[peɪpə]

Material manufactured in thin sheets from the pulp of wood or other fibrous substances, used for writing, drawing, or printing on, or as writing material

Its surface smooth as skin: the pores expanding beneath one's touch.

It is a cadaver, broken beneath a blow and its corpse serving to expand our mind.

Donghae stared blankly at his hands, the palms up his workbench, lost in his thoughts. In fact, he wasn't even sure what he was thinking of. There was a dull ache within him, though he didn't know what had caused it. It seemed that he had been sitting here for a long time doing nothing, yet he made no move to do something more productive; opting to stare a little longer.

There was a hint of a name at the tip of his tongue but as he reached out to grasp it closer, it drifted further away. Donghae wasn't sure what its significance was but it seemed important for him to remember. He sighed and shut his eyes, suddenly overcome with fatigue. It seemed that sleeping was all he ever did these days.

He had woken up only a while ago with his head in his arms, having wasted away the whole day. Yet here he was, still ridiculously useless as ever. There was really no point in his practicing magic, having resigned himself to his weak self. It was pathetic; a spell caster, a descendant of the Great Suho himself, unable to use magic.

Donghae knew all about the forefather of all spell casters; Suho. His soul had been eaten by a water demon, which latched itself onto the dying man's body as a parasite, for everyone knew that demons couldn't survive long without a host.

This man embodied the essence of magic in his veins. His offspring became part of a rare bloodline which became more diluted with each generation until they became no different than the rest of the human population but the first generation of descendants noticed this and, in an effort to preserve their powers, began to breed with one another. These new offspring became the first of the spell casters and the decay of their powers were halted.

Perhaps this was why everyone was afraid of spell casters. The knowledge that they were part-demon. Donghae wasn't sure how much spell caster's blood he had and would have been convinced that he retained only a fraction was it not for his brother. He was the strongest man Donghae knew and had even attained the status of Sorcerer, having gone beyond mastering his magic use and begun manipulating and forming new spells.

His brother was well known throughout Elsiriad as the most accomplished of all spell casters and Donghae was very proud of him but at times, it made Donghae wonder what exactly was it that made him different. They came from the same parents, though Donghae had retained no memory of them, and so they must have the same magical prowess. Seeing his brother's art and skill made him feel small and insignificant.

It wasn't that Donghae wanted more attention or was mistreated, no. This simply served to make him doubt himself. There seemed to be some flaw within him. His brother was exceptional to the point of surpassing the definition of being perfect whereas Donghae was well into the realms of being disappointing.

Donghae was unsatisfactory in every element. If his memory served him correctly, his brother had mentioned that he would be an adult in a few months before he had left to join the war effort. That had been several weeks ago, which meant that he was definitely approaching official adulthood soon, where he would legally be his own guardian.

Yet despite this, Donghae's height was similar to that of a child and it didn't help that he had retained his large childlike eyes, soft cheeks and habits such as blinking when surprised, sticking out his tongue and wrinkling his nose. Even Shindong had called him a mere child.

Even after the mob had chased him away… Donghae frowned in confusion. What had he done after running away. He couldn't seem to remember anything that had happened since then, yet here he was in the store, so he must have simply walked back and fallen asleep at the workbench.

Donghae straightened up as a shadow fell over the window. The door swung open with a tinkle and a girl roughly his own age entered, closing the door carefully behind her before turning around and gazing at Donghae.

Her intense stare made him uneasy and he darted up, a little too eager to accommodate her so as to hide his discomfort. She certainly looked harmless enough in her long white dress and dark hair flowing down to her waist. In fact, she was rather pretty in Donghae's opinion. Much more so than most of the girls he saw around Elsiriad.

"Can I help you? Are you looking for something in particu-"

"Your eyes are open now." She interrupted him and Donghae felt a strange sense of nostalgia. As though being abruptly cut off mid-sentence was something that happened often to him. He was also rather confused as to why this girl had come in and stated the obvious completely out of the blue.

"Well of course." He said patiently, "Why shouldn't they be?"

The girl looked amused at this and shook her head; her long tresses shifting over her shoulders. "No, I meant that your inner eyes are open. Your consciousness is within this Universe."

Donghae only tilted his head and gave her a vague smile to indicate that she had lost him. She gave a sigh. "Shall I suggest a book or a doll for you?" He tried to steer their conversation back to a topic with which he was familiar. It was a shame that this girl was one of those crazies which the Mastarierd had been cracking down on. She really was beautiful. "Or would you like a spell or enchantment? I have a wide assortment of different-"

"You should be careful." She said seriously, crossing her arms and leaning forward against the work bench, "I've been following your aura all across town. You should try to suppress it. There are many spirits who want what you have. In fact," she stiffened and her eyes flickered around the room, "I wouldn't be surprised if there are already a few here, just waiting to attack you at your most vulnerable state."

Donghae stared at her, expression full of pity and he resisted the urge to cluck his tongue in despair. This one really was cuckoo. She may as well have rolled on the floor barking and would have passed off as more sane than she appeared now.

"Have you…" He ventured cautiously, "Have you ever considered, I don't know, maybe turning yourself into one of the Mastarierd-run hospitals? I'm sure they'd be willing to help you out with all your-"

"You mean, you don't know!?" dropped open in disbelief, "You have no idea what's within you right now, just waiting to burst out? You haven't realised how much danger that thing has placed upon you?"

"No, I don't know" Donghae said rather irritably now, "Really now Miss, If you really weren't crazy, you should have at least considered explaining yourself or I'll have to ask you to leave."

She stared a little while longer; eyes widening as though burning him with her stare would grant him some sort of power to understand the nonsense she had been spouting. "I'm Suzy." She said finally in resignation, "I'm a spell caster. A witch."

Donghae nodded silently, and remained so as Suzy waited for him to introduce himself. The past few days have been all kinds of weird and now, in addition to having been chased all across the marketplace, he was being accosted by this spell caster girl. At least she definitely wasn't crazy. Spell casters were never crazy.

"You-" Suzy hesitated briefly and Donghae's eyes flicke