"Wow," the fairy exclaimed, her voice laced with a hint of amusement and disbelief, "You know, you could have shown the same enthusiasm when Nana spilled her guts out to you."
Ty responded with a slight chuckle, reflecting on the moment. "I mean, I was just a skeleton back then. I really don’t see what she saw in me to begin with.
Plus, I need to know someone for more than just a little bit before I can commit to spilling my guts out to them...
That’s not to say I don’t appreciate her and cherish her company every second I have it. It’s just a different version of what being with Jade is, if that makes sense."
The fairy nodded, understanding yet still finding the situation somewhat regrettable. "A bit, but it still seems a bit harsh to shut someone down like that."
Ty sighed before laying his head back, looking forward to some rest. "But at least I get some sleep finally. I hope she’s doing well. I’m sure she’s resting up right now, not doing anything crazy or dangerous."
The blue fairy chuckled at Ty’s hopeful assumption, and Ty broke into laughter as well when the fairy added, "Knowing her, she’s probably punching something in the face right now, trying to find a way to impress you."
Ty wiped a tear from his cheek and pictured Todd stuck cleaning up whatever mess Nana had found.
The laughter faded after that.
"We really have to figure out what Erebos’s plot here is," Ty said, staring into the darkness.
The old man on the other side of the cell began to snore.
The fairy’s glow softened against the stone. "Let’s start with what we know, then. Maybe we can piece together some options."
Ty took a deep breath. "First off, the whole reason I’m here, according to Erebos himself, is that I was progressing too slowly. Though, the more I think about it, that makes no sense."
"And why is that?" the fairy inquired, her confusion apparent.
"It makes no sense because all of this was supposed to be some accident to begin with...
The whole incident that led me to become a skeleton and set me on this long path happened because I decided to take a shortcut through the park at night to get home early," Ty explained, unraveling the bizarre circumstances of his fate.
"Then, he ended up killing me and taking me to see the Demon King as part of some trade for fetching damned souls or something. But during my entire time with the Demon King, I never saw him engaging in anything like that."
The fairy, rubbing the top of her head, agreed, "Yeah, that does sound very confusing the more you explain it!"
Ty rubbed his face. "One thing has been bothering me for a while. What was Erebos trading for? Why me?
Sure, maybe I have a strange soul, but out of the billions of lives that exist, why focus so intently on me?"
The fairy drifted closer, listening instead of cutting in.
Ty lifted one hand and counted the pieces on his fingers as best as the cuffs allowed. "He killed me. He dragged me to the Demon King. He talked like he was fulfilling some deal, then acted surprised when the thing inside me became a problem.
After that, he separated me from it and pushed me toward this world, where my body just happens to match some old Demon Clan history."
He let the words hang between them.
"That is too many accidents in a row."
The fairy’s wings stilled for a second. "So you think he planned all of it?"
"Maybe not all of it," Ty admitted. "Erebos feels too annoyed for that. But I think he knows more than he says, and every time something goes wrong, he tries to shove me into a different answer before I can ask the right question."
"I’m just struggling to put it all together, Fairy,"
"Yeah," the fairy responded, sadness quieting her voice, "I do too. It’s weird you have skin now, also. I still don’t understand that at all..."
Ty chuckled lightly, a hint of insight in his tone. "I think I’ve almost figured that out, especially after seeing the picture book JJ got for me."
"Oh?" the fairy perked up, intrigued by the potential explanation.
"Yeah, it’s only a guess, of course, but my guess is that back when the Demon King first tried to give me a body, it kept burning away.
He eventually had to give me a dead body that had good regeneration, and even then, the body was still decaying," Ty detailed, piecing together the events that led to his current form.
The fairy nodded, attempting to grasp the complexity of the situation.
Ty continued, "Well, as that was happening, Erebos showed up, worried and full of complaints about this and that, probably in regards to whatever creature I have inside of me for whatever reason.
He wanted me separated from it, or at least pushed far enough away that its reach changed, and then he brought me here."
He concluded with a significant revelation, "I believe I have family ties dating back to whatever planet this is... and this is probably the last of the Demon Clan to be alive, maybe he died 50 years ago or so.
But once I took over its body, the skin and flesh came back."
"But since my soul, or however far I go back in that lineage, only partly belongs to the Demon Clan, that would explain why I could use the black flames, but only barely. With them off, this body felt natural. In skeleton form, everything fought me. I struggled."
Ty flexed his fingers, remembering the way the black fire had fought him.
"That means this body is either a key, a cage, or bait," he said.
The fairy stared at him.
"I really hope it’s the first one," she said.
Ty gave a tired laugh. "Yeah. Me too."