“Are you girls getting ready?” Auntie walked into the room with Violet on her shoulder, the door swinging in and causing a small gust of air to hit Addie’s back.
Addie turned around to look over at Auntie.
“I’m ready!” Nettal said.
“She’s not ready!” Addie protested. “I want to go out looking pretty but Nettal is wearing shorts.”
Addie always wore proper dresses. So Nettal wearing shorts out into town was scandalous. That was her new favorite word, too. Christena had just taught it to her.
Auntie stifled a chuckle, “Addie, sometimes you have to be alright with letting other people make their own decisions.”
“Yeah, Addie! Besides, these shorts have pockets! Besides, if I wear a dress I might get swamp mud on it. Shorts are better for adventuring.” Nettal crossed her arms and nodded her head in agreement with herself.
Sharply, Addie turned her head back to Nettal who was farther into the room near the bunk bed. “We aren’t going adventuring. We are going into town.” