2 Kasim

"Kasim isn't thirteen yet, he can't have full authority without Grandmother's permission." Einar insisted.

Suriya beamed as if she had been waiting for him to say that. She reached down and looped her finger around the leather string on Kasim's neck, yanking it up to reveal a clear marble jewel at the bottom of the pendant.

"Grandmother has already yielded the authority of the house to him," Suriya triumphantly declared, playfully jostling the marble, her undisputable proof.

He didn't know it around his neck until Suriya abruptly fished it out of his shirt. Julian cradled the marble pendant in his hand. It was the size was of a quail egg and eerily cold to the touch.

The elderly woman he met when he woke up must be the grandmother they were talking about. A cold discomfort settled on his shoulders as he thought about the creepy woman, her milky eyes, her distant but deep stare, and her quivering hands that reached for him. 

According to Suriya, that grandmother was the one who gave him this pendant that solidified his claim as the 'authority of the household'. Although he was confused about the specifics, wouldn't such an event be exciting for a young boy, he wondered how Kasim could have fallen asleep afterwards. Following that sequence of events, shortly after that, he woke up in Kasim's body.

"Suriya, Einar…" Kasim's voice rang out softly and clearly.

"I haven't decided, yet."

Considering that he had been transmigrated into someone else's body, making drastic decisions when he wasn't sure of the circumstances was foolish. For now, he would keep things as they were. He could always make changes when he understood a bit more.

Suriya whipped around, her eyes rippled like water as she stared at Kasim. Einar was speechless, he thought he would be forced to cooperate with them but suddenly the storm had changed directions.

"But you want to leave this place as much as I do! You wanted to go travelling and see the world, remember?" Suriya shook Kasim's shoulders as if she could jostle the sense back into him. "You can't do that without the money."

"Finally, your real colors are showing. You just want the money." A proud smirk on his face, Einar poked at Suriya's pride.

She fiercely smacked his hand away. "It's not that I want the money, it's that I need the money!" She snatched the empty chalice from Einar's hand, "You can spend the rest of your life here, rotting away with your booze and your women, but not me. I'm going to find a good family and be a proper wife and have children and a doting husband and keep servants. And when I reunite with our ancestors in the afterlife, I'll tell them so. Then we'll see who they think is more filial between the two of us."

She hurled the cup across the room and stormed out, not sparing a glance for Kasim as she left.

Einar retrieved the dented cup while mumbling his grievances under his breath.

Julian watched her figure storming down the corridor. Besides her personal reasons, her point about not being able to keep up this palace was valid. Kasim might have to end up selling this place after all.

"Einar," Kasim called.

Trying to push the dent out of the cup, Einar responded absentmindedly, "Yes…"

Kasim fiddled with the marble in his hand. "It's strange, but since Grandmother gave this to me, my mind feels a bit foggy. I'm having trouble remembering… Could you explain a few things to me?"

Although Julian wanted to blurt out that he wasn't Kasim at all, but an alien from Earth named Julian who had taken over this boy's body, he had a hunch that would not go down well. Instead, he went with a lie that was loosely based on some truths. After all, It was true that putting on the pendant was the catalyst for whatever happened to him and Kasim. And he was having memory problems, in a way…

Frowning, Einar looked up at Kasim. At first, he was annoyed, wondering what attention-seeking game his younger cousin was up to now, but seeing the sincerity in Kasim's face, Einar faltered.

Wearily he asked, "What exactly needs explaining?"

Julian wanted everything to be explained to him, but asking for too much might alert Einar.

Julian looked out the open window, pretending to casually glance at the adjacent courtyard. "How about giving me a refresher on Ish-Kanann?"

Einar's face dropped and he swiftly looked away from Kasim. "If you want to be reminded of the family history, Grandmother is the best at that."

"Grandmother? She seemed a bit... muddled," Julian thought back to the frail old woman with dirty feet.

Einar sneered, "Still, you managed to make her give you the soul shard, didn't you? Just do to her whatever you did earlier. I'm sure you'll get some good results." Einar's eyes became cynical as he picked up the dented cup and poured more drink into it, now completely uninterested in Kasim's request. 

When Einar wasn't fighting to keep the Ish-Kanaan palace from being sold, he was completely unlikeable. And what was the bitter expression on his face for?

Seeing that Einar was a lost cause, Julian turned around and left the cluttered space. He wondered whether running after Suriya and putting these questions to her would be any better. Judging by the way she left without looking at him, she was upset by his decision not to sell the palace. Perhaps the insane old woman was his best bet...

What had his life come to that his best chance of understanding his circumstances was getting a history lesson from a grandmother with dementia. 

He walked back the way he came when Suriya had been dragging him along.

Thankfully the corridors were so dusty that he could easily follow the footprints to find his way back. 

As he neared the entrance to the courtyard with the angel statue, a cold chill spread across the nape of his neck. Just across the corridor stood a young girl, half-concealed by the pillar she was hiding behind. Her pale eyes stared at him curiously but also with a sense of familiarity.

She raised her hand and curled back her fingers, indicating for him to follow. He moved toward her, drawn by an unspoken connection, but before he could reach her, she darted into the adjoining room, her face alight with mischief.

Kasim paused, scanning the spot she'd stood moments before. There were no footprints in the dust.