"I’d rather not do that," I responded in a similarly calm tone.

Although it might have seemed counterintuitive, the fact that I needed to be polite didn’t mean I had to be respectful, at least not in the common sense of the world. What was required was politeness devoid of formality, which more often than not consisted of putting on a pretence which could be considered analogous to lying. On the contrary, straightforwardness could be positively received.

Tobias reclined himself on the throne.

"Child, I expect my questions to be answered"

"Will you resort to brute strength in case I refuse to do so?"

"That is likely"

His expression was unreadable, but I was certain he wasn’t trying to deceive or threaten me. He was simply stating a simple fact: he wanted answers and he would obtain them, one way or another.

Anyway, there was something I was curious about.

"Before commencing, could you please tell me why you insist on calling me “child”? I’m almost eighteen… probably," I said. As a matter of fact, I had no idea what my actual age was, only a rough estimation.

"It’s not been long since you transitioned. You may be a newborn archuman no more, but you are still a child," he matter-of-factly explained.

"Fair enough. Then let’s start, shall we?" I said with a smile on my lips.

I wasn’t really keen on divulging my information, but I was even less keen on being killed or tortured and there was no possibility I could get out of this situation without Tobias’ consent. Not only was I still wounded due to Lily’s aura abnormal resilience, but I was also far weaker than the powerhouse sitting in front of me.

"What is your name," he asked amicably.

"I don’t actually know. I called myself John Doe because I found it funny and it stuck"

"Curious choice indeed. Why are you imbued with the smell of lost time?"

This question struck me unexpectedly. Although I imagined his senses to be keen, I didn’t imagine he could sniff a temporal anomaly from the body of someone. I figured that the reason I had met him almost immediately was due to the fact that he had felt me breach the strange fractal space which had trapped me before reaching the border of the Alpha Perimeter.

"That’s a really great question! But I don’t know the answer. I was simply journeying across the wasteland and then I found myself stuck… “somewhen”?"

"But you found your way out. How?"

I simply shook my head. There was nothing I could say to him, as I had no idea what I had exactly done to escape the strange situation I had found myself in.

"The Veil has been behaving erratically," Tobias said, speaking to the air.

He probably wanted to gauge my reaction to his words, but I remained impassive. I didn’t have a clue about what he was referring to.

After a couple of minutes, he resumed speaking.

"Child, you were travelling with quite an interesting companion. An impossible hybrid, with the pulse of mana coming from her being. Tell me more about her"

The smile on my face grew and my eyes became colder, staring daggers at him. He had touched on a subject I didn’t want him to.

The room was immediately flooded with Tobias' aura and I felt it bear down on me.

"Do not direct your hostility towards me, child. Behave," he ordered in a monotonous and ominous tone.

I forced myself to calm down. I knew he would have already figured out Faye’s identity, but him breaching the subject this way angered me. I had recently spoken in a cold way to Faye, but thanks to Lily’s beating I had become a little bit more lucid. After the surgery, pure survival had become my main objective and I had almost forgotten my true aim. Survival was only a means to an end, which was to live a full life and Faye was part of the picture.

"I don’t want to. And I ask you to be considerate," I responded to its request.

There was silence for some time.

"Very well. I do not wish to antagonise you, child. I won’t pry," he eventually yielded, withdrawing his aura.

Then, his gaze travelled around my damaged body.

"Why are you keeping yourself in this state," he questioned me.

"What," I frowned.

"Heal yourself, child. Your body is in complete disarray," he clarified himself.

"Oh, this. Well, I’m waiting for my aura to do its work"

For a mere instant, an expression of utter confusion and alarm seemed to appear on his face, before the unreadable expression reappeared. He took a better look at me and waved his hand. His aura shot towards me and traversed my wounds, blowing away any remnant of Lily’s aura.

Finally free from its grasp, my wounds began to close and my left arm returned to its previous state. Now, Tobias’ face twisted into a grimace.

"You do not control your aura flow," he stated.

This took me by surprise but thinking back about it, I realised he was indeed right. From the surgery onwards, there hadn’t been a single time when I had really tried to consciously direct my aura. I had left it to respond automatically to damages inflicted on my body. The only exception I could think of was of me regularly pouring my aura inside of Faye’s body, but even in that case more than a conscious effort, it had been nearer to letting it flow naturally towards her. After all, since the surgery, the affinity between my aura and her own one had been high.

"Looking back, you are right. Well, isn’t it normal? After all, I’m a somatic type," I said.

Tobias frowned.

"I do not understand what you are talking about, child"

I also frowned. If Tobias didn’t know about this distinction, it meant there was some kind of disconnection between the Gamma Perimeter and the other ones. The anomaly I had traversed seemed to have more expansive effects than a simple time displacement.

He continued speaking.

"The Veil is more damaged than I thought. Nevertheless, tell me: why are you not a master of yourself? Why is your body still in disarray?"

My frown grew deeper. After all, I felt perfectly fine.

"In disarray? But I’m perfectly healthy," I questioned him, confused.

"Your flesh and bones are kept together by your aura but they will soon unravel. Your life will cease in less than a year’s time"

"S**t," was the only thing I could say after pondering for some time. It was his words against my own perception and I was perfectly aware of the fact that he was the one to be more trustworthy.