When Addie and Squishy reached the front yard of the mansion, Auntie was waiting right on the doorstep for the two of them. The second she spotted the duo, she ran over to them with supernatural speed, causing a riptide of air to whoosh past Addie the moment Auntie stopped in front of them. Without a preamble, Auntie immediately squeezed Addie tight into her chest.
“Thank the Binary you are alright!” She squeezed Addie so hard she thought her eyeballs would pop out.
“I can’t breathe.” Addie managed to barely eke out.
In response, Auntie kissed the top of Addie’s head a few times.
“I thought I was going to have to explain to my brother how I lost you while you were on my watch! Oh, thank the Binary,” Auntie repeated. With force, Auntie quickly separated the two of them by grabbing onto Addie’s shoulders at arm’s length.
And that’s when her face turned from relief to anger. Addie was hoping the anger part wouldn’t be coming.
“What were you two doing out all night?” Auntie’s shout shoved into Addie with fearful force causing her to flinch.
Addie glanced at Squishy, then moved her eyes to Auntie’s feet.
“You’re going to have to tell me either way, might as well spit it out now,” Auntie advised with a serious scowl.
“We were exploring in Realmspace.”
“You two got lucky, you know that? There’s still some rampaging monster out there damaging children’s souls. Next time you want to go out, you will. Tell. Me. First.”
“But—” Addie tried.
Auntie interrupted, “Ahah! No buts! You will tell me first before you go out, right?”
“Yes, Auntie.”
Auntie turned her head sharply to Squishy and pointed down at him on the ground. “And you! You know better than that!” Squishy’s ears drooped, and he made a quiet keening sound that Addie had never heard before.
Auntie let out a deep sigh and all the tension went out of her body. “It’s not that I want to monitor your location at all times, Addie. I just need to know if you are leaving or going out. If you disappear without warning me first, then I start to worry about you. I was just a few minutes away from calling Christena to start a search for you. Just don’t scare me like that again, ok?” Auntie’s face turned gentle with a smile.
“Ok,” Addie said.
“Good. Alright, let’s get inside. I was halfway through cooking breakfast when I realized you were missing so there’s plenty of food.” Auntie ushered Addie back to the mansion, where they enjoyed a subdued breakfast.
After breakfast, Addie took a much-needed nap. She had stayed awake through the night, after all.
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Addie walked into the dimly lit room and looked at Nettal’s sleeping form. The light was slowly darkening now that it was getting close to binaryset.
Auntie had made Addie promise to tell her if she was going out in advance, so she couldn’t just take Nettal to Sen right now, even if she wanted to.
Addie exited Nettal’s room and walked down the hall to one of the mansion’s living rooms. Christena and Auntie were talking together, so Addie just entered the room and waited patiently for a moment. She knew from experience that it was better to let them finish rather than just interrupt their conversation.
Just as she predicted, eventually Auntie and Christena’s conversation came to a pause.
Christena turned her head toward Addie and said, “Do you need something, Addie?”
“Auntie told me I have to tell her when I’m going out, so I came to do that.”
From the leather couch opposite Christena, Auntie asked, “Why do you need to go out so late? How about you and Squishy go out in the morning,” she suggested.
“That won’t work. I have to help Nettal as fast as I can, so Squishy and I are taking her to see our friend right now.” Addie didn’t see anything wrong with what she had just said, but for some reason that caused Auntie to sit up tall with an aghast expression.
Christena turned her head between Addie and Auntie a couple of times, then cleared her throat and spoke up, “Addie, I think your aunt and I are confused about what you plan to do with Nettal. Could you explain to us a bit more about what you hope to do?”
“That would be good, yes. Nettal most certainly isn’t leaving her room.”
Hearing Auntie’s declaration made Addie’s heart drop. She was certain Sen could help Nettal. What couldn’t a dragon do? There’s a reason dragons are always the most powerful creatures in stories.
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“I have to take Nettal! Sen can help her!”
Christena gently put her hand on Addie’s shoulder, causing Addie to turn her head over. “And who is Sen?”
“The Realmspace Dragon. He promised to help Nettal,” Addie said simply.
Squishy had to jump back as Auntie spat out some tea and nearly sprayed him.
“Oh dear.”
Auntie sat forward in her seat and rested her chin in her hand. “By Aggan’s name, how did you find a dragon? This somehow keeps getting worse.” Addie was worried Auntie would keel over and pass out, her face was so pale.
Christena wasn’t looking much better. Neither of them knew what to say.
Finally, after a long pause, “Absolutely not!” Auntie nearly shouted. “We are not bringing my dear daughter to a dragon of all things. If you are telling the truth, and you really found a dragon, there is no way we are putting Nettal’s fate in the hands of some unscrupulous beast.”
“He’s not unscroopluss!” Addie said, “We promised to be friends.”
“Somehow, I’m not surprised,” Christena cut in. “Addie, can this at least wait until morning? Nettal isn’t going anywhere and she’s stable for now, you don’t have to worry about her.”
