Air swooping slowly into their lungs, even if Naph and Neva didn't need it. Simply because air within their lungs were not taken or ripped out of them just because they teleported, but it did not stop the winds around them to have them breath it in.
Even if they were not anymore in the same hut as before.
As the twisting spirals of the light subsided, something deeply ingrained within him, within his identity and personality clicked.
"Why did I agree to blindly follow you?!" Naph blurted out to Neva, grabbing on to the young girl's elbow. "Why didn't I question you?"
The grating scrape of the syllables as sound rubbed against Anaphol's mental image of himself the way he did not recognize he had one of himself in a proper sense. He himself in truth never knew what does a 'mental image of the self' even means.
Yet, its effect or presence within him being affected by something else, something he did not understand, made him challenge the one his mind readily pinned as the culprit. His grip on Neva's elbow tightened.
Neva's upgaze at him carried not some mere subtle meanings but ones that screamed out. She did not say a single word. Her eyes conveyed a lot.
Nonetheless, Naph's grip remained as it is. So, he asked again. "Why did I agree?" Within him, came another thought which rose so harshly as if it had stayed deep within for longer than he knew it. And the thought was retroactively one he should have asked way earlier.
'Why did I agree to the proposal that I never even got to tell about completely?'
With the next winds that caressed both, came the sounds of light gossips becoming stronger and sharper. People were moving towards the hut.
Neva grabbed on Anaphol's hand on her elbow, sneaking a finger under his palm and tried to force it out open.
Naph turned to look in the direction of the arriving gossip, the slope was downhill and clouded with a mist. A mist that seemed too odd to be here, according to him, as he thought, 'aren't we still at the same height as previous hut?'
Her fingers dove more in into the gap her first finger made.
"You can try." He turned his eyes back on her. "But, I'll let go after you answer." His grip tightened again, the gap made became tighter for Neva to wriggle her fingers even.
"Because you needed it!" She blurted out.
"I needed it, but that does not change th-"
"The Great Hall of the Palace has something that brings out the questioned ones needs or desires to be proclaimed with their internal acceptance of the truth." She answered finally a single sentence that she read in her father's letter to her and her siblings.
Naph's brows furrowed but he did let go. The gossip was loud enough, and for the first time he felt a gaze on him from that particular direction. 'So, not all can hide that gaze effect.'
"You'll tell me more as and when I ask." It was his command, but what he did not expect as a response wasn't a simple defiance of 'no.'
"As a stand-in Host representing the empire, I still have rights." Her eyes darkened. "So, choose wisely when you want to ask that." Her lips spread along to form a smile.
A simple and elegant smile.
"Don't be non-sensical! In no way did the insurgents from last revolt survived the purge!" Said a student walking long with his group going towards the hut Naph and Neva came out of. Yet, the gossip Naph heard wasn't in Reswa so he did not understand a bit about a purge or insurgents.
Only one thing that he understood is that those eight students were too engaged within themselves. And that a random gaze at times fell on him from among the eight.
Neva began walking to the eight, speaking in fluent Reswa she asked. "Are you all also going to the top? For the lesio of flight."
Three out of the eight turned to her with a confused expression, while the other five simply gave her a glance but then continued their conversation as if she does not exist. Why would seniors stuck on this lesio give any recognition to their juniors?
Not letting it go, she asked again. This time in a language called Firtru, a widespread one in the region all eight shared the accent of. None were talking in Firtru, but all stopped and said one word in Reswa.
"Damn!"
A boy from behind the first four called out, "Where did you learn it so good?"
Hearing him speaking Reswa, she demanded, "While I'll love to answer to all you sirs and ma'ams, I, as a stand-in host of the Guest of the Keyriftrian Empire, needs your help to get to-"
A girl on her right pitched in, "You had us at existing." The rest snickered, with Neva hearing it was a bit confused but she realized what the girl meant.
"So, you guys flirt with underage here?" Naph pitched in too. "Classic."
Grabbing Neva's left shoulder, "Just tell me the direction, I'll find a way." His words were for Neva, but his gaze did not leave the eight.
"You or the other eight don't have to," came a voice from behind. One that didn't demand respect, it was a decision already made for them. This was what his voice carried within itself.
Turning to face an older boy with a beard beginning its arrival in his life. "Neva Verticia and Anaphol, please wait here while the rest from below teleportation centers arrive." His gaze leaving the two to the eight behind, "The same applies to Ransik Hermen, Waqhi Furne, Bob Lan, Simponer, Horonch Hilda, Jinn Ergina, Kingly Senva, and Goidrly Run."
Naph folded his arms and waited with his stare deep into the young adult's eyes. Neva too turned and witnessing a futile stare down between the two began her saving the situation operation.
"Excuse me, but could we know who you are and why you ask of us to wait?"
The older boy staring into Anaphol's eyes answered, "I am Professor Rhiwa's teaching assistant. The same professor assigned for teaching the lesio of flight this year."
While Naph did hear the last three sentences in Reswa, in truth only one was spoken in pure Reswa. The one by Neva was in as fluent as she understood the nuances of Reswa, while the other two were lesio translated by the young adult.
Irrespective of this, Anaphol did hear like a silent, whispering echo coming from a shore afar with each word the young adult had spoken. 'What?'
"And why would we?" asked Bob Lan, standing a few steps behind Neva on her right.
"Because teleporting above this hut has been stopped for this class, and," breaking the stare down, "right here would the class's pre-preparation will begin."
Locking his eyes back on Anaphol, Professor Rhiwa's teaching assistant quietly commanded, "And Anaphol please respect the host. That's a warning as well." Taking a breath, he continued, "And for when you asked 'why didn't you question her'," he nodded to Neva, "that's because there are still some lingering effects on this ancient caestre. One of them is being diligently following."
Steps echoed from behind of tens of students.