Chains rattled, eyes slowly lifted their curtains as light spilled into them.
Cale had awoken, his body stung, skull wrapped in bandages as his sight fell and scanned the unfamiliar.
The unknown ceiling made a brow rise, but he didn't focus on something that miscellaneous, instead.
Rattle!
Cale focused on the rattling of chains that bound him in place.
'Where the hell'
He groaned, attempting to lift himself, quickly dismissing the attempt afterward.
"Akh!"
As he did, his body burned at specific spots, stinging at the slightest motion.
Gazing at his burns, Cale noticed that most of them came from his left.
At his left, a small fireplace crackled slowly.
A door squeaked at his right, opening and standing across him was a boy, a deadly pale one with hollow cheeks and sunken dark circles that etched fatigue. Their expression kept its anonymity close.
Cale met the boy's thoughtful gaze.
Despite looking so much like a human, having limbs, eyes, mouth and flesh like one. Something deep inside of Cale refused to think of this boy as a human, just the mere thought disgusted him.
'Who...'
"It seems you have awoken?"
Their voice came low, not holding a care in the world of the stranger chained. It continued speaking.
"Weirdo, how come you're here?"
The young child tilted their head, genuinely curious.
Cale suppressed a frown when the words 'Weirdo' left the child's lips.
Despite the child earnestly asking, Cale didn't answer the boy, afraid of what will happen if he were to interact.
As though his mind was read, the boy's lips parted.
"If you are worried about the storiem sucking you in, don't bother. You're already inside"
They shrugged, cracking their knuckles as they probed a step.
'Ah-huh, so mind telling me what a storiem is first?'
Observing Cale's even more cautious expression, the child finally widened its eyes.
"Wait..."
It stopped, hand resting at the door they were about to close.
"Do you not know what a storiem is?"
The words came with disbelief, a student of Gardenia not knowing what a storiem is and entering said storiem? Many would jump at the question of how long he lived under a rock for a student to be this clueless.
It wondered whether the stranger chained was one of the people from the Bureau, but seeing how Cale held intelligence, it became sure that he was in fact a student of Gardenia.
Unbeknownst to the child, Cale had been left dead for over a month and resurrected due to a teacher who couldn't properly do their job.
Of course he wouldn't catch onto anything, there weren't any announcements that reached his ears.
Especially not the one where they specifically explained the rules of the practical exam in fine detail which, by surprise, also included very important information about storiems as a whole.
In the perspective of the young boy, it was like seeing a baby suddenly skydive out of nowhere into an active volcano.
"Haaa"
The child sighed deeply.
"I thought only your constitution was weird..."
Closing the door behind, it moved, wood floors creaking under the weight of light, unburdened steps, standing a few inches away from the face of the immobile Cale.
"A pleasure to meet you child of Gardenia, the name's Feigling. Feigling Erfinder"
It stated the name given by the mother that embraced its existence, despite knowing the child was cursed to strike a great misfortune on hers and everyone's lives.
"The place you currently are in is called a 'storiem', to swiftly enter one is by interacting with a resident of said storiem enough times"
Cale blinked, hairs standing on end at how readily Feigling gave information up.
Realizing that keeping his silence no longer held any meaning, he opened his mouth to address the child millimeters away from his face.
"Mind releasing me first?"
Chains rattled as he flicked his wrist a few times.
Feigling stayed unmoving, its gaze occasionally flickered toward the metal and then back toward Cale.
"I do mind"
Saying that, Feigling hopped onto the bed, taking in a better view of Cale.
"Why...Do you mind..?"
Cale's voice slurred when Feigling's weight pressed onto his lungs.
Feigling closed the distance between them even more, its once empty eyes swirled with newfound curiosity.
"Mother won't let me"
Answering flatly. Feigling rested a palm onto the chest of Cale.
Cale's heart beat slowly, despite the skin being burned, it didn't spike.
It remained steadily low and faint.
Feigling's brows furrowed at the body being toasted.
"What a curious body you house"
Pale fingers brushed against Cale's chest, tracing till reaching his skull.
