It didn’t take long for everyone to leave Sen’s hoard, as Auntie wanted to get Nettal back home and into bed to rest. So, Auntie picked Nettal up into a princess carry as they all made their way back to Auntie’s mansion. Sen used a molten gold gate to teleport them back from where they came in, so the mansion wasn’t far at all once they got back to reality.
It made sense to Addie that they should get home since Nettal still didn’t seem quite right. She answered questions with a delay, and each word she spoke seemed to drag on. Her eyes often closed all on their own, only to rapidly open back up after Auntie asked Nettal a question. However, sometimes, Auntie would say something to Nettal and she wouldn’t respond at all. At those times, Nettal would just keep her eyes closed.
Addie wanted to talk to Nettal too, but she held herself back. She remembered when she came back home after being lost in the forest. She remembered how special that moment was when she saw her dad again and he was healthy.
Auntie must be feeling a similar way, Addie thought. So, Addie did her best to give them some space, but she couldn’t help herself from hovering near them just a bit too close.
Violet and Fluffy stayed mostly quiet as they walked back to the mansion. Addie was surprised that Fluffy had stayed quiet the entire time they had been in Sen’s hoard. Looking at the Slyfox, Fluffy almost seemed to be lost in deep thought. Christena mirrored Fluffy, too. Since they were so similar, Addie guessed they both must be thinking about all the cool new magic they saw Sen use. Addie would have to ask Christena if she had figured anything out later.
The fawn trailed behind and a bit to the right of Auntie, never letting Nettal get too far away. No one had said anything yet, but Nettal’s eyes were now the same exact color as the fawn’s, so Addie knew they had to be bonded now. Likely, the fawn wouldn’t ever go too far away from Nettal from this point on.
When they first came back to reality, the fawn had sniffed at Addie’s hand, but then he mostly ignored her. However, she did see one of his eyes sometimes point in her direction in a sideways glance.
Once the entryway to the mansion came into view, Addie could see Mr. Owlcharge sitting on one of the steps up to the doorway. Somehow, even in that position, his suit didn’t have so much as a stray wrinkle.
When Addie and everyone got closer to him, he dexterously stood up, and gave a bow.
“Miss Addie, Miss Lomain, I hope your ventures were fruitful,” He used the title for a noble of lesser status for Addie, and the title of a noble for peer status for Auntie. He quickly stood up from his bow.
“Hi!” Addie waved to him as they walked forward.
Auntie didn’t comment.
“Who... Who’s that?” Nettal groggily opened her eyes for a moment and looked at Mr. Owlcharge, then her eyes forced themselves closed again.
Mr. Owlcharge smiled, “She lives! And with a new friend, too.” From his position on his arm, Arlie slithered his upper body forward a bit and stuck his tongue out in the air, pointing his forked tongue at the fawn.
Violet took that as her cue and flew over to Arlie, then she proceeded to peck annoyingly at his face, making the flat snake-like creature whip at her with the tip of his tail.
“Shoo,” Mr. Owlcharge gently waved Violet off, who returned to Auntie’s shoulder with a surprisingly smug look for a bird.
Maybe one day Addie would grow big enough for Squishy to rest across her shoulders, too.
Auntie sighed, “I thought I would have a bit of time to rest after all of this, but if you are here something must have happened.”
Mr. Owlcharge opened his mouth to begin speaking, but then Auntie cut him off with a swipe of ‘Stop!’.
“No, don’t tell me right now,” Auntie said scolding, “Let’s get back inside and sit down at the table, at least.”
Without further words, everyone walked into the mansion. Auntie sighed as they made it back, most of the tension in her shoulders easing up.
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Everyone started to take their shoes off at the entranceway. After Addie had put her booties away, Auntie gestured her head toward the left hallway.
“You can all sit at the table. I’ll be right back.” Auntie started walking up the stairs just ahead, probably to put Nettal into bed.
Then, she paused just before taking the first step up the stairs, “Actually, Christena? Could you come with me in case Nettal needs anything?”
Christena dipped her head, “Of course.”
Like that, Christena and Auntie disappeared up the stairs. Not that Addie stayed there to watch the whole time, she and Mr. Owlcharge walked to the dining room table, the only table in the mansion, and sat down on the wooden seats. It made a satisfying squish as Addie plopped down on the green cushion.
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Looking her head up, Addie saw Mr. Owlcharge sitting across from her with a fake smile. “So, the weather has been pretty good lately?” For some reason, it sounded like a question.
Addie scrunched up her face, “I guess.” She said.
They both sat in silence for a minute.
Mr. Owlcharge cleared his throat, “Well, that is to say...” He trailed off while moving his hands about a bit in gesture.
With a bang, he accidentally knocked over one of the salt shakers on the table and scrambled to pick it up before it rolled off. He placed it back down. Then, he folded his hand in front of him right on top of the dark wooden table— keeping his hands really still.
“What I mean to say is, you must be enjoying summer, right?”
“I don’t know,” Addie said. Why was he asking her such weird questions?
“I see, well, my daughter, Lily really loves the summer. I take her swimming sometimes.” Mr. Owlcharge’s face looked relieved, like he had finally overcome some great difficulty.
“Unfortunately, she’s a fish out of water, as it were.”
“Lily doesn’t look like a fish to me at all,” Addie said.
“Well, actually that’s just something that means—”
“Do you like dragons?” Addie interrupted.
“Oh, uh. I’m not sure.”
