Well…
There is not really anything much to say of my first attempt at making a full fanfic about Arknights. Yeah, technically Rhodes Island's Psychologist was the first but I was there more as a fixer than a writer. The story was already there, I was just making sure that it made sense.
Did I smash my head onto my table while I try to make sense of the story?
BUT OF COURSE!
Did I almost lose my mind while doing all of that?
BUT OF COURSE!
Did I hate the story?
BUT OF CO - Okay maybe not. Lin Ye is like my favourite thing that came out of all of this. You have no idea what I daydream about what his adventure would be after the story. Countless nights I stay awake as my mind made up adventures of what Lin Ye would do after the story ended.
To put it simply, I am a fanboy of Lin Ye. Sue me!
So this story is a continuation of Rhodes Island's Psychologist (RIP- heh).
Am I competent in writing?
Hah! Nope!
But will I try my best in making a story that I like?
I will try my best!
Anyway, I hope you enjoy it like how most people in my discord server seemed to.
Disclaimer: I do not own Arknights and the character. If I did, there will be so much Abyssal content HyperGryph need to change its name to Abyssalknights or something.
The molding houses of the city were a common sight for the locals to see. Some of the planks that made the houses' walls were sticking out from their body. It was so bad that the houses in the city were barely standing up straight. Almost all of the windows in the city were either broken or completely gone from the houses, making the residents have nothing to shield themselves from the cold winds of the sea.
Speaking of the winds, they were as bizarre as the city that they hit. Not even the best methodologist was able to predict what direction it came from oftentimes. North, South, East West? No one knew what direction it would come. But without fail, it will come, reminding that citizen in this ghost town of how cold the place that had the misfortune of calling home was.
The mist that covered the city of Sal Viento was still visible even in the dark of night. It blanketed the ghost city, making it look more haunted than what it already was. If a boat passed the shore of the city, they could barely make out the silhouette of the city. It was worse when you realized that they did not have any lighthouses at their shore.
They had a lighthouse. But it seemed that the sea did not feel fond of the building. Waves hit the lighthouse so hard that it completely broke down, eaten by the very ocean that it was meant to protect people from. What was left of it was half of its upper side that light used to shine for sailors was gone, lost to current. And the remains? What has left collected barnacles as people were too afraid to ever fix it.
These cities were not uncommon in Liberia, most near seashores. Cities that light could barely touch as it was like it was being controlled by something that hated the very idea of being handled by it.
It did not mean these cities were abandoned by all people of the world.
The Inquisition.
They were the de facto governing body of Iberia. The so-called sicker of truth and bearer of light. With their iconic lanterns, they would shine their flames that had an odd colour to them and light up the paths for anyone that was needed.
However, it seemed like this city, Sal Viento was not that needly enough for them.
"Why?" you may ask.
Inquisitors. They were akin to the people that followed orders from the Inquisition. Well-trained officers that could even best most mercenary that Kazdel could produce. They were regarded as the best amongst the best in Iberia. With what they needed to face daily, they had to.
That or dying.
But normal everyday folks, Inquisitors acted more as an indicator.
They were indicators of how dire the situation was in the city.
It was a simple system, unsurprisingly with how it was made by normal folks. The less confusing it was the better for them. It was easier to teach and passed down to newer generations.
So for the city of Sal Viento, which seemed to have a state that seemed to only need a single gust of wind to make all of its buildings topple down on its residents, guess how many Inquisitors were sent to help them?
One.
There were no Inquisitors.
Only Inquisitor.
There was only one Inquisitor that was present in the city.
It was like some sort of sick joke and the citizens of the city were the butt of it.
To say that the citizens had given up hope was like saying the sky was cloudy to them.
However, the Inquisitor that was sent to this doomed city was no pushover.
He tried his best. Doing his duties as an Inquisitor of this city without fail. Patrolling every night. Scaring off any mercenaries that thought this city was easy picking. Given rations to the folks when they were provided by the government. Making sure that this place was barely sitting on the line between hell and home for them.
But he was just a single person. A single mortal man. He had his limit. His body would break down if he kept this schedule up for him long enough. With how old he felt, it was coming sooner than later.
If he falls, what will happen to the city he was protecting so desperately now?
Will it be plundered by mercenaries?
Will the winds finally break down their houses?
Or will the sea finally eat all of them alive and drag them to the depths of the abyss?
