Chapter 1 - A new life

[Author note:

I thought it over and believe it's better if I don't skip the journey in the lotm universe but I might post less of this story as I am encountering obstacles to writing it, it mostly being a lack of inspiration and creativity, but I will try. I am trying to fix my bad habit of going from the start directly to the finish and it might reflect on the story 

It might seem strange but some parts will appear to be dragged on and others will appear to be just glossed over, it might happen because I can't exactly use 1000 words to describe the mc doing nothing, but the opposite is unfortunately true.

I am open to criticism and suggestions 

]

‘ugh, did it work?’

The young man who asked that question in his mind opened his heavy eyes, and with the grace of a baby giving its first steps, he successfully sat up.

He found himself sitting on a bed while half covered by a plain white blanket.

Looking around he did not recognize any of the things around him as his own, but he still could recognize the room he was in as a simple bedroom, walls made of wood, bronze colored pipes running across some parts of the walls, among other normal things for a bedroom, but one he took particular note of was the window with brownish curtains, it wasn’t something spectacular or noteworthy, what garnered his attentions was that between the open gaps the curtains leaved, he could see that it was still night, but the morning sun rays were threatening to fully appear in a dozen minutes or so.

In regards to his earlier question, he got an unexpected answer just after he scanned the bedroom.

‘It seems like it did work!’

But it wasn’t his own voice, it was a happy woman’s voice that suddenly sounded inside his head.

Normally, if someone started hearing voices in their head outside of their own, they would immediately start to panic or doubt their own sanity, but the reaction of the youth who just heard such a voice was neither of the two, he simply had a smile appear on his face, as if he was expecting this, and as if such outcome even was a good one.

They almost got up in that instant and started dancing happily around the room to commemorate whatever was the reason for their happiness, but they restrained themselves. Looking at both of their hands he thought ‘It did work! You know what that means, right?’

The woman’s voice again spoke inside his mind with a half joking and half anticipating voice.

"We are kind of the same person, dum dum! It means an incredible life and journey ahead!’

He was about to retort by calling the woman dumb when they suddenly felt an incredible pain assault their head.

One after another, memories of a life they felt like they had lived started to surface on their mind, the details of each day from “their life” are not that relevant, but the whole picture is important, such life will remain a mystery for the moment, all you need to know for now is that their new name was “Eduard Newgate” and today was the day they would officially start working with the nighthawks.

 

But the surprises did not stop there.

A third voice spoke in their head, but this time, it did not sound like male nor female, it was just a voice that was in fact closer to meanings put together to represent a sentence than an actual voice that was like the one from the woman and his.

It said “Congratulations. System initialized. Please choose a main pathway. After choosing one, just think or say status to see your own information” 

After the voice gave its congratulations, a golden hologram-like thing appeared in front of Eduard’s eyes. It had a list with each pathway name and a description of said pathway, the bigger list was also separated into smaller segments with each of them titled after a corresponding above the sequences to the pathways available.

‘Main pathway?’ was the woman’s and his question. 

They didn’t think there was a time limit but chose to be quick with their decision nonetheless, so they “got together” and started to discuss their important choice immediately.

a woman's voice inside their head: ‘It said “main” pathway, which meant we can have more than one at once, right?’

Eduard: ‘Thought so too, the first answer would be pretty obvious’

a woman's voice inside their head: ‘Yes, but…’

Eduard said in a fake half regretting tone: ‘But we already got the sefirah castle’

a woman’s voice inside their head: ‘To the second choice we go! But with which one do we start? Fool, Door or Error?’

 

Eduard: ‘hhhmm, “Door” is rather weak on lower sequences, and there is Mr.Door. “Error”… Amon. Which leave us with “Fool”’

They had remembered about Mr.Door and Amon, but briefly forgot about Zaratul, but you will see the consequences of that in the future.

a woman's voice inside their head said with a happy tone, trying to act as if it wasn’t their choice from the beginning: ‘Hm, Let’s go with Fool!’

Eduard gave a final look over the list of pathways and their above the sequence and selected the ”Fool” pathway. 

