Hey there folks sorry for the slow update, I do hope you enjoy this and as always please like or comment on this to feed My pathetic ego
Chapter 4 Exposition by any other name
"-Nate, Nate Oswald." I said. Dismissing my keyblade at the same time.
The older keyblade wielder found a sit on one the nearby benches, while Narine and Damian stood by his left and right respectively.
"Well Mr Oswald, to answer your question I must ask you one first." Gilan assumed a serious like posture. "Do you believe in other worlds?"
Should have figured he'd asked that first. Still a bit vague though.
"You can just call me Nate and What do you mean by that?" Gilan looked ready to answer that but I wasn't finish.
"i know it must be-"
"Did you mean other planets, realities or alternate dimensions? Either way, I do kinda believe it." even if I only did start fully believing in it this afternoon .
Damian was surpised while Gilan raised his brow to that,
it was Narine who replied first. "Your world knows of different worlds?"
"We don't really know know about it, its more of a theory." A theory that's been explored in fiction. That reminds me, should I tell them of the kingdom hearts game? What if they already know? Or even had a hand in it.
Narine smiled at that and her tone carried a hint of amusement. "That theory holds more truth than your people know."
"I see… well that makes thing a bit easier." Gilan continued "now these worlds each as different as the next, under normal circumstances the residents of these worlds are isolated from one another, each separated by a vast ocean of stars"
I hmm-ed in agreement, I'm probably gonna be doing that a lot during his little explanation here.
"The One thing that the different worlds have in common is that they each possess something akin to a core or heart whichever you prefer, these hearts are imperative to a survival of a world less they falls into darkness." He raised up his palm. "I will explain more on falling to darkness later but make no mistake, that is a horrible outcome for any world."
"The blight that causes such disaster are the heartless, the pitch black creatures you've faced when protecting young Damian."
I set my sights on the boy, he shot a smile and a nod.
"They feed on the hearts of both the world and its denizens, mercilessly so. Those individuals unlucky enough to have their hearts taken become heartless themselves. They can be destroyed by conventional means however that only delays the inevitable as they would reform later."
Gilan held his arm up in front of him.
"The only way to truly destroy the heartless and save a world would be to use this."
His keyblade materialized in a flash of light green. Being up close and personal this time, I managed to get a more detailed look at his keyblade. A square grey coloured guard connect to a shaft that looks like swirls? No wait I think its more of a tornado motif, each swirl stacked on top of each other and gradually changing colour from green at the bottom to blue on the top. The teeth consisted of 2 overlapping warped blue lines that curled away from each other.
"A keyblade, a powerful weapon capable of permanently destroying the heartless and many other wonders." He dismissed it soon after finishing that sentence. "One of which is that it is capable of locking a world's keyhole to it's heart, in doing it denies the heartless of a world's heart their ultimate prize."
Narine spoke next. "In addition, the most of the heartless would migrate from the locked world in hopes of finding other world hearts."
"That it correct and that is exactly the kind of weapon that has bonded to you as its wielder. A weapon capable of saving worlds so to speak. I hope that answers your first question."
My expression turned contemplative, that was a pretty brief yet exact summary of the kingdom hearts universe. Except the bit where the heartless go to other worlds once a keyhole is sealed, as far as the games go the heartless just stick around on a world even after its keyhole gets sealed though it was probably so the players still had enemies to grind on.
I still got a lot more questions to ask. The most important being…
"Any chance that the heartsless are attracted to keyblades? I mean the only places I've see these things pop out from are near you people and my…dreams." I decided not to tell them about my dive to the heart in case it wasn't the case for every new keyblade wielder.
"Dreams?" asked Narine.
"I had it right after I blacked out from saving Damian, I can't remember much about it except that there were a few of those small heartless at some point."
Narine stroked her chin. "I don't know much about your dream although you are correct to assume that the heartless are drawn to our keyblades, very astute of you."
Crap was that suspicion or genuine praise? Its so hard to tell.
"It only draws the heartless that are on the world we currently on and they actively gather to it only if we materialize it for long periods of time."
Narine's explanation was like a load of my back, nice to know I wouldn't have to be on guard for heartless all the time.
Suddenly the phone in my pocket buzzed, alerting me of a text from dad.
"i've gotta answer this, could you guys wait a moment?"
"by all means." Gilan replied.
I unlocked my phone to reply the text.
have you met you friend yet? Are you on your way home?
With friend and groceries now, we're having a little chat, will be back soon. I typed, it wasn't a total lie.