Those were thoughts that kept Dario, the lone Inquisitor of this city awake at night.
The government sending more inquisitors to this city was highly unlikely. Eggs in one basket were not something Iberia was known for. They were all ready to spread out now. The numbers of Inquisitors were already low with how the sea seemed to devour all of them.
He could get new Inquisitors.
So he would make them instead.
That was where Irene came in.
The child that he took under his wings was showing him that she had all that it take to become an Inquisitor. He had trained her. Had her fights real fights where you put your life on the line. Not saying he tossed her into the flames and saw if she would burn or not. He was there with a fire extinguisher in his hands, making sure that she would come back alive.
He was desperate but he would not kill a child for that.
But Irene, the amazing girl that she was, surprises him every day. Like some sort of super sponge, she absorbed every lesson that he taught her. Her hold of the blades became better and better with every swing that she swung.
She was a genius. A prodigy. One of the millionth.
When Dario believed that she was ready, he gave her a lantern. The tools that helped Inquisitors to shine their path and see the truth.
But it was up to them to believe what they saw or not.
And sometimes, reality was crueller than fantasy.
He just needed to put faith in Irene so that she was able to overcome it.
*Step* *Step* *Step*
The sound of dirt crunching under the heel of a girl walking through the empty streets of this dead city echoed in the cold air around her. The smell of seawater filled her nostrils, a thing that the person had come used to.
She raised her head and saw the dark sky above her. With how thick the clouds above her were, Irene did know what she expected to see when she did that. Even when it was morning, the sun was not able to penetrate the clouds with its light. The moon and stars could barely do a thing.
It was worse at night with how the mist seemed to intensify at this time. Irene remembered she could barely make out anything in front of her when she first arrived in this city.
But now?
She glanced down at her hand that stretched out in front of her. It was the reason why she did not hit a wall in this thick mist.
The Inquisitor Lantern.
Its odd flames glowed, lighting the path in front of her. It also lit up her face, making her seem like she was also glowing alongside it. Her eyes focused solely on the flames, they danced her eyes. It was like she was mesmerised by them.
"I… did it…"
She muttered to herself, proud of herself as she brought the source of light closer to her body. As she said, she had done it. She was worthy of being an Inquisitor.
She was worthy of calling herself someone like her Maestro.
An Inquisitor.
A hero.
Irene received the time today from him and it never left her hands for even a second. If she saw even a speck of dust on it, she would wipe it away. To say she was obsessed with it was an understatement.
The smile that blossomed on her face disappeared as she remembered what she was doing before she was ogling her lantern for the millionth time.
This was her first solo mission.
She was assigned by Maestro to patrol the city in the dead of night. Normally, she would do this with Maestro, and accompanying him with this task was like a daily occurrence to her.
But today was different.
Today she was doing this alone.
Maestro had put his trust in her to protect the city.
At that very moment, it took every fibre of being to not let a single tear out of either of her eyes. The pain and hardship that she had faced in training under Maestro, every wound and bruise that was painted on her body, every aching pain that she felt when she swung her blade, all of those things felt like it was worth it if it meant that she could hear those words from him.
Snapping back to reality, Irene shook her head to reaffirm herself again. Irene stopped in her tracks and took a deep breath. She needed to calm her nerves. A hazy mind would not help here now.
She needed to focus on why she was here to begin with. Remembered why she was willingly put into those harsh training sessions.
To show her maestro that she was ready. That she was worthy to be an Inquisitor. To be a hero to someone else like how her Maestro was to her.
Irene owed that man so much. So she was ready to repay her debts to her. And if it meant being a hero to someone else, then she will be one no matter what.
She could vividly remember how he came to her rescue when she lost hope of surviving the catastrophe that hit her hometown. Irene accepted she was dead and was about to let the sweet release of death come to her. But something stopped her from dying under those rubbles.
Because of him, she was the only person that survived that whole ordeal.
That was not all.
Mister Dario was willing to take her under his wings and taught her all that he knew. Her - a complete nobody. To survive this harsh world.
Irene remembered how she felt when her Maestro offered her to become an Inquisitor. Hand stretched out to her when she felt completely lost. It felt like she finally gained the chance to repay him. After all of that, Irene made it her life goal to be a person that was worthy to be his successor.
"Get a hold of yourself, Irene! You cannot disappoint him!"
