“____” speaking

‘____’ thoughts

*____* telepathy

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Having dealt with the runaway Ormonde I slowly made my way back to the mansion after taking a quick dip in the pond. It would be a pain to try and explain the pond to Maka and Tanzi, plus I didn’t want to have to tell them I found Ormonde. For now I would just act as I had been and anytime Ormonde wandered off I would follow him.

Once I was at the mansion I made my way to the kitchen. Maka seemed to almost always be there. Turning the corner, I saw Maka swaying about while cooking.

“Did Ormonde come back?”

The wave like dance stopped and Maka turned to look at me.

“Yup. He came back about six minutes ago. Were you the one who found him?”

“No. There was nothing in the direction I looked. At least I didn’t see him when I looked.”

“Regardless, he’s back now and that’s all that matters. Can you help.”

‘Again? Does she have an endless amount of work she can give out?’

“Fine. What do you need me to do?”

“Two things. The first.”

She reached into a cupboard and took a cast iron pot the size of my head from it.

“Is to fill this with water up to the line on the inside and get it boiling. Once the water’s boiling I’ll tell you what to do next. The second thing is to think about when you’re going to tell Ormonde and his parents that you’re awake.”

‘I really don’t want to interact with them if I can help it. Hopefully she doesn’t press it.’

I held my hands out towards Maka.

“Pot.”

The day finished as per the normal routine Maka and I went though and I was left to my devices during the night. I had been practicing my use of gravity Arcane and wasn’t progressing. Gravity Arcane is, without a doubt, the strongest type of Arcane I can use but I can’t store enough of it to use it in combat. I could make an Aldite for it but I was torn on whether or not it would be worth the time away from other Arcanes.

Creating a concentrated piece of Aldite could take me weeks, maybe even months, before it became refined enough for practical use. Unlike my links, which still needed their routine checks, Aldite couldn’t feed itself to grow and had to be tended to in a very specific manner. To make matters worse, I was garbage at creating Aldite that was worth anything even with the Arcane I excelled at.

Unable to reach a decisive answer, I moved on to checking my links. The single thread of silvery white had thickened but was still worse than I was at filtering spatial Arcane. I had never had another color aside from my base one appear before and the knowledge I had from other spirits was only helpful to them in this regard. The link in its entirety, however, had grown enough that I believed it could completely supplement my stores if I chose to take from it directly.

Ormonde’s link to the ethereal plane was stable at best and wouldn’t be seeing any real growth until he could tend to it. I had checked his soul earlier and was surprised to see that the spirit’s soul was not being absorbed but adapted. It was possible that my soul had an influence on the outcome, but I had no way of knowing since even my small involvement with souls was more than most.

With nothing else remaining to delay my decision, I chose to make the Aldite. It took me four days in total to condense a stable enough base that it didn’t collapse or disperse when I stopped supplying it with gravity Arcane. Having a solid foundation was good since it meant I didn’t have to renew the crystal constantly and only had to tend to it periodically.

Another three days passed before I felt Ormonde leave the house and head to the pond. I was honestly surprised he had taken so long to go back and followed closely behind him. Once we arrived at the pond Ormonde started to look around for me. After sitting at the pond for a few minutes Ormonde got up and started to look around the general area.

“Hello?!”

‘Shouting? Really? Ugh fine I guess I can show myself now.’

Practicing while I helped Maka had made it so I could remain fully corporeal for about a day if nothing strenuous happened and playing with Ormonde would serve as the stress test. I solidified myself on a tree branch that was within climbing distance from the ground and started on my dress. Having myself be corporeal but my clothing ethereal would be hard to explain if I was to be interacting with Ormonde, so I solidified the armless pullover dress that I normally wore and shortened it to end mid shin. Content with my changes, I sat on it down on the branch I had chosen, legs swinging rhythmically in the air.

“Up here brat.”

“Ah!”

‘If that’s all it takes to startle him he needs some major training.’

Ormonde walked closer to the tree I was in.

“How’d you get up in the tree?”

“I climbed it. How else would I get up here?”

“Don’t know. Wanna play?”

“I guess.”

