Chapter 21: Present, Future, Past?
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What is a fascinating reflection?
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A few hours after Liu had started reading.
'I've already read a little over a quarter of the pages...'
She decided to stop there for now.
'... I need to take a break.'
"Nngh..."
She quickly stretched out on the bed, then sat on the edge of it, looking at her bag on the floor.
"Mm... a little tidying up..."
'... won't hurt.'
The first thing she did before unpacking her things was search the room.
'... two wardrobes facing the bed...'
Which she opened to find nothing but storage shelves.
"Mhmh..."
'... and a dresser against the wall over there...'
Making her way toward the dresser against the wall at the foot of the bed and beside the door, she grabbed her bag along the way, to set it on top of it.
'... it's exactly the right height...'
"Hop!..."
After setting her bag down, she opened the dresser drawers to find, this time, sheets, a rug, and a strange object she didn't recognize.
'... I'll ask about it later.'
She didn't touch it and closed the drawers. Then she opened her bag directly and started taking out her things.
'Mmm... no need for the wardrobes...'
She quickly arranged her clothes on the dresser beside her bag.
'Aside from the books, the rest can stay in the bag...'
She took out the books and brought them to a nightstand beside the bed.
'... that's handy, I didn't have one of those at the chalet...'
Then she went back to her bag to take out her toothbrush, the roll of toilet paper she had brought...
'... where do I put my dirty clothes?...'
Going into the bathroom, she stepped on her dirty clothes and nudged them aside with her feet, piling them into a corner of the room.
'Can't be bothered...'
She quickly set down what she had in her hands around the sink, then went straight through the cabinet below and the drawers on the sides.
'Oh, there's already toilet paper... towels and... a bath mat...'
She came back out of the bathroom and this time closed the door.
'... it's incredibly well-stocked...'
"Well!... I'm already hungry..."
She patted her pockets, searching for something she had placed there a while ago.
'... what time is it?...'
While taking out her watch to check the time, she left her room and found herself in the hallway.
'... seven hours and seventy-nine hundredths... what time is dinner?'
She walked toward the living room door, when Milo opened it. When he saw her, he spoke to her right away.
"Oh, perfect timing, the old man told me to tell you that dinner would be ready in about half an hour."
Before Liu could respond, he went straight back into his room.
"Later."
Liu didn't even have time to speak or to see inside Milo's room.
'Was he in a hurry?...'
Going back into the living room, she noticed Lumian the old man in the middle of cooking.
'... I wonder what we're going to eat...'
"So did you read well?" he asked her, while she joined him at the kitchen bar.
"I think I read about a quarter of the book..."
She struggled a little to get up onto one of the high stools in front of the bar, but kept talking nonetheless.
"... but so it's true that you're like, super old?"
She asked, remembering what she had read and the conversation she had had with Milo while playing ping-pong.
'... Milo was right, it's impossible to have that many different abilities while being young... actually...'
Recalling the semblance of a ping-pong match she'd had with Milo, she finally remembered the argument they'd had.
"I won't answer that question."
Lumian responded but she paid no attention to it, focusing on the thing she had forgotten all this time.
'... I completely forgot to apologize... I should suggest we play ping-pong again... and I'll apologize then...'
She had made her decision, putting an end to her reflection, and looked at Lumian in the middle of preparing the meal.
'... what is he making?...'
"What are you making for dinner? Do you need help?"
Liu asked out of curiosity and goodwill, as was her habit at the chalet with her grandparents.
"Oho, you're offering help on your own? You were well raised compared to the other one. But it's fine, I'm already done."
Lumian the old man placed the dish in front of Liu, another one she had never seen before.
'... it has the same shape as a quiche, but...'
"This time, it's pizza. I really can't be bothered to prepare something complex today, so I just made a cheese one."
He took the pizza back from in front of Liu to put it in what Liu recognized as an oven, but completely different from her grandparents'.
'... is that what they call a... modern? oven?...'
"Uh... I haven't read the section on food yet... but on the other hand I started the section on the Animosity and I read that there are species that are, uh... cheese-producing, like you said... What does that mean?"
Lumian closed the oven and pressed a few buttons, changing a small writing between those buttons, writing whose true meaning Liu didn't quite understand.
"Mm, cheese-producing species are the ones that make edible cheese, and cheese is fermented milk. You know what milk is, right?"
Liu nodded and replied.
"Yes, milk is what babies drink to grow, it comes from the mother's breasts."
'... but it seems like it's more than that...'
Lumian positioned himself in front of Liu and looked at her with his impassive face.
"Well, that's more or less it. But so milk isn't exclusive to humans. Although there are very few animal species in the citizen zone, outside of it there are a huge number, and quite a few of them produce milk to feed their babies."
Strangely, this time Lumian gave Liu a complete answer. He even gave her a smile before stepping back and coming out from behind the bar.
'... huh! What was that...'
