—

  I...

  Am slowly coming...

  Back to my senses.

  ...

  Am I in the Realm of Omegias now? Do Necromatas even go there?

  ...

  I opened my eyes. It–it wasn't dark. But I am in a... Bed? I am facing down to the pillow.

  It was all a dream? Did I just fall asleep?

  ...

  Am I still in the mannor?

  The bed and sheets are different. Comfier than the other one. Did she change the matt–

  It hurts to touch!

  I looked at my hands.

  ...

  — They are burnt and the right one has deep cut scars.

  ...

  That wasn't a dream.

  I could have really died died there. I...

  I am still alive. Still here, in the realm of the living!

  ha

  haha!

  Hahahah!

  HAHAHAHAHAHaaa...!

  Haaa—

  —No, wait, Fastblade! FASTBLADE! I HA—

  –"Ugh, can you be quiet for a bit, 20? I am trying to refill your phylactery, sheesh. (Quedó loca. Primera cosa que hace y es reírse sola. No la culpo...)"

  Fa... Fastblade?!

  He is just sitting there in the bed, at my right, with his back facing me!

  —"Fa... Fa—faFAFASTY! You are alive! You are alive too! Hahahaaaa..."—

  I didn't bother to look how he was. I just jumped to hug him as hard as I could.

  –"Wa... Watch out! Don't spill your phyl... Hehe, alright alright, yes, I am alive, don't worry, cute jumble. Takes more than that to take me down!—"

  He hugged me with his right arm in return.

  Please don't die that easily, friend, please!—

  ...

  I cried hard.

  Kept hugging him hard...

  For Caladom knows how much time.

  He never stopped his grab on me.

  —"You feeling better, 20? Your thing is about to be filled up. Wanna choose what to top it with?"–

  Wait, my thing, about to be filled up?

  I reopened my still teary eyes, and looked in front of me.

  While with his right hand was pampering me, with his left one...

  !!!

  He... B... Blood? He had blood flowing from it! And...

  The cherry red liquid followed a path that went from a cut on his palm to end up inside of...

  My open phylactery.

  Being grabbed with his fingers.

  It was almost full.

  —"...Fastblade, uh, wh—what are you doing with my... Uh—"

  He followed my gaze to meet the bone he was holding and filling with his dripping blood: —"Oh, this?"–He shook it a bit–"Refueling a necromata, that is all. You have no idea how many of your kind we used during that war."

  "I remember necromancers using energy potions for this. But truth be told, any kind of fluid with chemical energy and imprint in the Canvas works for this." –

  – "We usually did this when we ran out of that piss looking beverage and we needed the necromata mass charge by yesterday."—

  That didn't sound nice at all, despite his calm tone. But...

  The... Canvas?

  —"...Uh, what is that 'Canvas' thing?"

  —"Y–you know how to use magic and you don't know what the Canvas is? Is the entire reason anyone can do magic here!"

  "But... Maybe you know it as 'The Veil', the official Ichorchate name that said field has. Concordia calls it 'The Aether', but everyone else calls it 'The Canvas'."–

  How inconvenient to have like 3 names for the same thing!

  —"Oh, I didn't knew that. The other names, I mean. Yes, yes, I know about the Veil. Kinda like air, present everywhere. — you syntonize with a 'Spell' on it to turn your energy into something else... That is what the book you took as fee said." Was what I replied. He nodded in approval.

  But liquid with imprint? Is blood a liquid with imprint?

  It seems so. I can move and talk and my tongue is finally free of that accursed mud taste.

  ...I will ask later.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  ...

  I stood in silence for a bit, as I needed to muster the strength to say:

  — "F... Fastblade... Uh... T–thank you for... For that. With your blood. For the travel. Not for putting me in danger but — ah, you did what you could. Th–thanks for this all—"

  — "Nah, is nothing. I should be thanking you instead for saving my arse. That thing put me out of commission for quite a bit!"–

  –"But when my [NOT YET!] blessing kicked in to revive and wake me up, besides the minced half horse next to the fuel pumps, that old geezer had some body piercing and was drowning in his own blood. The gas station was a goner, that dracoraptor with that other horse guy were barbeque and that other fleabag got choked dead with that." – While pointing to my lacerated right hand – "...So, thanks for that 4 vs 1 you pulled off, somehow."

