Chapter Text
After a nice, long nap sprawled out on his luxuriously silken bed, Cale woke up, unusually clear-headed, to moonlight streaming in from the curtained windows and balcony door. Rubbing his bleary eyes, he pushed himself up to a seated position and looked around his bedroom for any sign of the kids. Luckily for Cale, tonight it seemed like they’d all decided to sleep somewhere else than his bedroom (most likely with Eruhaben), leaving him alone to ask his Ancient Powers the question he’d been holding on to ever since the game of hide-and-seek.
‘Are you all there?’ he asked internally.
‘Yep, here!’ Cheapskate responded, with the intonation of a kid answering the teacher at roll call.
‘We’ve been waiting for you,’ Super Rock said with his uniquely soft yet firm voice.
‘Good,’ Cale stated, ‘because I have a question that needs answering.’
‘We’ll all do our XXXX best to help you!’ shouted Crazy Kid. Mentally, Cale imagines her pumping a fist in the air like a shounen protagonist.
‘...right. Well, let’s start with what happened earlier, when I was watching the kids play hide-and-seek with Rosalyn.’
Cale shifted to sit cross legged on the bed and set his elbow on his knee and chin on his hand, trying to recall the strange sensations he felt earlier during the day. ‘I went into some sort of trance there, right? I could feel every blade of grass and drop of moisture as if it was a part of me, like an extra limb. What was that?’
The Ancient Powers fell silent for a moment, before Glutton cautiously spoke up. ‘We’re not exactly sure, but at that time, we all felt you were slowly assimilating with your natural surroundings,’ she said with trepidation.
‘Being a separate entity, yet merging with nature; it’s an odd state to be in,’ Super Rock remarked. ‘It was as if you were spreading your very existence among the air and flora around you. If Rosalyn hadn’t awakened you, things might have gotten dangerous. The closest concept we can grasp is that it has something to do with your new existence - that is, your unique self-identity as an ‘otherly’ being… though perhaps you’d know more about that than we do.’
Cale blinked in surprise, before replying back, ‘That’s… a lot.’ He sighs, relaxing his posture and leaning back on the headboard. ‘If any of that is true, then my current lack of control is concerning, to say the least.’
A moment of silence passed, while everyone mulled over the revelations that were just discussed.
Breaking the quiet, Thief spoke up, ‘So then, let’s practice control! Establishing a gradient of power, and finding the point of no return.’ She continued on excitedly with a low tone, as if showing off a newly discovered gemstone. ‘I think this can be utilized similarly to how I see my surroundings through conversing with my elemental friends. If you practice, you might be able to gather new information without even moving!’
‘That’d be nice…’ Cale mused. The impressions he got from the slip in control were still vividly imprinted in his mind - if properly controlled, wouldn’t the ability become something like an incredibly advanced CCTV system? ‘I’d be able to see and understand things far away that’d normally be impossible.’
Crazy Kid spiritedly shouted, ‘Yeah! In a fight, we’d be able to wipe out the XXX commander with one spear! How XXXX cool is that?’
‘We’d set the backline aflame without anyone even noticing! Hahaha, a blazing sea of fire!’ Cheapskate agreed vigorously.
No, why did the topic switch to fighting all of a second? I just want to watch over my family in peace, Cale thought, as the cheerful Cheapskate and Crazy Kid laughed even harder.
‘Shut up, you’re too loud,’ he said, scrunching his nose.
With a wavering voice betraying barely restrained humor, Glutton said, ‘Well, regardless of potential use, we need you to be able to control your abilities first.’
‘The Priestess is correct,’ affirmed Super Rock, ‘control should come first. Luckily, as an essential part of you, we also have gained partial access to your new knowledge. We all had taken the liberty to study it while you were asleep, and we believe we are now able to help you approach your new… sense. So, how about allowing one of us to guide you?
Hearing the other APs’ sounds of affirmation to Super Rock’s claim and suggestion, Cale thought for a moment, before nodding. "Okay. Let’s do it," he murmured.
The APs, receiving Cale’s quiet agreement, began to whisper amongst each other about who would be the spokesperson and teach Cale. Eventually, through a quick debate and vote, Thief was chosen to lead the practice session as the only one with any similar experiences to Cale’s situation with her Wind Elementals.
With a small fake cough, she began talking.
‘Ahem, well, let’s begin. First, sit up in a position that you’re comfortable with. Once you’re seated, then close your eyes and relax. We’ll continue when you’re ready.’
