Chapter 12 The Tour

Evernya performed a little twirl, showing off her new outfit. “Wow, those clothes look perfect on you.” Complimented Meira, causing Evernya to blush.

“So, how does everything fit?” Meira inquired.

Evernya plopped onto the recliner to Meira’s left while trying to suppress her blushing before replying, “Perfect, almost eerily so. Shorts would have been a better choice instead of jeans though. So what about shoes and socks?”

Meira’s eyes sparkled with amusement at her flustered kitten while replying, “Most shifters prefer to be barefooted or use sandals. I think I have an old pair of cross-trainers somewhere if you want shoes.”

Evernya glanced down at her bare feet for a moment before saying, “I feel comfortable barefooted, but won’t I hurt my feet walking around barefoot?”

“No, shifters have durable feet. You could walk around in the woods with no problems.” Meira assured.

Evernya paused, deciding, “I will try barefooted for now then, hopefully you are right.”

Upon catching Meira staring at her, waiting with bated breath for her to say something, Evernya delved into thought. How long is she going to overcompensate? Sure, she’s being extra helpful, but it’s a little awkward having her enthusiastically explain everything, as if terrified to offend me. I’m the one freeloading off her, not the other way around. Should I say I forgive her? I’m not sure I’m ready for that, but maybe she will act normal then. I wish I could just hide in my bedroom, shutting myself off from the world like I did as a human, but I can’t afford to until I figure out where I stand in this new world.

To be fair, it’s only been a couple hours, but still, I can’t stand the awkwardness. I don’t want someone to go above and beyond to help me because of a mistake that was partially my fault by losing control of my emotions. Evernya flashed back to the suffocating feeling of Meira’s mana aura, causing her tail to puff, which she stealthily smoothed.

I don’t think either of us can move past this if I don’t take the initiative. I was always bad at holding grudges anyway. Still, if she tries anything like this again, she won’t get a second chance.

Evernya stared into Meira’s eyes with a serious expression. “Thank you for all you have done for me. I have been freeloading off of you for almost a month, even though I spent half of it unconscious. I understand you didn’t mean to hurt me. It is something I will never forget, but I forgive you for your mistake.” Evernya stated, bringing Meira to tears.

“Thank you for forgiving me!” Choked Meira, tears running down her cheeks. With surprising swiftness, Meira appeared in front of Evernya, crushing her kitten in a big hug, causing her target to stiffen in surprise.

After crushing her kitten for several minutes, Meira unlatched herself before kneeling down, bringing her to eye level with her kitten as she asserted, “You aren’t freeloading! It was partially my fault for creating the room. After I watched you recover from the cell I made, I made a vow to myself to protect and nurture you until you can stand on your own. We have a lot to work on before I am satisfied I did my best to raise you to be powerful and independent.”

Evernya’s eyes scanned Meira’s face, trying to detect any deception before reluctantly conceding, “As long as you’re okay with me staying around, I am fine with freeloading. Just let me know when you want me to leave. I’m sure I will find a way to survive out there.”

While maintaining eye contact, Meira asserted, “You are not escaping me until I am absolutely sure you are ready to live on your own whether you like it or not.”

Unsure how she felt about Meira’s possessiveness, Evernya changed the subject. “Could you teach me how to release my aura so I could avoid similar issues?”

“Of course, I can, but how about we wait until tomorrow? You have learned a lot today already.” Meira denied before asking, “Want to take a tour of my house instead?”

Disappointment flashed on Evernya’s face before responding, “Sure, I’ve seen most of the house while walking from my room, but a guided tour would be nice.”

Evernya followed Meira into the kitchen to start the tour. “I know you were in here before, but you zeroed in on the food and passed out right after.”

“It is a beautiful kitchen, definitely not elf-like. I expected something more nature-inspired like lots of wood and plants.” Evernya commented before inquiring, “Are the appliances electric or mana powered?”

