Half a truth

Tlou was walking descending while looking around, he never left the stairs to explore. He walked and walked and walked. It was honestly nerve-wracking. He never knew what the next floor had waiting for him but he had no choice but to keep going. Along with his mind, his body was also growing tired. He would occasionally stop and sit on a stair to catch his breath and rest. 'Who in their right minds would live so high up in such a big place, who would even buy such a big place?' Tlou was getting frustrated, his fear presenting itself in complaints. The place was deathly silent. A lot of the floors were mostly wreckage, he didn't have the guts to look at the floors directly. He made out details through the edge of his peripheral vision, he was afraid someone would be standing right next to him if he turned his head. Eventually, he reached the bottom. The ground floor was a large and dark hall. The roof had 1 extremely large sphere to illuminate the place. The space was vacant except for the orb, there were two doors on opposite sides of the room and large stone double doors at the end of the hall. 'I made it' Tlou was relieved but also more alert, it had been smooth sailing so far, too smooth. He hurried his steps and arrived at the door, he examined it and then pulled with all his strength. Nothing. It didn't budge even a bit.

'No way', he pulled again, ' You're joking'. And again and again but it didn't budge. Tlou was trapped. 'NO, please, open, I beg you' he took off his robe and tried putting it through the handles, but it was too thick. He wanted to cut the robe to make it thinner but discarded the idea. He was too weak. He quickly wore the robes again as he had nothing underneath. 'Wait a minute, the window! I can leave through the window! ' . The idea quickly died. Ten plus stories was nothing to scoff at, plus he had nothing to use as a rope.'This is troublesome' he looked at the stairs then the door. 'What a bust, maybe there's something in this place that can blow the door off. Oh right, the system. He focused and tried opening the panel again. The panel appeared again he focused on Heydar's stats. " Poison, Venom, and Lifeforce...Affinities" he muttered to himself and tried to come up with ideas. 'Heydar is probably an expert when it comes to poison and venom so It's safe to conclude that he wasn't killed by poison'. 'His room smelt of rot, it was probably the smell of his body mixed with poison and venom, maybe even medication'. ' With that in mind, it's less likely that others live with him, it would be too dangerous for them to be around Heydar unless they're also poison engineers, which isn't something an outrageous idea'.' But is poison that popular of a practice? I have a system that lets me understand my affinities, others can only walk in the dark and choose to pursue whatever is convenient or accessible to them'. 'What are the chances that someone decides that poison will be something fun or useful? Only possibly sinister individuals and organizations specializing in poison would choose it'. 'These points are more than enough to assume that Heydar lives alone..I hope'

Tlou was unusually calm, it was unlike him, he was never the composed type. Before transmigrating he had been put in a cell due a domestic violence report. He beat up his girlfriend till she was unrecognizable. Tlou did it in self-defense but he went beyond self-defense, in hindsight she didn't even hurt him, it was a slight slap that barely stung. What was hurt was his ego, his patience, and the wall that was storing a lot of anger that was repressed. She unfortunately the one who allowed him to vent out his frustrations. He was the type of person to generally be normal but have frequent outbursts of anger whenever his heart started beating too fast and he felt wrong or irritated. 'Does Heydar's body feel at home? Now that I realise it, why don't I have any of Heydar's memories? '. When Tlou was assessing his situation he had an unusual confidence in his conclusion. 'How do I know others don't have ways to gauge their affinities? But they don't that's just.. common...sense'. He froze for a moment then started thinking about whether or not people knew their affinities, and to his surprise he knew! ' So I do have some of Heydar's memories, I guess it's like the books, the more time elapsed the more I could understand'. 'This body still has a brain, and the brain has the hippocampus with time I should remember enough things as long as the memories are provoked by situations and topics related to them'. After making this discovery he tried to think about whether others lived with him or not. But he couldn't remember, he instead decided to rely on intuition the same intuition that guided his thinking. But he couldn't remember 'No way, what a joke'. He almost broke out into laughter. 'This old man has a bad memory, maybe even Alzheimer's! what a joke hahaha' He laughed in his head but had a bitter smile on his face. He decided to go back up the stairs, he recalled medicine beside the bed. They might be for his memory if they aren't poison. 'I should go back up, if I am caught I will pretend as if I lost my memory'. He picked up the stick and started scaling the stairs.

He climbed the stairs. This time with the courage to look around. The second floor was mostly in ruins, the third was slightly better, but with odd plants growing wildly. The fourth was identical to the third. He kept climbing and eventually arrived at the floor where he woke up. This floor was different from the rest. It looked well maintained. The floor had a red carpet embroidered with gold designs. There was only one door, and it was at the end. The walls were adorned with many portraits and paintings of all sizes. Although there were 4 that were significantly larger than the rest. 3 of them were blank. The fourth one was a portrait of a woman in a red Victorian dress. She was surrounded by flowers and sitting on top of an absurdly larger flower. She had black hair that was tied in a bun and a very welcoming smile on her face. Tlou was intrigued. He was unsure of which era this world was in. His attire seemed very ancient, reminiscent of a monk's cowl but. Some parts of the building seemed like the castle of a thane, others like the mansion of an upper-class member of the Industrial Revolution. This floor was a mix of both. The woman's attire was not fitting. He went closer to it and stared for a bit, before leaving to the door at the end. "The fool lives?" A voice asked with some anger. Tlou froze and felt his stomach twist and drop, his heartbeat quickening.