8 Blood

When Izzy followed Ruben into the tavern she was surprised by how full it was. People of all shapes and sizes sat around tables ordering drinks and there was faint music being played in the background.

As Ruben walked in the first to notice him was a group of five people, one of them a tall bulky man, with a red beard, who stood up and approached them. He had a stern look on his face and Izzy was worried that he might cause trouble for them. She tugged on Ruben's broken shirt sleeve.

"Ruben," the man said in a deep gruff voice.

" Long time no see"

Ruben looked up at the man.

" Sven, it's been a few years"...

Izzy could feel the tension in the air until the man laughed heartily.

" You look like dog piss," Sven said taking in the scruffy looking Ruben and Izzy.

"Well I almost saw my ass today so..."

Sven smiled " Haha, must've been one hell of a scuffle if you're looking like this."

Ruben nodded and Sven then asked, " So who's this lass?"

Ruben looked at Izzy " A friend" he replied.

Sven raised his brow.

" I wasn't aware you had any of those"...

Ruben brushed off Sven's comment and said that he needed to go change. Izzy followed behind as Ruben climbed up the stairs. She watched the man return to his seat near his other companions. He made eye contact with her and then raised his glass towards her with a smile.

" You know him?" she asked and Ruben who looked rather unhappy said, " A long time ago I did".

Izzy didn't ask any more questions seeing that Ruben didn't appear in the mood to talk after meeting Sven.

They walked down a corridor to a room, that only had a bed and a wash bucket with a drawer at the foot of the bed.

Ruben went in grabbed two brown shirts and tossed one to Izzy.

He then removed his shirt and Izzy stared at his back.

He had well-defined muscles, with cuts showing all the way down to his lower back and old scars.

Izzy threw the shirt he had given her over her long sleeve which was now torn.

The fabric was rough and smelled a little stuffy but she didn't mind.

She was just glad to be alive.

Izzy sat on the bed while Ruben pulled out another pack from the drawer and began to stuff clothes and other things inside of it.

" I booked to stay in this room for five days. So you can stay here while you sort out everything".

" Huh?"

Izzy stood up " What do you mean?".

Ruben looked up at her his cloudy blue eyes.

Ruben sighed " Look I led you out of the Night Forest and we survived an attack together. But I need to leave".

Ruben stuffed some clothes into the pack along with several crystals. As he stuffed them in he held one up and looked at it then at Izzy.

" Here take one of these, if you sell it it's worth quite a lot". Izzy limply took the crystal in her hand it was slightly cold and looked like a normal translucent rock to her.

" So you're leaving?" Izzy asked dejectedly, she really didn't want to be left alone in this world alone. Ruben was the only person she knew and had come to trust.

Ruben threw the pack over his shoulders and put his hand on her shoulder.

" It was nice meeting you kid" and with that Ruben opened the window of the room and jumped out. Izzy ran over and watched his departing figure, wondering why he didn't just go out through the tavern door.

" Aiya! He just left," Theonymphi's ringing voice said as he materialised beside Izzy.

" Yeah," Izzy said with a sad look on her face.

" What am I going to do now? I know nothing about this world".

Izzy sat down on the bed feeling as if she could cry but Theonymphi's presence prevented her from doing so as he said: " You have me".

Izzy looked at the small creature whose wings fluttered back and forth at an incredible speed.

" That is true, what do you know of this world ?" Izzy asked, gathering information about where she was, was important so she could figure out a way to return home.

Izzy learned that this land was called Thule and the continent they resided on was split into four kingdoms. The Human realm, which was split by two major powers; the Cifidel Kingdom and the Thaetish Kingdom.

The Elven realm, who were also divided between light and dark elves, the Dwarven realm in the mountains, and the Fallen realm in the land of darkness.

Theonymphi very considerately even used some of his magic to display a map of the land, which to Izzy looked very much like a butterfly inkblot.

" This land is also full of magic right?"

Theonymphi dispelled his magic and flew around Izzy.

" I can't decide if you're really are an ignorant human being or just plain stupid. Even a peasant knows the basic history of the land but you seem to know nothing". Izzy ignored Theonymphi and pressed for more information.

" Yes this world is full of magic," he said snidely.

"You humans call it magical sound manipulation if I am not mistaken."

" Sound?"

"Yes. Don't you know that mana only manifests itself through sound ?"

Izzy looked around and Theonymphi sighed, thinking how did he land up with such a daft master.

He opened his mouth and a series of bell-like sounds filtered into the air.

The objects around the room began to float along with Izzy yelled at suddenly being lifted into the air. Izzy laughed in fascination and she floated up all the way to the ceiling.

" This is awesome!"

Bang!

Izzy fell down straight onto the hard bed and groaned. Theonymphi snickered, " That is sound". he said. Izzy clicked her tongue.

" I know what sound is!"

The phone in Izzy's pocket buzzed.

[ White magic detected: Magic of the Fae.

Spell: Call of the wind: Individual can cast magic to make things fly]

" So you cast a spell through sound"

" Yes. All magic is directed through sound, however, not all sounds generate magic. It has to be compiled correctly and the caster has to have sufficient power level to cast it. "

" Ah, that makes sense" Izzy looked at the phone now in her hand and couldn't help but smirk.

Basically what Theonymphi was saying that music or properly compiled sound created magic. So that would explain how her cellphone managed to defeat the Armoured Tiger, with a simple rock song.

Izzy giggled with the phone in her hands and Theonymphi thought she looked a little like a crazy person.

" System you got all of that right?"

[ Yes] the voice from the phone spoke out loud and Theonymphi's small eyes widened.

" Did you stick a person in there!?" he asked flying over to inspect the phone.

" No, Theo this is my.... instrument." Izzy said " My musical instrument".

Theonymphi looked at Izzy suspiciously, instruments could not talk, unless they had were transcended ancient instruments. Although he couldn't understand what the black box was saying, he knew that it was speaking.

[ Information on Thule has been compiled.]

" System you said I needed to become more powerful right? But can't I just rely on you?"

...

[Negative. The system is merely a support system for the host. The host cannot attempt to use the system beyond its current capabilities unless the host becomes more powerful.]

Izzy frowned finding flaws with that statement.

" But you defeated the tiger back in the forest".

[ What the host says is true. However, the system had compensated at that moment for the host's lack of magical energy by manipulating an individual near by's energy.]

" Whose energy? " Izzy asked.

[ The individual known as Ruben. Once the individual was attacked by the Armoured Tiger. The system calculated, that the best possible means of survival was to manipulate the energy from someone else and direct it towards the tiger.]

" Wait what. You can manipulate energy?"

[ Only because of the individual, Ruben's unique circumstances. The system merely played music which could trigger a blood resonance and directed that to the tiger. Who had ingested his blood.]

" Blood. His blood was the reason the tiger died?" Izzy couldn't believe it, she was sure that the tiger had died due to the power of the song.

[ Yes. Ruben is known as a cursed one. His blood is deadly to any creature who comes into contact with him]