The pulse and breathing I had been suppressing eased and returned to normal now that I was faced with another human being, a person I could touch and hear and understand. For a moment, I put my mind off the fact that we had parted ways on rather strained terms with each other. After a fit with an oversized serpent, I was ready to have a conversation with the most evil villain in the universe. Since I was relatively certain that Zorlo was not that person, the meeting almost made me faint with joy.

"Alright," I said, taking his words with a grain of salt. This was the same boy with an overactive naivety complex and an uncanny fondness for shoving pointed objects into people for the sake of enjoyment. Anything he said would probably be touched with at least a bit of wishful thinking.

The mention of an aura was confusing. It was one of the few words I had heard with recurring frequency throughout my travels, always without a clear meaning. Almost no one seemed to believe that it existed in fact, everyone believed that it existed as a theory, and a few stubborn nitwits were so certain of its existence that they made games with one another to fascinate easily-deceived people that they were honest. Mind games and riddles surrounded the word like a plague. I chose to avoid mentioning that to Zorlo, since he obviously believed it with some degree of fervor.

"You have my undivided attention, kid," I said, my awareness expanding to take him in a fuller view. It was an ability I had only developed recently, after my first battle with this man. It was part of what made me wonder about him, and especially about how true it was. Most of his body was covered in a layer of green light, the same shade as I had seen when I first walked into the hall, and he radiated a heat so fluid that I felt as if I were bathing in his presence. If that was aura, he had more than my attention. He had my interest.

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[Graphics by Me.]

[The signature links to Aleksandr Sokoll.]
["I believe in sleeping." ~ Bruce Lee]