Essence +0

The salad vanished from the bowl, and Zachary learned he didn't have to be immediately touching something to ingest it. It just had to be inside him, anywhere inside the house.

He sucked it up through the air itself, and that was a curious sensation, like something was tickling the roof of his mouth. But he didn't have a mouth. There was no taste no flavor, the leaves and corn and stuff simply disappeared, and he would've groaned if he could. He got no Essence at all from the salad; it seemed he had to eat creatures to grow. But even though it gave him nothing, he got a different notification in his head:

Awareness Bronze 1/5 to Bronze 2/5

Sophronia's parents stared at the bowl. Then her Ma's lips curved into a little smile. "So, the house ate the salad? We have a hungry, hungry house don't we."

"Very hungry," said her Pa. He looked around. "Would you like my salad too? I suppose I should introduce myself properly. I’m Haden. And this is my wife, Mona."

Sophronia's face darkened. Her lips formed a stern line. "You still don't believe me?"

They smiled. “Of course we do dear. It's okay,” said Mona.

“If you say you did it, then you did it,” said Haden. He reached over to touch Sophronia's hand but she jerked her arm away. He frowned. “Of course, we believe you, and one day, if you keep going like this, you're gonna do so much more.”

But it was clear they were trying to humor her. Did they think she just used some kind of magic to make the salad disappear? How could he convince them he was really here?

Poltergeist

All the drawers flew open. Silverware, spoons and forks and knives, hovered in the air before cluttering to the floor. Mona shouted something as cabinets opened and shut, as the faucet turned, and water rushed into the sink.

Mona didn't look impressed. She was frowning. "So are you gonna blame the house for this little tantrum too?"

“Come on now Sophie, what did we say about controlling your powers?” Haden crossed his arms, but he didn't look like he was actually upset.

Sophronia jutted out her bottom lip. "House is just trying to show you that he's here."

Her Pa’s face softened. "Alright, but we better tidy that mess up before your ma gets upset, sweetie. What did we say about respecting everyone’s space and their feelings?”

Despite the gentle talking to, Sophronia looked like she wanted to kick up a fuss, but she glanced at where Zachary was hovering and shook her head. Then she turned around and waved her hands.

Golden yellow light shimmered around her for a second before blinking away and reappearing around the silverware and the cabinets and the sink. Everything floated back into place, and the kitchen fell silent.

"I'm done with dinner now," she said, storming into her bedroom as her parents protested. She shut the door with a bang, and Zachery hovered, feeling annoyed at her parents and a little sheepish, worried that he'd gotten Sophronia into trouble with his little stunt. But how hadn't it worked? Why wouldn't they believe her? Clearly, their daughter was a protege. But then... they probably thought she was using magic to make the salad vanish and disturb the kitchen utensils. After all, she put everything back in place with her magic easily.

"What if she actually did do it?" whispered her mother, leaning forward, glancing nervously around as she speared another bit of salad with her fork. Mona looked so much like an older version of Sophronia when she chewed. "A daemon-bound house? Can a little girl even channel that kind of magic?"

“I know Soph’s amazing,” said Haden. He hesitated as he stared at the empty bowl Sophronia left behind. “But that’s just got to be her imagination, right? No one of her rank could bind something as big as a house. Even the sages struggle to bind daemons to tools or little things. You know. Like a cursed knife or a haunted book.”

“Yeah,” said Mona, nodding fervently. “And she said she did that years ago. There’s no way.” She sighed and pushed away her bowl before placing her head in her hands. “I feel like we’re failing her,” she said in a very quiet voice.

Haden frowned and scratched at his chin. He looked like he kept his face clean-shaven, but a shadow of growth was starting to form. “Next month, I’ll see what overtime I can get at the Bank. Maybe we can get Soph a higher rank teacher. She’s already stronger than Ms. Jezebel.”

"Jezebel’s such a darling thing," said Mona with a sigh. “They're just going to get more and more expensive. She's growing so quickly. And we have to be careful."

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“Every new teacher has to be sworn to secrecy,” said Haden. He rubbed his eyes. “I don’t even know where to look. The teachers don’t advertise anymore and you know how it’s been with the Rebellion assholes.”

“Don’t swear in the house, Hade,” said Mona sharply.

“Sorry.”

They dropped the topic. Zachary wanted to know more about these “Rebellion assholes” and he wondered why it was so difficult to find a teacher. Why did they have to be sworn to secrecy? Sophronia had mentioned being taken out of school... but why? There was almost something wrong with the magic in this world. He needed to learn more.

Instead, her parents talked about bills. Heating. Electricity. How it would be so much easier if they could just use magic instead, and Zachary got the sense that laws were in place to prevent that. They mentioned noticing fewer bugs and things, and Mona looked up at the ceiling as though wondering if the house really was possessed. Zachary wanted to shout. Yes! I’m right here! Your daughter trapped me in this and-

“House,” came a whisper so soft, he knew that only he could’ve heard it. It was Sophronia.

