Peak of Autumn, Week 4, Day 4

At the noise, I slid off the bench and slipped back down the path I’d taken before. I wondered if this was the work of [Otherworldly]. Fateful encounters were an unfortunate effect of the Skill. Would this qualify? It was likely one of the older Dawns —Raphael or Evelyn. The morning was still too fresh for the younger Dawns to be up and about.

Navigating the labyrinthine hedges, I took a moment to listen once more. In the distance I heard indistinct laughs and whispers. I couldn’t tell exactly how far they were, but with my new Perception and the low volume of their voice, I figured I had some time to slip away.

“[Silent as a Shadow]”

The Skill hummed out of me, and I felt a shock of cold pool in my stomach before dispersing across my body. Unlike the chill of the water from earlier, this cold did not cause me to shiver or flinch. This cold was a comfort. The world desaturated around me, the colors of mid morning becoming indistinguishable from the browns of the hedges. Even the sounds of small critters had faded around me. It felt as if I was walking through a drawing. It was a reminder of my own power.

Power, I scoffed at the thought. I have no power. Not in this life.

As if in acceptance, I could feel somewhere inside of me [Otherworldly] had retracted. Whatever its original distance, I could now feel its passive existence inches from my skin. I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. In the periphery, the voices faded into the distance as I slipped through the hedges to make my way back to my room.

I felt [Silent as a Shadow] end gradually, colors and sound returning to the world around me as I peered up at my window. Looking up at the second story, where the window frame hung open still, I realized I had made a mistake.

How am I supposed to get back up?

Immediately, I tried lowering myself into a crouch and jumping up. That did not work. I only made it eight feet, roughly double my height, before I slid down the wall with my hands scrambling for purchase. Fortunately, my Dexterity allowed me to position myself to land safely —but that didn’t mean comfortably. I had scratched my palms against the rough texture of the wall as I caught myself from rolling an ankle on landing.

I tried to use [Quick Calculation] to get me to a spot where I could jump from or a tree that was close enough to scale, anything that meant I could solve this problem here and now. I swallowed as every result returned a failure.

Unless… I used [Quick Calculation] one more time to determine how much mana I had left in me.

It might work. The laws of magic in Gargantua were different than in the before. In elsewhere, magic was controlled with finesse and Will —it was more intuitive and free form. Here it requires contracts and foci and work. Skills didn’t require any of that though. Skills were abilities that worked like in elsewhere.

“[Weave of Darkness].”

Once again, the ice cold prick of mana funneling into a Skill filled me. Unlike with [Silent as a Shadow], when the mana disbursed it focused on my hands and left my body —forming a ball of pitch black yarn. Strictly speaking, I hadn’t directed it to be the color of Shadowless Night, but my heart had desired it and thus that is what was produced. Similar to how I knew I would need at least 45 yards of yarn for what I wanted to do and I was confident the ball of shadow was that length.

Unlike my other Skills, I had practice with [Weave of Darkness] —it felt comfortable to use and I had been able to understand its limits first hand rather than from [Inspect]. And even if I had not understood it so well, I really did not want to go through the whole of the estate to get back to my room. In fact, I cannot understate how much I hated that idea.

Gripping the ball of yarn in my hands, I took a breath. Everything told me what I wanted to do was possible. I could do it. I held out a single hand and spoke. I didn’t actually know what tensile strength meant but [Inspect] had said it was 572, which did not strike me as a small number. The real trick would be getting the ball wrapped around the window frame several times so I could use it to climb. And hoping then that the frame could hold me. With Strength, I wasn’t sure if that came with weight —and my memories told me nothing.

Unraveling the ball, I used the loose end to tie around my wrist. Pulling out enough yarn to reach the top of the window frame and then some, I began to aim. Right as I angled my arm up, swung, and released, I watched as the yarn hooked over the frame and began to fall. I felt a small smile bloom at my success and went to grab the ball of yarn to do it again.

“What are you doing?”

I jumped at the voice, my hand clenched on the yarn, and spun on my heel. I had been so engrossed in the endeavor, I hadn’t really been paying attention to the world at large. But now I was met with a boy barely older than me, with blue eyes that matched my own. The first Dawn I had met after being shoved into this world.

Theodore Dawn.

As he addressed me, I felt the old Eunora well up inside. The feeling of smallness that Theodore brought up in her was crushing and my heart ached at the thought of such a young girl feeling so unwanted. Theodore was never cruel with his words but his actions spoke of his apathy. Eunora had known that she was not as smart as Theodore, who could memorize books even prior to Awakening. She knew that he thought as such too.

But something irked me, a thread of a thought. Everyone else had thought that Rise 8th had been just another day. Raphael and the Countess confirmed it. Even Maria had unintentionally confirmed as such with her actions. But Theodore had come to wake me up. Granted, afterwards he hadn’t come to check on me. But he had come. I had nearly forgotten in the face of everything that had happened. Theodore had never done that before.

Why had he come?

Even now, why was he bothering to talk to me?

What does he want?

“What are you doing?” He repeated emphatically.

I looked up at the window, with a single strand of yarn wrapped around the extended frame, then to the yarn still sitting on the ground, then down to my nightgown, before finally looking at Theodore again.

“Nothing.”

