Chapter 132A Friend that Needs

Afentis and Faith were talking in the living room when I came in. Their conversation rang through the hall, into my ears as we walked closer. They did mention me a little, but it felt not like I was the main subject, just something mentioned as a base of reference. Nuru walked with me, walking arm in arm with me. To the outside it probably looked like normal friends.

"You really should be more careful, Faith. You have done things beyond your control."

"But I didn't mean for it to happen like this. I was just curious!"

Afentis laughed softly. "I know, but try and be a little more conscious of your actions."

Faith sounded reproachful, so nice how much you could hear in the timbre of someone's voice. "I will."

Nuru opened the door for me, guiding me through.

"Hey there" Faith's cheerful voice.

"Good eve, Amy." Afentis appeared to think. "Something wrong?"

No choice but to tell them. "I can't see."

Faith's reaction was exactly what I had expected. The intake of breath, the muffled sound of her hands in front of her gasp. It wasn't hard to imagine her looking with wide open eyes, not sure if or what to say. With Afentis it was hard to tell how he would respond. But there wasn't an intake of breath. In fact, the response he did give surprised me much more.

"So, it did happen." His soft voice sounding thoughtful.

Nuru kept quiet at my side. "Nuru told me I had a very... intense dream... The books in the room were all thrown around and apparently this overloaded my mind."

He nodded. "I've heard about it. I can't remember it ever happening to a vampire yet. It should fade away in a couple of hours."

I sighed. A few hours, I could live with that. The feeling that my sight would return gave me hope. The candle that had only burned with the tiniest of flames in the corner of my mind, flared up brightly, warming my soul. I felt a lot better.

"Thank you." I smiled. "What will we do tonight?"

Afentis spoke warmly. "I will bring the mold to a silversmith I know. He will make a good key of it without breaking the mold. I'm sorry you can't see it, but we'll pick it up together tomorrow evening."

I nodded. "Alright, then I want to go outside."

"Alright, I know just the place!" Faith sounded very cheerful.

"We'll have to walk though."

"Oh... that's right. Eh... Okay, we'll walk."

"You three have fun. I will depart to the silversmith." Afentis left the room, his footsteps in a very different rhythm then my own. The door closed behind him and left us in peace.

"Just follow me then." She opened another door and led the way outside through the main entrance.

Shapes. I saw everything in certain shapes. The sounds helped me discern where things were. Smells of iron, wood, stone and rain filled in details about their materials. My feet felt the shapes of the stones I walked on, flat while inside to the round stones of the courtyard and finally the gravel on the path to the castle.

Outside the air was filled with many subtle smells and sounds. Cars in the distance, almost so few that each one could be places. Closeby was the rustle of the tress, the smell of their leaves and the wet branches. In my mouth I could even taste the water in the air. It had rained yesterday. Like the rainbow that could appear after a rain in the sun, with all my senses, I picked up the whole spectrum of all around me.

The gravel turned into tarmac and then to sand and leaves. We walked into a very small forest, not far from the castle, that was between all the fields. The trees dampened a lot of the sounds from outside of the forest. Inside the forest, now that was where all the beauty was gathered.

We sat down, my fingers resting on the ground. Nuru behind me, holding me gently. My eyes closed themselves as I tried to focus more, it didn't matter, the blackness stayed but it made me feel better.

I saw...

The leaves on the ground, their playful texture tickling my fingers. Some drops on them, moss underneath. A whole collection of subtle sensations that rose up my arms to meet...

The taste of the air, the slight idea of dust and wood that you could almost make out. But it was a nice extra tingle that added to the rising composition that would intertwine with the next...

The smells of the forest, wood, birds, the people around me, each and every one of them their own particular smell. So strong now that it almost felt as if they had a color. Synesthesia, stronger and stronger as those impulses mixed and moved within the final layer.

The sound of the world. Each drop of water, falling from the leaves, each little blade of grass rustling in the wind. The crunch of the ground beneath the paws of a creature nearby. The sound of air, moved by the flapping wings of a bird in the sky.

For a moment I could see through all of it.

A picture I could never paint.