Arrival

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Suddenly, Cain could use all of his senses. He felt himself breathing and could hear his heartbeat, although it was very weak.

'What happened to the speck and why is it still dark?'

Cain figured that doing nothing wasn't going to change anything, so he started to feel his surroundings.

His fingers touched something soft and silky, the texture flowed through his fingers and intertwined his hands. He could also feel something on his face, but he decided to ignore it since he could see anything and goofing around wasn't going to help him. Cain also smelled the distinct scent of lavender, it surrounded him like a fog and was so potent that he wondered if someone had an addiction to the stuff.

'Seriously, who uses this much lavender?'

"The… he has… breathing! Quick… the miss… go!"

"Young… awake! Fetch a… of water."

"Col… My son! My… boy how are... ?"

As Cain was feeling his new surroundings he suddenly heard voices, although the sentences were incomplete and scrambled.

'What's happening? Why are there people here, did they enter the void too?'

The voices began to yell and scramble about. However, none of the people's voices he could remember and none sounded normal.

The language was unfamiliar, yet he could somehow understand what the people around him were saying. Unlike English, this language sounded pretty and each sentence flowed with a magical kind of grace. This slightly shocked him, but he decided to ignore that and quietly listened to the people.

While Cain was taking in all the new sounds and smells, he felt something cold grasp his left hand. His whole body flinched, he had no control over it. The action was sudden and took him off guard.

The cold hands covered his, weaving it's fingers through his with slightly shaking arms. He began to relax as he realized that he wasn't in any kind of danger.

'Wow these are some cold hands.'

Cain wondered who would have such freezing hands. They were practically ice!

The person's hands were also significantly larger than his hands. In fact, he felt like his hands were a little smaller than normal. Something akin to a child's hands.

"Cole, my little boy! How are you? Can you hear me? It's okay, you're safe now."

The woman's voice, he could tell it was a woman's voice based on the slightly softer tone, was close to his head and was full of concern.

'Weird, she clearly called me Cole but that's not my name? Did mother forget? Makes sense considering she wasn't even the one to name me. Wait, but aren't I dead? Did I die and come back? Is this a hospital?'

Many thoughts and questions flashed through his head. Why couldn't he open his eyes? What was the stuff he was laying on? Why does it reek of lavender? Cain then slightly parted his lips, which was hard to do considering how chapped they were.

"Mo… ther?"

He didn't quite know why he chose to say mother instead of the many other questions he had. He was also quite surprised that when he spoke, he didn't speak English. He could feel the words changing to the unknown language as they left his mouth. The sound he made was raspy, but it carried a certain grace to it that Cain didn't expect.

"Yes. Yes! It's me, mother, how are you feeling? Does anything hurt?"

"Yeah… breathing is… hard."

He managed to wheeze out these few words before he had to gasp for breath. Cain felt the tears well up in the corners of his eyes as he gasped for breath.

'Damn, such a weak body. Why does this hurt so much? Breathing is fundamentally easy, just inhale and exhale…'

Is what he thought as he struggled to manage his breathing.

"Oh dear. Cole, don't talk yet. Your body is still weak after the incident. Jade, grab the mendicant and get me a bowl of water. Quickly! I don't want to have to call the Count."

Her once worried tone was replaced by a more confident and commanding one. She let go of his hand and he could hear the lady shuffle as she stood up.

Suddenly, he could feel a hand on his face. His whole body flinched and he wanted to yelp in surprise but his weak body was already trying to pump air to his lungs and he didn't have the strength. However, he could feel something moving around on his face. No, it was more like an unwrapping sensation.

He silently realized that the reason why he couldn't see anything was because his head was wrapped up in a bandage.

All of the sudden, light streamed into his tired eyes. The darkness that he had lived in for god knows how long, was broken. He could see colors, people, and light.

It was quite a shock to him when he saw the woman who was towering over him.

She was perhaps the most beautiful woman Cain had ever seen. P*rn stars couldn't even hold a candle to this lady.

'Is this lady my mother?'

