3. Alter POV: Of a Strange Man in a Forgotten Prison, Seals and How to Break Them (2)

The tiny human rubbed its face against his sleeve. It seemed to dislike that the fabric was dusty from the stone floor they rested on. Slade smiled as it snuffled and turned its face away from the offending garment.

His hand slid over the thin shoulder with the movement and he raised his arm away to avoid disturbing its sleep. It grumbled under its breath, the sound so very much like a cub, and small hands reached for his.

“Good morning, Mora.”

Its—her eyes shot open to reveal shiny, watery emerald eyes. Large and witless, they blearily rolled around as if searching for something before resolutely closing again. The hands that captured his pulled back and his arm was directly used as a cuddle toy, its—her cheek pillowed on his hand. Does it not feel cold to her?

He could not stop the chuckles that bubbled from his gut at her tiny face, button nose scrunching from his quiet laughter. It probably felt loud where she was and she won’t be able to sink back to sleep again. His grin stretched wider. Maybe he had let his rumble loose on purpose.

“There’s no window to see if it’s morning. Let me sleep.”

Her voice was quiet but strong. The words enunciated with a clarity rarely seen in such a young human. He chuckled some more. The little thing kept speaking with strange words in a tone that only adults would use. It really is quite entertaining. And...cute.

Horribly weak despite the hidden potential—that nearly destroyed a thousand years of recovery he managed to accumulate—but still cute. And very brave. He was a danger for all the regard he had shown her and yet she was able to sleep leaning on him. She could even banter calmly as though she were his equal.

Slade used his fingers to pinch her nose and tug them from side to side until she opened those jeweled eyes again. They seemed to flare with an inner fire just from mere irritation. Mora is truly an amusing human.

“You’re a brute and a bully.”

He did not respond and only raised an eyebrow, flattening his smile into a thin emotionless line. Her eyes narrowed, the serious expression almost out of place in such a young face. They stared at each other for one long moment before he relented and released her nose with a final tap on the reddened tip.

“Do you feel better?”

Slade did not know why he asked. He knew she was healed. He made sure of it. Despite being unable to deal with his own injuries, he had enough Materia to completely heal the girl in the course of the night.

It is the least he could do after harming her, is all. In an urge that he had indulged since she had settled beside him, he used his other hand to pet her hair, his fingers running through the bright red strands. Only carrots rivaled such a color. Would she complain being compared to a root crop?

It made a delightful contrast against her pale skin like maple leaves before its bloody red peak fallen onto white marble. And with her grass green eyes that always seemed to take everything in carefully in its largeness, it made her seem more than what her small body suggests.

Mora made a sound that had his smile hooking higher. An action that usually meant death to all present but right now was just something to express his contentment.

He knew the tiny creature would leave soon. But at least he had a good person visit his gods-bedamned cage. It was more than what he had for the past eight centuries. Even if said visitor was a strange youngling that seemed uneducated in regards to common sense and propriety. Case in point, the child now plastered itself closer to him, despite everything that happened the night previous.

“Yes. Did you do that? With your fog powers?”

He laughed. Fog powers.

“Yes. The Materia this one used can heal as much as it can hurt.”

Her darker red eyebrows rose in a thoughtful expression.

“Didn’t you say you’re injured? Also, you told me I hurt you too. Have you healed yourself?”

Slade shook his head slightly, trying not to dislodge her from where she lay on his robes. How could he explain his injuries to the girl? This lord simply cannot.

“It is harder to heal the self than others.”

Her eyebrows rose even higher but she did not speak. White blunt teeth nibbled her lip and he wished he could stop her from worrying the already reddened bit of skin.

“So what’s the plan?”

It was his turn to think through the situation and then decided to lay things out clearly. The trust in the human’s eyes snuffed the thought to trick the girl into staying just for his entertainment.

“You will wait until the sun takes care of the muddy paths then you can take off. This lord is assuming that it was the wet roads that caused you to fall and get injured in such a remote portion of the forest.”

