Chapter 33 - Gently touching her mind
This night, the wind stormed violently over the city, making our house creak like tens of old, rusted, un-oiled doors. Outside, snow was swept away, creating an otherworldly whirlwind as the powerful light of the full moon played in the millions of delicate crystalline structures.
Anxious, the Yiburis had wrapped its legs around us more tightly, and if you were to open your eyes, you would see its eyes wide open, not sleeping but awake, standing guard with its bladed limbs slowly swimming through the air, as if an attack could happen anytime.
I was warm under the blankets, sister on my left and brother on my right, trying and failing to find a good position to sleep.
I always hated this kind of weather. It would always, without fail, bring back memories I would rather forget, memories of people, crying and screaming.
Mom. Mom!
...Ah. Ah, yes.
You were dragged back there.
Yes. Sorry. I hate this weather.
I know. I’ll plug your ears.
...Just don’t forget, your memories are in the past. Right now, you’ve your siblings and your family, and they are here for you. I’m sure they’ll still be in tens of years.
I let Psaï cover my ears as her words rocked me and, a tiny tear rolling on my cheek, I snuggled my small frame in Noa’s embrace, his steady heartbeat subduing my nightly terror.
***
“Yeah! Dad’s bread pudding!” Vivianne was particularly excited today, by the breakfast, by the prospect of looking at me working, and by the fact that they would cook for a guest this afternoon. If I had been her, I would have been excited too.
As if you aren’t.
Shush you.
In her eagerness, the brat engulfed her pudding at a speed that let everyone but Crisnée astounded. Crisnée wasn’t because she ate as quickly, if not as noticeably.
“I’m off!” She was fully clothed, backpack strapped and I bundled, waving goodbye to everyone for the day.
Just before she departed, Crisnée gave her a sneak hug, strong and quick, then let her go with a smile.
You could see that Cris and Noa disliked being separated from Vi, but the trio knew why it needed to be done, so they had resigned themselves to that daily routine till Vi’s problem was fixed.
Fast, hopefully.
The two others hadn’t yet been able to become one with the Wild Shi, so Vi hadn’t been left behind as of yet, but who knows how quick they would master it.
Walking through the snow with the help of her Shi, Vi took us quickly to our assigned warehouse, the guard in faction slightly bowing her head to the young girl when she saw her. As Vi was somewhat burdened by her load, the guard quickly unlocked and opened the door.
Like yesterday, the inside of the building wasn’t really warmer than the outside but, at least, we were now sheltered from the wind, the vicious freezing thing still going strong from last night.
I should try and make a heating device for the place.
We don’t really have the resources to spare right now.
I know. It’s frustrating.
Well, the blast furnace will heat the place a bit, eh, but only once. A soft laugh could be felt lingering in Psaï’s voice.
Indeed. Let’s get to work.
Nothing had been touched since yesterday, and there was no discernable tracks, proof that the guards on duty in front of our door were hard to their task.
On the other side of the town, I could feel that Cris and Noa had reached the barrack, full of energy to pour into their training.
The monitoring spells work quite well.
Yes. I knotted them with their souls.
Hoooo, that’s why it doesn’t use that much mana. But is it safe?
Yes. Each spell uses a diminutive amount of mana, even the atrophied Mana Channels of those children can cope with that. And it keeps us from expending too much mana, even more since they’re now far from us.
Yup. Clever as always.
I know eheheh~.
We started working again, making the circle float for some time but, before starting to work, I put it back, something bothering me.
Hey Psaï?
Yes?
Well. There are lots of internal steps to do from now on, right?
Yes. Why?
Well. I feel bad about Vivianne. She’s here, trying to gain something out of our work, a bit of knowledge. Yet, yesterday, she basically stared at nothing during the whole three hours we needed to spread the mana iron.
Yeeees? I don’t like where this is going.
Well. Couldn’t we, like, talk with her. With our mind?
Morgana. You know that it’s dangerous, right?
Well, yes, but what if we do it veeeery slowly? To accustom her? I mean, our secret isn’t secret anymore, and we’ve got time ahead of us. Why not start now?
Grrrr. O-kay. But you do it as slow as possible!
Of course. What do you think I am?
A brute.
You’re being mean Psaï.
I know.
Taking my bundle of clothes with me, I floated out of Vivianne’s grasp.
My sister was surprised, at first, but quickly let go of me when she understood it was my doing, and not gravity being a dick to her.
