Chapter 29

It was a beautiful morning. Sun was shining, the sky was clear and the weather promised to keep itself this way for the whole day. Silva was sure that birds were singing too… somewhere. In a place where there was a lot less snow.

But for now, she had something else she had to worry about.

Silva had spent her whole morning reading inspirational quotes. Her conclusion? They were ranging from vaguely useful to downright useless.

Sure they sounded ‘nice’, but what did ‘don’t let yesterday take up too much of today’ actually meant? Surely if you had made a mistake you had to make up for it the next day. Or ‘you learn more from failure than from success’, but that sounded like you should set up yourself for a failure, instead of preparing yourself for success.

And these were some of the least obnoxiously written ones. “Maybe”, Silva supposed. “Maybe I am thinking too much of what they can mean and more what they say?”

Finally, with a frustration filled growl, she stuffed her phone in a pocket when she noticed that it was time to head out. What's more, she was late.

Wasted morning aside she had the duty and honour to teach her pupils and they were probably already waiting for her arrival.

“Not only they were useless but now I am also late because of those shitty quotes!” Silva grumbled as she put on her jacket and headed out.

The weather, as expected, turned out to be nice and refreshing. A rarity at this time of year. Days were usually short and cold, with the addition of biting wind eating away at her skin. Not to mention the constant snowing this past week. And she had big news for her friends as well. “A nice day indeed.”

“Late, late late-,” Silva continued to talk to herself as she hurried along the sidewalk, of course, not forgetting to activate her ability

Naturally, the fact that she was late was not the fault of the dubious texts she had read all morning. What was at fault here was the vague notion that she should sound smarter when teaching others, and a nice quote would have helped along nicely.

Also, Silva had hoped that she would find something that could cheer up Steven, or give her an idea on what to do with Mika. Needless to say, those goals too had not been achieved.

What’s more, Silva had another pressing matter that demanded her attention. The first week of the December had already passed and that meant that Christmas was that much closer.

Silva was forced to face this very fact on every corner by an exasperating amount of decorations. Those had found their way into every window, pole or wall.

It was so frustrating too. It all would not have been so bad if Silva had any idea what gifts she should get her friends, but she didn’t.

Oh, sure, Silva did have ideas, and that was the problem. She had too many of them, and she was pretty sure none of them was good.

At least she had already gotten her father his socks. Silva got him socks every year. This time with cute little kitties with bells on the tip of their tails. She was sure that her father would love them. If not it will still be funny to see him wear them.

Stopping before a crossing Silva lamented the fact that she had to wait for the cars to pass. The small downsides of her power. Checking time again she comforted herself that she would not be late by that much.

Not that it mattered, because as soon as she crossed the street she got the predictable message from Mika.

It would still take a little more than ten minutes on foot to get to that nauseating tea house that Steven favoured.

Silva really should have known better and just send a message that she would arrive belatedly. Now it was already too late, hopefully, Mika will be in a good mood and won’t lecture her. Silva continued to manoeuvre trough couple groups of people that happened to walk along the way as she typed an apology.

Soon Silva arrived at the agreed place. As she entered she ascertained that it was still as tacky as ever, only now with the additional overdecorated Christmas trees and small reindeer plushies thrown about the shop. Remarkably there was only a single plastic Santa by the door. Silva could live with that.

Spotting her friends across the room she started to undress as she passed the counter carefully avoiding staff. Silva knew that those who worked here recognized her as one of Steven’s friends, but it was still too tall of a hurdle for her to greet someone she did not know on the first-name basis. Or at least without a dire need.

“You are late,” Steven noted as Silva sat down next to Mika. “… Teacher.” He stretched the last word.

“Sorry, I… lost track of the time. Hi!” Silva apologized and belatedly said her greetings. She was determined to not reveal the real reason under any circumstances.

“Hey, you!” Mika returned the greeting with the addition of a small, light hug.

Silva would have stiffened… Well, would have stiffened more, if not for the fact that Mika had taken a liking on greeting her like this every time they met. It was-… Not good for her heart.

So instead of confronting her emotions as any sensible person would she smelled the cup that was obviously prepared for her. Luckily it was easy to identify the tea as strawberry and not one of the more unusual brews this place offered.

Silva took a breather and checked her surroundings, maybe for a bit too long, because Steven started to stare at her. Raining in her sudden wish to fidget in her seat she gave a fake cough and started to speak.

“So, anyway, I called this meeting because of… Well, you both have yet to… Um, and I also managed to figure something out…”

Despite her mental preparations, it was not going great.

“So what you are saying we are slow, stupid or unable to understand things as easily as you. In addition, you advanced ahead of us again.” Steven translated.

“Uh, yes?”

“We won’t take offence, just say it as it is.” Steven shrugged. Before flinching after looking at Mika. “Sorry…” He muttered.

