18 The Calm - Part 2

'The Immortal is en route. He'll be here by this evening. -J.T. Lyre'

Kyvas gulped. The note had arrived earlier this morning.

'... He'll be here by this evening. -J.T. Lyre'

Kyvas couldn't stop reading it over and over again.

The Immortal—Kyvas' only tangible hope of returning home. Jach and Krys had tried their hardest to come up with the spells required to send him back when they weren't busy with classes, but progress was slow, and Kyvas still doubted the couple's ability to pull it off. The two Professors did not seem to carry much faith in themselves either.

But they were trying, and that was the biggest secret to success. Kyvas just worried that their success would come too late; that he might no longer have a body to return to when they succeed. The three months of his suffering back on Earth just amounted to seven days here.

It was already his fourth day here, which meant that over a month must have passed back home. That scared him. He knew that it was likely too late for him already. The thought that this meeting could confirm that for him... Well, it made him not want to meet with the Immortal at all.

But he had to meet him! What if he could actually send him home? He would like nothing better than to get back to his family.

"Krys!" Jach's voice echoed out of his and Krys' room. "I can't find my quill. I'm grabbing one of yours!"

Kyvas turned to Krys, who was sitting at the kitchen counter, and watched how his eyes shot wide open. Krys jumped out of his seat, nearly dropping the sandwich he was still eating.

"MO BAIT!" he yelled, his mouth full and his words muffled. He then gulped down what he could and ran to his room. "Which one are you- NO! NOT THAT ONE!"

Kyvas rolled his eyes. Metaphorically, of course. He hadn't known the two for four days, even, but he could tell how particular Krys could be about those quills of his. This was bound to end in disaster.

Jach had picked up one of Krys's prized quills. Krys was positively furious about it. Kyvas tuned out the lecture that the quill loving Jafferi spewed out.

'... this evening.'

And found his gaze at the note again.

He was frustrated. What did 'Evening' even mean here? This world had clock—even if they split the day into 26 hours—so surely there must have been a way to be more specific than that!

Kyvas flipped the note over in an act of annoyance. He was sure to keep getting angrier and more impatient as long as he looked at that.

Instead, he pulled out a book from the bookshelf and hovered it in front of him. 'A Comprehensive History of Karia.' It had become his go-to read over the last few days. He wasn't too interested in history, but he'd found out that he could no longer sleep, and this seemed like the most beginner-friendly book that he could find.

He flipped it over to a page with a bookmark in it. Telekinesis came rather easily to him. Regularly pulling the book out of the bookshelf and flipping pages turned out to not be a bad practice. Unfortunately, he still couldn't figure out how to lift himself using it. He wasn't a Living now, so it should be possible.

'A Comprehensive History...' The naming scheme reminded him of something. Wasn't the atlas named in a similar way?

Kyvas looked back over to the bookcase. Was one of the atlases there?

… It looked like the answer was a no. Somewhere else in the house, then?

'... The immortal is en—' Kyvas found himself reading the flipped over note again. If he had eyes, they would likely have been twitching.

He settled for a sigh. The sound of hurried footsteps stole his attention. Kyvas turned his vision to see Jach hurrying out of his room and making his way to the front door. He had one of Krys's quills in his hand. It wasn't the prized one that he had grabbed before, but judging from Krys' exasperated face, it was still quite valuable.

"You BETTER be careful with that!" Krys yelled, peeking out the door of their room.

"When am I not?" Jach retorted, and opened the door.

'W-WAIT JACH!' Kyvas yelled out.

Jach winced in response and tried to cover his ears.

The volume of thoughts doesn't diminish with distance, Kyvas realized. To Jach, it must have felt like someone yelled right next to his ears.

'... Oops, sorry.'

"Too bloody loud!" Jach whined.

'Yeah, I know... Sorry...'

Krys popped his head out to see what was going on, but he didn't say anything.

"No need, it's just- Gah!" Jach winced in pain. "... On second thought, I wouldn't mind that apology.'

'Sorry...' Kyvas apologised.

Jach rubbed his eyes and nodded. "...What did you want?"

'Oh- Take me with you, please,' Kyvas requested. Whenever he was not on his table in the living room, he was with either Krys or Jach in their classes. While nothing other than enchanting had caught his eye—and Jach certainly wouldn't be teaching enchanting today—Kyvas still thought he would be better there than he would be here with that note.

"... Fine." Kyvas was sent gliding over to Jach's hand.

"Kyvas! Make sure he doesn't lose that quill!" Krys called out behind them.

"Oh I'll buy you a new one if something happens, quiet down already!" Jach replied before Kyvas could, then ducked out the door and closed it behind him.

Kyvas couldn't help but smile a little at the two.

Jach stuffed Kyvas into his belt. "...Are you alright?" he then asked.

'Huh?'

"I said, 'Are you alright?'" He repeated. "You've been out of it since that message. Are you nervous? Scared?"

'... Yeah.' Kyvas sighed. 'It's scary...'

Jach hummed in agreement. "I can imagine. Just the fact that there's a chance that... I would be terrified."

Kyvas sighed. 'It's more than just that.'

He hadn't told the two about the time difference between the two worlds yet. Just the fact that he may be out of time entirely...

"Hm?"

'I...' Kyvas couldn't bring himself to disclose the information. 'Let's not talk about this right now.'

"Alright." Jach did not push the topic any further. Kyvas was glad about that.

They walked in silence till Jach reached the end of the hallway. There he took out his quill to open up the door.

His quill, not Krys's. Krys's quill was still in his cloak.

'You said you lost your quill,' Kyvas noted.

"I lied," A small smile appeared on Jach's face.

Kyvas shared a quizzical look with him.

"Krys was scared today too," Jach explained.

'I... didn't notice that,' Kyvas admitted.

"Of course you didn't!" The door opened. Jach headed out of the floor. "You were busy moping with your own thing."

Kyvas furrowed his brows. 'Then, why take his quill?'

"I wanted to distract him somehow!" Jach looked proud of himself.

'By... Giving him something else to worry about?' Kyvas did not understand his logic at all.

Jach shrugged. "It works for him."

'... You aren't very good at reassuring people, are you?'

"It works for him." Jach just repeated himself.

'… I still don't get it.'

Someway down the staircase, Kyvas felt a mana pulse pass over him. Searching for its source, he found a man in a green robe—the janitor's robes—snapping a little clay stick.

Kyvas stared at it, perplexed, but seeing as nothing else happened after it, decided to ignore it.