Shades of the New World

Before entering the chamber, Ssatsko addressed Rith.

"Miss Rith, I'd have to ask you to stay outside the chambers, as the matters that we will discuss inside the room will most likely involve state secrets"

"Don't worry about me, then, I'll be waiting around here. Though, Evin, please memorize the general occurrences in the room and report to me afterwards, not involving the secrets," Rith nodded.

"Sure," Evin said and followed behind Ssatsko with Aran.

Karan was considered a non-humanoid, so he could enter without problems. The Oaths inside the others wouldn't be able to detect him, anyway.

The old man opened the door to the room without worry.

"Ah, I've been expecting you," a crackling voice welcomed the three inside. The voice sounded staticky and old, like an 1980s radio, and it gave Evin a nostalgic vibe.

Evin looked over and saw a tall humanoid wearing a white cloak over his body. His body was crooked slightly, and Evin could see the leg of a cane supporting the man from under the cloak. On the man's face was a white mask with eight blue eyes. Replacing the mouth of the spider was something akin to a transparent rune. It shone when light fell on it in a certain way, but one would not be able to see it quite clearly.

'An engraving, perhaps,' guessed Evin.

"Thank you for having us, Lord Kena. Here are the Oathtakers," Ssatsko said and pointed towards the two children. Reverence and respect were apparent in the fit old man's eyes.

"I've been wanting to meet Evin over there, since I heard about him from your letter. When you get as old as me, your interests start to narrow tremendously. I've been a mage who pursued the secrets of every World, and I've been a soldier who pursued the mastery of all the weapons. But now, I'm content with tending to my botanic collection while occasionally browsing some books," Lord Kena said with his calming and crackling voice.

Evin could notice that the mask somehow changed the old man's original voice to the one he was hearing now.

'Perhaps it works as a microphone. And since the rune is of transparent color, it must use the World of Storms somehow,' Evin thought.

[Ugh, something tells me this is going to take a while,] commented Karan from inside Evin's head.

Evin didn't bother replying back and continued listening.

"But one thing that manages to grasp my attention, even after all this time, are people. Some unique individuals that prove to me again and again, that the World has so much to offer than what you saw in your life, however old you may be. In the first half of my life, I thought that the Empress was all powerful and knowing… But the next half, I started to realize that she was not at all that omniscient. The Final Empress did not know all. Perhaps she wanted to at one point, but she did not dare," Kena said, his voice rich and smooth, with some kind of magic pull that gripped the interest of others.

Evin's eyes glittered with interest. One thing he learned from coming here was that any information that concerned the Empress was worth knowing for Evin. The Final Empress and the Authorities were the biggest hints that Evin had about immortality. He patiently waited for the old Cobfolk to continue.

"I'd love to share with you this story, but many things bind me from speaking. Unfortunately, knowing some matters, require a price. But it doesn't mean I can't direct you towards the truth, or however one would describe the things I learned about," Kena said mysteriously.

Evin could tell that the man was insinuating a trade.

"Please, tell me what you wish from me," Evin asked.

"Come with me. Sorry, Ssatsko, but you go on with the Oath with the other child. I'm afraid I cannot indulge you with the rest of the knowledge. The Oath Stamp is on my table," the old man said nonchalantly. Then, turning to Evin, he said, "Leave your metal friend as well"

Evin took out Karan from his shadow and gave him to Ssatsko.

Kena nodded and beckoned Evin to follow. They entered a room, one that seemed to be the old man's study. A towering pile of books stood on one side, while a collection of various plants and flowers stood on the other. Connecting the two subjects was a comfortable-looking armchair.

Evin did not expect such a mess from the old man, but did not judge.

"Sorry for the mess, please sit on the chair over there," Kena said with hospitality.

Evin did as instructed, and the old man conjured another chair from his space storage and sat on it.

"Would you tell me what you wished from me?" Evin did not waste time.

"Nothing much, I just want a peek inside your head. In exchange, I will help you start your journey of discovering the history of the Princess of Denial," the old man said.

Evin began to hesitate. There were many things that could break the balance of the World inside Evin's head. He did not have the extensive knowledge required to create atomic bombs or anything similar, but he did see many things happen when he was wandering the World.

"If you are afraid of me abusing your knowledge, you shouldn't worry that much. I am prepared to create a Contract with you. I'll even sign it on here," Kena said and pulled out a rolled up parchment scroll, tied with a blue ribbon.

The ribbon looked quite fancy from a distance, giving Evin a feeling of royalty and sovereignty.

"What's that?" the boy asked.

"This is a Velvet Contract," the old man said in a carefree tone.

