Alex made his way barefoot down to the living room, accompanied by Arwen, who was dressed in a long white gown, which she used as her sleeping attire.
Upon arrival in the sitting room, Alex laid eyes on the bearded individual who had decided to pay him such a late visit seated on one of the three couches arranged in the room.
The man in question was in his late forties, just as Arwen had deduced, with a head full of black hair and a skin shade that seemed darker than the average Henosian.
Alex guessed he was a Razan immigrant.
He wore a brown cento with a black birrus accompanied with a pair of brown sandals.
Currently, the hood of his birrus was down, and he was sipping on a cup of grape juice Arwen had provided for him.
Though he appeared relaxed, Alex could tell this was only temporary.
His visitor was like an arrow on a bow that had already been pulled taut.
The wrong move could send him flying in the wrong direction, so to ensure that he got across to the fellow, he needed to exercise caution.
Taking a deep breath, he stepped forward and stretched out his hand to greet the man. "Hello, I’m John Smith. What’s your name?"
The man glanced at him, his gaze shifting from Alex’s face to his palm before ultimately taking it while remaining silent.
"Oh no, I forgot to tell you something." Arwen suddenly said from behind while facepalming.
Alex glanced back at her while still holding onto the man’s hand.
"I think he might be deaf and dumb."
Alex glanced back at the man who kept on staring at him in silence.
Withdrawing his arm after letting go of the other fellow’s hand, Alex remarked. "Get me some paper, two quills, and some ink."
"Understood," Arwen replied before swiftly heading back up the stairs to retrieve the items he’d asked for.
Silence reigned in the living room lit up by two gas lamps after Arwen’s exit, with Alex taking the time to further study the man while waiting for her to return.
With a thought, he activated his spirituality to ensure the man wasn’t possessed by any malevolent spiritual entities.
Then, recalling something, he proceeded to snap, and then he approached the man, who grew tense as he stared at him warily.
With a smile, Alex assured. "Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you."
Then, he stretched out his hand once again, and though it took him to wait several seconds, the man soon reached out to hold his hand, at which point he began to convulse aggressively, almost like one going through an epileptic episode.
It was then that Arwen arrived, happening upon the scene with a look of surprise.
"What are you doing?" She asked worriedly as she hurried over.
"Healing him." Alex simply said before suddenly pulling his arm back.
The man soon stopped shaking, going limp almost as though he’d been stripped of life.
Of course, this was only the case for a few seconds before he gasped, taking in a great deal of air as he returned to the land of the living.
He stared at Alex with a terrified look on his face while Alex returned his look with a warm smile.
"How about you try saying a few words?" Alex suggested with the man blinking in confusion.
"Come on, say something."
"..." The man’s lips parted and an odd sound escaped them, catching him off guard.
He froze and turned to Alex for guidance.
"I healed you." Alex calmly explained. "Is that the reason you came here?"
The man gulped before hurriedly shaking his head.
The man tried to speak only for his expression to distort.
"You should take it slow," Alex suggested. "You just got your voice back so it would be difficult to talk much right now. Don’t worry, we’ll communicate through writing."
After saying that, he gestured for Arwen to hand over the items she’d retrieved for him with the latter swiftly doing so.
Setting the paper on the wooden center table with Alex on one end and the other man on the other, the conversation began.
Alex dipped his quill into the ink and asked the first question in Impala. "Who are you?"
"I’m called Leokhares." The man wrote back.
Nodding in satisfaction, Alex asked the next question. "Are you Razan?"
And a response swiftly followed.
"No, but my grandfather was. He was branded a heretic by the church in Kastarus forcing him to flee the nation. He got on a ship heading to Henos, and after he found love with my grandmother, who was a part of the TruthSeekers, he decided to settle down here."
Alex read through everything calmly, neither too fast nor too slow, with a thoughtful look on his face.
Though he was trying to learn more about the Impala language, Alex didn’t dare to consider himself very good at the language and so, the only reason he could communicate in it was because of Ulysses who had crafted talismans using his blood that allowed those that utilized it to understand a particular language and in this case, it was Impala.
In any case, once done, he asked the next question. "For you to be here, you should know who I am and what I do, so I ask, why are you here, Leokhares?"
"They told me you were a good man, that you helped people to solve their greatest problems. Well, Sir Smith, I have brought to you my greatest problem because I do not know how to solve it."
"And what is this problem?"
"My daughter, Sir Smith." Leokhares wrote, his emotions seeping into every letter he penned down. "She’s been missing for days. I’ve tried to look for her, tried to get people to help me find her but everyone keeps telling me the same thing, that I’ve never had a daughter!... But I know, I am certain, I have a daughter and she is missing!"