Immortals | ✓

09 | aethera

But what after that? The worry was about what was here. 

We had been so desperate for answers that we forgot to focus on what those answers will be. 

If this is our reality, if Clarissa is a walking example of what we are, is that the answer we wanted? That we're freaks? Murderers? That we could, if not controlled, wipe out anyone who pisses us off?

My chain of thoughts came to an end with a single breath. Deep down I knew there was only one thing that truly scared me after Clarissa's story. If my old self couldn't control the anger, the rage I had against the world, how will this new, unknown self with unthinkable and uncontrollable power do it? 

━━ αθάνατοι ━━

"You know, if you stop eating, you can go days until you feel hungry at all?" Clarissa said as I played around with the chickpea salad which had been laying on my plate for the last ten minutes. 

"So I would have no appetite ever?" Just another thing to be added to the list of weird abilities of this new body, I thought to myself, resenting this new-found information almost immediately. 

"Once in thirty days, is my personal record," she said. "But just to not lose touch, we eat a meal every day. Keeps you on a schedule and helps save your energy." 

"Save your energy for what, exactly?" Art asked. Unlike me, he had finished his dinner and was eyeing Clarissa and Jace. I hadn't had the chance to talk to him, but it seemed like he had been taking this afternoon's conversation better than I was. 

"For attacks, what else? There is like, always a constant threat of kako daemones, of course, and -"

"Kako, what now?" I asked Jace who has been quick to answer Art's question, on an impulse. 

"Spirits in human form, really bad spirits -"

"Hey, Sonic, calm down!" Clarissa snapped, hitting Jace in the chest with her elbow. "I told you, patience." She pointed at us. "You'll know when you have to know." 

"Which is...when?" Art asked.

"When I have my share of answers," she smiled, throwing the half-folded napkin as she got up from the table and gestured us to follow. I was the first to get up, followed by Art who chugged the wine he had been served and muttered something under his breath which I muted out. 

We followed her towards the study again, but this time she crossed the hall to open the sliding doors on the end to the garden behind. The news report was true, it was a huge estate and I didn't need otherworldly powers to tell me that. A path flanked by gardens stretched in front of us, illuminated by small warm white lights in the distance. I could hear so many insects, birds, and animals that I had to take a breath to steady my hearing and focus. 

I could hear a creek far ahead, a mist and thick layers of forest hid it from the path. 

I was getting better at steading my powers by now, I could tune out some of the noises that my senses invited without a filter, but with Art grumbling beside me, I wondered if he knew too. While Clarissa walked ahead of us, I held his arm and slowed him down. He looked at me and stopped for a second as if waiting to hear me out. 

But when his glowing eyes met mine, even I took another few seconds to steady myself. It was mesmerizing and to say I was enchanted would be an understatement. Even after a week, I wasn't used to how it felt to be looking into a pair of glowing eyes, which illuminated his face, despite the stray dark hair almost covering them. 

"Are you okay?" he asked when I didn't say a word. 

"Ah...yes" I muttered, trying to compose myself and averting my eyes from his. "Take a deep breath," I told him and he looked confused for a second before doing what I asked him to. "Now, when you inhale, try to focus on my voice." He nodded. "Hold onto it. Focus only on my voice and try to let other voices go. You have to visualize it, in your mind, any way you can. Hold them and throw them in a jar or just imagine you're in a car and you're throwing others outside the window..." I said, carefully looking at him as he closed his eyes, and tried to imagine.