They were heading to a small one-bedroom in the furthest corner of the third floor. There was the sign that the staircase and the level they were in were renovated and patched up recently. The owner of the building put a layer of flooring made of a sturdy wood on the passageway but it was still a bit messy and on the difficultly angled protrusion the stone under could still be seen.
Some of the neighboring room’s door was closed shut and only a muffled sound of conversation signifying the existence of the occupant inside, while the other looked empty. Ara stopped in front of the door leading into the room and wavered, looking down at his container she held in her right palm and the food box she held up by the handle and supported by her right forearm.
He observed her movement for a while before he pulled at his container and floated it off her hands. She followed the movement of the carving of a miniature human and looked down before muttering a barely audible thanks. She changed the hand holding the handle of the food box and leaned back to support its weight before using her left hand to find the key of the room from her pocket and opened the door with it,
When they get inside the room, Ara put the container he was in on the dresser by the small bed and put the food container in the small desk by the window. She sat on the bed and moved her mouth open and close while looking at his container, looking like she wanted to say something but faltered.
After a long moment of silence waiting for ara to say something instead restlessly squirmed in place, he decided to break the silence.“...Why don’t you go eat first or something.”
Ara who was busy inspecting her interlocked finger looked upward at him before bobbing her head in a meek agreement. She stood up from the bed and sat on the chair facing the small desk to unpack the food container. She started to eat after looking back at his container repeatedly every ten seconds.
He made a projection body again and made it walk to the other chair and sat. She flinched minutely in surprise when he passed her but continued to eat when he made his projected body looked out of the window. For a period of time after that, the only sound inside the room was only the clanging sound when the spoon met the metallic food container interspersed with a barely audible chewing sound.
...
When the sound of eating stopped and she was in the middle of putting away the dishes and moved it aside, he turned his insubstantial body’s head to look at her. She stopped putting away the dishes and left the spoon on the table.
Ara didn’t look like she wanted to do anything so he broke the silence, “And you chose to travel there to free me.” He stated in an even tone.
“...Yes”
“Purpose?” he didn’t change his tone and only an upward lilt at the end indicated that it was a question.
“...Reasons” She mumbled after a brief silence. He raised one of his eyebrows hearing her barely thought out excuses, but she was looking down at the spoon she left in front of her.
She started playing push away the spoon on the table, and he patiently waited for the answer. It was another couple of minutes before she broke the silence with what looked like a different topic.
“...Father didn’t like you.”
He snorted in disdain followed with a low chuckle, She got startled and looked upward at him briefly before retracting her gaze and continued to play with the spoon.
“And what are you going to do next?”
“I don’t know. Mother said a lot of things, but most of it... I didn’t know what to do.” She muttered forlornly, paused and looked at him with a curious glint in her eye, asking.” Actually, what do you prefer to be called?”
When he gave no outward sign of wanting to answer, she marched on.” What my mother called you with is different than what the storyteller and the bard refer you with,”
“...Your mother?” when he leant forward for a bit and put his projection’s arm on the small desk, she drew back and sheepishly looked down.
“Whenever she was... down in the dumps,” she glanced briefly at him through the corner of her eye before looking down and continued while fussing with her finger.”...she would sigh and muttered your name like it was a tangible lifeline...”
For a brief moment, there was a silence before she continued,” I had thought it was the name of her paramour or her childhood love that she had forced to be parted with when father wanted to have her...”
“it’s not mutual?” he disinterestedly responded while making his body looked outside.
“Father wanted to have her... as a status symbol that he could flaunt. She couldn’t possibly refuse...” she sighed deeply and looked outside the window after leaning her face on the interlocked finger supported by both elbows that she put above the small desk. She continued in a small voice ”....because of me.”
The conversation petered out into a prolonged silence but both were content to keep to themselves. He gazed into a starry sky outside the window while Ara fusses with her spoon, moving it about the table without any discernible pattern.
“I don’t know what to do now. I guess just walking around anywhere? It doesn’t matter.” After a long time, Ara muttered, seemingly to herself. “There was nothing urgent about my mother’s request after all.” Ara pouted and put her forehead on the table above her crossed arms.
“You’re going to help me make a body.” He stated with a sureness in his tone, sounding out Ara and daring her to challenge it. When Ara glanced up, he continued, “A body that I could use easily instead of... he gestured at his container and his insubstantial body. “...this.”
Ara looked like she wanted to protest, but he interrupted her. ”If your mother wanted me to wander around like this only using that as my anchor, then she must be crazy.”
She still looked like she wanted to protest, but when he raised one of his eyebrows on her, she relented and grumbled lowly with something that sounded like okay. He gazed at her a while longer before nodding and turned off his projection body.
When he had put all of him back into the container, he spoke out.
“Just call me Zach.”
Remnant End.
Next: Phantasm
