Broken Souls (Peregrine x Levy)

[Peregrine]

It was a peaceful day and a half for Karl after he parted ways from Hana in the kitchen. Although he'd had time away from her since she'd barged her way into his home, her presence had always weighed on him like an invisible mountain.

After all, as much as he might want to simply pretend she didn't exist, he was only deluding himself. With the way the house accommodated her, there was nothing preventing her from barging in on him unless he went to some of the most dangerous and well-protected locations in the house. And, quite frankly, those were the last places he wanted to casually spend his time.

In the end, Hana's presence had become a constant burden upon him, whether she was nearby or not.

However, as old as he might be, and as set in his ways as he had become, Karl was as capable of adaptation as the rest of humanity. It had taken him some time due to the decades he had spent safely reclused, but he was adjusting to her presence.

Like it or not, they were going to be stuck together.

Besides, now that he'd helped her find something to do, perhaps she wouldn't be as prone to coming and bothering him.

Karl was back in his living room, laying spread out on the couch with a book in his hands. Every now and again, he would turn the page. Other than that, and the faint noise of his breath, the room was completely silent.

That made the sound of a gong that suddenly rang through the room seem all the louder.

Karl jumped to his feet, halfway across the room before he remembered to pause and throw the book towards a side table next to the couch. Then he was gone, through a door that opened in the wall, and off down the hallway that appeared on the other side.

Unlike the mild chime of the visitor bell, loud enough to be heard but also more than easy enough to ignore, this sound was invasive. Deep, brassy, and reverberant, it announced its presence with boldness and a measure of urgency, making sure that it would not be ignored.

It was an alarm that Karl hadn't heard in centuries. It meant that a magical energy signature had exceeded a certain threshold in both power and activity level. That sound was generally only used when the magical equivalent of a weapon of mass destruction appeared on the playing field.

It was only when a familiar wooden door appeared in front of him that Karl came to a near-screeching halt.

The instinct had been so deeply ingrained in him that Karl hadn't even considered it when the gong had sounded, but now he remembered. He didn't do this anymore. Even if an eminent magical catastrophe was about to appear, unless it put the well-being of the entire planet at risk, Karl had exactly zero intentions of doing anything about it. Leave it to humanity to solve their own problems.

Frozen in front of the door, the noise of the gong sounded again. It was gentler this time, urging rather than demanding. Karl let out a sigh.

If he didn't at least go and check it out, who knew how long the house would ring that jævla bell.

Frowning, Karl pushed the door open, only to immediately see the back of a familiar brown-haired head, which was bent over the table.

He had to force himself to take a slow, deep breath, even as one hand momentarily closed into a fist.

"Güevón girl," Karl said, teeth clenched tight in a way that caused his words to come out slightly muffled. However, as tight as his teeth and hands were pressed together, the tension in him loosened and untangled. She was causing more problems, but it wasn't as though he wasn't used to it at this point.

Somehow managing to set off the alarm was, after all, much better than losing his kitchen for an entire evening. At least now he could ignore it with ease.

"What the hell have you gotten into this time? What are you even doing in here?"

Swear Word Translations

"jævla" - "bloody" or "fucking" (Norwegian)
"güevón" - "stupid / dumb" (Columbian Spanish)

 

[Levy]

As Hana peered into the glowing image, searching for anything that might give her a hint as to what exactly it was she was looking at, she heard the door open promptly behind her. The figure of a stiff, and mildly exasperated man came into view as she turned her head, though surprisingly, his presence didn't startle her.

"Hi Karl!" She greeted, turning her body slightly to face him. The girl gave him a small wave, but kept her other hand on the edge of the table. Though not entirely angry, Karl's initial reaction to seeing her there gave off a sense of mild vexation, so she figured she should probably explain herself before asking him anything about the nature of the room and the table.

"I was trying to get to my room," She started, unconsciously taking a deep breath, "but I guess I was a little disoriented because I walked in here instead, and I was gonna leave but the globe just looked so cool, and so I went in to get a closer look. But then all the lights changed to different spots whenever I touched the table! It looks like a map, but there's no legend, so I was trying to figure out what it was and why it changed before you walked in." She paused for a moment, trying to survey his reaction, before continuing.

"If you're not too busy, could you explain to me what this is? And why it all changed when I touched it?" Hana stared at him for a moment, her expression expectant, before she seemed to realize something, her brows curling up. "Oh—wait, do you need this room for something? Is that why you're in here?" She asked, removing her hand from the table for a moment, the image flickering, and then changing back.

