"Shion...?" Edirup widened her eyes a bit in clear surprise, her voice carrying a mix of disbelief and confusion as she looked down at me. "That is ridiculous. Are you trying to name your own parent like it is nothing important? And someone of my caliber at that, no les--!"
Before she would even have the chance to finish talking and complete her sentence, the star that was shining in both of her eyes suddenly gleamed brightly with a strong light for a short moment and then quickly went back to normal like nothing had happened.
We were both paused there in silence for a moment, neither of us moving or saying anything right away.
Then she slowly turned her face down toward me with a different look in her eyes.
"...It worked..." She whispered softly, almost like she could not believe the words that were coming out of her own mouth.
"Of course it worked without any problem at all!" I chirped back happily in my small child's voice.
I was pushing out my chest forward with a proud little movement to show how confident I was feeling. "With a new name comes a new beginning and a fresh start for everything."
"No... I meant, it is not possible to ever rename a being like that under normal circumstances," Shion said seriously as she pondered the whole situation carefully, relaxing back in her seat for a while as she thought it over in her mind.
She continued; "My creator, the god of this world, named me and all my brethren a long time ago. If a name can be rewritten and changed like this, then it should only be possible by a higher power that is stronger than the former namer... Kivuli, you truly hold many mysteries inside you that no one can easily understand..."
Uh, okay....
I seriously didn't think that Edirup was actually like her real and true name all along.
I thought it was more like her tag or label, something simple like calling someone "human" without any deeper meaning behind it.
I wasn't trying to overwrite anything important or mess with big forces when I said it.
But let's act like we know better and pretend that everything is going exactly according to some clever plan I had from the start.
Back to topic; I have discovered a way to finally leave this place after spending seven whole days trapped inside here.
But I didn't want Shion to be stuck here all alone and end up dying by herself when the time came...
So, I need to come up with a solid plan right now to make sure we both get out safely!
First, the enchantment is keeping her--the one who used to be called Edirup--away from leaving this space no matter what...
So maybe the new Shion can pass through without any trouble if we try it the right way.
And I knew just the right way!
***
Okay, it turned out to be an embarrassing failure that did not go as planned at all;
I passed through the open space freely and without any resistance like it was the easiest thing in the world, but when Shion tried to follow right behind me her head bumped straight into the invisible wall that was still there blocking the way.
So it still recognizes her as the old Edirup somehow, then.
Bummer.
That was not what I was hoping would happen.
Uh... Gabriel, got any good ideas that could help us get past this problem right now?
{...}
Will take that as a clear no, then, since there was no response coming back to me.
But no, let's think for a while and figure this out properly: how does magic work at all in this world when you really stop to examine it?
Shion had explained to me some days ago in a detailed way that using magic was basically rewriting how things worked normally in the everyday world around us.
Normally, without any magic involved, Shion should be able to walk past a simple door or passage like it was nothing at all.
But right now magic is blocking her exit completely, and that blocking has become the new normal state of things, because of the enchantment.
What I think is, the understanding of magic is a lot like math in a way;
it is a system of imagination that can be simple on the surface but still end up being very complex when you dig deeper into the rules.
Not like I can actually use any of this magic myself yet; this is all just theory that I am thinking about in my head for now.
My main point is, the enchantments are set up to hold only a single entity in place and stop that one being from leaving.
But somehow it also stops my siblings and even my former unnamed self from leaving the area too when we try.
It's mechanical in a way when you look at it closely.
I think we can cheat this system if we are smart about it.
"Shion! This time around we're leaving this place for good!" My small child's voice rang out again with strong confidence as I spoke the words clearly.
"Do not just start assuming that my name is Shion all of a sudden like it is already decided!" Shion protested back at me with a bit of annoyance in her tone.
But it was clear from the way she was looking around that she clearly wanted to leave this cave and get out of here too after being stuck for so long.
My hands turned into several long tentacles the moment I wanted to "spread my arms" wide open.
I didn't think it would become these weird eldritch tentacles reaching out, but okay, that is what happened anyway without me planning for it.
I grabbed onto the dark stony throne that she had been sitting on the whole time, then I raised it up high like it was a canopy or a covering held above to protect someone from the rain pouring down.
But I extended my tentacles high enough and far enough so that Shion could easily walk under the raised throne without her head touching anything.
Hehehe.
We will deceive the magical system completely so that it sees only a stone seat walking out instead of seeing Shion trying to leave.
Genius!
"Oh? For me it would be no problem at all if I tried to lift something like that," Shion added in a calm and impressed tone while she stood there watching closely how I was holding the extremely large and heavy-looking throne up high above us with my tentacles. "But very few beings around here can lift such an incredible weight without any kind of magical assistance to help them out. Well done on managing it so easily."