Home Isn’t Always Home

"You want to go now?" Synthia asked, she glanced away from the bookshelf she was cleaning.

Once all of us got finished with business outside, we settled back into the house. I mean…Really we just watched Kota and Gerald cut wood. That was it. The two were exhausted on the couch now, with Gerald seemingly passed out. Kota looked like he was on the verge of it. On the bright side, we got a lot of firewood!

With everyone casually meandering, I decided to ask Synthia to head to my place.

"Yes, there's nothing else to do right now. It'd be fine for us to visit it." I said back to her. Synthia gave me a smile as she went on to finish cleaning the shelf.

"You must've passed by your house when you came back. It looks like a mess, huh?"

"Yeah…"

"Gerald and I have tried to maintain it. Unfortunately, we've been busy with work. Gerald's been out doing bounties while I've been assisting the healer here with harvesting." Synthia turned around, finished with her cleaning. As she turned, I saw the baby bump she had. "I guess me and you could clean up a bit when we're there!"

She hummed as she moved right into the kitchen. Passing Chris and Amelia who sat across each other, Chris was asking Amelia about something.

"Alright, listen to this. A story…about portals that open in Prusha! And then like monsters come out of it, so it's up to me and everyone to stop them!" Chris said to her.

With a sigh, Amelia palmed her face. "Ah…That sounds dumb. Plus, Portals don't exist! That's a forbidden spell that no one knows! Who would even know how to do that?!"

"Pft…Clearly you don't pay attention to what's been going on in Prusha." Chris folded his arms.

"What do you mean? You know something I don't know!"

"Word has it that a portal appeared in the north gate of Prusha." Chris smiled. "So clearly Portals exist!"

"Chris…" Kale said loudly. He too was listening to the conversation as he stood leaning against the wall. "You can't speak of that!"

"Ah…Sorry."

"That's not true! No one alive is able to use those!" Amelia barked back at Chris. "There's no books in the library that speak of it either."

Then Synthia joined in on the conversation as she was walking back from the kitchen. "Now, now…No arguing in this house." And when that seemed to calm Amelia down, She continued. "And never assume that the Library has it all. Ozoth is the only place with that Possible knowledge. It does hold the largest Library."

"Really?!" Amelia looked excited.

"Don't egg her, Synthia…" Kale warned her. "There's no need to put them on something they'll never get. Spells that are Forbidden are forbidden for a reason."

"Hmph, Fun guy you are…" Synthia rolled her eyes. Ignoring Kale's groan, She then looked at me. "Lilith, shall we head to your home?"

"Where are you two going?" Kale asked, looking interested.

"My home, to pick up what's left in it." I answered. Kale gave me a simple intrigued nod. What did he want to see how I lived?

Pondering it, Kale shook his head. "Ah…Well, looks like you have Personal business. I won't intrude." Kale awkwardly said. I frowned. Why didn't he want to go now that he new

Synthia looked at him with dismay for a moment before smiling once more and grabbing my hand. "Come on, let's head there."

Hauling me along with her, we headed to the door. As we did, I noticed that Kale watched us. It almost seemed like he wanted to say something, his mouth opened for a moment before he decided against it and shut it.

****

"Hmm…Well this doesn't look nice at all." Synthia commented, standing in front of my home. "I swear, yesterday it wasn't this tall…"

The sun shined brightly against the house, illuminating all the broken details of the house and making them all so Prominent. Synthia examined the grass that had gotten quite long, almost up to my knees.

"I suppose we'll do this then, just to make a path…" Synthia then kneeled down, placing her palm on the ground. She glanced at me and smiled. "You can watch me do this!"

I watched with curiosity as Synthia looked back at the grass, beginning to chant a spell.

"Dear Great Teher, I ask for the power of the Earth. Allow me to slice my enemies and cast rock slash!" The air around Synthia spun and twirled for a moment, then she raised her palm from the ground and aimed towards the door of my house. A Flat piece of rock removed itself from the ground, slowly forming and changing shapes to be a flat circle that hovered in front of her hand. With a flick of her finger, The flat circle flew at lightning speed towards the door. It cut through the grass cleanly as it then stuck itself onto the wooden door for a moment before disintegrating into pebbles. Looking at the grass now, there was now a noticeable path to the door.

"Does Kota do things like this?" Synthia then asked me, getting up from her position.

