Seeing the children calmly sleeping, I refreshed myself, Damien and Anna, clearing away all the filth that clung to us.

Seeing the sun had yet to rise, I decided I would rest for a while and closed my eyes while lying in the sand, the small ball of fire from yesterday burning between me and the children.

Although I closed my eyes and shut off my mind, I naturally stayed awake or otherwise, I would sleep for weeks at the very least, years at most.

Before long, the sun slowly began to rise from the west and Damien and Anna woke from their sleep, looking more tired than they were before they slept.

My soul as always still connected to the surroundings, so I naturally sensed them waking up, but decided not to ‘wake up’ from the semi-conscious state I was in, instead focusing my attention on their Energy and that of their direct surroundings, making a very clear image of what they were doing.

I wanted know what they’ll decide.

Forcing themselves to sit upright, slowly waking up and blinking as the morning sun lightly stung their eyes, they looked at each other with lacklustre eyes.

Probably noticing they shared the same nightmares last night, they began to chat softly, making sure I would not wake up.

“Are you okay?” Damien asked in a worried manner.

She nodded slightly, exhaustion clearly visible in the gesture, after which she looked at Damien with a worried look.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine, see?” Damien replied to the silent inquiry, forcing out a smile to show he was alright, although what appeared was an unconvincing, pained grimace.

Although unconvincing, the smile put Anna slightly at ease, the worried glance in her eyes fading away, after which she focused her attention elsewhere.

I sensed her gaze slowly aiming at me, past the small fireball.

Damien’s eyes followed.

A troubled expression appeared on their faces, not knowing what to do.

Should they run?

Should they escape while they had a chance and live by themselves?

Should they flee from me, who showed them an unfamiliar kindness, simply out of a fear of strangers?

No matter what they choose, I would coerce them – force them, even – to stay.

I will not let them run away.

They needed someone to provide protection and, after last night, I found out I need them even more than they need me.

After experiencing the loss of control last night, I was afraid I might have harmed them in any way during my madness, only to return and see them still safely sleeping underneath the barrier.

If they had been harmed – or, more likely, killed – during my episode, I would have been horrified, cursed myself, cursed my fate, cursed the world and cursed God and afterwards, once again falling into the same cycle that has led my life until now.

But they were left unscathed, with me having unconsciously spared during the nightmare.

As far as I can remember, this has never happened before.

Never had I spared anyone, nor differentiated between friend or foe, innocent or guilty, during these kinds of attacks.

I never had an attack during the time spent with my wife so I couldn’t compare them, but one thing was clear.

They were important to me.

Probably more important than I am to them.

So I won’t let them leave.

I want to see.

See what they can do.

See what they can change.

See if they can set me free from this cycle.

See if they are the ones who could banish the nightmares and heal the broken me, hidden underneath a thin layer of self-control.

See if they can become my reason to live.

But naturally, I hope they choose to stay with me out of their own free will.

It would leave a bad taste otherwise.

“Should we… leave?” I heard Damien ask, his youthful voice filled with uncertainty while turning to look at Anna.

Most likely he is her protector, meaning Damien would follow her if everywhere she went.

“I don’t know...” Anna said quietly, her soft voice riddled with indecision while briefly looking at him before lowering her head.

Thank God.

There’s hope.

It has been a long time since a thanked Him.

“Do you like him?”

“I like mister. He’s kind and saved us, but he’s….” Anna shifted her gaze towards me, as if looking for something.

“He’s strange…” Damien finished, also looking at me.

I can’t deny it.

Encountering a strange man in the woods, screaming in pain and covered in sweat and tears just moments after waking up.

Then afterwards, helping them without knowing them and getting rid of a corps of a hundred professional, heavily-armed soldiers specifically tasked by the ‘Great Lord’, the mighty ruler of this land, to hunt them down and easily defeating the men without even breaking a sweat.

If encountering someone like that, everyone would be wary.

They sat there, silently staring at me and each other without continuing the conversation, not making any decisions while clearly not knowing what to do or where to go.

Seeing as the conversation wasn’t going anywhere, I deactivated my Soulsense and pulled my body out of its semi-conscious state, ‘waking up’ in the process.

I stood up and stretched my body a little, afterwards looking at them and saw them, too, standing up.

They looked panicky at each other for a second, but after they saw my face their expression turned into a light form of shock and surprise.

I can imagine how horrible I looked.

Yesterday night was exhausting.

Perhaps not physically, but losing myself like that exhausts me mentally. Especially the splitting headache before and after are incredibly taxing.

Luckily, the pain was gone but still, I was thoroughly spent.

Energy can refresh myself physically, but mentally it does nothing.

It is no surprise I looked terrible, but they didn’t look any better.

Bags under their eyes completely red from the tears and clearly lacking any form of vitality, they looked at least as bad as me.

“Rough night, huh?” I asked as I flicked my wrist, making the small fireball disappear.

Both of them nodded absent mindedly.

“Well, let’s hope that, at least for you, this will be the last nightmare.” Their looks turned even more surprised after hearing what I said, and slightly embarrassed, thinking that they bothered me with their nightmares.

I sincerely hope their nightmares are gone now.

“Anyway, let’s take it easy for a while, okay?”

They nodded.

The rest of the day we thoroughly relaxed.

