The anchorite breaks a long silence.
An: Doubtful. "Can you show me? How things used to be."
The janitor is glad to show him the world of over five thousand years ago, and yet most of the memories are not her first hand experiences as her past life had very little to do with the time's usual. What was once her blessing became her curse, she was rich and famous to the point her memories couldn't seem more fake.
Some hours later, the host is lying on the bed while the janitor sits on the armchair. He kept doubting for a while, but the concordance between the different points of view convinces him in the end.
UJ: Looks at the ceiling, quiet. "Someone else showed me what happened before The Beginning... Ijike..."
He notices how the name hits the woman with a mix of complicated feelings.
UJ: "He wasn't six yet when The Beginning happened, so there isn't much. I have to ask you something before I continue. Will you ever change your body? Or at least pretend you did?"
An: Convinced. "No way."
UJ: Relieved. "Perfect. I don't want to put anyone in danger for this." Sighs, looks at him. "Ehm... just to clarify, something weird will happen and it won't be me."
Shadow shows him the memory of a dirty, skinny, scared, little boy looking at himself in a cracked piece of mirror, crying and trying to clean the blood spawning in his nose. For no apparent reason the anchorite feels as if the child is the most important and trustworthy being that ever existed, someone who deserves unconditional adoration. He felt exactly like this before, except back then he didn't realize it was a manipulation. Now seeing him in such a deplorable state makes it obvious. He knows who Ijike is.
An: Shocked, sits on the bed. "Holy shit!"
UJ: Calmed. "Funny right? He was reckless enough to go to space with an uncomputered vessel and somehow managed to use the last blue mist to do this."
An: "How can it be? It happened so long ago. How can it even affect the ones born after it?"
Since Tighdels and Feslish may live indefinitely, they go through renewing cicles every forty years to adapt their genetic code to prolonged environment changes. Usually, the adjustments happen after four or five cicles of having a continued will for them, however, big modifications may require several cicles more to become fully functional. But if a change is produced by other means it gets encoded in the next renewal, unless it's undesired.
UJ: "The same way we kept the perception the shadows gave us, renewal fixed it. No one noticed, so there was no reason to want to go back. Well, some realized and disagreed, you can imagine their fate."
An: Full of hatred. "Damn him..."
The janitor is glad the anchorite is so determined to revert the change. It makes him realize she's probably in a position where she can't let it happen to her.
UJ: "Once seen this, the rest is more or less what you'd expect."
She shows him some more memories of the boy: a very poor environment, his mother blaming him of her disgrace, and children laughing at his face appearance; it all in constant cold and hunger.
UJ: "If it hadn't been for The Beginning he would have died like many other northern children did back then..." Notices she's rambling again. "But I guess it doesn't matter anymore..."
An: "You'll want to read my shadow now. Right?"
UJ: "Yes."
An: "What am I supposed to do?"
UJ: "Ideally, I'd induce you a coma. But don't worry, I don't expect you to agree to that."
An: "Thanks."
UJ: "You're going to have to keep your mind as quiet as possible, though. I'll read through you, so you'll be feeling all these things that will make no sense... and also me. Perceiving shadows is too difficult for me to hide at the same time, I'm sorry."
An: "Don't worry, it'll be fine."
It takes them a while to get to the point where the janitor finds the shadow. Then the anchorite witnesses what Meriho senses: big blocks of weird shaped matter randomly appearing and vanishing, gaseous stuff all around, colorful shaped lights, bluish entities moving in patterns, and melodic sounds with irregular accents.
An: [This has to be Vateni... I shouldn't be thinking...] Tries in vain to close his already closed eyes. [Sorry...]
UJ: Soft. "It's ok. Your shadow is... she's eager to be read. You may concentrate on your breathing as long as it's regular."
He does as suggested. Shortly after the woman's feelings intensify greatly when she finds something familiar, from that point on she keeps shifting from casual curiosity to strong interest and from confusion to understanding.
An: [Seems it's a class...]
UJ: Still soft. "You're right." Happy. "I'm learning. Now shh..."
YOU ARE READING
Another Name (SU fanfic)
FanfictionA pearl too small to fit in, an alien betrayed by his own people, a peridot punished for being too kind, and a separated couple. These apparently unconnected characters will end being linked up by the consequences of an event that will ultimately tr...