With those words and a quick shake of her head, Irene continued on her walk around the quiet city. As the newly assigned Inquisitor walked past another building that seemed to be barely standing, Irene got reminded of where she truly was.
The city that was not in any record of the government.
Sal Viento.
After weeks of being stationed here, Irene had to say there was nothing much to see in the city. The locals here were almost nonexistent. Not saying there were no people in the city. It was just that they would much rather be inside their own homes - If these planks of wood and cement could be classified as such - than be outside on the streets. Not like she could blame them for these thoughts.
Nights and days were barely different in this city. The clouds above this city were so thick that Irene believed they were not even clouds at that point. They never moved or changed their position. They were just there, hovering above them, shielding the city from any light from the sky.
"Maybe that was why the people were like this," Irene muttered to herself as she walked.
To put it simply, Irene thought that the people that lived in this city had less life than a rotten corpse. The way they carried themselves, it was like they lost their souls and were trying to find them back.
It was not like Irene did not try to interact with them. More than one time that she went up to one of them only to be completely ignored by them. Walking up to them? They moved away from her. Went up to them? They ignored her and walked away.
It was like she did not exist to them.
When asked about this by her Maestro, the only answer that she got was that they were always like this. From the very start.
Something was wrong with them. Her Maestro and her only did not know what it was.
And amazingly, this was not the only thing that was wrong about this city.
Irene moved her head to the side and stared at something far away from the city but close enough to make it something horrible.
The shore.
Rather the very ocean itself.
Irene narrowed her eyes at the huge body of water that looked so peaceful from where she stood. However, no matter how many times she stared at it and heard the calm crashing of waves on the beach, Irene's body would always tense at the sight of how peaceful the illusion of it was.
It was not the ocean that made her feel this way.
It was what was in it that unnerved her so.
Beings that no matter how long time had passed, were still unknown to any living being in Terra. The only thing that they knew about them was only one thing. The only reason they were still in this very world.
To snuff any life in their path.
Seaborn.
The ultimate enemy of the shore.
Creatures that only exist to cause mayhem and destruction.
Before even coming here, Irene knew how dangerous they were. She heard tales, folklores on those things. Wiping out a whole city was like walking to them. It was in their nature to do one thing and one thing only. To end lives.
Endless in numbers. Always adapting to anything that comes to them.
Nigh killable.
Just remembering about those things made Irene feel like something was crawling up her very spine.
Based on what her maestro's information gathered, this city's beach should be full of Seaborn. Infesting the very water that would make any normal person think that it was beautiful. The whole beach became like some sort of bait for them to use to draw in anyone foolish enough to come near it.
It was a hunting ground.
And Sal Viento was their prey.
Seaborn was still an anomaly to the moral race. Their very race was clouded with so many layers of mystery that they did not even know if the things that were fighting for so long were even Seaborn anymore. All knowledge that was gained about the abomination from encounters with previous Inquisitors.
All of them seemed to lose their minds.
Even knowing all of this, how outmatched she was with this, with her lantern, her sabre, and her handcannon, she was ready to defend Iberia's last pride against the ultimate evil of the shore - the Seaborn.
However, there was a problem.
It was like they did not want to come out from the sea surface at all.
No matter how long she and her Maestro waited at the shore, no creature ever emerged from the sea surface. They even stayed near the body of water for a week, but not a single thing popped out from the surface.
Even her Maestro was as confused as her about this.
Something was not adding up. Maestro considered them adapting. After all, the Seaborn were infamous for how adaptable they were in any situation. Maybe seeing the Inquisitor made them more cautious.
But after weeks of them patrolling the shore, nothing happened. Nothing.
It was like they were toying with them.
Irene sighed as she glanced at the flames that were in her lantern. It was crackling inside of it, lightning her way. It was literally the only thing that was lit in this city. This was another odd thing about the locals. They did not seem to light their streets and homes, making the city basically consumed by the blackness of the night.
Irene shocked her head to regain her focus.
"Get a hold of yourself, Irene," She reminded herself as she looked ahead, "You need to focus."
So after that little episode that she had, Irene continued on her patrol and walked on the streets of the city with only the fire in her lantern to light her way, following the path that Maestro and her would often take.
As she walked, in the dark, she heard something creaking not that far from her.
"Ahhhhhh…"
Even without looking at where the noise came from, Irene had a good guess on what it was. Her bet was a door. A door that would often open at this time of the night.
