Chronicles Of The Seeker

The door of the private room creaked open as Ina stepped back inside, her phone still clutched in one hand, the screen's light casting faint shadows across her face. Her gaze flickered briefly to the two people waiting—Aquarius and Mikey—before drifting away, unfocused, as if she was still half-absorbed in the call.

"So, what did Katherine say?" Aquarius blurted out, snapping Ina back to reality.

Ina lingered for a moment before speaking. "She just said she was mad that we ran out like that. No matter how urgent the situation was, we should have at least called."

Mikey gasped, fixing his gaze on the two beside him. "That's right—I totally forgot about Kath."

"But I don't think we need that much after our ritual," Aquarius cut in.

"Yeah, I thought so too." Ina paused as she sat back on the cushion. "But apparently, we need many other things before we are ready for our first chronicle."

Aquarius placed his left hand on his chin, zoning out of the conversation. 'I guess you can't send untrained soldiers to fight, no matter how strong they may be.'

Aquarius wasn't concerned about how long it would take. His true desire lay in unraveling the mysteries of this strange, enthralling world—uncovering truths he had never even imagined.

Mikey dropped his teacup back on the table and raised his gaze to Ina. "So, when are we going to meet her?"

Ina let out a loud sigh, freeing her posture. "Well, that's the problem." She took a sip of green tea, the cup clenched tightly in her delicate palms. "She's mad that we didn't contact her and said we should take some time off since we left already."

"So we wait till she calms down."

"Apparently, that's the only option," Ina turned to Aquarius, a fleeting frown crossed his face as his jaw tightened, betraying his inner tension. "We aren't in any hurry, and it's a plus since all our thoughts are a mess right now."

Aquarius did agree with her, but he was feeling a bit impatient for an unknown reason. 'Well, the patient dog always eats the biggest bone—or however the saying went.'

"So, I think we should all go our separate ways for now and meet up when we are done with our individual affairs," Ina suggested, her face darkening slightly.

Mikey let out his usual smile. "I think Katherine is trying to do this for our own good, so..." He paused. "Let's just finish our normal affairs, because I'm not even sure if we will have any 'normal' after this."

Mikey straightened his posture. "So let's just share our contact info for now and meet up later like Ina said."

Ina nodded in agreement and turned to Aquarius. "Why are you staring at me?"

"No, it's just—aren't you going to share your contact info?" Aquarius tilted his head slightly. "But why do we need to share our contact info? We can just pick a date."

Mikey's gaze lingered on Aquarius before he shook his head. "Why do you think communication was invented? It's so that we can communicate."

Aquarius's expression changed slightly before returning to normal. "You know what you said makes no sense."

"It doesn't ?." Mikey cleared his throat. "Well, what I'm trying to say is, we need to share our contact info in case something occurs."

Aquarius couldn't argue with that and honestly wanted to have actual numbers in his smartphone, but he had other reasons for his objection.

Ina, who was in deep thought, turned to face Aquarius, a grin slowly appearing on her beautiful face. "Don't tell me, you don't even know your contact info."

Aquarius stared at her with his usual calm expression, but his mind was a real wreck. 'Damn it, why does she get so intuitive at times like this?'

"How pathetic do you think I am? Of course I know my contact info." Ina's grin slowly disappeared.

"So why object then?"

Aquarius had already thought of his next words. "Well, I don't mind sharing my info with Mikey, but with you—that isn't just a girl but also a..." He paused and stole a glance at her face. "Just never mind the second part, you get the point, right?"

Ina smiled, her eyes narrowing. "What do you mean, 'never mind'?"

"It's not that important," Aquarius realized the faint trace of irritation a little too late, but Mikey intervened before anything happened. "Guys, I think we're going a little off point." Ina let out a sigh as she picked up her phone from the table.

Phew.

I finally escaped that hellhole. It seems the saying that beautiful people are the most dangerous really is true.

I put my top hat on as I left the Street 7 district. The street in the next district wasn't that populated, so I had room to both breathe and think. I've been trying to postpone the issue of Kami, seekers, my loss of color, and my strange ability—which I knew nothing about. I was actually pretty excited that I survived the ritual process, but having an ability that I know nothing about was honestly frustrating. Even Ina and Mikey didn't know how to use their abilities either, but they did say that their main traits were active.

I honestly had a lot to process, just like Ina said, but my present issue was far worse—I didn't have any place to sleep and had no money to pay for an inn. "I should have asked Mikey for some coins." But I knew why I didn't—it wasn't because I forgot but because my pride wouldn't take it and also the fact that I hate being indebted to someone for no reason.

