Luminary Institute

101: A Father’s Care

Sleeping while enveloped in what felt like a warm soup created a great sleeping experience in Nyssa’s humble opinion. Everytime she began to stir and awaken, she felt the warmth beckon to her, letting her sleep a little longer. 

Only after a dozen-or-so cycles of awakening and sleeping did Nyssa return to the land of consciousness in full. She blinked her eyes open, floating in the air, greeted by an ever-changing landscape. 

Here again, how long has it been?

With the slightest thought, she began floating forward. The air around her rippled, like a viscous goo for a couple seconds before thinning out and returning to an air-like consistency. As she floated forward, everything changed by the passing second. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

One second, she stood on land, in a school setting dressed in clothes. In another second she laid in bed, floating off of it with the blankets in tow like a possessed character in a horror movie. Other times she began diving into the ocean head first, traveling downward. 

Along with it, creatures appeared and disappeared as fast as they came. Some seemed recognizable, the leopard, the lion, the dragon, while others came in a more abstract form: the square like blob, the glowing ripple, the exploding and collapsing sphere of spikes. 

When they appeared near her, Nyssa reached out, trying to touch it before it blinked back out of existence. If successful, they’d float a little further from the nudge, before following the inevitable path of recycling. 

Light wisps coalesced into faces, with each successive shift, the time between each change decreased, and before long, she couldn’t recognize the faces. First, Kaiser, her adoptive father, then Roxanne, then Slade, then Angelica, then Celeste, then the rest of Class Zero, then some upperclassmen, some friends of Roxanne, guildmates from her older siblings’ jobs, and then a blur. 

Sighing, Nyssa curled up into a ball, resorting to her tried and true strategy for escaping her own mental realm. 

Sleep, take me.

Her breaths evened out, vision darkened, and consciousness faded. 

---

Nyssa, while awakening, rolled over and became intimately aware of her bedside wall as her face slammed into it with a dull thud. The pain jolted her awake as she rolled back over, tugging the blankets over herself and basking in their warmth

Oh...

Home. I’m back. 

How did I get back? What... What was the last thing that happened again? 

Oh yeah, underground, powers, mental realm, sleep... 

How long has it been? I haven’t felt this rested in a long time.

In a rare filled-with-energy moment, she pushed herself upward, clambering out of bed as a grimace appeared on her face. Her arms, sluggish, pulled at her muscles as she used them, and her head felt like a bowling ball attached to a stick of a neck. 

Sat on the edge of her bed, she squeezed her eyes shut, opened them with a burst, and repeated the process for a couple minutes while massaging her face; in particular, her eyebrow area. Faint groans left her mouth as the heaviness persisted. 

She felt a tug from somewhere inside her, calling at her to just transform into a cat once more and scamper off, letting the pain heal another time. 

But I shouldn’t... 

Images of her past battle flickered across her vision. What remaining memories she had of the second half of battle—hazy as they were—appeared in her mind. 

A ball of flesh? Why was it that this time... 

Last time didn’t I just transform into a giant duck? And the time before that a giant cat? Where’s the messy ball of flesh with even gross-er flesh tentacles coming from... 

Still sitting on the edge of her bed, she kicked a small cat bed away while her gaze deepened. Then, seconds later, after a couple of coughs left her throat, she grabbed a cup of water sitting by her bedside and sipped it while staring towards the door. 

After a glance at the clock confirmed her suspicions about the sunlight flooding through the window—two in the afternoon—her eyes wandered between her backpack, the door, and her pillows. 

Two in the afternoon.... Two. Huh. Middle of the workday... unless it's a weekend? 

She downed the rest of her cup with one smooth motion. Deciding her pajamas would do well-enough for some in-house wandering, she, with a quiet grunt, hopped off her bed and left her room, keeping her momentum to ignore any and all thoughts calling her back to the land of dreams. 

Closing the door with a not-so-quiet click, she skated along the hallways with slow motions. Any faster and her head began to throb the rage of a thousand jackhammers. 

The first few doors she came across all had closed doors. The door for Roxanne’s room, Slade’s room, the storage closet filled with cleaning supplies, and the bathroom with weird lighting no one used except between the hours of one and five in the morning. 

The house seemed desolate. 

All the lights remained off, the windows not facing the backyard remained shut, and blinds drawn. Not a peep could be heard other than the faint sound of her breathing, her socks’ sliding sound, and the bamboo waterfall installation Kaiser had put in the backyard ten years prior. 

Slipping into the kitchen like an eel, Nyssa poured herself a cup of water, downed the entire thing, and poured herself another. Sipping the second at a more mild pace, she kept wandering, only pausing as she heard typing from Kaiser’s home office. 

“Hello?” Nyssa peeked her head into the doorway, cracking the door open. 

“Oh, hello,” Kaiser’s eyes widened as he pulled off a pair of headphones and turned to face Nyssa. His eyes softened as he beckoned her into the room. “How are you feeling?” 

“Am I interrupting your work? What day is it?” Nyssa plopped onto Kaiser’s lap, bringing back an action from her childhood. She faced the screen as he took the water from her hand and set it on the desk. “I can leave if you’re in the middle of something.” 

“No, not at all,” Kaiser smoothened out Nyssa’s long white hair. “It’s Wednesday, but I’ve just been working from home since you got back from your trip.” 

“Ah... sorry about that,” Nyssa closed her eyes, enjoying the warmth from Kaiser’s hands. “I messed up during our trip and lost control.” 

“It’s okay, I expected that to happen when you signed up for the academy,” Kaiser reassured, motioning for Nyssa to continue water. “Your throat is still a little hoarse, have a little more. Though I didn’t expect it to happen in a situation like that. It did lead to me scolding Angelica a little for her unsafe conduct, her teaching style is effective, but it certainly leads to some dangers...” 

“I don’t mind it, I like her a lot as a teacher, and I’m learning...” Nyssa sipped her water. “Sorry to bother you with all of this though...” 

“As long as you’re having fun, learning, and staying safe, I couldn’t ask for more,” Kaiser smiled, moving the mouse around a few times to keep his computer awake. “Want to take a look at what I'm doing then? While you’re here.” 

“Sure,” Nyssa’s eyes brightened as she shifted her position to let Kaiser have a better view of the screen.