It made Liu shiver, and she jumped off the high stool wondering where Lumian was going.
"I'm in a good mood right now, do you want to get some air with me on the front bench of the carriage?"
What he said caught Liu off guard, and she nodded without thinking too much.
'... is he really just in a good mood?...'
Curiosity filled Liu as she followed Lumian out of the living room to make their way to the front of the carriage.
'... I hadn't noticed his slippers...'
Liu put her shoes on, but Lumian stayed in his slippers. She followed close behind him, remembering the fact that there was some kind of projection of Lumian outside.
'... what's going to happen?... is he going to absorb it?...'
Having begun to read the guide and learned many new things, her curiosity about Lumian's strange abilities was growing.
Lumian opened the door and made his way to the front of the carriage in silence.
'... it's still there...'
Liu watched his every move as she followed him, and she saw him pass through the body of the projection and merge with it as he sat down in his seat.
'... that's it?... ha, it's not even surprising anymore...'
Proud of herself for not having been startled by what had just happened, she sat down on the bench, to Lumian's right.
'... whoa, it's so leafy...'
The first thing she looked at was the chevarbre in front of them, moving along at a calm pace. She hadn't had the chance to get a good look at it yet.
"Had you ever seen a chevarbre before? You'll be able to pet it and feed it tomorrow when we stop."
The chevarbre had a coat most often a dark brown resembling bark,
'... it's so much more beautiful in real life...'
with a mane and a tail thick with a good number of leaves most often bearing shades of green.
"Yeah, it's the first time, I've only seen them in drawings. But since it's considered the noble's animal, we study it from our very first year."
'... the type of bark and leaves depend on the breed...'
She turned her head toward Lumian to ask him a question.
"Is it really true that each breed of chevarbre corresponds to a type of tree?"
'... it's strangely familiar...'
Lumian sighed and nodded, looking at the sky.
"It's true... it brings back memories."
He finished his sentence in a whisper.
'... memories...?'
She followed Lumian's gaze and looked up at the sky in turn, feeling strange for an unknown reason.
"Hhouuaah!"
Suddenly, she heard a yawn coming from right beside her.
She startled and turned toward the source of the sound.
'Huh!...'
Seeing Lumian yawn beside her, she suddenly remembered the dream she had had yesterday morning in class.
'... that's right, I had completely forgotten about that dream, and on top of that Lumian was in it! That's strange!...'
She quickly turned her head to look at the surroundings, and she was indeed in the same spot on the main road to the merchant village of Luschen as in her dream.
'... it's exactly the same situation?... did I see the future?!'
She started fidgeting in place, unable to make sense of the situation, torn between feelings of excitement, wonder, curiosity...
'... the future?... the present?...'
... but also feelings of apprehension, fear, and incomprehension.
"What's wrong?"
Seeing her fidget, Lumian turned his attention to her, but his words didn't reach Liu's ears.
'... when I had the dream, I saw the void with the little lights, then... did I see the future?...'
The more she thought about it, the more her incomprehension of this dream only grew.
"Hey."
'... and last it was me in the present that I saw... I saw the present, the future, and... the past?...'
Despite her growing incomprehension, the curiosity she had felt during the first vision of the dream came back to her in that instant.
'... that strange vision was the past?... then, where was it??...'
Although Liu didn't answer him, Lumian left her to her reflection, and started looking at the sky again, letting himself get lost in his thoughts as well.
'... it was very dark, obscure?... was I in the Obscurity?... no, it's different, more... empty?...'
She fixed her gaze on the sky, on the emptiness... perhaps searching for an answer there.
'... no, that's not it. What is just as black?...'
Feeling like she was onto something, she lowered her gaze and looked at the surrounding trees, more precisely at their shadows.
'... the Form!!... I saw the Form?...'
She quickly recalled the moment when the Form had appeared, her curiosity overcoming her disgust and fear of that memory.
'... was it a vision of when it appeared?... that would make sense, the moments wouldn't be too far apart... could that match?...'
She used every bit of her reasoning and logic to explain the vision she'd had.
'... but the white light... maybe that's what it looks like inside the Form?... mmm...'
But as much as she would have liked to reach a conclusion, her logic decided otherwise.
'... no, that doesn't make sense... otherwise what would the glowing dots everywhere be... and the human shape too... that doesn't match...'
She felt a little disappointed for not having been able to truly make progress in explaining her mysterious dream.
'... maybe it's something similar... besides, is the Form the only... uh... form? that appeared? Maybe there were others that were different...'
This was the idea she felt was closest to the truth, and even if the mystery had only been slightly unraveled...
'... it must be the inside of another type of form...'
...she satisfied herself with it.
'... well, otherwise I don't see what else it could be.'
Concluding her reflection on that, and recalling having heard a voice, she looked at Lumian beside her.
"Uhm... were you talking to me?"
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Something that allows us to ignore everything else? Even time...
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