Once their choice was confirmed, to his surprise it didn't ask for a secondary pathway like they were expecting, the hologram just disappeared and they felt themselves undergo some changes, it was not a big change like the ones that happens on higher sequences, but it was noticeable anyways.

This change was not painful but that for sure would change in higher sequences.

The first thing they noticed that was different was their surroundings, it had its colors oversaturated, more vibrant and more noticeable, they also noticed that they could see better, noticing minor details about the things around him.

All of that was because they awakened their spirit vision and activated it immediately, after looking at the things around them like a child in a candy store, they started to activate and deactivate this ability in sequence trying to create a reliable trigger for its activation.

After a few attempts he was successful in making his activation trigger be his molars touching. You could clearly tell he was proud from his face alone.

a woman's voice inside their head: ‘Wipe off that smug look from our face and let's go to the kitchen! It seems like Eduard forgot to eat last night because of anxiety’

Eduard: ‘almost forgot! Let's hope there is something to eat there, as I doubt the stores would be open now’

They got up from the bed, and just now he noticed their weakness, but they weren't sick or anything like that,  I am referring that only just now he could clearly feel how weak a human was in comparison to his old self, but he declared in his heart, “that will change in the near future!”

As they were walking to leave their room they noticed their reflection on the full body mirror that was there since the start, they stopped in front of it at started to examine their body from top to bottom.

Their reflection was that of a young adult wearing pants and a shirt fit for sleeping, and these clothes couldn't hide their defined muscles under them, the young adult in the mirror had very light brown skin and their face… you could say they had a very sexy face, as it had a basically perfect combination of its individual components, making him look “sexy” specially with his face and body combined. The woman's voice on their head jokingly made a whistling sound before saying in a suggestive tone ‘Aren't you quite the sexy one?’ She then started to speak in a complaining tone. 

‘But even the sexy people need to eat, we can admire ourselves after we have a full stomach!’

He only laughed in their mind while somewhat embarrassed and left their room while trying to be quiet. 

Their bedroom was on the second floor, but the kitchen was on the first floor along the living room, and it might sound like a big house, but it isn't that big. A living room, kitchen, bathroom and 3 small bedrooms, each of these rooms isn't that big. It's not a mansion, but it is livable.

Once they arrived at the kitchen they started to go over their memory and to scan the surroundings, trying to see if there was anything to eat.

Unfortunately, there was only some bread from yesterday and to drink there was cheap tea and milk at the fridge. But they weren't impeded by the lack of food and started preparing the tea along with some milk on the stove.

After a few minutes they had warm tea and milk ready for consumption. Without missing a beat they served themselves a plate with bread and a cup of warm tea with milk and sat by the table at the kitchen.

The first thing they did was dip the bread on the tea and eat the softened part of the bread, and once the warm bread entered their mouths, they almost cried from sheer joy seeing that it was real bread. But don’t be fooled, it was cheap bread, cheap tea and simple milk. They were happy because this simple bread confirmed that whatever they were experiencing couldn’t be fake, and if it was fake it was so real it couldn’t be differentiated from reality, this confirming that “it worked” as they said it.

They savored the bread and tea in silence for some time, but to their surprise, someone arrived downstairs and stopped not far away from Eduard before saying “Why are you awake this early? Don’t you start at 08:00?”

It was Eduard’s younger sister, Maria Newgate. 

Eduard was a little surprised by seeing her but on the outside he had a calm expression. 

“Couldn’t sleep after waking up, and was hungry. I made tea and milk if you want some”

Maria asked “Did you sleep at all?” in a concerned tone.

Eduard still with a calm expression and with his naturally indifferent and lofty tone he answered.

“I just woke up early, a few minutes ago in fact”

Maria squinted her eyes and looked at Eduard with suspicion, she did so because she thought they were lying as to not worry her, not because they were acting strange, which they weren't in her eyes, Eduard always had an indifferent and lofty air to them, even receiving the nickname “god of books” from his colleagues of the university.

The reason for such a nickname was that he had this godly and noble air to him all the time coupled with his appearance and the fact that he was also very smart; often found reading a book somewhere. 

