“Tomorrow, then.” Mr. Owlcharge decided. “Tomorrow, Christena and I will bring the children to the manor first thing in the morning,” He nodded toward his daughter, “Then, once we transport them all to the mansion, Addie, Christena and I will confront Black Cloak while Miss Lomain watches over Nettal as she heals the children.
“I will finally have some good news to tell the townsfolk. They’ve been gathering in force around my house for over a week to petition. I was worried they would start rioting soon.”
“Well, it’s no wonder,” Auntie began, “You are their Area Lord. It’s your responsibility to ensure their safety. Besides, as everyone in this room knows, I would stop at nothing to help my little girl.” Auntie looked over at Nettal with a gentle smile. “Imagine all those mothers with sick children” Auntie shook her head, causing her brown ponytail to sway.
“You haven’t eaten in days, are you hungry?” Auntie asked Nettal.
“A little bit. I still feel kind of dizzy, but I think food would be nice.” Nettal replied.
Addie’s stomach rumbled, causing her face to flush. “Um, I’m starving too.”
A few chuckles went around the room.
“Alright, Christena, can you help me in the kitchen?” Auntie asked.
Christena nodded her head and elegantly stood up from her seat. Afterward, she patted down her maid uniform’s skirt and followed Auntie into the kitchen.
“Nettal, I really am glad you are ok,” Addie said again. Though they had hugged earlier, and Addie was feeling a lot better, knowing that Nettal was healthy again filled her up to the brim with relief.
Nettal smiled a big smile. It was nice to see her so energetic again.
Dinner came and went, but there was very little conversation. Everyone seemed to droop in their seats and inhale the food. The past day had been far too eventful to have a bustling dinner conversation.
Christena and Mr. Owlcharge went back home together. They needed some time to explain things to the townsfolk and arrange everything for the morning.
Just before bed, Auntie explained Addie’s role in the plan to face Black Cloak, and Addie was excited. Normally, they wouldn’t ever let a child participate in taking down a cascade, but since Addie’s powers were so special they needed her this time.
On their way to bed, Addie made to turn left at the top of the stairs to go to her guest room, but Nettal called out, “Where are you going? My room is over here,” Nettal said, “Don’t you remember?”
Addie smiled. That was right! Now that Nettal was feeling better, they could probably sleep in the same room together. Addie looked up pleadingly toward Auntie, who had followed them up the stairs.
“That’s fine. You two make sure to get a proper amount of sleep, alright? If you both stay up talking all night, then neither of you will be able to help the townsfolk properly.” Auntie’s tone turned serious, “Do you both promise to go right to bed?”
“I promise,” Addie and Nettal said at almost the same time.
“Good. Let me walk you to bed.”
Once Nettal lay down in her bed, Auntie gave her one more hug and a kiss on the forehead, then she sat down on the edge of the bed. “Are you sure you can handle healing all of the children? You only just got better today.”
“I want to help them. Lotty and I can do it.”
Auntie let out a big sigh. “I’m proud of you. I’ll be by your side the whole time if you get too tired, ok? And we’ll have all the townsfolk come here into your room so you can rest in between healing sessions.”
“Ok, Mom,” Nettal said.
Lotty took that as his cue and walked past Auntie to lie down on the floor just to the left of Nettal’s bed.
After that, Addie and Squishy teleported up into their bunk bed, Squishy sitting at the foot of the bed in his customary spot. Their landing caused the top bunk to rattle around and shake a bit, and for one terrifying moment, Addie thought the whole thing would come crashing down. But, she should have known better. Auntie made it really strong, after all.
Auntie left the room and closed the door behind her, the candlelight from the hallway outside slowly disappearing until the room was left in total darkness. For a moment, the only sound Addie could hear was her breathing.
“Mom said we can’t talk tonight,” Nettal reminded them.
“Yeah, we have to go to bed tonight,” Addie agreed.
For a few minutes, both girls remained silent. But, Addie’s thoughts kept jumping all around, making her toss and turn in the bed, restless. She couldn’t fall asleep.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“What does it feel like when you use your magic?” Addie asked after a little while.
Addie heard rustling from the bunk below, then Nettal said, “It feels like Lotty and I push our souls together and then energy starts flowing out.”
Turning to her side, Addie said, “That’s what it feels like when me and Squishy use our magic, too!”
“Squishy and I,” Nettal said.
Addie scrunched up her nose, “What?”
“You are supposed to say, ‘Squishy and I’.”
“Whatever.”
“We need to go to bed,” Nettal said.
“Yeah.”
With a strong tug, Addie pulled more blankets up near her chin, also causing Squishy to scoot closer to her feet since he was lying on the blankets. Addie wiggled deeper into the mattress, and the top bunk wiggled along with her.
For a minute, both girls remained silent.
“Addie?” Nettal’s voice came out as a whisper.
“Yeah?”
“How long did it take you to figure out how to use your magic?”
Addie opened her eyes and moved them across the dark ceiling.
“Two days for my spatial sense, I think. But, the same day my bond ignition started I figured out how to go to Realmspace. That part was easy.”
“Huh.”
“Yeah.”
For about a minute, both girls remained silent.
