’What the hell?’

White mused beneath his breath, but in the sealed-shut vault, it was like a clear echo that made her slowly stir.

Calling her a ’her’ sounded weird. The right word now would be an ’it.’

He remembered how Zisel looked, but right now, the person a few feet away from him was a completely different being.

There were eyes, all over her as far as his eyes could see.

Her arms alone held about twelve blinking eyes, the same for her legs, and even the parts protected by her clothes, one could see the light that flickered out from the eyes underneath them.

Eyes that radiated a ghostly lime-green glow, the colour reminding him of her other left eye.

"How do I look?"

She suddenly spoke, her head not facing White but the other end instead.

"Hideous, isn’t it?"

She asked, as White’s heart quietly pounded in his chest.

’Hey system, what is she? A Supernatural?’

He asked, wondering if he should pull out the Brute Demon Transformation and end her right here.

[She’s a Human that’s been changed by Essence. A Homo Aetherius... like Morgaine.]

The system panel flashed and he froze, before exhaling quietly beneath his breath.

He had been wondering how she’d been able to tell Morgaine was a Homo Aetherius. Seems like it was because she herself was one.

"You should have told me you were a Homo Aetherius..."

He said, and she finally turned her face to him.

It wasn’t human.

Her right eye remained the same green colour, but her left eye was like a five-petaled flower had bloomed.

An eye in the center, which was her normal eye, with five more eyes having opened around it in the position of each petal.

It was chilling to find so many eyes looking at him all at once, but it wasn’t chilling enough for White to move or yank back.

He just observed it, in quiet fascination.

"You don’t prepare someone to see this..."

She replied, and he shrugged.

"Well, fair enough."

He might have been able to see a human covered in eyes, firstly because he himself was a monster, and secondly, he’d seen monsters worse than her.

If anyone but him had seen her, they’d be freaked out to death. You couldn’t really prepare someone for something like that.

Much to her disbelief, he laid back onto the ground, hands over his face.

"You can’t sleep?"

She suddenly asked, and without removing his hands, he gave a reply.

"Yes."

"Why not? Injuries like yours should have even forced you to sleep after eating to your fill."

She noted.

"Let’s just say it has something to do with this physique of mine."

He mused, eyes looking at his dark hands, before adding,

"It doesn’t mean I’m some sleepless monster though. I do fall asleep, a couple times... sometimes."

She chuckled at that, replying.

"I get it."

It sounded like something to resonate with a person, but then a thought occurred to White, making him ask,

"Is it because of them? They are all wide open. They don’t allow you sleep?"

He asked.

"Not fully."

She said, turning slightly and showing her face to him.

"My other eye allows me to sleep."

She said, showing him her purple eye.

"I can sleep well in the morning with it."

"But these eyes are always wide awake at night. I’m attached to each of those eyes and I can’t close them."

"So, it forces you to be awake all night long?"

White asked, and she nodded quietly.

"Basically."

"Does Xtremecyber know about this?"

He asked.

"Some of the Instructors and Vices do. For us Homo Aetherius, we’re under more watch to be kept stable."

She answered.

"And the students?"

White asked.

"None."

She replied curtly, but then paused before turning to him.

"Except for you."

"Keep it that way."

White said, and she froze.

"Why?"

"You said you haven’t shown the students and seeing as I didn’t freak out, you must be thinking to yourself maybe if I show a couple students, they won’t too."

"That might end up being a bad idea."

White said to her, and she hummed in understanding.

That was something easy to fall prey to. Thinking if one accepts, the world must accept.

But she had been living with this for a long time before coming to Xtremecyber.

She knew better than to make such a mistake, and even her showing him wasn’t a coincidence at all.

It was days of monitoring and recording who he was as a person before finally deciding to reveal herself to him.

Silence stretched between them before it was broken by the question.

"What do you do... when you can’t sleep at night?"

White asked.

He asked.

This him remaining awake all night wasn’t something he was used to at all.

Even in his past life, he had never faced such a dilemma, making it quite difficult to live with.

If she never slept at night due to her body, it might just give him an inkling as to what may help him.

"Remain in the dark... and let your mind stray about, to forget the need for sleep."

She said.

"Why not take a walk around?"

That was what he had been doing the past three days in the academy after he was unable to sleep.

Simply walking around at the dead of night in the areas within the Newcomers’ territory that hadn’t been explored yet.

That usually helped. The change of scenery, and seeing a place he’d never seen before, kept him refreshed when the rays of dawn appeared.

"That might indeed help get thoughts out, and forget the sleep, but... my case is special."

Zisel said, raising her arms, looking at the hands that covered them.

"My eyes possess the same function as normal eyes. They move around and pick up information."

"Normally, the brain is usually configured so humans are able to tell which is important information and their minds focuses on that."

"The rest is deemed unimportant information, never focusing on it, but that’s not what happens in my case."