“____” speaking

‘____’ thoughts

*____* telepathy

---------------------

------------------------------------------Maka’s POV------------------------------------------

So Vio was Eldritch or part Eldritch anyway. The little spirit that was barely taller than my waist and was under the influence of my order Arcane was Eldritch. Eldritch were abominations, creatures of nightmares and neither descriptor fit Vio. A part of me, the part that wanted rigid order, desperately wanted me to hate her just for existing. It made sense now why both Tanzi and myself felt she was strong, Eldritch were a spirits natural predator after the Ancients gave them Edin.

Although I hadn’t fought an Eldritch myself, I knew what an Eldritch could do if it was let loose and it was never a pretty sight. Everything I knew about Eldritch pointed to them being creatures that only wanted to destroy, cause suffering, and eat anything and everything that moved. Then there was Vio. Where an Eldritch had no emotions except for hate and anger she had show fear and compassion, albeit in small amounts up until now. Each and every idea that came to mind to personify an Eldritch was the opposite of what Vio was. It was surreal. I should be disgusted, revolted, hell maybe even feel used, but any thoughts along those lines was dispelled when I looked at Vio for what she was. A child. A child that had been forced to be something against its will.

I had never seen Vio look scared until now but the pure unadulterated terror in her eyes spoke volumes. Spirits that had anything to do with the Eldritch, whether you were under their control or corrupted by them, were almost always killed. It was understandable why she had kept it a secret. I still didn’t know if she was a threat but the chance of her being dangerous were miniscule. I waited and just continued to squat in front of her unable to accurately judge her. There was more to this story that I needed to know.

“So the extra food you need is souls then. Why is it that you have three types of souls?”

“I need them.”

‘I swear she’s being vague on purpose.’

“What do they do for you?”

“They keep me stable. I give Arcane to the Eldritch soul, it gives Edin to the mortal soul, and the mortal soul gives my soul energy to stop it from collapsing.”

“Why the elaborate set up? What lead to this?”

“Humans came to my home. We spent over a year fighting but they slowly destroyed it and bound me. A small town was built and attracted Eldritch. The Eldritch came and wiped them out. I thought I was free but the Eldritch had other ideas. The Needleman tortured me for a year before leaving with my spirit crystal. Sometime after becoming myself again I realized I had the other two souls and had become what I am now.”

Vio had become a blubbering mess after talking about the Needleman and her spirit crystal. Even with my Arcane in effect she was still shaking in fear; it wasn’t a conscious action just a reaction.

‘So she used the other two souls to replace the two thirds of her own she lost. Who is this Needleman and what did it do to her aside from taking her spirit crystal?’

“Who’s th -”

“Please don’t ask me that! I tried for months after he finished with me to kill myself. He made it so I had to deal with ‘it’ and the attacks. Please don’t ask! Please!”

There was no strength behind her words, just tears and raw fear. She practically begged me not to pursue that line of questioning and had become even more engulfed in her own seemingly horrid memories. Whatever the Needleman was, if it had been trying to break her it had succeeded. She was petrified with terror and all that she had done was mention its name. I couldn’t imagine her reaction to actually seeing the thing.

“What’s ‘it’ ?”

“The Eldritch part of me, the more feral part of myself I have to hold back. I hate it. Every day I struggle to keep it in check and it terrifies me.”

“Why does it terrify you?”

“Because it could let Akhan out.”

‘So she named the other souls she has? That’s actually kind of cute.’

“Why does Akhan getting out terrify you?”

“Last time he got out he tried to eat what’s left of my soul. I’m going to have to fight with him again for dominance but I don’t think I can win.”

‘Wow, hell of a relationship she got with it. That must be why she had to sleep for four years. And having to fight for dominance seems like a major drawback for just living.’

“Why not?”

“I’ve fought him six times and won twice. He’s won four times in a row and if he wins one more time he’s gonna be strong enough to control my body. I’m don’t have the strength to fight and win.”

‘If only I knew what made a soul stronger I could offer to help. Is it really my place to do so though?’

“Vio why didn’t you tell us any of this?”

“I can’t trust you. I will never trust you because I can’t trust anymore. I lost the ability to trust just like I can barely use my favored type of Arcane.”

