Soft and pillowy. My consciousness is slowly coming back and the first thing I feel is like heaven. And it smells so good.
Sniff sniff... Sniff sniff...
It's sweet and floral. With just a little bit of sweat. Ah... That's nice.
[Tiss] "Are you awake?"
[Wade?] "Hm?"
I fight to open my heavy eyelids, but I slowly manage it. Everything is blurry as they open. Above me I see darkness mostly. Then a blur of pink moves more into my vision. As my vision clears, I can see Tissela's pink hair swaying above me. She brushes it out of the way and looks me in the eyes.
[Tiss] "Thank the gods..."
A tear wells up in her eye, which she hurriedly turns her head away to wipe it.
[Wade?] "Miss me?"
[Tiss] "You wish. I just don't want your death on my conscience."
[Wade?] "Is that why you provided such a lovely pillow?"
I grin at her like a fool while teasing Tissela,, and her cheeks quickly grow red. She turns her head away to hide this and then suddenly stands up. My head is lifted but then falls when her thighs are no longer supporting me. And so my head smacks against the hard stone floor below.
[Wade?] "Fuck! That hurt!"
I roll around and hold my head in pain.
[Tiss] "That's what you get for saying something weird. Now get up, we're not exactly safe."
I force myself through the pain ringing through my skull and manage to stand up without complaint. I see that I'm standing on a dark stone floor. It's about 10 feet wide to the walls. The walls are the same kind of stone and are 10 feet. The ceiling above is made of the same kind of stone, 10 feet wide and perfectly flat just like the floor.
There are grooves in the floor. Perfect lines that go from wall to wall, continue up to the ceiling, then across the ceiling. The grooves are place in intervals of 10 feet. Each cube-shaped area has markings that I can't read place in the center of one of the walls, the floor or the ceiling. I can only see as far as the edge of the cube-shaped areas next to where Tissela and I are standing.
This place is actually rather dark. Or rather, light seems to be fluctuating. The edge of my vision extends just beyond the cube beside us, then retreats a bit. It's a bit nauseating.
[Wade?] "Got any idea where we are?"
[Tiss] "Not at all."
[Wade?] "Did we arrive right here?"
[Tiss] "Yeah. I wasn't going to lug you around so I stayed put. It's been maybe two hours since I woke up."
So she's just as confused as I am...
[Wade?] "Well then let's try to think about it. There might be something to the cube design."
[Tiss] "I noticed that earlier, but I don't exactly know what it has to do with anything."
I squat down to look at the marking on the floor.
[Wade?] "Do you know what this symbol means?"
[Tiss] "Can't you read? That's the numerical symbol for 6."
[Wade?] "Ah, yeah... I never learned to write so I guess that's my fault."
[Tiss] "Then just use Scan."
[Wade?] "I thought that it only works on objects and monsters."
[Tiss] "It works on lots of things. It's kind of like a hidden effect, I guess. You can learn the text in an instant with the skill. It doesn't teach someone to speak it and doesn't teach grammar rules. You can just read the characters and numbers of the text."
[Wade?] "Oh, please teach me many more things, Lady von Claus!"
[Tiss] "Don't get cheeky with me. You've called me Tissela until now and I've put up with it fine. Just stick with that."
Tissela turns her head away from me and pouts again. She's actually incredibly cute, especially when she's acting so tsun.
I reach my hand down and scan the number 6 on the ground. A rush of knowledge enters my mind suddenly, but I don't feel overwhelmed. I'm only stunned for about a second before I return to normal. But now when I look at the symbol on the ground, I understand it as a 6.
[Wade?] "This cube is marked with a 6. One of the cubes beside us says 4 on the ceiling. The other says 7 on a wall. Does that make any sense to you?"
[Tiss] "Not at all."
[Wade?] "Then how about we just try going into the next cube."
[Tiss] "Huh? No, wait-"
I completely ignore Tissela trying to stop me and step into the cube with the 7 marking on the wall. Nothing seems to happen to me at all. I turn around to tell Tissela that I'm fine, but when I see her, she's moving in super slow motion. Her arm is extend like she's trying to grab hold of me and pull me back. She's slowly pulling hand back now and her face is morphing into a look of confusion. So I walk back into the space where Tissela is. Our speeds seem to sync up as I enter the space.
[Wade?] "Well that was weird. You got like suuuuuuper slow."
[Tiss] "You were like really fast. From my perspective, you were only in there for two seconds at most."
[Wade?] "I feel like a dawdled around a little bit, though. Hmm..."
While thinking about how to proceed, I rub my chin a bit.
[Wade?] "Let's try going into the space together, then."
I walk to the edge of the space we're in together and hold out my hand to her. Tiss looks at my hand with disgust for just a second, but then sighs. Either she's tired of acting like she hates me or she's just resolving herself to hold Mr. Pervert's hand.
Either way, she grabs my hand and then stands beside me. Together, we take a step over the line and into the next cube with the 7. We still seem to be synced in speed.
[Wade?] "If we stay connected, then we can move at the same speed, it seems."
[Tiss] "Be grateful for this time, then. You get to hold a noble lady's hand even though you're just a random Nobody."
She turns her head away from me again, but I can see the shade of pink on her cheeks.
[Wade?] "Let's just walk like this for a while until we learn something new, okay?"
[Tiss] "Fine."