The Great War: Chapter 69
Unexpectedly unprepared
Isaac is having a hard time maintaining his attention for more than a few seconds. His composure from moments ago has all but gone now that he’s sitting before the Head Healer like this.
He gave the idea some thought over the years - revealing his special power - but always treated it like the climax of one of his epic adventure novels. This certainly feels a lot less spectacular.
Deep down, he also doesn’t feel quite ready yet. Though… now it’s not like he has any choice in the matter.
Yumi is quiet, patiently waiting for Isaac to find his words. And in this period of quietness, she has been able to relax and soak in the situation before her. She’s still trying to process all that’s happened so far, not helped by the lingering haze from Jae’s mental strain. At least she’s keeping an open mind, or is at least trying to with what little patience she has.
“As you… already know now, I can hear the thoughts of the beings around me,” Isaac speaks. The sentence falls awkwardly from his mouth as his eyes shift to elsewhere in the dim room. He’s bracing himself for what he thinks is going to come next.
Outwardly, Yumi nods along. Mentally, her thoughts stir. As he expected, she doesn’t feel all too pleased by the invasion of privacy. But Jae can, too, now… she thinks hopelessly. She doesn’t like that fact and must come to grips with it. As too will the other healers.
But him and Jae should be different. How long has he been able to do this? She stares at him more intensely. How has this affected him?
Her sympathy catches him off guard, causing him to squirm in his chair. How can she be so concerned about his well being?
Being exposed to so many thoughts… She presses her lips together. Likely never told any being. How has he been able to keep himself together?
Isaac grits his teeth, finally turning back to the Head Healer to look her straight in the eye, sending a chill through her body. “Stop trying to figure me out.”
Yumi leans back in her chair, momentarily stunned by his short snap. When she recollects herself, she says in a soft, careful tone, “Well, Isaac… what’s going on, then?”
What she really means by her question is, What is the difference between you and Jae? What’s going on with her? Why are you here?
Isaac taps his legs, staring back at the Head Healer with mild annoyance. Because of course her real questions are left unspoken.
“I’m still working it out myself,” he replies. “For one, Jae seems to only affect wizards with Life magic. I, on the other hand, can only hear the thoughts of beings within a certain range. She can project her thoughts, I cannot. But, because of her presence within a being like you and my… ability to delve into minds, I’m able to talk to her directly as well.”
Yumi’s eyebrows arch high. He/You can? she wonders. The alternation in her thought makes Isaac frown. She’s aware he can hear her. She knows he’s listening, especially since he’s been addressing her thoughts. So does she feel some sort of obligation to try and cater to him? She doesn’t seem to be entirely aware of it herself. He doesn’t know what to feel about it.
So he moves on. “The first being I was using… wasn’t ideal for either of us. So she asked me to come to you instead.”
Who? is her first thought, though it quickly changes to, What does that mean? Why are you/is he here?
Isaac laces his fingers together, prepared to answer, but he stops himself. There’s an uneasy lurch in his gut. The discomfort is returning in full force. Once more, his attention shifts away from Yumi, his quiet thoughts roaring back into focus. How is she not more upset with him? How is she not more disgusted? How is she still able to look at him like any other being? How has she been able to accept this… insanity so fast?
Instead of words leaving his mouth, a shaky breath escapes instead.
He can’t comprehend any of this. It doesn’t make any sense. He was braced for rejection. Where is it?
“Isaac?” Yumi asks.
He shakes his head to try and clear it, but there’s an incessant buzzing in the back of his head that doesn’t leave.
“I’m fine,” he pushes himself to lie, shifting in his chair once more. Yumi’s stare is that of mild skepticism, but she comes to the conclusion that pressing him would probably make whatever he’s going through worse.
He’s struggling with himself, she reasons.
“I just want to help Jae,” Isaac adds through gritted teeth. He doesn’t know what to feel anymore. He’s confused but frustrated but scared but relieved in a strange way.
“What are you going to do?” Yumi inquires, softly trying to get him to move on from whatever thoughts are tormenting him.
Fair enough. He did come to her with a purpose. Now it’s time to get things done. No more stalling.
He takes a moment to calm himself, forcing his mind back to the task at hand. He holds his hands up, palms aglow with the soothing hum of his magic. “I’m going to go through your mind to reach hers. And then… I can try and teach her how to focus at least. Once she learns how to do that, hopefully this haze you all are feeling will lift.”
Learning how to focus one’s mind is better explained practically than through a lecture. And… he’s not ready to go to the castle yet.
Yumi stares at him for a moment, but she hardly does much contemplating about his plan. She hesitates because she’s scared, but part of her thinks that this is an interesting way to help her friend learn her new powers. It could work.
“You’ll be opening your mind to me,” he warns. “I won’t delve too deep, but I can’t guarantee that I’ll not see some things in there.”
Yumi only nods back, leaning across her desk towards him. She’s aware of that possibility, but at this point she rather help her friend than try to hide secrets. She, on some level, is aware that now she must get comfortable with the fact that all of her private thoughts can now be known to some being on Astria, be it Jae, Isaac, or some other wizard she has yet to meet.
“Just do it.”
Slowly, Isaac places his fingers on her forehead the same way he did with Anora. “Relax,” he advises.
He feels her do as he asks. As much as she can, anyway. And so her mind unravels before him.
He was expecting to see her memories, but instead he’s met with abstractions. A mass of worries, frustrations, and pressures constantly weighing on her mind. The only way he can describe it is as an emotional blockade.
He can’t help but let out a huff. What a mind.
He pushes past this black pillar, reaching towards the haze looming above it. It’s quiet, not quite as present as it had been earlier that same cycle. But as he nears it, he can hear distant voices. Their words are muffled, but he can already recognize a few of them.
Quietly, he pushes onward. The haze draws him directly to Jae, as he expected. But instead of finding a mind adrift like before, he’s brought directly into her own headspace, a place scared of itself as it tries to keep up with the discussion happening around it.
The world around her is unfocused, her full attention on her body and her breath. It’s become her obsession, her only anchor to her own reality. She doesn’t want to be drawn back into that tangled mess of minds again. That is, until she senses Isaac’s presence.
She turns to him immediately, the colors of the world fading away. She manifests in an ethereal form of bright green energy and narrow eyes of white light. Hope, relief, and, most of all, fear, emits from her figure as she allows herself to be taken to Yumi’s mind.
[You…] her voice hums, all her emotions averaging out into a flat tone.
“Hello again, Jae,” he mutters. “I hope I’m not interrupting-”
[I wasn’t listening,] is her immediate response.
“Clearly.”
And somewhere in the middle, there is Yumi’s voice, astonished. One simple breathless word, lost in awe, Wow.
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