Chapter 20 Mend Of Codex

Chapter 20 Mend Of Codex
As Jorren walked back to the narrow habitiation of the Keeper, he thought of how many way the Second Ascension could have gone wrong. It was quieter than the First Ancesion, but it was more deadly and brought him more casualties. For all it was worth, he could have died, but he didn’t. 

His steps were weak and were not as strong as they were when he left the house, his skin burned with explosive pain, and he was literally walking back with barely nothing but burnt clothes. The Codex he held close to his chest thrummed with energy, and the mark on his forearm burned hotter, almost luminescent in the dark night. 

When he made a turn into an alley and headed down a few steps, his tactical intelligence kicked in and he stopped moving. Then he felt it. Another presence was in the alley with him, but it didn’t feel normal. It did feel familiar in many ways than one, but it didn’t feel like the usual presence he got from the usual intact souls around him. 

As he was about to close his eyes, his soul realized his intent and the dark reality around him disappeared, replaced by a silver grey grid of the environment around him. Then he turned to the side and noticed a pulsing silver grey.

A voice whistled in the quietness, causing the grey reality to fade back to the dark night of the alley. Jorren turned to the direction of the voice. In the same position where he saw the pulsing dark grey, a blonde hair was in its place.

Solaria.

“Overhere,” she mouthed, waving him over with her arm.

Jorren glanced around him before following the lady, wrapping the codex with the remains of his charred coat and heading over to the hideout  of the young lady.

“Look, I have no reasons of helping you,” she hushed. “But I saw what you did when the guild enforcer tried to burn you. Luckily, I live around these parts, so I was able to hurry back and get you some of my brothers clothes.”

“Why are you helping me?” Jorren asked.

Solaria shoved the folded materials into his arms. “Play dress up now, ask questions later. C’mon. I won’t look.” 

Before Jorren could say another word, Solaria had turned around, waiting. 

Without a word, Jorren looked at the clothes before glancing at Solaria once more. True to her words, she wasn’t looking. Jorren put on the new clothes and was quick to hide the codex within his new coat before turning around to meet Solaria.

“Are you done, I don’t know—”

“You can turn now,” Jorren said, voice calculated.

Solaria craned her head back for a glance over her shoulders, before she finally turned around. Before her stood a young man who showed her something she didn’t know, looking more human than waste, as opposed to how he was when he saw him.

Jorren’s face was blank as it always is, however, his mind was in motion. He wasn’ t just standing with a lady he won a bunch of copper coins from because he learnt her secret. He was studying her, looking for intentions, hidden cracks, manipulation. He didn’t see any.

“I know this is weird,” she started, her tone low. “But you have to trust me, I wasn’t following you. I didn’t even know you were going to come here tonight, but I stumbled into you hiding in the underbrush, and I wanted to know what you were up to.

Jorren didn’t speak immediately. His eyes left Solaria for the entrance from whence he came through briefly, before returning to her.

“You live in this part of the city?” Jorren asked.

Solaria nodded. 

“Have you passed trials?” 

Solaria hesitated. Jorren waited.

After a moment, Solaria patted his shoulders. “You’re looking good now. You should head home, get a much needed rest. I’ll see you around.”

The pain hurt a little now, but Jorren held her hand, pulling her. She staggered forward, eyes widening. Jorren reached for her essence in her chest by trying to push his dark soul, but he couldn’t find anything. 

He flung her hand away and took a step back, his eyes narrowing. “You’re tier zero. Negative resonance.”

Solaria pressed a finger to her lip. “Shiii. Nobody knows this.”

Jorren was surprised, but he didn’t show it.

Solaria looked this way and that way before she turned to Jorren. “Listen, we’ve had our way around hiding it. My father isn’t tier zero, but I am, and my father has sworn to protect me.”

The statement didn’t make sense to Jorren, but he could tell from tactical intelligence that she wasn’t lying. Then he nodded.

“So, you tried to pull my essence the other day?”

“I…” she trailed off, looking away. “I wasn’t harming anyone. It was a new trick I learnt from a book. It was all in the spirit of making money.”

“A book?” Jorren echoed after her.

“Yes.”

“Do you still have it?”

Solaria hesitated. “Yeah, but I rarely carry it around.”

Jorren nodded. “I’ll see you around.”

When Solaria didn’t reply, Jorren turned and headed down the other way to the alley. 

“They say you are the boy who broke the—” she echoed after him, stopping herself midstatement.

Jorren froze for a moment but didn’ t look back. As at when they play the arm wrestling, she didn’t know who he was. But then she made her researches and found out today. 

Without a reply, Jorren stepped out of the alley and into the darkness of the alley that led to the Keeper’s place.

As  he walked, he expected Davan Rell to jump out from nowhere, revealing that he had been following him all these while, but none of that happened. He walked back to the lonely streets of the keeper’s neighbourhood without further interruptions. 

When he let himself into the house, he immediately produced the Codex from within his sleeves. As usual, the book flipped open of its own accord to the page with his soul architecture. Beneath the soul architecture that had some of the jagged structure morphed into a single, organized, healed line, the previous statement about the first ascension had disappeared, replaced by a new one.

Observation Recorded. Second Ascension Complete. The Variable has been integrated. The system is now minus two anchors.