'What?! THE Velvet Contract? The one that the Empress commissions?' Evin was flabbergasted. His mind was a mess.

'Even the Kings and Emperors of the World had trouble finding these things, and the old man wanted to use it for an exchange of knowledge?'

Evin quickly recovered from his shock and started thinking. Only after a second, he thought of a possibility.

'It must be fake. It just has to be,' he concluded. The reasons were unimportant. Either the old Cobfolk wanted to scam him for knowledge about Earth, or whatever other nefarious scheme was valid.

'I need to get out of here,' was his next sequence of thoughts, and the boy discreetly glanced at the door outside.

"Touch the Contract," Kena said to the boy who was drowning in his thoughts.

"What?"

Honestly, Evin didn't want to touch the paper.

'Who knows what this thing can do?'

When Evin once decided that someone was suspicious, he would start questioning their every move. Just as he was thinking of an excuse to not touch the Contract, Kena sighed and spoke, but in a more commanding tone.

"Touch it."

The order was absolute.

As if a set of strings appeared behind the boy's back, Evin swiftly moved for the Contract. Just as Evin's fingers reached the yellowish parchment, he felt an avalanche of "Authority" rush through his body.

Evin felt divine and all-powerful, like a deity had descended upon his body. But his body couldn't take the sudden surge of potency, forcing his soul to detach from the body. There was suddenly nothing around him anymore. The room full of plants and books was replaced with utter emptiness. Almost instantly, millions of stars appeared around Evin and a purple-blue hue was added to the place, almost like the Big Bang had happened in that instant.

But Evin couldn't focus on the surrounding phenomena. He did not know where this place was, but the state he was in felt terribly familiar to him.

It was exactly how he felt when he was a spirit.

Dread and panic crawled out from the depths of his heart. A feeble cry came out of his voice, before it gradually turned into a screech full of primal terror.

A wave of madness engulfed his consciousness before he started shaking and sobbing, muttering some incoherent babble.

Falling into such a state, Evin could not notice that a string of light had detached from his soul and went out on its own journey. Its destination seemed to be a gigantic blue star, its light outshining many of the other stars nearby.

As the light began its long flight through the vast space, it soon met with another light. It was actually the light from the gigantic star. Unlike the small and insignificant string of light that came out of Evin's body, this one was huge. It was like a beam of energy that was shot out from the gigantic star.

After the two lights connected, Evin's string of light became thicker and thicker each second, until it finally became unable to become bigger.

Evin's soul also seemed more brilliant compared to its previous state. Finished with its objective, the string of light, which had now turned into a tiny beam of light, went back inside Evin's soul and the boy was evicted from the mysterious place.

Evin's consciousness reappeared inside his body afterward, but he was still insane and unfunctioning.

Kena, who thought that the process would take some time and had decided to read through some books, saw that Evin had come back and was surprised, but soon frowned grimly behind the mask when he saw the state of the child.

He then pulled out a gigantic lodestone from his storage space. If Evin could see it, his eyes would bulge out of his sockets, since the size of the stone was three times larger than himself. It was one of the rock-grade lodestones that lesser-imposers and above could use.

The old man absorbed the mana from the stone directly and guided it towards Evin's head. As the energy moved from Kena's hands to Evin's head, it changed color from the usual shining blue color of a lodestone to a mix of silver and purple.

The energy started washing away the madness inside Evin, carefully and meticulously, minding not to touch upon anything else other than the madness. The process took only ten minutes in total, but Evin was already starting to look better, although groaning and frowning because of a headache that appeared in his head.

He then remembered what had happened to him previously and hurriedly looked around himself. Finding himself in Kena's room again, he gradually calmed down. But the splitting headache did not allow him to fall into slumber

"How was your meeting with the Empress… is what I would usually ask, but I can see that you've mostly been out of it during the process," Kena said with a smile.

Vague pictures of a vast purplish space with countless stars appeared inside Evin's mind.

"What happened to me," Evin asked with difficulty. He did not bother getting angry at the old man, since it would be like an ant raging at a lion.

"The Velvet contract in your hands works like a one time supplement for your mana-core. Its effects are most notable on beginner level mages. Take a peek inside yourself," the old man said with a smile.

Evin did as the old man said and looked inside. To his surprise, his mana core had increased to the size of a peak quarter-core mage. He could use almost a whole 10 kilograms of mana freely now.

Speechlessly, he glanced at the old man with reverence.

"Who are you?" Evin asked.

"Although I hate to use this title, I'll say it to you just this once. I am the former Authority of the World of Earth, champion of the Eight-limbed Race, Kena Noyan"