Chương 76: Book 3; Chapter 75; A very Strange Girl

The woman was left speechless for some time, not knowing what to say. She looked again at this strange girl who was watching her with very bright green eyes.

"Well, if you know King, then you would also know that he doesn't interfere in family relations," she said finally.

"True," Rainee said, "I do not mean to interfere either, but as you know only a little, I thought I would let you know more before you make a decision, because how could one make a decision while knowing nothing? Wouldn't it be just a random guess?" The woman felt that she was losing this strange battle and chose not to escalate it any further.

"How did I end up here?" she asked while looking around.

"Did I hurt you?" she asked, looking at Blake. She could remember holding her son in her arms before losing consciousness.

"Angus carried you here," Blake said happily, looking with awe at the boy he was pointing towards.

"He is very strong. I have never seen anyone as strong as he is. And no, you didn't hurt me."

"Yes, you did hurt him," Rainee corrected Blake in a calm voice,"You made him afraid to do what he wants to do, reinforcing this strange belief he already has, that if he does what he wants, something bad will happen to those he loves. He will have a very hard time getting over it." Blake's mum was looking at Angus, not understanding how such a small child could be strong enough to carry an adult, but after hearing Rainee, her attention was taken away. At first, she got a little bit angry.

She tried to stand up, but was too weak and fell back onto the couch. Was she really dying? This thought frightened her, and all anger vanished. The children quickly came to support her.

"Am I really that sick?" she asked with fear, looking at the girl, but the boy with grey eyes answered instead.

"You are not sick yet," he said, "but illness or old age will unavoidably come very soon, if you keep giving away more energy than you can regain."

"I don't understand," the woman said as she truly could not understand what he was talking about.

"To recover the energy that you are giving away, you will have to sleep nearly all the time," The girl tried to explain, speaking slowly and clearly, as if explaining something to a very small child,"if you sleep all the time, you can neither do anything that interests you, nor even be interested in anything anymore, so old age will come very fast as you will lose interest in your life and this world.

If you try to push yourself forward without rest, then you will become sick, and without energy, it will be very hard for you to recover." The girl was looking at her encouragingly with the hope that she had broken this information into pieces small enough to understand. But it didn't make it more understandable; on the contrary, it brought even more confusion.

"Children, what are you talking about? What energy???" Now it was time for Rainee and Angus to become confused.

"The one you are sending to that black machine, to power other machines. Don't you even know that it is happening?" Rainee was truly confused.

"I was sure that you were doing it intentionally."

"Is that why I am feeling so tired?" she asked in astonishment.

"I never even realised that this was what was causing it. If that is the case, I don't want it anymore! How do I stop it?!"

"You just refuse to give anything of yours to it," Angus said.

"Even if you did not get tired, it is not healthy to be connected like this all the time. Why do you do it?"

"Everyone does it," Blake's mum said, "it has been like this for a few years now. That way, we don't have to go too far away, and the work is done."

"Why would you want to stay at home?" It was Rainee's time to ask. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"To avoid the mist. Mist is widespread here and sometimes comes for days. Even if the mist doesn't swallow you, it is not easy to navigate in it. You, children, should be careful too."

"No, don't worry," Ruffus was happy to join the conversation.

"Ren is the best mist chaser. It is not possible to see mist with Ren around." Blake's mum looked at the girl with new eyes.

"You must be very special then," she said.

"Al…" she didn't finish, seeing Blake's expression, and then corrected herself, bringing a large smile to his face,"Blake used to have this ability, but it vanished one day."

"Probably because people were abusing him and he didn't want to be abused anymore for the sake of others," Rainee was relentless,"good that he got rid of it around such inconsiderate people. Anyway, let's go to the black machine. What happened there? Why are you giving it so much energy that there is none left to live? Were you starving? You should have asked King for help."

"We were not starving. Some new people came and offered these machines, so we could earn a living and not get into the mist at the same time. I didn't realise you could get sick from using them. How do I stop?"

"As Angus said, you stop giving away to it what is yours."

"But I don't know how."

"By choosing it," Rainee said patiently.

"By choosing how?"

"The same as you chose to start sharing it." Rainee was finding it difficult to explain something so simple and obvious.

"When you got into this connection, you had to agree to give this machine something. Now you either stop agreeing or make a choice not to give anything anymore. It is your energy, and it is up to you if you want to give it away or not."

"But where and to whom do I sign this refusal?"

"There is no reason to sign anything," Angus smiled softly at her, taking over from Rainee, who was sitting speechless,"it doesn't matter if you sign or not, even if you did it before, it was just a ceremony. The real choice was made within yourself, and you can sign as many papers as you want, but if your inner self disagrees, you would never be connected to it. So you had to do it willingly. You had to want to connect. Now you have to want to disconnect.

