1.7
+++
He coughs, laughing. It takes him a moment to calm down. "This light isn't a glowstick, Juliana."
Her head tilts to the side, clearly waiting for him to continue.
"It's an indicator, see." He says, undoing a few buttons on his coat. He pulls it open, revealing a small part of his chest.
And, more importantly, the light emanating from a small point of it. It's a soft blue, and as Juliana turns, she realizes that it's exactly the same colour as the light that radiates from my Clasher-self.
He's already buttoning his coat back up by the time she turns back. "It's a sign of a bond."
"Bond?"
He nods. "How much do you know about the Empyrean?"
"It's evil." She says, immediately. "Makes people go crazy. Spits Daemons at us."
He nods. "Yeah, that's pretty accurate. Pretty basic, though." He grabs a napkin, ripping it in half. One is folded neatly into a small square, while the other is haphazardly scrunched into a ball. "Alright, let's give an actual explanation. This our universe." He holds up the square. "And this is the Empyrean." He holds up the ball. "Our universe is a place of logic, scientific rules. The Empyrean is a place of emotion, energy, utter chaos. Our universe is nice and ordered, and the Empyrean is just a huge mess. However, the Empyrean and everything that comes from it is basically made out of energy, and the Shroud?" He straightens up. "They eat energy."
She looks at me.
"And let me tell you, they love the taste of the Empyrean." He continues. "Nothing gets their attention quicker than the Empyrean and the things that come from it. If they could, they'd be eating it constantly, but the Empyrean doesn't react well to them, so they can't." He puts the ball down. "Not directly, anyway. Now, you're aware that Daemons like to come out of their little hell and eat us, and I just told you that the Shroud likes to eat them, but what you probably don't know is that the reason Daemons like to eat us is because Humans have a connection to the Empyrean."
She rears back, seeming horrified by the concept.
"Well, it's not unique to Humans. All life in our universe has a connection to the Empyrean, with a few exceptions." He grabs a knife, spearing the small square, before also spearing the ball.
"Can we get rid of it?" She leans forwards.
"No." Adrien says, flatly. "This connection exists within the soul, and is very difficult to break. Even if it is broken, it does nothing good. The lucky ones die outright." He puts the knife down. "The connection makes life vulnerable to things in the Empyrean, but the thing is, it's a two-way connection. And in this case, it's one that the Shroud can exploit. By using us as a conduit, they can pull in energy from the Empyrean, more or less forever."
"Infinite food..."
"Yep." He nods. "Because of that, they protect us, shelter us, help us survive, and keep us safe from the Empyrean."
She nods, slowly. "Then, that light is them using you?"
He waves a hand. "Sort of. See, in order to actually use us as conduits, the Shroud has to implant us with a bit of itself."
She looks at him askance. "That doesn't sound good."
"Not when it's put like that, no." He acknowledges. "It's not what you're imaging; not a physical implantation. The Shroud is energy, and the thing it implants is also energy; immaterial and non-physical. It's a bit of Shroudlife, but nothing that will hurt you."
She takes a drink. "Still doesn't sound nice."
"And if I told you it made you immune to madness?" Adrien asked, getting her attention. "That it strengthens the body, heals wounds, even lets a person go without needing food or drink?"
She stares at him. "I'd say you were telling stories."
He shrugs, grabbing the knife. He flicks the napkins off of it, before reversing his grip.
Juliana just about jumps out of her skin when he promptly stabs his own hand, only for the knife to scrape off with a metallic shriek.
He holds out his hand, showing it to her. Unharmed, blue light crawling over the skin before fading.
"Okay." She sits back, releasing a loud breath. "It sounds better, now."
He smirks. "Told ya." He puts the knife down again. "These particular Shroud Lifeforms are called 'Symbionts'. It happens in stages, see. First, the Symbiont is implanted, and it grows within the soul of the host. As it grows, the host becomes stronger, tougher, heals faster, needs less and less food and drink. Eventually, they hit the next stage, where the host stops needing to eat, sleep, or drink at all, which is when the Symbiont is matured, and can start doing other things."
She looks intrigued, so he holds his arms out, palms up.
Flecks of light begin to gather, before becoming solid, materializing slowly in a way that was more for presentation than anything else. First came the hands, Human save for the scalpel claws they ended in, before the rest of the arms started to appear afterwards. When it hit the shoulders, it started spreading more rapidly, two waves of light rippling together to form the chest and head, and then down to form the lower body. The chest was wide, covered in crystalline plating resembling armour. The arms were much the same, as well as the head. For the lower body, it didn't have legs, only a long tapering point coming down from the waist. Much like Adrien himself, there was a pair of red crosses at the wrists.
She looks up, in awe. She finds her voice after a moment. "Okay. It sounds a lot better, now."
He nods, agreeing. His Symbiont shifts, moving around the table. It offers her its hand.
With a little bit of hesitation, she takes it, grabbing it with both her own. She explores it, pressing down against it, feeling the smooth texture.
"That's cool."
"There's actually three stages to the process..." He says, slowly. "Stage three is the last. But, that takes at least years to get to." He leans back, and the Symbiont gently tugs its hand out of hers. "There's a reason I'm telling all this to you now, though."
She looks at him, head tilting to the side, before her eyes widen. "Wait, you mean-"
"Yeah." Adrien nodded. "You've also got one, kid." His eyes flicker with life light, as he looks her up and down. "You haven't had it long; less than a day, but you've definitely got it. The Shroud probably gave it to you when they rescued you."
Her face goes through a variety of interesting expressions, before settling on something like acceptance. "They... There was... one of them poked me for a while, and light went from them to me."
"That was it." Adrien said. "Doesn't take too long to happen. Still, to do it there and then... Did you, by chance-"
"Please refrain from materializing inside of the restaurant." Turing speaks, coming out of the kitchen. "As you have been told. Several times."
Adrien gives an embarrassed laugh, but his Symbiont vanishes a moment later, disintegrating into motes of life light. "Sorry, just showing the kid."
"I would believe that, if I was not aware of the fact that you're trying to delay going to registration for as long as possible." Turing returns. "Every moment you wait is just going to make it worse, you know."
He sighs. "Yeah, but... that doesn't make me want to go."
"How unfortunate for you." Turing didn't sound particularly empathic. He turned to Juliana, offering her a small, metal chip. She took it, looking at it. "Do return whenever you wish."
"Thank you?" She nodded, still looking at the chip.
"Hey, you never say that to me." Adrien said.
"No, I don't." Turing said, turning back to him.
"That's cold, man." Adrien put his hand over his chest. "Stone cold."
Turing released a long, exaggerated sigh, and walked away without another word.
Adrien smirked, before getting serious. "Alright. To registration."
"You don't sound like you want to."
"That's because we're going to spend an hour walking back and forth talking to people to do something that should really only take three minutes." He complained. "I swear, we really need to look at that process again. It's utterly ridiculous."
"Uh..."
"Don't worry 'bout it. It's just time consuming, not actually difficult." He stood up. "Let's go get this over with."