"Wha—What do you mean you want them to join our group?" Tyel shouted while opening his hands, as he couldn't believe what Orechin had just said.
"What do you mean, why? They know about us; it's not like we can let them go like nothing," answered Orechin, slightly annoyed by Tyel's tone.
"Yeah… but they don't know how to fight. They're in the guards, but…" said Tyel as he started to lower his voice. 'I don't want them to join the rebels… they have to be the last people I know to join this group. I don't want them to risk their lives like this,' thought Tyel the moment he finished speaking, a sad look appearing over his face.
"Hey, Tyel, we talked about that too, don't worry," spoke Martheel with a reassuring tone. As he heard these words, Tyel's expression changed into a confused one.
"Yeah, we know that we can't fight, and even if I'd really enjoy that… we've just decided to help you from the outside by bringing you information," spoke Chud. Tyel was even more surprised now, as the chances he had gotten to hear Chud with that tone of voice were extremely rare.
"We've told them about all the information you always bring us," said Darian as he got up from his chair with Snowy on his shoulder and walked towards the sofa.
"And you've never told us that your power finally awakened, Tyel!" said Chud happily. Tyel looked confused for a moment. 'Oh right, I never told them about my power either…' thought he as he started to think of an excuse.
"Still, it surprises me. You told it to us, but not to these two who have been your friends for a really long time," pointed out Lily. The moment she finished speaking, Tyel had already finished thinking of an excuse.
"Yeah… you see, we don't get many chances to speak outside of prison. If someone else happened to overhear our conversation, the news might spread through the whole prison, and someone like Zrelekai or Corvinus might want to use me to tell them the position of the rebels, so…" said Tyel.
"That surely would have been bad for you… especially because if that turned out to be a lie, they could kill you without any problem…" whispered Syrmax while adjusting his monocle. Tyel, hearing that, nodded his head.
But as he turned towards his true friends, he noticed a huge, happy look over their faces. "We're so happy for you, Tyel!!" shouted Chud as he grabbed Tyel's head and began to rub his hand over Tyel's head. Vane and Orechin, amused by the scene, laughed softly.
"Finally, our powerless friend was able to awaken his power," said Martheel, happy too. "I was sure that you were going to be an alterid and not someone who uses normal magic like us," added he.
Neither Martheel nor Chud was an alterid; in fact, Martheel could use water magic and Chud could use wind magic. As they heard the news that their friend Tyel was an alterid, they both couldn't contain their excitement, as the powerless friend they've known for a long time had finally unlocked his great power.
"And honestly, it's really great too. Like, you're able to tell without any problem what I'm going to say now, right?" asked Chud, proud of his friend.
"Yeah, no, sorry… using that power always hurts my head so much that right now I think I would pass out another time." Tyel, before answering, checked the clock and realized that midnight hadn't passed yet, so he couldn't afford to say something that wasn't true, as it would mean more doubt from his friends.
'Yeah, I guess that this excuse might work…' Chud, with a bit of disappointment over his face, removed his hand from around Tyel's head. "I was about to ask you how you awakened that power and how it happened…" said he. Martheel positioned a hand over his shoulder. "Hey, I've told you that if he was feeling bad, it would be hard for him to use his power…" Chud simply nodded his head.
"I'll tell you another time… now we've got bigger things to think about," said Tyel as he pointed to the Seamstress paper he had brought from the sanctuary.
"Dammit, you're right… I completely forgot about that." The ones who had checked the paper were Darian, Liro, and Syrmax, but with everything that had happened, the thought of the paper completely went out of their heads. Now that Tyel mentioned it again, the horror of the things they had seen on the paper made both Liro and Syrmax scared to take it again; the only one who grabbed it, a bit hesitantly, was Darian.
Vane and Lily noticed the look over everyone's face and got worried. "Hey, is it that much bad?" asked Vane curiously, while both Martheel and Chud were confused.
"What's that?" asked Martheel.
"Oh right, we haven't told you about it… the moment we escaped from the Seamstress, Tyel rushed towards the drawer to grab this paper… but we hadn't had the chance to see what was written there yet," answered Orechin. The moment Darian grabbed the paper, he sat down near Tyel and began to read loudly what was written on the paper.