Silva reigned in her wish to sigh. These couple of weeks since the incident where Steven was shot he had become somewhat abrasive. Mika had already brought it up before and he had promised to pick himself up, but for now, he still slipped up from time to time. Silva tried to not mind those times when he did something unusual or uncharacteristic for him.

It would have been stranger if Steven acted as if everything was fine. Silva could not even start to imagine what he had to go through emotionally. Still, she wished that Steven would talk more about his feelings. Though, Mika had said that they will have to wait until he was ready.

So, for now, the three of them were dancing around the issue and tried to avoid anything that would remind Steven of that night. Otherwise, it almost guaranteed that he would become easily irritated.

Silva even suspected that his progress was so slow because of the trauma. There surely was one from being shot and, even more so, from taking a human life. Of course, she would never say it aloud. Instead, she would just work harder to get him up to the speed.

On the bright side because Steven was far less obnoxious with his remarks Mika also had no need to needle him back. Though, Silva had to admit that she missed the constant arguing between her friends a bit.

As Silva gathered her thoughts once again she took a sip of her tea and frowned.

“Why does my strawberry tea tastes like… Watermelon?” Silva smacked her lips. “And cinnamon?”

“Oh, that's their Christmas special.” Steven intently watched her expression but was left disappointed. “I guess it’s not as strong as last years.”

Silva noticed that Mika was eyeing her cup with suspicion.

“Want to try it?” Silva offered.

“Uh, no I am fine, I have my own.” Mika waved at her cup, which contained purplish liquid. “Actually, on a second thought…”

But before Mika could reach out for Silva’s cup it was already in Steven’s hands as he tasted the brew.

“Too late. Should have acted quicker instead of blushing.” Steven pushed tea back to Silva.

When Silva glanced sideways and indeed, Mika’s cheeks were turning red. And once again her heart failed to stay calm. “I really need to do something about this. On the plus side, it seems that Steven is getting better.”

“Anyway!” Silva cleared her throat. It was better to speak before Mika could pick up the steam. She already looked like smoke could come out of ears any second now. “I wanted once again go through the process oh how I discovered the ability to see the speckles. How to activate the sight and then you will tell me step by step how you do it and we will try to figure out why you two still can’t do it.”

“Maybe we all just have our own path,” Mika suggested.

“No, I already told you, according to our Master-.”

“The alleged Master’s. Could be a ghost for all we know. A ghost with a grudge against the living.” Mika still was not fond of the idea that all three of them was now counting as, in her words, ‘some old poltergeists disciples.’

“I still think we should call it mana.” Steven inserted.

At that moment people passed their table and the conversation stopped. Silva took a look around to see that the place was once again empty. Sometimes she had to wonder how ‘Shan-tea’ even managed to stay open.

“As I was saying,” Silva used the chance to return to the planned topic, “Seeing mana,” she put an emphasis on the word ‘Mana’ for Steven’s pleasure, “is very important for the next step. And not only that, now that I have had some practice it is clear how that Esha guy so easily could tell what we are.”

“So you are sure that you can see us spending the mana?” Mika inquired.

“Well, if we have not used our abilities it’s very slow, but shortly after? It’s not that hard. Though, I still don’t know how to keep Mana sight active for a prolonged time.” Silva added sadly.

“Okay, okay, we get it, we will try harder.” Steven finally relented.

Silva took this chance to once again go over every little detail on what she had done and how it had felt. It took the better part of an hour before they had finished talking. At least this time both of her friends taken this seriously.

It also had become clear that Mika was quite close to seeing Mana herself. She only needed a little push in the right direction. Steven though… Steven had a lot to do.

“I know, I know. I just did not have time.” He tried to justify himself.

“Steven, this is important.” Silva chided. “Besides, I have something that will motivate you!”

“Oh, is it about that thing that you have figured out?” Steven finished drinking his third cup of tea. “And as I said I was busy and… you know.”

“Sure you were.” Mika agreed and Steven grunted.

If not for the amenable tone Mika spoke of Silva would have thought that her friend was picking a fight with Steven

Silva already knew it, but both of her friends were really close to each other. Sometimes it left her feeling like a third wheel. Well, at least she was feeling like that much less nowadays.

Glancing sideways she noticed that Mika was looking at her and averted her eyes, hoping that it did not seem too unnatural.

“Okay, here is the thing.” Silva then took a pause to figure out how to better go about revealing the news. She looked forward to it. “Remember how that Esh person back in the mountains spoke and his lip movement did not match what we heard?”

“Yes! Did you figure out why? Was it his ability as we suspected?” Mika asked.

“I was watching that wolf, so no!” Steven chimed in being petulant.

“So, like, it was not his ability.” Silva took a breath. She had to admit, she enjoyed this moment. “However, because he has a power like us he could do it and so can we.” she dramatically finished.

“What?” Mika and Steven tilted their heads.

Silva once again took a look around the room making sure that no one was listening.

“What I am saying is that we can cast spells!” Silva whispered with satisfaction.

“WHAT?”