Lilith's sparkling eyes went very still. She tilted her head as her gaze swept over me, then glanced at Varania and then at Orla in the back.
"…Breathe?" she repeated softly. "Thou dost mean, do I pull in this… 'oksige'… to sustain myself, as thou dost?"
"Sort of…As you can see, as I inhale…" I inhaled, "The oxygen went to my nose…" I exhaled. "As I exhaled it, the others went out from my nose…As I see, you have the same nose as a human; I thought maybe you were doing the same."
"'Tis but an affectation. A way to form speech. I do not require it to live as thou dost seem to." She shook her head. "Nay. 'Tis as I told thee of food. I do not need it. My essence is drawn from other sources."
"Other sources…" I said in a low tone.
"Yes…Other sources… Right now, thou seest me in my human form… Thou mayst see me breathe as a human, but I do not truly require it, as I but mimic a human. Like Varania, she is a dragon, yet she hath a human form."
"What about these other sources?"
"If I tell thee, I shall be in great danger…" she glanced towards Orla. "As thou hast a human spy in this shop."
"Okay… I get it…" I continued. "I see that we had a different form to sustain our life… However, this oxygen, I do need it."
"Why dost thou need it?"
"That 'something else' or this oxygen is the one that keeps me alive…it's the physical being."
"Physical?"
"Yeah, it's my life essence I told you about… For me, it's a thing. An invisible, physical essence in the air. We, human needs that…"
Lilith glanced towards Orla. "Dost thou know aught of this, human?"
Orla just shook her head with a pale white face.
Lilith glanced back at me. "Well, she knoweth naught of it… So it applieth not to every human, then… (Well, she doesn't know about it… So it doesn't apply to every human then…)"
"Well, she doesn't know because she actually doesn't know what the important thing is that made her still alive."
The respiratory system was discovered in 1770… If this world follows the knowledge like the mediaeval era… The humans should not know about this.
I explained, "My heart, my brain, and my muscles all run on it. It's the fuel for my 'essence of life'. But you…" I looked at her. "It's different."
"Why is't different? I use human form, and I mimic all things about humans…"
"Mimicking doesn't mean understanding behind this skin…" I put my hand into my chest. "Behind this skin is a complex system… Where mimicking isn't enough."
"Hoo…" She was smiling like a child. "Tis my first time hearing it…"
"Do you know anything about behind this skin, Lilith?"
"I knew not much about it…"
I glanced at Orla…"Orla, may you come here?"
She was still half buried in the pillow with her face pale as a sheet. Hearing her name, she flickered as if I had struck her. Her eyes were filled with terror and darted from me to Lilith as her entire body was trembling.
"It's okay," I said with a calm voice, reassuring her safety. "You're safe. I just… need to ask you something."
Orla said nothing. Gritting her teeth, she used the small table beside her to slowly pull herself to her feet. She did not approach the counter. She just stood there… "What?" she whispered as her voice trembled.
"I need you to come here, beside me…" I said.
Orla glanced around at Lilith and Varania repeatedly as she was trying to give me a signal. Nope, I didn't want to go there with those two.
"It's alright…" I kept reassuring her…However, I saw words not make her move here…So…"Lilith!" I called her in a low tone.
Lilith's head turned to me. I leaned forward, closing to her forehead, and…I flicked it with my finger.
FLICK
…
..
.
The shop went so silent that I could hear the faint, high-pitched hum of the Sylphs, as if they were panicking.
Varania's jaw dropped as her eyes widened with horrified disbelief. "YOU… YOU… " she struggled with half-rising from her seat. "YOU DID STRIKE MY MASTER."
I just glanced at Varania and went to Orla. Orla, in the back, was completely frozen. As her face was wearing a mask of pure terror. She looked as if she had just watched me swallow poison.
Meanwhile, Lilith didn't move. Her sparkling, curious eyes just…widened. She blinked once. Twice. She slowly raised a finger to the spot on her forehead I had flicked.
"…Thou didst flick me," she whispered as her voice filled with a delighted awe.
"Yes," I said and turned my gaze back to Orla, who was still frozen. "And what happened, Orla? Am I dead? Did she strike me down? The only thing that happens is that Varania becomes annoying."
I gestured to Lilith. "She's the Demon Lord. I just flicked her on the head, and I'm fine," I tapped the counter. "You are safe here. Now, please… come here."
"Thou knowest, Darya… Thou art the first creature who dareth to lay a finger on me like that…" Lilith said with a small laugh. She turned her gaze to Orla. "Well, little commander?" she continued. "Art thou not convinced?"
Orla stared as her mind was visibly trying to process the fact that I had just assaulted the most powerful being in the world. Slowly and carefully using the wall for support, she took one trembling step, then another until she was standing a few steps away from the counter, as far from Lilith as possible, but she was here.
"Thank you," I said softly. "Alright, Orla… You are a human from the human realm. Can you tell us how you live? For example, like this…" I did some breathing. "What do you think I was doing?"
Orla looked at me as if I would kill her. "I… what?" she stammered, glancing nervously at Lilith. "I…"
"Stop looking at her…The more you look at her, the more scared you will be…" I said, "Just look at me!"
Orla, still trembling, tore her gaze away from Lilith and locked eyes with me. Her fear was still there, but her analytical commander's mind was being forced to engage.
"It's okay," I said softly, holding her gaze. "I am just asking a question. When you do this…" I took another deliberate and somewhat exaggerated breath, in and out. "What is it? What are you doing?"
She stared at me with her brow furrowed in confusion. The question was so basic that she struggled to find the words. "I… I am breathing," she said.
"Breathing…good. So, humans are breathing…" I glanced towards Lilith. "See, Lilith! First, wrong to your mimicking, you aren't breathing, but a human is breathing." I went back to Orla. "As Lilith doesn't know what breathing is, may you tell me what breathing is?"
"Breathing…is…a form…to keep controlling the fire in the heart," Orla said in a low tone.
…
..
.
Fire in the heart? I was surprised.
"Fire… in thy heart?"Lilith was confused and tilted her head. "What dost thou mean by that?"
As Orla heard Lilith's voice, she was startled. She tried not to look her in the eyes and kept looking at me. "As we humans have a vital spirit in our hearts. It keeps us alive…Like a furnace in the kitchen, it keeps burning as we live…"
"So breathing is for?" Lilith asked.
"To control that fire… If we don't breathe, this fire will consume us. So the air from outside is trying to cool the fire inside the heart."
"Fascinating, I know not of that…" Lilith said.
Me too, I guess…
"So Darya, thy 'oksigen' thing… Is't the one that cooleth the fire?" Lilith asked with her sparkling eyes.
I glanced at Lilith and Orla…
So in this world, humans still believe in ancient respiration, the theory of Galen.
It's a theory from Galen of Pergamon. In the 2nd century, he believed, like what Orla said, a furnace in a human's heart. The principle is the same as a refrigerator.
The heart of a human is a furnace; it is constantly burning, as fire is the essence of life. The problem with this is overheating. The furnace will be too hot, and it would burn itself, and the human would die. The solution is breathing; the primary purpose of breathing is to draw in cool air to ventilate and cool the heart, like a fan. Exhaling is simply the body venting this 'smoky' excess heat and waste vapours from the furnace of the heart.
This is fascinating… As before, Lilith believes eyes beam something into the object to make us see something. It's an ancient theory that people believe that behind the eyes there is a fire.
Now, I discover a new form of breathing in this world…This world is running from ancient philosophical science. Emission Theory and the Theory of Galen…