She sniffed and her brows tightened into a frown. The girl froze and barely breathed, the hands on his arm tightening. He kept his silence as he waited for whatever it is that upset her to pass.

“That. Yes. The muddy roads. Sure.”

She finally said in weak affirmation, her body slumping in forced relaxation. He tensed at the words she mumbled under her breath. So quiet that he could not have heard it if not for what he was.

“More like someone wanted to get rid of the useless kid and thrown her down the cliff.”

He knew humans are often despicable, but. Surely it was her family’s enemies that she was speaking of. The alternative was chilling to contemplate as he considered the lively red-headed child laying on him like a doll. Even beasts will not harm its own young. Surely?

But unless Mora knew who he was, that he could hear her quiet words and had planned to uselessly inform him of contrived crime by the adults around her, when such deceit would only result in death... it should be the truth.

Truly, the world is going into the Hells in a tributary.

“Well then, we have time! Explain yourself!”

She shot up to sit on her knees, excited grin spreading over her face as her eyes glittered with intent. Slade fixed his face into an unimpressed mask and raised an eyebrow. Either the girl has a broken mind that cannot stay on a thought for long or she’s a good actor who excels in sweeping aside her own moods.

“Magic!!! You have magic and you said I do too!”

Was he wrong? Did she not start her training in magic yet? If his examination of her body’s condition was accurate, she was ten years old, almost eleven. He had to use the least amount of Materia to check her internal state as she slept lest he destroy such a small body.

He remembered that humans start training their energy use and studied related theories by the age of seven. Or did that change during his incarceration?

Her excitement is that of someone encountering energy manipulation for the first time.

“Have you not received instruction about it yet?”

Mora flushed, the pink vivid because of her paleness. She raised a hand and scratched just behind her ear with the tip of one finger.

“Eh. This? I don’t know.” Then she straightened up again, bouncing and squirming forward until her knees pinned the loose fabric of his pants beneath her. “So? Teach me!”

“Why should this lord do that?”

His lips hooked into a smug grin waiting to see if the girl would say something interesting again. She looked troubled for a moment and then she tilted her head to one side and the other as if she was trying to dislodge her thoughts.

“I helped you get the chain off.” She pouted. “You said it was meager assistance.”

The girl seemed displeased that he discounted her strange ability to disperse the enchanted metal’s restrictions. He hid his smile. Unless she was an Ancient in disguise, even he could not explain how she had been able to do that. So, he kept his silence.

“If you can teach me, won’t I be able to help you more? Like maybe...” Her eyes glittered with excitement, “maybe even remove the trapping thing you said the cave has.”

She nodded as if agreeing to herself. “Right? Like, won’t it be awesome if you can get out?”

Slade wondered what she would think if she knew what a feat doing that would be. When he, a being that rose to the supreme was unable to break it, what more an uninitiated infant?

He wanted to disabuse her of overly ambitious thoughts, but something stopped him. He felt an interest to see her try. It was not like he had something else to do in this cursed isolation.

“Very well. If that is what you wish, then this one will become your master.” He gave up resisting and took her nose between his fingers again. Warning her as he tugged her about with it. “You will have to promise this lord two things, however. Three, if we include your offered attempt towards my freedom.”

“What things?” She narrowed her eyes again and Slade realized it was more reliable to watch her intent through those expressive eyes than to sift through her oft careless words. “I always keep my word so you should make them reasonable, okay?”

“Absolutely.” He does value honesty in his associations, so her candor was appreciated. “As this lord have said... Once your ability is high enough, you have to free me. Or at least you can attempt to.”

Mora scoffed. “Of course. Will you please trust me a little and believe that I can reach that level?”

“This one have not killed you yet, that is enough trust at the moment.” He dismissed her words with a wave of his hand and continued. “Second, you will not tell anyone of this lord. Protect the information about my existence. My location, my condition and your connection with this lord. This is for your safety and not only mine.”