Disbelief crossed his face as he looked from me to the window.

“Nothing?”

“Nothing that concerns you.”

Unlike with Raphael, Theodore never came across as a bully. There was simply hurt and inadequacy spawned by his indifference. That was as damning as Raphael to me. Even children should have limits on how they treat others. Anger and disdain surged within me. This whole family is rotten, I thought, maybe exile is exactly where I should be.

“It’s barely morning, what are you doing throwing a…” he narrowed his eyes as he focused his gaze around where I was standing, “Ball of yarn?”

I took a slow breath in and released a slow breath out, “Nothing-“

“Nothing that concerns me,” he interrupted in a droll voice and crossed his arms, “Yeah, all right, whatever.”

Despite growing quiet, he didn’t move to go. And I didn’t speak. He just stood, scrutinizing me. Seconds passed. I glanced back at the yarn, debating if I should just continue what I was doing.

“I heard Raphael came by.”

Yeah, I decided, I’ll just ignore him. I picked up the ball of yarn and passed it from hand to hand, unraveling enough of it to reach the window frame again. As I did so, I heard Theodore uncross and cross his arms.

“Did you tell him your [Class]?”

Ignore him. He isn’t worth your time.

I threw the ball, another smooth arc over the window frame. A success. This time, there was no smile. I went over to the ball and picked it up.

“Considering you’ve been moping for ages, how horrid was it?”

He knew —I could feel it. He didn’t mean days, the emphasis on ‘ages’ was too much. He knew my birthday was Rise 8th.

Ignore him. Just. Ignore him. He still didn’t come back. It’s been months.

I walked another few steps and began unraveling more yarn. The ball was a quarter of its original size by then. Holding the two loose strings to stop them from joining the ball in the air, I aimed once again.

“What? Was your only choice a [Common] [Class]?”

Ignore him.

The ball flew just over the top of the frame and began unraveling mid air. As it fell, the ball came completely undone and the final string hung loosely from the frame. It was dragging lightly on the ground and moving easily with the breeze. I went over and grabbed it, stepping back so all three strings were taught between my hand and the frame.

572 TS * 3 = 1,716 TS, flicked in my head and I sighed. If it wasn’t enough before, hopefully it was now. I could feel Eunora’s brother staring at me expectantly, waiting for me to give in and answer him.

“Go away, Theodore.” I sighed.

I didn’t even bother looking back at Theodore as I wrapped the ends of the strings around my waist —just small enough to secure them. And grabbed the higher up yarn. Then I began a rope climb. It was easier than I was expecting, hooking my hand around the strings and pulling my body up. In fact, it was so easy, when I was up high enough to hook my foot in the rope to steady myself I hardly even needed to do so. I did, of course, do so —because I’m not an idiot and it’s safer to hook my foot too. Why did I want to do this safer? Because as I have said once, twice, thrice before, despite being stuck here I don’t really relish the thought of being dead. Even if being alive sucks.

Once I tugged myself up into the wide windowsill I looked back down to Theodore, who had an inscrutable expression on his usually bland face.

“Why are you still here?” I shook my head lightly, a scowl replacing my own bland expression, “Go away.”

Pulling in the yarn, I began rolling it back up into a ball. The interesting bit about [Weave of Darkness] was that it permanently summoned shadowed thread. Thus, I was able to have quite a bit of knitted animals below my bed. And coasters. And a scarf. Perhaps I would summon a ball of Shadowless Day and [Weave] them together. Again. Theodore occasionally called out to ask me about my [Class], but otherwise stayed where he was while I spent minutes gently unlooping the yarn from the window frame to make sure it wasn’t snagged or snapped. Though, after how easily I had used it to climb up, I was doubtful that a rough tug would be enough to sever the yarn. But I wasn’t sure. I was careful anyway.

Once I was finished, and had a relatively neat ball of yarn sitting next to me, I closed the window without looking at Theodore. He was not my issue. If he wanted to come harass me again, he would have to get through a locked door now. With a huff, I tossed the ball onto my bed and went into the bathroom. I was trying to bathe more often, to prevent myself from physically festering any longer. After being trapped in my bed for a majority of the day before, it had been two days since I’d bathed. Which meant now was as good a time as any.

Looking at my face in the mirror, I was shocked once again by the Vitality that fueled my skin. No longer were my cheeks sunken or my eyes dull, my skin was fresh and soft and free of the paleness that had haunted me since I refused to eat regularly. My muscles felt free and I undid my braids with deft fingers, faster and easier than two days prior. I wondered, briefly, if [Weaving] would help me make better braids. Within me, the Skill confirmed it would by sending images of transferable knots and woven patterns that would allow me to decorate my hair.

Soon enough I was back to laying atop my bed in a fresh nightgown with loose hair. I did not want to braid my hair. Or eat lunch. Or get off the bed.

But I did. I ate an apple-like fruit with purple and orange skin, and I said hello to Maria. I used a slightly more complicated braid on my hair —just a single step above the basic— it required five strands instead of three, and it turned out just lovely enough that I found myself with a mildly improved mood. And I did all these things off the bed.

Despite the rude awakening this morning, or perhaps because of it, I had had a rather okay day. I frowned. If I ignored Theodore popping up.