Following Thief’s instructions, Cale sat up and shimmied his body to the edge of the bed. Once seated comfortably with his legs dangling off the edge, he cracked his neck, rolled his shoulders, and performed a few simple arm stretches before finally relaxing. Exhaling, Cale closed his eyes, then told the patiently waiting Thief he was ready.
‘Alright. What we will be trying to do is mentally attach your new sense to something more tangible that you can visualize, which will make it easier to fine-tune your strength, filter unwanted or unnecessary information, and set boundaries for yourself. Now, turn your focus inward, and conjure an image that is familiar to you; like an ocean, a street, or perhaps a house. Pick whatever feels most natural to you.’
Cale mentally flipped through an assortment of images, before an impression of a four-way blacktop street with white painted crossing paths from his days on Earth floated to the top of his mind. With an intuitive feeling that this is the one, he grabbed and solidified the image of the blacktop street, adding in towering yet ruined buildings straight from the apocalypse he used to live in, while vaguely hearing the quiet voices of his Ancient Powers exclaiming softly over the unfamiliar scenery.
Once the image solidified, five small colored lights appeared, looking similar to elementals. Cale intuitively understood that they represented each of his five speaking Ancient Powers: vermillion Fire of Destruction, yellow Super Rock, pale green Indestructible Shield, cyan Sound of Wind, and indigo Sky-Eating Water.
As the other four colored lights backed off so as to not interfere, the cyan Thief floated closer to Cale, steps lightly bouncing in a similar way as her Wind Elemental friends. She continued to speak, her voice along with the others sounding slightly unclear and echoed, reverberating with undertones reminiscent of a broadcast over an old and decrepit PA system.
‘...I don’t recognize this kind of place, but as long as it works, I suppose. Now, imagine yourself clearly on one side of the… street… as if you were there. Feel the breeze on your skin, how it lifts your hair to dance around your head, the…’
As Thief continued to speak, Cale listened lightly while he followed her instruction. He visualized himself on one end of the street, placing himself on one of the sidewalk corners; he felt the asphalt beneath his feet, and the slightly smoky smell of old ruins.
‘Now, imagine yourself crossing the street – slowly now, don’t rush – with the intent of making it to the other side, but deciding to instead stop halfway in the center. As you walk, feel every step you take while tapping into your senses.’
Cale did so, still focused intently on his five senses. But as he got closer to the center, he couldn’t help but feel something was changing. Every step felt more difficult to take, like he was wading through a rushing river, slowly pushing through to deeper areas. Eventually he stopped, having reached the center of the crossing, with the strange feeling of force that surrounded him akin to water that reached up to his knees – powerful, yet still allowing him to move freely within.
‘Good job. Now, standing in the center, look around you. While keeping a firm grasp on your senses, expand them to reach as far as possible. Making the first leap will always be the hardest; if we were successful, you and the rest of us will know.’
After taking a deep breath, Cale looks out at the scenery around him. The skyscrapers, though most were collapsed, still lived up to their namesake, looking like pillars reaching out to support–
[look up]
–the sky. The sun must be trapped beneath the earth, as the bending of its light kept the darkened partly-cloudy dusk sky lit with a dull yet rich red glow. Cale could vaguely make out some familiar and unfamiliar stars, the constellations a mishmash of those from Earth and Rowoon; however, most were blotted out by the sheer presence of–
[higher, almost there, close]
–the moon. It was also dyed a soft, pale red, and its light appeared to bleed out over the rooftops and asphalt. Cale himself was not exempt from this either, and soon even he was bathed in its beautiful scarlet beams. As if on instinct, Cale raised his hand up to the sky and towards the moon, as if it were an apple on a tree to be plucked–
[grasp it in your hands; take hold of what cannot be held, it is yours to command]
–and pulled.
Suddenly, a rush of… emotion? Sound? Color? Movement? Flooded Cale’s senses, freezing him in place; his eyes were widened with surprise, and his raised hand came to rest above his slightly open mouth.
The sensations (there were no other words to describe it) felt like a flash flood; sudden and rough, the force carving out pathways inside his body, then looping back to rest at his heart. It felt like learning how to breathe from scratch; the first taken ever-so-carefully with full attention, then suddenly realizing you could somehow do so naturally with the ease of someone who’d known the whole time. It was as if he stood within a vast and endless meadow, the grass beneath his feet growing at an uncontrolled pace, flower stems and vines wrapping around his legs to reach for his heart–
‘Maintain your focus; think of the street!’
