Chapter Two: Lucid
The days went by at a sluggish pace, each blending into the next as Isolde lay in the house with little to do besides converse with her Spirits and occasionally Hat who seemed to run the place, or at least had a large part in it.
During the times that Hat was gone Isolde spent most of her time in the upstairs library, where hundreds of books where stacked on shelf after shelf until they reached the roof. The entire library seemed to take up more space than it should have been able to with dozens of shelves forming spiraling paths away from a central area where the stairs came up. There were several comfortable chairs and desks as well as a marble podium in the very center where it seemed books seemed to materialize at whim, indeed once a leather-bound volume in a language that looked similar to Spanish or Portuguese appeared right before her eyes, she didn’t bother asking Hat about it. She knew what his answer would be, she wasn’t recovered enough to be graced with the knowledge. The entire central area was slightly tilted so that the light from a large set of stained glass windows filtered down onto the chairs and tables. She often looked out the stained glass into the large clearing. There was rarely anyone there save the Indian woman who she came to learn was Vani and two older men. The books in the library themselves came in all shapes, materials, and languages. Here and there even a stone tablet could be found.
One day as she was flipping through a small paperback she thought she had seen in a bookstore once, she heard two steps of footsteps coming up the stairs. One she recognized as Hat’s and the other she was unfamiliar with. The trapdoor in the floor opened up and Hat climbed out followed by a man with extremely heavy features which gave him a permanently angry look, reddish skin, and shoulder-length, straight, black hair. He immediately marched over to Isolde and before she could react grabbed her face with both hands and placed one finger on her forehead, moving it around in a pattern. She felt a slight heat where his finger had passed by and just as abruptly as he had come forward he turned around and slumped into one of the chairs.
“She has fully recovered.” He muttered kneading his forehead with his knuckles.
“Thank you.” Hat said bowing to him, “I thought as much, but I wasn’t sure, so I decided to call on you.”
“Hhhmph. You could have done it yourself, you are much better at that sort of thing than I am.”
“I could have, but it’s better to have a second opinion.” He turned around, “Isolde, this is Cipac, Cipac you already know of Isolde.”
Isolde stood up and walked forward to shake Cipac’s hand. He simply looked at it and continued kneading his forehead. “I do not shake hands.”
“You’ll have to forgive Cipac, he just came back from another world and he's still recovering.”
Cipac grunted, "There were three from the Third-Tier there, I managed to kill two, but one escaped, I don't think they were looking for anything specific though."
"Still an impressive feat taking down three at once."
"Hmpph, they would have killed me if Aegis and Screan hadn't broken one's mind and given me an opening." He stood up turned around. "You should take her as soon as possible, we need everyone we can get."
Hat sighed again and motioned for Isolde to follow. They walked down the stairs and out the front door for the first time. She took a moment to examine the door which had stood between her and the outside for the past weeks and then with a deep breath followed Hat out.
Immediately she felt a small tremor in the air and her head began to ache as if she had eaten something extremely cold, but it passed quickly, fading away to nothingness in a matter of seconds.
"Where are we going?" She asked Hat jogging a bit to catch up.
Hat turned around and looked at her straight in the eyes. "To awaken your powers."
Here it is finally. My apologies for the wait, assuming that anyone is still interested in this game.
Yes, Isolde and you all are finally going to get combat and other miscellaneous abilities, and we're going to actually get the actual game going soon, so far this has been more a reeeeally long prologue than the actual game.
And a belated thank you to Tiruin again.