‘Vio, you’ve become paranoid from too many bad experiences. You’re a hollow shell and only time and compassion can help you. Both are needed and sadly you won’t let anyone in to start fixing the wounds that have scarred you. I honestly hope that Seelenehe will help you in some way because there is very little I can do. All I can do is listen and console.’

------------------------------------------Vio’s POV ------------------------------------------

Maka’s features were unreadable but she released the Arcane that was making me answer her. Neither of use move or spoke and as time passed my fear slowly amplified in a screaming need to flee.

Needing to get away, to escape, I pulled myself onto the Highway before curling into a ball. I screamed. It was a feral scream that held everything from anger to grief. The scream died out when my throat couldn’t continue and I just lay there sobbing quietly letting everything out.

“You done?”

I froze and turned to see that Maka had followed me. Chances were I was going to die. Scrambling to my feet I tried to run but Maka was faster.

‘Maybe this time I’ll stay dead.’

I felt warmth. Instead of attacking me she had hugged me.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why aren’t you killing me?”

I was choking up and had started to cry again.

“Because I don’t need to.”

Maka turned me around before embracing me again. She just held me and let me cry while rocking back and fourth. When I finally calmed down I asked her the first question that came to mind.

“What now?”

“What now? Well we can go back to the mansion or stay here. You can ask me anything you want to know.”

I nodded slightly, rubbing my head against her stomach, the contact felt nice.

“Why’d you question me?”

“You kept too many secrets and never shared anything about yourself. I was curious and then Ormonde fell through the floor so I needed answers.”

“But how did you do it? ”

“I’m a spirit of order, just like you we have our own special Arcane.”

“But how come you didn’t do this sooner?”

“It has its consequences. Everything I made you do I have to follow as well. And while you’re free of that now, I won’t be for about three months. There are other compounding effects like duration and such but they’re not as important.”

“Wait so that means you can’t lie?”

“Yup. However, things like my true name can’t be revealed.”

‘There are still so many ways to abuse this and I want answers.’

“Why didn’t you freak out when you found out I’ve been tainted by the Eldritch?”

“Because you’d never shown the same tendencies of an Eldritch, you’re more in control. Don’t get me wrong, you still scare the shit out of me, but that doesn’t mean I should hate or kill you.”

It felt like there was more to her reply that hadn’t been said, a lingering bit of pity or understanding that hadn’t been verbally conveyed.

‘ I’m not in control at all though; I’m holding on by the edge.’

“Then what is it that you do feel towards me?”

“Sadness, pity, regret, relief, that you’re a child that’s been through too much too soon, disgust towards the Eldritch part of you.”

‘She’s okay with this? And why regret?’

“I can kind of understand the others, but why regret?”

“Because I should have asked sooner. I don’t know what you’ve been through unless you tell me but talking about it can help. Do you care if I ask you one more question?”

“About what? ‘Cause I’m sure you can tell I’m not happy with what you did.”

“Well, you said you tried to kill yourself, why didn’t you let another Eldritch eat you?”

“I tried but an eldritch can only consume another Eldritch that is at or under the same strength of itself. I couldn’t find an Eldritch that could kill me.”

“The Eldritch part of you is that powerful?”

“It’s Akhan who has that power not me. I can only borrow it and even then it’s risky because it could give him control. That’s why I’m terrified of him.”

“Then what about the thing you’ve been suppressing?”

“That’s different.”

“Not much of an explanation.”

“Not much to explain. Are we done here?”

I pushed myself away from Maka until I had enough room to look up at her. She didn’t resist and let me separate from her.

“I’d like to get you to open up more if possible. Do you want to be done?”

“Yes.”

“Alright. I’ll go then, but we still need to talk about us creating a link and you need to learn how to test for affinity.”

“Do we really have to create a link?”

“No, but I’d feel better about Ormonde being around you if we did and this only reinforced that concern.”

‘Because now you know that I’m a walking disaster waiting to happen.’

“ I’ll . . I’ll think about it. I’m not promising anything though.”

“Good and remember; not everyone is the same, there are people you can trust.”

‘If only I’d meet them.’

Maka left me by myself and I headed north. I didn’t care where I ended up I just needed to let lose some steam. When I exited the Highway I was in a small forest; what I left in my wake was a smoldering pit a few hundred feet in diameter.

