Potential New Existence

As the three entered, they found the living room buzzing with laughter. Isolde—the main one laughing—leaned over her book in hushed hysteria.

Solace, on the other hand, was leaning over the chair with a smirk. As the door opened, they shifted their attention to it, expecting to see Sumi and Cassilyth come through. Instead, a figure with a medium-brown skin tone appeared.

Dreads of uneven length framed his face, partially covering his eyes, while the rest were tied into two high ponytails on either side of his head.

Pots of food and a tub of ice cream floated past him and settled on the large wooden table, which was set for a formal dinner. It had everything one could hope for in a dinner—white plates, silverware, crystal-clear wine glasses, and neatly folded napkins.

The table featured a white floral centrepiece around which the pots were gathered. The figure waited next to the door, keeping it open for Cassilyth and Sumi.

Solace and Isolde glanced at each other briefly as Sumi and Cassilyth took seats to the side, parallel to theirs.

Ten sleek, black dining chairs with smooth, curved backs and slender legs sat around the table; two chairs were at either end of the table, and three were on each side. Feeling that all eyes were on him, Altha silently made his way to Cassilyth and Sumi—nearly stumbling on his retreat.

Cassilyth pulled a chair between her and Sumi for him to sit; Sumi smiled at the gesture.

Once they were all properly settled, Isolde cleared her throat, looked directly at Altha, and said:

"I sense no Ether-Signature; I sense no Cogni-Signature either. Well, do you care to explain?"

Sumi sighed and glanced at Altha, who was silently looking at the table. It was obvious he wasn't all too comfortable speaking yet, so she told them about the night before—how they had met and the remembrance she'd gained from it.

By the end of her retelling, their expressions were mixed. Solace seemed deep in thought, his hand on his chin; Isolde was scribbling in an interesting-looking tome; and Cassilyth looked at Altha in fascination.

Altha stayed silent, looking down at the table, his eyes occasionally darting around the room; his expression was unreadable.

Hesitantly, Sumi put her hand on his shoulder and looked at the others as she said:

"I know you all have questions that need answers; I also know that this differs greatly from what you currently understand to be a trend among the Outer-Existials—and I will not claim that I am not weary myself. But I will say this much: for the very little time I've known him, Altha has only ever been kind and helpful. I cannot speak on his behalf, of course, as only he knows the full story of what he's done, and at the end of the day, it's up to you whether you trust him or not."

Cassilyth smiled and placed a hand on Altha's shoulder.

"Indeed, he is an odd one. I'm sure all of you have already noted his lack of an Ether or Cogni Signature, which differentiates him not only from us but from the Outer-Existials as well. He is no Outer-Existial, just as much as he isn't a Sequenced-Existence like us. Perhaps… just perhaps he is a new existence," she said as she looked at Sumi.

Clearing her throat, Sumi spoke:

"As Cassilyth ever so eloquently put it, 'Perhaps he is a new existence,' which is precisely why I have called all of you here today. I would like all of us to work with Altha to figure out what he is and what that might mean for the Spire and Existence as a whole—that is, if Altha agrees to it."

Sumi's gaze shifted to Altha as well as to Cassilyth. Altha glanced around the table while Solace and Isolde listened intently (with Isolde still writing in her tome).

"I… uhh, I wish I could help, but I don't really know what I am either," Altha said quietly.

"You don't know? What do you mean?" Solace asked.

Altha looked up slightly and spoke in Solace's direction:

"My parents were Infernal by nature; my mother was a Nephilim, and my father was a Tarnished," he said quietly.

Cassilyth shivered at the utterance.

"A Nephilim, you say? An extremely rare bunch, those are. Forgive me for asking, but could you show us your wings?" Solace asked curiously.

"In here?" Altha asked, his voice louder than before—nearly breaking on the question.

Solace looked at the others and said:

"Well, it's not every day that one encounters a Nephilim, now is it? And I am quite the ever-so-curious chap."

Cassilyth gently tightened her grip on his shoulder and said:

"You don't have to if you're not comfortable, though."

Altha remained quiet for a bit; then, silently, he stood up—and, out of thin air, a lengthy, ghostly wing of prismatic crystal appeared. The wing was on his right; its colour was grey, and it looked withered.

What should have been a reflective surface was, instead, stone-textured grey. From the ceiling hung multiple textured glass orbs, varying in height and emitting a warm glow that threw the wing's shadow on the floor.

"Weird, right? I know… I've seen my mother's wings before, and they were altogether drastically different from mine. My father had horns and a tail." Letting the wing vanish, he slowly sat back down and, in an indifferent tone, continued, "But as you can see, I struggled to inherit either of their appearances or even their Aspects. Those, if I did inherit any, were… defective."

