Addie noticed Lily did not walk to the table right away. She looked up at her father to see what he would do. Only after her dad started walking to the table, did Lily follow his lead. Nettal and Addie sat on one side, while Christena and her little sister sat on the other side. Mr. Owlcharge and Aunt Lomain sat on either end of the table.
The tiny girl across from Addie was still acting shy, fidgeting in her seat and only looking up at people’s faces sparingly.
Mr. Owlcharge unfolded the paper napkin in front of him, and then expertly tucked it into the front of his suit, using it like a bib. Addie didn’t know people actually did that in real life.
Aunt Lomain, on the other hand, didn’t seem to care about her napkin much at all and just left it on the table. She started passing the platters of food to either side of her, “Girls, Mr. Owlcharge, feel free to grab however much you would like.” It seemed Auntie wanted to at least be nicer today, as she used the middle title for a lord. Unlike yesterday, she addressed Mr. Owlcharge not as someone of lower station than her but as a peer.
Addie still made sure to use the highest form of address when speaking to Mr. Owlcharge. His snake thing was scary.
For breakfast, Auntie had prepared something simple, but delicious. She had made some pancakes with fruit for toppings on the side. An easy-to-cook and homey meal.
After everyone had their food, Addie dug right in. The adults started talking together, mostly small talk that Addie tried to ignore. The pancakes were really good. At some point, Christena brought up the topic of Auntie’s viollow. It wasn’t native to the region, and she was curious if there was a story behind it.
That attracted Addie’s attention. She wanted to know more about the viollow too, so she started paying attention to the conversation.
Aunt Lomain smiled in nostalgia for a moment, then she began, “My pretty birdie here,” She glanced to where the viollow rested on her shoulder, and it preened, “I call Darla. I received her as a gift. My late grandmother,” Auntie looked at Nettal, “Your great grandmother, Nettal— she always found birds fascinating. She had an almost religious obsession with meticulously finding and documenting the powers of every single bond-touched bird in the world. She explored the Icy Wastes in the south and traveled north to the ocean. She documented an incredible amount of birds, and brought her favorites home with her, either by bonding them to herself or by more mundanely catching them. We don’t know what happened to her, in the end. She may have cascaded her soul into oblivion, or maybe she adventured into a place too dangerous. All I know is that she left one day on a trip and never came back. Since she never became an Area Lord, it’s also possible she died of old age somewhere out there, I suppose. However, I do doubt that last theory. She was quite powerful magically and old age shouldn’t have come for her for many years yet.”
Everyone at the table had been silent and attentively listening to Auntie’s story, even Mr. Owlcharge.
“What does it mean for someone to die of a cascade?” Nettal asked.
Addie knew the answer to this one, but she let Nettal’s mom answer the question.
“Death by cascade is one of the main reasons we don’t allow our children to form a bond until at least twelve years of age,” Auntie made a point to look knowingly right at Addie.
Addie shrunk under the gaze for a moment, chastised.
Auntie continued, “And it’s also the reason we highly discourage ever forming more than two bonds. At the height of her power, Nettal, your great-grandmother had at least twelve bonded birds to her soul, and it always made her a bit cuckoo, but also exciting to be around.” Aunt Lomain paused for a second and chuckled.
Addie caught Christena rolling her eyes at the pun.
Aunt Lomain went on, “In essence, death by cascade is when too many souls push an influence on yours. This can cause a cascade of sorts, where all of the souls accidentally merge too far into the bonded human’s soul. From there, one of two things will usually happen. Either this will forever change the person to exhibit the traits of all the creatures within the cascade, often tainting or even destroying their humanity in the process. When Area Lords catch wind of this happening, we usually give the resulting creature a quick end. Nasty business and given the company at the table I’ll spare any further details.
“The next most likely outcome is that the cascade will outright kill the person by irreparably damaging all of the souls involved. That’s also the reason Area Lords never bond to more than one bond-touched animal. Bonding to the land around us is dangerous enough without also having to manage multiple animal souls at the same time.”
After this explanation, Addie suspected Witch Hagal had cascaded with her tree. A question to ask Christena about later.
From his position underneath the table, Squishy rubbed up against Addie’s legs reassuringly. It seemed he had been paying attention to the story as well. Addie appreciated the gesture. She felt that he was trying to tell her that he wouldn’t let a cascade happen.
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Since Addie already knew the general premise behind a multisoul cascade, she wasn’t too worried about it, but she decided to ask something anyway, “Is there a way to practice with our bonded animals to help prevent a cascade?”
“That’s a great question, Addie.” Christena praised Addie. It seemed Christena wanted to answer this one, “As a natural part of your lessons I will be slowly introducing soul exercises to help you control your bond better. Do you remember when I was able to prevent you from using your magic in the basement?” Christena asked.
“I do remember! That made me so mad because I thought you shouldn’t be able to stop me, since you didn’t even know what my magic did!”
Christena smiled, “If you become adept at soul exercises, you won’t need to know anything about your opponent’s magic, Addie. You will be able to exert your will on one’s soul itself, largely preventing him or her from manifesting magic. Stopping a soul is equivalent to stopping the expression of magic itself. If you become a master of manipulating your soul, you won’t have to worry about a cascade.” Christena leaned back in her chair and brought more pancakes to her mouth using her fork.
