It was nighttime, and we gathered around in the kitchen. Ael made us tea, mainly to calm me down.
"What happened?" Ael asked as he placed his cup on one of the many counters in the kitchen, leaning into it.
I looked down, "I went back to that dream-like place, well, a sanctuary as they would call it. Only now, I was able to talk to the voice." As I looked back up, I could see their faces turned to shock.
"You mean..." Amiel added.
"Yeah, and I got a few answers." They sat and stared at me, waiting for me to continue. "The voice was a god, the God of Numen to be exact. And the veil that traps us in here is made out of Numen." I paused, letting them process what I was saying. "They made me a proposition, they told me I would have to make a pact with them, and in return, help me bring down the veil. The only problem was that I would have to offer a will."
"Did you do it?" Amiel questioned.
"Of course not, I'm not crazy." I turned to look at him. When I do, I can see his eyebrow twitch when her hears my reply.
"Why not, if that was our way out, you should have done it." He replied, I could see his face tense up.
"And what, give up something important to me? I only have a few things important to me, and I was not willing to give them up."
"But we could have escaped out of here." He started to make his way to me, grabbing me by my collar.
Growing frustrated, I asked, "Would you have done it then?" He stared at me. "Would you have made the sacrifice?" He doesn't answer.
"That's enough," Ael intervened. "Put him down."
Amiel hesitates in doing so, but when he realizes what he is doing, he lets go of me and lets out a tsking noise. When he does put me down, I adjust my clothes.
"Eirian, how did you get into this sanctuary you speak of?" Ael asked after Amiel went back to his corner.
I turned toward Ael, "I was thinking of ways to go back, and fell asleep, waking up there."
Eira joined in after drinking all her tea and said, "Maybe wishing to talk to them is what invites you to the sanctuary."
"That wouldn't make sense. The first two times, I didn't even know what it was. I didn't even want to be there to begin with." I stopped to take a drink out of my tea, "What if it isn't based on our side, but hers instead? What if she needs to invite us in?"
"That might be it." Said Ael.
Switching the conversation, I asked, "Were you guys able to decipher the test in the notebook?"
Eira, having the notebook, took it out of her pocket, "Bits, I think if you give us another day, we could do a decent amount of it."
"Eira here was a great help. Smart one she is." Ael added. "From the looks of it, it talks about a God, the one and true god. How every other god is false."
"Sounds like a cult." Said Amiel.
"Other than that, everything else seemed like gibberish. That, or it was just hard to translate." Ael continued.
I looked back at the ground, thinking of the situation, and if there was any way out of it. Entering into a contract with the God of Numen was not an option for me. There had to be another way.
The room went quiet as we felt at a standstill. I knew Amiel thought I should have gone into a pact with Fey, and I am sure the others feel the same way, but giving up my will was too much to ask for. Too much to ask anyone for.
As my mind raced, thinking of different ways to get out of here, I drew blanks. But just then, something hits me.
"Wait, I know a way to bring down the veil without the help of God." Something that Fey said came to me. All turned toward me.
"Fey told me something. That we all flow with Numen, tiny amounts of it, that if we had too much of it, we would die. What if that was the case for the veil? What if the veil acted the same way as we do?"
Their eyes don't stray from me. Looking at them, I could see Ael place his hand on his chin and start thinking of the idea. Amiel, who a moment ago had been filled with anger, became expressionless.
"I know this is a long shot, and that we barely learned about Numen, but this could be our way out. Plus, I wouldn't have to give an offering to the God of Numen. It's a win-win situation."
"That has to be our way out!" Eira exclaimed. She, who had been sitting quietly watching us discuss different options, breaks the silence.
The other two stayed quiet, Ael still thinking, and Amiel processing if he should still be mad at me or glad there might be another way out of here. After a few more seconds of silence, Ael said, "Let's try it." Getting up from the counter, he took the last sips of his tea and slammed it back down on the counter. "Amiel, what do you think?"
"It's risky, we don't even know how Numen works, and if it's just as dangerous as Eirian explained, we could die just by being in contact with it. It could be over for us." He paused. After a few more seconds of contemplation, he looked at us. "I'm in."
Ael smiled at him. When he does, he turns toward me. "Now that we know how to bring down the veil, how exactly do we bring down the veil."
"Umm, I did not think that far." I chuckled slightly, trying to ease the awkwardness in the room.