"Project Seamstress…" The moment Darian opened the paper, everyone gathered around him. Chud, Tyel, Martheel, and Liro from one side were trying to look at the paper, Syrmax sat down directly in front of Darian, while Lily, Vane, and Orechin were trying to look from the other side.
The paper presented itself with a huge writing in black with the words 'Project Seamstress'. Directly under that, there was the costume of the Seamstress with her hands open; this drawing was the classic style used for a sketch of a project. Near the huge drawing of the Seamstress, there were small drawings of her head and how it had to look like.
"Here we can find the simple frontal drawing… but the thing that scares me the most is the thing found below." As Darian moved his finger, he revealed the bottom part of the paper, in which the back of the Seamstress was literally opened and something was written with an arrow pointing towards the entrance.
"Hey, I had noticed that she had a zipper behind her back… it can actually be opened?" asked Tyel, as he hadn't noticed what was written on the paper.
"Yeah… and it is definitely related to this…" gulped Darian. On the other side, the only one who was able to read the words was Lily, and an horrified look appeared over her face too.
"This costume is perfect for a human; it has got enough space. Around 90 cm are for the body, and in the hands, there isn't much space for her to directly reach the claws… but this doesn't scare me! In fact, thanks to her power, she will be able to give life directly to the plushie and use it without any problem. She wished to play with plushies for as much as she could? Thanks to the Seamstress's costume, she will be able to do so, and she will help us with that! The only problem is that if her body actually grows, I'll have to create a new costume… but she has remained this much smaller for this many years… in fact, after…"
And with that, the paper came to an end. As Darian read these words louder, a scared look appeared over everyone's face. "So, is he saying that there is a person inside that costume?" asked Vane in surprise.
"It feels like it… but that is 90 cm… Darian, isn't that the measure of a child?" asked Liro, worried. Darian, even if he didn't like it, had to nod his head. "Yeah… and he had said that the child might grow, but it hadn't happened yet…" whispered Darian, confused, as he was starting to feel anxious that they might have fought against a child.
"Maybe that's a krukin and not a human?" said Vane, as it felt strange for him that a child could move that fast and do that many things.
But Darian immediately shook his head. "The one who has written this… definitely Zrelekai," answered he, as he glanced around at his group, who all nodded their heads in agreement. "He would have said krukin, not human, at the start…"
"Then can we surely say that there's a child in the Seamstress's body or…" said Tyel, a bit unsure. 'Dammit, this catches me off guard too… I never heard anything about it before.'
"We can't be sure of anything… Tyel, it feels like a part of this paper has been ripped off," pointed out Darian, pointing at the bottom of the paper. "Are you sure you took everything in that drawer?"
'I took what you took in the latest loop, Darian… how am I supposed to know if it is everything…'
Tyel began to think, but he soon shook his head. "I'm sure I took everything that was there… even if I hadn't much time, I took what I could," answered Tyel. "I'm sure that the other things in that drawer were useless… Darian, have you found something else?" asked Tyel. As he asked this question, the whole room turned confused.
"What do you mean, if he found something?" asked Vane, as he wanted to laugh at the sudden question, but seeing the air in the room, he decided to remain quiet.
"Tyel, but I've never searched in that drawer…" answered Darian, confused. Only after that did Tyel realize what he had just said.
"Right, sorry… ehehe, it was in the future I had seen… but I completely forgot that I changed it by searching in the drawer by myself," said Tyel with a playful tone as he positioned his hand behind his head. 'I shouldn't have said that…' As Tyel glanced around, he noticed that the faces of everyone had returned to normal, and it felt like he had saved his ass with what he had said. 'At least they believed me again…'
"Still, it's strange how the Seamstress actually exists; it is probably a child, and it lives under the ruins of Karyuz!" shouted Chud to change the argument.
"Yeah, I agree. For us, some hours ago, the Seamstress was all a legend; we never expected her to actually be real," pointed out Martheel while smirking.
"It surely must have been strange for you… for us, only a few days ago, it was a legend too…" answered Syrmax.
"Still, how are we going to fight against her now… if we know that it is a child, can we actually hit her?" asked Lily. As she started to talk about this, the whole room turned quiet.
"It doesn't matter… remember that we have to save Catripple…" Orechin answered while he created a small red crystal, and in the rage for his sister, he smashed it with his hands. "We aren't supposed to lose time like this," added he.
