Chapter Text
———
Mehemis' eyes widen as he takes in the sight of his new bodyguard. His eyes narrow and Li pauses, then shifts uncomfortably and his lips quirk up as he feels a sense of doom imposing itself on him. Li's mind races as he connects Mehemis' reaction to his current look; that of the same servant that Mehemis had introduced himself as Mimi to.
'How do I fix this!?' Li's mind screams as he panics on what to say to keep his life intact.
The others around seem quite confused as Mehemis takes a menacing step towards the frightened new gaurd. As his foot hits the ground, a lights erupts from below them, getting brighter and brighter, and Li's panicked mind pauses as he feels a vague familiarity at the light.
Upon the lights fading away, Evetiti, Mehemis and Li have disappeared, and when the gaurds went to find the next highest authority, they couldn't find their boss anywhere.
Meanwhile... the light fades away from Li's eyes, and he blinks rapidly, trying to adjust his eyes quicker to the dim lighting. Once his eyes are more thoroughly adjusted, he glances around, trying to identify what just happened.
Around him, he spots other people, recognizing Mehemis, Titi and the gaurd chief, Akinatton, but not recognizing the other four people in the room. After taking in the fact there are other people, he glances about the room, recognizing the modern design, at least in comparison to Ebiz. He sees two couches, seemingly set out for four people to sit on each, angled with a rough curve to be facing a large screen TV up against a back wall. The other three walls in the room were blank, though Li noticed a vague discoloration forming a door-like outline on the wall directly opposite to the TV.
He soon finds himself without much breath to speak, as he is grabbed roughly by the neck by Mehemis.
"Is this your doing?" A cold voice asks, as Li chokes.
Evetiti steps forward hesitantly and seems about to say something when the sound of static starts up, coming from the TV. All eyes turn towards where the sound was coming from, and everyone who was speaking before falls silent. The screen crackles to life and words become visible on the screen.
[ {CH: Violence Isn't Allowed} ]
The screen changes once again, this time reading out in a different language that Li recognizes as the same ancient script he read from the scrolls, albeit more legible than the notes Titi had wanted him to copy..
[〔EG: Violence Is Not Allowed〕]
Mehemis frowns, but let's go, seemingly out of shock. The screen changes once more, writing out in the ancient language of Ebiz, while a voice speaks in Chinese, seemingly to allow Li to understand.
[〔EG: Take A Seat To Begin〕]
No one moves. Not a single step. Three seconds pass with not a peep or movement made, when the air seemingly buzzes as if static itself, and they all find themselves seated on the two couches. Li, in a bit of a panic as he tries to wrap his head around what's going on, glances to his left, seeing only Mehemis, then to his right, where Titi and a tall, black haired man with teal eyes sits. On the other couch, further still to his right, sit Akinatton, the unknown women, a man with light brown-ish hair and a man? women? with long white hair and blue eyes.
Mehemis tries to speak, but the room sounds of static once more, and the screen changes to say:
[〔EG: Introduce Yourselves. The Story Will Begin Soon〕]
A cold chill runs down Li's spine, as this certainly doesn't feel like something similar to his time traveling anymore. The room remains silent, and is broken by a tentative cough from someone on the far right of Li.
"If your majesty doesn't mind, I will introduce myself..". The man pauses, and after a moment, Mehemis bluntly tells him to continue.
"I'm Kaba, for those I've not met before." The man glances to his right, at the long white haired person, as if waiting for their response. They seem to take it as a hint to introduce themselves, and speak up.
"Please refer to me as Sutter." The man, Li is sure now, says. And now that Li is actually paying attention, he looks a bit like...
"I'm Imu, and I'm sure most of you all know my husband here, Akinatton. Pleased to make your acquaintances." The women speaks up, gesturing at the gaurd head sitting to her left. The black haired man glances to Mehemis, and upon receiving a nod, introduces himself also, as Vee then Evetiti introduces himself as Titi, and its on to Li. Static sounds, and the TV once again changes.
[〔EG: Full Name For The Focus〕]
Li stops and stares, feeling much more attention given than before, as the TV calls attention to him. 'Or could it be to the tyrant beside me?' Li wonders, but in the end, he introduces himself fully, as the TV sems to push.
"I'm Zhang Li, ..." He shifts uncomfortably at the unwanted atmosphere, but gets over it quickly, focusing instead on the now even more pressing questions on his mind. 'Sitting somewhere so modern in these clothes feels seriously so off.'
