Lilith looked at the pair in disbelief. Tianna, the shy little girl who spoke to no one, was now with this strange man as if they were having a long-awaited reunion.
Even she, who spent the most time with the group of children, took months to even talk to her; hell, even the children who consider themselves her friends couldn't speak to her comfortably.
'yet here they are.'
Lilith sighed before walking to Adam. "We'll be leaving in an hour. I'd recommend you use this time to spend time with the children or read some books."
He nodded and smiled, placing Tianna down. For a moment, his golden eyes became washed with a silver sheen, his gaze turning inhuman, distant, and eerie.
A soft, dark fog rolled in. Distant laughter and screams echoed.
A shiver ran down Lilith's spine, a silent terror overtaking her. The world went dark, and the ambiance felt extremely wrong, broken even. Several, infinitely small treads cocooned her, penetrating her soul, violating her very core. She was frozen, unable to move.
"I'll read for a while."
Adam's voice shattered the illusion. The fog retreated, the voices quieting, and the threads released her from their hold.
She fell to the ground.
"Are you alright, Lilith?" Adam's voice said with concern.
Lilith looked up at the man before her, if he even was a man at all, with a quiet dread. His concerned voice twisted into one of vacuous mockery. Her body shivered uncontrollably.
Adam reached his hand towards her.
"!"
She shrank away from his hand before quickly rising to her feet.
"I'm fine!" she said, panicked. "You can go read, I-I'll be on the second floor." She said, quickly running.
His hand still outstretched, Adam looked at the frightened girl, seemingly running away from him.
"Did I do something?" Adam looked at the children.
They all shrugged.
Sigh
~~~
Adam took his time reading through the books in the library.
A book on Origin, the core of all life, and all things mystic. A book on all 21 races and the corresponding fruits that would turn one into those races. A book on the 3 divine pathways.
After a while, he had moved to a more historical section. He read each page of the books carefully and thoughtfully, but after getting halfway through his second book, the words began to blur. His eyes were unfocused. He skipped through each page progressively faster than the last, reading less but more, as if he already knew the content.
The same experience repeated with each book he read from then on. Book after book after book. Each with the same outcome.
He walked to a window to take in fresh air.
Sigh.
Adam's mind had been, and still was, churning endlessly, filled to the brim with the knowledge contained in the books, but not from the books themselves, but from his own mind. With each book he read, the knowledge surfaced from a long-forgotten part of his mind.
'Eve, did you do that?' Unaware of the reason for the sudden surplus of information in his mental library, he inquired.
[No, I did not.]
'Then what in the hell was that?'
[I do not know.]
Tch.
What the hell was going on with me?