Two Worlds

As soon as we were out of the temple, I had a strange chilling sensation going up my spine, as though we had entered somewhere even more unsettling and creepy than before, even though we had already walked through this same village not so long ago...

Somehow, something had changed here while we were inside the temple, speaking with Air... Even the sky was strange, the celestial blue that reigns during the day was accompanied not by the sun, but the moon and stars... It was a strange mix of day and night in one single place at the same time...

"Wasn't the sun up in the sky in its highest position a minute ago?", I asked Jeffrey and the fox. They tilted their heads in confusion when they heard my words.

"Yes... And it still is up there, in its highest position...", Jeffrey said and the fox nodded in agreement. But all I could see was that very strange mix.

"What do you mean? There's no sun, just the moon and the stars on a strange celestial blue sky...", I said as I pointed to the moon. He slightly shook his head in denial.

"No... You're pointing to the sun, Dagger", he said.

I was a little bit confused at first, looking to the moon and then to him again as if asking if he was serious, and he nodded to me, confirming that the sun was there. It took me a few minutes to realize... The necklace... It should be the one messing with the sky in my view. There was only one way to know, I took off the necklace, and looked back to the sky... The stars disappeared, and the moon became the sun again.

"Oh... This is so interesting, the necklace was the one that made me see the sky so strangely", I said and then put the necklace back, returning the stars and moon to my vision... I took it off and put it back a few more times, but looking at the sky this time to see the difference... It was so weird yet so amazing at the same time, suddenly there were stars, suddenly there were none.

"Really? Can I give it a try later too?", he asked me, tilting his head in curiousness, as if trying to imagine what I was magically seeing.

"Sure. Just let me see if I can find souls to speak with first...", I told him and then walked more through the village...

On the first corner we turned, I was surprised with a beautiful sight. People, with their bodies perfectly normal, living their lives in the village as if it was always like that...

They were dead, I knew that already, but it was so full of life, in contrast with the creepy and unsettling feeling I had a minute ago. Children were running around playing with each other, the people chatted so cheerfully, it even looked like they were hosting a party on the village right now.

"Uh, excuse me...", I said to a woman nearby, who seemed to be cleaning the front of her house.

"Dagger, with who you're speaking?", Jeffrey asked.

"Oh, sorry. You can't see them... I give you the necklace in a minute so you can see with who I am speaking, just let me talk with this woman first...", I answered him and then turned to the woman again, who seemed to have not noticed me. "Uh, I said, excuse me...".

"Oh, I am sorry. I didn't notice you there... How may I help?", she asked me.

"Uh... I wanted to help you to rest in peace, if there's any-"

"Are you threatening to kill me?", she asked, stepping back once she heard my words and I immediately shook my head.

"What? No, no... I am here to help the souls of the people who had already died... You... You're one of them...", I tried to explain, but then she gave me a worried expression.

"Perhaps you need some rest? You can sleep in the inn, if you need, it might be good for your head. No one here is dead, after all", she said and then pointed to a slightly bigger building, which should be the inn she just talked about. I would insist on talking with this woman, of course... But that's when I realized...

Not even they themselves are aware of what happened... They still thought they were alive, how could they live so happily and lively if they knew they were dead and were not resting in peace? And, if they don't know they are dead, this person probably knows nothing about how they were killed.

"Oh... Uh... Sorry. I guess I really need some sleep... But, did you happen to notice something unusual recently?", I asked her and she got in a thoughtful mood.

"Umm... Not that I recall, everything has always been pretty normal recently. Ah, well, there's one thing, the goddess who used to live up here decided to disappear, but, thankfully, it left us with its eternal blessing. We no longer need to do the ritual to keep this place as it is currently. But that was so long ago that our life without her has already become the new normal", she said.

"The goddess? Do you mean Air?", I asked and she nodded.

"Yes, it was Air herself"

"Well, thanks for the information. I should get some sleep at the inn now", I said and walked away from her house while looking at Jeffrey and the fox.

"So, they can't see Air either...", I said to them while putting myself in a thoughtful state.

"What do you mean?", Jeffrey asked curiously.

"Well, they think their goddess has just disappeared... But we saw her a minute ago, meaning that they just can't see her".

"But that's strange... I always thought ghosts haunted houses, and could see or interact with us if they wanted...", he said. I was struggling with that very same question... What could be possibly keeping us from seeing them but at the same keeping them from seeing us as well... The fox seemed to have a guess and drew two circles, that looked like two worlds.

"Oh, I see... The ghosts and we ourselves live in different worlds, linked by the necklace. It should be night in this other world right now, but since the necklace is a mix between the two, it mixes the two skies as well as allowing the user to see both the living beings and the ghosts...", I said and pondered for a while longer. After a few minutes, I looked at Jeffrey.

"Alright, I promised to let you take a look at this world yourself, take the necklace", I said and gave him the necklace. Once he worn the necklace, he seemed a bit dazed with the sight and looked in all directions, examining the village up and down.

"It's so amazing!", he said and then the fox jumped a little in excitement. It was as though it was begging to give it a try as well.

"Oh, sure. Here you go Beech", he said and gave the necklace to the animal. It was its turn to look amazed and examine the village up and down in surprise. After some time, it took the necklace off and gave it back to me.

"Thanks... Well, I think that now we have a pretty good notion of what's happening with us to proceed into discovering what happened with this village... Let's finally and definitively start this investigation, shall we?", I asked and then put the necklace back on me, starting to search for someone who might know what happened here...