If it will make it easier for you, I can bring a piece of paper to write on, but it is just an action, and the only difference it can make is if it would make you believe that the signature is more important than your will or choice."

"So it is enough for me to choose to disconnect…"

"Yes."

"OK, I am choosing," Blake's mum said, closing her eyes.

"Is it done?"

"No," Rainee said, half angry, half laughing, "what you are doing is saying that you want to disconnect, while at the same time thinking about all the benefits that this deal gives you and wanting to keep them. That is choosing to maintain this connection for the sake of benefits."

"How do you know?"

"Your fear is spreading so badly that right now, I am terrified of being left with no income and not knowing what would happen then. If I did not know that this fear has nothing to do with me, that on the contrary, I love to see what would happen when I don't know what will happen, then I would even think that it is me who is afraid."

"So what do I do?" Blake's mum asked, realising that this girl was absolutely right — she was afraid of what would happen if she lost this connection that lately provided them with a comfortable life.

"You choose to refuse all that you receive via this connection. Refuse to receive and refuse to give. Then there is no connection left, and you would be free." Now Blake's mum was left speechless for some time.

"But if I refuse everything, how will we live? How will I earn a living? Since these machines were brought here, they have become the only way to earn it."

"Yes, this custom of earning and paying is very confusing," Rainee agreed.

"But then, if you want to live in a place where you don't have to pay to live, or where you could earn a living in a different way than by being connected to the machine, why wouldn't you move?"

"Yes, mum," Blake agreed eagerly, "Let's move! I don't like it here. Let's go live somewhere else."

"Live where? Move how? Where would we go and how would we move? Even if I don't like it too much myself, how and where could we move? I wouldn't even know where to start or how to do it."

"If you don't know yourself, then ask King," the girl suggested.

"King?" The woman was even more surprised, "What does the King have to do with it? What King would know about our struggles and what to do with them? How would I even contact him?"

"When I want to tell him something, and he is not around, I talk to him directly in my heart, and he knows what I am telling him," Ruffus answered, saying it as the most natural thing.

"He is around very little. If I had to wait to talk to him until he comes, then I would hardly ever be able to speak with him."

"Or you can write to him," Rainee suggested.

"He answers all the letters. But to help with moving, King doesn't even have to be involved himself, and you can just ask the King's Army to help you. They would help." The woman was looking at these children with bewilderment for a while, then realisation came to her, and understanding, with a soft smile, changed the confusion on her face. What was she even thinking? Children are children, what would they know?

They live fully believing that it is enough to want something and it will happen, not realising that it isn't the case. She got caught off guard like this only because these children seemed extremely smart.

"Well, no matter what you think, if you don't try, you will never know," Rainee said.

"Also look at this situation from this angle," Angus added,"if you stay connected like this, next time when you become too weak and lose consciousness, we will not be around to help, and people around are very weak themselves to be much help, so you might not even survive and Blake will be left on his own. So it might be even better for him to travel with us before it happens."" Such a kind and gentle boy, and speaking such horrible things!"

Blake's mum thought, sitting up with a single thought that she didn't need any connection to any machine or even money. If that was leading to such an outcome, she definitely was not giving anything of herself anymore to contribute to it. And if King or King's Army, or even King's gardener, or cleaner can help her in any way, she is more than willing to seek and accept this help.

"You are such a genius," Rainee smiled at Angus.

"I just said the truth, and it worked," Angus smiled back at her, "Isn't that what you are telling me all the time?"

"Worked what?" Blake's mum couldn't understand.

"The connection is broken, and King's forces have been informed that their services are needed," Rainee explained.

"Why would you think that way? I don't feel any difference."

"I can see the energy," Rainee explained.

"The connection is broken, and despite the other side still lingering around searching for something to connect to, it is not attached to you anymore, and it will not have any effect unless you yourself seek it."

"I see," Blake's mum looked around the room, thinking that it was one of the two, either these children were really different from people she had met until now, or they were mad and she had been drawn into this craziness herself. Most likely, it was the second, and she must have been infected already, because she was thinking that she was feeling a bit stronger already.

"Why would you think that King's services have been informed?"

"Well, if they didn't hear this request sent, then I don't know what they are even doing in King's service." Rainee shrugged her shoulders,"but I am sure that King heard, and if his staff proves to be deaf, then he definitely is not."

"I think you are very strange and confused…" Blake's mum started, but could not finish and fell silent. Rainee's face changed drastically, from being friendly and smiling to cold and sharp. She stretched her hand to the side, and for a moment, Blake and his mum thought that her hand was growing longer, but soon realised that it wasn't the case, as it was a long, slightly curved sword that appeared in her hand. With this sword in her hand and a cold, stern look on her face, Rainee stepped towards Blake's mum.