"She's at it again?"
Looking at the direction of where the noise came from, her eyes narrowed trying to make out a familiar house. She also lightly dimed the flames of her light with a simple toggle on the lantern. To make sure that she was not caught, she also hid behind another house that was not far from this one.
"(Do not dare come out, child.)" Irene whispered out to herself.
And there she was, making Irene scowl as the small figure raced through the darkness.
A child.
A child that was walking towards the shore.
One more thing that caught her eye about the city was a child.
Based on the documents, her name was Anita.
If the locals' strange behaviour could be considered normal, Anita was the odd one.
Compared to the other residents that were corpse walking, Anita was different.
She was full of life. It was like she was the lighthouse of the city.
Their first interaction with the girl set her apart from the rest of the residents. The girl was the only person that would go up to the Inquisitors and have chats with them. She helped them a lot by giving them information about the locals and even gave them a tour of the city. The child remembered all the streets of this huge city.
She was basically this city's map.
Every nook and cranny, Anita knew them.
However, she still had some odd behaviours as well.
Compared to the other locals, it was far more dangerous. Not to other people.
No, it was to herself.
With how many times Maestro and her patrol the city, they were one thing that would never change in them. Late at night, the two of them would always see Anita sneak out of her own home and go straight to the shore. Maybe it was because of how curious she was as a child. But it seemed that she never felt any danger as she literally stood so close to something that could end her life at any moment.
That was not even the strangest part of it.
The items that the child would bring along her to the shore made both her and her maestro scratch their heads.
Clothes.
Maestro would spy on the child during the day to see what was so different with the child compared with the rest of the people in the city. He found a lot of things about her. She would always try her best in helping anyone in the city, no matter who they were. The things that she did would be simple.
Escorting someone back to their homes.
Helping in taking care of other children in the city.
Even providing clothing to them.
And about the clothes that Anita would bring to shore with her, Maestro found that she found them in dumpsters.
Of course, they would not like the child to continue this behaviour without knowing what lay in the sea. They confronted her about this and to Irene and Maestro's surprise she did not seem to be scared of being caught.
Anita told them that the reason why she does all of this was to collect seashells. To prove her point, Anita showed her bag that was full of them. When asked why she did this in the night, her reason was, the prettiest of them would show only at that time.
For the clothes?
She buried them in the sand, explaining it helped her collect the shells. To prove her point, she brought them to the beach during the day and buried the clothes in the sand and pulled them out. And in it were seashells.
Although what she said made sense and she even proved them, Irene and her Maestro were still skeptical about all of this.
However, without any proof, they couldn't do much but let her go with a light warning telling her that something might come out from the sea and take her.
But the nail to the coffin on why they were skeptical was her reaction after they told her that.
"Why should I be scared of it? The ocean is pretty."
She stared at them like they were silly for worrying about nothing. Like there was nothing to worry about and they were just being overdramatic and she knew better.
That was the reason why Irene turned the flames of her lantern completely off and was walking the dark towards where Anita was headed. Maestro and she would always follow her to the shore, but every time without fail they lose her. She wanted to see what the child was truly doing at the shore with those clothes. One moment she would take a turn and then poof she was gone from their sight. It did not help that the city had an absence of any type of light.
So she needed to make haste or else Irene would lose that child. And she was a slippery little bird if Irene had to say.
Not wanting to lose her target, Irene was hot on Anita's trail, only a few steps behind her. She made sure that with every step that she took, they barely made any noise. If Anita heard even a single thing behind her, that child was smart enough to redirect herself to another path and could easily slip away from Irene's eyes.
That child knew every path in this very city. She had no chance of catching her if she did so and dashed away into the night without anyone looking out for her. If anything would ever happen to her, Irene would not forgive herself for letting that happen in the first place.
After all,
(I'm a hero now.)
With that silent reminder to herself, Irene quietly followed the child. As she followed Anita, Irene realized where they were heading, not like she expected anything else. The beach shore of the city. The beach should be filled with Seaborn.
She was not surprised at the location they were at, it was just that neither she nor Maestro did not know which part of the beach that Anita would often come to in her nightly adventures.
As her leather shoes came in contact with the sandy surface of the beach, Irene noticed something was not right about the place she was in.
The beach.
No…
The ocean.
It was calm.
