13 Reality check - parasite

After I read that inscription, there was no time to investigate the metal doors further. From each of them, a concise and sharp sound of dissonance resounded, and things started to return to their original state. The rusty red intruders lost all semblance of reality and began to fall apart into pieces as if they never were anything more than a thin layer of falsehood painted over the previous wooden doors. The last thing I saw, was the broken piece with a red flashing light attached to it. It fell off the wooden surface like a chunk of metallic shell, turned into dust, and then the darkness returned.

Using my remaining senses I tried to ascertain the situation, but the uneasiness and fear strengthened by the pitch black surrounding weren't so easy to remove. However, it didn't seem as if we were in immediate danger.

"Eri, how does it look?"

"Don't call me that you blind fool. My name's Erica. They're gone without a trace, everything's back to how it was… almost, you smell it?" Her thorny correction meant that she had marked this place as no longer safe.

"Yeah, it still smells like rust. For a brief moment, those rusty doors were unmistakably here. And it's just as you've said, those letters were from my previous world. I was scanning for-"

"Wait." I heard her move. She picked up something metallic from the floor and opened it. Then she put a small, cold, round object in my hand. "Shake it hard."

After a few confused movements of my wrist, I realized her intentions. The marble ball sized crystal started emitting weak greenish light. The more intensely I shook, the more I could see - up to the point that it became akin to holding green candlelight. But the moment I tried to stop, the light went out immediately.

Intrigued, I shook it closer to my eyes. Inside the transparent crystal was some kind of fluid with little fragments of something that looked like moss. With the corner of my eye, I saw that Eri took out a second small ball from the metal box and pocketed it.

"Is this some kind of a magic item?" I asked, glad to obtain a light source, even if it was a hassle to use.

"You know what you are? A disgrace to our race. The only adult silver elf who's unable to see in darkness and is happily shaking a kid's toy." Her deprecatory voice joined with a disgusted expression, as if she bit on a juicy bug, was really hard to ignore. But being able to see how the charming scales in the corners of her forehead shifted in response to her frown; or the way her silky silver hair flowed down to her waist and was from time to time brushed away by an alarmed move of one of her slim scaly tails; or the domineering pose she pulled off so easily with arms crossed on her meager chest - the fact that this angry ice-princess had been snuggling to my side just a few minutes ago caused me to respond to her with a broad smile.

To my surprise, for a very brief moment, she showed me a smug smirk of her own. One that together with the evil gleam in her slanted red eyes, made her look as if she was pondering about the best way to make me suffer.

But why it also made her look so adorably wicked?

It might have been too late for me.

Nevertheless, this short exchange and the glorious return of vision helped to slow down my accelerated heart rate. It was way better than running in circles and repeatedly asking 'what was that?', 'what to do?', and so on. Eri's presence was like an anchor that stopped me from falling a victim of the eerie atmosphere and the foreboding sensation I found within myself. And since my sister wasn't moving more than two meters away from me - it worked both ways and kind of reminded me how we helped each other in the river of souls.

"Should we stay, remove all doors just in case, and wait for Crea?"

Bizarre doors replacing normal ones were about as coincidental as it happening right when I found something strange inside my brain.

"No. Let's go and look for her now. Tell me everything on the road, it's definitely connected to you."

I could understand her desire to start acting instead of passively waiting, but moving from here didn't seem like such a good idea.

"Do you know where to look? Or are you planning to check everywhere? This place seems rather big. I'm not sure what Crea told you, but I was warned not to wander around. Wouldn't it be better to talk, rest, and wait here since she's pretty much guaranteed to come to us? And, heh, since we agree that it's connected to me-"

"Shut up!" Eri reluctantly admitted that I was right and grabbed her pillow from the floor.

In the meantime, I took a closer look at the pantry door hinges. "Lifting them up should be sufficient."

"And then what? Smash them into splinters? The stone door frames as well? Leave it and follow me already." She snarked a little payback while standing close to the door of her bedroom and poking my pillow with the tip of her shoe.

Once inside, she pointed at a small square desk and gestured to use it to block the door. I put away the delicate vase that stood on it and started pushing the piece of furniture. Luckily the desk wasn't that heavy.

"You think this will help?" The improvised barricade seemed flimsy at most.

"No, and don't." She stopped me from trying to take place beside her on the bed. Then jerked her head in the direction of the only chair. "Sit there, let's talk... and put away that toy already, I can't tolerate watching you play with it any longer."

My anger against those stupid metal doors was slowly building deep inside. It wouldn't be strange if Eri didn't let herself relax for some time now.

While sitting in the chair, hugging my pillow close as a poor replacement, I started telling the silver girl everything. Though there wasn't much of the story to narrate. She was mildly surprised that the way I used to conduct the internal scan worked so effectively but had no idea what could be the nature, or the source, of that murky mana infused sensation. The only thing she was sure of, was that it wasn't coming from my mana core.

