Portals & Realms

Chapter 8 - Choice

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The grand and exquisite decor of the dining room was something that Mae had originally found quite pretty, but in the current condition she was in, it then just seemed overwhelming to her brain. She was sitting in one of the chairs on the long elegant table with a comfy cushion beneath her and a napkin folded neatly in front of her. Perri sat to her right, and Dante to her left. Elvadoer and Ramille sat to the right of Perri, and the Countess, Asra and Julian were all sat on the other side of the table (despite someone's protests).
"I'm terrible at remembering names.. What was your name again?"
"It is no bother dear, I'm Nadia. Countess Nadia if you wish to be formal, but a friend of my friend can simply call me Nadia."
"Oh right. I won't forget it this time," Dante chuckled nervously and ate some of the food on his plate while everyone sat in an awkward silence. The table was littered with all different kinds of exquisite dishes and beverages, ranging from sparkling water to some kind of tequila. The table cloth was purple and golden, which seemed to be the same as the uniform that Mae was currently wearing.
Perri nudged Mae's shoulders, "hey, you have to eat something. It'll help you feel better I think. It's delicious!" She whispered to Mae as she remained stoic, overwhelmed by everything in her mind and everything slowly crumbling around her. When no response came, Perri turned her head to Elvadoer for assistance, motioning her hand over her back to the weakened woman.
"C'mon Mae, we will never get food like this anywhere else! You have to eat something, it's been days... two days exactly since you've eaten!"
"Wait, you haven't eaten for two days?" Asra said worriedly and got a glare from Julian. "You ate the bread and the fruit that was in the back room, right?"
Mae didn't move and seemed to be barely breathing as the smell of the meat before her made her seem even farther away from reality. Her mouth opened a small bit to let out some air, but besides that, she didn't move. How do I get us out of here. Do I want to get out of here? Ghost hinted that there might be more out there than I know. We might have chances outside of our world. Should we take them? Should we explore? No, I must go home. But here is freedom. World-hopping... maybe going to new places can offer freedom. No. Home. Now. I will not indulge like this again.
Asra nodded and looked down at his hands, worried. "The rest of you ate at the shop, right?"
Elvadoer nodded, "Dante and I found a stash of food in the back room and divided it amongst everyone," she said and continued eating her food as Dante did the same, nodding at her remark and showing down on a piece of steak.
Nadia and Perri began trying to make conversation to lighten the tense mood that hung in the air, but the dark aura hanging around Mae just seemed to be pulling everyone down with her. She used her free hand to shakily grab her fork and put it into the mashed potatoes in front of her. She couldn't tell if anyone noticed that she had actually managed to eat something, but Mae didn't care that much. At least they were talking. A few moments after swallowing the potatoes and sitting in her stomach, she felt her body begin its movements to reject the food.
    "Mae?"
"Bathroom?"
"Down the hall, to the right."
"Thanks," she quietly said and went out the door, Asra standing up out of his seat right when she went out of view to follow and make sure that she was ok. Ramille hastily got out of her seat as well, closing the door behind her as she trailed farther behind Asra, sticking to the wall to stay partially hidden and remain quiet. She didn't trust Asra yet, and needed to keep an eye on everything that was happening. Dante, Perri, Elvadoer, Julian and Nadia were all left in the room to side-eye one another, and only pray that their small-talk would go well.
Mae turned another corner and went to the bathroom that was meant for the servants, and busted open the door without hesitation. For her luck, it was unlocked and no one had been inside as she bent over the toilet and began vomiting up the potatoes she had just eaten and a ton of fluid. She felt tears sting her eyes as the pain in her stomach as she retched grew more unbearable. There was a hand on her back as the light in the bathroom was turned on. Mae let out a cough and cried at the same time, reaching for the paper towels that also seemed regal to wipe her mouth. Ramille handed her one as she stood above the two, and watched in guilt. Mae wiped her mouth and continued to cry a little and cough mostly, the pain receding into the unknown. The toilet was flushed and the vomit went away to god knows where, and then the group of three was left in silence.
