Iris’ Perspective

The hourglasses trickling sands trickled down and out. It was my key to escape this place, once the final sand falls I was free.

The wooden sensation met my jaw, sitting there, staring and watching as the grain of sand trickled down slowly. Every grain felt like an eternity, aughh, let it end, let it end pleaseeee. The subtle sound of sand bouncing off each other filled this silent library. Most of the citizens here have bad eyesight so the library isn’t as common of a place to go. Azalea was one of my few regulars.

Trickle.

Trickle

Trickle.

Trickle.

Trickle.

Trickle.

Silence.

Silence...

………….

The hourglass? The hour glass! I’m finally set me free! Get me out of here! I loved this place, but I have better things to do! I rushed up the spiraling staircase, eager to see Azalea’s grey white hair, and then on a table all by herself there she was. A head ducked down with her grey white hair covering her face, fully concentrating on the book at hand. I snuck up closely to her and then whispered

“A~z~a~l~e~a”

She shot back, “W-Wha~” words unable to formulate in her mouth. “You scar edme~” s

“Sorry~ I was just trying to surprise you”

“Well, give me a notice in advance.”

I’m not sure what she means but-

“Oh yeah! Tell me more baotu portals”

She cut my train of thought, energetic kids. I miss my youth. “Books about portals are rare because they’re one of the lifebloods to our society. They’re one of the main reasons we can live this lifestyle without the planet being deprived of resources. That is why books about portals are strictly forbidden, but there is a way to get them.”

Her eyes sparkled, like...like a person who found hope. That’s not right, I thought she would be filled with awe. Well, anyways, she looked excited enough. “The process to get them begins with gaining the trust of the people who currently run the portals”

I paused, I liked to know who Azalea might think controls the portals

“Goddess Avelynn?” Azalea pondered.

“Correct!” I smiled, Azalea looked annoyed though . She probably doesn’t like the questions. Hmph, fine, I guess we're going serious Mrs. I-want-to-know-it-all-already. I lifted two fingers.

“There are two amin ways to gain trust within the church. The first is to get vouched by someone. The second is to build trust through work. Most of the time people are a product of these two things. I can vouch for you, but you’ll need to do the work to get what you want”

“Work?” Azalea furrowed her brows, “I’m way too young to work”

I smiled, “Don’t worry, this isn’t hard heavy labour. I want you to think of them as requests that people give and in return you gain their favour and perhaps a little gift.”

“Like a quest!” Azalea jolted up

“Indeed! Exactly like a quest, the more quests you do, the more you can gain access to information about the portal”

“But why the long process?”

“I’m not too sure, what do you think?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Azalea’s Perspective:

W-wha?! Why is she asking me?! Eos! I need your help.

“Hmmm, maybe she’s testing you?”

“So what do I say??”

“Tell her that loyalty is forged through trials, hardships and time. We do the missions, to become loyal to Avelynn.”

“I believe it's because it forces the people to be loyal. They’ll meet friends, enemies, rivals, their livelihood through the missions and they would want to protect this place instead of harming it.”

Iris’ eyebrow rose and a soft smile appeared on her face.

“I’ve never thought about it that way.” She paused, in thought. I didn't want to interrupt her. The dim light of the library shone her face creating it to look like a sketching of a person thinking, and pondering. Her head title up,”Oh yes, sorry. I was lost in thought.”

She reverted to her playful smile. The kind of smile you would only get from a big sister to a little sister. “Oh yes, you must be wondering about the quests~ They’re pretty easy, They’ll give you the easy ones” she added.

“What’s my first quest?”

“Eager huh? Well this one is going to be pretty easy. I’ll bring you to a super secret room you can’t tell anyone about which has a portal in it. Do you promise not to tell anyone?”

I won’t reveal it to another soul in this room!” I smirked. I technically wasn’t lying.

Iirs got serious, her playful face washed away like makeup remover. “I’m serious, swear on Goddess Avelynn’s name. You really can’t tell anyone, even you parents”

I gulped. This sounds...like a binding contract!! I thought these were illegal, you couldn’t bind a minor to a legal contract! Hmph, that's fine, I didn’t plan to anyways. “I swear on Goddess Avelynn that I won’t tell a single soul outside this room about the super secret place.”

Iris smile returned. “Good, now follow me”

She walked back to the spiraling stairs leading to the ground floo, her head slightly peaking over, waiting for me to come. I grabbed my books, saw Eos’ ashen ruler figure next to me and slowly followed Iris.

We walked through the halls, against the insistent flow of Lycroids walking through the halls. Now that I got a closer look I saw that they had these dangerously sharp ridges along their fingers. It was scary to look at, but being here for so long I've become quite accustomed to it. I’ve met a few, used Tarhquis to talk to others, had fun with them too and played with the ones around my age at the park. They had a park here too! It was in the sky, and supported by a chain too, but it was quite cool. It resembled a bee nest with many layers. We’re steering off topic! We have to follow Iris.

