Temporal Pearls

Manuella Sefu had not glanced at any of the exam paintings, but she did see what they were rated. This was her way of being unbiased.

Seth sighed with a shake of his head. Everyone packed away his stuff and left while he sat with a deadpan face.

Lack of emotion is a disease as the drive to live becomes dull and all ambition will seep away.

Anna was a from the beginning, just watching how the exam was carried out. But now, seeing Seth's unremarkable performance she was seething with anger. But she held herself from yelling at him.

She sat on a chair in front of him and she stared at him. "You should have impressed them. She might be biased but the people she invited didn't know who made any of the paintings, so their rating was perfect and unbiased. Why didn't you try your hardest?"

Seth's dull eyes stared at her, and that appalled her and she pulled back. She can't describe what she felt by looking at his hollow eyes as if he was lonely. But how could he have a whole family a him?

Her anger got the better of her and she shouted, "Answer me?"

Seth wasn't ev startled by her outrage. "I tried!" He mumbled, "and… she wasn't biased!" He added.

"If she wasn't biased she wouldn't have failed you on past paintings. You may have ranked second in the pass test but the points she gave were lower than almost everyone. Maybe someone had asked her to fail you. Perhaps one of the kids' parts!"

"No!" Seth whispered, "my painting lack… essce!" He whispered very low. "She wanted a painting that was alive, not a dead one. They may look good but in her eyes, it is like a beautiful dead flower!"

"I'm not understanding you!" She said.

Seth stood and said with a bit of light in his eyes, "My sketch today has an essce!"

And th he walked away.

He was like a zombie that was pushing an urge to finish the damn quest tomorrow and escaped the damned forest.

Sadly, the next day in the game, he lost his emotions completely, and the tiny things that motivate him became meaningless. His heart became hollow.

He did continue the sculptures but he was not in a hurry. So he took his time finishing them. And the reason for ev continuing was, to give meaning to his seemingly meaningless self.

What came later was worse. He began to lose his body ssation. It began with the sse of touch. As long as it wasn't anything pressuring him, he would not feel a thing. And this applied in both real life and game.

His family would have noticed his anomaly but sadly, they were upset about him losing Lady Manuella and they all shone him off. Including his Mother, Father and Anna herself. Sam was the only one that seemed to notice and try to cheer him up but he was too busy to understand the depth of the damage.

They were neglecting him as some kinda punishmt. However, Joseph understood the underlying problems but refused to voice them out.

The strangest thing was, why Seth hasn't voiced it out himself. It was because he was no longer himself. He was now...

And th the worst thing began to happ to him. It began wh he was beginning to lose his body sses but wasn't as pronounced as now and that was losing his memories.

So, logical reasons that stemmed from knowledge and experice began to fade away in his mind.

Ding!

[Quest Completed (0%)]

~You have replicated the Vulcan Village.

[Rewards]

~Gre Hooded Cloak!

_____

A dark gre cook appeared and was attached to Seth's uniform.

Ding!

[Quest]

~Improve the realistic feel of the village to upgrade the Cloak!

____

It was a continuation of Quest but Seth's lifeless eyes didn't ev register it. He became like a mannequin. Wh he felt hungry, he hunted and ate and th sat down and waited till he felt another hunger.

Hunger was the only thing he can feel now and that stemmed from his instinct to live.

And as time wt on, he became almost one with the forest. If he feels hungry he will eat the grass that was closest to him.

In the real world, Seth has not come out for three days after most of his memories faded away. His physical body was perfectly normal but his mind was shutting down slowly!

Siltly dying!

Manuella Sefu has continued with her lesson in another workshop that belongs to another studt. Seth has not be called and she did bother to assess the exams sketch herself because she trusted the judgmt of the external supervisors she invited.

.

.

.

"Why is he still inside? You should get him out!"

Raaz listed to Sarah's instant nagging without knowing what to say to her. After he checked Seth, he found Seth normal, but after using a special device to take an accurate reading of body and brain functions, he found Seth dying slowly!

'Forceful extraction will kill him and calling my superior for a solution will expose this family to more danger. Seth isn't the only outstanding person. He was at the very top of course!' Raaz thought in a dilemma.

"He is fine. There was a difficult Quest giv to certain people that forced them to stay in the game for a long time!" He explained.

That was what everyone knew was possible, so he knew he could convince them with that. Raaz managed to pacify her and made her leave him to watch over Seth.

He sat and stared at Seth's face and wondered. "What the fuck are you doing!? Do you want to kill me while I'm still young!"

The anomaly of Seth was just too overbearing. If not because Raaz has good concisess he would have dumped him long ago and obtained the glory.

'The best course of action was for this boy to leave this house and be somewhere where he will not worry them. But I have already giv him the means!'

While Raaz was having headaches due to Seth's unusual solution, Manuella came home and found her childr depressed.

She has twins, male and female, Shabbar and Shabbara. And these kids are the love of her tire life.

As she came in the door, Shabbar was crying. Marna, their maid, wasn't able to placate him at all.

"It's alright my baby, I'm here. Tell me what happed!" She knelt and hugged him. He kept crying but with patice, she managed to get through to him

"What makes you cry?" She asked lovingly as she try to wipe out his tears

"He is… sad and... losing himself!" He mumbled in the saddest tone Manuella had ever heard her child speak.

"Who is sad?" She patitly asked but th Shabbar began to cry again. Despite her composure, she was losing it. She didn't know wh tears came from her eyes as she began to cry too.

Knowing that she may not get the answer, she looked at his sister, Shabbara, who was the older one and asked, "Do you know what happed to your brother!?" Manuella was now having tears rolling on her face.

Shabbara nodded but didn't say a thing and pointed at the house's Art collection room. She too was holding up her tears to act tough.

Manuella cleaned her face and calmed down after she realized that unknowingly Shabbar has affected her with sadness.

"Help him, mom!" A muffled voice sounds in her ears as Shabbar mumbled again. "Of Course, I will, darling but who?"

Shabbara, the older twin sister, guided her mother to the Art Collection Room. "This one," Shabbara pointed at an unassuming painting.

That was wh Manuella became trance just as she glanced at a pcil sketch. What she saw overwhelmed her.

"How can he make this… Impossible!" She was in a state of dial but th she closed her eyes and calmed her raging confused emotions.

Ev her kids were startled by her reaction. They knew her better, few things can shake her composure and a mere sketch isn't one of them until now.

Manuella Sefu calmly looked at the sketch and was still amazed. It was a casual sketch but the staggering emotion conveyed was immse and not everyone can believe it came from a boy that was a former slum dweller.

The mother of twins stood there for minutes unknowingly she had be pulled into a trance again. Of course, she can see some mistakes and can pinpoint the places for improvemts but wh a child was said to have built a car and you created an aeroplane and you stood before him, how would you rate him?

Wh she decided to stop assessing the painting and just feel the emotion it conveyed, her eyes became red and indisputable sadness gripped her heart.