Stupid, stupid, stupid! Fa'Lina felt tempted to smack her forehead. All the oddities she had noticed suddenly made sense. No pictures or fancy wallpaper styles since he can't see them anyway. And he never figured out that his fur doesn't match the fur of his parents because nobody ever told him! And of course, he has no reason for curious glances, either. She let out a sigh. "Sorry, it's just that nobody told me about that..."
Kitzi shrugged. "It's okay. I actually told my parents not to rub it into the face of every guest. It always made me feel like some sort of cripple who needs special treatment."
"Hm... makes sense, I guess," Fa'Lina admitted. "Since when have you been... I mean, since when can't you-"
"Blind. The word is 'blind'. It's not a bad word, so you don't have to find a nice euphemism for it." Kitzi gave her a hint of a smile. "And to answer your question, I've been blind all my life."
Fa'Lina frowned deeply. "Oh, I'm sorr-"
"Don't," Kitzi quickly interrupted her. "Don't say you're sorry." He sighed loudly. "That's what everybody says, and then they go on to say how much it must suck to be me because there is oh-so-much I can't see."
"You sound bitter."
"I'm not... Not really, at least. It's just that I don't feel that I'm really missing anything. I don't know what it's like to actually see stuff, so how should I miss it?"
She cocked her head. "But you do know that others can experience more than you can."
"True, true. But I grew up without sight, and I learned to live with it. So the others are really just experiencing more. I'm not experiencing less." He hesitated. "If that makes any sense..."
"It's certainly an interesting way of dealing with things," Fa'Lina admitted.
"You're tall, aren't you?" Kitzi suddenly changed the subject, adjusting his posture a bit to face her better. "What kind of dog gets that tall? Labrador, maybe?"
Fa'Lina chuckled. "Poodle, but my height isn't a racial thing."
"Good thing, too," Kifo muttered. "Imagine if all poodles were-"
"Who is that?" Kitzi shouted and took a few quick steps backwards. "I didn't hear anybody else coming in!"
"It's okay, Kitzi!" Fa'Lina quickly assured the startled fox. "That was just Kifo. It's my Warp-Aci."
"Warp-what?" Kitzi asked and raised an eyebrow.
Fa'Lina didn't need to read his emotions to be able to tell that he was distressed. "Warp-Aci. They're small creatures, just the size of your head. We use them for transportation."
Kitzi opened and closed his mouth. "...you ride on such a tiny creature?" he finally asked, trying to hide his silly grin.
"Ch-Ya! In her non-existent dreams!" Kifo hopped off Fa'Lina's shoulder and floated around Kitzi's head. "Let's just hope you didn't give her any ideas, budd-HEY!" The Warp-Aci snapped when Kitzi snatched it out of the air.
"You... float?" the Incubus asked, paying no attention to Kifo's struggles.
"How VERY observant of you!" Kifo remarked, not even trying to keep the sarcasm out of its voice.
Kitzi shook the Warp-Aci experimentally, marvelling at its weight. Or rather: At the lack of weight. "How do you transport anything? Surely not by lifting it..."
If Kifo had had teeth, it would have given Kitzi a toothy grin. "Oh... would you like to find it out...?" it asked, its tail twitching in anticipation.
"Kifo, NO," Fa'Lina growled. She didn't think that the Warp-Aci would actually teleport Kitzi to some remote location, but she also knew that it had a fairly odd sense of humor. "Kifo is a Warp-Aci. You know... a WARP-Aci. Take a guess how it transports people."
"...oh. OH." Kitzi quickly let go of the black creature. "...how?" he finally asked, making her groan.
We should be talking about the Cubi race, not about the way a Warp-Aci works! Fa'Lina thought and rubbed her temples, thankful for Kitzi's inability to see the gesture. "Long story short: It can cut a hole into the dimensional fabric, thus relocating everybody in a certain area."
Kitzi blinked. Then he blinked again, for good measure. "Please tell me you're kidding," he finally said.
"I'm not." Fa'Lina sighed. "But I didn't come here to talk about dimensional travel," she hinted.