I pushed myself off the branch and decided not to use any Arcane to slow my descent in order to test myself. My foot hit the ground and was immediately moved out from under me causing me to land with a loud thud. The pain from the landing was more shocking than anything else, but the dull ache that remained after the impact was going to last. Ormonde had come closer and was now standing over me with a rather concerned look on his face.

“You ok?”

“Yeah but I don’t think I’ll be doing that again.”

I stood while rubbing my backside and fixing my dress.

‘Damn leaves.’

“So what do you want to play?”

‘I’m not going to come up with anything so might as well let him do it.’

“Hide and seek.”

“Are you sure that’s safe.”

I eyed him warily; I was going to be there if anything happened but he seemed to have no concept of danger.

“Yeah. You hide first.”

Without any room to argue I went a small distance away and hid myself in a bush.

‘Well it could be worse.’

For the next hour or so we played hide and seek and I lost horribly. How Ormonde was able to find me so well I do not know and his ability to hide in strange places was uncanny. I didn’t mind playing once we got started; it became a game of sorts and I tried to have fun with it. Eventually it became time to move on to something else.

“Let’s play something else.”

‘How does he have so much energy?’

“What are we gonna play then?”

“I wanna get onto the tree like you were.”

“Let’s find a good tree then. We need to be able to reach the bottom branches.”

Most of the trees had branches that were too high for climbing and we had to go deeper into the forest to find trees that hadn’t been trimmed. We found a decent tree that would serve us well but the rocks under the tree were a hazard.

“Me first.”

Ormonde started his way up the tree and was three branches up before I began to climb.

“Woops.”

‘That doesn’t bode well.’

I looked up just in time to see Ormonde fall past me. There wasn’t anything I could do half up a branch and with no warning to filter Arcane. I closed my eyes and waited for the sound of his impact and screams of pain. Silence.

‘What?’

Looking down, I was greeted by the sight of Ormonde sitting on the ground as if nothing had happened. He looked a bit different though, nothing I could place, but the change was there. Letting go of the branch and stumbling on my landing I walked over to Ormonde.

“You ok?”

Ormonde looked dazed but otherwise unharmed and replied with a soft confirmation. He blinked a few time and then stood up, turning his gaze to me and puffing his cheeks out.

“Why’d you come down? Now we both have to go back up.”

‘Was he not hurt at all or is he just hiding it?’

“You fell. Why wouldn’t I come down?”

“So you were worried?”

“Um. I guess?”

Ormonde smiled before heading back to the rock we had used to get to the lowest branch of the tree.

“Um.”

“What?”

“I can’t touch the rock.”

‘But that sounds like. No he could have.’

“You sure?”

I walked over to see if he was telling the truth and watched as he put his hand into the rock.

“Uuuuuuuuggggggghhhhhhh. Why!?”

It was bad enough that I had to entertain Ormonde now I had to teach him how to become corporeal as well. Somehow he had managed to become ethereal and now I had to fix it.

‘Ok. Calm down, deep breath in and out, you can do this. It only took you a few months to learn how to control it so teaching him should be faster right?’

“You’ve gone ethereal and I know you don’t understand so just listen for now. How you are right now, you can go through almost everything with a few self placed restrictions. We need to get you solid again or else you won’t be able to eat. So first I want you to tell me how your body feels. Are you lighter than normal? Do you feel floaty?”

Ormonde looked at me like I had spoken in a foreign language and I had to repeat myself a few times before he started speaking.

“I feel the same but not.”

“That doesn’t help a lot, can you give something else?”

“Um, not really. . . .”

I felt my brow crinkle in displeasure; it was becoming a habit at this point.

“What did you think as you fell?”

“That I didn’t want to get hurt.”

‘That doesn’t help. I need to know what triggered this so I can tell him to do the opposite and pain is never a good trigger.’

“I want you to try and touch me.”

I held out one of my hands towards Ormonde and waited to see what he would do. As expected, he reached for me but was unable to touch me, he looked even more confused now than he had earlier.

“Why can’t I touch you?”

“Because you’re ethereal.”

“How do I stop it?”

He was starting to panic.

“That’s what I’m trying to find out, but I need your help ok?”

He nodded, the start of tears barely held back.

“I want to to watch what I’m going to do.”

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and willed myself to become ethereal. Once I was done I looked at Ormonde, he didn’t seem to notice what I had done.

“Try touching me again.”