"He's right, and I mean, if it is a child, we can still take her with us and change her mind, right?" proposed Liro.
"There's something that doesn't add up…" whispered Darian. "Have you noticed it too?" answered Martheel. Darian nodded his head.
"I wondered it too: how can a child be alive for over 300 years? The full legend of the Seamstress said that during the night, there was a chance to see multiple plushies walking around Ardoris with a huge black plushie with them," added Martheel.
"And if she had been alive for over 300 years… might she be a half-krukin like Zrelekai?" Darian's mind was currently going through a lot of ideas. 'Maybe she changes? No, that's impossible; they would need to search for a new alterid over and over again…'
'They specified about a power… but what if the power actually comes from the costume rather than the child? Nah, it feels impossible too. A lot has changed since I returned, but it doesn't mean that humanity has been able to create that type of magical costume; it would be practically impossible…'
'And he has said that the child hadn't grown in multiple years?' thought Darian as he checked the paper again. 'Let's say hypothetically that the person inside the Seamstress is a child and is half-krukin… we don't know how many things usually change in a person's body… and if!!'
"Listen, what if the fact that she's half-krukin has changed her way of growing?" said Darian after the whole process his mind had gone through. "What?" said Vane, confused.
"Yeah, explain better, Darian," asked Liro, as he couldn't understand it either. Darian breathed heavily, leaving the paper on the sofa, and got up so that everyone could follow him better.
"Okay, let's imagine this. Imagine a plant growing really well and without any problem… each of you can understand that, right?" asked Darian. The whole group nodded their heads, and Lily felt a bit more interested than the others now that Darian was talking about plants.
"Now imagine that rather than giving water to the plant, you decide to give it something like your blood. What will happen? This thing will not kill the plant, but the liquid will be absorbed by the roots, and as we know, each plant will always grab its nutrients from the roots, right?"
"Oh, oh, I remember this! You taught us this while we were walking," shouted Vane happily as he raised his hand. "It's nonsense, trust me," said Chud. Orechin, not far from him, nodded his head, while Martheel knew how a plant worked, nodded his head, and was following along like the others.
"Now imagine that rather than blood, you'll give the plant some sort of dense liquid. Everything near the root will become dense, and it will get blocked. With that, if you try to insert more water, it won't be able to arrive in the roots; the plant will remain alive, but it will remain exactly like it is. It will not be able to grow anymore." After that, the only one who arrived at the conclusion was Liro.
"Oh! And so, because the child received the alien blood, her body might have stopped growing? Like it had made everything denser, blocking her growth?" After Liro finished speaking, everyone else had understood too.
"Exactly! That is why I believe that she might have received some blood from a krukin, and because a human child's body is still growing, with this blood her growth might have been blocked… and that is why he had said in this paper that the person wasn't growing anymore. It was all because of the krukin's blood," answered Darian as he returned to his seat, grabbed the paper again, and pointed with his finger at the words he had mentioned.
"Woah… but like… how do you know this many things?" asked Chud, surprised. Darian wanted to explain that to him, but Tyel gave a look at the time and realized that it was really late.
"Well, it's because I—" Darian wanted to explain his full story, but Tyel interrupted him.
"It's late. It's already past midnight, and remaining here for too long—especially if there are three of us who have to return—is too much. You'll explain it another time, Darian," said Tyel as he got up from the sofa, now able to move without any problem at all.
"Yeah, I agree with him…" added Martheel as he got up from his chair and stretched himself out.
"Mhmm, I wanted to know at least what that thing is…" said Chud sadly as he looked over at the sleeping Snowy on Darian's shoulder.
"Let's just say… that I found it on another planet," said Darian playfully as he positioned his index finger on his mouth. Chud, who couldn't not believe that, felt like in his head two huge suns were crashing against each other, as what he heard made his head explode.
"No, no, wait… you can't leave me like this!!" shouted Chud, as he wanted to know more, but he was being dragged away by Martheel. "Tomorrow you're the only one who has work. And while me and Tyel have got the free day and want to return home… even if you have to wake early, you still want to spend time here?" spoke Martheel with an annoyed tone.
"Tch… but you'll explain it to me next time, alright?!!" shouted Chud. Darian nodded his head while smiling. "Don't worry, I'll give you the information soon."
With that, Tyel, Martheel, and Chud waved at the group and decided to head back now that the meeting was finally over.