Chương 117: SWAMP WATER TEA

Elias could not sleep. Jamie could. She was sprawled across the mattress like a conquering hero, one arm over his ribs, one leg flung across his stomach, snoring softly with the deep, shameless peace of someone whose greatest concern in life was what she would eat tomorrow. Every time Elias shifted, she shifted with him. When he rolled to the side, her knee followed. When he turned onto his back, her heel nudged his chin. At one point, entirely unconscious, she attempted to wedge her toes into his mouth.

He caught her ankle mid-attempt and gently set it down. She snored louder. Elias stared at the ceiling. The darkness felt different tonight. Not threatening. Not heavy. Watching. He could feel her. Not like Flow. Not like sensation. More like the awareness of being observed from within his own thoughts.

Jamie's face was slack with sleep beside him, utterly unaware that somewhere inside her friend's Spirit Domain, an ancient divine fox was possibly studying the world through him like a curious spectator behind glass. He exhaled slowly and slipped out from under her arm. She shifted. He paused. Then he invoked Flow Suppression. Parameters bent quietly. Perception altered. To Jamie, nothing changed. The mattress still held his weight. His breathing still seemed present. His warmth remained.

He put on his jacket, opened the door without a sound, and stepped outside. The house did not notice him leave. Neither did the night. Blackhaven slept like a great animal at rest. Windows dark. Streets empty. Lanterns cast faint halos over cobblestones slick with frost. Elias walked without direction, without purpose, simply moving because stillness had become unbearable. He passed silent homes. Empty alleys.

The city guards who never registered the small figure slipping past their awareness like a thought they forgot to finish. Trees swallowed him. And before he could reconsider— H was in the glade, in front of the shack. A faint light leaked through its crooked planks. Elias frowned. SK should have been asleep. A twig snapped underfoot. Inside, something shifted. The door swung open sharply and SK stepped out holding a strange metal contraption like he intended to brain whoever stood there.

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"Who's there?" Elias dropped the parameters. He seemingly appeared out of nowhere. SK flinched so violently he nearly hurled the object at his head.

"Bloody hell! What the f— Where did you— What are you doing here?! Didn't I tell you yesterday I didn't want to see your bloody faces?"

"I needed to talk to you." SK opened his mouth to curse again. Then stopped. Because Elias' eyes were not at peace tonight. They were searching. Longing. SK exhaled sharply.

"Bloody hell. Fine. Sit." They ended up on the shack's doorstep wrapped awkwardly in a thick patchwork blanket that smelled faintly of tea leaves, woodsmoke, and something medicinal. SK handed him a steaming mug. It looked like swamp water. It smelled like burnt bark. Elias took a sip. His face twitched.

"Tastes like shit, doesn't it?" SK asked, gulping his own. Elias nodded silently and forced himself to drink more. It was awful. But warm. They sat in silence, staring into the dark forest.

"I'm scared, of whats inside me, " Elias said quietly. SK snorted.

"Everyone's scared of dying, kid. They do their part in the world, kick the bucket, and that's that."

"I'm not afraid to die," Elias replied.

"Given my supposed role in this world… dying a second time wouldn't be the worst outcome." SK paused." This world? Second time?" he repeated slowly, then chuckled.

"An awfully mature way of speaking for a kid. You're talking like you've already died once." Elias pursed his lips. SK waved a hand.

"You don't know what you're talking about. There are fates worse than death. Take me. All because I'm good at doing one bloody thing, I've been cursed to run around like a mouse in a house full of cats, afraid of being got. And trust me, the fate these ctas have planned would cause nightmares in the most corrupted mind." Elias looked at him.

"What are you running from?"

"Knowing the demons I'm running from will do you no good," SK muttered.

"But don't lose heart. I haven't. And there've been more attempts on my life than fleas on a dockside dog." Elias stared at him.

"I shit you not," SK added. Silence settled again. Elias stared into the darkness.

"What if," he said slowly, "I told you I was from another world. That I already died once and experienced despair. What if I tried dying again because I didn't want to go through it again… or become the pawn of some divine entity?" SK spat his tea.

"Damn! Is that what's been going on all this time?!" Elias blinked.

"W-wait, you believe me?" SK wiped his mouth.

"Kid, we live in a world where gods exist and entities can get trapped in masks. Being a reincarnator isn't the craziest shit I've heard. And I've heard a lot of crazy shit.

""Like what?"

"You don't wanna know. Hell, I wish I didn't bloody know either." They sat in silence again. In truth, SK already suspected Elias' true nature, having peered into his soul once.

'But the young lad doesn't need to know that.' The tea still tasted terrible. But the warmth of sitting there together felt… grounding.

"Listen," SK said more quietly.

"It don't matter what your first life was. All that matters is what you do with your second." Elias felt the weight of that. Felt the hollowness of it too. There was no point. His purpose was still to be Deus's pawn in whatever grand scheme he though was worse than watching him suffer. But then he thought of his father. His mother. Miss Gable. Beth. Aina. Jamie. And then, faintly, of a family from a world long gone. He would not want them to suffer because of him passing away.

Unbeknownst to him, Jamie stood in the shadows near the shack. She had never been asleep. She couldn't sleep when he was awake. She had pretended to sleep to lure him into resting, but when he left she followed. Her Anti-Flow's fluctuating nature allowed her to blend perfectly with ambient Flow and layer it with suppression. She was nearly invisible. Her eyes widened when she heard him say he was from another world.

'Thats so cool!' But she said nothing. There was probably a reason why her friend did not speak to her about it. She trusted him to open up at his own time. Instead, she decided to make her presence known and stepped out of the shadows into view, yawning as if she had just arrived.

"Bloody hell! Do you want to kill me with a heart attack?" SK asked startled as another one appeared from nowhere.

"How did you know I was here?" Elias asked.

"I followed your scent," she said, rubbing her eyes. She flopped down onto Elias immediately.

"You left me to come hang out with a questionable old man at an odd hour?" SK snorted.

"Alright, you gremlins can leave." He began to stand.

"Wait," Elias said. SK paused. Elias looked at him seriously.

"I want to eliminate anything that may endanger my family." SK frowned.

"I want you to perform an exorcism."