"You don't seem all that torn up about it," Cassilyth said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Well, as the years dragged on, I lost the will to care. By the time I was eight, I had already lost interest. I wish I could help you all, but I'm afraid I'm just as in the dark as all of you."

"What about the Spatial-Fract you came out of? Surely you must know something about that," Cassilyth stated as she leaned in to establish eye contact with Altha.

"It was the first time I'd done it. It was my only escape," Altha said as he looked away.

"Escape?" Sumi asked.

Altha turned to her and answered:

"I was stuck somewhere I assumed to be the Outer; I wasn't sure for a while and thought maybe I was dead—or worse—but that theory quickly died after the first horde of Outer-Existials appeared."

They all exchanged looks; then, Sumi asked:

"And how long were you there for?"

"About a year or so… or maybe a few months—hard to keep time in a realm estranged to the concept," Altha replied. He then turned to Sumi, fiddling with his thumbs and bowing his head, as he quietly said:

"Weary from the hell of having to survive each day, I thought up a plan of escape. I traveled far to find a region where the barrier between the Outer and the Living Multiverse was thinnest, and I led an Outer-Existial there. But, fearing I could not defeat it alone, I lured you there and put you in harm's way. I'm truly sorry."

Turning red, Sumi looked away and said:

"No harm done—I was just doing my job." Gently lifting his head, they locked eyes. "I'm just glad I could help. In my occupation, we often see people die; I'm glad I could at least save someone."

Altha averted his gaze and quietly said:

"Thank you, again. I meant to fight that entity with you, but a horde of weaker Outers appeared, and I ended up having to hold them off for a while. Again, I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me."

She gently squeezed his shoulder.

"No, seriously, it's fine. There is nothing to apologize for; you did what you had to do to survive. I might have done the same if our roles were reversed," she replied.

"Extraordinary..." Solace stated flatly. "To think someone could actually survive passing through a Spatial-Fract. It's never been done before—or at least, it's never been heard of. You must be a rather high Existence, yes?"

"Existence?" he uttered in quiet confusion.

"And done!" Isolde said as she finished writing in her tome and gracefully tore a page out of the book. Imbuing the page with Ether, the runes on its surface began to glow with a pale blue light.

The symbols rearranged into words in a flash, and then she slid the paper to Sumi and said:

"Well, it's hard to determine much at all—most of his attributes are obscured somehow—but I can at the very least say that he is, in fact, not an Astral."

Sumi picked up the piece of paper and read aloud:

  General Status:

Name/s: Altha, Noctorin

Surname: Valkeriel

Age: 16

Gender: Male

Height: 5.5 feet

Weight: 57.5 kg

  Meaning:

Dream Name: ???

Runic Name: ---

Insignial Name: ---

True Name: ---

Existence Status:

Existence Sequence: ???

Existence Category: ???

  Energy Status:

Energy Output: ???

Energy Input: ???

Energy Signature: Grey (???)

Energy Type: Psyche

Energy Quality: Einer

Energy Quantity: ???

Conversion Rate: ???

Overall: ???

  Astral Status: Selected

Remembrance(s): ---

Inner-Existial(s): ---

Spire Sequence: ---

  Essence Status:

Soul: ---

Genius: ---

Psyche Factor: ???

  Aspect Status:

Unbound: Exception

Deific: Congnisance, Clairvoyance

Divine: Prisma, Esper

Primary: ---

Auxiliary: ---

Minor: Fate

"Psyche? What kind of energy is that?" Sumi asked.

"Forget the Energy Status—are you seeing what I'm seeing from his Aspects?" Solace asked.

Cassilyth remained silent the whole time, quietly observing. Seeing Altha twiddle his thumbs under the table, she smiled and then said aloud for all to hear:

"Okay, everyone, I think that's about enough talking for tonight. Some of us are hungry and need our beauty sleep. I'm sure Altha is tired as well at this point, so I say we all eat and then think all of this over as we return to our own homes. Just because tomorrow's a Saturday doesn't mean I want to stay up all night with you hooligans."

"Hooligans? Of all the words in the world, and yet you choose that one," Solace said "also you still owe me an explaination for earlier today."

"Shush, you're the biggest hooligan of all," she stated, "that will have to wait for another day."

Solace looked at her, confused, and said:

"Is this because I woke you up in the afterno— I mean, in the morning?"

She sighed and plated herself some food; everyone else followed her lead. Once the dinner had concluded, everyone went their separate ways except for Cassilyth, who decided to sleep over. She and Altha helped Sumi clean up before everyone retreated to bed for the night.