  I couldn't avoid feeling flustered, proud and... Shocked, once the reality of what I did settled in.

  I... I—I killed.

  I removed 4 lives. Sent them to Omegias.

  They would have killed me, sure, but... I don't — I don't know how to feel about it. Is just that...

  He looked at me, he reached me with his free arm and made me press against himself, caressing my back.

  — "Shhhh, shhh, I know that face, I know, I know... Was not your fault, don't let it linger that on you much, you did what you had to... Was not your fault, was not your fault..."–

  — "H—hey! Why so — So sudden again! Why do you like me to be so close to you! What is wrong with you!"

  — "Shhh, calm, calm. Just that... That face of yours... Is the same face that the conscripts put after they realized they had just sent a life to the realm of Omegias."–

  "They then broke down and needed to calm down a bit. But once they recomposed themselves... Well, was when they turned into Warriors. Soldiers..."

  — "Bu... But I am not a conscript! Not a warrior! Or a soldier!" I replied.

  — "Officially? You don't even exist. Neither should I. But for me, you are already one of the bravest warriors I had the pleasure to meet."

  He then caressed my head again.

  To be fair, he was right to hug me.

  It wasn't my fault.

  I just did what I had to do.

  And those other words, and his scratches...

  I felt better.

  I hugged him again, and he hugged my head, scratching it a bit.

  ...My hands still hurt a bit. Less than before. But I don't care. I just...

  I had to do what I had to do.

  ...

  Thanks for that too, Fastblade.

  He then added: — "Usually, we gave to the people that had their first kill a bottle of alcohol like this one." – He released his grip on me to duck and grab a glass bottle from a plastic bag on the ground next to his only actual feet. The gun calf was resting next to it, as just another object.

  The bottle had some strange inscriptions and it contained some water looking liquid inside – "...But you are still too young for that. And is for me. But for you, I have something special."—

  He chuckled a bit, scrubbed my head and then ducked to grab something else from said bag.

  –"Here, chocolate. Want it on the phylactery or to eat?"

  He showed me a strange purple rectangle with the image of a brown ingot and an unintelligible red inscription. And a white tag sticked on top? That seems to be in Lithician but the letters are small.

  —"Oh, right right, you don't know what it is. Here, have a bit.—"

  He put the rectangle on its mouth to open it. Happened to be a wrap to a silvery looking ingot. He spit the paper he ripped and with his fingers he cracked a piece of the metallic looking brick, handing it to me.

  Huh, it has a brown thing inside. How do I... Do I...

  —"He–hey! Don't chomp it with the aluminium wrap! Peel that first!"

  —"y... You didn't tell me how to eat it! How was I supposed to know the metal thing wasn't food!?

  —"AAaahhh! The chocolate is the brown stuff! Is a candy! You munch it like, I don't know, bread, wood... The other wrap is to... keep it fresher for longer or something."

  —"Like... Wood? But wood isn't—"

  –"AH! No! Not like wood, wood isn't... Is food for me, not you..."—He inhaled—"...Just one of my blessings that allows me to eat anything!"

  ...

  As I sat back, I looked at the brown inside the thin metal paper while he gulped the liquid on the bottle.

  I peeled the silvery 'aluminium' thing and put the brown thing on my mouth.

  —...

  I had never tasted something this delicious and sweet before.

  No, actually, I had...

  --- ? ---

  It was one of the many times we ran out to the Echophage house.

  —"34? Where did you get that?"

  —"Oh, this bowl? From the kitchen."

  —"No, dodoohead. The orange with white stuff on it! Is that... Honey? How? Getting the honey out of the bee boxes is one of the things Mother doesn't trust us with! How did y—"

  – "In the forest! There is a wild beehive there! The bees weren't very happy, but a–"

  – "The forest? But you know she doesn't like it when we go to play there! Not a bit! Why you have to be such a dodoohead!

  — "I couldn't avoid it! I am tired of being confined here! I want to see more of the world! Beyond the forests! Behind the mountains! Across those fences! Look at the things that await us there!"–

  While showing me the bowl with... A piece of honeycomb hastily grabbed. Had some larvae and bees still stuck there.