"You should get some sleep. You're probably too exhausted to even eat at this point. We will get you some breakfast in the morning. How's that sound?"
Mae couldn't argue with him, and knew that there was no way of them getting home tonight. In her mind, she didn't feel completely there, yet tried to stay where she felt in control. Like something was seeping into her blood and between her eyes.
"Does Nadia have any medicine?" She asked and looked to Asra and then to her ill friend on her left.
"It's a castle, I'm sure she does somewhere."
Ramille got up and gave Mae a hand as she also stood up, feeling hers seemingly vibrate from shaking so bad. Mae had stopped crying, but her tired and red eyes told a whole new story as she stood on her own two legs without help. Ramille walked in front of the group and poked her head into the dining room, seeing everyone talk peacefully and seemingly, more relaxed. She got someone's attention and then poked back out of the room. Mae was unable to hear what Ramille had said.
"We can take her back to the guest room. She told me that there was a guest room for the rest of us right down the hall," Ramille signaled the group of two after her as the dining room got farther and farther away.
"Wait, she isn't staying with you all?"
"It's obvious that she probably wants to be alone tonight. If she's ill, we cannot risk getting sick before getting back home. We are already one day over our expected stay anyways."
Mae opened her mouth and actually got out a noise. "Get out of my head," she said and grabbed her head, her mind threatening to break free of her body.
Ramille stopped and looked at her. "Mae?"
"It's nothing, I thought I heard something. Might've been me hearing things because I'm tired," Mae said, fixing her posture slightly and standing more upright.
Asra opened up the door to the room and stepped inside with the two girls, closing it behind him. Ramille still led Mae to the guest bed and sat down beside her friend, looking at her with concern. He sighed and stood in front of the two friends, folding his arms behind him.
"I know you are confused, especially you Ramille, but I will do everything in my power to find a way to return you all to where you had originated from."
"I thought you-"
"Julian told me part of it, and I already assumed something was different to how odd Mae and the other girl had been acting around me and the others. You guys are here as whole people, though somehow we came to know other versions of two of you five without ever really meeting you. No clue how. I can only think that some sort of 'soul-split' happened, but even that feels too far fetched to me."
"Well we better figure out how on Earth we suddenly had a magical ball of light come to our world and transport us here. Us five have to get home."
"I will attempt to do everything in my power to find out how to recreate that portal, and how it even led you all here. I will communicate with the Arcana tonight if I must," Asra said and looked back to Mae, who was staring around the room with caution, her yellow eyes looking at the paintings and dressers.
With a quick glare at Ramille and Asra, Mae's fists curled as she gave him a stern look. "Quit talking like you know what's happening."
    "Mae? Are you ok?"
    Asra looked lost, "I'm not. I'm saying what could be done to try and my theories on what's happening... hold on," he did a double take and looked back at her as she stayed there, gazing at him, "wait-"
    She moved to stand up and made one footstep in advance towards him before Asra's hands flew out, catching her fist in his. Her eyes went wide and she gritted her teeth as he pushed her away from him and ducked to avoid a punch to the head. Ramille immediately moved to stand up and her hands unclenched, looking at Mae's aggressiveness and Asra not fighting back.
    "Grab her!"
    Ramille launched forward and wrapped her arms around Mae's stomach and held her in place, a foot on hers to stop her from moving. "Cut it out!"
    "Ramille, duck!"
    She immediately let go of Mae and ducked out of the way as a blast of green magic erupted from his hands and struck her in the chest, Mae's eyes closing immediately as she sputtered and landed back against the bed, not-moving.
    "Oh my god, Mae!"
    "That wasn't her."
    "What the hell do you mean that wasn't her!"
    "Something was wrong with her, obviously. Her eyes were yellow, and she wasn't acting herself, which is another obvious thing. Mae has purple eyes, hers were orange and yellow. Like..." He put a hand under his chin and touched Mae's hand in short taps, but got no response from her. She was still steadily breathing, but her body seemed to go back to the weaker state than the empowered one she was inflicted with. "Possession perhaps. She might have just been possessed."
