Nettal closed the door behind her and walked over to Addie’s bed. She moved a couple of the dirty dishes off of Addie’s bed and put them onto the nightstand, clattering them a bit as the utensils jostled in the bowls. Auntie walked into the room behind Nettal and gently closed the door.
“I’m looking after you again today too, huh?” Nettal said teasingly.
“Why do you say that every time you come in here!” Addie rolled her eyes.
Nettal covered her mouth and laughed quietly. Lotty looked up curiously, his slitted eyes looking up at Nettal.
Auntie was looking at the interaction with a bright smile on her face.
“Well, before you were taking care of me, so now it’s my turn to take care of you, of course!” Nettal proudly put her fists on her hips and raised her head up to the right.
“I’m glad you two are feeling so much better. Addie, how are you doing?” Auntie asked sincerely. “Are you still sore?”
“Just a little bit. I can sit up fine now, and mostly move my arms again.” Addie explained simply.
“Can I take a look?” Nettal asked.
“Yeah,” Addie replied.
Walking closer to the bed, Nettal put her hand over Addie’s chest. Her hand hovered there for a moment without moving.
“What are you waiting for?” Addie asked bluntly.
Nettal took in a deep breath and smiled, “Still getting used to my powers, I guess.”
Her hand touched down on Addie’s midsection, and Addie felt a stream of soothing warmth flood into her body. Addie relaxed into it, closing her eyes to enjoy the feeling. This was her third healing session with Nettal, though she had apparently been asleep the first time. So she only remembered Nettal coming in yesterday. After the healing session yesterday, Addie felt way better.
The healing ended quickly, much more quickly than yesterday. Then, Nettal leaned over a bit farther and did the same to Squishy. A handful of thin charcoal-looking jagged lines remained near his heart, but a couple of really small lines of soul damage faded near the edges.
Addie looked down her pajama shirt and at her own scars. She had a matching set congregated around her heart, making her frown for a moment. At least all of the dark jagged lines near her shoulders and stomach were gone now. Addie sighed and stopped looking. She was still getting used to the markings.
Nettal hopped up to sit on the bed. While she was still in the air, Addie quickly moved her legs over a bit to make room before Nettal landed.
The bed shook and creaked for a moment due to Nettal’s momentum, jostling the bed and Addie side to side just a bit before settling down.
“So, what are you going to name him?” Nettal asked.
She could only be talking about one thing.
“She’s a girl.”
Nettal tilted her head a bit.
“The bird is a girl. I figured it out once we bonded.” Addie explained.
“So, what’s her name?” Nettal repeated.
“I don’t know.”
“Why don’t you know?”
Addie thought about it for a moment. Then she shrugged. “I dunno.”
“Well, I think you should give her a pretty name.”
“Ok,” Addie said. She hadn’t thought too much about the bird lately. She could feel a lot of affection for the bird— a byproduct of their soul bond. It would be impossible not to be attached to the bird emotionally since they were attached spiritually. But, she still had a lot of other strong feelings about the bird, due to all the ways she had hurt Addie and the other children.
Looking into herself, Addie could feel it sitting within the cracked scars of her partly cascaded soul shell. It liked to sit in there, surrounded by Addie’s soul like that. It felt a bit uncomfortable for Addie, but she couldn’t make it leave. She had tried quite a lot. Her sitting there made the soul scars impossible to ignore.
During their bonding initialization, Addie knew that the bird had wanted Addie’s soul to cascade. It wanted to hurt Addie on purpose and use her soul as magical fuel to create something monstrous and powerful for its own selfish gain.
At that memory, she felt a whisper of regret from somewhere deep down her soul bond. That was probably the bird trying to talk to Addie. She talked using pure feelings and images like that every now and again. But, Addie still hadn’t seen the bird physically. For now, she was sitting in Addie’s soul, dormant.
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“Well, it looks like you don’t really wanna talk about it.” Nettal huffed out a breath and looked away for a moment. Then, she turned back to Addie, “Mom, don’t you think Addie should be okay to start moving around again tomorrow?”
“I think so. How about you, Addie? Are you ready to get a bit more active again tomorrow?”
Smiling, Addie nodded her head up and down so fast she nearly got dizzy. “Yeah!”
With a big genuine smile, Auntie let out a relieved breath. “I’m just so glad you both are alright.”
“Aw, Mom! Don’t cry or you’ll start making me cry!” Nettal pouted.
Auntie sniffed, looked up, and wiped at her eyes. “Ok, I’m going to let you two girls reconnect. Call for Christena if you two need anything. I need to go help out in town a bit. Addie, I’ll have Christena come in and check on you again before bed.”
Addie nodded her head in acknowledgment. “Auntie?” Addie said to get her attention.
“Hm?”
“I’m glad you aren’t sad anymore.”
“Me too, Addie.”
As Auntie slowly left the room and closed the door behind her, Addie turned her head over to Nettal.
“Does it still hurt when you heal people?” Addie asked. Nettal had told Addie some of the basics about her magic, but not too much. Addie had still been resting and even sleeping most of the day yesterday, so she didn’t get to spend much time with Nettal. According to Christena, sleeping for a long time often happens when someone suffers from soul damage.
