Tale Of The Half-Blood Wizard

"My advice is just wait because I am sure they will bring you back to your world before three days end," He said casually while I froze at my place. "Now do you understand why I asked you to come back immediately?" He asked. 

I did not reply, but asked back, "Are you telling the truth?" I panicked so that I could not think properly. 

"Yes, I am. The Manjis won't let go of someone who has the ability to see fire lilies," He replied. "Do you know why they will not let you go? It is because the eyes of yours are their eyes too. With your eyes, they can see the world." He added. 

"You may ask how the Manjis came to give you aid right on time and know your condition, it is because they also saw what you saw. You are a pair of their eyes with three different bodies." He continued, "They still can see without you but I can guarantee that their eyesight is not as good as when you are alive." This was something I did not know. No one ever told me this. 

I had taken a very reckless decision without thinking over the impacts and the consequences I might face. I took a moment to think it through before asking, "What should I do to keep Naar alive? And for me not to be a wandering spirit, or even going back there, either? 

Charon was silent. He stared at me without blinking, until I felt someone pull my hand away from him. 

"THA, HOW CAN YOU STILL BE THAT SELFISH?!" I flinched to hear his outrageous voice. "Why do you badly want to go to the spirit world? Is there anything in particular that makes you interested in going there? Say it!" He was so outrageous and his gaze was so intimidating.

My guts shrunk a little, but I had to say it to make him understand. "I have no reason to be there anymore," My voice was trembling, "You have gone and I don't want to face another loss twice. I can't bear to live while my soul is already dead," I sounded frustrated. 

A shocked expression was suddenly replaced with a gentle look. He smiled at me gently and asked me to follow him to the bank of River Mother. I followed him without any words. 

The strains of traditional music and dances of the spirits while waiting to be crossed to the underworld swallowed all the quarrels between us a minute ago. Charon rowed the black boat slowly with a light resembling an oil lamp with a flame. Two people sat behind him, chatting and laughing occasionally. Melodious verses of a storytelling a love story were coming along with the moving boat. It might be a story of farewell. 

"I thought it would be Lichens that would take me to Kerberos place, but it is Charon." I said. 

"Don't you know the death process is not as easy as  when you are separated from your body?" Zie looked at me gently. 

At this time, I saw many different sides and different nature of him back then when I only saw him and always smiled at me. "1-3 days after someone dies, he is still at home, looking at his own sleeping body and very confused how he can see himself, asking all his family members what has happened, but no one will answer," He explained. 

"Is that the reason Mr. Oka made that cake?" I was curious. 

"Yes, so that the spirits forget the bad things," He answered, "4-39 days of death, the spirit will roam around the house, but he can't get inside. There is some kind of barrier that keeps him outside. At first he was only in the yard, but over time he will be kept away from where he lives for life," I was just silent listening to Zie's explanation. 

"And lastly, 40-99 days after he died, he spirit will only see his house from a distance and on the day 100th, Oka will send an invitation for a banquet with food he makes. If he is a child, a dog will be sent to guide him, then Lichens will send him to Kerberos' place." He added. 

Zie explained all those things seriously, while I just wanted to hear his voice instead of paying attention to his words. I knew when I got back to where I belonged, I would not hear his voice anymore. "Do you get it, Tha?" he asked me. 

I shook my head, "I just want to hear your voice, brother. When I get back to my world, I can't hear it anymore," I confessed. 

A light blow flew on my head. "Shit!" I cursed slowly. 

"I rambled on at that length for you to understand but you just don't, only paying attention to my voice?!" His expression was disbelief. Then, he laughed. I was so embarrassed. 

… 

Zie took my bike and asked to get on it. He said he would take me to ride it so  I didn't waste my chance. Sitting at the back with my hands gripping the sides of his shirt. The bike was speeding in the middle of the dry and sandy road. Plumes of dust rose into the air with the rapidly spinning wheels. We would not sleep tonight.

"Tha, where do you want to go? I'll take this bike, even to the ends of this world." He spoke as if he had just been contracted by Erick's virus. 

"There's no way my bike can make it. It is such too much crap!" I said mockingly, then chuckled remembering Emma's words. "brother, be careful! I'm looking for—" I spread my arms and shouted, "PICKLES!" Zie laughed after hearing me say the curse. 

Zie suddenly pulled the brake. Then he dropped the bike right after I got off. We stopped in front of a shop not far from our academy. "Oppss….how sadistic you are, brother," I checked the dent on the basket of my bike. 

"Sorry," He replied, grinning. "Wait a minute here," He added, then walked into the shop. 

I was surprised when Zie came out of the shop with so many sandwiches in his hand. "Please bring the boxes of milk and candy I bought," He said before he left the shop with a salesman following him. "You have money with you, don't you?" He asked, half whispering. 

I looked at him, annoyed. "You are not mocking me, aren't you?" I asked back. Then hit his arm out of annoyance. "How can I have money?" I replied curtly.

Zie smiled, showing off his fine teeth. Then he rubbed his palms together and blew it lightly. I was awed when a few bills came out of his hands. "I am a wizard, almost forgot that," he said in a silly way, then chuckled. Hurriedly he went inside the shop to pay for all his shopping stuff, while I was just looking at him bewildered and annoyed. 

"Brother?." Zie turned around with a mouth full of bread. He picked up the bike which was lying on the ground pathetically. "Do you think that the number of demon children increases apart from Ery?" I asked him, then I sat in the back seat. 

"Whoop?," his words were incoherent because his mouth was still chewing bread. 

"The one who is riding with me" The bike suddenly stumbled. We almost fell. He was almost choking on the bread in his mouth while still chewing. I laughed at his expression. 

We went to a park not far from the marionette shows. Sitting on the grass as our mat, we enjoyed the loot or the sandwiches, milk, and candy Zie bought with money from nowhere with his magic. 

"Are we really going to finish all this food?" I started to take one sandwich and looked at it. Meanwhile, Zie just laughed. Perhaps he was laughing at our stupidity and mischief today. 

We were engrossed in chewing the bread. "Tomorrow I'm going to skip school," Suddenly Zie spoke up. That made him choke. He took some milk in the box that he bought so unusually too much for only the two of us. 

I put down the bread that was half-eaten and then turned to my arm which was slowly getting transparent. I knew I had to go back as soon as possible and this made my appetite go away. I knew that our naughtiness today was to deceive ourselves that we the next day had to be parted, somehow. 

"Is tomorrow the time?" My voice was soft but it was enough to stop him from chewing the sandwich. 

His expression changed too. He nodded instead of saying anything and swallowed the remaining food in his mouth. "Before three pm we have to be by the river. Charon will take you cross. When in the boat just do what he asks you to do, don't argue with him." Zie said softly. 

"Even when you get back to your place, don't blame or scold the Manjis, no matter how upset you are.. Remember, they don't want you to go. I do understand how they feel," He added