I waited for a bit before receiving dad's reply
Ok don't take to long, dinner is ready.
Sure, You and mom can start without me. With that sent I placed the phone back into my pocket. "Alright now that's settled, so from what you've told me you guys are here to seal my world keyhole?"
Narine explained "We were and we have succeeded in doing so a few days ago, we decided to stay for a while to experience your world and destroy any leftover heartless in secret of course."
"Not a very well keep secret as the events of this afternoon." I added
"Yes" Gilan said, straining the words in the process. His eyes made a side glance at Damian who had been mostly silent this whole time. "we would appreciate it if you kept this a secret from the rest of your world, if they were to find out the results would be… problematic."
"Perhaps bothersome would be the right world Master Gilan."
The both of them are right, I can already imagine the ramifications. Goverments would capture us for study, the media would hound us our every waking moment not to mention the cults or fanatics that might spring up.
That's all just no fun for me.
"i get it, but I might have to explain it to some people mostly family."
Gilan gave a nod. "fair enough, anything else?"
"Are there more of you? Other Keyblade wielders I mean and how do you get around?"
I heard a faint chuckle from Narine. "the keyblade has chosen quite the curious one this time."
"There are others, I don't know how many of us there are exactly but I do personally know a few and contact them from time to time. As for how we get around well that's a trade secret, one which I cannot divulge at this time. "
"I see," I said hiding the fact that I was a little disappointed by the last part. "one last question."
With feelings of mild excitement I asked. "since I have a keyblade now, what do I do?" I know what I could do but would like to know all my options.
Gilan actually took some time to figure a response, taking a bit to discuss it with Narine and Damian in private. Before saying..
"You have 2 choices young Nate," With those words alone I could already imagine what he was gonna say, its one of the oldest cliches in the book for crying out loud.
"The first is you pretend that the things that happened this afternoon never happened, pretend you don't have a keyblade and live a normal life by the standards of your world."
"We even have a memory charm that could help you with that." the female wielder added.
"The second is that you train under a keyblade master, learn all you can from them and travel the worlds slaying heartless, seeing fantastic sights that you would never have imagined. But be warned, taking this path might expose you to terrible dangers as well."
At least he's up front about the dangers part.
"And you will train me?"
"i could do that, normally an apprentice would train under the master who bestowed them the gift of the keyblade in the first place. However young Damian here is a fresh apprentice himself so he wouldn't be able to teach you much."
Damian shrugged in my direction. "Sorry sir."
"No offense taken Damian," I turned back to his master. "So as his master, does that mean you be responsible for training me?"
"Again I could do that but-" Gilan gestured to a smirking Narine.
"I volunteered to train you."
Oh the pretty might-be-elf woman's gonna train me? Sweet…wait no bad Nate, she's gonna be your master respect her. No fantasizing.
My train of thought come to stop to listen to what Gilan had more to say.
"Narine my former apprentice has recently earned the title of keyblade master and has expressed that she would like to take you on as an apprentice."
"Why's that miss Narine?" I faced my prospective master.
"I always wanted to take on an apprentice, never did find another new keyblade wielder. But that will only happen if you choose to the second choice."
This is great, I've already thought this through at home, true there were many unpleasant possibilities if I went solo. But if I actually had someone to teach me the way of a real keyblade wielder, then that changes everything.
"You will tell us of your decision in a week's time." Gilan suddenly spouted.
"Huh?" i was genuinely flabbergasted "To be honest I've come to a decision all ready."
He took on a more serious authoritarian tone with me "I am aware of your decision from the tell tale look in your eyes young Nate, but as I had said before the path of a keyblade wielder holds terrible dangers and sometimes one might wish to go back to the life they had previously."
Is he insinuating that I can't take the pressure for it? That I have less nerve than that kid Damian who by the way I risked my life to save from a group of shadows?
I'm a little hurt if not annoyed.
Luckily Narine interjected him. "What Master Gilan is trying to say is, you should take the week to seriously reexamine your life both the one you have now and the one you will have if you decide to train with me across different worlds and if your decision is still a yes then at least you've known you were a 100% sure of it."
Huh that actually made a bit of sense and my track record with split decisions weren't great…mostly.
"Alright i'm fine with that, how would I find you guys once the week is up?"
Narine took a quick look around before spreading her arms apart. "We could back at this spot when the week is up, you'll only be meeting me seeing as I'm going to be your master and all."
I stared back at Gilan and Damian. "You guys going somewhere?"
