Dream Beyond Life's Edge

Truth and Lies

Held inside a small pot on top of Alexia's table, the burning fairyflower illuminated Alexia's room and the two people inside with an orange glow. Sitting cross-legged on Alexia's bed was the exhausted Alexia, leaning against the white wall. And the one Alexia vowed to protect, Talia sat on the edge, her feet touching the floor.

Talia had just explained to Alexia her goal and asked, "So, do you have a way to remove Joseph's mana trace? We can't risk anyone finding out about him being the monster. And getting everyone affected by the monster's mana wouldn't be ideal either."

Alexia pondered the answer for a good while before saying, "The cleansing of water might work. Though I haven't tried it directly on Joseph, I can block the mana from passing through a water barrier, so I'm quite positive it would work."

Though if in the reigns of someone extraordinary—even more than Alexia—the specialties of magic would be interchangeable, each magic type usually has their own uniqueness. Alexia had two magic in which she excelled: wind and water; wind specializing in scale and precision, water in cleansing and cutting. But, the idea proposed by Alexia was something Talia could've never thought of.

"Water can cleanse mana?" Unlike Alexia, most people couldn't sense mana other than the mana inside their body, so they had no way to confirm that specific property of water magic.

"Yes, but only at ae-rus. Just trust my word on that."

Ae-rus huh... I can't even cast that.

Due to the monster situation, Alexia's casual demeanor had seemed to disappear. So seeing Alexia's usual accidental boasting, Talia couldn't help but giggle.

"Eh, what is it? Why are you laughing? Did I say something wrong?" Alexia tilted her head, trying to rationalize Talia's giggling; her confusion causing Talia to break into laughter.

The sight of corpses passed through her mind; her father, Alexia's mother, and the doctors around him laying dead on the floor, and Joseph—the cause of all of that destruction and death—dreadful and disoriented. Talia's laugh stopped.

#####

Hungry for a treat, Talia went to the dining room, planning to take some snacks kept inside a cabinet. Her mind wandered, thinking of what she'd choose. Different from her old home which only had a couple bags of oranges and peaches and somehow always run out, Julius' home seemed to always be stocked full of snacks-chips, cookies, biscuits, cakes, and jam puddings-and fruits. Just thinking about it made Talia's head hurt. But that doesn't mean she hated it. In fact, she quite liked it.

Talia opened the cabinet on the wall and pulled out a jar filled with jam cookies. She took out a cookie and bit it; the crunchy texture and sweet taste melting on her tongue.

While staring at the jar of cookies Talia enjoyed the bliss of silence afforded by the afternoon. No one to talk to. No one to argue with. And nothing to think about.

She put her hand on the table and laid her forehead on it, slightly tilted; her mind began to wander inside her imagination. Talia's eyes felt heavy and she began to doze off.

"Ah, there you are." A voice awoke Talia from her sleep. "Your room was empty so I thought you might have went here instead. I guess I was correct."

Hearing that voice, Talia sighed and prepared to leave. She would not let the peace she rarely obtained to be destroyed this easily. "What is it now, mom?"

"...How did the training go? Have you gotten your new power?" Jane stepped inside the room, pulled a seat, and sat down.

"I failed. I got nothing." Talia had only begun to stand up when—