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Dusk Wonder
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"It's rude to call someone fat."
"I didn't say you were fat, I said you were heavy."
I walk towards the dusty corner, leafing though his books and loose notes, but I can't understand anything.
He tries to cover some books as I flip them open, but it's filled with fine text of an unknown language, and inky scribbles.
"Developing tools to help others seems like a worthful act. You should keep at it," I praise.
He eyes me, "Was that sarcasm? Or you just bad at conversation? Anyways, what are yeah trying to do?"
"Just looking for some kind of appropriate gift."
"I told yah I don't need any."
I just hmm in response as I move towards the corner with mechanical parts.
I pick up various pieces of wood and metal, shaped like fingers, hands, legs, and some... of various shapes.
Silvia follows me closely, setting everything back where they came from as I return them haphazardly.
"So do you think it was sabotage?"
"What?"
"The accident. With Alice."
He frowns, "The only sabotage happening would be my fault."
"Well, was the spell at fault?"
"Nah. I've seen her cast the spell before. Every incantation was the same, but it was only supposed to produce a small pop and a puff of smoke."
"What about your gift? Was it tampered with?"
"Impossible, it was in my hands from start to finish."
"Then did you test it beforehand?"
"... no. I can't cast any spells, and back then, I just wanted her to have it as soon as possible. I only finished it the night before, and was too excited to show it off."
He rests his hand against his eyes, slowly massaging it as I examine the last of the parts and move onto the magic cores.
The cores are in small jars, resting on rows and rows of shelves bolted to the walls. The shelves cradle each jar, securing the fist sized bottles. Each core is but a slither the size of a finger.
"Do you need these?"
"Yeah. Each core comes from a different mana beast. It's difficult to get any at all."
He points to some, "This one came from a weaver, and this one from a slime. They're special in that the mana they give off feels structured, orderly, like a brick in a wall."
As I examine the cores closer, feel a slight... resonance with the cores. They're weak, but still alive.
He points to a different section of the collection, "These are from beasts. These are more common, but harder to read. Their mana feels unstructured, but flowing in a single direction, like a river."
He hesitates for a second, before touching a bottle, secured tightly on a shelf built just for it. "And this is my mother."
Losing intrest in something I have plenty of, I move towards the mummified corpse in the middle of the room.
"What about this?"
He looks at me, slightly angry for some reason, and sighs.
"This is what's left of someone captured by a mana beast.
This is Alex. Or what's left of him."
He points towards the gaping hole in it's chest, "What mana beasts do is feed off of mana from a person's core. They keep them alive as long as possible, but if needed be, they turn their victims into materials to repair themselves."
He points towards various places where it looks like what used to be skin, turned into metal.
"This guy in particular was interesting since his limbs are completely mechanical."
He turns the corpse's arm, revealing a structure of tubes and bars, from fingertip to elbow.
"I've tried my best to recreate it, but none of the artisans here can make anything this precise."
He flexes a finger, causing various parts in the arm to move in tandem.
He then trails tubes and wires as it leads up to shattered mana core parts.
"As far as I can tell, these wires takes mana from a person's mana veins in order to manipulate the digits."
As he continues to explain and fondle the corpse, the words he uses flies over my head, as I can barely understand what he means.
I look out the window, and see that the sun is going to set in an hour. I should go back eventually.
"Alice thinks you're upset at her."
Silvia stops and slowly looks at me. "What?"
"She thinks the reason you're avoiding her is because she killed your mother."
"I... I see." He unhands the corpse, setting it back down onto the table.
He looks down at his scarred, trembling hands.
"You should talk to her."
He looks at a box hidden in a corner.
"Probably. But it's been too long. I don't know how to approach her. I don't know how much she's changed. I don't even know if she's the same person I knew."
"There's only one way to find out."
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