"Yes we'll be leaving this world in a day or two, it's about time I resumed young Damian's training on another world, this place is not ideal for what I have planned it's too crowded."
I was curios about what he does have planned that not suitable to be done here before the word magic came to mind.
"I understand."
The grey haired keyblade master stood up "Good, now it's about time we departed for the motel and leave young Nate to his week of pondering." He turned to me and gave a slight bow "Good luck on whichever choice you choose young Nate."
Damian came up to me and held out his hand for a handshake which I reciprocated . "It was nice to meet you sir and what the master said as well good luck." the kid flashing me a toothy grin before moving to his master's side.
"Thanks you two."
Narine though, she made her way to me. "Master Gilan, can you and Damian head back first? there's something else I want to tell my potential apprentice."
"Will it take long?"
"Not much, I'll be back shorty."
"Very well." With that said, both Gilan and Damian slowly walked away from the park.
It was pretty underwhelming, could have sworn they were gonna do something magical like teleporting.
Oh well back to matter at hand.
"Now Nate there's one thing I want you to try doing during you time deciding what to do, think of it as a small taste of the training you would experience under me."
This was either a way to discourage me from being a full fledged keyblade wielder or a way to test my mettle. Whichever the case I was excited to see what it was.
Narine proceeded to summon her own keyblade, it had a yellow circular guard with sides that didn't connect to the pommel leaving 2 small spaces. The shaft resembled a aquamarine shaded long sword with dark silver outlines crisscrossing across the blade. Finally the bit consisted of a semi-circle piece of yellow metal with 4 spikes arranged on it's exposed side.
It's also might have been the most lethal looking keyblade I've seen so far and it was pointed right at me.
"I'm going to focus my light into your shirt, concentrate on what you feel from it."
Then a bright white orb started to glow from the tip of her keyblade, the orb didn't move but I could feel warmth radiating over my torso. My shirt was starting to glow too and it somehow felt heavier? Weird.
A minute later and glowing stopped, Narine had dismissed her keyblade as well and didn't look the slightest bit worse for wear to boot.
"Feel any different?"
"I got this faint warm feeling from my shirt and something else it's hard to describe maybe secure? Or like I'm wearing more material than the shirt actually is ." as I said that I did a brief look over on my shirt.
"That's the usual response yes, what I did to you was enchant your shirt with my light. It's a mandatory spell we keyblade wielders use on our clothing to shield ourselves from the darkness when we travel between worlds."
Travel? Holy crap, does that mean that spell functioned similar to keyblade armour or the black coats?
"Though we wear more than a simple shirt while traveling worlds, so here is my task for you. I want you to assemble an outfit that covers you completely from head to toe and try to enchant that outfit with your own light. All you have to do is concentrate with your keyblade and will some of your light into the outfit, just enough for it to feel like how your shirt feels now."
"2 things I should mention about the spell, first the duration that the spell is effective is dependent on the amount of light it has stored and second the amount of light a piece of clothing can store is dependent on the integrity of the clothing material. Any questions?"
As cool as an honest to god magical lesson is, one potentially fatal factor was on the front of my mind.
"I'm probably gonna take a long time to get it, won't I be attracting the heartless to whatever place I'm doing this?"
"You won't if you have this." Narine held out her hand again, only this time there was no keyblade that appeared following the flash of light. Instead there were 4 small white pyramid shaped pieces that had strange symbols engraved on each side.
"Activate these by whispering the words 'hide me' directly at the pieces, you'll know their activate if the runes start shifting into other symbols. Then place them on the 4 corners of a room to set up the barrier." She said while handing the pieces. "As long as the barrier is active, the heartless won't be able to sense the presence of the keyblade inside."
"Really?"
"Really"
Well that's certainly convenient. "Will it work in any room size?"
"I recommend you use a smaller room for these, they'll last longer."
"No big rooms got it." I fiddled with the pieces before storing them in my pocket. "Is there else… Master Narine?"
She flashed me a smile "No that will be all Nate. I do believe that I must go now, I'll see you in 7 days," She started walk toward the playground entrance . "Good luck." she said whilst waving back at me.
"See you later Master Narine." I waved back
I proceeded to make my way home as well with groceries in hand. All the while, my mind was busy thinking of clothes I'll put together that would eventually be my travel outfit through the sea of stars.
That was assuming I could enchant them all just like that.
How hard could it be right?
Right?
My writing style feels pretty different when lots of dialogues is involved
Thanks for reading.