It was a fairly easy thing to conclude, given that generally the only reason that Karl would stumble into the same room as her would be because he had some use for it. And the last time she had occupied and shut down a place in the house that he wanted to be in, Karl cursed her out with the tongue of a sailor and the anger of a Tasmanian Devil, so she figured letting him have the room if he needed it was probably a good idea.

 

[Peregrine]

Listening to Hana's explanation of how she'd ended up here, Karl couldn't help the exasperated sigh that came from him. However, rather than being directed at Hana, the sigh seemed directed at the universe at large.

"You didn't get disoriented," Karl replied, his tone too harsh to be genuinely consoling. "My house is meddling."

This was far from the first time the house had 'tricked' him into coming to this room. And, as Karl had mentioned to Hana before, the girl was a useful new tool in the house's endeavor of trying to corral him.

Of course, that didn't explain why the alarm had sounded. Hana's presence alone would not have been enough to cause it. And, despite everything, it was impossible for the house to break its own rules. That alarm would only sound when a powerful, dangerous new energy source was discovered.

At the very least, the gong had stopped bothering Karl now. Ultimately, all the house could do was alert him to a new energy source. It was on Karl whether or not he'd go out to address the problem, and he had no particular intention of taking any such action.

However, just as he was preparing to walk away from the whole situation, leaving Hana to her observations and her unanswered questions, he noticed the map suddenly and violently flicker. Karl instantly froze on the spot, his eyes going wide for an instant, before instantly narrowing.

He hadn't been paying much attention when he'd first walked into the room, too distracted by Hana's presence to pay attention to the obvious information that was displayed on it. Or, at least, it should have been obvious. It had only been a few days since he last entered this room, and the lights that were displayed now were nearly identical in size and location. However, before the sudden flicker, not only had almost all of the lights vanished, but the ones that remained were often in completely different places, and far, far too bright.

Glowering at Hana, Karl realized rather abruptly that, somehow, the damned girl had managed to set off the alarm, although how was a complete mystery. She should not have been capable of tampering with the powerful magic used to connect the table to magical power sources across the entire world.

"Kristusove gate, what did you do to my map puella?"

Swear Word Translations

"Kristusove gate" - "God above" - literally "Christ's underpants" (Slovenian)

 

[Levy]

Hana furrowed her brows at him for a moment, too confused by his curt statement to be offended by his blatant display of dismissal towards her. Meddling? Why would the house be meddling? And for what reason? To keep Karl from straying into his thoughts for too long, like he had told her back in the library?

"Wait—" She was about to reach out to him, before he suddenly turned back again, leveling a glare at her. Almost as quickly as the words left his mouth, she gave him a cross look, stomping back to the table. "I didn't do anything, I just touched it! I didn't even touch it, I just touched the table! See," She told him, her tone revealing vexation, before she set her hand down on the table again to demonstrate.

Once again, the table flickered back to the previous set of lights, and her point was made. "See? I didn't do anything." She turned back to him, her last statement coming out mildly pouty, but for a moment, she considered his bewildered expression from a few moments ago. Evidently, the map had done something that it normally didn't do, and it had done so after she touched it, meaning his exasperation towards her might have been slightly warranted. But then still, why would she have triggered it?

"Clearly, I don't know why it's doing that. Shouldn't you know? I mean, it's your map."

 

[Peregrine]

His map perhaps, but it was a map Karl, quite frankly, wanted nothing to do with.

All the same, of all the possible magical items in the house that could have broken, this was the last one Karl would ever have expected to fail. He'd tampered with everything in the house, trying to maintain and improve their functionality, since the time he'd built it. However, this table was a variation of the same tools that had accompanied him almost as long as he'd been hunting magical artifacts.

Never once had it failed to do its duty, and the fact that it showed signs of failing was worrying him far more than he was willing to admit.

Leveling a glare at Hana, Karl silently stalked up to the edge of the table.

"Oh, you didn't do anything?" He repeated, sarcastically. "It just so happens that a map that has been keeping track of magical energy across the entire world, perfectly, without interruption, for four hundred years, starts behaving like a dewane sag when, and only when you are touching the table. Is that right, puella? Couldn't possibly have anything to do with you. Quare tibi ad hac stultitia..."

Despite Karl's mutterings, he was clearly paying attention to the map, although it did nothing to ease the wrinkle of frustration that was marring his brows.

"The map uses a heavenly jewel spear to tap directly into the network of waystones that are scattered around the world. Each of those points of light? They represent a powerful magical artifact, or a large enough group of lesser objects, that are releasing enough magical power to be registered by the waystones. Let go of the table."

Karl stared intensely as the globe flickered, trying to observe any sort of connection between the correct map that was displaying now, and Hana's distorted version. "What are you doing, somehow limiting the flow of magical energy?" The question was clearly rhetorical, as Karl continued immediately. "Touch the table."