His teachers and colleagues knew very little about him; but his good personality and natural charisma earned their respect and love(as a close friend).

Maria, still with squinted eyes, put some warm milk with sugar in a cup for herself and took the cup to her room, giving glances filled with suspicion to Eduard during the whole process, while he maintained an indifferent expression that she was already familiar with.

A woman's voice inside his head spoke in a warm tone: ‘ “Eduard” has a very nice family’

He thought, kind of correcting the woman ‘Now “we” have a nice family’

Taking another bite from the bread he asked the woman in his head ‘Say, I was thinking, do you want a name? Or do you want us both to use the same one?’

He could feel the image of a light bulb above the woman's head turning on. And a second later he could feel her jumping up and down inside his head.

She said in their head ‘Uuhhh… uhh’ after calming down, but he interrupted her and said ‘Take your time, it won't come to you that fast, and there's no need to worry, you have plenty of time to choose’, but she responded happily in return ‘No, I have the perfect name! What do you think of…”Dy’a”? ‘, on the outside they suddenly were smiling for no reason while alone in the kitchen, but in their head he only said ‘Nice name’ while the Dy’a said ‘Of course it's nice! I choose it myself!’ in return.

After a few giggles sounding in their head, both gradually returned to silently eating the bread, just for the silence to be broken by Eduard again.

‘Do you want to take a look at the sefirah castle?’

Dy’a spoke ‘Now!? We have to go to the nighthawks before 8, remember? We can look at it once we return’ in a scolding tone

Eduard sighed briefly in defeat, and despite Dy’a ’s answer, she was in fact dying to go take a look at the sefirah castle just like him, but both of them knew that they were kinda low on spirituality from creating a trigger to their spirit vision, so they put such matter aside for the moment.

Once their cup of tea was finished along the bread, they noticed the sun rays peeking through the windows and he remembered something he had forgotten only after seeing someone enter through the front door.

The person who entered through the front door was his older sister, Clare Newgate, she worked at night and returned by the morning.

She saw him putting away the cup and plate he used and casually greeted him with a mature voice, in a way that would suggest that she is part of a criminal organization or something similar.

“Yo… it's rare for you to wake early, for any occasion, couldn't sleep?”

Contrary to what her way of speaking would suggest, you could easily mistaken her for Eduard’s twin, specially because both had that indifferent and lofty air to them that clearly showed their family relation.

People that interacted with both Clare and Eduard already pointed out to them, that no matter the circumstances, they always gave the inpression of a god talking to a mortal, but strangely enough, they manage to do that without sounding arrogant or even being arrogant for that matter. 

Both of them even got in trouble a few times because of that trait, but to try fixing that, Clare tries to speak in a very casual away, almost like a gangster, while Eduard tries to be very humble and friendly, both strategies work to some degree,but they don't fix the cause of the problem whatsoever; they still sound like gods whenever they speak, but their strategies make other people more like to not mind their peculiarity.

Their younger sister got lucky on the gene lottery and does not have that problem, she still looks pretty similar to her older siblings in appearance, but she can speak normally.

Eduard: “ It just happen that I woke up early. I prepared warm tea and milk”

Clare: “Thanks. Isn't today that you will start your new work?”

Eduard: “Yes, i need to be there at 8”

Clare: “Betcha will wake up late to do it for the rest of the week”

She still said that with a indifferent and lofty voice, creating a huge contrast between the sentence's tone and its contents, again, without a shred of mockery or arrogance, which is quite the impressive feat.

“Eduard” was already used to this so he only answered “Got lucky, one day I start at 8 and the other I start at 14”

Clare: “ How much for a week”

Eduard: “ It can vary, but at the start will be 3 pounds”

Clare only said “Nice”, gave a thumbs up to Eduard and got herself a cup of milk with sugar and sat by the table. Must be a family thing.

Eduard casually asked “How was your night there”

Clare answered with a tone that revealed only a bit of anger, but again, what she was saying had little connection to how she sounded.

“Hah, We got new blood, but those pussies could barely hold a wrench straight, let alone operate the machines!”

She continued while sounding both a little tired and a little angry.

