Chapter 21 - The Dragon Eye

“It’s nothing.” 

Rhema lifted her and the robe that wrapped her altogether. As soon as he took a step, the surroundings changed. It was a clean and classy bedroom. There were two beds and Maylie was passed out on one of them. He looked at the bed with unsatisfied eyes and carefully put down Azriel. “It might be too much for you if we move too far, so we should rest here today. Would you like to eat something?”

“No…” Answered Azriel.

“All right.” Perching on the bed, Azriel watched him move. He whisked out of sight and appeared with a porcelain bathtub with gold decoration. Then he made water in the air. The sight of water gushing out and filling the tub just by a small whisper of “Reshith” was not even very surprising now. He, who disappeared again after filling the tub with water, appeared with a basket and a strange lump of light in his hands. The light, which was about the size of a child’s head, was waning indiscriminately. In Azriel’s eyes, it seemed to be disconcerted. Rhema laid the basket next to the bathtub and let go of the lump of light. Then, it flew to Azriel like an arrow.

“Yikes!” Azriel backed off in surprise. Paying no attention to such a reaction, the lump of light circled around her, blinking.

“It’s a spirit I made. It seems happy to see you in a long time.”

“A spirit…? You made it? It knows me?”

“I’ll tell you all about it later. You should warm yourself first. The spirit will serve you.” Rhema stepped back and pulled the bed curtain. As the tub was placed between the bed and window, the room was divided to some degree when the thick bed curtain was shut. Then, before Azriel could say something, the lump of light, called a spirit, moved busily. It jumped into the basket and came out with bath preparation wrapped around it and dropped it in the tub. Then it went into the tub, circled around to mix the bath preparation with water, and flew back to Azriel.

“Umm, excuse me…”

‘What should I call it?’ Pondered Azriel. The spirit clung to Azriel who was getting nervous. It removed Rhema’s robe that covered her and undressed her clothes that were soaked wet in rain in no time. When it was about to undress her undergarments, she freaked out and held onto them. “I, I’ll do it!” The spirit swayed from side to side as if it was tilting its head. Then it flew to the basket and took out all sorts of bath supplies including a towel and soap. Meanwhile, Azriel laid down the undergarments she took off and stepped into the tub. While doing so, she lost her balance and slid, but the spirit quickly held her up. “Oh, thank you… I guess you can be touched, can’t you?”

It looked like a regular lump of light but she could feel its flabby touch. She dipped herself in the nice scented water and fiddled with the spirit. It stayed steady in her palm for a while but soon flustered to get out of it and began washing her hair. The water temperature was perfectly warm. It was a warm bath she first had in almost five years since she was a ‘lady’ just before she became a slave. Her frozen body due to the rain softly melted down. Azriel dipped her whole body below her chin. On the back of her feet which wavered below the water, the brand was not seen. ‘Everything feels like a dream. I can’t believe it.’ Too many things happened in a short period of time. With her body and spirit both exhausted, she was continuously spacing out. Burying her face in her wet hands, she slightly raised her voice. “Rhema, are you there?” Come to think of it, she had been unknowingly calling him without an honorific. She wondered why it felt more natural. Maybe she used to call him this way.

“I am, Azriel.” Beyond the thick curtain, she could hear his voice. Setting her eyes on the water dripping along her hand, she spoke. “If you’ve closed my memory, would I be able to remember it all soon?”

“Since the moment you allowed me to break my vow, the latch has been unlocked. As of now, I’ve paused it for a short while, everything will settle into its place little by little.” The memories from age seven to ten. The reason why she could not remember no matter how much she tried was because that wizard had erased it all. She was in warm water, but she suddenly felt chilly.

‘Since a wizard who can manipulate my memory is next to me, I can’t even trust my own memory.’ It was creepy. She rubbed her skin on forearms with goosebumps all over. “Rhema.”

“Yes, Azriel.”

“…Why did you name me?” The spirit wrapped Azriel’s rinsed hair with its formless body. As it stayed still for a while and fell off, dampness in her hair disappeared in an instant. It started brushing her well-dried hair neatly. Rhema, who stayed silent, finally answered in a subdued tone by the time the brushing was almost over. 

“It’s because you are someone who can see the same things as me.” It was the same response he gave when she asked why he wanted to help her. He then added. “The first one to show up before me in a thousand years.”

“A th, thousand years?”

“Yes, it should be about that much.” It was 996 in the Iskam Year now. It would be a thousand years if you started counting even before the calendar was created. Such a remote past felt surreal. He looked only about 24 or 25, but a thousand years?

“Rhema, you don’t look like you’re older than a thousand years…”

“I stopped aging ever since I became a wizard.”

“Then you’re i, immortal?”

“It’s similar.”

They said that the Wizard of the Horizon was immortal. She already knew about it, but it was too much to take when she heard it right next to her. ‘Similar to being immortal’ did not make sense either. It seemed better to ask about something else, putting this aside for now. Endless questions were piled up anyway. With a split voice, Azriel changed the subject. “Well, you said I can see the same things as you. Do you mean things like the stars from a while ago? The thing called mana?”

“You’re right. But they look like lines to me, not stars. It’s because each dragon eye perceives mana in different forms by nature.”

“Dragon eye?”

“It’s what we call the eye that can see mana, which both you and I are born with.”

“That’s called the dragon eye? The eye of a dragon…”