Meira trotted to a cabinet at the end of the right leg of the horseshoe-shaped kitchen. She opened it, revealing a single main pipe coming from the floor before splitting off into several smaller pipes, presumably leading towards the appliances in the kitchen, as she explained. “Everything in this house is mana-powered, enchanted by myself. I tapped into the leyline running under my house to power everything. The mana in the air is not dense enough to power anything, but weak enchants. For stronger enchantments, you need to power it with your own mana or find an alternative power source. In my case, the leyline. I suppose you could power it with mana crystals, but that would be expensive and hard to maintain.”

After closing the cabinet, Meira blurted, “The primary reason Doctor Fisher couldn’t release you from the mana isolation cell is he couldn’t handle the power you were putting off. He is a healer, so he has little to no offensive or defensive capability. The only way a healer could stand up to a powerful mage is with enchanted items, but as a side effect, the cell severely suppresses enchanted items. I had designed the room only to shut off after the removal of the shackles, followed by a code to prevent escape. However, in this case, my extra security backfired as they couldn’t get close enough to remove them.” Meira stopped speaking with a guilty expression, preparing herself for her kitten’s outburst.

Contrary to Meira’s expectations, Evernya gave Meira a reassuring smile as she spoke. “Don’t feel guilty. It’s in the past. You had no way of knowing I would end up in the cell.”

Meira smiled back but said nothing more on the subject before continuing her tour to the dining room just off the kitchen. The dining room was a mostly empty room with a big polished wooden table with six chairs on each side and one at each head.

“Isn’t this table I little overkill? You seem to live alone,” commented Evernya.

Meira shrugged as she answered, “I wanted it big, just in case I needed it. However, in the almost hundred years since I built this house, I’ve used it only a handful of times. So you may be right, I rarely even use it myself as I usually eat in the living room or kitchen.”

They exited through the arched doorway, then turned left to enter the forest-painted hallway. The next door, after the bathroom, opened to a home gym. The gym’s walls were light blue with black rubberized flooring. Several machines arranged in a neat row took up the right side of the gym with a giant TV hanging on the wall, easily viewable from all machines in the row. The machines in question included a treadmill, a few cable machines, and a familiar machine with an orb on a pedestal connected to a weighted platform.

Along the left wall near the door, there was a bench with a bar and free weights stacked neatly on racks. Past that was an open area with extra padding on the floor, perfect for stretching and other bodyweight exercises. Down the alley, running down the middle of the gym, was a door presumably leading outside.

Evernya pointed at the orb machine, inquiring, “What is that machine? I tried one in the lab but passed out after using it.”

Meira glanced in the direction Evernya was pointing before replying, “the general name for that machine is a mana strengthener. There are many variants of mana strengtheners, but they all do essentially the same thing. Like working out your body’s muscles to get stronger, you can work out your mana veins and mana core with the mana strengthener. You feed mana into the orb to lift the weights, then try to maintain that mana flow to keep the weights lifted. The primary purpose of the mana strengthener is to stress and strengthen your mana veins in a safe environment instead of slinging magic around, which could cause backlash or damage your surroundings.”

Meira paused for a second before theorizing, “The mana strengthener may be useful for you to workout later. You have a ton of power for your age, but I don’t think your veins can channel it effectively. It’s probably one reason your control is bad. If you attempt a big burst of mana, I think you could damage your veins. That was part of the reason you were unconscious for so long after I brought you home. You damaged your mana veins well into moderate mana vein overload, if not severe territory. Once we know for sure what your magic class is, we will focus on strengthening your veins and improving your control, while exploring the limits of your magic.”

The girls moved on to the next room, which was a large indoor garden area. The garden had a narrow stone path winding through a beautiful garden with plants of all shapes and sizes, some even as tall as a tree. Evernya stared upward, finding the ceiling was almost ten meters up, covered in domed glass.

“Wow, this is beautiful and probably the most elf-like area in this house,” Evernya commented while basking in all the delicious scents surrounding her.

Meira beamed at the praise. “This is my favorite area of the house. Sometimes I spend days here relaxing and meditating. Winters can become quite cold up here, so I needed to create an indoor garden. I may be urbanized, but I am still an elf.”

Evernya eyed the clearing at the center of the room with a comfortable-looking bed of grass with a longing expression, commenting, “I can see how this room would be relaxing. I may spend some time in here later to sort out my thoughts.”

