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She had undone Mori\'s gag, but he remained silent.

His eyes following Maël provocatively walking around, yet his mind wasn\'t set on her at all.

It was like watching a car crash, he couldn\'t look away.

While his eyes emptily followed her around, he was reminiscing.

About the good old days.

Were they good, however?

He recalled the good moments, and the worst ones, but what was this feeling?

Ah.

Shame.

It was weird, wasn\'t it, how they searched his house from top to bottom looking for \'files\' his mother could\'ve left there.

And why would they keep her on life-support when they could treat her? Was fairness really an issue, if she was their most prized employee, that made them rich beyond their wildest dreams?

It was obvious something weird was happening, but what if nothing did? Why risk everything investigating something while his mother was still alive? Shouldn\'t he be focusing on the person alive, before him?

And that glitching screen translating her thoughts. A high-tech company that ran the world, unable to translate her thoughts properly?

"I knew you were the emotional type, but I thought you wouldn\'t play pretend with me."

"What have you figured out about my mother?" he suddenly asked.

"Nothing you can\'t figure out yourself. Here, I\'ll help you. You\'ve been comfortable a bit too long."

She clapped her hands, and the decor started swirling around, so fast it became a blur of shades, before turning into a room Mori could\'ve recognized among any other.

He had spent too much time there.

That beeping noise that echoed in the room, and the sterile smell.

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The hospital room his mother died in, down to every detail.

She even put a bowl of porridge on a platter further, some of it still on the ground.

Maël brought a chair closer to Mori\'s armchair, which was the only thing that hadn\'t changed in the room.

She was still smiling, while Mori\'s eyes were still looking around the room.

He looked at every detail, recalling moments he wished he could live again.

The redness in his eyes remained, but the expression had changed from anger to sadness.

"Why are you torturing me?" asked Mori, suddenly looking at Maël.

"Because you deserve it."

Mori diverted his eyes again, studying his environment as if a test would come the next day about it.

"I get it."

"Do you?"

"Yes. You were right. I\'m hopeful."

"Hopeful?"

"I hope things don\'t go wrong, while they\'re going wrong. Once they do, I try to fix it. I hope for the best amidst the worst. I think that flower in the middle of a battlefield could have a chance, and when it\'s crushed I feel crushed with it too."

"How human of you," she replied.

Mori\'s nostalgic expression turned to wrath as she said that sentence, his eyebrows furrowing.

"You\'re human too," said Mori.

Maël\'s expression went blank, and turned into an uncontrolled laughter, slapping her thighs.

"Hahahaha, you... you..."

Confusion overtook him as he tried his best not to let it show through.

"I look human to you? After everything you\'ve seen?"

"You were once, at least."

"I\'ve never been human, Mori," she said, in between short breaths.

Her smile was wide, her amused expression brightly lifting her face.

"So far you\'ve taken traits I\'ve seen to change your body. You most likely picked them from people I\'ve met. This face, however, that you\'re wearing now, I\'ve never seen it. Not even once, as I walked down the street."

"Oh, all the sudden your memory is quite good, huh?"

"I\'d remember someone like you."

"I\'m still not human, but good try."

"I don\'t believe you\'re native to this dimension," he said.

"You\'re right. Almost nothing is, actually. Jax, the old man, this monster, me, you..."

"What are you, then? Why do you hate humans? You look exactly like one."

"I\'m a high human."

Mori\'s face turned into a severely confused expression.

If he could\'ve grabbed his forehead, he would have.

"You mean High elf?"

She frowned.

"What makes you think I\'m an elf?"

He looked at her again, she indeed didn\'t have any striking features an elf would have. She was also missing that uncanny \'too perfect\' appearance.

"What..."

"High Human. Not one of those dregs you\'re rightfully dragging off the face of that realm."

"I thought..."

"That I was like you? I\'m not."

"You\'re the same. Changing the name from human to high human doesn\'t change who you are."

She raised her eyebrows.

"I will stop you there. High humans, high elves, high dwarves, high fairies, high demons... and I\'m missing quite a few here, they all exist. Not just the elves, despite what you might think."

Mori\'s gaze went down as he processed what he heard, the concept truly stomping him.

High humans?

The beep of the monitor was getting on his nerves, however. He hoped she would change the room, but he knew bringing that topic would most likely make her keep it longer.

"Let me say right now, nothing, of all of this, is what upsets me. It\'s the fact that you lied to me, knowing I\'d know you\'re lying. Gaslighting, they call it in your world, right? For that reason, I can\'t quite forgive you right now."

"Huh," said Mori. "So even you can get upset."

"This is quite ironic, if only you knew me. Well, this was a good talk, Mori, but I\'m done with you for now."

Mori sighed, and closed his eyes.

He focused on his cursed energy like he had done the previous time. He could feel it even better this time.

But it wasn\'t moving.

No updraft was bringing him back, no storm was taking him away.

He was still sitting in an armchair, in a hospital room.

Maël was sitting before him again.

"You still think you\'re in charge? You\'re the one who let me in, don\'t look so surprised."

She leaned forward, kissing his lips one more time,as wind stormed around the room, raising her toward the ceiling.