“Spent the entire night teaching them the basics, over and over”

She assumed a more playful and mischievous tone this time ”But despite how dumb some were, a few were interesting at least”

While Eduard was looking at Clare form a sinister smile on her face that would put fear into the heart of gods, Dy’a said in their head half joking “What a peculiar lady, I hope we don't look like that when we smile” They do in fact look just like that when they smile.

Eduard went back to their room the moment Clare started to laugh to herself still with that sinister smile on her face.

Once inside their room, they started to prepare some more formal clothes, however he did not change into them, they instead prepared a set of more casual clothes and put them on.

They took a few pence’s with him and went to a bakery that by now should be open, it was 3 blocks away and luckily it was indeed open, he just got some more bread and some cheap cheese to go with the bread, and returned home without anything noteworthy happening.

When they arrived back home, Clare was still at the kitchen’s table drinking milk and still with the sinister smile on her face, but she had stopped laughing at this point. They only put the groceries on the table and and said “Fresh bread and cheese”

Clare's only response was to scan the bag contents and say “Oohhh, nice. I bet we still have some jam too” still smiling.

While Clare was searching the cabinets for the jam, Eduard went back upstairs to take a shower. 

They were tempted to eat the new bread and cheese but they thought it was better to leave some for tonight or tomorrow. It seems like they became quite addicted to food since visiting that tavern.

But now that they were fresh like a newborn, they took a look at the clock on his bedroom wall and it displayed “06:43”, they thought out loud “Plenty of time left, but it's better to leave a good impression on the first day” 

Dy’a “nodded” in confirmation and jokingly said ‘Just don't make every girl you pass by fall for you, haha”

Eduard responded with ‘ha. ha. very funny, it wouldn't be possible, right?’

Dy’a only gave him a side eye while smiling inside their head and said nothing else.

They changed into the more formal clothes they had prepared and stopped in front of the body mirror in their room.

Dy’a spoke in a mocking tone ‘God, damn! At this point you will also need to worry about attracting boys too!’

Eduard rolled their eyes and didn't comment on it, they took with them their  trusty pocket watch and went downstairs to leave, but they stopped close to the kitchen, for a few seconds they were looking at Clare eat bread with cheese and jam, which somehow, had every movement she made look refined and graceful, and it was obvious she wasn't doing it on purpose as she was doing it in a abnormally natural manner.

She noticed him standing for a few seconds looking at her and asked “What? Want some?”, but Eduard only answered "It's nothing, I was just going to the new job, bye” before waving goodbye to Clare and leaving the house.

Clare only thoughts about his actions was “He must been hungry or somtin”

.

.

.

Eduard walked from his home to the blackthorn security company building in 36 minutes.

Once in front of the building’ front door he knocked on the door. No response was heard. He knocked again. Still no response. So he warned whoever was on the other side, if there was anybody at all.

“Excuse me, but I will be entering!”

Still no one responded.

He gently opened the door and was greeted by a room with a classic sofa, a soft fabric armchair, a sturdy coffee table and a table with a woman sitting behind it, the woman seemed to have fallen asleep while sitting on the chair and was holding a newspaper while sleeping.

Eduard stopped in front of the woman who had brown hair and said “Excuse me”, the woman didn't respond, he tried again and said “Excuse me, ma'am?”, this time the woman only softly murmured something like “Nooo, I will eat my vegetables”. 

Dy’a jokingly asked ‘Will you awaken the sleeping beauty?Go for it! Give her a passionate kiss of true love~’

Eduard: ‘Dumbass, that would be at least sexual harassment! Let's use a classic gentlemanly method instead’

Dy’a: ‘Hitting her head with comically large folded paper?’

Eduard only mentally rolled his eyes and proceeded to fake cough loudly, which made the woman wake up and quickly cover her face with the newspaper as if she had always been reading it and just didn't notice Eduard, she even pretentiously read it out loud just to “coincidentally” notice Eduard.

“New train services that connect directly to Constant city? When will they make one that goes to Namor bay? Going there by ship is really awful, I hope they put a train line there… um?, who are you?”

