Chapter 77 - The Monster (1/2)

Both Laz and Aqua looked at Malene, then at each other and then back at Malene again as she sobbed as quietly as she could into her hands. Neither had any idea what caused it, so both just assumed it was because of each other.

”Um... Mistress? He doesn't actually seem that bad. Maybe just a tad bit slow... Oh hey!” Aqua turned to look at Laz.

”Hi human, my name is Aqua.” The little blue spirit extended it's hand out as though it wanted to shake hands. Laz, quick to catch on, extended out his finger in return.

”Name's Lazarus, but I go by Laz.” One spirit and one young man shook hands while turning their heads to see Malene's reaction.

Although she didn't really know what these two were doing, it was rather funny to watch the little spirit shake Laz's finger. Even though she still had tears in her eyes, she couldn't help but let out a bit of a chuckle at the same time.

”I'm fine,” Malene commented while wiping her eyes. She actually did feel a lot better after getting out a few tears. Since Laz could see Aqua, that reassured Malene quite a bit. Even without trying, it seemed the young man had already helped her with some of her problems.

”Anyway, I really want to know something.” Malene brought her face up to look at Laz with a curiosity written all over it.

”Yes?” Laz responded.

”How can you see Aqua?”

”How can I not? It's right here in front of me,” Laz brought his hands up and gestured at Aqua who was still hovering right in front of him.

”But, no one else can see Aqua,” Malene commented back.

”Oh?” Laz just looked at the spirit as the spirit looked right back at him.

”She's right. I should be invisible to everyone else, unless...” The spirit stopped speaking and flew up really quickly to Laz's face. Laz jumped in shock a bit, but relaxed quickly since the spirit just hovered there and looked at his eyes.

”Unless..?” Laz asked, a bit curious.

”Unless you can actually see energy, or chi, or mana, or whatever you want to call it.” Aqua was still inspecting Laz's eyes as it reached out and grabbed his eye lid during his search and pulled it up. Aqua then proceeded to poke at Laz's eyeball hard, immediately causing him to shut it quickly as he started to tear up.

”Damn it, what did you do that for?” Laz asked, rubbing his eye.

”I was just wondering if it was fake...” Aqua didn't seem too apologetic.

Laz just gave Aqua a glare as a question formed in his mind.

”What do you call the energy then? Considering it's what you are made up of, you must have a name for it right?”

”Well, I call it source essence as that's the name that just kind of fills my head when I think about it. Energy is too general a term, chi is too narrow and mana has too many different formats based on your culture. Where as source essence covers the different forms of energy that are now present with the return of the Ancient One.” Aqua said, shaking his head knowingly.

”The Ancient One?” Laz couldn't help but inquire.

”Uh.... I think you people are calling it the world tree or something along those lines...” Aqua replied after thinking about it for a moment.

”Then why do you call it the Ancient One?”

”I don't know. It's just the name that appears in my head.” Aqua shrugged.

Laz turned to Malene to find her back to normal and just watching him and the spirit interact. She quickly noticed him staring at her as though asking her thoughts.

”Aqua just kind of showed up one day. At first, Aqua was just a light with no body or substance that just floated around me that no one could see either. However, one day, when I awoke, that all changed. I was playing with the light in my hand and kind of wished for it to become a little fairy that could grant wishes and poof, there was Aqua.” Malene relayed some of her tale and she knew she needed to explain some things to Laz.

”And does he grant wishes?” Laz asked, quite curious.

”It's... hard to explain. And like I said, spirits have no genders,” Malene said, reminding him. It was something Aqua had told to Malene when it first manifested.

”Well, I'm going to refer to it as a he since he is an asshole,” Laz declared. In his mind, it didn't really matter what it actually was, Laz was just going to go off it's personality since it felt really funny to just call it Aqua all the time.

Aqua didn't say anything, apparently still interested in Laz's eyes. Laz, in turn, asked Malene,

”How does he know how to speak out language and such?” Laz asked, slightly curious.

”Internet and language apps, Aqua is actually really intelligent.” Malene replied, somewhat proud. It was the first time she got to talk with someone who could actually see the spirit so, like a mother showing off it's baby, Malene felt pride in every one of Aqua's accomplishments.

”Ok... Let's go with that for now,” Laz sighed, not totally believing it.