"Not like that. Kota is more…Different with what he does with his spells." I tried to explain. "I don't usually see him use magic in the way other people do. It's like…He casts a spell, he uses it in a way that takes people by surprise."

Synthia smiled and cleaned her hands off. "Well, With someone like him…I suppose they'd be different."

"Like him?" I looked at her, tilting my head in confusion.

"Those with the Duvul Trait…" she then pointed at herself. "Like me…"

Huh? Kota's mom has the Duvul Trait too…? Was I ever told about that? I only recall Kota saying it sometimes, but I never really know what he meant.

"Ah…What is that?" I asked her. "How'd you get yours?"

"Mine?" She thought for a moment. "Hm…I'll answer that as we walk. Let's head inside your home." And then proceeded to walk ahead into the path that was made for us. I followed behind her.

"When I found out about the Duvul trait inside me, It was years ago. When I was a child, My family noticed my abnormal amount of mana I used when I did spells. And we went to check with the healers in my hometown…and that's when they noticed my signs that I had the Trait." She continued walking towards the door, stepping up the old creaking brown steps. "I don't have the ability of silent casting, that wasn't one of my traits. None of my traits are as prominent as Kota's. I have more efficiency with magic and a larger mana pool than others, though I was never able to go any further by the time I was fifteen."

I didn't know any of this about Kota's mom. I've never seen her use her magic in battle before, I know Kale had said she was pretty adept with magic. So I'll keep his word on that, Plus I'm pretty sure her presence is enough to scare people off…

"Never told anyone besides My husband, and a few in our adventure group…It's something that most are scared off since it might be possible that Duvul could have that person as a host. Luckily, I don't think me or Kota are compatible…I hope." Synthia grimaced as she held her hand towards the door knob. "Those who are found out tend to disappear…"

I gulped. "Kinda…Morbid."

"Oh! Sorry, I didn't mean to put you in a bad mood." Synthia apologized as she opened the door. "Just thinking about it made me worry about Kota…"

As we entered the house, I noticed that everything was kept in the same place as the last time I was here. There was a dining table in the living room, Three chairs surrounding it and all had begun to catch dust. Beyond the table there was the kitchen, which looked smaller and had less things inside of it than Kota's house. To the right of the house, there were three doors. The closest one to us was my own room, a faint green paint was all that I saw and remembered. It was my mother who painted that door for me. Next to that door was my parent's door, it looked plain and had no paint on it. Just a plain oak texture to it alongside a dented doorknob. The farthest door was at the back of the house, which was my bathroom. Nothing much to the bathroom beside the wooden bathtub and water bucket, we didn't have that sort of stuff that Kota's house had.

However, something caught my eye. To the left of the dining table was a wall, a visible dent was there.

That was when My father threw me into the wall. He was angry at something, mumbling to himself when I tried to calm him down. That was when he struck me, sending my flying right at the wall. It happened long ago, but thinking about it now made a fire burn in me, more so than before. I walked forward in the room, moving closer to the left. I stared at the wall for a moment before Synthia tapped me on my shoulder.

"Lilith?" Synthia asked, concerned. "You seem more tense…"

As I looked at her, I noticed something else that laid on the ground. Just behind Synthia, there were marks of chalk that riddled the floor. The marks were faded, but it was clear what it was to me. A magical circle.

Brushing past Synthia, I knelt down and looked at the marks. Remembering why they were used, who used them.

"It's the Magical circle your mother used to find Emmit…" Synthia noticed, standing behind me. "She used a lot of her mana…"

When my father left without a trace, My mother desperately tried to find him. I wasn't sure what she was doing back then, but every night I'd hear her. The desperate heavy breathing and muttering as she leeches away her mana into the circle, hoping to find him…

Look where that got us now.

I trailed my hand on the leftover chalk, grimacing as I did. I kept thinking about the nights, clenching my teeth as those memories flooded back in.

All of this happened because of him.

"Maybe we shouldn't have come…" Synthia snapped me out of my trance. I looked at her, seeing her concerned look. "This might be too much for you."

"No…" I slowly said. "It's fine, I was just remembering."

"Are you sure?" Synthia placed her hand on my shoulder. "You don't need to remind yourself of what happened here."

"It's fine." I insisted. I then looked at my room door, heavily sighing as I did. "I'm going to look in my room…

Getting back up, I moved my way to the door. As I reached out to the door Knob, I stopped. Hesitating as I stared at the door.