In the morning, the conversation before last night – when the mood was still good after their escape – I heard Anna liked fish – it was one of the rare delicacies she got during their imprisonment – and so, I easily caught some sea-fish with my Energy and prepared it for them.

I conjured up a ball of Energy and, showing off, put the fish through it and instantly, it was baked to perfection.

They looked in amazement and Anna grabbed the fish enthusiastically out of my hands, afterwards going back to her usual shy state as she thanked me, her cheeks running red with embarrassment.

She immediately began gobbling it up.

Damien on the other hand, took the fish slowly while looking at it with a complicated expression.

First, I thought it was because I made it and he had yet to trust me, but after seeing him eat it, I saw him cringe at every single bite.

Every time he wanted to stop eating, he looked at Anna, whom I happily handed more and more fish, gobbling it up and forced himself to eat it.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust me, he just simply hated fish but forced himself to eat it, so Anna will be happy.

They were incredibly amusing.

After breakfast, we simply sat down and stared at the sea as the sun slowly rose from behind us.

I showed them a couple of tricks, gathering Energy and turning it in all kinds of shapes, forms and substances, even some who made musical noises as you touched them, with which they happily played.

This was also partially an experiment.

Normally, people wouldn’t be able to see Energy in such a loose form, only people who could use or have seen Energy before can see it.

And so, seeing them play with it, meant they had the potential to use Energy.

So, I decided to teach them a couple of small things.

For the rest of the morning until lunch, I explained them the basics, teaching them to breath calmly to enter a meditating state of mind and feel the Energy in their souls.

Since their souls were forcefully altered to contain Energy, they weren’t automatically connected to the wide web of Energy like I was. They needed to use their Energy to forcefully form a link between the Energy in their souls and the Energy of the world.

Rather vexingly, they learned it within a couple of hears and soon, they could form balls, cubes and even star-shapes out of Energy.

Really, do they know how long it took me to even use Energy?

In the beginning, there was no life to teach me, and when intelligent life did come, they didn’t have the same connection with Energy like I had.

And for the longest time, I didn’t even know Energy existed.

Only during the First Era, when they began their technological advancement towards the use of Energy, did I begin to feel my soul slightly resonating with it.

But even then, how was I supposed to learn it?

I wasn’t born nor raised in a world with Magic, no one had any form of special powers except for me, and I only thought I had immortality.

When I felt my soul resonate with it, I tried to do something with it, but naturally, didn’t know how to.

It was like giving a caveman a book about molecular science and telling them to completely understand it by himself.

He wouldn’t be able to even read the book, let alone understand it.

And that was how I needed to learn it, by myself without even the slightest comprehension.

It took me several billion years even AFTER the First Era reached Energy-level technology to form a half-assed ball of Energy, let alone cubes or stars.

Let alone the torturous process of beginning to completely unravel the mysteries behind Energy.

Damn kids, making me feel like a fool.

So, I decided, after lunch – another fish meal, although I conjured up some fruits for Damien to secretly eat behind her back, for which he was very thankful – to pester them a little.

I made a couple of balls filled with static electricity and continuously send them after them, giving them tiny shocks every time it touched them.

Of course, the shocks were very light and in no way harmful, they only startled them whenever they touched it.

For an hour or so, they happily ran away from the Energy balls, squealing and laughing with joy whenever one touched them or when they narrowly dodged it.

After that, we simply sat down and rested a little, our complexion already a million times better than after we woke up.

We began chatting about random things

I asked them where they came from, with Damien describing a village and Anna a city, both rather vaguely.

I asked whether their horns and wings were natural and they, surprisingly neutral, said they weren’t. They said they weren’t troubled by them, because they had them for the largest parts of their lives, having been captured so young.

I touched the horns and wings a little, after embarrassingly asking permission and which they reluctantly granted, and found the horns hard and sharp and the wings warm and soft.

I asked them some follow up questions, how they felt, if it was used some way and if she could fly – she could not, but could cutely flap them a little – etcetera, etcetera.

Afterwards, I left them to play on their own in the sea and on the beach keeping themselves within my field of view.

I slowly settled on the warm, sandy beach and began to feel very comfortable as I watched them happily play.

The evening quickly arrived and, after a simply meal of vegetables and meat I made out of Energy, they began asking me questions.

They asked my name.

I only needed a moment before deciding on the name Acedia.

It still is my favourite name.

They asked me where my wife was, since I had mentioned her the during the conversation the night before.

I sorrowfully said she passed away, of course not mentioning how and why and, fortunately, they didn’t ask.

Afterwards, they asked more common questions.

Why I didn’t eat, why I have these powers, why I know how they could use that power, why I helped them and other, more banal things.

To the question why I helped them, I partially lied and said that it was both on a whim and because I saw what they had gone through, no mention of them being the possibility for my salvation.

They never asked about what I had gone through and why I woke up screaming when we first met, for which I was thankful.

I really did not want to remember and relive everything again.

Especially after last night.

After the interrogations, the sun had set in the sea and I let them summon a fireball, while I re-summoned the blankets and stuff, after which they quickly fell to sleep.

The day had quickly ended and I felt incredibly satisfied.

Although they were still wary of me in the morning, with every passing minute I began to feel them warming up and opening their hearts to me.

The mood from last night, after I saved them, returned and much, much more.

It was a great start.

I hope it’ll stay that way.