“What about you? Have you figured out how to use all of your magic already?”
“I’m not sure,” Nettal began, this time her voice was a little bit louder than a whisper, “Healing seems really easy, but Lotty keeps saying I need to figure out how to use ‘empathy’ but I can’t really get what he means.”
“Yeah. When Squishy told me about his spatial sense he just said it was ‘obvious’ even though it took me so long to figure it out.” Addie gave the silly cat a gentle kick with her foot, causing him to get up and settle down a bit further away.
“Should we go to bed now?” Addie asked.
“Okay.”
This time, it wasn’t even a minute before the silence was interrupted.
Nettal spoke up in a loud voice, “When you use your magic do you—”
The door flew open, and Addie quickly pulled the blanket up over her head and shut her eyes.
“Go to bed!” Addie heard Auntie’s voice. “Don’t make me separate you two.”
No one said anything. After a few seconds, the door to Nettal’s room started to close again.
After the door shut, Addie whispered, “Can I come down to your bunk?”
“Okay.” Nettal agreed, voice also in a whisper.
Addie moved into Realmspace with the ease born of practice, allowing her body to start falling while she stayed in a horizontal position. When she came back to reality, Nettal’s mattress bounced underneath Addie, causing Nettal to say ‘ow’ though it seemed more out of surprise than pain. Addie had not landed on Nettal directly, instead, she had perfectly aimed and landed just next to her cousin.
“Are you ready for tomorrow?” Addie asked as she started moving the blankets to get under them.
“I think so. It’s still a little bit hard for me to walk. Just getting up the stairs earlier made me dizzy. Hopefully, I’ll be ok. Mom said I should stay in bed while I heal everyone.”
“That’s a good idea.” Addie agreed.
“We should eat a big breakfast tomorrow, too,” Addie suggested. Christena always told her she had to eat well in the morning.
“Are you scared about tomorrow?”
“Not really. I fought Black Cloak once and he’s really weak.”
“Is he the person that hurt me?” Nettal asked.
That made Addie stop and think for a second. Nettal had been asleep most of the time that everything had been happening for the last week or so. She didn’t know anything about Black Cloak, or Addie’s recent adventures.
“Yeah. At first, I thought it was that green pigling in Realmspace, though.”
“Oh yeah!” Nettal said quite loudly. Then, she quieted down completely, and with wide eyes, both girls looked over to the doorway. After a few moments when Auntie didn’t come to check on them, they both let out big breaths.
Continuing in a whisper, Nettal asked, “What was that pig-thing?”
“Sen told me he was some kind of ‘experiment’.”
“Who’s Sen?”
Addie opened her mouth wide, Nettal didn’t remember Sen!? No wait, she wasn’t awake, then.
“He’s the big dragon that helped heal you. I found him and asked him for help.”
“You found a dragon! Wow.” Nettal only barely managed to keep her voice to a whisper.
Addie moved her hand down and reached out for Nettal’s hand. Then, she pulled it up out from the blankets. After Nettal’s hand was out, Addie traced her fingers around the ring on Nettal’s right ring finger.
“He made this ring for you. He said it would protect you.”
“That’s where this came from. I tried to take it off earlier but it wouldn’t come off. It’s like, glued on there or something.”
“He really wanted to protect you. The ring even tried to protect you from Lotty, and he just wanted to help you!”
Both girls giggled.
Nettal slowly moved her hand back underneath the blankets, but the girls kept holding hands.
With a deep breath in, Addie let out a big yawn.
“Maybe we should go to bed,” Addie suggested.
“Alright,” Nettal agreed.
This time, Addie’s thoughts seemed to settle right down. Holding Nettal’s hand comforted Addie, and helped her relax. Slowly, her mind began to settle down. One moment, the blankets surrounded Addie in their comforting embrace, and the darkness eased her mind into quiet. The next moment, Addie’s mind fully fell off the edge of wakefulness and right into a deep sleep.
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Addie stood in front of the mansion’s front door, looking out the side window. She saw Mr. Owlcharge flying through the air on a giant platform made of stone, with Christena standing next to him. Addie could also make out a few heads of hair lying on the stone, but she couldn’t see the children too well since they weren’t standing up on the stone like the adults.
The massive stone platform slowed down as it got closer to the front door until it settled into a hover right above the main entryway. Mr. Owlcharge settled the platform down on the swampy mud, just a meter or so away from the doorway. He and Christena stepped off the platform, and Addie opened the door immediately.
Auntie grabbed onto Addie’s shoulder from behind, making her wait before running out the door.
“Let me help them, Addie. Can you move out of the doorway?”
Even though Addie wanted to run outside as soon as she could, she did her best to listen to Auntie and stepped away from the doorway. Auntie walked over to the children, still on the stone platform. She gestured with her hands, and a ton of swamp vines began gently sprouting up from the mud and wrapped all the children into individual cocoons.
One by one, the children started floating into the air, the swamp vines detaching from the ground as they did so. After the first child was wrapped, a boy with black hair who Addie thought couldn’t be too much older than four, Auntie made him start floating inside the mansion and up the stairs.
“Addie,” hearing her name, Addie turned her head over to Christena, “Are you ready?”