“Iris” I shouted out , hoping that I could catch up.

She turned around, her deep purple eyes looked at me and then she stopped. Waiting for me to catch up. I did a slight jog and held Iris’ hand and we walked until we reached a wall with a thin outline that circled the walls. It stood magnificently like a great egg ‘s silhouette. Iris tapped the side of the egg, Ah an elevator. I thought. We have those on Earth as well.

Zwoom.

The egg shaped door opened leaving a platform waiting for us, present and ready.

“Hey Eos” I spoke to him in my mind, “So that wasn’t...my new father?”

I saw his ashen ruler figure standing beside me, he looked courageous, weary and tired at the same time but he looked like he’s a crown prince from an otome game. “No, he’s your mother’s brother in law”

“Wait, but what about the times she invited him into the house to have tea, they seemed so well, together all the time. They would laugh together, holding hands, she invited him over when I was asleep and I saw a hair when I came back from my regular outings. He always came underneath the pretense of a merchant, but I thought he was having an affair with Mom. So...he wasn’t having an affair with Mom?”

“I really don’t think so. I think they were just on good terms with each other.”

“Like friends?”

“I guess”

“But then, why did she prepare my finest dress the previous morning? It was like it was a grand event and, she looked so nervous the night before”

Eos had a look, like he was hiding a secret from me. Wondering if he should tell me or not.

I gave him that puppy dog eye look. Hehe, I’ll use the small tactic he taught me. I whispered to him, “Eos, It looks like something is on your mind”

His eyes lit up, like he finally came to a conclusion.

“Yes, I was wondering how to tell you that your Mother’s brother-in-law wanted to take you to an academy, but I don’t approve of the academy”

Anguish filled my face, like someone just gave me the best sundae in the world, and then they dropped it on the floor. Why!!! The academy arc of my life!! I was supposed to be the one who stole the crown prince from his evil engagement partner! Just like a light novel! Hahhh~~

Another reminder that this isn’t a light novel. There is no legendary item, no plot armour, no handsome men, no cute boys calling you Noona, no legendary artifact that falls from the heavens, no manuscript of heavenly tao, no legendary grandp- I already have that. I guess I only have one cheat item, Grandpapa Eos.

Although he isn’t a legendary 9th circle mage with latent powers, actually, I don’t even know his true powers except for his infinite wisdom. He’s just very wise to me, he’s just an incredibly smart dude. How did he conquer a portion of the galaxy with his own power though. He once said that a country that lacks the infrastructure to support their expansion will crumble on its own weight. Hmmm~

I stared into Eos’ gentle and firm eyes. They looked like the eyes of a resting dragon, or a tiger protecting his cubs. Do I ask him? I want to ask him...I’ll ask him.

“Hey Eos” I whispered in a tone that Iris couldn’t hear. “How did you conquer a large portion of the galaxy?”

“Wisdom” he responded, the same way that you would ask about the weather.

“But there has to be more than that. You can’t rule on wisdom alone, you need diplomacy, might, people, military, infrastructure, culture and knowledge. You taught me that Eos”

“True.” Eos smiled a proud smile of a father, “I taught you well. Telling you how I ruled the galaxy would be problematic to the future though.” he replied with a downtrodden sigh.

He looked disappointed in himself, like he failed to live up to his own expectations. I guess it’s a secret he can’t tell me. I was quite sad, I wanted to know more about him, I wanted to know how cool my grandpa is. I dare be persistent

“Why?”

Ding. he doors of the lift opened. Now that I think about it, that lift took away too long. Click, Clack. The sound of shoes stepping on metal. This floor was metal, not granite or rock like the previous one. I stared right ahead and I saw a corridor with metal lined walls, patterns of lines that spread through the walls, like it was created through a bunch of people welded these panels together. Iris kept walking down, focused almost frightfully. She looked like she was entering the den of a dragon.

We followed behind her, my footsteps clicking and clacking like everyone else's. There were much fewer insects here, and the halls were wide and the ceilings were a story tall. I saw a pair of people walking out of the metallic doors. This place reminds me of a hospital.

The same metallic hallways, the doors, the eeriness of the place, it feels like a ghost town and we were the ghosts. Iris looked back and then ushered me to come along with her head. Jerking it to a certain direction. I walked faster. The clicking and clacking made more sound and I caught up with Iris.

She gave out a coy smile, parted her lips, like she was about to spit out information, and then closed her mouth again. Like she wanted to keep the burden to herself. We were by a metallic door, the greyness filled my little vision looking up. I don’t know how to describe it, it felt like a boss room.

Knock. Knock. Knock. Three resounding knocks hit the door. knock….knock...knock….The sound echoed back.knock…..knock…..knock…. Echoing again. Until dreadful silence.

Creak. The door opened, only slightly. It was like the maw of a dragon was slightly open, waiting for us to enter its mouth.. Iris took the handle with timidness and courage and pushed it open.