“Yes, yes. I got this.” The eye-rolling should have irritated him, yet it only made him fond of the fearless cub.

“Lastly. Agree to complete a blood bond with me.”

The girl froze, her eyes going wide. He watched her gulp in an exaggerated heave and then lick her lips. It seems she at least behaved like a regular human when it comes to bloodcraft. He wanted to laugh aloud, but it was important to make her understand the severity of being linked to him even if only for instruction.

“Are you a vampire or something?”

“Or something.” He grinned, ignoring the fact that she compared him, him, to a lowly pest like a vampire and attempting to use the truncated way of her speech. Was this how humans of this era spoke? “Are you getting scared again?”

Mora huffed before relaxing back down. “Nope. If you’re going to be my master, you’re gonna have to keep me alive. It’s probably a rule or something. So. Not scared.”

“You should be.” If only she knew what he was. “And this lord will not hide what he is from you for too long, but that is a discussion for another time.”

“Boo—you tell me you’re not human and then chop that discussion down before it even began. Seriously. You’re all kinds of annoying.”

“Pay attention. The blood bond. This one needed it if this lord were to reach you outside of this prison.”

“How?”

“This one would be able to reach your mind and speak with you for as long as you are in this material plane.” He decided that she deserved a little more since he was going to make the bond regardless. “And it would allow me to observe what you encounter with my spirit’s sense.”

She nodded and giggled. “You should just say that you wanted to see the world outside.”

He ignored the disrespect.

“It would benefit you too. Carrying my blood in your body would let me assist you in times of danger.” Then he narrowed his eyes at her. “But, unless it is a threat to your life, this lord would not make a move. This one would rather rot here than clean up after your recklessness.”

In response to the insult, the girl only nodded with a wry grin and rubbed her nose.

“Do you agree to all three?”

“They’re all fair enough...so, yes, of course.”

He straightened as much as he could with his pant legs still pinned beneath the girls knees adopting a lofty expression.

“Then greet this Master.”

He struggled not to smile when the girl hauled herself to kneel in proper—if strange—obeisance, both legs tucked neatly and hands laid flat atop her knees. It’s more similar to the kowtow of the peoples native to that ancient continent beyond the Oriental Ocean.

“Disciple greets Master. Thanking Master for accepting this little one.”

She spoke in a solemn tone different from her usual irreverence. She was twitching a bit, though she did maintain the tension. The girl was probably unused to such actions and formality.

But instead of taking his right hand to touch to her brow—as the usual ritual of accepting a master—she bowed her head, her upper body stiff and leaning low with the movement. It was almost graceful, though strange and new to his eyes.

Before he could compliment her in her posture, the girl’s head popped back up and she had on such a foolish grin that he could only laugh in response.

He smiled wider as the girl watched closely when he raised hands to show her his palm. With the sharp nail of one finger, he cut his upturned palm until blood welled in a slow surge that formed into liquid beads of red that appeared black in the dark cave interior.

Slade could hear her sharp gasp as the blood beads coalesced into an orb smaller than the light pearl. It was gem-like and almost solid once it settled and looking closely at her reaction, he offered it to her.

“Do you dare, my pupil Mora?”

She winced before reaching for the blood orb. Humans rarely ingested the blood of animals, what more of other humanoids? So her caution was understandable, but then children are naturally brave in their lack of knowledge and experience.

He waited until he could feel its presence spreading through her body after she swallowed it down. The blood dispersed into wisps of his spirit entrenching itself in her blood and marrows.

“The bond is completed.” He nodded, pleased. “Rest a bit more and when the path has become manageable, you need to get to safety.”

He smiled when she nodded in compliance.

Slade reached into his robes and grabbed a bauble that hung upon a chain around his neck. With a mental command, the thin chain broke off and hung on his hand, links quivering as it caressed him in a greeting. Palming the round pendant, he took her hand and placed it there.