He stared at Hana for a couple of seconds, before shaking his head. "Not a chance. If you were somehow absorbing that much magical energy, you'd have already popped like someone hitting a tomato with a hammer. It's almost like it's somehow tapping into a completely different waystone network but that's…"

Karl's roaming eyes rather abruptly land on the mess of items Hana had spilled on the table, including the cube that was proving the bane of both of their lives. He took a deep breath, trying to keep himself calm, before moistening his lips and speaking in a clipped tone. "Take. Your. Bèn dàn. Cube. Off. The. Table."

Swear Word Translations

"Dewane sag" - "bastard" - literally "crazy dog" (Farsi)
"Quare tibi ad hac stultitia" - "Why do you have to do such folly" (Latin + Google translate)
"Bèn dàn" - "moronic" - literally "stupid egg" (Chinese)

 

[Levy]

Hana observed the taller man as he stalked towards the table, scrutinizing both her and the map with a folded brow. His mutterings, though likely rhetorical and not aimed at her directly, caused her to frown in protest.

"I didn't!" She repeated, her tone almost exasperated. "It's not my fault that your prehistoric artifact shits itself whenever I touch it. Maybe it's just a little dusty." Hana mumbled her last statement, pouting, and clearly displeased. Still, she held her hand on the table until he told her to release it, upon which, she promptly did so, and allowed the map to fizzle back to its original state.

As Karl absently began his explanation of the map, Hana's ears perked up, and she was almost instantly resolved of her prior feelings of vexation. Somewhere, she knew that his explanations, this time at least, were really only a consequence of the situation rather than her own request. But even still, now equipped with the knowledge that each dot on the map represented a different artifact, she eagerly bent down to peer around the sides of the globe, delightfully noting each cluster of artifacts.

For a moment, she almost forgot about the issue at hand, and why he was stood next to her in the first place, but his further muttering shifted her attention back at him. She was about to protest once more, before he issued another command. Pausing, she obliged, letting him continue his diagnosis of the issue.

"I'm sorry—popped?" Her head shot up at him in bewilderment, a little unsettled by his crude use of metaphor. "L-like a tomato?" She shivered.

Once again, though it really shouldn't come as a surprise at this point, he ignored her complaint and moved on to the next thing he noticed. She blinked as he suddenly seemed to realize something significant, clearly holding back the full extent of his ire through gritted teeth and a brusque tone. If she were being honest, he was the one who looked seconds away from popping.

A chill ran down her spine. She quickly turned to reach for the cube with her free hand, hesitantly lifting it from the surface of the table. The map flickered once more, changing back to its original state. Hana paused, her gears churning.

"Wait!" She shot a glance back up at Karl, her brow knitted. "Now I'm confused. Do both me and the cube have to be touching the table for it to glitch out like that? Why?" She paused again, considering the two images of the map in her mind. "And, what do the other set of dots mean?"

 

[Peregrine]

His theory confirmed, Karl, unexpectedly, calmed down.

The unknown was always more terrifying than the known. After all, it was possible for the unknown to be anything, the worst possible result. In that regard, Karl's monumental level of experience only made things worse. After all, he'd seen numerous catastrophic results born from the strange machinations of magic.

When he'd first seen the map flickering like that, two devastating possibilities had come to mind.

The first was that the waystone network was shutting down. The waystones were identical stones, scattered across the world almost like a grid. What was more, they were all intrinsically linked, which meant moving or damaging one was as impossible as pulling the earth out of orbit.

The magical network that connected them all to each other was powered by the world itself. If something about Hana's nature as a saint was revealing flaws in the network that hinted at its imminent failure, it likely would have meant the entire world itself was dying.

The second, and far more likely, possibility he'd thought of was that Hana was finally making her move. As much as she might behave like a sweet, innocent little fool, Karl still knew absolutely nothing about how she'd found him, or how she'd ended up having dealings with abyssal artifacts. What was more, it was abundantly clear that she was unwilling to tell him about it.

If some outside force was using her as a mole, a possibility he still hadn't denied, and had somehow tapped into his map to locate the most powerful magical artifacts in the world, it could also have spelled looming catastrophe. Karl didn't trust anyone with that much ambition to handle such information in anything resembling a responsible manner.

Fortunately, the fact that the map immediately stopped flickering as soon as Hana removed the cube, regardless of whether or not she was touching it, proved that both speculations were nothing but wild fancy. There was a far, far simpler explanation at hand.

"I told you," Karl replied, leaning against the table with one hand braced against the edge. "This table is designed to tap into magical networks. And while the waystone network is both massive and powerful, it's also incredibly hard to access. Your little fish net of a soul, on the other hand, is remarkably easy to both access and travel. Because of that, the table was replacing the proper network with your soul."