"You have to be joking. Possession exists here?"
"I mean, only those with the power of darkness can activate such a target on a host. And the only one who had been previously shown to have potentially had such an ability was the late Count, since he made a deal with the devil. But that doesn't make much sense, why would he show interest in her?"
Ramille scratched her arm, "great. Now we have to deal with a possession mystery before we even get the chance to go home. Let's add another two days onto that. Not like we can ignore this."
Asra nodded and grabbed part of Mae's limp body and dragged her to where she was laying straight on the bed now, not under the covers, but simply on them. With the shake of his head and wiped his sweaty palms on his pants and looked around the room, "Fantastic... Now we have to deal with this. We have to focus on the portal situation first, then this if we can. Perhaps whatever vile criminal made this happen can only activate it while you all are in our world."
"That only is a theory. What if it can affect us other places?"
"Well, I never heard from others if it affected their world when possession was in play from the Count."
"You've been in contact with other worlds?"
"A year ago was my last," he put his hand on the dresser and looked at the window. "It was dark and cold, and no one was there to greet me like my friend Muriel had said. There was no one there, but rather just flowers sprouting around the place. But a few visits before that I met a kind man. According to him, he got the device to visit in the meeting place from another animal, who passed it onto him when she stumbled across him during one of her dream visits. He was tall, seemed nice enough with a sarcastic undertone, had dark blue hair, and talked and talked about his life. I could barely speak mine. There was something about him I sensed to be misguided, evil maybe, and yet he told me some remarkable things. How he came to exist and was driven by madness until he was freed from his inescapable prison to suddenly come back as a whole being. How his form is permanently scarred with different markings and scars from fighting and from being inflicted and infected with darkness.
"I looked at him and assumed he was evil and got ready to attack, but he sat me down on the ground and spoke to me. Something that doesn't match him. He talked about how he had to become his own whole person once dying and coming back, and how he had done so many hurtful and bad things in the past. He told me that he came from a world surrounded by numerous others. A host world is what he named it. He showed me his powers, his outfit, and how he wielded a sacred weapon that looks a certain way to accommodate him and his personality and where he came from. And then just like that... he was gone. I couldn't trace any remnants of him. I called out his name into the darkness many times, yet I never got any response. Like he disappeared. So I distanced myself and focused on our world. Our possessed problems and our evil instead of indulging in theirs. And it worked... I wonder where that man is now. Did he meet his other self? Are the four of them now friends?"
"Four?"
"Yes. Him, his whole self in which he originated from, the host who determined how he now looks in part to being a part of his heart, and then the host's "nobody"."
Ramille arched a brow, "Do you remember this guys name?"
"No... I never was good at remembering names. Plus it's been so long since that it is lost to me..." Asra put a hand under his chin, "Do you have a clue on who he might have been?"
"No. I wish I knew what you were talking about. I have no clue who you could be talking about. I'm sorry," Ramille apologized as Asra walked back over to her, "But how does that have to do with Mae, or even us getting possessed even if we leave here?"
Asra looked at her and rolled his eyes, groaning. The room was growing hot with tension and confusion in the air, "Right. Sorry, I was rambling. Anyways, he said that nothing like that was affecting anyone he knew, nor had he heard about it from others who were apparently doing their exploration jobs or just going out to have fun. So, Lucio couldn't affect others, even though the Devil most likely had the power and ability to make that possible."
"So we are probably safe when we get home?"
"Exactly. Still, I will look into it on the side, but finding out how these portals work is number one. Let me get a notebook and write down what I know, that way I can go back to the shop and try and make a concoction to test my theories and what I know."
Ramille pointed at the unconscious body that they had been ignoring for the past ten minutes and furrowed her eyebrows, "Yeah, and what about blue-hair over here?"
"She should wake up tomorrow."
"Alright. I trust you on this."
"I know... and I hope that I'm right."