Death, Devotion, Dissonance

<When you like someone and they like you back, you'll know it. But when you like someone and they don't like you back, you'll be confused,> the Voice commented almost regally. <Why? Well, in the first case, your heart and mind are in agreement with each other. Your heart says it loves another and your head reassures that your crush loves you back as well. Now all you need is the courage to voice your feelings.>

<But in the latter case, your heart says it loves someone, but your head reminds you that they don't love you back. Of course, your heart takes no heed of these warnings. It seeks for convenient excuses and explanations for the other's behavior, warping the facts so the situation looks salvageable to you. Did you know? Men and women are fully capable of imagining a full relationship from the first kiss to the first children from one single touch?>

Without his wanting, Evin was engulfed by the Voice's deep calmness. If Evin learned one thing about the Voice' state of mind during the time he was bathed in it, then he knew that in the voice's head logic triumphed over emotions. It wasn't that the Voice never felt anything, but if its heart and mind were at odds, its mind would always win in the end.

Such a state of mind relentlessly battered Evin's little fancies, until he finally saw how ridiculous they were, and made Leanne's disposition towards him cleared and clearer. The woman only saw Evin as a child. Nothing more, nothing less. There wasn't even a need for Evin to think about the matter deeply to convince himself of this fact.

And right after Evin understood this fact, the Voice took back its state of mind. Evin expected himself to feel like a useless bag of crap immediately, but oddly, it didn't feel that bad this time.

<Sharing my mind only fills the ignorance in your head. But just because you're ignorant, it doesn't mean you're stupid. Since I'm being very diligent about teaching you the ways of the world there would come a time when you start thinking on the same level as me, but with your own perspective,> the Voice chuckled benevolently.

<You can confess your feelings if you really want to, and I'm sure Leanne wouldn't be so heartless to take it as a joke. But remember. Some things are best left unsaid,> with these words, the voice curtsied a goodbye and told Evin to enjoy his day with Leanne.

The woman of Evin's affection, was of course, unaware of the monologue that occurred inside Evin. After all, sending thoughts really didn't take much time and the Voice was definitely a very quick thinker. Even Evin was becoming good at it, after his daily practices of the World of Thoughts, Lochra. But change was change, no matter how small. And for Leanne, who was most likely trained to notice these changes, it wasn't hard for her to pick them up.

"Are you okay?" Leanne asked gently.

"I'm alright," Evin shook his head almost dispassionately.

"Alright…" Leanne replied, but was obviously not convinced. She glanced at a tiny pocket watch that she pulled out of her dress somewhere and said to Evin, "Anyhow, I think the Cosmics are coming in a few moments."

The two gathered their stuff and gave the room a small clean up. Before they walked out, Leanne turned back to him and said, "I'm glad we took the time to meet like this today."

"Me too. I hope we can do something similar later on."

With these simple words, Evin and Leanne walked out of the room covered in an illusion of invisibility. They walked towards the large area used for more formal battles and sometimes ceremonies, and stopped.

To distract himself from the complicated thoughts that were bound to brew in him, Evin decided to give all his attention to the Ceremony. He looked around and saw that every student was circling said arena, expectantly waiting for something to happen. Whenever someone walked too close to the arena, the teachers or adults would pull them back. Evin remembered the stories of Cosmics and their portals and deduced what was going to happen.

And sure enough, a few minutes later, a small golden swirl appeared in the middle of the arena and with it, the commoner students gasped in admiration. Out of the swirl, ten Felines appeared one by one and glanced at their surroundings.

Evin noticed that these Felines were larger than the average cats, but not by much. Their limbs looked longer and stronger, and so did their throats. Evin remembered his Social Studies teacher mentioning it was so they could speak like humanoids did, as normal cat throats were simply unable to produce the variety of sounds that humanoids could.

Evin then looked at their bearing and saw them wearing a shirt that covered only half their bodies like Leanne mentioned. The shirts they were like the garments of servants of nobles, with a colored jacket draped over a white shirt. Except, of course, they looked much fancier than the low-quality garments of servants. There also seemed to be no distinction between male and female Cosmic Felines. The only thing Evin could think of was the jewelry they wore. If he was correct, the three Felines with earrings on their clipped ears were female, while the other seven wearing necklaces were males.