I couldn't put my finger on it, but something was off. Whatever was behind the door was stopping me. Why? It's just my room, what could be wrong with it?

Taking a deep breath, I gripped the door knob and opened the door. Inside the room was my bed, which was laid in the corner with some plushies I had. There was a simple wooden desk and chair that was across from it, one that I used whenever I couldn't go outside. I tended to use my imaginations to mess around on the desk, like making up stories in my head and using the surface as the backdrop of it. One of my plushies laid neatly in the middle of it. There was also a dresser that I used, a brown colored one that had a mirror attached to it.

Everything in this room all seemed to be in the right place. So what was making me feel so nervous here?

I continued forward in the room, closing the door behind me. Synthia didn't follow in, simply looking at me with concern before the door shut. She must be extremely worried about me at the moment, but yet she still waited on the other side.

I continued looking around the room, the window had light shining into the room so everything was visible to me. As I continued to look around, I looked at the floor and noticed some sort of mark. It was in the middle of the room, it was a black line mark that was bolder than the magic circle in the living room. Moving closer to it, I bent down and looked.

Was someone here before? Maybe this was already here when I was still in the house. But these look…somewhat recent. There were even faint smears marks that looked like someone stepped in here. It was heading towards the desk.

I stood back up, anxiously looking towards it. Who would be in my room? And why would they be? There's no reason why anyone would break into this room…How did someone get in here?

Whatever came into here did something in my room, that was probably why I felt nervous. Something was wrong here.

I walked towards the desk and looked around. Nothing seemed out of place, the plushie was the only thing that was laying on the desk. It was a plushie that was suppose to be a wolf, With gray colored fur and big black googly eyes.

Maybe it had something to do with the plushie? I slowly reached for the plushie, gently holding it in my hands as I looked at with nervousness.

Then something happened. My vision dimmed, blackness taking over as if I was closing my eyes. I couldn't move or speak as suddenly, I was back staring at the plushie.

Or at least I think.

"Hm…So she has the same taste as me…"A voice rang in the room. It was one that I wasn't familiar with. Actually…Wait, am I in someone else's body?

The hand that held the plushie was older, they wore a long Black sleeve. They gently examine the plushie, looking all around it before gently dropping it back down. They paused for a moment, their hands sitting idle on the desk.

"Feels weird being here…In this room. Oddly looks like mine, all bare bone." They then glanced behind them. "This whole place is weird."

Staring back towards the middle of my room, a circular gate was there. Inside the gate, there was what looked to be a room. It had a green hue to it, stone walls as well.

The person then looked down, grasping a scroll from their waist. They held it in their hand, staring at it.

"Magic…Opening gates…Some false goddess, all of this is just too damn weird for me. I just need to head home." They gazed up to the gate, holding the scroll out towards it. Instantly, the scroll glowed and the gate's view began to change. It warped and made odd noises before slowly…A new view came to be. This time it was in a hall, filled with books. Shelves stacked with books and seemed to stretched forever on and upwards.

The person then glanced back at the desk that I had in my room, looking at the Plushie.

"…I need to figure out how to get home…And maybe report to Emmit again." They whispered. As they turned back to the gate, my vision began to dim once more. In that small instance, I saw in the mirror of the dresser, a female figure donning a owl mask. Their right eye illuminating a red hue. Before I could fully see who it was, The blackness engulfing my vision before once again. And I blinked back to myself, staring and holding the plushie in my hand.

"Hah!" I gasped, stumbling backwards from the desk, letting go of the plushie. I landed right on my butt as I looked at my own hands in shock and confusion. What just happened? That person looked like the lady in Prusha, during the festival! Why'd I see their vision?

I stumbled back to my feet, frantically examine myself to see if I was truly me. Then I looked in the mirror.

My left eye was red, my dragon eye was activated once more. I stared at myself with confusion as I touched my face. Why'd it activate?!

"Lilith?" A knock came at the door. I turned to the door, jumping at the knock. It was Synthia, who sounded even more concerned. "I heard something fall, are you alright?"

"Y-yeah! I-i just stumbled! I'm alright!" I quickly said. "I-I'll be out shortly!" I then stared back at the mirro, concern and fear forming on my face.

"W-what's going on with me?" I whispered to myself.

A/N: One more chapter for this volume! This chapter took a bit to process for me as I wanted things in this chapter to foreshadow some things in the near future. The next chapter will act as a epilogue of sorts, it'll lead into the next volume and show what some other characters have been up to! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!