. He could, in fact, not see the wall behind that bookshelf. Or even see the behind of that bookshelf, even though he could do the same with the underside of the rug.

Looking around, he found he could not see through the grandfather clock sitting next to his table as well.

Wait, his table! He could not see underneath it as well!

... Was it because all of these were made out of wood?

The door. That was wooden. No, he could not see through it.

There were wooden chairs near the metal table. On his right. Yes, there. No, he could not see through those.

There was a small side-table beside the chairs. Wooden too, no luck seeing through them.

... The flower in the vase on top of the table too? He couldn't see through it. So, it isn't limited to wood?

Is this the 'Living' that Krys and Jach had mentioned?

Just then, Jach came back after writing the letter.

"Are you feeling alright?" He asked.

'Somewhat,' Kyvas replied.

Jach nodded, a slight smile on his lips. "That's good to hear. Anything different after the sleep?"

'My sight's improved a lot,' Kyvas answered. He noticed Jach was still standing at the door, a good distance away from him. 'Hearing too. I can hear you clearly from that distance."

That distance?

Wait. Jach wasn't touching him. How could he...

'You... You can hear me without...' He muttered.

"Without coming into contact with you?" Jach smiled. "Yes. Yes, I can. Now, you have an hour before I go and you're left here alone with Krys. Talk me through the changes. I'll try to help you understand them."

Kyvas widened his eyes. Not that he had eyes, but the act made everything he saw seem brighter.

'Let's hurry then.'

===

Krys rushed back to his quarters. He had intended to leave his class a few minutes early today, but got too engrossed in answering the questions of students that he forgot all about it. It wouldn't be long till Jach had to leave for his own class, and Krys didn't want Jach to be late because of him.

Krys rushed up the floors of the academic spire until he reached the Professor's quarters above the classroom floors. He pulled at his cloak, quickly taking out his quill, and used the terminal to open the doors leading inside the floor.

"Hey Krys. What's the rush?" a soft voice greeted him.

"Choir," Krys nodded to the only other professor specializing in enchantment in the Academy.

She nodded back and smiled, walking out with a leisurely pace. Must have had her next class in the 10th year labs.

Krys stopped and turned to her.

"Did you see Jach leave yet?" He asked her.

Choir shrugged, not bothering to stop or turn. "Nope."

A smattering of hurried footsteps fell on Krys's ears. He turned to see its source—A Jach Jafferi—turn the corner and fix his eyes on him.

"Found him. Thanks, Choir." Krys waved at her.

"Welcome." She'd reached the terminal outside the entrance. The door closed momentarily after her response.

"KRYS! I'm getting late, you idiot!" Jach yelled, half running towards him. "Eight floors. EIGHT FLOORS! You have any idea how much time It's going to take me to get there?!"

"I know, I'm so-" Krys attempted to apologise.

"He's awake. Here," Jach waved off his apology and thrust Kyvas into Krys' hands before storming away. "I'm going to kill you when I get back."

Krys just looked on with his mouth open wide.

'I almost feel bad for you. Almost.' Krys could almost hear the satisfied smile in Kyvas' voice.

Krys gave the knife a glare and a slap across the flat of the blade, before making his way back to their quarters.

===

'I can talk with you from a distance now, you know,' Kyvas told Krys. 'You don't have to keep me at your belt.'

Kyvas had concluded that he did not like to be carried. It had not felt natural when Jach had picked him up today. It felt like Kyvas and Jach's existences were at odds with each other. The energy inside him had started to object to Jach's touch—well, not his literal touch, but the energy that was emanating from him. Most of the foreign energy, which Jach postulated could have been his mana, was repelled by the knife. Some of it, however, seemed to have formed a connection with him, seemingly giving Jach some control over him. It sent a chill up Kyvas's spine.

Fortunately, Kyvas did not get a similar feeling while he was hanging off of Krys's belt. But the motion, paired with his now enhanced senses, did not make it a comfortable ride at all.

Krys waved a dismissive hand. "You aren't that heavy."

Kyvas rolled his eyes at him. Krys blinked, stopping momentarily.

"I saw that. I saw you roll your eyes," Krys observed.

Kyvas hummed. 'That's because I wanted you to.'

Krys harrumphed, then returned to the quill.

"Any changes after the nap?" He asked.

'Mostly improved senses. Better sight and hearing,' Kyvas replied. 'Went through that with Jach. I'm apparently sensing light and sound with mana. I can see wherever my mana can reach. Hear anything within that range too. But the "living" blocks it.'

"...Makes sense" Krys finished with the quill.

'What is the "living" anyway?' Kyvas asked. He had been wondering about that.

Krys looked up and sighed. "I'd tell you if I knew. It's been debated about for a long time. The closest we know is that anything that once lived—or could have lived for that matter—just doesn't get affected by mana."

Kyvas nodded. 'I see...'

Krys stood up suddenly.

"Anyway, I think I should check on your telepathy again," he grinned.

'Oh, no you don't!' Kyvas complained as Krys tugged him out of the belt.

"What will you do? Stab me?" Krys's grin grew wider. Kyvas couldn't help but groan as he saw runes being drawn up rapidly around Krys's other hand.

===

Kyvas felt like he could throw up an entire whale. The entire process was much more torturous than yesterday's ordeal.

'I would be stabbing you already, you know,' Kyvas groaned. 'If I could have done that.'

"Was it really that bad?" Krys patted the knife's hilt, before continuing writing the details of his torment.

Kyvas replied with an image of him strangling the professor.

Krys chuckled. "Hey, we learned quite a bit from it, I'd say."

'The only thing I learned was that I'm willing to be a lot more violent than I thought.' Kyvas glared at Krys.

Well, that wasn't exactly true. Kyvas had learned quite a lot about how his dagger-body worked. The issue, however, was that this knowledge was only useful if he was sure to be staying inside the dagger.

Apparently, his dagger was made up of two kinds of steel. Each of the steel parts was enchanted with something called 'Self-Repair'. It did just as the name advertised—repair the dagger whenever it was damaged. Krys' torture had let Kyvas see the two instances of these enchantments within him as two overlapping symbols. Krys had never seen the enchantment in the form of these symbols, so of course, that meant more suffering for Kyvas.

To Kyvas, these symbols seemed to be fighting. Each one would send out streams of mana outside of their domain—the part of steel that they were latched onto—almost like scouts or a company of soldiers. These streams would either be repelled by the other symbol, or just pulled back if they went too far. And so it almost looked like a never-ending war.

It seemed almost poetic, two halves of something just fighting on and on and on. He wondered if he could draw any parallels to himself. Maybe the fact that he was beginning to try and learn about the world and its magic despite not wanting to stay here another second?

"I'll take you to class after lunch today. The 8th year's enchantment teacher has called in sick, so I'll be taking over his enchantment class today," Krys interrupted his train of thought. "Maybe you could learn to appreciate you better!"

Kyvas gave him a glare.

Krys finally finished with his diary.

"You'd be fine with it, yes?" He turned to the dagger and asked.

Kyvas grumbled. 'As long as you don't use me as a case study...'