I didn’t want to go back to the mansion immediately so I made my way to my pond instead. It didn’t help me relax; nothing would until I was able to bury the memories that had been brought back to the surface. The attacks were memory enough, I didn’t want to have to recall anything else. So I slept. Sleeping wouldn’t make it go away but it would let me escape from reality briefly and the respite was needed.

Rays from the morning sun woke me up. I still didn’t return to the mansion and tried my hand at creating a wind Aldite instead. A week and a half passed before I finally created it. Ormonde visited during that time and we played a version of tag that involved switching between ethereality and corporeality.

He was becoming better at controlling the changes but his movement while ethereal lacked finesse. Given time he may become more skilled than I was if not for the fact that I was also practicing. I thought about using the gravity Aldite to change the area we played in every so often to help facilitate growth but decided against it. Ormonde was too young and the Aldite was too weak.

I had put off returning to the mansion for fear of awkwardness between Maka and myself. She had seen me in a less than desirable state. In reality I needed to talk to her again. I still needed to learn how to test Ormonde for affinity and maybe create a link with her. Speaking of links, my link to the ethereal plane was still growing nicely and the soul binding I had with Ormonde had been unraveled completely.

Something strange was happening with my soul though. The small part of it that held Ormonde’s soul from Seelenehe felt like it was leaking something into me. It was an itched I couldn’t scratch and had started to annoy the hell out of me.

When I did return to the mansion Maka wasn’t in the kitchen. I don’t know if she decided to give me space or had just left to do something else for once. The counter that was quickly becoming a bed for me had a series of different colored Aldite on it. There was a written note as well but I ignored it and put the Aldite I had created onto the counter as well. Carrying them around wasn’t the best option when each took one hand to move.

I had to wait for fifteen minutes until Maka finally showed up and I could ask her about the Aldite she had made.

“Maka what’s with the Aldite?”

“Well, I finished making all of the ones that you would need as an apology.”

‘At least I don’t have to struggle for weeks on end in order to make them anymore.’

Looking at Maka I could see bags under her eyes. She must have been up for a long time without any rest to make everything so quickly.

“That must have drained you. Are you sure that was wise?”

“Yup. I’m fine, nothing a little sleep can’t help.”

I nodded at her response. It was good to know I wasn’t at risk of losing a potential information source.

“Thank you.”

I spoke so quietly I might as well have just mouthed the words.

“What?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Oh. Ok. Anything else you’re going to be doing here before you run away again?”

“Nope. Um, Do you think that tomorrow you could tell me how to test for affinities?”

“I can do it now if you want.”

“Tomorrow will be fine. I’ve got some other things to take care of.”

“Need to get some food?”

“Yeah.”

I just wanted an excuse to leave and needing to hunt was as good as any other. There were still a few souls in my lantern but getting some more wasn’t a bad idea now that I thought about it. Once again I lowered the local animal population by a small margin and in turn got myself a prolonged life expectancy.

The next day Maka explained how to test for affinity, it was surprisingly easy. The Aldite had to have a rune inscribed on it and after that just touching the crystals would let anyone watching know if there was a reaction. The rune was only good for one use and after that it would dissipate leaving the crystal untouched as if nothing had been there. All of the Aldite had been prepared and I spent the next couple of days transferring the Aldite to a tree by my pond. I just needed to wait for the next time Ormonde visited.

Ormonde eventually visited again and I was able to begin teaching him.

“Today we’re going to do something different.”

Ormonde’s eyes lit up at the notion of a new activity and he started to hop in place.

“What is it?”

I pulled out the different Aldite from the hollow tree I had stored them in.

“What are we going to do with colorful rocks?”

“We’re testing your affinity.”

“My what?”

“Just touch the rocks.”

Since the testing process was so easy it only took a minute or two to test Ormonde for any and all affinities. Earth was an obvious one because of the earth spirit’s souls that I grafted to his; wind was fairly normal as well. The one I knew the least about was static and when it came to fire I was fairly advanced.

I wasn’t going to teach him fire first, it was too volatile, and I knew nothing about static Arcane so I couldn’t teach him about it even if I wanted to. That left me with either wind or earth. Wind would be hard to teach a child since it couldn’t be seen and using that as my deciding factor we were starting with earth.