“Do you know what an arcane focus is?”

She nodded, though her brows furrowed for a moment as if in confusion.

“Yes, it’s used to direct mana outside a person’s body in a certain manner, allowing the user to form and aim the formula needed to cast spells?”

“You sound unsure.”

“It’s...unclear from what I know. It’s not like I can ask people right? I’m not even allowed to spend too much time with the books from what I remember. They fear I might ruin those expensive things. So...I just sort of worded that from a game I played before.”

Games based on magic theory? Interesting method for teaching.

“A game? Of magic?”

“No. Adventure.” She shook her head and then jolted as if she just realized what she had said. Mora waved her hand around as if embarrassed. “Don’t mind that. It was just storytelling in game form. Don’t mind it, don’t mind it.”

The child was probably used to being reprimanded for playing make-believe at her age. But it had proven useful, so Slade couldn’t say he disapproved.

“Once you return you’ll be able to practice magic properly then? Surely, your family would get tutors for you when you mention that your seal has broken?”

Mora shook her head frantically.

”Impossible, no can do. Until I can truly do magic, it’s better to just go here...” she paused as if contemplating how she’d be able to return to a place she only accidentally entered.

Slade was aware that the forest surrounding the mountain he’d been buried in has expanded over time. Though from what little he could sense, there were people periodically passing through what he could only assume was a thoroughfare.

“...it’s better I return here one way or another, than try to make them listen to me. You should know Sla—Master, that I very rarely speak with my parents outside of the breakfasts and supper meals. And even then, all our conversations were perfunctory and not...whatever.”

She blushed before finally sighing, her words strained by a bitterness that seemed to display a hidden maturity, “They won’t care about helping me find ways to learn.”

Meaning, she would always return to him here in his prison. Not that their blood bond was useless, but it would sooth his monotonous days locked in if the girl visited.

And he’d be able to monitor her physically as she learned the Arcane. He still hadn’t figured out what had caused the backlash when he accidentally broke her seal.

A ten-year old’s power base should have been nothing to his level, no matter the latent potential. If he was right and it was caused by her Attributes, then it would require more observation. And guidance.

He didn’t like the feeling that he had caused unhappy thoughts to surface on his strange pupil’s mind, so he engaged her in conversation. Starting on a few facets of arcane fields, then gauging what specialization she could be suitable for.

He grinned when her excitement returned and she nattered about spells she wanted to try out. He did think that she had some...interesting names for the formulas she wanted to learn. But if it is the game she mentioned that was the source for the formula ideas, it may make some sense.

He asked Mora a few more questions regarding what she knew while his spirit sense—thin enough to pass through the array—trawled about, verifying the state of the paths outside.

“What do you plan to say about your stay here. There would be questions, correct?”

“Nothing,” she shrugged as if she didn’t care. Did she?

“I’ll try to keep them away from looking too deep. For now, I only know I wandered about and found shelter in a tree hollow or something then made my way back. If I act pathetic enough, there shouldn’t be too many weak points to the responses, what do you think?”

Slade found her more agreeable when she’s serious like this. There is a sense that the girl hid herself deeply. But the sincerity and the relaxation of her aura when she’s being silly also meant that it was not an act. What could have made a child so strange?

He caught himself at the thought and shook his head bitterly. Slade himself didn’t have a proper childhood. But then that was expected in the environment of his youth.

There wasn’t much detail about it that he could remember except a few ones he could not let go of, but the suffering was clear and stayed with him over the centuries.

Looking at his newly accepted disciple, responding to her words with sounds of assent, he wondered at how had her life been. Her quiet words from before stirring... pity? He could not say that it wasn’t one of the reason he wished to have portion his spirit come with her outside.

[[Chapter End]]

Ya-ya-ya! Don’t mind me. I’m still adjusting to writing things down instead of daydreaming about them.

⚜ Lunamiere