“It does hurt, but I think I’m starting to figure it out. It was really scary at first to feel everyone’s pain when I tried to heal them. But, it actually helps me figure out where to heal them, if that makes sense.”
“I think so,” Addie nodded her head. “Thank you for healing me, even though it hurts.”
“Aw!” Nettal squeaked and then wrapped Addie up in a big hug.
Addie winced, expecting her sore muscles to hurt, but actually, they seemed fine now. People had been hugging her a lot lately.
Still hugging Addie, Nettal whispered into her ear, “I don’t want you to go. Christena says you two have to leave soon.”
With wide eyes, Addie frantically pulled away from Nettal and looked her in the eyes. “I don’t want to leave yet either!”
Nettal frowned. “Let’s convince them together.” She suggested in a whisper. “But Christena already started packing up the cart and preparing the fillow.”
That meant Addie and Nettal were on a time limit to convince the adults to let Addie stay.
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“I don’t want to go back home yet,” Addie said.
Christena was sitting on a living couch on the far side of the light room, and Auntie was on a chair off to the right side. The left wall of the light room was mostly glass, allowing for tons of Binary light to flow into the room, hence the name of the room. The couches and chairs were made of living plants woven together into an artful tapestry depicting various magical animals. A neat coffee table made of living wood sat in the middle of the room, with Addie standing just behind it. The binary light supported all of the furniture in the room, allowing it to also act as an artistic garden for Auntie.
Addie surveyed the two adults in the room, who were giving her pitying looks. Addie glanced to her right, where Nettal stood by her side reassuringly.
“I don’t want Addie to go yet, either. We’ve barely had any time together since we’ve both gotten better.” Nettal reached out to hold onto Addie’s hand.
Christena sighed, “I’m glad you are feeling better, Addie. That’s why your father is now asking for you to return. We had to talk him down from rushing over here immediately after he heard about everything. I understand wanting to stay, but it’s out of my control.”
“What?!” Addie furrowed her eyebrows and opened her mouth in outrage. “You told him?” She asked accusingly.
Christena sighed again, “Addie, as your responsible guardian at the moment, it’s my duty to tell your dad about you, especially since you’ve been hurt so much. He’s given you this much time so far because I convinced him that Nettal should finish healing you first.” Her tone was gentle, but firm.
“Just tell him I need more time healing!” Addie waved her arms around frantically.
“I could keep on giving Addie’s soul checkups for a little longer. Just in case,” Nettal added in a pleading tone.
Auntie stood up. “I’ll convince my brother, Addie. Violet, let me attach another note to your leg to send to Tom, alright?” Auntie looked over to Violet who was perched on her shoulder.
Violet chirped in agreement while nodding her tiny feathered head.
Christena seemed to relax in her seat and began to pet Fluffy at her side. perhaps relieved that Auntie would take care of it. Fluffy preened into the touch.
“Who’s Tom?” Addie asked. She didn’t know how some guy named Tom was going to help.
Auntie suddenly guffawed and looked at Addie in shock. “You don’t know your own father’s first name? What does your mom call him? Surely not something silly like Mr. Lomain?” Auntie continued laughing.
It wasn’t funny though. Addie just frowned at Auntie until she finally stopped laughing.
“She does call him Mr. Lomain,” Addie said seriously.
“We’re getting sidetracked,” Christena cut in, “Addie, it is extremely strange that you don’t know your dad’s name. I’ll talk to him about that later. Regardless—”
Addie interrupted Christena and turned to Nettal, “Do you know Auntie’s first name?”
“Yeah, Stella,” Nettal answered. “I think they are right. It’s weird, Addie.”
Glancing down at the floor, she gave Squishy a questioning look.
“Don’t ask me about human social dynamics. I’m just a silly cat.”
“Look!” Christena clapped her hands once to get everyone’s attention, “Since Miss Lomain will talk to your dad about letting you stay longer, I’d like to focus this next week on training and stabilizing your new powers and bonded. For both of you.”
Auntie nodded her head and crossed her legs, “I’ll also attend a few of the sessions, but I still have fallout to clean up in town with Mr. Owlcharge. So don’t expect me to be around too much.”
“Yes!” Addie couldn’t help herself, she pumped her arm in the air, and then she turned around to face Nettal with her hand facing up.
Nettal smacked Addie’s hand in a satisfyingly perfect high five.
“But tomorrow I don’t want either of you two to be too active without supervision! Nettal, I’d like you to think of a good place where we can all go tomorrow to have a vacation in a relaxing environment. We can do more magic training after Addie gets another day of rest.” Auntie said.
Addie rolled her eyes, “I’m already feeling better.”
“I didn’t ask if you were feeling better,” Auntie rebutted patronizingly.
Her tone made Addie look down at the floor.
“I’m sorry, that came out wrong.” Addie looked back up at Auntie’s sincere face, “I’m still worried about you two,” Auntie said more sincerely. “Can you both promise me to take one more rest day tomorrow?”
“Ok,” Addie said.
For a moment, Nettal didn’t respond. She looked deep in thought with her hand on her cheek and her eyes staring into the distance.
“I know where we can go,” Nettal said after a moment. “I’d like to spend our mini-vacation at the library.”