Lyn was very excited today, she was going to go out and explore with her master! She still couldn’t form complete sentences yet, but that was only a matter of time, and what little she did know she made sure to tell him how happy she was that he was taking her.
But since it required going quite a ways away, she would be traveling within Van’s soul realm instead of flying around him. Lest someone realize who, or what, she was before either of them got strong enough to protect themselves from pushy people who might want to know where such a rare fairy came from. Or any fairy for that matter, as these lands were not overly kind to those who might be even slightly associated with elves.
It was not the first time Lyn had been inside Van’s soul realm, and if she were asked if she hated it, she would say no. But that did not mean she really liked it either, for in a word it was very… empty… and whatever place of interest there was, was heavily warded with a magical barrier. Leaving her to only explore the outer layer of the soul realm, which consisted of mostly grass and nothing else.
In other words… boring…
Not that it was an entirely bad place to be in. it was very… serene… beautiful, peaceful, with the occasional wind that blew gently across the land. When She first arrived, she was mesmerized by everything around her.
She was expecting something impressive, cramped, but impressive. But this blew her expectations clear out of the water. It was an entire world out there, one too big for her to explore, and even if she could, it probably would take years for her to do so. It was amazing and perfect!
...If only it weren't so empty...
“Pretty empty right?” A bored-sounding voice said behind Lyn.
Lyn shot up into the air! Her peaceful gazing of the land before suddenly ruined as surprise took her entire body and reflexively took her to new heights from her seat on the only rock for miles.
“Damn, I heard of people jumping, but never someone flying.” the individual said, now looking up at Lyn with an amused expression, hands in his pockets and looking like he had all the time in the world.
“Where did you come from! How did you get here! Who are you!” Lyn shouted and panicked.
“One at a time,” the person said, taking his hands out of his pockets and making a calming gesture with them. “I come from here, I was always here, and my name is Ren. nice to meet you.” the person said, still with an amused expression on his face. His half-lidded eyes and his calm posture conveying he felt no threat from Lyn, or perhaps that he meant no harm, Lyn couldn’t be sure.
Lyn didn’t know what to do, her mind just couldn’t really make sense of what’s going on. No one was allowed within another’s soul realm without express permission, and that was if they could even enter one in the first place. So to have a complete stranger that Lyn never heard about or even sensed up to now, put her on edge.
Using what little she knew about soul realms, which admittedly she didn’t know much. Technically speaking if Van didn’t want him here he wouldn't be, but that begged the question if he was allowed in here, why her master never mentioned him. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion and she was wondering if she should go right now to tell Van about what’s going on.
“Oh my… and here I pegged you for a free spirit kind of girl, one who goes with the flow if it's fun or interesting,” Ren said, quirking an eye as if reading or anticipating Lyn’s thought process. Which only put her even more on edge.
“Now now. I mean no harm… in fact… I want to help you…” Ren said, taking a few steps back. Trying to appear less intimidating. “You see, I think you have great potential, you and that cat of course, and I think I can help you realize that potential. You just have to keep our little interactions a secret. Not forever of course… Van will find out eventually, so you could say we are keeping a surprise for him…”
“One that will see you much stronger than before, and one that will make sure you become very useful to him.” Ren then motioned behind him, towards the only entryway into the inner layer. “Why don’t we talk about it in my office… perhaps over a cup of hot chocolate? We can even play a few games if you want. What do you say?” he said all with a smile.
Lyn didn't really trust him, but now her curiosity was piqued. If he could really enter the inner layer, that not only meant that he was allowed, but that he was trusted as well. And if they walked over to the entryway and he couldn’t get in, then that would be one more proof that he might be an enemy in disguise. And she will take appropriate action and do her best to defend her master's soul realm.
“If… you can enter the inner layer… then I will go with you… but if you can’t…” Lyn then started to crackle her electricity all over her body in a silent threat.
Ren’s smile perked up for a moment before returning to normal, now his expression returning back to that amused one. “Follow me,” he said in a chipper voice as he turned and led the way towards the entryway.
Lyn, following after, was amazed to find the stranger just walking right through the barrier once they arrived. She quickly tried to follow after only to bounce off the barrier.
Ren chuckled. “You can’t just enter without permission, you know. Here let me help.” he then extended a hand through the barrier.
