Interlude - Naomi Alrakis

Alone, in a world devoid of touch, or taste, or smell, or sound, a flower seemed to grow from the cracks of something once as alive as itself.

The flower spread and slipped through cracks of a dying plane, much like roots searching for the water to stay alive.

And through the colors it could absorb, draining them from the shattered world and taking in their nutrients to grow and bloom, the new colors of a forgotten existence sprouted forth within its petals.

A tulip. A single, lonesome tulip grew forth whose irregular growths and contorted blooms lit up the petals of variegated patches, patterns, and streaks.

Green, blue, indigo. Violet, magenta, pink. And finally gold. Such a beautiful series of unworldly colors, which sprouted and radiated from its very being.

And watching this quintessence of beauty and grace without the eyes to perceive which, only then was a new sense discovered as well—

…A heartbeat. One which seemed to grow and beat and coexist alongside the tulip now pulsed itself into existence. But from where, and from who, remained a mystery.

Choppily, the fragments along the dying shards of draining color permeating the forgotten ground of this existence beat in and out, pulsating alongside the heartbeat and the tulip's breath.

All of which, remained eternally synchronized.

Until the last dying embers of those forgotten planes slowly began to die out, giving the last of their hues and radiance to the flower who, like a phoenix, sprouted entire worlds of color and grace from just the ashes.

And as the last symbolances of color and life were absorbed into the ever-so-beautiful flower, the heartbeat looked on.

Looking on, and on, and on, which might as well have been thousands of years.

Something tied them together.

Something kept the two of them beating together throughout the melting ashes of a world cast away…

A single, red string.

* * * * * * * *

Patterns of an indescribable beauty blinked away from a pair of lashes before the space ahead of him stretched far into the distance. Twisting and contorting, the fractured world morphed into that of an empty, misty, and dark cave.

Swirling around his feet, the wispy patterns of a frosty white dispersed as they welcomed his arrival, but he could only look on, feeling detached from the world as if he had fallen from a snipped string.

Was this the first time he had that dream? No, it couldn't have been… For a moment, it felt as though he had just fallen asleep rather than woken up. Whatever part of his brain responsible for discerning reality from a dream had left him in a calming silence, one soon replaced by disoriented thoughts as a pair of eyes fluttered back open. Though that sense of surreality never quite left.

Wait… Was that dream again…?

Before the fragments of his memory were flushed away by the waking mind.

He ran his icy fingertips along his right temple as he sat down, grasping mentally at what almost felt like a soothing cloud where his brain should be. Leaning forward, he hid the dim aquamarine lights from his closed eyelids as he pulled his still lips apart.

"I'd say good morning, Naomi… But something tells me I'm still sleeping."

His dreary eyes remained closed, though beyond them, he could almost feel a smile spreading across opposing lips.

Opposing lips who inhaled softly before responding:

"Quite attentive for someone still asleep. I believe that… your partner has explained to you the basics of Sensory Magic, yes?"

Her demonic demeanor never failed to send a chill down his spine. She'd taken a sharp liking to him, an offered hand that reeked of treachery. But he couldn't hate her, far from it—He just couldn't bring himself to trust her.

If he remembered correctly, the last words he said to her were his declaration—his proud stance on a meaningless meaning that even managed to convince himself. However her response, How much of that do you actually believe—it was a question aimed right for the vitals of his flawed logic that stung like a knife.

But now, while Cobalt was even asleep…

He couldn't even begin to imagine what it was a demon like her truly wanted from him.

"Sensory Magic… Well if I were to guess, that's how you've found out so much about me so quickly. It's what you'd call Clairvoyance, isn't it?"

The magic of this world may not be a sick fraud, but that doesn't make it any more honest.

Across the sea of mist that separated them, the demon girl simply chuckled. A soft, closed-mouth laugh that started more gently than it ended.

"Quite the intuitive guess. I will give you full points this time, although there is a lot more to it than just Clairvoyance. The Race of Demons has a series of inherent abilities and arts that supersede the traditional magic system you have recently learned. Much of this practiced art is done through the use of a Link, of which I may have established with you."

'May'—As if ambiguity's worth anything now.

"So you've been keeping tabs on me and making sure I stay alive by using a Link? It's like I've made a pact with a Demon then…"

Well, that's one mystery down.

"There will be many a time when you fall. But by making this pact, I assure you that when you do, you will not have to stand back up again by yourself, for as long as you decide to stay under the mentorship of your partner, and under the enigmas of this Tomb."