"Not only has your soul shifted, your personality and nature is shifting alongside the change, like a wave forcing to rage because of a tsunami"
Feigling continued, not registering Cale's confusion.
"Your insight then shifted to the change along with it, turning weaker...."
Closing its eyes, they deduced only one possible thing for this massive change to occur.
"You died, didn't you? Resurrecting back into this world"
Cale, though his mind was baffled and frozen, his body wasn't.
It remained still as calm water, as if the words didn't faze it one bit. Surprising him just as much.
Cale caught a glimpse of change in Feigling's features.
'Envy?'
He thought it to be so, unsure if he saw right or wrong.
Not that it mattered now.
"Yeah, I died"
Cale said, the bed he was chained to creaked as the next words flowed out through the gaps.
"And came back"
Feigling stared at Cale longer, wanting to sear his appearance into its mind for an eternity.
"I see..."
Burnt wood crackled, as it did, Cale's body slightly jerked.
Feigling noticed. Flicking it's eyes at the burn marks.
"You don't like heat very much, do you?"
Cale nodded with a pained expression. Seeing no reason in deceiving.
"Do you even know why your body is like this?"
Cale shook his head to the sides, the sheets rustled slightly.
Feigling hopped off the bed, raising a hand, it pointed at its temple.
"It is the ego shard that is embedded into your very soul, or as humans like to call it"
Twisting on its heel, it stood opposite of Cale.
"A 'curse'"
The winds outside howled, coal whitened within the fireplace. Hearing the word curse didn't shake Cale as much as he thought it would.
Feigling continued to speak, drawing closer to the fire.
"While I don't know the name of the curse you have, I do know that it is likely permanent"
Cale narrowed his eyes specifically at the last sentence.
'Likely?'
Standing a few meters away from the fire, Feigling looked back at Cale.
"Curses that affect the body are usually permanent, in this case, your curse inverts a specific bodily need"
Which in of itself was quite rare in Gardenia, not many records of such cases are recorded in detail. Yet Feigling spoke with an air that knew more than the average.
A pale hand brushed over the fireplace, eyes reflecting its fire.
"Heat, in order to survive, you need the absence of it"
In other words, Cale was severely weak against fire, needing the cold to even function properly.
But this also meant one other thing.
"Because of that, you are also more susceptible to deadly diseases and the like"
Essentially a slow and painful death sentence that keeps on striking a trial on the immune system of a human.
And true to its name.
"That's it"
It was a curse through and through.
It didn't offer some benefit in strength or speed, nothing of the sort.
That was all it offered, making one's life miserable.
Cale, thinking that the source of his strength was the cold biting him fervently felt more lost than at the start.
'Why is my body so strong when cold then?'
The source of his strength lay elsewhere, not the curse. But if not the curse....Why was he being given a fighting chance?
Was it the afterlife? He still didn't know exactly what he gained passing the trials aside from the choker and resurrection.
For all he knew, he could have gotten a significant boost in power due to the trials he faced.
'Help me survive....'
His thoughts shifted to the merchant and her words that suggested that she knew a lot.
She didn't tell him anything about the shard.
'But what about Feigling? There's no way I'd get rejected twice, right?'
As his skin sizzled like a skewer, Cale spoke his mind away, wanting to grasp at any straw of information at the boy chatting away.
"Then why is this ego shard inside my soul? And how can I get it out?"
For the first time, Feigling's features contorted.
"Get out? There is no get out, unless you want to die again, that shard will forever stick to your mind, warping your body constantly until the day you die. As for why..."
Feigling began to walk toward the bed, hopping again onto the bed as it brought its face close to Cale.
"That shard is the only reason you are alive, it is the price someone must have paid for you for you to resurrect"
Spewing the words right at Cale's face with a raw tone.
"....!"
Feigling burrowed its head into Cale's chest.
Soft breaths trickled down.
"If that is all...Night..."
With a yawn, Feigling started to doze off fast.
"No....You can't be serious, right?"
At the lack of response, Cale winced.
"I'm not..."
As Feigling closed its eyes, falling asleep.
"A pillow...."
Cale, throughout the night, pondered on the bomb shells thrown onto his port.