But that was the thing. Addie did have to worry about Nettal. It was Addie’s fault that Nettal got hurt in the first place. It was Addie’s responsibility to help Nettal get better.
Addie stomped her foot on the ground, “It can’t wait. Nettal could be better right now! You just have to let me take her to Sen.”
Under her breath, Christena said to herself, “I never thought I’d have to argue about letting a child into a Dragon’s lair.” Squishy heard it anyway with his sensitive ears, and Addie knew he heard it through their bond.
“Sen doesn’t have a lair. He calls it a hoard.”
Christena put her palm in her face. “Look, Addie. Nettal isn’t going to get any worse tonight. Let your Aunt and I talk this over, and you get some rest.”
“But,” Addie tried.
Aunt Lomain spoke up, and her normally mellow purple eyes grew in intensity until the whole room lit up at their glow. A presence weighed down on Addie, making it hard to breathe.
“Go to bed, Addie. We will talk about this in the morning.”
The pressure on Addie’s soul relented. She looked at Auntie for a moment, horrified and scared. That had been way worse than the times her father did something similar. At least he never made it hard to breathe.
With tears forming in the corners of her eyes, Addie rushed off and slammed the door behind her.
She sat in bed, and Squishy jumped up beside her. He curled up into his customary position and huffed out a sigh as he got ready to go to bed.
Addie picked him up, causing his legs to dangle in the air for a moment. “We aren’t going to bed.” Addie decided aloud.
“I shall follow you into any situation, my lady, but your Aunt was very clear.”
“So what? She’s stupid.” Addie said. She was just so angry. “We could help Nettal right now but she won’t even let me talk to her about it! Christena still says I’m a child, too.”
Addie relaxed a bit and sighed into the soft mattress. “Squishy, how can I be a prodigy and a child at the same time? It’s so hard when Christena says I’m amazing one second, then calls me a baby the next!” Addie let gravity take hold of her, and flopped onto her side, causing the bed frame to squeak and sway a bit.
“I understand your frustration as my own. We are one. Though I must ask, can you release me? I am a bit squished between you and the bed, as it were.”
Addie shot up quickly, releasing Squishy from between her and the bed. “I’m sorry!”
Squishy stood up and shook his whole body like a wet dog. “That’s alright, my lady.”
“We have to help Nettal,” Addie spoke up again. “What if we wait to talk to talk to them tomorrow, but they still won’t listen? We have to help her tonight. Will you help me?” Addie’s tone came out pleading.
“As I said, you and I are one in soul. I will always aid you. What do you suggest?”
Addie let out a huff of frustration and waved her arms around, “I don’t know! Maybe carry Nettal all the way to Sen?”
“I’m afraid she may be too heavy for that,” Squishy advised.
“Yeah, that is a problem,” Addie flopped back down onto her bed, this time back first, and stared up at her ceiling. “Maybe we really do need to wait until tomorrow.” She was kind of tired.
Addie felt herself drifting off, then rapidly shook her head to stay awake. No, it had to be tonight, Addie decided. She didn’t want to fight with Christena and Auntie anymore, and she knew Sen could help.
“Let’s just push Nettal right into Realmspace and shout for Sen. Maybe he’ll hear us.”
Squishy jumped down off the bed and went back over to the door. “I would open the door for you, but I appear to be small and cannot reach the doorknob.”
Addie giggled, “You silly cat.”
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They hadn’t yet mapped out the guts of the mansion like Addie had back at home. In fact, Addie wasn’t even sure if there was a space between the inner and outer walls of Auntie’s mansion, since the whole thing seemed to be made from one slab of wood without planks. She probably grew the mansion as one solid piece rather than building it from lumber and stone. Addie didn’t even try to enter a possible crawlspace.
Instead, she and Squishy waited for about an hour, hopefully long enough that Christena and Auntie would have gone to bed by now.
They crept along the dark mansion halls. Luckily, they didn’t have to worry about any floorboards creaking since there weren’t floorboards. Auntie’s mansion had been grown rather than built, as Addie was learning. Thus, the floor was one solid slab of wood. It was super easy to walk silently on it. The mansion’s normal hallway decorations of paintings and end tables with flowers seemed strangely different in the middle of the night. Rather than inviting and pretty, to Addie, they seemed almost mysterious, like they would keep her midnight snooping a secret.
Slowly, and checking every corner, they tip-toed their way over to Nettal’s room. It wasn’t far, just across the hall.
The door was shut, so Addie put her hand up on the doorknob and turned the metal slowly, to not make a sound. She opened the door just a crack and slipped her way inside. Squishy followed close behind her. Then she shut the door just as silently.
It was darker in Nettal’s room. The outside hallways had been lit with faint candlelight, so it took Addie a moment to adjust to the darkness.
As she waited for her eyesight to adjust, she felt her heartbeat start to slow down since she had made it to Nettal’s room without getting caught. It was super dark, so Addie decided to sweep the room with her spatial sense. It felt kind of like reaching her hands out around the room to better navigate the darkness, except her spatial sense didn’t require hands, only magic.
Addie stopped breathing and completely froze. Auntie was in the room, too.