This time there was the resistance that one would normally feel when touching something.

‘Feeling something seems to had calmed him down, so glad he didn’t start to cry.’

“How did you do that? Can I do it too?”

“Yes, you should be able to do this, but as for the how I’m not quite sure. I just will myself to be corporeal, or solid really, and it happens. So we need to find out what you need to do to get you to change back into being solid as well.”

“Can I try what you do?”

“Go for it. Just close your eyes, take a deep breath, and tell yourself you want to be solid.”

Ormonde tried for a while without any result and I was left to think of something else I could do to help him.

‘I could try that, but would it work?’

“Hey, um, what’s your name?”

I knew what his name was but I didn’t want him to know that, not yet anyway. Ormonde suddenly looked really worried, I hadn’t the foggiest as to why.

“My names Ormonde. Um. What’s yours?”

“Vio. So Ormonde, I want you to hold my hand for a second.”

I held out my hand and he took it with slight hesitation.

“I’m gonna try something and I want you to let me know if you feel anything ok?”

He nodded again and I started to become corporeal. Once I was finished, I opened my eyes to look at Ormonde and see if anything had happened. I still felt his touch so it was a good sign.

“And?”

“I felt . . . fuzzy?”

“Try touching the tree again.”

Ormonde obeyed my command and went over to the tree and tried to touch it.

“It’s solid again!”

I let out the breath I had been holding and walked a little closer.

“I think we’re done playing for today. The next time you come we’re gonna have to practice so you can change on your own since I’m not always going to be there. For now don’t tell anyone about what happened ok?”

“Ok.”

“Promise?

“Yeah I promise.”

“Good.”

I had a smile on my face for mixed reasons, some good, some petty, but overall I was happy that Ormonde wasn’t stuck in ethereality. We started to walk back to the pond so Ormonde could then head home and I thought about what I was going to need to do in the future. He needed to be able to control this so it didn’t happen spontaneously. I had gone through that experience and it was confusing and disquieting. Teaching him was the only real option but I was at a loss as to how to do such a thing. I didn’t want to admit it but I needed help.

We reached the pond and Ormonde left for home while I waited a few minute before following. Upon reaching the mansion I went straight to the kitchen.

“Maka you in here?”

“Yes. What do you need?”

I rounded to door and met by the sight of Maka cooking yet again, I wasn’t sure she ever stopped.

“I, um, I need something.”

Maka stopped what she was doing and slowly turned to look at me. The look she was giving me made me squirm unconsciously. She wave the knife in her hand in a circular motion.

“Go on.”

“I. . . . I need a favor.”

“And what is this ‘favor’.”

I could feel the emphasis she put on the word, it felt like she was goading me.

“I want you to teach me how to teach Ormonde.”

“What was that? You spoke too softly for me to hear you.”

My cheeks were burning with rage and humiliation as I repeated myself a little louder. Once again Maka denied being able to hear me.

“I wanna teach Ormonde but I don’t know how! Oop.”

I covered my mouth with my hands; I hadn’t meant to shout it just happened.

“Sure.

“Wait? What?”

I was staring at her open mouthed. Did she really accept so easily?

“I said sure. I help you teach Ormonde but I want something in exchange.”

I gulped before proceeding.

“What?”

“I don’t know yet but I’ll let you know when I do.”

‘She’s going to hold a favor from me? I don’t like that.’

“Are you sure I can’t do something now?”

My question came of as a mortified plea for something definite.

“I’m sure.”

The honey sweet smile on Maka’s face reeked of hidden intent; I had played a game with a devil and lost. A brief shudder went through me as I contemplated the meaning of this. Maka very quickly broke me out of my thoughts.

“What do you need help teaching him?”

“Oh, um, just how to teach in general and Arcane. I really don’t know how to teach that since I just kinda do it.”

“That’s easy enough to do. When do you want to start?”

“Tomorrow?”

“Sounds good. Now are you going to help or just stand there?”

Without any words left to say I reluctantly went to help the she-devil with her work.

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AN: Hello readers! For some strange reason this chapter was just hard to write. I knew what I wanted and how to do it, but I just could bring myself to write it. Laziness or procrastination? Maybe, but regardless it's here and I hope you enjoy it. Let me know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns and for now I'll bid you all adieu.

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