Knife To Meet You! 15 Waking Up

He did not recall falling asleep, only the pain. It came after tiredness. It came from the inside. It seared his senses shut. It consumed him. It turned everything dark. It took over.

Kyvas fought it, desperately, and lost.

Then fought again. And lost again.

What was he losing to? What did he lose? He didn't know. But he knew whatever it was, he knew it mattered to him.

But he lost.

Again.

And again.

Until he lost it all.

And then came the light. Not a sign of peace, but of remorse. Not from the dissipation of the pain, but from the acceptance of it. It shone bright, yet felt dark and desolate. Even darker than the darkness that preceded it.

And then it the colour hit. Was.h.i.+ng away his senses, and filling them. The pain this time was more visceral. Like tearing something apart and sewing it back up again. And doing that again, and again, and again.

The colours floated around him. Picked at him. Became one with him. Every single time one touched him, integrated with him, he felt everything get clearer. More vibrant. More intense. More painful.

And painful.

And painful.

Until only pain remained.

And then he woke up.

===

Jach prodded at the knife again. His mind received a static jolt.

"Aaagh!", He clasped his head.

Kyvas had been 'sleeping' for the entire night as well as the evening of yesterday. He stopped responding right an hour or so after returning from the meet with the headmaster. The mana increase seemed to have halted somewhere in the middle of the journey to their quarters. And stayed stable for just enough time for Jach to give Krys a piece of his mind.

Then, however, the both of them felt a jolt of static in their minds. Brief, but strong. They ran to Kyvas to find the mana increasing exponentially for a minute. The knife repaired itself in an instant and seemed like it would push the repair enchantment out of it yet again. But somehow, the manna capped itself right before the tipping point. There had been no change to the mana even till now.

Krys and Jach had tried to contact Kyvas, but any touches would push a mind numbing static jolt to their heads.

And so, Krys and Jach set up watch. Each would spend a few hours near Kyvas, trying to contact him. Each would monitor his situation. No matter if Kyvas return or if the knife destabilizes, one of the two needed to be there to help.

And so pa.s.sed the night onto the next morning. Hainark - 1, 1232. The beginning of a new week.

The Academy couldn't cancel cla.s.ses forever, so Krys and Jach still had to teach today. Krys was teaching the 8th years Summoning right now, while Jach did not have any cla.s.ses yet. So he stayed behind, watching over Kyvas.

"... Atleast the static is getting weaker now." Jach mumbled, still ma.s.saging his head.

He had to head to the 7th year cla.s.ses after this slot. Krys would look after Kyvas for that one. Then was lunch and one more cla.s.s. This time both Krys and Jach would have to leave. Jach hoped the situation would be resolved by that point. He did not want to have to leave the dagger in the hands of the Headmaster.

He just didn't sit right with him. He couldn't put a finger on why he felt that way, but he did.

There was no message from the Immortal yet either.

Jach sighed and groaned. The static might have been weaker, but it still hurt. He stepped out into th ekitchen to get himself a gla.s.s of water.

"Please just respond already..." He muttered, taking a sip.

A low, quiet groan echoed in his mind.

Jach blinked. Then rushed inside the living room again.

"Kyvas?" He asked before he had even reached the knife. "Are you back?"

He reached his hand out tentatively, slowly getting closer to the knife. But before he could touch it, a voice murmured in his head.

'Good... morning?', Kyvas mumbled, without any apparent need of contact to communicate. 'Am I...? Oh, I'm still here.'

Jach broke out into a soft smile. "Thank the Immortal you're awake! We were worried sick about you!"

===

Kyvas looked around the room. Jach had left him alone for a moment, something about having to send a letter to the Headmaster. Kyvas decided to explore his sight till then.

It was hard not to notice that his sight had fully returned to him. He could now see everything normally.

Well, almost normally.

No longer was he limited to just outlines. He could now see the light s.h.i.+ning on these objects. He could now see the colours of the objects again. He could also see a whole lot more. His field of view had increased drastically, and he could focus on anything he wanted to as long as it was within a certain range of him.

Yes, he found he could see objects behind other objects. He could focus and see the entirety of a rug, even though half of it was concealed by a metal table. He could read the words inside of a book on the bookshelf underneath the stairs, even though the book was closed! He could even...

Wait no. He could, in fact, not see the wall behind that bookshelf. Or even see the behind of that bookshelf, even though he could do the same with the underside of the rug.

Looking around, he found he could not see through the grandfather clock sitting next to his table as well.

Wait, his table! He could not see underneath it as well!

...Was it because all of these were made out of wood?

The door. That was wooden. No, he could not see through it.

There were wooden chairs near the metal table. On his right. Yes, there. No, he could not see through those.

There was a small side-table beside the chairs. Wooden too, no luck seeing through them.

...The flower in the vase on top of the table too? He couldn't see through it. So, it isn't limited to wood?

Is this the 'Living' that Krys and Jach had mentioned?

Just then, Jach came back after writing the letter.

"Are you feeling alright?" He asked.

'Yeah, I'm good.' Kyvas replied.

Jach nodded, a slight smile on his lips. "That's good to hear. Anything different after the sleep?"

'My sight's improved a lot' Kyvas answered. He noticed Jach was still standing at the door, a good ways away from him. 'Hearing too. Your voice would've been as loud as a whisper before, at that distance. Now it's perfectly clear.'

That distance?

Wait. Jach wasn't touching him. How could he...

'You... You can hear me without...' He muttered.

"Without coming into contact with you?" Jach grinned. "Yes. Yes I can. Now, you have an hour before I go and you're left here alone with Krys. Talk me through the changes. I'll try and help you understand them."

Kyvas widened his eyes. Not that he had eyes. But the act did make everything he saw seem brighter.

'Let's hurry then.'