Zachary floated over Haden and Mona; he felt like he could’ve gone through them, but that would be rude. He hesitated in front of Sophronia's door wishing he could knock, but he also could not resist. It was a strange tug on his soul, willing him forward, as though she was summoning him. He went through the wood and emerged inside the bedroom to find the girl floating with her legs crossed. Her bushy hair floated over her as yellowish-golden energy emanated from her form.

“They're so annoying sometimes,” she said.” Did they talk about me after I left?” She blinked as though she was waiting for a response, then nodded. “Yeah, sometimes I want to use scrying to eavesdrop on them, but that's rude. But I don't care if they don't believe me. I'm happy you're here.”

For a moment, Zachary felt like he really was her imaginary friend. And holy fuck, what if he was that? What if he wasn’t real? He was a house! How was he supposed to know if he was real or not? Had his previous life been real? Was he a delivery boy with a shitty childhood and an even shittier adult life? Or were those memories due to some kinda magic?

“We need to get you stronger,” said Sophronia, uncrossing her legs and dropping lightly to the ground. “The bugs haven't really come back, so we need to figure out a better way for you to grow.” She scratched her chin and paced back and forth and Zachary noted how many more books were piled all over the place.

She had more baskets of various twigs and dried herbs and there were several glass jars with creatures in them. A large beetle with a yellow shell. Some ladybugs crawling on a sprig of leaves. And one big orange spider that gave Zachary the creeps to look at.

“Don't eat these ones, okay? I found them outside and I thought they were pretty. And I've been practicing a growing spell on them. You know? To make them big!” She held out her arms as if to emphasize the sizes they could reach.

Make them grow? Even though he was trying to get used to bugs, to get used to eating the bugs, he did not want to see an oversized spider crawling through him. He did not want to feel those orange legs. Just the sight of its many eyes was grossing him out.

“I've got it!” she said with a shout. She jumped up and down, hands waving in the air, her brow furrowed in concentration. “I'm going to run through the house as fast as I can, and I'm going to knock things over and make a big mess and I want you to focus on all those things, okay? We need to bring up your Awareness.”

Before Zachary could even register what the girl was talking about, she dashed toward her door, drumming on the wood. Each thud revibrated through the house, and he felt the sound waves. He felt them in the solid walls. He felt them moving through the air. Focusing on them made the sounds more apparent, and just as he was getting used to that, she ran out of her room.

Her parents asked if she was hungry. Haden was washing the dishes as Mona sat at the circular table with a book in her hands. But Sophronia ignored them both. She was a blur of bushy hair and childlike glee. She tapped on the chairs. She tapped on the cleaned bowls. She even turned the faucet on and then off, using her hands instead of magic. Haden asked her to help, but she skipped away to her parent’s room. Zachary followed, his focus intent on all the sensations, on all the sounds and textures of the wood, the metal, her footsteps. He wondered why he hadn’t done that before.

It was the bugs. The damn bugs. They'd freaked him out so much, he’d unconsciously held back. And then he'd ignored the bathroom and the parent's room, out of respect for privacy, but Sophronia was right. He needed a better understanding of himself.

She ran through her parents' room. It was the same size as hers but felt much roomier as there weren't any shelves or tables taking up space. There was a bed pressed up against a wall. A window that Sophronia opened and shut, and he focused on the cool air blowing in from outside, and then on the way everything stirred as she yanked on the blankets and tugged on the closet door and rifled through the hanging shirts. She shouted with joy as she raced back out, even as her parents yelled at her to calm down. But she wasn't listening. She was glowing with yellow light, shooting a smile in Zachary's direction as he followed her through the small house. Once she'd gotten to the bathroom, turned the faucet for the sink and the tub, flushed the toilet twice, and tapped on the window, she paused to take a breath.

“How's that?” she asked, wiping her brow.

Awareness: Bronze 2/5 -> Bronze 3/5

She hurried back to her bedroom and grabbed her notebook to check. And there it was, just as it had appeared in Zachary's head. Bronze 3/5.

“Perfect!” Sophronia beamed at Zachary. “Okay, so it’s working. Once you get that up to Silver, you’re going to be able to see so much more.” She shut the book and placed it on her table, chewing on her bottom lip. “What can we do now? I don’t want to go into the cellar, but maybe...”

Zachary’s mind whirled. He was trying to get used to being so much more aware of his new body; he felt enormous. Even more enormous than that first night while it was raining and the wind was battering his outsides and he’d been overloaded with sensations.

“Perfect,” repeated Sophronia, this time under her breath. She’d climbed onto her table, her hands pressed to the window as she stared at something beyond Zachary, something he couldn’t see. “Let’s go outside.”