For as long as Irene had stayed in this city, the ocean would never be calm. At best tides that were the height of her should crash into the beach and at worst… almost building-size rogues waves would appear. The winds would blow so hard that it made a sound that was akin to a howl made only by some sort of monster. The air would be so cold that mist could form from one's breath.
But?
There were none of those things.
No waves were crashing down on it. The wind was not blowing as harshly as she remembered. In fact that it was barely making any noises, a far cry from the howls that the residents often hear. And the temperature… It was neither cold nor warm, it was at a level that could be considered as comfortable to stay in, a thing that would be thought as impossible before.
(What is going on here!?)
Everything was not making sense. Of course, anything relating to this city made little sense but Irene liked to think that she got gasped at what was normal in this city and what was not, no matter how crazy it may sound.
But this? This was in the latter category of what she just thought.
A peaceful environment near this place? Impossible.
But here she was in one.
And it did not make any sense!
Just when she was about to ponder on this longer, Irene realized that her feet were rooted to the ground from the shock she was experiencing and lost sight of her target Anita.
(Oh no!)
She frantically tossed her head from side to side as she scanned the visible beach in front of her. With her being a Liberian, her eyesight was better than most people so she used it to her advantage and tried to locate the missing child.
After a while of frantic searching, she finally saw a small figure.
However, rather than feeling relief, the only thing that Iren felt when she saw her was one other thing.
Anxiety.
Why you may ask?
It was not because she found Anita, it was what she saw the child doing.
(Was she about to run straight into the ocean?!)
"Wait-"
"Mister Njord! Mister Njord! I'm here!"
The words that Irene was about to shout died in her throat when Anita suddenly stopped a few feet away from the ocean and shouted this to the ocean as loud as she could.
(Was she calling someone?)
At first, nothing happened, but after a while something did.
Then something did.
The space in front of the girl started to… morph.
It was like the very fabric of reality was being swirled making it distorted. Like how a tv had static before the channel appeared on the screen. Anita did not look worried at the sight of space and reality being bent in front of her.
Rather…
She looked excited.
As Irene was trying to make sense of this phenomenon, the space stopped acting like that. But it did not make Irene feel confused. In fact, it enhances it.
Because something replaced the distorted space.
A man.
In front of Anita now stood a man. His long hair fell over his shoulder as some of them were being blown by the calm winds of the sea - still something that she did not believe was possible.
Not wanting to get caught, Irene ran towards a massive rock that was not far from where the two of them were, hiding herself behind it. Her back resting on the cold surface of the rock helped her round herself with how mind-blowing this whole event was for her. Questions filled her mind.
What just happened?
Why was everything so peaceful?
Why were all of these things happening?
And most of all.
Did it all relate to the man that appeared in front of Anita?
Before she got lost in her thoughts, she heard voices behind her. They were talking now. She leaned back her head a bit to get in a better position to hear everything.
"Anita, good to see you. Did you cause any trouble for your guard?"
"Mister Njord! I am not a bad girl! And they're Inquisitors! That's different!"
"Sure they are."
"I hear sarcasm! Mister Njrod! You bully! I am not a child!"
"Sure sure. And I am not a man with his feet in salty water."
"Mister Njord!"
"Ahaha. I kid. How have you been?"
"Changing the subject is mean too!"
"My question still stands."
"... Meanie."
"Sorry sorry."
"I forgive you!"
"Thank-"
"But! You need to teach me more for today!"
"What a demanding girl you become. Sure."
"Yes! And I am fine, Mister Njord! I got to talk with Mister Dario this morning. He told a lot of stories about his job. And Big Sis Irene just became an Inquisitor today! Isn't that great, Mister Njord!"
"That sounds lovely. Good for her."
"Mhm! Oh! I brought something for you, Mister Njord."
"Oh?"
The conversation between the two of them was something that Irene would not expect in this city. It was pleasant and endearing like she had known this man for as long as she lived. Although it may sound ridiculous, that was rare in this city.
The same question resurfaced in the back of her mind again.
(Who was this person…? In for a penny and all of that.)
With that reassuring thought, Irene glanced behind the rock, barely peeking out her head to the side of the rock to get a better look at the two of them. Irene saw the two of them interacting with each other.
Anita had a big smile as she held out a simple black belt to the man.
Speaking about the man, he was… odd.