“Eduard Newgate, I am here at the invitation of Dunn Smith”

The woman put down her newspaper and said ”Wait just a moment while i go call him” before getting up and going through a door behind her.

She didn't offer coffee or tea, not even water to Eduard, and despite knowing it would happen, he still barely could contain a smirk from forming.

But just after 4 to 5 minutes she returned and informed Eduard “Unfortunately the captain is on watch duty on the chanis gate, follow me, I will guide you to him”

She did as she said and Eduard started following her, through the door she entered previously, behind it there was a corridor with three doors on each side and each of them was closed shut, the woman guided Eduard to the last one on the left and once inside it, there were nothing much except for a stone staircase that led down to somewhere.

Both of them started to descend the staircase that was illuminated by gas lamps on each side of the wall and Eduard couldn't help but notice that the woman was being very careful with each step, you would think the stairs are soaked with butter by how careful she is with each step. But the woman was self conscious and answered the question Eduard didn't ask.

“Sorry, I am being rather careful as to not misstep and go rolling down the stairs, Leonard did that once and I can't trust the stairs like I once did, even despite the fact that I often use them”

Eduard answered with his usual lofty and indifferent voice that did not show any particular emotion “Stairs can be very dangerous, I am surprised the stairs don't possesses a railing”

The woman stopped and turned to look at Eduard, but once their eyes met she immediately averted her gaze for some reason and asked “Railing?”

Eduard was somewhat baffled that she didn't know what he was talking about; but not his face nor his voice showed or hinted to any of that.

“The bars you put alongside a wall, so that you have something to hold when going up or down stairs? Aren't they common in almost every house or building with stairs?”

The woman had a silly realization “Oh! That?” And turned to continue slowly going down the stairs. 

“I don't think they are called that, not in Tingen at least, nor do I know why these stairs don't have any, could prove useful, I will ask Captain about this later”

After a few more steps of the stairs the woman spoke after she remembered something.

“Almost forgot! My name is Rozanne by the way, I have worked with the nighthawks since I was seventeen. it will be my pleasure to work with you in the future”

Eduard didn't say anything and only smiled politely, and despite having her back facing Eduard, Rozanne still felt a chill run down her spine when he smiled, even with the warm glow from the lamps.

Not long after they arrived on a stone paved floor, in front of them there was a corridor with a intersection, they walked straight for a few seconds and once they arrived at the intersection Rozanne said:

“the path to the left leads to Saint Selena Cathedral, the one to the right leads to the storeroom, armory and archives, straight ahead is the Chanis gate”

They walked straight until they reached a room to the side of the corridor just before the corridor ended, it ended in a big iron gate giving a cold and uncomfortable feeling.

Once in front of the room Rozanne said “The captain is inside, if you need me I will be at the reception, goodbye” and left, leaving Eduard alone.

Eduard gave a good look at Chanis gate before focusing back on the door in front of him. He knocked on the door and heard a “Come in”. He obliged and gently opened the door, and inside the room the only noteworthy things were a table and four chairs, one of which was occupied by Dunn Smith; he has a high hairline with blonde hair and has a pair of penetrating gray eyes, in his hand there was only a mug of hot coffee.

Eduard approached the table and Dunn asked “Did you make your choice?”

“I wish to work with the nighthawks”

“Excellent” Dunn said before he took out two contracts from the table drawer and presented them to Eduard who gently took it and carefully read them; The contracts were rather simple, they detailed the things you would expect from such organization work, what to expect for the job, what will happen in case you go mad, what will happen if you die, or don't die, that you had to keep the job a secret etc etc.

Dunn gave a pen to Eduard and using the table as a support he signed the contracts and put his thumb print just to seal the deal.

Dunn took a look at Eduard’s signature and after confirming it he said “Welcome to the nighthawks, you will start as a civilian staff but if you complete a mission on your own you can become a official nighthawk, it a tradition we have since quite some time, and if you are very good as a nighthawk then you might even become a red glove, the elite of the elite” 

“But getting back to the hierarchy base, there are a few civilian staff, and 6 official nighthawks in Tigen city, Old Neil is the one who works on the archives and is the one you will alternate shifts with after you finish with your tasks”

Eduard: “What are the tasks?”

