I had been expecting some kind of medical exam. Instead, the doctor guy went around the room hanging strange papers that were decorated with geometric designs, as well as various plants. It looked a lot like some kind of renaissance magic ritual combined with a botany project. I didn’t see any outright pentagrams on any of the papers, but that was about all that was missing.
He even kicked the caretaker out of the room, but she was still standing part-way up the stairs that served as the only entrance and exit to the room. Guard duty, it seemed. I heard her arguing with the kids at one point in all of this strangeness. They didn’t want anyone else coming in.
He started up some kind of chant after he’d hung up a bunch of papers and plants at regular intervals around the exterior of the room. I felt something different in the air as he did it. That got my attention. It really did not feel good. If I had to describe it, I would say that the energy in the air went stagnant. I had learned in the meditative portion of my art that this feeling was a sign you were making yourself weak. When it applied to an entire room, it was similar to feeling like the air was oppressive, and one foot out of line could hold horrible consequences for the poor individual who did it.
“In azilu dir” he said, snapping my attention back to him, just in time to see him give a satisfied nod toward his work. I had learned enough elven by this point to recognize the word “dir” out of that sentence at least. I had a little bit of trouble with the exact meaning, but it seemed to mean something similar to the word “now.” (conceptual language is always a lot harder to interpret than simple nouns and verbs.) That was about the only thing I understood out of his sentence, though.
After all the magical paraphernalia and changing, he approached Rolwen, the closer of the two boys to my position. I got a little worried about what he was up to, and Rolwen took two hesitating steps back as he looked up at the guy. (of course the boys had both been improving as well while I was practicing, they were quite capable of walking at this point.)
The only thing the man did when he reached Rolwen, though, was to bend down and pick him up. Then, he held him tight to his chest in what would have looked like a fatherly hug if he didn’t have such a clinical look on his face. He was holding Rolwen chest-to-chest with him, and then he turned his business-like eyes to me and started walking in my direction.
He knelt down and placed a hand on my head. Just when I thought this guy’s actions couldn’t get any weirder, I heard a heavy masculine voice in my head that sounded pretty close to the sound of the man’s voice.
‘Can you understand me little one?’ the voice asked, prompting me to look up at the man in confusion.
“Ah?” I responded and looked up at him in surprise.
‘Yes, yes it’s me. Do you know what I am saying? Can you understand?’
Some kind of psychic talking? But, how does that add up with everything else he was doing? Well, maybe all the spells and stuff makes sense, but why pick up Rolwen like that? That’s the part that really doesn’t make sense, unless… is he using Rolwen to fuel this spell somehow!?
‘Rolwen!’ I instinctively send an angry thought back as soon as I fit those pieces together. The man very visibly cringes in response and actually drops to one knee.
‘No, no! You shouldn’t do that! You will hurt yourself, that’s bad!’ he said.
‘Don’t hurt Rolwen!’ I mentally yelled back at him. The man had a harsh pained grimace in response to my words. He looks down at Rolwen, and then back at me with a shocked look of realization.
‘Oh, no! Your human is fine! I am not hurting him, see? He is just helping me to talk to you.’
So he really IS using Rolwen’s energy to fuel his magic? Well, with that confirmed, my mind just goes reeling. He is clearly interacting with me as the baby I look like right now. So, I can probably get him to stop sucking energy from Rolwen just by pitching a fit.
On the other hand though, the boys have never really shown any ill effects from the whole energy consumption thing. This is the first real serious route to communication I’ve had in this new life. That makes it worth considering the idea of continuing this conversation, but I also have to consider that if I start talking back to him there’s a really good chance he might realize I’m way too smart to be just a baby. Should I let information like that get out?
‘Really, Rolwen is fine, see?’ The man sent back, tilting in a way to make Rolwen’s face more visible for me. It seemed like the man had interpreted my being lost in thought as a baby who was just skeptical about his words and still upset.
“Umm…” Rolwen said, seeming rather confused for his part as he was looking between me and this man. I do not know whether or not he was able to hear my thoughts like the man obviously could. If he wasn’t, it was probably confusing to be picked up by this guy and then have him start grunting and cringing in pain as he crumpled to the floor and just barely managed to keep ahold of him.
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Ultimately, Rolwen just settled for examining his options as he watched to see what happens next. Seeing him in that state of readiness was enough to assure me. I also opted to just be quiet and see what happens.
‘Are you ok now?’ the man’s voice in my head asked. ‘Don’t answer my question, ok? You use too much of your energy when you talk with your mind like that. You don’t want to use your energy, Ok? It’s bad for you. It’s really really bad.’
Huh? What is he talking about? Well, I got one thing at least. He didn’t want me to answer his psychic communications. I could see that it hurt him when he heard me respond, but he’s saying it’s supposed to be bad for me as well somehow? Is this why everyone seemed concerned over me and Tia?