 

[Levy]

Hana's eyes widened as she slowly began to process what a map like that meant for her. One of the biggest obstacles that caused her the most grief throughout this whole process, besides not being able to leave the house in the first place, was her inability to locate any of the missing pieces of the cube.

She had no possible leads aside from Karl himself, who clearly didn't have any information about the cube nor intention to help her, and it wasn't like she had any Cube-to-Hana echolocating abilities (none that she knew of, at least). Trying to look for the pieces blind would likely mean wandering about aimlessly until by some miracle she found something, or until she ran out of time. Which was a possibility that was indeed very plausible, but also a possibility she wasn't incredibly inclined to think about.

But now she had something.

She glanced at Karl as he leaned casually against the table, and she suddenly recalled what the map had looked like just moments prior. There was one dot in particular that grabbed her attention, and she took his brief moment of recline to set the cube down again, her hand following suit. Hana's version of the map warped back into view, her eyes trained to it.

"So then, if each of these little dots represents a missing piece of the cube," Her other hand glided over central North America, landing at a dot right beside the red location marker. "This is one of them, right? A piece of the cube? Right outside the house?" She looked up at him eagerly, her eyes wide and hopeful.

 

[Peregrine]

A frown crossed Karl's face the instant he saw Hana return the cube to the table, and the flickering map above it. If it wasn't for the fact that he would never touch an abyssal artifact casually, he would have knocked it right off the table. He'd given her Becker's journals so that she could learn more about the dangers of magical artifacts, but she was still so careless with an artifact that had torn her soul into ribbons.

The rebuke died on his lips because he knew it would do no good. Whether or not his word would actually have any lasting impact on her, it would likely all become a moot point simply because there was no way the cube could actually do any harm in this room. If it could, there was no way the house would have allowed her in the room.

After all, the table was incapable of interfacing with what it was displaying. All it could do was tap into an information network and then display what it gathered. Even if the cube, which had been ever-so-cautious in hiding itself since that first day in the kitchen, decided to try and tamper with things, the worst it could do was temporarily affect the results displayed on the map.

Of course, that would still be enough of an annoyance that the frown on Karl's face didn't lessen, and Hana's attempt at puppy-dog eyes had absolutely no effect on the man. "Even if that's the case, of which there's absolutely no guarantee, so what? You can't leave the house with that thing."

 

[Levy]

Karl's nonchalant dismissal of Hana's question, posed with all the optimism in her body, didn't do much to dampen her newfound excitement. Still, her fingers noodled around with the edge of the table a little bit, clearly wanting to ask something more, but apprehensive to breach the subject.

She looked over at him inquisitively, deciding to pick at the easiest part of his statement. "Why wouldn't there be any guarantee? It's right there on the map, isn't it?"

The second part of his statement, that which was absolute, was the part that she took the most issue with, and which she felt more uncertain about questioning. She couldn't leave the house with the cube. Period, end of discussion. He had told her so, with great vexation, the very first day they had met.

.... But even so, surely the house could make an exception? Surely this wasn't simply wishful thinking? The piece was so close, it was probably not even a few miles away. She wouldn't be flying to the other side of the world or across the universe, just around the neighborhood. Hardly even down the street. Well, forest.

"But still," She began to prod gently again, "Isn't there any way for me to leave the house with the cube? Surely I'm not the first person to ever step foot in here with a spooky artifact bound to them?" Her eyebrows lifted hopefully.

She refused to believe that there was absolutely no way for her to leave. Not until she heard him say it to her explicitly, and
not when her chance at fixing things was so close within reach.

 

[Peregrine]

"That map," Karl replied, blunt and disinterested. "Isn't some feuchten scheiss abyssal artifact detector. It doesn't know shit about what's where. All it knows is when magical energy is detected on a network. It might be the point where your soul connects to a fragment. It could just as easily be the network passing near some batshit old lady's hand-me-down rolling pin that makes cookies taste better."

The fact that there were so few points to register on the map would likely only serve to make the table more sensitive. Even a small fluctuation might register as a 'magical reaction' when the most visible points would still be nothing more than a faint blip on the radar. After all, the fragments of the cube were likely not filled with magic themselves, and would only be significant when combined with the cube Hana had dragged so gracelessly into his house.

Of course, unlike the waystone network that densely covered the entire world, Hana's soul was nowhere near so encompassing. The chances of it happening to overlap with some other magical artifact were not high, so his words could be considered an exaggeration. However, Karl's point still stood. Neither of them had ever spoken of probability, simply of guarantees.

