Grey Nirmala
My eyes followed Raya's every movement, and it felt as if time slowed with each step and turn she made. The purple particles swirled around her, dancing in harmony with her motions. Each change in her movements brought a different response from them — when she raised her arm, they rose with her, and when she stepped forward, they bent and shifted.
But her dance wasn't fascinating only because it influenced the particles. It also affected the divine book in my hands. Unlike the particles, which reacted to her every move, the book didn't twist or sway. Instead, with each change in her dance, the eye symbol on the cover became clearer. The eyelids of the symbol would open when Raya's body rose, and close when she lowered herself.
The dance itself was graceful, her expressions captivating. She didn't seem to notice what was happening around her, and seeing the smile on her face made me want to keep it that way.
Minutes passed, and she was still moving, though I could tell she was nearing the end. Her motions slowed, becoming smaller and more deliberate. For her final pose, she raised both hands to the ceiling, palms facing the light above. Her legs were bent toward me, her waist inclined forward, her head bowed. It was as if she were not dancing anymore, but submitting to someone.
I watched her in quiet admiration. The elegance of her dance played a part, but what truly held me was how the particles seemed to obey her. Finally, she lifted her head and our eyes met.
She straightened abruptly, her face flushing red, and began walking toward me. She looked like a child caught doing something they weren't supposed to, her gaze fixed on the floor.
"...H-how long have you been watching me?"
Her voice was so soft I could barely hear it. Seeing her like this, I almost wanted to laugh — after all, it's not every day you see the girl you like dance like that.
"D-don't you dare laugh, idiot."
She turned her head away and pouted. I held back a grin and took a deep breath, then opened the palm with the rune so she could see it. Raya glanced at it from the corner of her eye.
When she saw the mark, a flash of fear crossed her face, and she quickly scanned the room. I followed her gaze and wasn't surprised at what I saw — every last particle had vanished. I couldn't even remember when they'd disappeared.
"How did you really get that rune?" she asked.
The question caught me off guard. I took a slow breath, preparing to answer, but before I could, she hit me with another.
"You can see them too, can't you?"
For a moment I froze, unsure how to respond. "The purple particles?"
She nodded. She already had her answer to the second question, but now I needed to explain the first without confusing her.
"Something… I don't know what it was, gave me this book and these runes."
Her gaze darkened as she examined the markings on my palm more closely. "What did it look like?"
I inhaled. "The thing that gave you the runes."
I thought back to the countless minutes I'd spent staring at that being, yet still never fully understanding its form. "Its eyes were whiter than snow, its hair brighter than the sun, and the rest of its body was nothing but absolute darkness."
Raya opened her mouth but paused to think before speaking. "Long blue but translucent hair, violet eyes, and a body made entirely of those…" She hesitated. "…those aetheric particles."
At first, I didn't understand what she meant by "aetheric," but after a moment I realized she was referring to the purple particles. Aether… It didn't matter why she called them that. What mattered was how she knew the name.
"Aether?"
A small smile appeared on her lips. "The being I met wrote 'Aether' on a mirror using those particles. I just assumed that's what they were called."
I didn't want to upset her, but honestly, it sounded flimsy. "Aether" could mean anything — the name of the particles, the name of the being, even an element yet to be discovered. Still, at least now we had a shorter, cleaner name to use instead of constantly saying "purple particles."
Raya sighed and sat on the piano bench, resting her arms on the keys and lowering her head onto them. "I know calling them 'aether' probably sounds silly to you."
For a split second, I worried I'd spoken my thoughts out loud. Of course, I hadn't — I wouldn't make that kind of mistake.
"Why did you run out of the classroom?" I asked plainly.
She didn't look at me, instead focusing on the wall behind me. "When you shouted 'Finally!' I turned around out of curiosity, but the moment I did, everything went dark. Above you appeared two eyes — one violet, the other gold. I ran toward you, called your name, but you didn't hear me. I got scared, and… well… eventually everything went back to normal, but I needed to calm down, so I came here."
Her words took a moment to sink in. To her, it might have felt like minutes had passed, but from my perspective, only seconds separated my shout from seeing her on the floor.
It was just like the event I'd experienced in that alleyway. Time had bent. And then it clicked — perhaps aether could bend time itself.
A smile crept onto my face. "Raya, how long did your dance feel to you?"
"What? Why does that matter?"
"This is important. If you give me the answer I'm expecting, I can confirm something."
She frowned. "Probably less than a minute. Why?"