I did not float for long, landing on the table before her. I turned myself to face her and fixed my gaze in hers.
“...Do you want something?” She asked me, curious, but I put a finger on my mouth, asking her for silence.
I kept my gaze intermingled with hers and, slowly, oh so slowly, projected my soul toward hers.
I finally touched her soul with a strand of mine, no bigger than a hair, if we were to compare it to a physical object, and she slightly lost her balance. I quickly retracted my soul strand and supported her with magic until she stabilised herself.
“What did you do?” She asked, frowning, but I couldn’t answer her, of course.
I pointed at the chair and, creating a blue floating arrow, showed her what I wanted.
“You want me to sit in front of you on the chair?”
I nodded one time and, shrugging, she followed my instruction.
“Will you make me dizzy again?”
One nod.
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“Is it… dangerous? Will I be hurt?”
Two nods.
“...Yes. Of course, you would never hurt me, right?”
One nod, and her beaming smile made me dizzy.
I love her.
“Okay.” She had finished installing herself correctly on the chair. “I am ready.”
One nod, and I started extending my soul again, touching her with an even smaller strand of soul.
Eh. That’s some control alright, Wanderer would be jealous.
Let me focus please.
Ah yes sorry.
Vivianne shuddered but nothing more and, her eight eyes strongly focused in mine, I smiled at her and nodded slightly.
“Am I doing good?”
Another single nod, another smile from my cute big sister.
Minutes passed and once I felt she did not reject my contact anymore, I started increasing the size of our connection very, very slowly and smoothly.
Minutes turned into bundles, bundles into hours and, after two of them, two hours were I saw Vivianne gritting her teeth to bear the growing headache that had sowed itself in her mind, finally, I said something.
Hi.
She wasn’t a scaredy-cat, none of the three children were, yet she jumped from her chair and looked all around.
“Hello? Anyone here?”
Sister.
She stopped and slowly turned her head toward me, nailing my gaze with hers.
I nodded. Hi.
Her eyes turned bigger than saucers, quickly followed by her smile that grew with bewilderment.
“You’re the one talking?”
I nodded, trying to not strain her mind.
“That’s… THAT’S AMAZING!”
Yes.
“B-but… why are you using only one word each time.”
More.
…
“More what?” She finally asked after a solid 20 seconds of waiting.
Dangerous.
“Ah?”
…
For.
“For...for you?”
I nodded two times and she frowned.
“For me?”
I nodded one time.
“Is it because of the headache?”
One nod.
“Okay. At least now you can put a word here and there, it’s already amazing!”
One nod. Happy!
“Yes! Me too!”
***
Two-and-half an hour had been needed to start this mental connection of ours.
I had forgotten how long it took to accustom people to this shit.
Yeah, me too. It’s so fucking looooong.
But it’s worth it.
Completely.
I was now back in Vivianne’s arms, my clothes bundle tightly wrapped around me.
Hungry.
“You want to drink your milk?”
I lightly struck her chest once to say yes and, as always, she started feeding me with my baby bottle.
Just like yesterday, she petted me. “Do you like it?”
More.
“Ahahah okay!” My answer had made her so happy that, even if I had had to lie, I would still have said it (which wasn’t the case. More cuddling is better cuddling).
“You’re so cute, yet your voice is so deep. It’s strange.” She tilted her head. “But I like it! Your voice is so cool!”
Vivianne.
…
Cute.
This time she hadn’t interrupted me, understanding that I was taking my time creating a sentence, or at least a mocking travesty of one.
“Thank you Ayna.” She answered, her happiness making her cuddle even more.
I nodded back.
Work.
“Yes, start working!”
It was around 11:30am, and I still had around 4-and-half hours before we needed to go back home to cook.
Okay, the Mana Void should be set-up properly, now let’s create the Mana Reactor.
Okay.
Watch. I said to Vivianne, the girl nodding and looking at the metal ingot I was slowly making float toward us.
Heat. I started heating it and, if she frowned at first, she nodded when she saw the metal turning dark-red.
“Ah, like yesterday, you heat the ingot like a blacksmith, but without fire?”
Yes.
Once it reached the required temperature, which was as hot as possible with my limited resources, I started giving it a shape.
Hollowing.
“You’re hollowing the ingot?”
Single nod.
