#paravspeaks

“Parav! Hi - can you show me how to write something?”

“I- um, sure. Sorry, doesn’t Jupiter usually– sometimes Celina, they both have better handwriting than me–”

“I like your squiggles too. Jupiter’s grumpy and I don’t know where Celina is! And I like you too!”

“Of course Jupiter is grumpy. What did he do?"

Parav sighed, his distaste cutting through the words.

The two of them were a bit too different to have bonded, and within the group of four were the only friendship that had… not quite grown as expected.

The decision to remain as less than friends seemed to be mutual, as neither had cared to reach out one-on-one.

“I think he got scared by books, I don’t know. Apparently there’s tons of cursed ones!”

“Cursed… books?” 

Parav thought back to a text he’d found a few days previous.

“About former mages?”

“I dunno. Can you show me how to write a note that says: “Be back soon! Bye-bye!”, please? Something like that.”

He paused.

“Be- what? Are you leaving?”

“Mhm! Seeder and I are going on a trip. I think it’ll be two days or so? I have a good instinct for distance!”

“Right– yeah. I’ll– just let me write it. Can- why are you leaving?”

Parav wrote as he asked, his brows furrowed. The impulsivity wasn’t foreign to him, but something must have sparked it, right?

“I want to cheer up someone! Shhh, it’s gonna be a surprise though.”

“Right. Um, have you packed? You need supplies, you can't just go blind.”

“Yup! I’m good at travel, you look worried.”

“I- I trust you, I know you are. This is just sudden and… things are happening, so it’s– it’s a bit weird that you’re leaving.”

“Celina’s sad, so I’m getting her something. You can join me, but you’re slow so it’ll take aggeeesss if you come.”

“No- no, that’s okay. It's- um, Celina is sad?”

Hum kept talking, barely hearing Parav's question.

“I thought about asking Jupiter to come, since he’s a bat. Did you know that? But he’s sad too so I think that might be slow.”

“Right. Um- travel safe, here’s the note.”

Hum took the note from Parav’s hand, beaming.

“Thank you! I’ll see you in two-probably-days. Three? Time is weird. Bye-bye!”

“Yeah. Yeah, bye.”

Brows furrowed, Parav watched at Hum left.

“Sure. This is– okay. Yeah.”

And the door slowly shut behind her.

"It's alright, it's alright, you're alright."

Still, there wasn't much else he could do in the evening than wait. It still hurt to bad to open his eyes to the glow. He'd need to find a solution to it eventually.

His mind drifted as he sat, first to the ritual and then to his most recent conversation. Osprey. Corruption. Could it be done, then? He'd been so pessimistic, but... he was okay. Not unaffected, but him. He seemed stable.

He had to be the secret. He had to. And he was willing to answer questions. Parav didn't believe in fate, no world could have that much meaning and remain that apathetic to it's inhabitants, but he did believe in taking chances.

His eyes looked towards the ritual circle in the room. Somehow, somehow, he'd figure this out. It was a puzzle, just one particularly more meaningful than the average. He was good at these.

By the Last Sensation.

"Is... this meant for me?"

He wasn't sure. But the possibility that it was convinced him to open the cover, looking at the pages below. ________________________________________________________________

The Last Sense

The Sense Mage was a solitary figure. 

When the corruption came, it was a first to know. It heard the crackle, smelled the stench, and saw the roots as they overtook personage entirely. 

Against it’s former living, it had no choice but to involve.

A tracker by nature, it followed the trails left for it. It saw destruction and decay, then a kingdom in trouble and outskirts destroyed.

It looked out to the destruction only it could see the depths of and decided, in a moment, what to do. It opened up it’s sight, it’s hearing, it’s smell and taste and touch, the entirety of it’s sense opened up and began to feel. 

The corruption rushed towards the mage, consuming it in full sensation. Magic rippled as the mage felt every movement within it’s skin.

But when the magic ended, it had done something else too. Trapped within senselessness, both the mage and corruption existed as nothing more than a ghost.

The kingdom was saved, but the cost was grand.

And feet couldn’t even imprint against the ground as the Sense Mage continued on, in a world that registered neither it nor the corruption it had trapped in it's bind.

________________________________________________________________

He let out a soft breath, closing the book and moving it to his bookshelf.

"Shit... is that meant to be me?"

"Any luck with... whatever happened?"

"Sort of- um, but it sounded like something else. It targets people alone, taunts them- um, but I just heard me without taunting. So I don't know."

"It's got you bothered though."

Parav looked at her, a well duh written in his expression. Celina laughed lightly.

"I get why. Something like that existing here... do you think it could be corrupted?"

"Maybe. Or just a messed up ritual or something, this place could be filled with that."

"I'd hoped this place would be competent enough to avoid that. At least we got a warning in advance about this thing, yeah? Sticking in groups shouldn't be hard, you all could be vulnerable to it."

"You could be too."

"Probably. But I'm pretty resilient, and I'll be sure to let you guys know if it does. Honesty's the best policy for all this. Maybe it's something we can ask others about."

"It didn't sound like there's a known solution. Just- pushing it about itself, that was recommended."

"I'll make sure Hum knows. And Jupiter, whenever he's back. He's gonna be more vulnerable to this thing than he thinks."

Parav looked for a moment.

"I um- I honestly think he'd be fine. He loves the sound of his own voice, something mimicking him would just be that again. He'd probably annoy it out of the academy."

Celina snickered, but shook her head.

"I've got good reads on people. He's nicer than he seems, you've just gotta get him when he's being serious."

"Right... maybe."

He didn't sound convinced.

"Um- well I'm heading to read a bit more, are you staying up tonight?"

"Nah. Sleep impacts this little guy."

Celina nudged her dragon, who was already dozing off in their backpack.

"He tried to run out of the dorms again. I figure he might behave better well-rested. He keeps trying to run away from me, it's driving me batty."

"Good luck with that."

"Absolutely not. Repeat it again, Hum."

"But-... fiiine. I will not eat paper without getting permission from Celina first..."

"Again."

"I will not eat paper without getting permission- can Jupiter give me permission?"

"No, but Parav can because he won't abuse it to mess with you."

"...what in the world did I miss?"

"Hum ate paper again."

"It looks tasty!"

"It does not. Where've you been?"

"Library. I had something weird happen- actually, does anyone in this place know anything about ghosts or mimics or- stuff like that?"

"I heard someone mention a Nem in the hallway once, maybe they do?"

"I'll try that. Thanks. Uh- don't eat paper."

As the two, mage and dragon, read, footsteps soon began to ring out.

"Hello?"

He kept the headphones on, paused, and finally moved to un-obscure one of his ears.

"I hear you."

"I hear you."

The voice, eerily similar to his own, seemed to come from the hallway. After a moments hesitation he stood up and looked: but saw nothing.

"I'm not crazy. I'm not-"

He sighed, then returned to his book. Whoever it was had either left or was never there at all, and he was too frightened to be sure which. It didn't matter. It didn't.