Anahera

The Messenger of Death

Flashback

“All right, where should we start?”

Soojoo glances at her companions before turns her eyes to the owner of the house, Seulgi and (according to what Seulgi called her) Irene. She then answers Seulgi’s question, “From the beginning will be nice.”

Seulgi nods while keeps her eyes at her three guests that sit across her at the dining table. “You three being here means you already know who I am but it doesn’t hurt to introduce myself. My name is Kang Seulgi, an ex assistant researcher that worked for the king, one of those that been sent to investigate the tower a few years ago, and the only one from that party that still alive.”

“Why you didn’t come back? Why you decided to exile yourself here?” Somi, who sits between Soojoo and Lisa, asks.

“To protect me.” That voice makes the trio turn their head to the girl in the kitchen who’s leaning against the counter.  “Say, do you guys know how parasitic plant work?”

“Same like normal plants, it’s start from seed germination,” Somi, the walking encyclopedia, strikes again. “Some of them need to be in close proximity with their host though because of their limited resources. And after that their haustorium penetrates the host and connects to the host’s vascular system.”

The other four stare at her. Lisa looks at Soojoo and mouthed, ‘Hausti…what?’

“Sorry Somi,” Soojoo says after mouthed an ‘I don’t know’ to Lisa. “But.. can you talk with less intelligent words? You know, words that normal human brain capacity can process.”

“Parasitic plants have roots that can penetrate the host and draw nutrient from it, unnie.” This times the rest nod. That’s much easier to understand. “But what does that have to do with anything?”

“Because that is how anahera works.”

The trio once again look at Irene, waiting for her to continue, but this time Seulgi is the one that talk, “When we arrived at that valley the process was already half way, maybe even nearly finish, so it wasn’t that hard for us to get close to the tower even though there were many who didn’t make it. But it the end, there was only me and I guess it was because of Irene too.”

Process? “Wait a minute, what process?” Soojoo asks.

“The process for anahera to becomes human again.” Irene then looks at Somi. “Like what you said, anahera works exactly like that, we just have different parts. Our haus-whatever is a set of wires that function as a bridge and connect us to our host, making us able to absorb the nutrients, or in this case, life forces. But during that process we really vulnerable and that’s when the tower comes into the picture.”

“Wait wait, slow down... we?”

Irene smiles a little at the thief’s question. “I’m not properly introducing myself yet, right? My name is Irene. I’m same like all of you now, a human. But just a few years ago I was an anahera.”

Three sets of eyes blink.

“A few months before the tower emerged I was involved in an accident that cost me my life. Well, I don’t remember much about how I lost my life…” Irene shrugs while Seulgi looks at her with concern. “But the next time I opened my eyes, I was in a room and confused as hell. I didn’t have any memories about my past life but I knew there was somebody waiting for me, somebody that important to me, and I wanted to see her.” Soojoo can see Seulgi’s eyes soften with those words, one that Irene returns, before the girl lets out a heavy breath. “And then he came.”

“He just an adventurer who in the wrong place and in the wrong time. The tower helped me to lure him in and somehow I able to…” Irene closes her eyes, unable to finish, but they already get the implication.