Mehemis sits in silence, and no one in the room tries to push him to say anything. The screen buzzes once more, then clears up, showing a recording of the exact event where Li first met the king outside of his tyrant behavior.
[〔EG: Mehemis, "You're such a clutz. Hold on, you...〕]
The room falls into a tense silence and Li's mind turns over itself, 'How was this recorded? What is this place?'
[〔EG: "So, you're Evetiti's new lackey, huh? What's your name? He said he needed more help and wanted to hire someone."〕
〔EG: Huh? I... My name is Li.〕]
The screen pauses, and a voice, Li's voice, sounds out:
[ {CH: Since he doesn't know who I am... No, stay alert. I'm stuck in a dangerous situation with this tyrant in the same room. I need to get out of here pronto. But, I've always had this burning question...} ]
The screen unpauses, continuing the video.
[〔EG: "And what about you? What's your name?"〕]
The screen pauses for a second, but then as if it was just a glitch, continues right away, before anything was said.
[〔EG: You can... call me Mimi.〕]
The TV turns off, and the room remains silent. Mehemis looks agitated and seems about to get up and smash the screen in, when the TV screen turns back on, resuming with another scene.
[〔EG: "I heard you haven't eaten in two whole days, is that true?"〕]
The tyrant was speaking on the screen, with Li visible off to the side.
[〔EG: "Sounds good. I'll grab a bite and you can watch.〕]
Li sits up taller, alert. 'This...definitely hasn't happened.'
The screen pauses again, but this time it's 'Mimi's' voice speaking, instead of Li's.
[〔EG: Lost your appetite or what? Just because you killed someone? Hmph, so touchy.〕]
The video unpauses and continues without waiting for a single person to speak.
[〔EG: I can't believe you can stomach that crap?!〕]
The voice, Li's, spoke out, without his mouth moving at all, but the video continued on, unpaused.
[〔EG: The food in Ebiz is full of sand, the meat reeks easily, and the wine's all murky because they don't know how to process and store goods correctly.〕]
The video pauses, showing a picture of Mehemis holding a rounded flat bread, with an arrow pointing to it saying "In Zhang Li's eyes", and then the image shifts to show drawings of bacteria and sand exageratedly large on the bread. After about 5 seconds of the image, it continues on.
[〔EG: It's not because I'm in a foul mood or I'm not hungry, It's because the food here's too hard to chew.〕
〔EG: Mehemis, "What's with that expression on your face, huh? Eat it."〕
〔EG: Li, "... Let me whip up something for you, your majesty."〕]
The video speeds up as Li preps and starts to cook a snake, slowing back down once he was putting the snake pieces into the pot over the fire.
[〔EG: Mehemis, Most people would be terrified of snakes, but he handled it like a pro, clean and precise... Clearly, he's a master with a knife.〕
〔EG: Li, Snakes are sacred creatures in Ebiz. Is it sacrilege to turn it into a hot pot?〕]
The video pauses once more, but no thoughts or other voices seem to speak at all. The screen glitches, and forms text, with a Chinese voice over for Li's sake.
[〔EG: Continue Observing This Example Scene?〕]
The words remain on screen as people seem to take in the fact that it's now, suddenly, asking for opinions.
"Example scene...?" The man, Kaba, speaks out, questioning.
"Probably to show that it can display the future." Li speaks out, and eyes turn towards him, and Mehemis nods.
"Ah, so what brought us here really must be divine, isn't that right? What else could possibly know the future?" Sutter says, and Mehemis frowns. Sutter continues, "So, if I answer, yes..?"
The screen changes slightly, and below the text is eight boxes, one of which, the right most one, is now darkened.
[〔EG: Continue Observing This Example Scene?〕
〔□ □ □ □ □ □ □ ■〕〔Answer (majority) : Yes〕]
Li speaks up immediately, with a No, and upon some questioning looks, he states that, since the scene being shown is an example, it will likely not show anything all that important. The screen changes, filling in the box coinciding with where Li is sitting, and changing the majority answer to just a dash.
Mehemis and Vee both seem to agree with Li's reasoning and answer No aswell, with Kaba answering yes, and then Titi answering yes, with the given excuse of curiosity on how the two in the video will interact in the future. Imu answers in the positive, and decides that her husband agrees with her, causing his box to get filled out as the screen seemingly accepts her logic and counts her husband's vote even though it was her deciding on it.