"Errrr, right! Right!" Kitzi hesitated briefly. "Sorry, I sometimes get a bit carried away. There... there's a seat at my desk." He silently moved his lips, as if mentally going down a list. "Oh, right! Can I offer you anything?"
Fa'Lina chuckled and grabbed the wooden chair. "No, thanks. Your current output is enough to feed half a Clan." She carefully watched his reaction.
Kitzi froze on his way to the bed. "My current... output?" he finally asked. Then he briefly sniffed the robe he was wearing, causing Fa'Lina to laugh. "It's not that bad..."
"No, silly, I'm talking about emotions," she told him as she sat down on the chair.
"This... sounds like girl talk," Kitzi said, frowning lightly. "I must warn you, I never really understood-"
"No," the Succubus interrupted him, "it's not girl talk. It's about Cubi traits and abilities. And I think you should at least know about the most important ones now that you are a Cubi who is slowly coming into power."
"Is one of those abilities the ability to turn off mindreading? I wouldn't even mind hearing the voices, but the background noise is giving me a headache."
Background noise? There shouldn't be any sort of noise, not even for an inexperienced Cubi... Fa'Lina frowned. "I can put a shield on you," she offered and got up. "It will only be a temporary fix, but it should do the trick for the moment." She walked over to him and placed a hand on his head. "Hold still for a moment," she whispered and closed her eyes, letting the magic flow. "Better?" she asked after a few seconds.
Kitzi cocked his head, his ears twitching lightly. "Much better!" he finally told her and smiled widely. "Thank you kindly, the noise was driving me mad..."
Again with the noise, Fa'Lina thought. I should ask Ink about that later. "It's okay. You will have to learn how to control your mindreading soon, though. Not even to mention your other abilities..."
"What abilities? Other than mindreading and having more wings than I need, of course." With the distraction of the constantly-running mindreading gone, the boy seemed much more focused.
"Well, let's see," Fa'Lina replied, sitting down on the chair again. "Cubi can 'eat' emotions. The feelings and emotions of others supply us with energy, just like regular food does. This also means that, given a steady supply of emotions, Cubi don't need to eat regular food anymore."
"That... sounds kinda creepy," Kitzi admitted, not looking overly thrilled. "Reminds me of those vampire stories I heard when I was younger."
"In a way, yes. But this is mostly a passive ability, so you are not 'draining your victim' or anything. Emotions are just floating around, and we have the ability to convert them to energy." Fa'Lina decided not to mention the more... active version of this feeding process for the time being. He doesn't strike me as the type who will be happy to learn that he can eat somebody's soul...
"That doesn't sound too bad..." the Incubus scratched his head. "So I'm doing it right now? Or would I feel something special?"
"Well, are you hungry?" Fa'Lina asked.
"Not really," Kitzi said and frowned. "Come to think of it, I think I missed lunch today..."
Fa'Lina smiled. "Then I guess you're doing it already. See? Not creepy at all."
"I guess..." The fox was silent for a while. Fa'Lina waited patiently, knowing that it would take him a while to fully accept all of this. "Fa'Lina?" He finally asked. "Why are you here?"
"Would you believe that I just happened to be in the neighborhood?" she asked him back.
Kitzi gave her a look - quite a feat for somebody who couldn't look at anything. "No, I don't really think I would."
The poodle chuckled. "Very well then, how about this? There is a Succubus living in the other village. She told me that there is a stray Incubus in this village."
"That explains how you ended up here, but not why. And no, I won't believe that you just came by to cure me of my headache."
"Straight to the point, eh?" Fa'Lina smirked. "Sooner or later, you will discover the full range of your abilities. And then, two things may happen. Either you harm or even kill a villager by accident because you can't properly control your powers, or the villagers realize that you are an Incubus and organize a hunting party." She watched the boy's jaw drop. "Either way, things won't be pretty if you stay around here like this."
Kitzi's headwings fluttered nervously while he licked his lips. "So... you're telling me that I have to flee?"
"I'm telling you that you should go to a school where you have the chance to develop your powers. It will take a while, but you will be able to live in peace among other Cubi."