Working as slowly as yesterday, the ingot’s shape shifted little by little as I hollowed the inside and smoothened the edge. Even if it took time, the changes were still visible to the naked eyes.
“You’re making a ball?”
One nod.
Reactor.
“What is a reactor?” She asked.
Ah, fuck, of course.
Why are you surprised? You gave her a new word she can’t understand, of course she will ask you what it means.
Yeah. Let’s try to explain slooooowly.
I thought about what to say, the process going on.
Complicated.
“It’s complicated…?”
…
Yes.
“Okay…” She seemed a bit down.
She thinks you won’t explain it.
I don’t have enough words to dispel the mistake. Let’s just answer her already.
Yes.
Reactor. I said, finishing to give the basic shape to the sphere.
“...Yes?” Her voice was now hopeful.
Purify.
“Okay, it purifies something.” She was working with very little information and, by repeating herself, I think she tried to keep everything clear in mind.
Another half-a-minute passed, time I used to talk with Psaï.
I’ll cut the sphere in two to show the interior as we create the structure that will hold the spell. Is it possible?
Yes. It’ll take a bit more time, and the quality will take a hit, but it’s not like we care, right?
Yup. Thanks Psaï.
Once the time was right I gave Vi the last word
Mana.
“Ma-na? Mana. What is mana? It’s fun to say! Mana-mana-mana!”
Waiting for the right time, I cut the sphere in two and started working on one of the half-sphere.
I started by creating a shaft from the hollowed centre of the half-sphere, stopping when it was long enough. Then, from it, I expanded a bit of metal to create half-a-circle, with one side a bit shorter than the other
Mana.
“Mana, yes?”
From an extremity, the longer one, I made a shaft appear, just like I did before, this one just a tiny bit thinner.
Energy. It was fun to watch Vivianne put the pieces together as she had her gaze nailed on my work.
“So, Mana is energy?” She seemed a bit confused.
I nodded to avoid using a word.
From the new shaft, I created a new half-circle, equally tinier to the previous circle than the new shaft was to the first one.
“And you… you use mana?” She frowned then her eyes enlarged. “Is that how you float in the air?”
New affirmative nod.
“So it’s a bit like… Shi?”
Roughly.
“...Wow. So everything that you do, how you saved me and all, it’s because you can use mana?”
I nodded and, taken by a sudden inspiration, floated out of Vi’s grasp, my sister letting me go right away this time.
I turned around and extended a tiny chubby hand, the two halves of the sphere I created floating a bit farther from me.
And, over this hand, a tiny flame appeared, growing from 1cm to 5 as I put more mana into it. This was a simple spell.
A tiny molecular acceleration zone (okay, it's like a spark. Don’t look at me that way) placed in a space where I had separated and concentrated oxygen, with multiple separators and oxygen pumps all around the flame in itself to make it grow.
An efficient design used to teach some base Mana Manipulation and Construct to novices, very elegant.
“...Wow. You’re using mana there? To make the fire?”
One nod.
“Wow. But we can’t do that with Shi, right?” I shrugged.
Unknown.
“You don’t know? Well, me neither…” She rubbed her head, a bit embarrassed by her lack of knowledge.
“Maybe we could go with the others tomorrow, to ask this question to Ophelia?"
Smart. I said while nodding once.
“Yey, thanks! Let’s do that then!”
I went back to her embrace and, as she sat on the chair, I focused my will back on the two floating spheres. The one I wasn’t working with was colder, as I hadn’t injected energy into it to spare my wounded soul.
We stayed silent the rest of the time as Vi looked at my work with hungry eyes, sometimes softly whispering things like “beautiful” or “amazing”, in particular when I finally ended the work on the second sphere and, approaching the two half at less than one meter of Vi’s face, I joined the two parts with great delicacy.
Done.
“Wow... That was cool!”
Crude. I said after a handful of seconds.
“You mean I am crude?”
Two nods.
“Then what?”
I pointed at the sphere.
“...Your work… is crude?”
One nod.
“But it’s so amazing!”
I couldn’t make myself go against her cheerfulness and her amazement, so I just nodded.
Thanks!
“You’re welcome!” She then frowned a bit and, blood draining from her face, she quickly went by the door, looking at the sky.
“Shoot! We’re late!”
She quickly packed everything in her bag, my bottle, our leftovers and put back the chair under the table as I wove a tiny spell with just enough magic to keep the brand-new reactor from touching the table before I was taken away by a storming Vivianne.