Honestly, I have no idea why I wrote this and if I’m ever going to continue it. I think this piece may even qualify as prologue because it’s quite short. But it’s a pretty hilarious image of a guy being caught in the most embarrassing situations over and over again and prompted me to write this. Me thinks it has the potential of being made into a very humorous anime, haha.

Synopsis: A desperate teen approaches his friend with a situation involving spirits, marbles, and mis-matched relationships.

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Dear Nicholes Reshard,

How are you doing, my old friend? It has been a long time since we came into contact. Two years, right? How is your family doing? I just moved back to this old neighbourhood and due to certain reasons that I will be elaborating further, I decided to write you a letter to tell you something and ask a favour that is quite important to me. It is almost a matter of life and death. This letter is going to be a little long and quite testing an experience, so please bear with me. Please.

Let me say this first. I am absolutely sane. I did not get myself hooked on drugs that induces hallucinations. I am also well aware that what I am about to say is not something that happens normally. In fact, I did not even know that such things exist at all. At least, until I was sixteen, one year ago. On my birthday, to be specific.

What am I talking about? I am talking about spirits. No, not ghosts. As in not the spirits of dead people. Spirits as in spirits of trees and the natural elements of the world. No, not that sort of elements on the periodic table in chemistry. It is the elements that is supposedly responsible for creation and life. The elements that the Chinese Feng Shui and the pagan witches hold sacred. Fire, wind, earth… the stuff, you know?

Where was I? Oh, spirits. They are spirits of the natural forces, to summarise. They are everywhere. Most of them live in trees and exist as pure natural forces, without a conscious mind or form, while others, the ones that are the main point of this entire letter, are like humans with special powers and bodies. At least they used to.

You see, they used to live like humans in the past, like long long time ago. Half a dozen centuries or a millenia ago, from the feeling I get when I heard this myself. But eventually the fact that they are a different kind of existence was exposed. Needless to say, there was some sort of chaos.

Humans, being humans who cannot stand having something different and potentially dangerous existing together with them, decided to get rid of the spirits. But the spirits cannot be killed, so several groups of people versed in the way of magic figured out a way to seal them away. In pieces of special round crystals. I call the people ‘sealers’ and the crystals ‘marbles’.

The sealers managed to put a lot of spirits away into the marbles and hid the cyrstals away, but a good number were not caught and went into hiding. There was a hunt for a long time and it became tradition for some of the descendents of the sealers, until the two great human wars. The tradition of hunting spirits seems almost to die out, but it seems that a few families still kept it going.

Now, why am I saying all these? It is very simple. I have met the spirits I have talked about. Not all of them. Just three very annoying and troublesome intruders upon my life. And I am a descendent of a sealer, according to the spirits and a book written by an ancestor that I am named after. More specifically, according to one of the spirits, I am currently the sole descendent of a first generation sealer who was one of the most powerful at that time.

Yeah, I know what you are thinking. This sounds like something from a video game, doesn’t it? Wait till you hear what those three spirits are like and how I met them for the first time. I am hoping that you are as private a person as you were, because if this gets into the hands or ears of your sister Lyilly, I think I will consider moving again. Seriously. And what I am telling you is the few biggest embarressments of my life and absolutely true, if you doubt it. I think you do.

Roelen is the first one I met, the one that abruptly dumped me into this chunk of mythical sounding mess. He first appeared to me when I woke up on the morning of my sixteen years old birthday. I opened my eyes and there he was, beaming brightly at me from a distance of two inches from my face. I remember greeting him with a very loud scream, knocking him off balance and losing my first kiss in the process. And because of that accidental kiss, he is forever bound to me by some strange custom of the spirits. Moving on.

My first meeting with Kalvain is a bit better, but not by much. I was walking home from a very normal school day when I saw this very good looking guy standing right outside my house. The moment I saw his face, I started crying. According to my neighbour who was with me, it was more like weeping like a little girl. And I stood there doing that for a full ten minutes until Roelen came out to get me and Kalvain into the house. Kalvain lives with us from then on. I have no idea why I cried like that yet, and they refused to tell me.

The third spirit is a female named Jyssica, and my first encounter with her is the most embarressing yet. I was awoken one night by some dreams. That kind that end up with me changing my bedsheets or pyjamas. Because my… needs were not fulfilled, I have to do something about it. For some strange reason, she decided to drop in at night, an ungodly time of the night no less, to pay me a visit because apparently she is a friend of Kalvain who told her about me. I need not elaborate more, do I? So amused by that situation where we met, and by how Roelen is bound to me and Kalvain’s staying with me, she decided to stay as well.

If you are done enjoying my embarressment, that is if you are not saving it up for later, I will explain why I am letting you know all this. Jyssica has been making my life hell since she glimpsed you the day before yesterday, and she really wants to know you. I am obliged to (in her viewpoint) to introduce you to her because you were once my best friend. I would be very thankful and happy if you are willing to drop by at my house for a short visit just to get her off my back, but since I shared with you just how warped her personality is, the choice is entirely yours.

By the way, according to her, you have the potential to be a sealer as well, so you would be able to see her and the others outside of my house. Usually spirits are not visible to normal humans, you see, and there is a ward in my house to make them visible because it would be awkward if somebody glances in and sees things floating when they decide to touch my things. So since you can see her, she is not going to be stopped by my refusal to just go ahead and know you anyway. Just a heads up to you first, on the accounts of our friendship.

I repeat myself, just in case you are having serious doubts. I am not crazy. This is not a prank. I have three spirits living in my house that normal people will not see walking down the street. You can actually verify it yourself, but I personally think it is not wise to come near the proximity of my house until you are ready to face Jyssica. It is only a matter of time until she figures out which is your house and visits you. Please believe me. For your own sake.

Please consider this situation that I have presented to you. I am deeply sorry that you are dragged into this, and I think it is my fault because if not because I moved back here, Jyssica would not have came and saw you. But I have no way to salvage what has happened. Please think about this and give me a reply. I will leave my new phone number and e-mail address for a much quicker way to contact me.

And please do it as soon as possible. Jyssica is driving me nuts. And I hope to hear from you again, just for old time’s sake.

Sincerely Yours,

Marchias Dachorl