"Take a while?" Kitzi asked and started to pace. "I'm 20 already, and I haven't even studied for a job. If I spend a few years in some school just to get my body under control, I'll be almost too old to actually earn some money to start my own family!"
"I... wouldn't worry about that," Fa'Lina replied carefully.
Kitzi stopped pacing. "...why not?"
Fa'Lina took a deep breath. "The maximum age of a Cubi is... somewhat higher than that of a regular Being." When Kitzi didn't ask the obvious question, she sighed. "Our average lifespan is in the area of three thousand years, give or take a few millennia."
"Three THOUSAND years?" Kitzi shuddered visibly and stumbled back to his bed. He sat down and buried his head in his hands. "Three millennia or more... my God... I think the village was built only a few hundred years ago... I'll outlive... well, anybody here. And the generation after that. And the generation after that." He shook his head in disbelief.
For a few minutes, neither of them spoke. Eventually, Kitzi sighed deeply. "I really can't stay here, can I?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper.
"Not for long," Fa'Lina replied calmly. "If it was up to me, I would tell you to start packing before some of the more... noticeable powers kick in."
The fox nodded slowly. "You mentioned a school..."
"Yes. SAIA is one of a kind, built in a location-"
"Say-what-a?" Kitzi interrupted her and cocked his head.
"SAIA. S-A-I-A. Short for 'Succubus And Incubus Academy'."
"A school for... people like me?"
"Exactly," Fa'Lina said and nodded. "It's a safe haven, completely out of the reach of Beings."
"Does that mean... that my parents won't be able to visit me? Or even to write me?"
"It's a necessity. Once you enter SAIA, you will lose contact with the outside world for a good while." Noticing his deep frown, she added, "It's for your own good, Kitzi. You have never felt the wrath of xenophobia, and for that, I envy you. People out there hate us. They fear us. If I opened a path to SAIA, adventurers would immediately start to organize a raid."
"How long would my stay there last?" Kitzi asked, trying to hide his frustration.
"That depends on what you choose to specialize in. We offer more than just basic survival skills, and all students are encouraged to pursue their personal goals."
A sigh. "How long?"
"At least a few years, maybe a decade or two," Fa'Lina told him. "And that's just to learn the bare minimum, like keeping your powers under full control over long periods of time and blending in so people don't notice that you're an Incubus."
"Ten or twenty years," he whispered and shook his head. "Does every Cubi have to make such a decision so quickly?"
"Most Cubi grow up in their Clans, among other Cubi. They don't have to worry about being different, and they receive training and information all the time. Going to SAIA is just advanced training for them. Your case is special, since we don't even know what Clan you belong to or how you ended up here."
The fox nodded slowly. "Fine... What's the plan?"
Fa'Lina smiled. "I suggest you spend the rest of the day with your family. Maybe catch up with some of your history. Then, tonight, you pack your things. No need for much clothing, just whatever small personal items you might miss, and things you'd need in a school if it's something special. No need to buy anything, we're well equipped." She gave Kifo a look. "Tomorrow around noon, I'll send Kifo into your room to pick you up. Is that okay with you?"
After taking a deep breath, Kitzi nodded. "Yes... yes, I think so. I didn't have other plans, anyway. And there's not too much I need to pack."
"Excellent!" Fa'Lina exclaimed. "I'll have a quick talk with your parents, and then I'll head back to the Academy. I'll see you tomorrow, then!"
"I guess you will!" Kitzi replied with a smirk, making Fa'Lina laugh. He stood there as Fa'Lina left the room and walked down the stairs. "Emotional energy... still sounds like girl talk to me..." he finally muttered and shrugged.
---
Author's Notes:
- Thanks to llearch for beta-reading this! He caught a few things I totally would've missed :)
- Much exposition in this chapter - I hope I didn't bore people to death. ^^;
- I had way too much fun writing some of the Kitzi/Fa'Lina exchanges.
- The same applies to the mental images I had when I considered Fa'Lina riding on a Warp-Aci.