Walking through the next street I finally reached my destination a lifeless alley in between Street 5 and 6. This particular alleyway was known by all slum kids as 'hell paradise ', to us at the slums this was the very Lowest of society in Luthadel as far as we knew, but here I was, standing in front of that very alleyway.

I let out a sigh as I entered, they air around this part of Luthadel was unlike the freshness of Katherine's store or the karaoke private room I just left. A suffocating stench of rot and decay clung to the air, sinking into my lungs with every breath. The ground was slick with filth, the walls damp with something that felt alive in the darkness

The alley was a forgotten corner of the city, tucked away from the cleaner streets where the rich strolled. It was a heavy and nauseating reminder that this was the city's underbelly. Narrow and cramped, the passageway was barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side, lined with crumbling buildings leaning in on each other as if trying to escape their own collapse. Windows were boarded up, broken, or caked in grime, and the ground was littered with refuse—rags, discarded food, and the occasional rat scurrying in search of scraps.

As I walked through this desolate alley I saw people who looked more like corpses than the living, hunched in the shadows with hollow eyes and skin stretched too thin. Prostitutes sat on the damp cobblestones, their faces tired, worn, and hollow, the remnants of their former selves barely clinging to the grime-covered walls around them. Their bodies were mere shells, devoid of life, as they waited for their next fleeting moment of business.

' Can you really call this leaving ', I clicked my tongue in irritation.

But a thought continued ringing in my head. 'If chronicles are really other worlds and seekers conquer them why can't they just move some humans over to that side, why must they let them suffer'. Those where thoughts I didn't have answers to, but couldn't help thinking of.

The lantern-style streetlight flickered above, barely casting a pale glow onto the street, its dim light sputtering as if it too was giving up. It hadn't been properly maintained in ages, its glass caked in soot, and the dim light seemed like a cruel reminder of the abandonment this place had suffered. The air was damp, and a sickly greenish liquid pooled between the cobblestones. This was where the city's scorned found shelter—no warmth, no light, no hope.

I wanted to sympathize with these people, but I wasn't in a better situation myself. Yes, I might have become an official seeker, but it wasn't like money would fall from the sky the moment I did.

As I studied the surrounding of this alley looking for which corner I will tuck myself into for the night though to the inhabitants of this forgotten corner I felt out of place. A man who had a huge build but now just hunched over appeared in front of me. " Didn't you learn your lessons last time you shitty missionaries, we don't want to hear your preaching while you look healthy and we suffer from hunger". All the people in the alley turned to me with disgust boldly written on their faces, but they were the least of my problem, I wasn't a saint so I had no reason to talk to them nor did I have the justification to do so, and I still had more things on my mind, not even talking about the fact that I was going to sleep in the same alleyway, but what really took my attention was how the alley was built, the buildings surrounding it and the small gaps that was made, felt as if they were constructed with the intention of making this a facility for the lowest of the low to live.

A child tugged at my clothes snapping me back to reality. Even though she was tattered and skinny, she was still a very cute child. Her voice was like that of an angel, and her eyes still shone brightly in this land of death.

"Mister, do you have any candy?" She said while smiling.

I smiled back at the her as I knelt down, holding her by the shoulder.

"What's your name, young one?" I asked, my tone both calm and compassionate.

"My name is Olivia. You can call me Oly," she said, smiling widely. "My mom said before she went to heaven that beautiful people are always kind. So are you kind, mister?"

For a moment, I saw a flicker of someone else in her eyes—someone lost to me long ago. It was a wound I had tried to bury deep, but the weight of her innocence threatened to unearth it."

I rubbed her head and said." Of course am nice, I can even do magic tricks". At this point not even I knew what I was saying anymore but I just wanted to keep this little child's smile." Really let me see". I stretched out my left hand grasping a rock in it, I remembered that I always kept a single strin coin in my back pocket, using my right hand I stretched out to fetch it while placing the rock behind her right ear, but i soon realised that for the first time the coin wasn't in my pants. ' I left it '.

But I couldn't tell Oly that the magic trick was over, she was just like me, maybe that's why I felt a little attached but in that situation I was helpless but something within me felt that if I just opened my palms in front of her everything will change. I took the gamble slowly releasing my first and in it wasn't the rock that I picked up or even the one strin coin. It was a lollipop, something that wasn't in my possession appeared but it was impossible. A trick of the light? A cruel joke played by the world? But no—the weight of the lollipop in my palm was real. As was the searing agony twisting through my veins, as if the universe itself demanded payment for this so-called 'miracle

Oly's face eluminated with joy but instead of just smiling she began to cry, to her a lollipop was a foreign entity that she could just dream of, but now it was in front of her. ' A Miracle '

My gentle facade broke as a grin appeared on my face.

' Yes no matter the pain it brought, it was still a freaking money making Miracle'.