Speaking of Tia, she seemed to be crawling over this direction right now. Not in her usual crazy tumbling fashion, she was actually imitating my slower and more normal method this time. Actually, that’s the first time I’ve ever seen her do that.
The man followed my gaze and had a scowl on his face. He let out a sigh and then put Rolwen down next to me. He approached Tia and extended hand like someone reaching out a hand to an animal.
She froze and looked up at him with a confused looking expression, but a few seconds later it turned into a face-splitting open mouthed grin. I didn’t see her move or actually do anything. The man’s hand was still a good half meter away from her. But, suddenly, he recoiled his hand as though in pain and retreated away from her very fast as he shook his head with a disgusted sounding sigh.
He went straight over to the stairs that served as the entrance/exit to this room. “Catla, samah Tiaren kesdarar. Amar tama tama u mein tama. Ra ii amar ohm batar.” He said, getting the caretaker woman to come up the stairs.
Out of what he just said, I heard my sister’s name. He definitely said “Tiaren” somewhere in that. Another thing I picked out, though, was the word “tama,” which came up a large number of times around the middle. The use of that phrase was a little confusing, but from what I could tell and what I’ve learned of the language so far, the phrase “tama tama” seemed to mean “hungry.”
Under the man’s cautious gaze, the woman went straight over to Tia and then picked her up and carried her over to Levin, and then sat down with both of them in her lap as she kept a firm hold on both.
Yeah, that’s the behavior when they are feeding us alright. Wait, did that mean Tia actually BIT him? Metaphysically? With energy? Cute trick. I’m going to have to ask her how she does it as soon as she decides to learn how to use her mouth for talking. Maybe… now that we are getting to an age where it’s more reasonable for us to become mobile, maybe she can protect the boys from those elf kids by doing the same to them. She seemed to have conscious control over it too, judging from the expression that came over her face right before she did it.
While all this was going on, I leaned over to Rolwen and asked him if he was feeling Ok. He just gave a confused “yeah” in answer, and seemed surprised when I told him the guy was sucking his energy in order to magically communicate with me. When the man sighed and started approaching again, I just whispered to “let him keep going” before we both just went silent and looked back at him with the mutual unspoken agreement to keep hiding our unnaturally advanced maturity.
He picked up Rolwen and put his hand back on my head. Just like that, he restarted our interrupted and now one-sided discussion. ‘Sorry, can you still listen to me? I need to tell you something,’ he said. ‘You are letting out too much of your energy. You need to try to stop. Can you stop making so much energy?’
Can I do what? Ok, I know some meditation tricks and how to feel what some people might call “Chi,” but how do you just stop making it? Isn’t it just supposed to be some kind of life energy? I can feel it. I can make it flow. How the heck does he suppose I should just stop it?
He just sighed at my confusion. ‘Try to do this, Ok?’ He said, and then I felt another sensation hitting my body. It was like he was trying to force my body into the same weakened state of energy stagnation I’d sensed in the wider room. I only felt this sensation for a second, but it was clear enough I could tell exactly what he wanted me to do. ‘Can you do that, Asa?’ He asked. ‘Make yourself feel like I just made you feel, Ok? Can you do that?’
Really? That’s seriously what he wants me to do? Well, he will probably keep hounding me if I don’t. He seems rather serious about this being what I need to do. So, I decided to just make the guy happy.
It felt wrong on so many levels as I tried to do as he was telling me. All of my previous life, I had practiced the heaven-earth meditation, and then pushed it up to the heaven-void meditation. The heaven-earth meditation was one which taught that energy does not like to stay stagnant. Especially the energy of heaven. It also taught you how to call down the energy of heaven. It would only flow through a person who had emptied themselves of their own energy. And, if you did not immediately push the energy of heaven out into the world, it would be cut off and quickly leave you.
Now, this guy was asking me to intentionally isolate my energy and cease to push it out into the world. Maybe I would just do it for a little bit to keep him happy. I could feel my skin crawling as the tension in my body built at having my energy isolated. This man, though… He seemed very pleasantly surprised.
‘Wow! Asa! That’s very very good! Good job!’ he said. ‘You need to keep doing that, Ok?’
I felt my face twist into an upset grimace. He seemed happy though as he set Rolwen down next to me and then slowly backed away, keeping his eyes on me for several steps.
“Imma! Amar nieru dara!”
He certainly seemed pleased and impressed. Well, I know I’m only inviting trouble by doing this, but I quickly decide to release this stupid stagnant energy and go back to what I was doing before while he’s still in the room. I know I’m just about to subject myself to more of his nonsense, but I’m certain it would look suspicious if a baby could figure out this trick the first time and have it stick.
Of course, as soon as I do that he runs right back over to me. Well then, since I’m trying to create the impression of being a baby, it’s time to treat the poor guy like a yo-yo. That’s exactly what a real baby would do once they discover they can control someone else’s actions. Let’s also get some cute giggles in there every time he comes running up in a huff for good measure.