Hana's second, gently probing question caused memories to rise unbidden in Karl's mind. A young Puritan woman appeared in his mind's eye, dark ahir secured under a simple white bonnet. Karl had found her starving in the woods, having run away from her town after being accused of witchcraft, since any plant she touched withered and died. Karl had brought her to the house to heal her, only to realize that she'd picked up a cursed Native American charm, which had burrowed its way into her body when she touched it.

There was no way he could ignore the similarities with this situation, especially not when the only harmless way to unbind it was with the blood of the person who'd cursed it in the first place. That naturally meant bringing her back out of the house, curse charm and all.

But Karl had no particular intention of regaling Hana with that particular tale. Not when it would likely only serve to make her more obnoxious.

"You're the first person to come in here with an incredibly dangerous artifact I can't successfully identify, that's for sure. Who knows what might suddenly cause it to react if it isn't safely kept here."

Swear Word Translations

"Feuchten scheiss" - "useless" - literally "wet shit" (German)

 

[Levy]

"Oh. That's true." Hana mumbled, glancing once more to the glowing dot with a mild frown. But since it was her soul network that the map was tapping into, she assumed it was much less dense than the waystone network Karl was talking about. Realistically, how likely was it really for the network to pick up random artifacts that weren't cube bits?

Truthfully, Hana didn't know. She could ask him to reiterate the actual likelihood of the matter, but honestly was she wasn't particularly hung up about it. It wasn't a guarantee. So what? If there was even the slightest chance that the magical reading was a piece of the cube, she would take it. It would eat her away inside if she turned away that possibility, regardless of how slight it was, and resigned herself to rot away in some room in Karl's house knowing that chance at beginning to fix things was only a few miles away.

Hana's ears perked at Karl's last statement, and her attention was immediately drawn back to him. "If it isn't safely kept here?" She leaned in slightly, the beginnings of a smile appearing on her face.

If. He said if! Meaning that theoretically, it was indeed possible to create a situation in which the cube is not being kept safely in the house. Which meant she could leave! Theoretically!

Of course, she felt a little badly about picking apart his words, but it wasn't as though he was being entirely helpful. Either purposefully or not, he did just completely dodge her second (and more important) question, which is something that up until this point, he's basically never done. Though, he did leave her a little nugget of implicit information at the tail end of his words, which she was greatly thankful for.

"So, there is a way, hypothetically, to take the cube outside? Right?" Hana's gaze darted back and forth between each of his eyes, eyebrows raising with delight. "Right? Please tell me I'm right?"

 

[Peregrine]

For an instant, as Hana stared at him with bright eyes, pestering voice filled with enthusiasm and excitement, Karl's teeth were bared into something resembling a snarl. However, his frustration was as much turned towards himself as it was towards Hana. He didn't want to deal with this girl and her incessant questions. He just wanted her to leave him alone, but one slip of the tongue was enough to set her off like a dog that had caught a scent.

"What? One word, and suddenly you're convinced there's a way for you and that schlemiel cube to go on your merry way? Ah, jot-gat-ne. You really think if there was a way that I could toss you out of this place I wouldn't have done so already? That, what, I'm leaving you here because I enjoy your incessant questions and constant disruptions so much? I wish you could just leave."

As for the possibility of lying to Hana, it never crossed Karl's mind. The behavior was ingrained in him just as deeply as his inherent cautiousness when he touched a magical artifact. You didn't lie about magic, because you never knew when your words might suddenly cause the situation to change from a deception to the outright truth. Even something as safe and stable as the protective wards around his house wasn't an exception.

Swear Word Translations

"Schlemiel" - "irredeemably useless, inept, or incompetent" (Yiddish)
"Jot-gat-ne" - "that's fucked up" - literally "it's like a penis" (Korean)

 

[Levy]

As Hana listened to him, her smile began to wane into something more resembling a pout. Finally, a bit of her enthusiasm had been punctured by Karl's discouraging tone, and frankly, hurtful words. Of course he wanted her to leave; he had made that abundantly clear whenever he had the chance. She did too—she almost never wanted to see him again if given the chance.

Hana understood that her presence in Karl's life had up until this point been nothing more than an intrusion, in all senses of the word. She had caused him plenty of grief with the adjustments he's had to make to both her and the cube's presence, so she didn't expect him to be considerate of her feelings, given the circumstances. But he wasn't the only one that was having to come to terms with something new and upsetting. Hana had been placed into an entirely new world of artifacts and magic and immortals in medias res, and more urgently, into an entirely new physical environment that was confusing and unfamiliar. And while she tried her best to navigate it with a curious heart and an open mind, she was having to do so completely alone.

