9. Empathy
"Well?" Eve inquires vehemently, her voice as frosty as the blizzard I conjured. Her golden eyes still have the same distant, glazed look, but her eyebrows are slightly drawn together in unmasked fury. Her fingers, sparking with thousands of volts of energy, are pointed a mere three inches away from my neck.
I don't dare gulp.
The crackling electricity singes my skin. I feel my face contort slightly in pain as I feel a few layers of skin melting away.
I try to open my mouth to speak, but I can't even form a cohesive thought in my brain. The oppressing aura of regality forces something to cower within me. Is it possible for Eve to be scarier when she's not hunting me down?
Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Chung in his white armor, cannon still pointed. Eve's gaze somehow encompasses the both of us.
After another tense moment, Chung clears his throat and sets his cannon down. "Eve, we can explain. Just calm down and give us time, okay? Put that finger down before you seriously injure anyone."
"Seiker." Eve's eyes focus on him, and the energy from her finger diminishes slightly. Bewildered, I come to the conclusion that the two aren't strangers, my eyes darting back and forth as I backed away from Eve slowly, toward Chung's direction.
He returns her strong stare with one of his own as I draw myself next to him. Still intimidated, I hug my white coat closer to me, hoping for the comfort of extra warmth.
"Do you remember what happened," Chung begins, "as in what happened before all of this?"
"All I remember is that atrocious peasant trying to attack me while I was immobilized," she spits out.
He shoots me an apologetic glance, and I shrug nonchalantly. I've been called worse before.
"Do you know that Altera was taken over?" he continues pressing.
"What? There is no such thing! Altera is still—" She cuts herself off, standing silently a distance away from us, completely lost in her thoughts.
I give Chung a nervous glance, unable to understand Nasod body language and culture. Once this mess with Raven is over, I'll be sure to look into it some more.
"No…" she finally says. Her eyebrows are drawn up, forehead creasing with the sudden realization. Her composure completely flip-flops as she hugs herself tightly, as if that would keep Altera together.
"Eve." Chung moves towards her, putting his hand on top of hers, now sparking out of control with her tumultuous emotions, and squeezing gently. The gesture is small, but the meaning behind it is large. He, who also lost a kingdom, is the only one who can really empathize.
And I, the odd one out.
"He," she says in a tone cold enough to cause an ice age, "stormed into the Core with his army of mindless drones and took over. Once the Core was in his hands, I couldn't do anything."
Chung nods gravely in response, encouraging her to continue. "Do you know what he's planning to do and what other damage he has caused?"
She gives me a brief but suspicious glance, silently questioning the reason I'm here. "You… are you sure you're not working under Raven's orders? How did you overwrite my code?"
Snorting softly, I muster as much intensity as I can when I glare at her. "I don't know what kind of superiority complex you have, but if I were—"
Chung holds up a hand, so I bite back a snarky retort. "Eve, you must understand that human brains don't work the same way as Nasod cores and codes do. As long as a person has willpower and strength, the impossible can happen, whereas Nasods rely on codes. That is the greatest difference between us."
Eve's eyes narrow as she turns towards Chung. She opens her mouth to protest only to be stopped by him.
"This isn't the time to argue about that again. What we need to know is what Raven plans to do or already did," he says sharply. "And Aisha is more than trustworthy."
Eve pulls away from Chung's hand and glides over to a nearby slab of rock that is level to her knees. She sits, crossing her legs like the royalty that she is. "Well? What are you waiting for? This will be a rather lengthy tale."
Chung sighs. "Same old Eve, always sounding like she's doing you a favor," he mutters under his breath. He turns to me, smiling gently. "Let's go. We can finally get to the bottom of this."
"His current goal is immortality. Pursuing this goal, he has amassed a large amount of El energy in order to be able to pass into the Elven world to research why they live for such a long time. I am not too sure what he did in that world, for I was not present with him, but I suspect that there has been much destruction."
Chung and I lean in closer, completely intrigued by Raven's plan. The bookworms in us urge us to find out how he even opened a portal into a parallel dimension and what that new world is like.
"So did he find anything?" I ask, a foreboding feeling running through my veins.
Eve fixes me with a long stare. "He managed to bring back a prisoner whom he is using as a hostage to keep the rest of the elves from ruining his plan."
"Wait, an actual elf? As in pointy ears, nature magic, and all?" I blurt out excitedly. Though elves and humans did walk the same earth at one point, industrialization forced the elves to find a home away from human pollution. Books I've read about the history of Elrios all indicate that elves existed, though no one has seen one for thousands of years.
Eve nods. "I am not positive about the nature magic, but she does have pointy ears and a rather strong affinity to nature. Her holding cell had to be cleaned every few days because of the flora that would sprout from the cracks in the wall and floor."
Chung has been quiet, synthesizing all of the new information in his own way. His brows are furrowed as he processes what Eve has told us. "So what you're saying is that Raven's power extends beyond just Elrios? And he's doing this for the sake of immortality?"
"I believe the answer is quite obvious from what I told you, Seiker. Well, what do you plan to do now that you have this information?"
Chung and I exchanged a glance, the same determination reflected in each other's eyes.
"Plan."
"And counter."
A/N: Sorry for the shortness. For some reason, this chapter was extremely difficult to get out, but at least it's out now. And I definitely need to completely edit this entire story once I'm done. ._.
Thanks for reading. Reviews are always appreciated!