–ah, right; focus. Asphalt, pebbles, smoke. A light but noticeable heat beneath his feet. Red sky, bright moon. And, not-quite-strangely, a semicircle of red flowers that bloomed through the cracks in front of him.
(He recognized the types of flowers present, as On had recently regaled him with information she learned from her newly formed interest in gardening: dahlias, spider lilies, hyacinths, and baby’s breath.)
The petals fluttered in the wind, and as he slowly breathed in and out, the wind flowed to breathe with him.
But only the sounds refused to quieten; remained too much, and too loud, like a fly buzzing in his ear that just won’t go away. To avoid this particular… annoyance, Cale subconsciously took a single step back, then a purposeful second; the static fading to what felt like a reasonable, tolerable level of white noise that easily faded into the background. For a while, Cale just stood there, bathed in the afterglow of the sensations that just overtook him.
‘Woah…!’ Cale flinched, startled at the echoed voice of the audience he had momentarily forgotten. ‘That was… so XXXX BADASS!’
Cale turned around to face the five colored lights that excitedly surrounded him. He blinked, briefly watched the indigo light zip around, before he cautiously asked, ‘...Did you, ah; feel what just happened as well, Crazy Kid?’
‘Hell yeah I did!’
‘We all did, Cale,’ Glutton interjected. ‘That was certainly something; a one-of-a-kind experience, feeling that kind of growth.’
As the Ancient Powers chatter away excitedly, Thief bounded closer to Cale. ‘Good job, Cale. It seems you were successful,’ she joyfully said. ‘Congratulations.’
The others quickly joined in on the praise as well: ‘Yeah, that was so cool!’ ‘Congratulations, Cale!’ ‘Congrats!’ ‘Congratulations, you got it!’
Cale dipped his head, smiling. ‘Thanks, everyone. Especially you, Thief; thank you for your guidance.’
‘It was no trouble, Cale; anytime,’ Thief said, kindness audible in her words. ‘Now, time to practice!’
‘Alright.’ ‘‘‘‘Yeah!’’’’
For the next half an hour, Cale practiced his control over his new… ‘sixth sense,’ for lack of a better term. Although control over it now felt as easy as walking from one point to another on his imaginary street, Cale knew that experimentation was still needed in order to completely master this mysterious force.
Eventually, he felt comfortable using it at any intensity, which marked the end of practice. As he prepared to open his eyes, the yellow Super Rock suddenly noticed something different.
‘...Hm? What’s that?’ he said, clear curiosity in his voice.
As Cale and the others turned to look, Cale spotted what Super Rock had noticed – a small, tan-gray butterfly slowly flying over to where they were standing. Looking closer, it turned out that the butterfly was completely made up not of chitin, but slates of cobblestone!
Baffled, Cale watched as the stone butterfly flew closer to him, and subconsciously put out a hooked finger as if about to pick up a mug for the butterfly to rest on. As it landed softly on his finger, he could feel a delicate coolness from the cobblestone, while flakes of stone peeled off the surface of its stone wings like autumn leaves falling from a tree.
Super Rock, who had floated closer to the cobblestone butterfly, gasped under his breath.
‘Ah, this is…’ he trailed off, before laughing incredulously under his breath. Cale could almost picture Super Rock smiling, as if… greeting an old friend?
Slightly furrowing his brow, Cale opened his mouth to ask Super Rock what was up, but was interrupted as the butterfly suddenly spoke:
(FamiliarCuriousHappyGreetingsHello)
Startled, Cale opened his eyes, the image of Earth’s street crossing fading as it was quickly replaced by the very real room before him. The Ancient Powers and Cale fell silent as they tried to process what just happened. Heart calming down, Cale deliberately stretched his neck and arms, before he looked around his room. Soon enough, he noticed that something had changed – the door to the hallway was flung wide open, still moving from inertia. Quickly raising his newly-developed senses, Cale felt around outside, but found no one close enough nearby.
Wait – the door being opened with no one around, that language spoken by the butterfly, Super Rock’s reaction as if greeting an old friend, the cobblestone butterfly… perhaps?
‘Super Rock,’ Cale started, pausing for only a moment. ‘The door, and the butterfly… was the one that spoke, maybe, the Villa?’
Incredulous gasps of shock came from the other Ancient Powers, as Super Rock sat in silence.
‘...I think so, Cale.’
‘...Okay.’
‘I think it likes you.’
‘...Great.’