[〔EG: Continue Observing This Example Scene?〕
〔■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■〕〔Answer (majority) : Yes〕]
Mehemis gives a death stare to Titi, and Vee also looks a bit disappointed in him, but they all continue on, watching the screen in a new found silence.
[〔EG: Mehemis, "So, you aren't really scared about taking that guy's life, huh?〕
〔EG: Li, "No, ending a life is quite easy for me."〕
〔EG: Mehemis, "Then why were your hands shaking when you laid eyes on that dead body?"〕
〔EG: Li, "... I know in Ebiz, you don't see much difference between human and animal life. But it's going to take me a while to come to terms with that. Where I come from, even the meanest and lowest man can't have his life ended by just anyone. All men are created equal. I bet you find all this absurd.〕
〔EG: Mehemis, "In Ebiz, most people don't live past thirty years old. Just surviving is hard enough. But there are still some people... who hold onto fancy notions like equality. So, you're just like them."〕
〔EG: Li, "If there are people like that in Ebiz... I really want to meet them. Then maybe I can finally have a real conversation with someone."〕
〔EG: Mehemis, "Hmph." I'm not good enough to talk to!?]
The screen shuts off the video suddenly, replacing it immediately.
[〔EG: Please Continue On To Meet The Others Once You Are Ready. Feel Free To Prepare Before Hand.〕]
There wasn't any voice over for whatever was on the screen, so Li just sorta... waited? for someone to say something.
"What does it mean by 'the others'?" Asks Kaba, immediately regretting it as a stupid question, knowing that no one else would know. Luckily for Li, it gave him an opening to speak, as Kaba had broken the extremely tense atmosphere a bit.
"What exactly does the screen say?"
"Screen?" Mehemis, still right next to Li, asked, and Li froze, but moved quickly, responding and trying to change the subject.
"What does it say?" Li asks again, while gesturing at the TV.
Mehemis narrows his eyes, "Don't try to change the subject, Li. How do you know what that thing is?"
Silence once more, as Li tries to move, just for Titi and Vee to block him from trying to escape physically.
The TV flashed, and the words changed from that ancient Egyptian-like script to Chinese, though Li could no longer quite see the screen, as he was boxed in to be interrogated.
"It said so, when we first got here. The words written on it said to look at the screen and react."
"...what language was that?" The black haired man, Vee, asked Li, upon hearing his weak excuse, *cough* explanation.
"My own, or my home language, anyway." Li answered, again, avoiding actually telling anything.
"And that would be..?"
The stares remained on Li, persistent in how they wouldn't let him weasel out of answering.
The screen dinged, and on it, words in the ancient language spoken by almost all in the room were written.
[〔EG: The Language Of Zhang Li Is Chinese.〕]
Vee frowns after reading the screen, 'What is Chinese? I'm sure I would have heard of it somewhere..'. Mehemis glances at Vee, and frowns at seeing the confusion on his face.
"Really... where are you from, Li?" Mehemis mutters, eyeing the screen to see if it would answer his inquiry or not. It didn't.
"...What did the screen say." Li asks, again, getting a bit impatient and annoyed as, sure he was trying to change the subject from his slip up, but he was asking a genuine question.
"It said that we should go to meet, uh, 'the others', once we were ready..." said Kaba, the very helpful nieve man pitched in.
"...Well, are we ready? I'd really rather this not take too long.."
"No. You still have to answer." Mahemis cut in, before Li could try to get away, once more, from the questions being asked of him.
The screen reacted once more, this time with the writing being in Chinese, while the voice over was in the ancient language of Ebiz.
[ {CH: No Spoilers Of Vital Facts Pertaining To The Focus May Be Disclosed.} ]
Li let out a sigh in relief, but then paused once more.. 'spoilers? Does that mean, it'll be revealed? . . . What all will be revealed . ?'
The couch that the four on the left had been seated on moved suddenly, from the center of the room, to be up against the wall to the left of the screen. The slight off-coloration Li and a few others had noticed in the wall seemingly grew itself outward a bit, and formed a bit of a texture and a handle, becoming a door. A slight noise was heard through the door, and everyone paused to stare at it.
"I think it's been determined that we're ready, hm?" Li says, getting out of the blockade, and moving towards the newly existing door.
"Li..." Mehemis says in a warning tone, making it clear he's planning consequences for Li for once they return. 'Will they return?' the thought flashes through Li's mind before he reaches the door, and grabs the handle to pull– Oh. Push the door open.