Lyn eyed the hand suspiciously, but feeling like she had no choice, she took it and was pulled in through the barrier. The next thing she knew, she was in a very large white building with large windows, with strange floating metal objects flying around outside. She looked around her in amazement, wondering how she got here.
“Well… technically I can’t just let you enter the inner layer without permission, that is not something even I can do. But I can create a bypass to allow you straight into my little abode.” Ren said with a smug smile. “After all, I helped build this place. Makes sense that I know a few backdoors or cheat codes to get around.” he finished saying with a somewhat proud attitude.
Lyn looked around her in wonder, before finally settling on Ren. “who… are you…” she asked, now more curious than ever.
“Why, I’m the one you should thank for becoming a storm fairy. It is thanks to me that Van found out he could turn you into one. Well… in a way at least. But still, I deserve some credit for my amazing technical skills and hand in shaping this soul realm.” Ren said, sitting back on a strange floating chair and pulling out a cup of strange brownish hot liquid from nowhere.
He took a sip and hummed appreciatively, then shifted around a little, making sure he was nice and well seated in his floating chair and as he enjoyed his drink. Once more acting like he had all the time in the world and was just waiting for Lyn to finally make sense of everything and ask him the questions he knew was to come.
But before Lyn could ask them Ren interrupted her. “Ah! Almost forgot!” Then another floating chair appeared. This one far smaller and looking like it would fit Lyn perfectly, a small cup of hot brownish liquid was also sitting on a tray that was attached to the chair. “Please take a seat… we have a long… long talk ahead of us,” he said with a smile.
Lyn stared at him for a hard, long, moment and took the offered seat. She still wasn’t sure if he was friend or foe, but she will find out, one way or another.
---
“So, do you understand now?” Ren asked, after explaining himself for the past hour about why he came to her and what were his plans.
Lyn nodded sagely and took another deep sip of her hot chocolate. “Hot chocolate… is delicious…”
Ren blinked. “Did… you hear a word of what I said?”
Lyn nodded sagely and took another sip of her hot chocolate. “Hot chocolate… is delicious…”
“... anything else?” Ren asked, now with a somewhat annoyed look on his face.
“Oh! Oh! Show that vidiya of the cat again!” Lyn exclaimed excitedly.
“That… was just an example… and it was only like… five seconds of the entire video I showed you. You know, the one where I explain what Kind of past life I am and what kind of culture I came from? And that wasn’t even the video I wanted to talk about! What about the other one! You know, the one about-”
“Cat Vidiya! Play the cat vidiya!” Lyn excitedly begged.
Ren paused for a few seconds in disbelief, after a moment a screen appeared with a timestamp 5:17 out of 12:00 that then played it for five seconds. Showing a cat looking up at the camera with big eyes and giving a “mreow?” before it cut to the next scene.
Lyn giggled hysterically at the video. “Again! Again!” she begged.
Ren looked annoyed with this but played it again anyway. “You know…” he began as Lyn went through another fit of giggles. “When I called you here, it was not to get your rocks off on cat videos. I was going for a mysterious or enigmatic no it all type character, and you kind of ruined it with your… silliness? It’s like everything I said went through one ear and out the other.” he said, shaking his head. “How does Van even deal with you?”
Lyn continued to giggle. “She was all like ‘Whaaat?’ and then it ends!” Then she giggled some more.
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“...You… speak… cat?” Ren asked, an incredulous look on his face.
Lyn nodded proudly. “Azra has been teaching me some,” she said, puffing out her chest in pride.
Ren didn’t know how to take that. “You have the attention span and the intelligence to learn a completely different language, one I didn’t even think was possible to really learn… and yet you can’t pay attention to what I'm trying to say for like… five minutes?” he asked, now getting really annoyed.
“Don’t worry! I remember everything you said and showed me!” Lyn said matter of factly.
“Like…?” Ren tried to lead on.
“Like you want to be a suspicious know-it-all asshole!” She said proudly.
“That’s not-”
“Same difference!” Lyn interrupted taking another sip of her hot chocolate and giggling to herself.
Ren sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose with his fingers. “Seriously, how does Van deal with you?”
“Don’t worry, I got the important parts!” Lyn said. “You actually want to help Van right? I don’t really get all that stuff about other dimensions and realities. But you did mention something about Van being a god so that’s good enough for me!”
