12 Chapter 12

Jacquard called the next realm the Seeing realm, and termed people in this realm as Seers. Over the next three days he watched as the ganie kept trying to attack Jean, only to be repelled by his pulse of akram. He watched as each time the ganie was knocked back, it would absorb a bit of energy and use it to grow stronger. He watched as the energy was used to restructure the ganie's body and its consciousness.

He had grown fond of the ganie, now that he could protect Jean from its claws and corrosive hairs, and after a while had decided to give it a name. It was at this time that he noticed something strange, with every name he came up with, a little bit of his akram would be injected into the connection he had with the ganie.

At first, he wondered why he hadn't noticed it when he gave Jean a name, but tossed it to the back of his mind soon after. It wasn't long before he came up with a name which he liked and called it out to himself.

"Paul," he said through the connection, "That's what I'll call you."

When he gave the name the akram in his body rushed into the connection he had with the ganie and the consciousness of the ganie began to grow rapidly until it filled up the space at the other end of the connection. After the space at the other end of the connection was filled up, the ganie that was about to run towards Jean once more sat down.

Jacquard was shocked. From what he saw, apart from the rapid growth of the ganie's consciousness, there was nothing out of the ordinary going on in the ganie. He didn't think that anything could escape his sight after he entered the Seeing Realm, but just to be sure he wanted to carry out a deeper inspection. Yet just as he was about to do so, something even more shocking happened.

"Paul," a voice said from the other end of the connection he had with the ganie.

The voice sounded raspy, deep and filled with malevolence and caused Jacquard to feel an extreme sense of foreboding emanating from deep within him. The shocked Jacquard so much he almost didn't pay attention to the new information that he began to get.

As soon as Jacquard got the information a yemeru walked into the cave. It paused and stared at Paul, then at Jean, then at Paul once again, before the information Jacquard was receiving began to tell him that the yemeru in the cave was afraid.

It carried on, but this time it stuck as close to the walls as it could and began to make its way toward the thing that hooked the chain to the wall. As the yemeru began its journey towards the thing that hooked the chain to the wall, the voice spoke again.

"I am Paul," it said slowly, as if it was picking the right words to say.

"I know," Jacquard replied.

"Who are you?" It asked.

"I am Jacquard," he replied.

"Jacquard," the voice echoed and Jacquard could have sworn that voice was giving its approval of his name.

The yemeru reached its destination and unhooked the chain from the wall, allowing Jean to drop to the floor like a sack full of sand. Jacquard had been too absorbed in his conversation with the voice that he failed to notice when the chain was unhooked. Jean hit the floor, and just as Jacquard was about to swear, the ganie took off towards him at the fastest speed he had ever seen it exhibit, leaving him no time for spare thoughts.

The ganie reached Jean, but it didn't try to attach itself to Jean's body, which confused Jacquard. Wasn't it supposed to always want to attack Jean? The ganie instead turned to where Jacquard sat on Jean chest. It lifted its clawed hand up and struck down, but Jacquard had already prepared a pulse. The moment the claw was about to touch him, he sent out a pulse directly into the ganie's body, sending it flying as a fast-moving ball of smoke.

Over the past three days, Jacquard had been able to study and replicate the effects of the pulse and although it wasn't much, he was proud of it. It was after all the first skill that he had created. He called it the Akram Pulse and it was exactly what he had been using to repel the ganie. It was much more powerful than the one that was naturally produced by his body and could send the ganie even farther.

"Why did you attack me?" Jacquard asked through their connection. It had thought that the ganie had changed after its consciousness grew, but apparently, he was still naïve, he forgot that one doesn't just change in the space of a few minutes.

"Why did you stop me?" Paul replied his question with another.

At that moment the yemeru ran towards Jean and began to check the area where Paul had just tried to attack. Jacquard was a bit suspicious but after reading the information in its aura, he decided there was no threat coming from it and focused his attention back on the ganie at the other end of the connection.

"Why won't I? There's no way I'm going to sit back and allow myself to be harmed by you."

Paul chuckled. "You misunderstand me. I never intended to harm you, I only wished to free you from your bindings."

"Bindings?" Jacquard retorted. "What bindings?"

"The flesh bag you are connected to of course. You don't have to be concerned about your safety; I'll just dig out the flesh around you. You'll come out safely, but I can't say the flesh bag would be lucky." It chuckled like it had just heard a good joke.

It took a moment for Jacquard to understand what Paul was saying, and when he finally did, he would have paled had it not been for the lack of the things required to allow him to become pale.

"You bastard!" Jacquard screamed at it. "It's Jean you're referring to like that. You'll just carve out the flesh around me my ass. That's practically killing him! You want to get to him? You'll have to do so over my dead body!"

Jacquard felt a trace of dissatisfaction pass over to him through the connection. And he heard it clearly when Paul spoke again.

"Why are so attached to the flesh bag?" Paul asked, disdain in his voice. "It's clearly dead, and useful for nothing more than nutrients, yet you're so adamant on protecting it."

"Of course I am adamant on protecting him. One, he is not dead—"

"He is," Paul cut in, "He most definitely is."

Jacquard replied. "He most definitely is not! Ho—" yet he couldn't complete his statement, his attention had gone elsewhere.

Although Jacquard hadn't been actively watching the yemeru that was in the cave, under his 360-vision and Sight he couldn't not notice the changes that occurred in the yemeru. He saw the yemeru open its mouth and shout something. Through the information provided by the sight he could tell that the yemeru was distressed, and afraid.

Jacquard wouldn't have been truly concerned about those things if he had not entered the Seeing realm and gained the ability to see auras and perceive the information flowing. Through one of the pieces of information that was flowing in he had understood that what this yemeru was doing was going to bring danger to him.

He had no idea where the information came from, he couldn't find any aura that seemed to supply it, and it only appeared for a brief moment, yet Jacquard knew he couldn't discard it. But unfortunately for him there was nothing he could do about it.

The information from the aura told him that the yemeru was frustrated. Jacquard watched as it stopped shouting. The yemeru didn't spend anymore time in the room again, it immediately turned around and left, soon leaving his field of vision.

Jacquard had a premonition of something bad happening, but he wasn't allowed to dwell on his thought for long before Paul spoke again, preventing him from continuing down his train of thought.

"How what?" He questioned. "How do I know he's dead?"

It took a full second for Jacquard to get back into the conversation. "Uh… Yeah. How do you know he is dead?"

"Simple. I can sense the brain activity of any creature I come across. Even creatures like you who seem to have no brains produce frequencies that I can pick up."

"Wait, can all of you do this? All the hairy r— creatures, can they can do this too?"

"Yes, but from the flesh bag—"

"Jean," Jacquard corrected.

Paul hesitated for a moment, before carrying on. "From, ah, Jean," he said Jean like it was a bitter pill he was reluctant to swallow, "I can sense no such energy. And therefore, there is only one conclusion."

Jacquard finished for him. "Jean is dead."

"Exactly."