Technically the last thing on Adam’s daily schedule was sleep, but he planned to add a few things. His nightly mana meditation was one, but he also planned to add visits to his mind as well.
While he wasn’t gaining new skills on a daily basis, nor were changes in his affinity cropping up either, he still felt there were gains to be had by spending time with his Sky Tome, Szellem, and the mindscape itself. Additionally, he knew he needed to start spending far more time than he had with his skill impressions. It wasn’t just the crone that could teach him a thing or two.
After his meeting with Ruth, he did his mana meditation, and then rolled that straight into a visit with the crone. Perhaps calling it a visit was a bit of a misnomer, as he couldn’t really manifest inside the space that his skill impressions filled as he could with his mindscape, but visit was still how he thought of it. He was just as present in their world as they were in his, a presence felt, but not seen. They were still working on communication, but some progress had been made.
When his consciousness entered, he always arrived in the little cottage’s kitchen. He could see any of the space when he wasn’t trying to be more present, but actually visiting required him to start from the beginning. The crone always knew what he was up to, but it was expected considering she was the embodiment of Mother Knows Best. This time too she met him when he became aware. A bright smile and a beckoning gesture got him to follow her as she headed out of her little cottage.
She led him to the garden, indicating that she had been paying attention to his recent conversations. As she walked through, she stroked, prodded, and gently guided his attention to certain plants. Some he recognized, and others he didn’t. The ones he knew were all related to cooking, although even though they were to be growing in the garden, they looked half dried already. As for the rest of the plants, the looked fake somehow. As though they were copies carved and painted to look like the plants they represented. It took him very little time to realize what it was all about.
The garden was at least mostly a representation of Home Remedies. The plants related to cooking must have had a partial representation because they were closer to being alive than the others were. When he smiled and nodded at here, she beckoned him to follow once again.
Their next stop was a cauldron inside the cottage. There were various other cooking related items nearby, most of which looked more real than the cauldron did. In particular, the kitchen knives stood out almost in sharp relief compared to most of the other tools. In fact, anything that he had used, either as a tool or a weapon, was clearly seen, but the things that he had used for both were even clearer. He tried to brush his fingers over the assorted tools, forgetting he had the physical impact of a ghost.
A hand waving in front of him captured his attention and brought it back to the crone. Seeing him pay attention again, she pointed at the cauldron. He stared at it blankly for a moment, then turned back to her and shrugged. He could only assume she could somehow interpret his thoughts because she seemed to know what he was doing, even though he was invisible. Shaking her head and muttering, the woman grabbed a couple of herbs he’d not seen from the nearby table, and, making sure he was paying attention by shaking them in his face, threw them into the cauldron. He was prepared for there to be a splash, or even a lite brushing sound. What he was certainly not ready to see was the herbs flying right through the walls of the cauldron. While he was blinking in confusion, the woman swiped her hand through the tools that were still clouded and immaterial. None of them moved.
She shot him a glare, so he nodded sagely. It didn’t take a genius to understand her explanation. She nodded fiercely back, and pointed at the cauldron and then back outside. She finished by crossing her arms and nodding once more. It seemed to him that Mother Knows Best was agreeing with Ruth about Home Remedies. He was partially amused by them agreeing as well as the interaction with the crone, and partially nervous at the two women agreeing on something so easily. As he was thinking that, the crone chuckled silently and patted his arm as she went by. He still had no idea how she made him feel things like that when he wasn’t really there.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
With that argument done, she guided him through the rest of the space. Walking through the grey void towards the cave was a little like walking through heavy fog. He couldn’t see a single thing, but he felt like he was moving through a bubble. When they arrived, he saw that Mama Bear was fully recovered. When he had checked on her after Szellem’s warning, he had found the bear to be significantly less solid than she had been, looking wispy and more than a little ragged around the edges. He was glad she was back to normal.
Jay’s avatar in the rear of the cave was curled up comfortably around the fire of Mother’s Love. He could still feel the boy’s condition and emotions, so he took the time to check up on him. Jay was less well than he had been, but there was none of the wary nervousness and sharp edged fear that had permeated the dream of his life. It was the best they could hope for, although he had an inkling of a plan for the future. Time would tell if he would be able to help the boy more.
With the last of the obvious skill impressions visited, the crone shooed him on his way before scooting over to give the bear a good brushing. At a closer look he realized that there was nothing about Mama Bear that indicated she was a wild animal. Her coat was glossy and smooth, and while there was a slight musky scent of a large animal she mostly smelt of wildflowers. He allowed his ghostly representation give her a pat goodbye, and then slipped back into the real world.
His next stop was right back into meditation, this time headed to his mindscape. He briefly reflected on how much time he spent in his own head, laughing to himself. One of the girls at the orphanage used to get in trouble for just staring blankly into space, often being called out by the teacher for being lost in her own mind. It amused him that he had managed to actually do so. He thought about visiting her to tell her of it if he ever got back to Queen of the Night City. Feeling the sadness that always came with thinking about returning, he shook it off. It took a couple extra minutes to calm down enough to reach the mindscape, but he got there in the end.
“Back so soon?” Szellem asked.
Adam nodded, adding, “Yeah, I think I have finally made up my mind for this one.”
“Not going to wait for anything new after all?”
“No. The time would be better spent using this skill, than waiting for another,” he explained. He considered skipping the other reason, but eventually just went ahead anyways. Maybe the strange man could help him make sense of it. “Also, it feels like a missing piece to from my skill impressions.”
“Oh? How so?”
“Mother Knows Best has a little cottage and a garden that the crone spends a lot of her time in, but the garden is fake, or not yet real… it’s hard to explain.”
“Mmm, no, I understand what you are saying.”
“Oh. OK, good. There’s other pieces too. A big cauldron, some tools that I don’t recognize, and can’t see well. From what I can figure out from the crone, they should all be the pieces attached to Home Remedies. I figure that if they are such a big portion of Mother Knows Best, then I should probably get the skill that produces them, right? I mean, I want it for more than just that, but it makes sense to complete such a large portion of the impressions.”
“Yeah, that seems like a good idea, and the skill looks like it will be very useful as long as you have the time for it. Question though?”
“Yes?”
“You’re sure that the garden and stuff are part of Mother Knows Best? I don’t think Home Remedies was attached to that one.”
“Well… what else could it be?”
“I wonder…” With that enigmatic statement, Szellem faded away.
Adam, having grown somewhat used to the weirdo and his antics, almost shrugged the whole thing off, but paused to think it through. Szellem was strange, but he was also his guide. Maybe there was something to it after all. He would look into it. Not too hard, and not right then, but soon.
In the meantime, he had a skill to purchase.