“Not a god! A godling! And there is far more to it than that! It's very important that you know-”
“Same difference!” Lyn interrupted once more and giggled.
“It’s not!” Ren shouted in reply, then taking a long exasperated sigh and forced himself to calm down.
“Listen, do you want my help or not? I can teach you a few things that I-”
“Okay! But I want to try playing those vidiya games!” Lyn asked excitedly.
Ren paused for a moment before his shoulders slumped in defeat. “You know what? Why the hell not. I could use a break, trying to talk to you is like trying to talk to a brick wall. Perhaps some video games will help with the stress I have to deal with now.” Then an idea came to him and he thought out loud. “Perhaps I can make a few educational video games? That may work better then, you know, just telling her upfront apparently.”
“Vidiya games?” Lyn asked
Ren sighed and rolled his eyes. “Just give me a second,” he said as he opened up another screen that had a catalog of many different images. Choosing one he opened it up to a widescreen and made appear a controller that was the perfect size for Lyn.
“Here you go, the perfect starter game for anyone wanting to get into Video games as a whole. A real classic that has shaped the history of video games for generations to come. Simple in design, but loads of fun. I’ll be player two so that I can help you along.” Ren said, starting up the game where it showed a mustached man wearing a red overall and jumping around and hitting blocks and turtles.
“Oooh, aaaah.” Lyn said in wonder.
“I like green better anyway,” Ren said as he clicked start and started to explain how the controls work.
What followed was a few hours of fun, but mostly of Lyn dying before she finally started to get gud and then beating the evil dragon turtle thing on her own, much to her delight. She was really glad she decided to follow Ren. as for the reason why she was not taking everything so seriously now. Lyn was always a good judge of character, or at least she liked to think she was and realized that Ren meant no actual harm to Van, even if he was keeping a few secrets. And it wasn’t like she trusted him one hundred percent or anything either, but for now, she would.
But more importantly. “Take that evil dragon!” Lyn shouted excitedly trying to jump on its head.” what!? NOooooooo!” as her red men died and she got a game over.
---
A few hours later Lyn was out of the inner layer and flying around outside enjoying the nice cool breeze. She stretched her arms and legs, feeling like she came back to life after sitting down for so long.
She was very glad that now she had something to do to help pass the time when she was here. Hopefully, Van wouldn’t mind too much should he find out.
“Hmm? Oh hey, Azra! Did you come inside to check on me?” Lyn asked, noticing that Azra appeared nearby and seemed to have been waiting for her.
Azra meowed, concern and curiosity in her voice.
Sadly, Azra was still too young and underdeveloped for her to speak or even mentally communicate just yet. So Lyn had been picking up the slack by trying to learn Azra’s language instead. After all, they were practically sisters, and as the older sister, she had to look after her younger one.
“You were worried about where I went? Don’t worry! I just found a secret level in Van’s soul realm!” Lyn replied.
“Mreow?” Azra asked, cocking its head.
“Oh ya! You wouldn’t get it because you didn’t play the vidiya game! Okay… so you see, it's about these moving pictures with sounds that do things you tell it to but only under certain conditions, telling a story or narrative that can either be linear or open-ended and-” Lyn continued for the next half hour getting very into it and technical, much to Azra’s confusion.
“Do you get it now?” Lyn asked once she was finished.
“Mreroew…” Azra said, feeling like her head was swimming.
“Oh… well… I suppose I should show than just tell. But then I will have to get you in...hmmm… next time Ren comes by, I’ll ask him how to enter the vidiya game place so I can show you what I mean, what do you say?”
“Meow.” Azra said, just thankful that Lyn stopped trying to explain.
“Alright then, let's get back to your lessons, are you ready?” Lyn asked kindly.
“Meow!” Azra said with determination.
“Alright! Now over there is a rock.” Lyn said, pointing over at the rock. “It’s called a rock, it's made up of many different kinds of minerals and-” Lyn then continued to give an in-depth explanation of what a rock was, where they were mostly found, how to pronounce the word rock, what kind of minerals make up a rock, its atomic weight and number, what rocks can be used for and much more. After that was grass, cloud, and whatever else she could point at. Making sure the Azra had a thorough understanding of each object so that one day she could pronounce the words on her own and understand what was being said.