Karl had decades, probably even centuries to become accustomed to being alone, whether or not he felt bothered by it. Hana had never in her life been more alone, nor felt more lonely than she did now. There was absolutely no one she could confide in, and the only person she could ask for help wanted nothing to do with her, however understandable that was.

Hana lifted the cube from the table and began picking at it softly, her eyes fixed to it.

"I don't want to be here just as much as you don't want me here." She said quietly, swallowing her frustration. "You don't have to care about my feelings, like at all, but I am the most confused and lost and alone that I've ever been in my life. This entire world is new to me—I didn't know what an artifact was until two weeks ago. I'm living in what amounts to a stranger's house, and as lovely as it is, it's unfamiliar and overwhelming and sometimes scary." She paused, glancing away for a moment, eyes glossed over.

"I'm not saying this to gain your pity or sympathy. It's just that, in this moment, the only person that I can ask for help is you. And that doesn't mean that you have to help me, but you should understand I'm not asking you questions and disrupting your life because I enjoy it. I'm trying my best to adjust to all of this as much as you are." She turned around for a moment to wipe her eyes and took a deep breath, before turning to face him again.

"Are you sure there's absolutely no way for me to leave at all? It doesn't have to be for good, though that would be nice, but even for a few hours?" She asked once more, her tone soft and tempered.

 

[Peregrine]

Whatever sympathy Karl had for Hana—for people in general, regardless of who they were—had long since been worn away by the passage of years. He never bothered to filter his thoughts, to consider what others thought about him. After all, at worst they'd be dead in another century.

He'd spent years after years, decades after decades, roaming the world in a desperate, misguided attempt to protect humanity from its sheer stupidity. At first it had felt like his responsibility, and he'd seen how he could make a difference. After some time, it had become a duty, something he did because he was the most suited for the job. Long after that, it had become simple habit. Who was he, and what would he do, if he wasn't the person who held the fine line between humanity's ambition and destruction?

The more his passion wore away, the more virulent he became. There was no way he'd bother to filter his words as he shunned Hana. She was an intruder in his life, but more than that, she was a constant reminder of the past he had abandoned, and why he'd abandoned it.

He hadn't been anticipating any particular reaction from her, hadn't even bothered to put in the effort to wonder, but judging from her previous behavior he would have expected her to run out of the room in tears and refuse to speak to him or even look at him for a few days, bringing this particular line of questioning to an end.

Perhaps that was the reason her apparent calmness caused him to pause for a moment. He'd seen her bubbly, surprised, scared, confused, and upset, but this was a reaction that couldn't be encapsulated in such a simple descriptor. He let her talk, his head shaking slightly as he massaged his temple. How much happier they both would have been if she could have gone anywhere else to try and find help.

"It doesn't matter whether or not there's a way for you to leave for a couple of hours, because it would require me to accompany you every step of the way," Karl finally stated. It was the very piece of information he'd been skirting around, because he knew what Hana would do with it. She could be like a dog with a bone once she heard it, never letting the matter drop. But unless he outright lied to her, which wasn't an option by his own rules, she'd never let it go anyways. "And I have no intention of doing so."

 

[Levy]

Hana sniffed and rubbed her eyes with her free hand, allowing him to respond to her questions. She felt a little badly about pouring her emotional baggage onto him all of a sudden like she did. She did definitely believe it wasn't his baggage to deal with, but would it really kill him to be a bit more considerate with his delivery in the first place?

Still, she had to acknowledge that while he didn't specifically address her emotions, he certainly gave her the space and the chance to speak, and answered her calmly and honestly, rather than dismissing all of it entirely or becoming frustrated with her again. It was one of the few times she was able to get past her initial defenses, and rather than bursting into a fit of anger and bitterness, she could express what she was feeling genuinely, gently, without spite.

Hana looked at him again and nodded, registering the new information he had given her. "But there is a way to leave, then?" She asked slowly, a little hesitant. "How would you bypass the house's rules? I know you won't come with me, but could you still walk me through what you would need to do to let us both leave, hypothetically?" She was mostly surprised that there was even a way for her to leave at all, or perhaps more so that he was willing to divulge that information to her.

Then again, in her experience Karl was nothing but honest and open—perhaps also blunt and disinterested—but he was willing to put up with most all of her questions and requests, no matter how trivial. After some of prying, of course, but in this moment she was simply curious about the mechanics of what he had just told her. How would it work? If there was a way to bypass the rule that she couldn't leave with a dangerous artifact, could there also be a way to bypass the rule that Karl had to come with?

 

[Peregrine]

"Hypothetically," Karl repeated, traces of sarcasm in his voice. Karl knew exactly what Hana wanted. She wanted to find a loophole, a mistake, something that would allow her to leave. And, frankly, he wished it existed. If she could leave, it would simplify all their lives.