Dunn: “The first one is to walk on the streets that go from your home to Welch's place, to see if you don't remember anything about the book, if you don't remember anything then we will close the case for your friends deaths. The second task is to read historical records and the evernight canon, when you finish them, you will start alternating shift with old Neill on his duties”

Dunn gave a a pause and waited for Eduard to ask something, but Eduard only stared at Dunn for a few moments before Dunn finally asked “Aren't you going to ask about my abilities? It's expected that a person would start to ask questions about things once they see the supernatural?”

Eduard spoke in his usual voice without emotions.

“I didn't ask anything for two reasons, the first is that someone will eventually explain to me the things I need to know, and the second is that I am not completely ignorant to the supernatural, so I kind of know about beyonders”

Dunn Smith was surprised to say the least, he didn't let it show on the outside and kept drinking in a calm manner from his coffee.

“That explains your previous lack of surprise when Daly and I showed some of our powers. But where exactly did you get that information?”

Eduard simply answered “I got it from a few books, some rumors and legends that goes around, and it is a hot topic among noble children who want something interesting to discuss about” 

Dunn narrowed his eyes and asked “Do you plan to become a beyonder? Even knowing the risks?’

Eduard said “Yes, I think it is worth the risks”

Dunn response was only to say “While beyonders seem incredible and magical, I would still recommend for you to reconsider, but you have time to think this through”

He took a sip from the coffee and said “As I said, for now you need mainly to walk the streets from you home to Welch's place to see if you remember anything, the sooner you go, the better”

Eduard did a salute and said “understood”, they turned to leave but a person was by the door, they were wearing a loose shirt, your standard black pants, and they had a messy black hair and blue eyes, he was rather attractive all things considered.

Eduard got closer to the man he already knew the identify of and extended their hands for a greeting.

As Eduard extender their hand they said “My name is Eduard, started working here today”

The other man shook Eduard's hand and greeted him back “Nice to meet you, I am Leonard, Leonard Mitchell”

But to the surprise of Leonard, Eduard suddenly smiled after he said his name before asking a seemingly random question.

“How is your grandpa? He's been through hard times recently if am not mistaken”

The smile Eduard gave would make people assume he presented the decapitated head of said grandpa to Leonard and was asking if he liked it.

Leonard felt a chill run down his spine and was confused as you would expect, so he asked “Which grandpa you are talking about?”

Eduard answer didn't give much clues about what or who he was talking about.

“The one you talk with the most”

They separated and Eduard stopped smiling but Leonard was still confused about what Eduard meant.

Leonard thought for a moment but still had no idea who he was talking about so he simply said “Well, I have no idea about who you are talking about, so if you excuse me” before going around Eduard and stopping in front of Dunn Smith and saying “Captain, it's 07:30”.

Dunn Smith took out a pocket watch and looked at the time before saying “hmm, okay, there is fresh coffee on the bottle” as he got up and pointed to a bottle on the table.

Dunn was changing turns with Leonard to watch the Chanis gate.

Eduard was still by the door so Dunn told Eduard to follow him saying “Let's go, you have work to do”, Eduard followed Dunn back the way they came until they were in the corridor with the doors on the ground floor.

When they arrived there Eduard did another salute before leaving to do their assigned task, the one who was doing these salutes was in fact Dy’a as she found it somewhat funny.

They walked to their home but instead of entering, they simply started walking to Welch's place from there. They could lie to Dunn and say they did their task and discovered nothing, but they didn't know if they were being observed or not so they chose to comply.

They spent a few hours going back and forth from their house to Welch's place before going home for the day, but alas, they couldn't remember anything relevant.

Once home they changed into more comfortable clothes and as Clare was sleeping at this time and Maria was at school he had the house for themselves.

The first thing they obviously did was get some of that delicious bread with cheese.

With their hunger satiated they went to their bedroom and sat on the bed, Dy’a who had been giving comments here and there said “I think it's time we take a look at the Sefirah castle”, Eduard simply nodded and they started their ascent towards the space above the grey fog.

Will fate play as it should or will it give a surprise for this duo?