Loud chattering of people walking through the market place as the morning air filled with excitement and joy for this wonderful occasion of a busy day. The streets and shops were bustling with life—children laughing and playing amongst themselves, merchants haggling over prices, and customers browsing through rows of goods for sale.
Everyone seemed to be in a good mood this morning, except him. Janus walked side by side with Menes, who was also accompanied by Saomi, as the group traversed through this ordinary, boring daily routine while attempting to avoid bumping into others.
His attention drifted from one stall to another, inspecting the various objects laid out on tables and shelves: fruits, vegetables, clothing, and some other useless junk that he had no interest in. He already knows such worldly things have neither interest nor value to him, so there was no need to waste time here.
They came to a halt when they reached the local fish vendor, a large tank filled with small, brightly colored fish swimming around; some of them appeared very unnatural, to the point where Janus felt like he might catch something worse than mere food poisoning.
A mixture of vivid, multi-colored fins and scales shimmered under the watery surface, some of the specimens seeming to possess extra limbs or appendages. The patterns on their bodies were striking, reminding Janus of the fractal designs found in nature. They even appeared to be emitting a faint glow, which gave the entire setup a surreal, dream-like quality.
As Janus gazed upon these extraordinary creatures, a sudden discourse interrupted his focus. He turned towards the source of the sound to see a man in his early thirties, wearing a sleeveless tunic and sandals, along with the company of Roachoid, who was also accompanying the human.
He and his companions watch the altercation from a safe distance, but Janus eyes eventually turn to the very person who is being verbally assaulted by the pair as his own focus turns to a very unusual being he can't describe in detail based on what he is seeing.
The supposed person, even if he could call it that, is a floating polyhedron with a peculiar design. Its body is composed of dozens of small, square-shaped tiles arranged together in a rectangular shape. Each tile has its own unique pattern, color, or symbol printed on it. There are also several tiny, yellow protrusions poking out from various parts of its body. The creature doesn't possess any visible limbs or facial features, making its entire appearance bizarre.
"I know you stole it, asshole!" The man in the tunic said angrily, "Who else would've taken it!?" He pushed the polygon a little with his index finger, causing it to float backward slightly. "You got a lot of nerve being near my stall all the time, huh?!"
A Roachoid, clad in loose-fitting trousers and a shirt made from cheap material, also took his turn to yell at this peculiar person, "Return the items you stole so we don't have to do anything drastic!" Sharing the same anger as his human friend.
Unphased by their accusations or insults, the polyhedron didn't speak a word, simply floating there motionless while not emitting any sort of response at all, much to the annoyance of both men who wanted answers from the reason their stuff was gone.
Janus and his pair of companions watched with curiosity what was about to transpire. However, Saomi had a different plan in mind. "I'm going to intervene," she said, ready to deescalate the situation to prevent any conflict or unnecessary injury to anyone in the vicinity.
She began to step forward but was halted by Menes, who held out his hand to block her path, saying, "Just let this play out; I'd rather not get involved in the affairs when it comes to situations like this," reasoning in a calm yet firm tone of voice that briefly caused her to stop in her tracks.
"But—"
Suddenly, the man and his Roachoid friend had enough. "Okay, that's it!" His fists clenched tightly at his side. "You won't talk?! Then that's fine! Maybe this will teach you instead!" Raising his right hand in the air, he throws a powerful punch at the silent creature, causing a crack to form on its surface.
When the sapient polyhedron felt this, he became greatly alarmed to the point that he saw this pair of merchants as a danger to his life, resulting in his unleashing a bright, colorful glow around its body, filled with a luminous rainbow that caused the other surrounding locals to shield their eyes from it.
Everyone, except the unfortunate assailants who attacked it, suffered a painful seizure, which caused them to collapse onto the ground. After a few seconds, their bodies stopped immediately after dying from a brain aneurysm that took their lives.
Their lifeless corpses dropped to the pavement with dull thuds, causing the polyhedron to instantly vanish without trace from sight. All that was left was a group of curious observers who were unable to comprehend what just happened.
He and Saomi blinked rapidly, trying to regain their bearings. When their vision cleared, Janus was intrigued again. "What happened?" His question lingered in the air for a moment as the young woman held a similar thought as him.
Rubbing his own eyes at the side of his back hand, "What you both saw is a defense mechanism from Sentient Polyhedron," Menes explained to them what they all witnessed from this, "and judging by your look, I guess neither of you have a clue what they are?" Turning around to see the confused pair.
The two shook their heads and asked, "What are they, Menes?" She asked, wanting to know what she saw. Despite the terrible ending for both merchants, Saomi couldn't help but feel enthralled by this mysterious and otherworldly being that can destroy life with sheer brightness alone.