His height must be as high or higher than her maestro. Covering his whole body was a simple black cloak that looked like saw better days with how torn up they were. Tears littered its ends and holes could be seen filling it. The clothes that were under it, were also as ragged as the cloak. The stitches barely were holding all of his clothes in place. His boots were submerged in the sea.
His body was also strange. He did not have any traits that showed what race he was.
There was a huge scar that ran up from his chest and up to his face. His black hair was long, almost reaching his ankles, flowing over his shoulder. And the man's eyes. They were too beautiful to be called that. Shaded in dark blue, it was like how she would think the night sky would look if it was filled with stars.
And those two skies were staring softly at the belt Anita was holding to him.
"(Who is this man?)" Irene asked herself in a low voice.
That was an important thing that she considered. A person in Sal Viento that she did not know? Impossible. Irene had spent countless nights memorizing everything about the city she was in. Abd when she said everything she meant it.
She memorized all the documents about the city. City Charter, Municipal Code, Budget, Zoning Map and Citizen names. You named it, she memorized it.
But even with those things inside of her mind, the name of Njord did not pop into it.
This man did not match any of them.
(Was this why Anita came here? To see this man?)
The man hummed as he took the belt away from the child and inspected it, feeling it with his hands.
"A belt?" The man mused, "I needed that Anita, thank you. The pants you gave me were too big for me. Not saying that I am thankful for them. But they're just…"
To prove a point, the man slightly pulled up his pants and was hanging on his side a bit just now.
Anita's face brightened up hearing this and nodded frantically at him.
"Try it on Mister Njord!"
"Yes yes."
The man laughed at this and put the belt around his waist and tightened it. Buckling it, the man seemed impressed at how well it fit his frame. After checking if it was secured, shaking it a bit, the man named Njord raised a brow at Anita with a smile on his face.
"So?" The man smirked at the child, "What do you want me to teach you for today? Last time we talked about Iberia's history. Great job in following along. Not many people like hearing about their own country's history. Especially the bad ones."
"I still think that Aegir people are kind." The child mumbled under her breath.
This made the man smile and placed his hand on her head, ruffling her hair uncaring at how dirty she was.
"If only more people were like you. Sadly you are still a child. There isn't much you could do now."
The child pouted at being reminded about that.
"Well, enough of that. Let's start with the usual. Pick anything you want to know. I will try my best to teach you about it."
Anita looked excited at this.
"Can you tell me about magic?" She asked eagerly, "You told me what was Arts before. I heard you mentioned magic is different from it."
(Magic?)
Irene raised a brow at how obscure the thing she was hearing.
There was something other than Arts?
It was not like she did know what magic was. She was a child before, after all. A power that could make anything happen. But that was not real.
(This Njord must have lied to her. Magic only existed in fantasy.)
As that thought came into her mind, Irene then remembered how he appeared. Arts had a feeling around the area where it was used. If Irene would describe it, she would say it was like her flight or fight modes were being activated subconsciously.
Arts were not a pleasing thing to be around no matter who was using it. There was something hostile about it. Like an animal that was being changed up and forced to do things that it did not like. If one slipped up, heads would be flying.
That was what Arts felt like to people that could not use it.
But when that man appeared, she did not feel anything.
Nothing at all.
Did he use Magic?
"Magic? You want to learn that?" The man's voice made Irene snap back to reality.
She looked back at them and saw Njord smiling at Anita.
"Sure," The man chuckled, "You might need to sit down."
Instantly the girl sat on the sand floor.
Njord hummed at how excited he was.
"So, you still remembered what Arts is?" He asked Anita.
"I remembered," The girl nodded dutifully like some sort of student being asked a question by their teacher, "Originium Arts or Arts is the umbrella term for abilities to manipulate and transform matters and energy. The fuel to use it is Originium. People need to use a catalyst, such as a wand or staff. However, people can use the Originium in their bodies.''
"And the disadvantage of using that method?" Njord asked with a smile, pleased that Anita was able to get this far.
"The symptoms of Oripathy will increase to that person." Anita immediately answered.
Irene was shocked at how detailed Anita explained all of this about Arts. Not that Anita was dumb, she might be the smartest person in the city. She was surprised at how in-depth she knew about Arts. From what she knew about the city, there was no school running there.
Irene's eyes then moved towards the other person.
"(Did he taught this all to her?)" Irene wondered as she stared at the two of them.
If so, this man was smarter than she thought he was.
Njord smiled at this and pet Anita's head.
