Cold but Warm?

My new life has been good to me. I'm two years old now and so far nothing horrible has happened to me or my family. That's a big success in my book. When I first found out where I reincarnated, I thought I was going to have to watch my mom die pretty soon after being born. Boy am I happy to be wrong. The first couple months were sooo stressful! I was always worried that every time mom left was going to be the last time I would see her. Eventually I got over my anxiety when nothing happened, me being born must have changed something that led to her death in the game-world. Without that looming over me, I started to enjoy my life here in Tenebrae more.

I finally found out the names of the countries in this world, by the way. Not from my mom and siblings though, I had to gather this information myself from the library in our manor. We have Tenebrae where I live, Lucis where Noctis should live, and Niflheim where the bad guys are. I was so close with my guess for that one's name. Anyway, it took a lot of tries to get to the point where I could go to the library freely, so many that I kind of got a reputation for trying to escape and wander. That's not true, I've only ever tried to go to the library after I learned how to crawl! And I guess the garden. And the kitchen. And there was that one time I managed to sneak into a gondola and into the city.

...

I'm a good boy, I swear! A-anyway I learned a lot in the library, it was the only place other than the garden that my mom was okay with me escaping to. I'm not allowed out of my room without an escort, however, my mom assigned two maids to accompany me wherever I go. That was really annoying at first. It felt like rather than watching over me, they were herding me to the places I was allowed to go. Those maids really discriminated against me too, they always took away the book I was reading if they noticed it wasn't a picture book. I got so fed up with them that I stopped going to the library. During the day anyway. I found out how to sneak out of my room at night so that I could read whatever I wanted.

-Flashback-

I. Hate. Crawling. It hurts my knees so much to crawl all the way from my room to the library, but I must endure. I need to remind myself of the important information about this world. The stuff that I forgot before it started to be relevant to my life. Ugh, it still sucks though. I can't even use the soft carpeted parts of the halls, last time I did I got rug burns on my knees and had almost gave away my nightly adventures. Looking around the hall, it's way too dark to see much, just stone flooring and a long carpet in the middle. Its much nicer in the day-time, but I don't have free-reign to go where I want to during the day either.

I used the last couple day trips to plan my way around at night. During the day, I counted the number of doors before each turn that I needed to take to get to the library. Right now I'm crawling along the doors, feeling each frame as I pass to count. It's tedious, but it shows my determination to learn! Oh, this is the last one. I stop in front of a set of double doors. They look too heavy for a one year old to open, but I've got a little trick for it. There is a chair that's usually near the door, I find it and quietly push it in front of the handle. Using the door as support, I unsteadily stand and pull myself up onto the chair. Careful about shifting my weight too much, as my legs can't hold me without support, I reach for the handle. Luckily, these doors are the handle kind and not the knob kind or else this wouldn't work, I don't think I could turn a doorknob. After grabbing with one hand, I shift my weight again and grab it with my other. Both hands secure, I put more of my weight on the handle to pull it down. From here I wait. The door is weighted a little bit so that when it isn't shut it wants to fully open itself. Normally during the day the doors to the library are always open. Slowly, the door opens just enough that I can let go of the handle and just let it open itself.

God, being a baby makes everything an ordeal. I can't wait until I can walk, then the world will be my oyster. I put the chair away and make my way into the library. Oh Nice! Someone left one of the reading lamps on. I make my way over to the geography section and grab an atlas before going over to the table with the reading lamp and opening it up. These books are so weird. They have this weathered look on the outside, but the pages inside feel like a brand new textbook. I wonder if-

"Curious. What are you doing here, prince?"

I freeze as soon as I hear the voice. Shit, someone was here! So that's why the light was on. But who would be in the library at this hour? Slowly I turn around and I see a woman, standing tall with straight black hair that comes down past her shoulders. Her most notable feature is her always closed eyes. She's always around Luna, so I never expected to see her here. Hell I see her maybe once a month, she's like a ninja. I don't really remember the name she uses while pretending to be a messenger, but I know who she is. Before I can stop myself, I nervously stutter her real name.

"Sh-sh-shiva."

...

The library was quiet before, but now it felt like I could hear a pin drop from a mile away. It's like all sound was peeled away from the world. I fucked up. Oh god I fucked up. No one is supposed to know who she is except Luna, but Luna doesn't learn this until her twenties I think. She reacts slowly, her eyes opening as she forms a gentle smile.

"You truly are interesting, prince. Such an active imagination. It is flattering that you mistake one such as I as an Astral."

Whew, it looks like she's going to play it off as me being a kid and saying whatever. I'm so glad she didn't freeze me into a statue. She does that several times in the game, turning people and monsters into ice sculptures. What would mom say if she found me slowly melting in the library tomorrow?

"I wonder what storybooks you must be reading to get these ideas. Let's se- Oh."

Shiva quickly steps over and peers at the book on the table, her eyes still open. It's a little unnerving, she always has them closed under normal circumstances. Her smile goes away a little as she notices that what I'm reading is an atlas and not a storybook, but it quickly returns much larger than before.

"I see, I'll be keeping an eye on you, prince."

Before I could even comprehend what just happened, she walks behind a bookshelf and disappears.

-End Flashback-

Since then, I've made sure to learn her name from Luna. Gentiana. No more slipping up and revealing her disguise, I want to keep living after all. I don't think it really matters anymore though, the jig is already up. Every time I go to the library at night, one of the reading lamps is already on and she's sitting at the table where we met. She always has the last book I was reading ready on the table for me. At first, I thought it was unnerving. Gentiana is obviously being a little weird around me because I used her real name, but I eventually just got used to her being there. Usually we would just sit in silence, I would read while she would do whatever it is she does when she has her eyes closed. Whenever I had a question about what I was reading, she would have an answer ready for me before I even voice my question out loud. It was a little creepy at first, but I got tired of being surprised by it and just took it in stride.

The one negative thing I can think of about her is that I end up spending a lot more time in the library at night because of her. I always get so much done that I lose track of time, a couple times I have even fallen asleep. I always wake up in my room after though, so she must carry me to bed. Honestly, my opinion of her has made a complete turnaround since my nightly sessions with her. She went from "creepy and scary" to "creepy and thoughtful" in my eyes. I don't think the creepy part will ever change unless she stops answering my questions before I ask.

One thing she helped me read up on was magic, there are so many different kinds! Apparently it is rare to be able to cast magic directly, most people use some kind of focus. The most common ones are disposable and looks like grenades, although they are only used by soldiers and monster hunters. The more high-class foci are jewelry like rings or bracelets, no one runs around waving staves to cast fira I guess. People in Tenebrae don't learn what kinds of magic they are proficient in until they are at least five years old. I say at least because it costs a lot of money to test and regular non-rich people get tested most often in their teens or twenties.

I, for one, am super excited to get tested for what kind of magic I am good at. Gentiana says that almost everybody has some affinity towards equip magic. That's the kind that Noctis and the boys use in the games for their weapons. I'm really excited to learn that, as soon as I do I think I might make a toy keyblade and go around pretending to be a keyblade master in the garden. Haaa a man can dream. Well, I have a lot of time until then. Might as well enjoy my childhood as much as I can.