Unfortunately, he had gone to great effort precisely to ensure that was impossible. He had brought people to this house before, and while they were mostly individuals he trusted or at least considered reasonable acquaintances, that didn't mean they couldn't fall to temptation. The last thing he wanted back then was to allow them to walk out with dangerous magical artifacts. And anything that came from the Abyss was automatically considered dangerous.

Letting out a long, slow sigh that was a growl as much as it was a breath, Karl began to speak. At least he could dissuade her of having any strange thoughts. "This house is designed to secure magical artifacts. Think of it like a magical vault, surrounded by a bubble that won't let anything pass. Ever. However, just like a poison can be used as a medicine in experienced hands, dangerous magical artifacts can sometimes prove useful in the right circumstances."

Although he'd set up many, many failsafes, Karl had great confidence in his own judgement when it came to magic. He knew what artifacts were too dangerous to ever take out of the house once he had them secure, and which ones might come in handy some day. There was no way he'd set up a system that would reduce his ability to make decisions, unless there was no choice without breaking something far more important.

Like letting out Abyssal artifacts forever just because he wanted to.

"This is my house. It may have autonomous functions, but ultimately it and I are intimately connected. Therefore, I can become a small bubble. With the correct procedure, I can transfer an artifact from being inside the house's bubble to inside my bubble. It still can't leave the bubble, but it can come with me if I leave the house."

And that's why there were no shortcuts or loopholes. After all, there was no way to get an artifact out of the house's magical field unless the entire field was permanently destroyed. All that was possible was to put it in a separate, smaller field for a period of time.

 

[Levy]

Hana listened carefully, pursing her lips as she thought about his explanation. The loophole that theoretically would allow her to leave the house in the first place stated that Karl and his bubble had to accompany her for the short time she would be gone. Of course there couldn't be another loophole to bypass the existing one. She let out a sigh of frustration, throwing her head up as she leaned back against the edge of the table.

Damn it. Why couldn't she have a bubble too? Couldn't she borrow Karl's bubble? Or scoop out a small bubble from the house's bubble? Why couldn't the house have a borrow-a-bubble policy?

Hana stared at the ceiling, eyebrows furrowed in defeat. She knew that wasn't how the bubble system worked, but she wished it was. It was carefully designed that way for the safekeeping of the artifacts and the security of the house, as it should be.

But god, now what was she going to do? The girl was fresh out of ideas. All the options that were previously apparent to her had been exhausted, and she was essentially back at square one, in an impenetrable fortress of doom with her only sliver of hope standing in front of her, wanting nothing to do with her and looking as dissatisfied as she was with the situation. She avoided his gaze, but began to speak.

"Okay. I understand." Her tone was soft, lips attempting to smile, as she turned to gather her things from the table. "That's okay." She spoke as though she were reassuring herself, and began walking towards the door, bag slung across her side, defeated.

It wasn't until she was halfway through the doorway that she paused, conflicted. She opened her mouth, glancing back at him for a moment, but before she could say anything, closed it once again. That was a request that Karl denied before she even had the chance to ask, and that was okay.

"Thank you for explaining everything to me. Not just about the bubble, but everything that you've taken the time to explain to me until now, and all the requests that you've honored, even if a few of them weren't by choice. You don't really have to humor me or my curiosity, but thank you for doing so anyway."

After a few more moments of lingering by the door frame, she shuffled away, leaving the door open behind her.

 

[Peregrine]

As soon as Karl finished his explanation, he mentally prepared himself for Hana to pry further, asking questions about the details of the system that he really couldn't be bothered to answer. Or, worse yet, the request he was almost certain was coming—could he go with her. That foolish question she had to know the answer to before she could even ask it.

And yet, watching the emotions that played across her face was like watching the collapse of an old building. The last support that was holding it up finally gave way, leaving nothing but ruin in its wake. He didn't say anything as she shuffled quietly over towards the door, causing the map on the table to once more revert to the scattered glowing marks of magical presences. Her shoulders were slumped, and the truth of the situation finally seemed to have crushed her never-ending optimism into dust.

She didn't ask.

Hana didn't ask Karl to solve this problem for her, and it felt like someone untied a knot in his chest that he hadn't even known was there. For the first time since Hana had gotten trapped in his house, Karl truly relaxed.

"I..." He didn't even know what he wanted to say. He wished she wasn't here, but it wasn't just because he didn't want her interrupting his life. It was also because there were other people out there, other groups who could have tried to solve her problem for her. Once upon a time, people like Hana were the ones who had made his work feel worthwhile, who had reminded him to keep going even when it had all seemed so futile. There was a reason the world itself loved people like her, and the heavens blessed them.

