Naph found an incongruity.
"Huh?" He thought of the words just said by the staff member of The Outro Restro.
"Wait, Sevenren wasn't part of some kingdom! How come Extea is asking me to leave a kingdom?" His incredulous eyes questioned the authenticity of the messenger.
The wind wrestled with the intruded staff member's long hair. He had pretty long hair for a guy according to Naph.
He ran a hand through his hair, replying nonchalantly, "I don't know what happened where you and Extea were, but it wasn't even a minute after you two left that insurgents from Streno declared they have captured Sevenren."
Pointing towards Sevenren, the staff member continued, "And right now there's a revolution of some sorts."
Naph was taken aback by the sudden change in the history he knew. 'Did I just become a trigger for a war?' He panicked within.
"No, no, no, no! Not good! Not good!" Panicking, Naph scuttled circling a crater.
The long haired staff member coughed, "uh, Naph, I need to go. I do have people I want to check up on, but Extea wanted me to come here and I was the only one best equipped for this mechanical cycle of yours."
Naph and the staff member just stared at each other. Naph with his dumbfounded eyes, and the staff member's want to evade elicited his face brighter.
"He has a name!" Naph proclaimed.
"Yes, yes—the doom delivering paddler. I remember, I remember." The long haired one held up his arms in defense.
"Good." Scrubbing his face over such a small incongruity, Naph further questioned.
"What is the nation's reaction if any?"
He received an answer with another question, "you mean the nation of Southern Regda, or the nation of Thrysco?"
Naph clapped his hands. "Please tell me that Sevenren is not part of a four front war. Please."
He shut his eyes for a moment, "Tell me that Confederation of Tarna is doing something."
It was the long haired one's turn to rub his face in frustration. "Yes, yes."
Exhaling Naph requested, "And?"
"Confederation of Tarna has forsaken us. Streno has gained most streets, Thrysco is laying siege to half the outskirts, and Southern Regda has claimed the wealthier parts of the city." Even he felt lost to the tides of change.
Naph's bafflement reacted, "So, let me get this straight. Extea has magic, you have magic, Bulwark has magic, some random voice that keeps saying fascinati—"
The long haired one covered Naph's mouth in an instant, with his two fingers shoved into Naph's mouth, choking him. "Do not say that word. Not when they are so close."
Naph saw the long haired one's speed as the abnormal part of him. What rooted him back to reality weren't the two fingers but the hunted prey-like eyes of the staff member.
He nodded to the chokehold. Freeing his fingers, the long haired one continued, "yes, everything I said is true. Sevenren is beyond doomed, and walking back in as any kind of human means certain death."
The dead do not have any rights; it's the living who give them a right to honour. But do the living have any right in front of death?
Naph knew not the answer. His expertise dealt only with the dead, not with believes or philosophies.
He is a non-believer, as per his own understanding of himself. He kills only when he has a reason to.
The long haired one hadn't given him one yet. There was an incongruity he felt in his own reactions, how did Naph knew this guy wasn't going to kill him?
He had been seeing incongruity all over his day today.
The long haired one's eyes regained their colors after delivering that thought, a silence had followed it. Naph caught in his own thoughts, and the long haired one in his own melancholy born of nuances.
Naph settled down. "I guess then I'll wait."
Long haired one facepalmed himself.
Naph retorted, "What? Do you think I can survive getting hunted by four different nations?"
"Of course not." He received as the reply from the long haired one. "But you did go through the teleportation poles, didn't you? How many times?"
Naph inquired, "And why does that matter? And yes, I believe forty nine times."
The only listener of Naph was now in deep thought. After a couple of paces and moments later, he asked, "you said 'cata' every time?"
"Uh, yeah. Extea kept bugging me for it, and how did he keep arriving wherever I ended up?"
Naph didn't like the silence he received.
The staff member deeper in his thoughts forgot of Naph's existence and started wandering the battlefield they were in. Naph saw as the staff member scrutinized every single crater, contemplating something deep.
He stopped at one, turned back instantaneously and wretched out any bile he had.
"Oh, yes, do enjoy the mutilated corpse of Bulwark while you leave me in silence I should really count this bag in the meanwhile!" Naph quipped.
The long haired one retorted, "Naph, cut the crap. And load her into your ride you are taking her dead body."
The incredulous look Naph gave wasn't enough for his humour that he laughed aloud. Like the maniac he was after fighting Bulwark.
"Nah, nah. Bulwark can stay right where she is." His quick rejection flowed into a question, "now tell me why does the poles matter and why did I have to say 'cata' on each teleport?"
Naph's anger at the piling incongruities was at his limit. He had started considering attacking the staff member to get the answers.
He is a bounty collector, and bounties are like collecting knowledge out of the dead ones.
Here he will just have to be a bit more sophisticated.
"You know, you leak out too many thoughts. And you will be dead long before you approach me. As you did deduce I do have 'magic', but its not called that specifically."
The long haired one walked towards Naph continuing.
"You need to go and learn stuff and Extea is right on you leaving the continent. That is your best shot."
He looked down on the settled Naph. A hill always looked down on the ant that wished to climb it.
"As for why the poles matter? They are the reason for why three different nations are attacking Sevenren. They want complete access to that ancient caestre body."
He bent down and grabbed Naph by the collar of his neon jacket. Naph didn't even feel once when the long haired one had come closer to him or when he grabbed his jacket.
For Naph, only the voice of the long haired one was available. He just couldn't perceive into his reactions what he should be doing.
Naph questioned trying to gain his reactions back, "is this…some sort..of cata?"
"Good, you won't at least get killed fast. Get that immunity higher by sensing more and more, I just rattled you off using cata immersion on you." The long haired one answered first time.
He considered and decided. "As for your other questions, you having to say cata during each teleport was important to let that ancient caestre's 'magic' imbue into you."
Naph was about to ask but he got cut off.
"And no, you will learn of a better terminology on a dedicated institution later. Get. Out. Of. This. Continent. First."
He threw down Naph. "Extea really pulled one hell of a move with your existence."
"Ouch! And what is hell?" Naph requested through chattering teeth.
The long haired one didn't answer anything further. And pulled Naph up, and towards the corpse of Bulwark.
Naph kept becoming lonelier in this world. First, he was happy in the morning.
And now, after the last four hours, he is the loneliest he could be. Except he was always by himself before Sevenren too.
He remembered the times he had hunted rats in a desert. An incarnation of an infesting caestre, a simple job then.
He recalled of the beach he had visited to fish out a few fishes for some abnormal bounty in another ocean side city.
Every single memory of his flashed as he was dragged back to face his reason of loneliness today.
Standing above the crater where her corpse severed of its head lies, two boys in their late teens looked down.
One who knew the how, the other knew what it truly has caused.
The death of a single girl caused an incongruity in the history of this continent that will be remembered for days to come.
Both lowered themselves back into that shallow crater, picking her up. Naph following the long haired one's example.
Naph had mocked the girl on her deathbed. It was still too lonely for him that he ended up mocking and cracking jokes in the morning. His sense of humour always came when all his other traits knew not what to react.
However, this moment, he felt he was honouring Bulwark as the dead she was. He had covered her before.
Yet, at this moment, Naph and the long haired one had wrapped her better as the human she was. A girl of just 12 years in age.
Her life, and Naph's life both were an incongruity to the ordinary.