We discussed various options and solutions until our ideas began to repeat themselves. Additionally, I tested out a few proposals on how to activate my racial traits. Starting from various breathing techniques. Through more esoteric mental exercises. And when those didn't help, frustrated Eri even wanted to give me a few cuts with the sharp tip of her tail. She said that injuries might help to initialize the accelerated healing trait. Which in return would serve as a good example of how to use my internal life force reserves. Fortunately, I managed to talk her out of this idea by using as arguments the big bump on the back of my head, still visible effects of her own two hits, and the painful burns. In exchange, she told me to arrange a poem to elven ancestors so they would accept my otherworldly soul.

"Seriously? Right now?"

"Make a poem, or let me cut you."

Despite constant fishing for any strange noises and signs of danger, we were back on track to regain some peace of mind. And a little poetry seemed like a small price to appease the silver loli.

My knowledge of poems and everything connected to them had been purged as one of the first topics in the river. I had to think for a minute and make a new one from scratch.

"How do you do the fairies of old?

How's the forefather of whom I've been told?

Spare me a little of your magic dust,

Or a sharp tail through my chest will be thrust!

Victory for elves contained in the name,

I doubt there is a need to ask for my aim,

Just do not watch my actions too close,

Or my bare little sister will be exposed!"

"Fool!" A pillow missile. "Idiot!" A second pillow missile.

"Eri, that was a reference to your true character."

This excuse only made it worse.

"Scum!" She threw her shoe. "Trash!" And the second one.

She didn't understand my poetic soul, and since my visibility equaled zero, all missiles hit their target. Only after I heard a small giggle that she desperately tried to stifle, I realized that this whole 'make a poem' request's goal was to make fun of me and help to release some tension.

"Eri-Eri, my dear little sister, thank you. I was getting cold, and you gave me your pillows, such a nice gesture."

"Victor, don't make me stand from the bed, or I will run a sharp tail through your chest. Give me back my pillows."

I tossed one back, but instead of returning the other I threw the small crystal instead. It started producing light as soon as it left my hand, leaving a pretty green trail behind. The petite girl nimbly caught the incoming tiny falling star and threw it back.

"This is strange, really strange." Started Eri after returning the crystal a few more times. "Even the weakest elves I knew never had problems with at least finding their mana core, life energy should be chaotically flowing all over your body. I can't even imagine not being able to notice it."

"Unless there's none."

"... there can't be none, that would make you no different from a lifeless object. You've said it yourself that there was something that felt like it."

"Well, only a tiny bit." I caught the green crystal and gave it a nice spin on the way back. It bounced off Eri's palm, and she had to re-catch it twice before finally getting a firm grasp on it. She looked like a kitten chasing after a greenish ball of yarn.

"And that's exactly the problem. It shouldn't be like a grain of power hidden deep inside. I would blame the way Crea made those bodies, but there are no problems with mine. And those words inscribed on the doors…" She returned the crystal with a lot more force. I used the pillow as an improvised catcher's glove and wryly smiled once the green bullet fell into my hand.

"Yeah, progress status over one percent, the request for more building material, add to it that foreign feeling entangled with the only hint of mana I found inside… Hey Eri, how's your mana core? Full already?" I began to juggle the crystal marble between my hands, causing her to follow it with her eyes, the two tails behind her were also swaying from left to right.

"Full? Not even close. We're silver elves, a part of the most magically gifted race, that means our mana cores start way bigger than the others. There's barely a drop of life energy inside mine. To fill it up to the brims I will need at least forty to sixty years in a good environment. Usually, it gathers over the years from the time one's born, albeit our situation is rather unique and gives us more options."

"Then, if the inscribed percents will go up with time, it pretty much confirms that those doors are usurping my life energy. In other words, I can forget about using racial traits until I get rid of that parasite, or see what happens when it eats its fill." I voiced the only conclusion that made sense to me and gently passed the crystal to her. However, she caught it and just held in place. The light quickly went out.

We sat in silence until she resumed talking in a grim voice.

"It's so humiliating. You're my brother, and yet I can't help you with the simplest matters. If… If you're right, then I should tell you to make those doors appear again, so I could crush them and give back what is rightfully yours. But I'm scared... That throw, the one you caught with a pillow. That was my all... my entire strength couldn't defeat a pillow. Ain't I pathetic?"

"Eri-"

"No. Please don't say anything. Let's sleep now."

Small wooden creaking sounds announced the end of our conversation - such ending of this eventful day was unacceptable.

'Don't say anything' didn't mean 'don't do anything'.

Without a word, I stood up holding the remaining two pillows, removed shoes, and made my way to the bed. There was enough space left on it for one more to lie down. Eri sensed my presence and shifted a bit further away, creating a small space in the middle into which I put one of the pillows. Now each of us had own safe zone. Though mine was devoid of the natural quilt resources.

"Goodnight, my evil princess."

She didn't raise any objections when my hand almost immediately violated the unspoken rule and started to gently pat her head until we both fell asleep.