Alma 136 Much Ado About Love

The Mirage-class, Autumn Whisper had arrived in Cem-Elle. It probingly scanned the small town and its immediate surroundings, miles above as it hid in a passing patch of clouds.

It was looking for any abnormal Anima fluctuations. Even the slightest in Anima density was enough to be picked up by the sensitive equipment on board the ship. Anything that displaced Anima was fair game to the ship, be it hovercraft engines, holo-screens, streetlights, and electronics.

If it ran on Anima, it created a displacement that could be measured and analyzed. Of course, this included... Chosen, too. They were living Anima batteries and therefore, constantly displaced Anima wherever they went. The stronger the Chosen, the greater the displacement, too.

A normal mortal displaced Anima too, but it was not as a meager thing. They, on average, displaced as much Anima as a toaster would.

The average Contender was another story, though. They displaced roughly enough Anima as a hovercraft engine. Conquerors displaced enough Anima to match smaller warships, depending on how skilled they were.

Hence, it was very easy to identify hiding Chosen from the masses. All you needed to see was whether they were walking reactors or not.

As such, the crew of the Autumn Whisper was looking for was a person that had a displacement large enough to match a vehicle. It should not have been too hard to find an anomaly as large as that, but...

They had experienced certain complications the moment they arrived. Problems had arisen all over the ship.

Minor glitches in the propulsion system.

Inaccurate readings from the Anima scanners.

Sudden power surges in the reactor core of the ship.

Erratic and dangerous failures in the ship's life support systems.

The crew of the Autumn Whisper tried their hardest to get a good scan of the town, but the ship continued to grow increasingly more unstable the longer they remained above Cem-Elle.

Eventually, the situation reached a breaking point and the captain of the ship ordered for the ship to retreat. For one reason or another, the Autumn Whisper had been pushed back by some unknown force of nature.

Further investigations into the mysterious event over the small town of Cem-Elle would conclude that the entire crew of the Autumn Whisper had suffered a sudden onset of paranoia and mass hallucinations.

Several different inspectors would note that Cem-Elle was nothing more than what it seemed like on paper. A little town for mortals.

Not a single one of them found anything noteworthy that required their attention. In their minds, whatever had happened that night with the Autumn Whisper must have been a rare incident. As a result, the entire crew was ordered to take a leave of absence for their supposed well-being...

...Reed and Lu'um, on the other hand, had not witnessed the paranormal event. They'd bolted straight out of Cem-Elle to the east, near the border between the South and the East laid.

After several days worth of driving, they finally reached their destination, the city of Haufin. It was one of the larger cities in the South, located on its eastern coast. It was a coastal city that acted as a cross mix between the South and the East's cultures, given how close it was.

For Reed, it was uncharted territory, especially since it was a city filled with non-humans. Avunian tourists were aplenty in the city, but that wasn't his concern. He'd once been an Avunian prince, so they weren't what caught him off guard.

It was the Eisalo that made Reed feel uncomfortable. He had heard of them from the townspeople in Cem-Elle, but not once had he really dealt them that much since he arrived in the South. They were the race that ruled the South, even though it was a mix of a variety of other minor races.

The main problem Reed had with them, as did many, was that the Eisalo were a transformative people. 'Fluidity' best described what they were on any given day. None of them had permanent forms like Humans, Avunians, or any other race on the continent.

If Avunians were considered to be the most beautiful of all the races on Mulia, the Eisalons were considered the most seductive because of their unique racial trait. They had the mysterious ability to change their appearance to match their mate's tastes in a variety of ways. For this particular reason, the Eisalons were feared by couples across the continent.

All it took was a single touch for them to read your mind and assume the most optimal form to take in order to match whoever they wanted to be with. They were a genderless race at birth and could take on whatever sex and form they wished at any point in time once they mastered their innate racial ability.

Imagine meeting the person of your dreams every single time you shook hands with an Eisalon. The ones you dream about and love most, even if you didn't know about them yet. That was what the Eisalons could do -- they were capable of pulling out what you desired most. As such, they were often the cause of many failed romances in the South. Too many to count, in fact.

Their ability was so infamous that it was even used as a means to test relationships. A couple would ask an Eisalon to touch them and test whether their significant other was in love with them or not.

Naturally, if they turned into an individual's family members and their current significant other, they'd pass the test. But more often than not, the results were not what certain couples hoped for... to put it politely.

It was the stuff of nightmares watching an Eisalon turn into a random stranger and even worse, a close friend. Heaven forbid it turned into one of the other person's family members and the Eisalon confirmed that they took on the form of the person's most beloved.

...The Eisalons were offered referred to as the bane of marriages and relationships. In a culture as free as theirs, which was built around the word 'fluidity,' concepts such as marriage seemed alien to them.

Even the concept of money had been monumentally difficult for the other races of Mulia to teach to the Eisalons, who did not even know such a thing was possible. For millennia in their original homeworld, they had lived in a society without money. They simply shared what the had to offer to one another, as the concept of 'possessions' did not even exist for them.

To other races, they were a chaotic race, but the truth couldn't have been any further for the Eisalons. They thought themselves pure and free of the shackles that the other races had built for their societies. The Eisalons had lived in their own moral community for the longest until the other races had forced them to follow their laws for the sake of peace and order.

Nevertheless, they were still a very free-spirited people at heart, even after living for thousands of years alongside other races and their pesky 'laws' and 'morals'.

Reed had chosen Cem-Elle for a reason when he left in exile -- because it was a town formed exclusively by human settlers nearly half a millennium ago. It was a miracle for that he'd found a place like Cem-Elle in a place as diverse as the South. 

Eisalon love was spontaneous, free, and ephemeral all at the same time. One day in love, and the next day out of love. They were people that loved to ride the winds of the unknown, so to speak. Never living in the past, nor anticipating the future.

Always doing whatever they wanted to do today, in the now. That was what made Reed uncomfortable back in the day. As someone who had always been stuck in the past, he couldn't understand how the Eisalons could toss away the past as if it was garbage.

It wasn't as if Reed feared them now though, but he still felt very wary around them for certain reasons.

What he had feared the most was meeting one of them and accidentally touching them. The thought of them turning into either one of them, the two he had failed the most, frightened him to death. Seeing them transform into them would have probably broken him into pieces in the past.

...It also frightened him what would happen if an Eisalon touched Lu'um. What would happen, then? Would a copy of Reed appear or would it be...?

He didn't want to know. The fear was so intense he almost couldn't handle it.

Reed stared at the energy gauge of their hovercraft impatiently. It read 48 percent. They had been waiting in a recharging station for the last three hours for their hovercraft to recharge. It would be a while before it finished charging, to Reed's immense displeasure.

He... trusted Lu'um. He did. But the irrational fear in his head would not stop gnawing at the back of his head, even though he knew that he was being stupid.

When Reed let out a sigh, Lu'um said, "...Hey, why don't we go get some fresh air? We have time to waste, right? Why don't we stretch our legs and get something to eat?"

Ah, goddammit... I shouldn't have sighed!

Reed nodded and said, "Yeah... sure."

Man, this sucks...

He missed his bakery and Cem-Elle now, more than ever.

In truth, he was already beginning to dislike their little 'adventure into the world' and wondered how the Hartford's were doing back home...

I stay home, too...

Chapter end