The real question was how to get him to actually use Arcane of any type. I knew what it felt like to use it but I couldn’t explain it to anyone. Teaching him to use Arcane in the same way as I taught him corporality shifting wasn’t going to work; it was too dangerous. I would have to show and tell him what to do and hope that eventually he’d get it.

“So once again watch what I do and try to copy me. Let me know when you can’t do it.”

I filtered some earth Arcane and lifted a small clump of dirt into the air and then returned it to the ground. I looked over at a wide eyed Ormonde.

“Your turn.”

“I can’t do that!”

“Try.”

Ormonde gave it four attempts before turning back to me with a pout on his face.

“See! I can’t do it!”

“Sit down and close your eyes.”

I had him well trained at this point and he followed my orders with little resistance.

“I want you to focus on the space around you, does it feel different?”

Earth Arcane began to build up around him as I filtered it and let it stagnate.

“I can kinda feel something but it’s tiny.”

There wasn’t much more I could do to increase the density of the Arcane around him short of encasing him in stone and I wasn’t going to do that.

“Where do you feel it and what does it feel like?”

‘If I’m doing this correctly, he should be feel as if he was covered in dirt.’

“It’s coming from where you are, it kinda feels like um, like when I eat a lot of sweets.”

‘Is he feeling raw Arcane?’

I moved the earth Arcane into its respective Aldite and surrounded Ormonde with raw Arcane.

“Tell me if you feel something now.”

“Yeah! It’s all around me!”

Ormonde opened his eyes and looked at me clearly looking for some sort of praise.

‘Great. Now I’m going to have to explain links to him way sooner than I wanted to.’

“Calm down and listen. You’re feeling raw Arcane. In order to use it for anything you need to learn how to filter it.”

“How do I do that?”

“I’m not quite sure. I can do it but it’s instinct. Let me think for a moment on how to handle this.”

I could try explaining filtering but the chance of my explanation being well received was close to nil. Having him feel the change in Arcane and then asking him to replicate it would also fail since I was the one in control of the raw Arcane. Another option was to share memories with him. While both the safest and fastest method, the idea of giving someone access to my memories out of my own free will was revolting and I didn’t want to render Ormonde catatonic.

The final choice was to share the feeling of utilizing filtering and gathering raw Arcane. It was spotty at best as a means to get him to learn and may not be limited to the feeling of Arcane that was shared. My concern was that I would have to use the piece of my soul that was inside Ormonde and I didn’t know what that would do. Would it work as intended and then do nothing else? Maybe it would create a bridge for him to send things to me and I to him. The worst outcome was that he could browse through my memories.

In reality I only had one choice and it was the last one.

“Ormonde, this may feel weird or hurt. Sorry.”

Ignoring Ormondes stream of questions, I began to focus on the piece of my soul that Ormonde housed. While maintaining my concentration I started to filter Arcane and fed that sensation to Ormonde. Groan and complaints were thrown my direction, but I ignored them and continued.

‘I’ve done this for ten minutes now. Let’s hope he’s had a little of that feeling ingrained into him.’

I opened my eyes and looked at Ormonde. He had lain down on his stomach at some point.

“How you feeling?”

“Strange. It felt like something was trying to tickle me from the inside.”

“Ready to try and control some of what you felt?”

“Yeah!”

I opened Ormonde’s link to let raw Arcane surround him and watched as he tried without any success to manipulate it. This was going to take a while.

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AN: Hello Readers! This chapter would have been up much sooner but summer school has stared and that means two essays a week for five weeks (Ugh). I'm going to address the issue that seems to have cropped up were everyone seems stronger than Vio. Quite simply, its because they are stronger than Vio. I'll use the fire Arcane lineup as an example for this.

fire - heat - plasma - fission - fusion - energy

In this lineup each following "idea" is stronger but more difficult to comprehend than its predecessor. After passing each trial a spirit is given new understanding of that element and once they complete the whole loop they get knowledge that specifically helps them grow. Energy is stronger than fire because you take all the energy out of a system and nothing can or will happen. Order Arcane and a few others (time, space, bone to name a few) may seem stupidly strong but they have limits, requirements, and payments. After all, "There is always a price. Always." the question just remains, what's the price?

Any questions, comments or concerns? Feel free to post away and for now I will bid you adieu.

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