"Sentient polyhedron is a species taking different bizarre shapes. Their nature is not fully understood, but they are said to reside in the 4th dimension. Although they are never shown to have attacked anybody unless provoked, their floating and unusual three-dimensional shape with flat polygonal faces, straight edges, and sharp corners or vertices is quite an eye-sore."
"Strange beings," Janus commented while caressing his chin, "do you have a clue why they died from seeing bright light?" He then asked the knowledgeable man, who seemed to know more than him about this strange world he was currently living in.
Menes shrugged his shoulders. "I have no idea how they died, but maybe from a seizure or something?" Taking a good guess about what he saw, he said, "I don't want to figure out why, for that's not my area of expertise," concluding to not try and investigate this anymore, as he isn't even interested.
His attention then went to Saomi, who was quietly standing there with crossed arms and head down. Based on her facial expression, she seemed to be lost in deep thoughts, pondering what just unfolded in this particular scene.
She felt guilty for not being there in time, just so that those two impulsive merchants could still be alive. Feeling her heartbeat thump against her chest from all this heavy guilt, the young woman slowly breathed out and answered him with a simple sentence.
"Let's go somewhere else, anywhere but here."
Understanding what she meant, Janus gave a nod while thinking about how he would have an interesting time getting used to this new environment. "In second thought, I almost forgot something," an idea popped into his head, prompting him to ask Menes, "Where is Schrodinger?"
Her eyes widen from that. "I didn't see him in the morning when I got to the kitchen," frowning as she does not recall seeing him anywhere in the house. "I hope I wasn't too harsh on him." Another bad feeling formed in her chest once more from realizing that she may have upset him with what she had told him, causing him to be mad and run away somewhere.
That made Janus raise an eyebrow and ask, "What did you do?" Turning to her with mild surprise, "did you scold that cat or something?" Recalling their conversation that they had during dinner after a long journey to reach the great port of the city.
Saomi sighed, nodding regretfully at him. "It was yesterday. At night, I believe, after you left. When I saw that devious cat being so much of an asshole, I thought I had to teach him a lesson so he would behave properly toward us since he is now living under our roof from now on."
This made him chuckle a bit. "His always like that," he said with a bemused smirk, "it's just how he is. That cat is pretty much a troublemaker through and through," he said, shaking his head while snorting from knowing Schrodinger well, "he's too stubborn for that."
Those words made her pause, as she hadn't considered hearing him say, "Then where do you think he ran off to?" Concerned for the poor cat's safety and wondered if he ran off somewhere due to her harsh lecture, causing him to be upset at her and decide to leave altogether.
"His probably somewhere, contemplating his decisions and what not," taking a step forward from the two, "why don't we search for him? That little rascal is also wondering where we had went." He then took off in search of the cat, with Saomi and Menes following him from behind.
Catching up to him, the three first went back to their home in hopes of Schrodinger being there. To their disappointment, they couldn't find him, and so they continued on to the main streets and tried to seek any clues about his whereabouts from there.
Asking several residents and patrolling guards in Egyptian armor has them begin to narrow down potential locations where their ally might have gone. Saomi asked a female merchant selling apples if she had seen him, and she told them that she hadn't.
They continued their search until they arrived at shop, where they asked a male fish seller if he had seen him. The fish seller looked at them curiously and said he had seen a cat walking down the street. Although any further requests made them realize they weren't getting anywhere, the party moved on.
As the hours passed and they continued to search for their furry friend, Janus felt it was enough of being here in this place and decided it was time to put his abilities to the test. "I'm going to bring fate into the palm of my hand and bring us to him," this immediately got the attention of exhausted Menes, who turned and looked at him in disbelief.
"What?!" He blurted out at this realization, "Why didn't you just use it in the first place?" Finding this whole entire time to be wasted, "Now you tell me that your plan is to teleport us there all this time?!" Exclaiming in slight frustration at him.
A look of sympathy flashed before his eyes. "I don't want to abuse my godly powers," he explained to him, "but after spending all this time trying to find him and coming up empty-handed, I figured that maybe now would be time to try and put them to the test."
This made him even more mad: "You can't be serious, can you?" Looking at him in incredulity before sighing in defeat, "Whatever, do what you must, but please do not waste our time again unless it is necessary," told the stern man.
Saomi giggled at the notion. "So bossy," she said while grinning cheekily. "Well, Janus, what are we waiting for? Let's find that lost cat," speaking excitedly about the possibility of them finally locating their furry companion and continuing their journey together.
Menes just wanted to get this over with already. "Let's just get this over with so that we may continue our search elsewhere." He said that rather impatiently, making clear that he's not happy with this turn of events and would rather they be somewhere else looking for the missing feline rather than standing around idly discussing things.
Nodding his head in agreement, Janus apologized and said, "I am sorry for making us wait for so long; there will be no need to worry, for I will lead the way from here onwards." As he closed his eyes, he concentrated deeply on what he needed to do before opening them once more, revealing that the strings of fate will show them the way.
"Follow me."