Evin imagined himself to be more excited by this sight, but for a certain reason, he simply couldn't get himself excited at the moment.

While Evin was observing the Cosmics' appearances, a teacher walked in front of them and invited the Cosmics grandly. The guests made a similarly grand speech about friendship between the races, and mentioned something about striving for the Peace Between All, the Empire united and peaceful till the end of times. This warranted a scoff from Leanne, making Evin wonder what the Cosmics did to her to make her so distrustful of them. This thought reignited Evin's curiosity for Leanne and, with it, his feelings.

It took him some effort to shove down his emotions, but it didn't take much time. A dozen seconds later, Evin was as stoic as a statue. Evin wondered if the Voice's state of mind was still lingering in his head.

He focused his attention on the Cosmics again and found one of them speaking of the purpose of their visit. The speaker's name was Ponti Virago, a male Cosmic by the sound of his voice. Long story short, they were here to introduce their services to the young mages, highlighting the fact that most mages never could learn to navigate or use the World of Space, but that was okay, since they could always rely on the Cosmic Felines to provide services that involved Therae.

In any case, their services. First of all, they could store various objects in small pockets of the World of Space. Different objects could be stored in different environments suited for the object. For example, they could store weapons and books in the normal environments, but edibles and dead specimens, for example, would be left in a colder temperature. If one needed to store animals, they would be sent to a larger, more fleshed out dimension, which was designed to hold living beings inside it.

Their second most requested service was, of course, their teleportation services. They could send someone to any notable city in the Kingdom and if one wished to travel to the other countries, they could manage that as well. Though these usually cost an astronomical price, because teleportation portals took quite a bit of energy to work. But Leanne scoffed at it, saying that teleportations probably didn't take such great resources. The Cosmics just held a monopoly over the business, so they could quote whatever price they wanted for it.

Evin asked her if any of the original twelve races could create teleportation portals, and Leanne answered negatively. The original Twelve Races could definitely use the World of Space for other uses, but teleportation always seemed to elude them completely.

Then, Ponti Virago continued his speech, and this time, it spoke of magical artifacts that the Cosmics could create. It showed everyone a large, golden ring which was about the size of Evin's head and put its paw inside it. But the paw didn't pass through the empty space inside the ring, but seemed to disappear into nothingness. The next second, the paw reemerged and was holding a bundle of Talismans.

This was one of the legendary Spacial Rings of the Cosmics. Anything you could fit through the ring would fall right in and there was a space as big as Evin's room inside it. The owner would be able to sense anything inside the ring and freely choose what they wanted from inside it. And once inside the Spacial Ring, they would weigh nothing at all, since the space inside was a personal dimension created just for the owner of the ring.

It would be a lie if Evin said he didn't want the ring, but its price tag was definitely something he couldn't afford. Evin didn't know if 170 golden coins were worth the deal, but like Leanne said, it was something under the monopoly of the Cosmics. He could only be happy that they didn't decide the thing would cost thousands of gold coins.

As for the Talismans, they were teleportation talismans that came in two pairs. The user would leave one in a safe, unpopulated space, and would carry the other one with them. And when a need arose, they could rip the other Talisman in half and it would create a portal that led to the first Talisman. But the Cosmics warned that sometimes, the user could end up lost in the World of Space, so it was best to use these Talismans with a Cosmic accompanying them.

Evin was quite surprised that one could get lost in the World of Space, let alone enter it, but decided that he didn't need to worry about it too much, as he definitely couldn't afford the Talismans in the first place.

Ponti Virago then finished his speech, but right after he finished, another portal appeared slightly above ground and a female Cosmic appeared from inside.

"Rithlaven?" Ponti asked, looking confused and offended by the other Cosmic's sudden visit.

The newcomer only sent Ponti a curtsying nod, before looking toward the crowd and asking, "Anyone named Evin here?"

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