"Well done." The man praised the child, "You remembered all of that? You did amazing. Not many adults even know about this. And here are you, listing down everything that is important about the craft, I can't be even prouder. But knowing, you found a way."
Anita's face brightened up at his words.
Irene never saw the girl smiling like this before. She smiled a lot, but the smile Anita had now was different from what Irene saw. It was like hearing those words made her day better.
Pulling his hand away from her, Njord hummed.
"So about Magic, I want you to do one thing," Njord said, "Can you do that?"
Anita cutely nodded at him.
"Great," The man smiled, "Forget all about Arts."
"... Huh?" Anita sounded confused at this. "Forget it all?"
Even Irene was starting to get interested in this topic, leaning in closer to them without jeopardizing her location.
Njord nodded as he raised both of his hands and pulled out a finger each.
"Yes. Although Arts and Magic have some similarities, they are completely different. Arts needed a catalyst while Magic don't." Njord then shocks her, "Arts is far easier being used while Magic, not many could even use it. Arts used brute force to manipulate the Originium to what they wanted but Magic, the user and Origiunum work together to achieve a goal."
Anita listened thoroughly to all of this, not missing a single word from him.
Irene was also noting down all of this.
"Mister Njord, can you use Magic?" Anita suddenly asked.
The man smiled. And took a step away from her.
"Let me show you."
After saying this, the man faced the calm sea.
Irene stared at the man and he did something.
He simply raised his hand, and instantly something happened.
A huge pillar of black ice erupted from the sea and reached for the sky.
Irene almost fell down at how suddenly all of this happened.
One moment there was nothing and then a moment later a pillar that reached the sky appeared. Said sky seemed to split open revealing something that Irene thought was impossible to see in this city.
The night sky.
The night sky was as mysterious as it was beautiful, like a deep well filled with twinkling stars. The moon hung low in the sky, casting a soft, silvery light over the world below. Its fullness was a sight to behold, a glowing orb that seemed to hold all the secrets of the universe. The moon hovered above them, illuminating everything in its path. The stars shone brighter, creating a dazzling display that stretched out as far as Irene's eye could see. The air was still and quiet as if the world was holding its breath in anticipation of what was to come.
Njord turned around and saw Anita gapping at the sight in front of her.
"That's Magic," He simply said.
Then he snapped his finger and the huge pillar collapsed in on itself before melting back into its previous state of matter, the waves crashing on itself before it returned to its calm serenity...
"Any question?"
Anita slowly dragged her eyes from where the pillar of black ice was just there and stared at him.
"... Can I learn that?"
Njord laughed at how dumbfounded she sounded.
"Maybe," He smiled at the child. The man looked up to the sky, eyes forced on the full moon. Then looked back at Anita who was still waiting for his answer, "But you might need to leave. It's getting late and people might notice you going missing. Seeing the sky, it's about time some people will woke up by now with how broken the residents' internal clocks are."
Anita looked up to the sky and noticed where the moon was now. Based on what Mister Njord taught her, she was able to guess the time. Irene was shocked at how focused she was to not realise the time passing by.
Anita slowly got up from the beach floor but she did not leave. Her head lowered as she did not move.
Njord sighed and placed his hand on her head.
"I'll still be here tomorrow," Njord said, "You don't want your family to be worried."
After saying this, Anita nodded slowly back.
Pulling his hand, the girl ran back to the city. The man watched as the small back of her was fading into the misty city of Sal Viento.
Irene stared at her back and when she noticed the child was gone from her view, she glanced back at the man.
But when her eyes landed back on him, her body froze.
A pair of dark blue was staring at her making Irene's body freeze up in pure shock.
(He knew.)
The man smiled at her and instantly the space around him started to morph.
"See you tomorrow too. Miss Irene,"
After saying this, the man instantly disappeared, leaving Irene alone at the beach.
And that's the end of this chapter. I want to focus on how Sal Viento is viewed by an outsider - Irene, as well as a local - Anita. As you may guess, Njord is what is called in this version of his life. Thus called the "Njord" arc. How long will this arc last? 10 parts maybe. How Njord looked like, I have a discord server that showed fanart made of some characters and Njord being one of them.
As for me, I will take my leave right about now.
Anyway,
Review, if you want.
As for the story, you can also find it on , AO3 and Wattpad. Same name.
As for the discord server: /3z2RtndKrP