After spending a few more minutes in the garden, they reluctantly continued down the hall to the next room, which was Meira’s enchanting workshop. Meira opened the door to her enchanting workshop as she informed, “This room and the indoor garden I keep magically locked because there are many valuable things in both, along with the basement where I keep finished products. I keyed you to the magical locks on the garden but I’ll need to be present for you to enter my workshop as it could be dangerous.”

Evernya scanned the decently sized room with workbenches set up of varying sizes. The center of the room had an open area for larger items, surrounded by benches and many unfamiliar tools scattered about on shelves. On the opposite side of the entrance was a garage door currently open, revealing the setting sun.

While Evernya investigated in the workshop, Meira explained, “This is where I do most of my enchanting work. If you can’t find me in the living room or indoor garden, check here as I spend, on average, eight hours a day enchanting. I’ll give you a more in-depth tour of my workshop later if you’re interested.”

Evernya glanced at the door on the floor in the far left corner near the garage door, prompting Meira to add, “the door leads towards my basement for quick access to storage. The main entrance to the basement is off the hall next to the living room and kitchen. We won’t bother touring it. All I have down there is a large area for storage.”

After completing the tour of her workshop, they walked down the hall toward the living room, skipping the last room as Meira rambled. “The last room down this hall is another storage room. Everyone thinks all you need to enchant is to touch an item and boom, it’s enchanted. That’s only the case for very simple enchants or on materials that have excellent enchantment potential. For more complex enchantments, I need to modify objects by combining them with highly enchantable materials. Or I need materials that have high enchantment potential in the first place. For example, storage devices require materials with high enchantment potential such as precious metals or crystal materials like mine.”

“The only rooms on the first floor we missed are the two bathrooms, one across the hall from the enchanting room for obvious reasons and the other you already know. I figured bathrooms wouldn’t be interesting to tour beyond a quick glance. Upstairs mostly contains bedrooms and bathrooms with a few storage rooms, so nothing worth touring.” Meira summarized as they returned to the living room.

Meira glanced out the front window before stating, “It’s getting dark, so the outside will have to wait for another day. Do you want to eat dinner instead?”

At the mention of food, Evernya’s stomach rumbled. “Sure, I was getting hungry,” answered Evernya.

“Steak or fish?” Meira inquired, despite knowing the most likely answer.

At the mention of fish, Evernya’s face turned ravenous. “Fish it is,” Meira decided.

Meira retrieved six Golden Fin Lake Trout steaks from the fridge.

Upon seeing the trout, Evernya almost jumped on the raw fish, but with a monumental force of will, she kept herself under control.

Meira smiled at her kitten’s reaction as she laid the steaks on a large pan before turning on the stove. Under the watchful gaze of her kitten, Meira sprinkled several unknown spices on the steaks as they sizzled in the pan.

By the time the fish finished cooking, Evernya’s control was hanging on by a thread. Meira dropped all six on a plate before sliding them across the counter to the ravenous catgirl. The moment the trout entered her grabbing range, Evernya snatched the plate, entering a feeding frenzy.

Wow, she was hungrier than she looked. Now, what am I going to eat? I was planning to have one of them myself! She is going to starve me! I guess I’ll have another chicken salad after she crashes into a food coma. Meira grumbled, patting her rumbling stomach.

Meira watched her kitten devour her meal like a rabid animal. We really need to get her diet healthy. It isn’t good that she devours food in a frenzy before crashing. She is unique, but I doubt she should pass out after meals. Still, from the outside, she looks perfectly healthy. Even mana has its limits if she were malnourished, she should show signs, but she doesn’t. She doesn’t make sense.

Sure enough, just as Evernya finished all the trout, her eyes drooped before she passed out on the counter yet again.

I don’t need to work out anymore with all the unconscious kitten carrying. I think she will be out for the night this time, so I’ll put her to bed. Meira commented as she hoisted her kitten into a princess carry.

With practiced ease, Meira transported Evernya up to her bedroom. Once she had the girl on the bed, she pulled off the jeans, leaving the rest on. Meira tucked the girl in and turned off the lights before wandering off to find herself something to eat.