Mr. Owlcharge raised his finger into the air, “While Christena’s explanation is mostly correct, I would like to point out that even if you become adept at soul manipulation, it is still not a good idea to bond to more than one animal if you wish to become an Area Lord. Bonding to the land itself takes far more soul mastery than bonding to an animal, if you wish to prevent cascade.” Addie appreciated the clarification but also felt like Mr. Owlcharge just wanted to be pedantic. Auntie had already mentioned that part at least briefly.
Addie scrunched up her face in thought, “But, if I can just learn how to use my soul, why would I ever need to bond? Couldn’t I just exert my soul on the world and prevent other people from using bonded magic on me?”
Christena responded with a question of her own, “That’s a good question, Addie. Why do you think bonding is still so prevalent if many accomplished lords use soul exercises?”
It took her a moment to sit back and think, and then she thought of a possible answer, “Well, I guess I can use my bonded’s magic for things other than fighting people. Even just last night I used my bonded magic to more easily climb into the bunk-bed.”
While that seemed like a good answer to Addie, she could tell it wasn’t quite right, since Christena still had that ‘I’m wiser than you’ face on. “That is a good reason Addie, but it still doesn’t solve your initial question. Why should we develop battle skills with our bonded magic if we can shut down threats with our own souls directly?” Christena asked rhetorically, “Well, Addie, what if both you and your opponent have the same level of skill at using your souls?”
Nettal finished the thought before Addie could respond, “Then the person with the more skill at bonded magic will win the fight.”
Aunt Lomain smiled at her daughter, “That is correct,” Auntie added to Christena’s explanation, “If two lords come to clash, and they reach a stalemate with their soul battle, and neither can force the other to stop using magic, then the one with more skill at bonded magic will win.”
The nostalgia in Mr. Owlcharge’s voice bled through the room, “I remember a time back when I was still in training. Thinking back to the time of our youths is quite fascinating, I say. How about I tell you all how I came to be bonded to Arlie, here?” He nodded his head towards the snake-like creature which was curled around his left arm.
Instead of waiting to gauge their interest, he just started talking. He didn’t even wait to see if they were all listening to him, “When I was but a wee young lad—”
Christena interrupted him, “Dad, don’t exaggerate. You were nearly eighteen for your first bond.”
His face seemed to flush a bit in embarrassment, but nonetheless, Mr. Owlcharge continued, “Yes, well, when you get to be my age, eighteen years old seems incredibly young, even almost baby-like if you ask me, but that’s beside the point. When I was but a slightly older lad, if you will, I went out on my own to establish myself. As the first-born son of an Area Lord, my family had certain expectations of me, you see.”
Again, Christena butted in, “By that, he means he got kicked out because he had been relying on his family’s goodwill for too long.”
Addie and Nettal giggled. Even little Lily gave a quiet laugh.
This time, even Mr. Owlcharge’s ears seemed to turn red from the embarrassed blush on his face, “Yes, well, sometimes people need a little, shall we say, encouragement to get out on their own.” He cleared his throat, “Regardless, I did set out alone, which I am quite proud of thank you Christena for your input, and I made a commitment to myself not to return until I had established a proper bond. I also had goals to find a powerful bonded, which I think I accomplished quite well. Arlie is a caste two creature with a very unique set of powers. It took me quite a while to get the hang of that power, indeed.”
“Daddy, is Arlie sweet to people?” Lily seemingly had other ideas for what constituted a ‘powerful bonded’.
“Well, my dear, being sweet is not always the most useful—"
“I want my bonded to be sweet to me.” Lily interrupted.
“Aw!” Addie couldn’t help herself. That girl was too precious! Now Addie knew they had to be friends.
“Hm, I suppose Arlie could be sweet, in his own way.”
“You told me he’s fewoshus,”
“Ferocious, yes he can be that too.”
“I don’t want my bonded to be fewoshus.” Lily punctuated her statement by putting a strawberry in her mouth.
Mr. Owlcharge didn’t seem to know what to say to that. But Addie had some thoughts and questions of her own, “Where did you find him? His scales sort of remind me of Squishy’s.”
“Funny thing, that. I guess, the correct thing to say is that he found me while I was in great distress.”
Something about that resonated in Addie. Squishy had found her while she was trapped in the mansion, back when she thought her future was to be fuel for the ritual. He had recounted the story from his perspective, of course. He described it as something calling out to him, asking him to join a purpose more than himself— A soul calling out for help. And he answered.
Addie paid rapt attention to Mr. Owlcharge’s next words, “When I brought him home, I thought to discover his species. Alas, my father’s libraries were surprisingly not up to the task. No book speaks of his past, and no other creature seems quite like him.” Mr. Owlcharge took a bite of pancake, swallowed, and then continued, “Arlie can’t speak to me with words, the same as most bonded, but he can send me images and memories through our bond. When we bonded, he showed me that he came from a place wreathed in the blackest of nights, with naught but flat boring stone in all directions.”
Addie dropped her fork.