She had long, straight, ink black hair that streamed down her shoulders and ended near her bottom. Her skin was porcelain white and not a single scratch, mark, or blemish was visible. Complementary to her hair, her eyes were a deep black. Almost the same pure colored black as the void he spent ages floating around in. The lady's features were sharp, but they gave her a strict and sophisticated kind of beauty. She also carried herself with dignity and confidence, her shoulders were back and her spine was straight to the point where Cain wondered how a person could stand in such a way.

"Goddess…"

He couldn't help himself. She was just so shockingly pretty that he had to mumble what came to his mind first.

"Cole, sweetie, did you say something? Are you okay?"

He lightly shook his head side to side, he wasn't going to admit that he called her a Goddess. Besides, he used up the last of his breath to mumble to himself.

When he confirmed that he was fine, except for the slight issue of breathing, the lady handed the bandages that covered his eyes to what Cain thought was a cosplayer. The female cosplayer was wearing a very frilly maid outfit with the iconic black dress and white apron.

'Wait, that's not a cosplayer… a maid? What kind of sick joke is this? Is anyone else seeing this lunatic?'

He then looked back towards the lady, only to see her wearing similarly styled clothing.

Only when he took a closer look did he realize that the lady was actually dressed in a fancier dress. She was wearing a dark green dress with black lace around the sleeves, neck, and bottom of the dress. She was also showing off a black corset over her dress. The lady wore no makeup and only had a beautiful pair of simple pearl earrings, but she still looked heavenly.

Actually, when he took a look at his surroundings, he realized he wasn't in a hospital. Nor was he back in his room at home. Instead, he was in a large king sized bed that sat in a decently large room. At least thrice the size of his old room. This room was draped in fancy objects, it had elegant paintings around the walls and each window was draped in expensive looking silk. The walls were a light, baby blue color and had white crowning along the top. The furniture was very medieval esque and everything looked like it was made of fine materials. Instead of cotton his bed sheets were made of fine silk and each pillow was covered in fancy embroidery or silk. The floor was a white and grey marble that had a nice glossy look to it.

'Damn, this whole room would probably sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.'

He was quite shocked at what was in front him. So shocked that his face must have shown some kind of surprised expression because the lady frowned.

"Are you sure you're okay Cole?"

"Yeahhh…"

He was still quite shocked and took a moment before answering the lady's question, his voice was also a little shaky but he tried to conceal it. Everything was so expensive and odd. This room looked very different than he was used to, not to mention the people's weird clothing styles.

Besides the lady and the maid, presumably named Maria, there were also a few other maids in the room. But they were busy doing other activities across the room. Like one maid who was dusting a bookshelf, and a second maid had an old broom and was sweeping the floor, while another maid was wiping the furthest window. The maids were all doing their chores, but occasionally they would turn and steal a quick glance at Cain and the fancy lady.

'They are terrible at being sneaky, I can clearly see them glancing at me. I'm not some kind of zoo animal damnit, stop glancing at me.'

He was starting to feel a little uncomfortable at the strangers gaze, it was judgmental and slightly cold. Not at all welcoming to a person who just died and woke up in a strange environment.

It was pretty quiet in the room, the only sound came from the maids as they shuffled their feet while carrying out their chores. He enjoyed the silence, and it seemed the lady did too. She had a slight smile on her face while she stood over Cain, it was a warm and soft smile. If Cain had grown up with a proper mother, he would have compared her smile to one that a loving mother would use. However, Cain could only associate it as a genuine smile, nothing about it was fake or forced.

Her expression turned a little sour as they made eye contact. Her smile faltered a little and her eyes gained a glossy look to them, tears threatened to fall but the lady forcefully collected herself.

"Cole, whatever you do, please don't say anything to the Count… Just, do this as a favor to your mother. I know you're a good boy, no matter what he says. Okay?"

"Yes… mom."

Although he was confused as to why his mom was showing such an expression, Cain couldn't bring himself to say "mother". It was what he used to call that woman and it resurfaced bad memories.

It was only a few seconds after he agreed to his mom's condition that the door to the room burst open. Slowly, a figure started to walk in.

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