Chapter 37 - Maya Rosenwald P19

Chapter 37 - Maya Rosenwald P19

~37.19~

*****

"If you develop feelings for anyone again, especially one of your friends, would you act on it?"

"...I'm not sure." She was hesitant to answer. "I don't want to lose another friend, especially after I've come to care for all of my friends so much. I think I'd rather go unrequited and keep my friends than confess anything and risk losing them."

"I see."

I don't want to lose her either.

"After I first heard about your past friendships from those two girls on our second day, I said to myself that no matter what happens if a friend confessed to me, I would stay friends with them so long as they wanted to stay friends. That idea and others I've thought about since then have all been one-sided. I hadn't thought about it from the other perspective."

"What do you mean?"

"Let's say I was in a committed relationship, and fell in love with somebody else. I'm not against polyamory, and neither are they, but they're away for a while and I can't talk to them for a long time. I've questioned this hypothetical in my head many times. Would my partner approve? Would that be considering betrayal? But I only thought about it from my point of view. But then earlier today, I had cause to think about it from the other side. What if I was the one that was away, and my partner fell in love."

"What would you do?"

"I would want to encourage them to be happy. If taking another partner would make them happy, then I'd encourage them along. And I'd like to think that if I had a partner as committed to me as I was to them, that they'd think the same."

She smiled at the idea. "If I were in the other shoes, I think I would encourage it, too."

"Back in my own point of view, I'm a bit dumb about romance. I had a couple cases back in Aindrea where I was completely oblivious. I had five boys and two girls confess to me and I had no clue until they did."

"What happened?"

"I turned them down. I didn't feel that way about any of them." I looked up at the ceiling and raised my hand as if grasping at the light. "But now, I have all these thoughts crashing around in my mind, and I'm having trouble sorting it out."

She stopped interjecting. I could tell she had an idea of what those thoughts were. Her face was red, as I'm sure mine was. I stood up and took a step toward the door.

"It's going to eat me alive from the inside if I don't say anything." I turned back toward her. She was covering her mouth, but I could still see the blush in her cheeks and the stars in her eyes. "Maya Nacht Weltwald, I have feelings for you." She jumped up and started to respond, but I stopped her. "Before you say anything, I need to say a little more."

"Okay." She nodded and listened intently.

"You were candid with me about your identity, but I haven't been the same. You'll understand why if you come with me. I won't talk about it here, and I won't accept any responses unless you do. I will tell you what I am no matter how you respond, but I don't want to talk further here. I'm going to get dressed and wait-"

She walked past me before I could finish. "Then let's go."

"Huh?"

She turned around, and I saw the most serious look in her eyes that I'd seen in any mortal. "You just confessed to me, and there's something else that you want to tell me. I'll hear the rest, so let's go."

I smiled and we headed to the dressing room. Before we left the bath, I said, "Serah, Stella, we're going to talk privately. It's about you-know-what. Don't try to follow us, you can't get there without my help."

""Yes, Princess.""

I stepped into the dressing room, and found Maya half dressed already. I quickly dried off, got dressed, and held my hand out to her. "I'm going to teleport there. It's a long way, but still on this continent. The location is quite high up, but the air will not be thin."

"Okay. I'm ready." She took my head and I whisked her away with me.

*****

"Is that the World Tower?" she asked, looking to the north. "I've never seen it this close. Where are we?"

"A floating island I concealed with invisibility and intangibility magic. I come here to be alone. There's not much here, just this house and some basic things."

"The magic required to maintain this is unreal. How in the world?"

I smiled and guided her into the house. "I've been working on and off for a few years on a project in here. This device with a screen is a computer."

"Is that like a magi-terminal?"

"Somewhat. Nineteen years ago this coming December, I was born into this world as Elise Aindrea. This is the part that gets hard to believe, but I will show you whatever it takes for you to believe it."

"Given what you've said so far, I'll keep an open mind."

I nodded and started. "My real name isn't Elise Aindrea. That's the name I was given by my parents when I was born here. Before this life, I lived in a different world. A higher world called Eden. It's also called the Transcendent Realm or Transcendent World."

"It's like the very concept of heaven."

I shook my head. "No. The concept of heaven and hell for mortals is different. Mortals can never go to Eden."

"Oh. So it's neither heaven nor hell."

"To mortals, it's more like... the realm of the gods. In fact, some Transcendents refer to themselves as gods and descend into mortal worlds to play the part, though most would say they are full of themselves. Anyway, I'm from Eden. Specifically, I was from the Kingdom of Alexandria."

"You have kingdoms there?"

I nodded. "Yes. The mortal worlds are modeled after ours, and mortals themselves were created in our image. I look exactly the same right now as I did back home."

"How did you end up here?"

"Before that. My name. I'm Elysia Alexandria, King of the World."

"King? Of the world?"

*****

Revision: 2025-2-12