My smile widened. Hypothesis confirmed. Every time aether appeared, something unusual happened. Even if I wasn't the cause, I could still see it. Aether could bend time — and I doubted that was its only ability. Those beings could manipulate aether on a dimensional scale. Perhaps it could bend not just time, but reality itself… space, life, and death.
I couldn't prove it yet, but I knew exactly where to find the answers. I looked down at The Eye of the Void in my hands. The eye on the cover seemed to stare right back at me.
Raya stood and stepped closer, her smile softer and warmer than usual, shy yet sweet. She ran her fingers through her hair.
"Hey, want to hang out after school? Maybe we can figure out what's causing all of this."
I could feel my face heating up. This was as close as she could get to directly asking me out. I nodded, and her smile grew until it matched the one she always wore.
Klein Cylrit
I could hardly focus on any class today. My mind kept drifting back to what had happened that morning. Those eyes watching me felt etched into my very retina. I hadn't yet spoken to Raya or Grey; I'd wasted my time dealing with other people and left the real matter hanging.
Still, I'd seen those purple particles, aether, a few more times throughout the day. Only after school did I finally find the time to talk to Raya and Grey. When I spotted them, they were standing by the school fence, talking with warm smiles on their faces. The moment Grey noticed me, his smile faded into a scowl, but Raya's smile only grew.
"Klein!" Raya called, waving.
Grey, being the jerk he always was, flipped me off in a way he thought Raya wouldn't notice. I was used to his behavior by now, so I didn't bother responding for the moment.
The three of us left the school together, walking without any particular destination in mind. Grey walked a little ahead of us.
"This guy drives me crazy," I muttered.
Raya, her hands clasped behind her back and her smile wider than usual, tilted her head at me with curiosity."Why? Grey's a lot of fun."
That didn't surprise me. Even if those two hadn't figured it out, everyone at school knew they liked each other. I sighed, ignoring her question, and kept walking.
A few seconds passed. Grey muttered something under his breath ahead of us, while Raya kept opening her mouth to speak but then closing it again. When I thought about it, they really did seem like a perfect match.
"Those purple particles…" Raya glanced at me. "Grey told me you can see them too."
I nearly tripped at her words. Grey glanced back for a moment before facing forward again."Uh… yeah. I guess you seeing them too explains why you're so calm about this."
Raya lowered her gaze and began twirling her bangs between her fingers. "We decided to call them 'aether.'"
"Aether?"
She nodded, letting her bangs fall and clasping her hands behind her back again."Cool name, right?""Yeah. It is."
Raya giggled and ran ahead to join Grey. Aether… Strange name. The only "aether" I knew was supposed to be some kind of fifth element, at least according to Wikipedia. I wanted to ask her how they'd come up with it, but they were too busy flirting.
We walked like that for a few more minutes until Grey stopped in front of an alley."This is where I got my runes."
Raya and I stepped closer, curiosity piqued, but we saw nothing unusual. Still, I kept walking until I reached the center of the alley. Something had pulled me there. Suddenly, a memory I'd never lived flashed in my mind.
On my right stood a girl with transparent blue hair and violet eyes beside a figure made entirely of shadow. On my left were two others, one with short violet hair, violet eyes, and a transparent body, the other with long hair, golden eyes, and the ghostly form of someone floating.
The world around us was chaos, yet I didn't even know where I was. All of us were staring at something ahead, no, someone. Their hair and eyes were split into two colors: the right side violet, the left side gold. Their gaze pierced straight into me, breaking me apart from the inside.
Then my mind jumped. I was still staring ahead, but now at something above — a figure made entirely of aether, watching us and smiling.
Another jump. This time, I was looking at Grey. He seemed to be running from someone, but no matter how far he moved, he stayed in the same spot. I tried to call his name, but in that instant I felt something pulling at my soul, like it was consuming itself.
I shut my eyes in fear, and when I opened them again, I was back in the alley. Grey was staring at me with boredom, Raya with worry and curiosity."You okay? You've been standing there for almost an hour."
"An… an hour?" I couldn't wrap my head around it. To me, only ten seconds had passed.
"But—""Wait." Grey cut me off, a glint in his eyes that told me he knew something.
"How long did it feel for you? Ten minutes? A second?""Ten… seconds."
Grey froze for a moment. Even Raya seemed to realize what was going on."You must have bent time with the aether," Grey said, his voice calm, almost like this was nothing unusual for him. Before I could ask anything, he continued.
"Maybe not just time… maybe you manipulated space too."
I had no idea what he meant."How?"
Grey pointed at me, then at Raya."While you were like that, no matter how much Raya moved, no matter how many steps she took, she was always in the same place."
I turned to Raya. She nodded calmly, but even in their composure I could see the fear in both of their eyes.