  – "...It reminded me of you. So stingy on the outside, but saving something so sweet inside..."

  ...Aww, I can't get angry with that. — Did he said 'stingy' on the outside?

  I AM NOT STINGY!

  RAAAGGGHHH!!!

  — "20! Agh! Stop choking me! Plea – Not the biting again! AAHHHH!!"

  —

  We ended up eating the honeycomb anyways, but we both got grounded for breaking that bowl by forcing us to make 2 more from clay.

  Took us like half a month to get them right.

  --- ? ---

  — "...Huh, never saw someone shedding tears for eating chocolate. I wonder what memories that unlocked", Fastblade noted.

  Wait, he now just laid down next to me. Eh, whatever, he must be tired too.

  — "...Ahhhh, the best ones. Thanks for this — But, what happened to my..."

  — "Your magic battery? Is full and already on your hair, duncy. But right now I just really want to sleep."

  Indeed, my phylactery was in my head. It was a bit uncomfortable when sleeping, so I took it and left it below the bed.

  Huh, I haven't looked at my surroundings.

  Where am I?

  This room is small. Just this large bed, Fasty, the door with... A strange shelf with some text, a... Shower? Another door next to it and this large fat dark grey mirror in front of the bed on top of a drawer.

  — "Hey... Fastblade... Where are — we? — " I asked with less energy than usual.

  He looked... Nervous?

  — "...Ehhhh, just a... Just an inn with... With sleeping services! Nothing else! Ahhh, just sleep already. It awaits us like 5 ho... – I mean 2 tanths of driving. The entire place is fenced off and even this little room has a fence outside it to protect the truck. Don't worry."

  — "But I am not... that sleepy any—"

  — "Then I don't know, watch some TV or something. Oh, right, you don't know what that is too. See that big box?" – While pointing to the strange fat mirror on top of that furniture – "That is a TV. Think of it as those 'all seeing' orbs of the fairytales but skewed to just show you what the wizard wants you to see".

  Doesn't look like those to me at all. But it still intrigued me a lot.

  I would have asked him how to use it.

  But even with my phylactery refueled...

  I still...

  Needed to...

  Sleep.

  —

  By the next morning, we woke up without much to say to each other.

  I grabbed my phylactery, he grabbed the bag with goodies.

  I ate half of that chocolate thing, he ate the rest.

  We went to the truck that was inside a closed parking space of the little beige painted brick shed and we departed from it, passing by the other little painted sheds.

  Huh, but where was the breakfast? It was an inn, right?

  !

  There was a... Clay Golem? Attending the big gate to exit the whole place.

  For being an expressionless moving statue, it really conveyed well its disgust against Fastblade... for some reason. Fasty also avoided his gaze while passing it some... Colored papers? And some keys. After that, the golem went to open the gates.

  Why was that all?

  And then I saw it, in Lithician, in a sign at the entrance:

  

  Halite Motel.

  As you need salt to live, we give space to love.

  I have no idea what a 'motel' is, but with the phrase, I can connect the dots...

  I just...

  Want to...

  — "He, look at the gas station 20! The cuirassiers actually went and did their job! Marked the bodies, put the ribbons and all! But couldn't track u... h—hey, why are you giving me that face, y—you are scaring me."

  — "Fastblade. Of. Caliderai."

  — "Y... yes? In what ca–can I hel–"

  – "What is... A 'Motel'?"

  – "Eh... I – I already told you! Ju–just a – Just some bedroom cabins, that is all!"

  — "...I recall you said it was an 'Inn with sleeping services'."

  He hesitated a bit, saying half worlds.

  I calmy said: – "Tell. Me." — before erupting: — "IN WHAT KIND OF PLACE YOU PUT ME IN!!!"

  — "Alright Alright! I will tell you! Stop punching me! You see...When two people love each other very much and need a place to make babiAGH! Not the bites again! Not when I am driving! Don't scratch me! Stop! AAHHH! My eyes! STOP!!!" —

  The truck jerked around, almost rammi—

  {CRASH!}

  ...

  No, we did ram a tree.

  Huh, ended uprooted. That steel really is thick!