The fact that she was only calling Arabelle his "partner" irked him, although the overall message of her words wasn't something he could be upset by. It was an obscure proposition of hers, but if he were to guess the catalyst behind it…

"My 'partner'… So this is a response to my declaration, isn't it? Like a safety net for when I fail."

"You indeed make me sound far more charitable than I truly am."

Lifting his head, he once again became captivated into her unreadable gaze. Her eyes, undeniably the most visible part of her form, seemed to glow red against the darkness. It wasn't the same type of fear he felt regarding Irvelle, but… It was still an instinctual, hair-raising agitation that couldn't be quelled.

"So when it's convenient for you, is that it?"

A smile spread across her lips once more as she lifted her chin from off the side of her shoulder.

"Perhaps closer to the truth, yes. A pact as you say is not as serious as a scribe, but that is not to discount its visible merits."

"A scribe?"

Another word he didn't recognize, though maybe something he'd heard Arabelle ramble about sometime before.

"Oh, yes. You would not know what that is. Pacts and scribes and such mean a great deal to Sagas, you see."

Saga, however, was a word that Cobalt had held close to his tongue this entire time, remaining on-guard until he heard it again.

And so, he reached his hand out as he overturned the palm, snapping his fingers as he pointed at her with eyes that almost seemed to glow a grey light of their own.

"So you're a Saga. I knew it."

That's two mysteries down—I'm on a roll.

…She held a gaze devoid of exultation, however.

"Was it that hard to guess, though? I am not exactly the most human-looking."

"Your physical appearance isn't all that fantastical. You could just be into cosplay."

It's your expressions that seal the part—is what he kept himself from adding.

Tossing his senseless words over in her mind, Naomi brought the back of her hand to her lips in thought.

"Hm. And yet still I sense fear from you."

He brought his mouth into a slanted frown.

"Can't really keep anything from you, can I?"

"It would be quite difficult, yes. Although I would in fact say you are more intelligent than myself, in a world like this, Cobalt, there are certainly otherworldly factors at play which shift the odds."

The idea that Cobalt was smarter than Naomi—what a bizarre line of thinking.

So bizarre that he honestly couldn't keep himself from laughing.

"—Pfft."

Smacking his thumb against his chest, he asserted: "Didn't you hear? It's not possible to measure intelligence, Naomi. The whole topic is subjective."

He sure felt like a hotshot dishing out that particular piece of advice. Between the two special women in his life, he had more life advice than he knew what to do with. This one was just one of his personal favorites.

After all, I didn't do all this to prove I'm smart… This whole mess is a testament to my insanity.

Though Cobalt was now arguably much more sane than when he originally said those words.

"As wise as that is, something tells me it is not a thought you came up with by yourself."

He was caught a bit off-guard by that last declaration, though. More than he wished he could have been.

It was just yesterday that he screamed that no one else would ever have to suffer the way she did. He meant that and intended to follow it through with every drop of blood in his body, but that still couldn't erase what happened to her.

And so, quite hopelessly, he let a few words slip around possibly the only person he could trust to say them to.

"Maybe I'm just a selfish idiot, Naomi… But I still miss her."

He didn't really want a response from her. He didn't want her to tell him he was right, or wrong. Selfish, an idiot, or neither. Cobalt knew how he felt on the matter after all of this… He just needed to say it to someone.

Slumping over, he looked back down at the cave floor as he shrugged off the tension in his neck. He was expecting that demon to laugh again or change the subject abruptly, but… To his surprise—

"I know you do."

They weren't words of dismissal, and yet they weren't mocking nor full of pointless false hope.

Honestly, from the bottom of his heart… That was all Cobalt really wanted to hear.

"Perhaps you always will. But that is nothing to really be ashamed of."

With words that seemed to shake off his built-up anxiety, he couldn't help but think of Arabelle when she said that. Maybe it wasn't that the two had their beliefs in common—no, it was far likely that they didn't have anything in common at all—but that not being ashamed of your own thoughts was such a natural conclusion to come to after all.

"I know I asked this earlier, but really… How much do you honestly know about me?"

A sly grin spread across her lips.

"At present I will admit I am mostly sensing just your emotions, as there is a lot one can gather from them. Particularly longing, lack of fulfillment, a deep-rooted sadness, as well as most recently, a more complex and buried emotion I believe you are unaware of resembling lus—"

He jolted his head to the left as he looked away, nipping that at the bud as abruptly as he possibly could.

"Alright alright I get it. Ya didn't have to be a jerk."

Casting his gaze away from the woman shamelessly wearing nothing, he bit the corners of his lips. He immediately felt violated by the true extent of the overpowered abilities of a Demon.

