He'd almost forgotten the strange not-dream he'd had after his incident in limbo, the one he'd spoken to someone who was a version of Haru.
What version, he did not know, but had a suspicion of now.
That Haru had been the one to mention the kagami-hankyo, mirror echoes. Or as the Book of Calidation clarified, alternate versions of one's self.
So he'd matured by absorbing his kagami-hankyos? Or were they the ones who had absorbed him?
He had no idea.
Suddenly, he remembered what Haru had said to him after he told the acolyte about the strange not-dream he'd had.
He remembered the words clearly—"Don't be surprised if you start feeling mature or find your relationship with others deepening. The surprise wouldn't last long, soon it would be natural."
So he'd known. Haru had known this was going to happen but hadn't sat him down to explain it to him.
He wasn't really surprised. After all, it was his friend who had also said,
"In life, and in hell, if you wait to be taught something, you will learn it the hard way."
Shaking his head, Ran continued his reading from where he'd left off.
A kagami-hankyo is absorbed for every 'tomorrow' we experience and we take everything they have: growth, memories, experience, life, physicality, spirituality, soul, reality, and existence.
This is what causes the unexplainable growth in age, experience, mentality, and kin. It is also the reason for the surprising memories most possess but are only half sure they actually lived. Memories that tend to show forth vividly in dreams even though they are ever present in our heads.
One merges completely— body, mind, and soul —with their alternate selves in the realm of hell. With a huge gap in temporal advancement to alternate realities, one could wake-up and find that they had lived thirty years.
The reason for this temporal state is for the fairness of punishment. If a person is destined for hell, their soul belonging to Naraku, then they would be universally and multiversally doomed to hell. Hell would come for every alternate existence they possess.
The most accurate timekeeping mechanism in Naraku is the burning of the Blazes. Eversince the Demon Prince, Xin, restrained and sealed the fires of hell, the land of Naraku has known little of hellfire.
What remained were echoes of hellfire's past. These echoes are known as the Blazes and they are known for their seasonal appearances.
Though echoes, they are just as hot as real hellfire, which a damned mortal scientist once admitted while burning— and running calculations based on how much time it took hellfire to melt steel —was hotter than the plasma born from the collision of two high energy particles, which according to him was trillions of degrees hot and way much hotter than the core of the sun and every star out there in the universe.
I didn't understand much from his explanations, as he spoke in the language of the magic of mortals and their machines, but I managed to infer that hellfire was infinitely hotter than a substance that was trillions of degrees hotter than the sun.
Thus came the saying, 'unto thy soul, the strength of countless stars; that it would not fade, be made weak, nor die.' Therefore souls are able to burn eternally in the fires hell.
For that, the Blazes, though echoes they may be, carry the echoes of hellfire with them on their seasonal visits which are marked every five years.
It is by the coming of the Blazes the denizens of hell come to know that five years have gone by. A blaze could happen in what one considers tomorrow, then two days later, then a week after that.
That means fifteen years have gone by. If a demonchilde was born before the first blaze, then by the tenth day when the third came, they would have aged fifteen years in mind, body, and soul, as they have been united with fifteen years of alternate existences in absoluteness….
Ran closed the book and sighed, his heart growing heavy.
A single Blaze had burned since his arrival here, that meant he was sixteen now.
He wouldn't have believed it if he didn't feel it. Was he even the same Ran who had stepped into Naraku just a few weeks ago?
He certainly wasn't, he didn't feel like that Ran. He felt like over a hundred Rans, like he'd reincarnated hundreds of times.
Was this what Haru meant when he'd mentioned that his mother had lived five thousand years in hell after birthing Mukoku?
The young acolyte might actually think he'd managed to keep a secret from Ran but he hadn't taken him thinking about it for a while before he remembered that only Lilith, one of the Queens of Hell, could give birth to a Lilim. All Lilims ancient Lilims shared one mother and father. Only the younger ones were begotten from intraracial procreation.
Also didn't Haru think Ran would notice that him, a mortal and a monk—albeit one in training—was not pure enough to hold the Holy Book of Light or engrave Fey runes on his body?
Or that Ran wouldn't look too much into the fact that he had inherited things as rare as Eirasens from his mother?
To have inherited as much as five of the Oni no Kane from her, Haru's mother was certainly not mortal. Only someone important, royalty or nearly so, could have left such precious inheritance for their child.
He didn't really blame the boy for keeping the existence of his mother a secret, it would be hypocritical of him.
He was just about to get back to the book when he heard a noise from the door.
He turned around just as the door opened and the tall form of the Overseer entered without a by-your-leave.
"Knave," the Lilim demon said, looking at him deeply.
Ran, sighing, turned around and bowed. He was quite low in the hierarchy system here, thus curtsies like this were demanded of him.
"The Queen has summoned you."
Ran raised his head and gaped at the horned demon blocking his door. "Uh…"
Hardly Mukoku ever summon him or even meet with him. All he did was maintain the palace and her quarters.
But he knew that whenever she summoned him it was always for something quite important.
The last time it had been after he woke up from the memory-dream after the limbo incident. So he was curious what this summon, this time, was about.
"Can inquire as to the reason the Queen requests my presence?" He asked, hoping just for once the Overseer won't be a pain in the ass.
The Lilim frowned at him, then gestured at the door, turned around and started walking.
As he left the room, he called back in his deep, demonic voice.
"Come with me. She wishes to talk to you about your father."