At Time's End

Chapter 5 - A House Moved, A Mystery Created

"So... why's it there?" I asked. Of course I did. The voice walked out of their room. "And why were you hiding?" The voice came from a man older than me. He was quite tall - as tall as a Proximian but he probably wasn't one, he seemed intelligent enough. He also wore glasses, but that was far from the most concerning thing about his face. His eyes were burning. On actual, genuine fire. I chose to ignore it for the time being.

"I was in the middle of organizing things. It's not very often a random passerby knocks on your door and demands to know where their home is or they'll do.. something. Please understand that I wasn't prepared." Alright, yeah, fine, maybe the situation was a bit weird. "Also, I have no clue why your home was moved. On top of that, who the hell are you?"

I shook my hair out of the way as I got up. "I'm Jaiden Hawks. You?" I asked, extending my hand.

He hesitated for a while, almost like he would've known me, but then returned my gesture. We briefly shook hands. "Ignus Engarde." Ah, so this is who I'm looking for. Good to know.

"Uhh.. can you see through that?"

"No." He laughed. "It's becoming a problem. I've lived here for a long while, so I know where things are, but my research is another thing." He sighed. "The flames are becoming bigger. I don't know why."

"Strange." I pondered something. "I mean, I used to work at Research Center 1477. I guess I could help somehow." He seemed taken aback once I said the center code. "Is something wrong?"

"...No, nothing. I just have a feeling that number, that code is familiar to me somehow." He's hiding something... but something tells me that I should not pry further into this.

"Alright, but do you accept my offer? I offer to work with you at this Research Center, 1453." I bowed. Etiquette is important, and I kind of need to make up for barging into this guy's home and demanding to know where my home is. Like, I'm not bothered enough to go back in time, but still, what was that?!

"I.. accept your offer, but lighten up. You don't need all the etiquette." COME ON! Alright, well, at least he didn't seem bothered by the... circumstances. "Consider yourself lucky! I'm not actually hiring currently. Your... confidence and... er, ability to smoothly enter situations despite maybe not being welcome," he seemed a bit challenged with finding the correct words. I get it, buddy. "have shown me that you're worthy of the title of assistant. Besides, I'm lonely."

"I see." He showed me to my room. It was quite cozy, an upstairs room with a window. The view was nothing new, I had seen the vast expanse uncountable amounts of times. It still hadn't lost its beauty.

There wasn't much in the room. A bed, a mirror, a desk and a wardrobe. My reflection was the same as always. Maybe my cyan skin was a darker shade than usual, and maybe my... darker cyan hair was in need of a slight trim, but it was still me, in the end.

I looked over at the desk, or more accurately, a pile of old documents, under which stood a small metal desk. The documents dated back to as early as 2719. Strange. They seemed to stop at 2728. The year when...

I organized the documents by date. There was only a small key labeled "Ignus' cabinet key". I kept it in my pocket. Who knows, maybe I'll find something interesting in there once I get the chance to snoop. 

I also found a bowl of grapes. They hadn't been suitable for consumption for approximately 5 years. ...I threw them into the acid bin.

All of a sudden, there was a horrible noise, likening a discount metallic drum set, coming from the kitchen. I rushed down to investigate, and found Ignus, a bit of ingredients both edible and edible-five-minutes-prior-but-not-anymore-thanks-to-him, on the stovetop, and a bunch of kitchenware on the floor.

"Remind me to never let you cook again. You're banned from the kitchen." I took over the cooking from that day forwards. He didn't resist. I wondered how he survived in the first place.

Life seemed pretty simple after that. I forgot to ask him about the immortality cure, but can I blame myself for it? The days were filled with experiments, mild explosions, more experiments, and more mild explosions. There was simply no time to ask... I would soon regret this, and I knew it.

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Untitled Entry 004

Date: 1.3.2719

Entry 004

A young woman came into my office without any warning a couple days ago. She didn't even introduce herself until the first 20 minutes had passed. She was saying something about how she needed to find a mentor and someone had recommended me. ME. 

What kind of person has the thought process of "Who would be the best mentor in research for a researcher, a greenhorn who just recently entered the field? Oh, right, probably that weirdo in 1453! The one who has been isolated for like 5 years now!" I didn't question who the woman asked, but I'm willing to bet they just pulled a number out of their head, added "14" in the front and boom. Research Center code.

Anyways, the young woman goes by the name of Eterna Talon. She's... already frantically trying to clean up this place. She already decided her first rule: I'm banned from the kitchen. I didn't want to get my head chopped off with the fruit knife that she was holding in her hand and rather rudely pointing at me at that time, so I just accepted my fate. It's for the better anyways. I've suddenly stopped having stomach aches daily.

It's surprisingly nice to have someone to talk to. I never felt... lonely, but if I knew how nice this was, I'd have put up advertisements for free mentoring. I don't know if I'm a good mentor, but she seems content. If she's content, then I've done my job well enough. That's enough for me.

- Ignus

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AN: i only checked the word count of the overall thing. why did i think that 500 words is an acceptable length for a chapter (context: word count was close to 527 before...)

AN 2: well haha guess what AN 1 i rewrote it!!! because you're reading this, so glad to finally have this done because i've been doing this for a week currently and it is exhausting but powering through always works, my guys (don't do that)

also, have you guys got any questions so far? please do ask! i'm happy to explain any plot points that seem confusing:D