Maybe she felt remorseful too, as silence quickly fell upon them for far, far longer than would have been considered a natural stop.

Until finally, slowly…

"…Would you like some advice?"

"Advice?"

He eyed her from his peripherals.

"Earlier I believe your partner mentioned taking you somewhere outside of the Tomb tomorrow, and judging from the emotions she has been giving off, I have a fair assumption of where that will be."

Alone on their separate rocks, separated by a sea of mist, it felt strange letting sincere words fall upon him from such a distance.

"What I am getting at is… If I am correct, you will be traveling through the valley that separates Sila from Nunam. Along the way, should you see a Banquet Hall and if, by chance, you are able to get inside… I believe there is someone incredibly important there, that you may wish to see."

Hearing all of this now, after all of their pointless smalltalk, it became pretty clearly apparent that this was the reason Naomi had reached out to him in his dream to begin with.

Honestly, it was by far the strangest piece of advice he had ever been given in his life. He never had any interaction with psychics in his previous life, and it seemed pretty clear this advice fell somewhere along those lines.

Cobalt wasn't exactly afraid of Naomi—that wouldn't be fair to say. But in terms of trusting her, well, that was a different matter entirely. If it weren't for what she said a few moments ago, he wouldn't have had to think much before discarding her advice.

…But for better or worse, he held a slightly different opinion of her now. There must still have been a moral reason she was telling him this. She understood his emotions about as well as he did himself, after all… So he just couldn't believe she was doing it for her own benefit.

"Why exactly are you telling me all of this…? Is it still just because you want to?"

Her mysterious grin once again rose at the corners.

"I suppose so. Does a woman really need any other reason?"

After seeing that unreadable gaze so many times though, he had finally settled on a conclusion: while her smile was an act, he didn't believe her words were as well. That was nothing short of what he had to tell himself to see Naomi as human, and when everything was said and done… He wanted to believe she was.

As the white-balance shifted carefully, his head became overtaken with the fog of a shattering dream.

Was he waking up?

Well, whatever the case…

As the world began to fade, Cobalt stood up to get an honest, and equal look at the woman who had invited him here. He wasn't sure when he'd see her again, but after everything that had happened, he was more than glad he had met her.

He still couldn't begin to comprehend her intentions, but at least for now, she had earned a distant spot in his heart.

"For what it's worth, Naomi… Thank you."

Lights of ivory and aquamarine spread between the two of them, lighting the dark and dreary chasm with enough exuberance to almost remind him of a dream he had all but forgotten.

A solemn smile spread across his lips as he watched her sink back in the fog.

Then softly, and with more grace and deference than he was expecting…

"Until we meet again… I truly hope you find what it is you are seeking."

And with that, he bid one of the two people in this world that had given him purpose farewell, seeping slowly back into the darkness…

* * * * * * * *

"NNgh…"

The fogs of a deep sleep slipped from his mind, welcoming him back to a calm and bright world of morning. A gentle voice groaned peacefully from somewhere on the bed. Meanwhile, shuffling under the warm sheets, Cobalt struggled to move.

He had remembered these sheets being a lot lighter the night before—a lot cooler, too. But when he opened his eyes against the morning light…

He was more than surprised to see the warm and heavy arms of a sleeping girl wrapped tightly around his body.

Maybe the old Cobalt would have, in a flustered frenzy, jumped out of bed and apologized for being too close.

But not only would that send him into a hypotension fit, he also just didn't really want this moment to go away.

Snuggled cutely against his chest, Arabelle's soft breaths felt warm against his neck. He didn't want to wake her. He honestly just wanted to go back to sleep like this.

But remembering what Naomi had said about the Banquet Hall…

Cobalt knew today was going to be a big day—maybe even bigger than the day before. He had lost his will to keep going, got it back, and had to scrape tooth and nail just to convince him it was worth keeping. Between the vibrant horrors of this world, he had no idea what the hours of daylight had to mercilessly throw at him today… But, whatever that was, he was prepared to take it head on.

Those words were his true intentions. And since he knew in his heart that he wasn't going to back down on them…

A soft smile came across him as he sighed to himself. He reached his free hand out, petting Arabelle's head and straightening the messy auburn hair as he ran his fingers through them. This wasn't a sensation he was used to in his old life. And so, he was determined to not take a second of it for granted.

I'll let her sleep a little longer…

And so, with a deep breath of the morning air, Cobalt's eyelashes slowly fell over the picturesque scene he wouldn't ever forget, returning him to the silent and sweet dark and letting the sorrows of yesterday blow far, far away.