She deserved far better than to be trapped underground with an old bastard like him, and yet it was his house she'd forced her way into. Now there was no going back.

In the end, he could only settle on the simplest reply. "You're welcome."

When the door closed behind her, Karl leaned back against the table, letting out a slow breath, eyes fluttering closed for a moment. When he opened them again, he turned to stare at the glowing globe. The small pinpricks scattered across the map seemed to stare back at him. After several moments, he averted his gaze.

"Actiones secundum fidei," he muttered, before shaking his head. "It's useless. No girl is going to be able to change that."

---

It wasn't until partway through a solitary dinner that Karl finally acknowledged that there was no way Hana would let the matter rest forever. It was a conclusion he didn't really want to reach, but it was basically fact. She might not have asked for his help then, but she wasn't the kind to give up forever, either. If she couldn't leave the house on her own, then the only option left for her was to get him to accompany her.

At the very least, the matter seemed less frustrating when he had time to reach that conclusion on his own. It also gave him time to plan. He would have to counter anything she would say or suggest to persuade him to help, and only then would she fully let the matter drop.

After that, there was nothing to do but wait for the moment when she'd come find him again.

Swear Word Translations

"Actiones secundum fidei" - "Action follows beliefs" (Latin)

 

[Levy]

After shuffling back to her room, Hana settled into bed, too mentally exhausted to think about anything else. She simply stared at the wall, wordlessly, thoughtlessly, until she fell asleep, the only movement in the room being the soft rise and fall of her chest.

It wasn't until several hours later, deep into the night that Hana awoke in a state of hunger and grogginess, and subsequently clambered out of bed and into the kitchen. She hovered by the entrance for a few moments, deliberating what she wanted to eat for her ostensibly late dinner, before settling on something simple.

"Can I have… kimchi-jjigae, please?" She thought she would finally take Karl up on his offer to let his kitchen cook her traditional Korean dishes. What she requested was a classic comfort food, a stew made with kimchi, tofu and pork belly that tasted undeniably like unconditional love, which was something she thought the house embodied quite well.

Hana plopped into one of the chairs, pulling her knees close to her chest as she watched the kitchen prepare the dish. At that point, her brain could no longer ignore the matter of the cube, and the information she had wrestled out of Karl's mouth the day before. And the more she thought about it, the more conflicted she became.

Karl had, for some unexplained reason, given up his role as protector of magical artifacts and humanity alike. He'd spelled it out clearly for her time and time again, and the last however many decades he had spent in isolation, not giving so much as a thought to the rest of the world, was firm evidence. He had no reason to help her, a perfect stranger, with her artifact related issues, no matter how much she begged him to.

Yet there was the nagging need for her to also acknowledge that he wasn't even supposed to be a protector of any sort. He was supposed to be… bad. A villain plotting world domination, who would manipulate and cheat and lie to gain her trust. Perhaps he had lied? But the only reason she knew about his past in the first place were those journals, which she herself asked for, and which would've been impossible to fabricate on such a short notice. He didn't even seem particularly keen on gaining her trust in the first place, mainly because, to a small extent… she did trust him. Enough to basically put her life in his hands. In fact, it was her that he didn't trust.

But that was besides the point. The fact of the matter was: he didn't help people anymore. And she wanted to respect that, she did! She had even told herself that it was okay. But was it really?

No. It wasn't. Because she needed to find the fragments of the cube to fix it and restore it and unbind it from herself before she became cannon fodder for some vicious abysmal artifact. And she needed Karl to help her, because frankly, she wasn't sure if she had enough time left to go to scouring the world for some other magical genius-scholar-polymath to help her.

Hana was pulled out of her thoughts by the bowl of steaming kimchi stew that was drifting towards her, accompanied by utensils and a glass of water. She sighed.

"Thank you, house."

By the time she finished the meal, she'd just about made up her mind. There was no other way for her to survive aside from asking Karl for help, at least in this moment. The best she could do for herself was to somehow persuade him to accompany her outside to retrieve the first piece, and maybe more paths would open up for her then, and she wouldn't have to rely on him any further. But for now, this was all she could do.

The rest of the night she spent in her room, pacing up and down and talking to herself as she tried to formulate a modicum of a cogent argument. By the time the morning came around, she had built up just enough courage to grapple onto her tote bag and head out in search of Karl.

After rummaging around a few hallways, she heard the faint buzz of a projector and the static hum of a record player coming from one of the rooms, and she braced herself as she approached. Standing tall, she gave the door a small knock, pausing for a moment, before opening it to peer inside. She was greeted by a white room, lit only by the projection of what looked to be silent film on one of the walls, and the figure of Karl reclined onto the sofa on the far side of the room.