“You’re kinda weird,” Addie said bluntly, then she looked down at the cushion on the chair.
“Certainly odd,” Squishy chimed in. Not that Mr. Owlcharge could hear him.
“Oh.” He chuckled momentarily, then started trailing off as he rubbed at the back of his head.
Ignoring him, Addie started pushing at the cushion on her chair. Maybe Auntie grew this spongy material out of some kind of plant? Addie poked into it and watched as the depression slowly pushed itself back up.
The room stayed quiet for a while. For some reason, every time Addie looked up at Mr. Owlcharge his face had a strained smile. A few times, Addie looked at him and watched as he would open his mouth as if to say something, only to just close it again a moment later.
Finally, Addie heard footsteps near the archway, and she twisted in her seat to watch Auntie and Christena walking back into the room.
Mr. Owlcharge stood up in a hurry and said, “Ah there you two are. Addie and I were just starting to wonder, weren’t we, Addie?” he asked.
“Not really.” She said as she shook her head.
His face turned red, and Mr. Owlcharge said almost under his breath, “Just me then, ok. Annnnyway, I have news about our culprit.”
Auntie sat down next to Addie, while Christena continued through the dining room into the kitchen, where Addie heard some clanging.
“I have some news, too.”
Addie gently pulled on Auntie’s sleeve, “I want to hear too.”
Turning her head to look at Addie, Auntie smiled. “That’s perfect Addie. Mr. Owlcharge and I will need you for our plan.”
“Really!” Addie asked, with a big smile on her face.
“Correct,” Mr. Owlcharge butted in, “Miss Lomain,” he addressed Auntie, “Would you like me to share first?”
Christena took that moment to barge back into the dining room from the kitchen, an ornate water pitcher with pink flowers on the white ceramic in one hand, and a matching cup in the other hand. She swiftly walked through the room and continued out. Addie could hear her heading toward the stairs.
Rubbing at her eyes, Auntie sighed, “No, let me update you on my side of things first to get it out of the way.”
Mr. Owlcharge nodded his head, agreeing.
Addie scanned her eyes across the ground, looking for the familiar black scales of her partner. He was lying down just to the left of her chair. Noticing that Addie was looking for him, he had his ears perked up and his starry eyes looked up at Addie. Squishy looked cute like that, kind of like when a dog looks at you and you can see the edges of the whites in their eyes. She picked him up by the belly and placed him in her lap. He wasn’t too much bigger than a cat, so he fit alright, but his legs still dangled off to the sides.
“...gon. It was terrifying, quite honestly. I thought...” Addie picked up a bit of what Auntie was telling to Mr. Owlcharge. Addie already knew all about the encounter with Sen, so she wasn’t listening much to what Auntie was saying. She looked back down at Squishy.
Through their soulbond, Addie silently prompted, “You’ve been really quiet ever since we came back from Sen’s.”
“Indeed?” Squishy seemed to close his eyes for a second and think, “Yes, that is true, I suppose. Ever since we learned I was manufactured by Sen, I’ve been thinking about existence.”
“I’ve never thought about ‘existence’ before.”
“Hmm. I wonder if Arlie was created by Sen, too?” Squishy trailed off.
“I forgot about that! That’s right, Mr. Owlcharge said that Arlie came from a flat place of total darkness.” Now that her mind was on it, that was the entire reason she brought Nettal to Realmspace. It’s because she wanted to try and investigate more about Realmspace and Arlie. That’s why Nettal got hurt in the first place.
Sensing her dropping mood, Squishy chimed in, “Remember what Auntie said. Do not blame yourself, my lady. Blame black cloak for the evil he has done.”
Squishy had a point, but Addie still wished she hadn’t taken Nettal to Realmspace back then. The first thing Addie would do when Nettal got better would be to apologize, Addie decided.
Thinking about black cloak, Addie lifted her head back up to the conversation going on at the table with the adults. Looked like Christena wasn’t back yet.
“... in time. So, in summary, we were correct to think he could survive there. I think further action is needed.” Mr. Owlcharge said.
“Um!” Addie interrupted loudly, “I wasn’t listening. What further action?”
“Ah yes, let me explain from the beginning then.” Mr. Owlcharge paused for a moment and looked over to Auntie.
In response, Auntie just nodded her head.
“When Miss Lomain entrapped our suspected culprit within that dome of wood, she and I began thinking of various solutions to deal with him. At first, we considered that maybe he would simply run out of water or food trapped like that, but since he is bonded it is quite likely he can continue living entirely on magic alone.” Mr. Owlcharge paused for a second and readjusted in his seat.
Addie remembered something similar happening to her back when she was lost in the forest! Even though she hadn’t eaten very much at all, or drunken any water, she could still keep moving for way longer than she should have.
“I have been monitoring the suspect for the last few days, and not only does he still seem completely fine, but his magical flames have spread to Miss Lomain's structure enclosing him. He hasn’t escaped for now, and the wooden sphere still seems perfectly intact despite burning for multiple days— which I don’t understand in the slightest —but we think we need to move soon regardless."
Auntie nodded her head, “I agree. We should act soon. I don’t like the idea of his cage being on fire. Even if it doesn’t seem to be doing anything right now, that doesn’t mean it won’t do something in the future. Better to take care of things before we have an even worse situation to deal with.”
“There’s one other item, as well.” Mr. Owlcharge continued, “A bird with ghostly flames has started perching on the rooftops of the soul-damaged children in my town.”