Pov: Eiran
"Are you insane!?" Ael yelled.
"No, I'm actually more sane than I have ever been," I replied, my eyes finally meeting his. "Ael, it's already done."
In the back, I could hear a sigh. "How do we bring down the veil?" Amiel asked.
"Huh?" Eira said, looking at Amiel.
"Amiel..." Ael said.
"It seems like it's our only option, so what else can we do? Weren't you willing to make a pact just a minute ago?"
"Yeah, but..." Ael lingered on his words, not knowing what to say.
"Then it doesn't change anything." Amiel continued.
"You guys were just fighting over who should make the pact, and now you guys are acting like this," Eira spoke.
"The difference is that we now all have to give up our freedom." Ael continued.
"Then we are all on the same ship," Amiel replied, looking at Ael.
"You guys were fighting over who was going to make the pact?" My jaw dropped. "I mean, Ael, I'm not surprised, but Amiel?"
"Look, it wasn't anything big, I just thought if I did it, then we could get home quicker," Amiel said, turning away. Hearing that, for what felt like a long time, I chuckled.
'Does he actually have a heart?' I thought.
"How was forming a pact like?" Eira asked, eyes sparking.
'What the heck?'
"Oh, right, I'm Eira, or so I have been told."
"I know..." I chuckled awkwardly, "I gave you the name."
"You did?" She seemed surprised.
"Did you guys not tell her?" I looked at the other two.
Ael scratched the back of his neck, feeling awkward, "Well, we didn't have time to catch her up on everything."
I laughed a bit more, "I guess not." As they stared at me, I blinked a couple of times, recomposing myself, "To put it simply, it was painful."
"Painful?" Ael asked.
"Yeah, it was like my body was rebuilding itself but destroying itself at the same time. When I did create the pact, though, I got a class and different abilities."
"What type?" Ael questioned.
"Well, I can control light, believe it or not." Holding out my hand, an orb of light radiated from it. They seemed awed by it. "Fey also mentioned that my body was enhanced when I made the pact."
"Interesting." Ael put his hands to his chin.
"Just like those fantasy books I would read when I was younger," Amiel added.
"You read those?" I asked, surprised.
"What's with you and this bad image of me?" Amiel asked.
"Sorry, I didn't mean anything bad by it." I put my hands up in defense.
"So, are you going to answer my question?" Amiel leaned on the wall next to the door. "How do we take down the veil?"
"Oh! right." I replied, "We need to destroy the clock tower. When we do it, it should come down."
"The clock tower? How does that even happen?" Eira questioned.
"The veil is more of a boundary of the area that the time loop occurs in; the clock tower is what resets the week. If we destroy that, then we destroy the loop. As for how, well, Numen seems to have more effect than just on living things, supposedly. It can even affect non-living things, such as the clock tower. Well, that's what Fey told me. "
"Seems simple enough, but how are we going to get that done?" Eira looked at me, then the others.
"That I don't know."
---
It was the next day, and as we were walking to the clock tower to examine it for a way of breaking, Amiel led the group, and the rest of us were in the back. My body felt almost at a hundred percent, probably from the light absorption. It was slow, but it was better than before.
"Have you guys thought about what you will offer?" I stepped over rubble from collapsed buildings.
Ael tried to warm his hands by breathing into them. "Kind of, I have an idea."
"You do?" Eira asked, almost stumbling on the rubble. She catches herself by grabbing me.
"You okay?" I asked.
"You fall a lot, don't you?" Ael asked, chuckling.
"Yeah, I'm okay..." as she recomposed herself, she asked, "What are you planning on offering?"
"I'm going to keep that a secret for now." He put a finger up to his mouth, smiling.
"Aww, that's not nice..." I smiled, chuckling. She then turned towards Amiel, "How about you, do you have any idea?"
"Haven't thought about it much." He kept walking as he looked straight ahead. "And you, Eira?" Amiel asked, finally turning his head.
"No," She laughed. "I was asking you guys to see if I could get an idea. If I am giving away my freedom, I want to choose it for something I am willing to fight for. Just like Eirian."
Feeling embarrassed, I could feel my face blush. "You don't have to put it like that..."
"Wow, is someone feeling embarrassed?" Ael slapped my back.
"Shut up, I don't want to hear it from you right now." I snapped back.
Suddenly, we stopped, me bumping into Amiel. "Ouch, my bad." He turned towards me. "It's fine. Anyways, we are here."
"Being here is more daunting than I thought," Eira said. "Looking at it from the base, it looks huge."
"Yeah, how are we supposed even to bring this down?" Ael said. They all stood still, daunted by the clock tower.
Just then, I walked in front of everyone, meeting the tower.
'Fey did say I was stronger now.' I thought as I held out my fist. I reeled back my fist and punched the tower. The sound of me hitting the tower let out a bang, but the tower didn't falter.
"Whoa, didn't know you had that in you, Eirian," Amiel said.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch," I said, jumping up and down, grabbing my fist as I put it in between my knees.
Ael and Eira laughed. "How are you going to do that, all cool, then start screaming from the pain?" Ael said, pointing at me.
"Oh, shush," I said, as I stopped bouncing, still holding my hand.
"What was that?" Amiel said. "How much stronger did that pact make you?"
"A decent amount," I looked towards the tower, "but it looks like it's not enough to bring it down. It's going to be a lot harder than I thought."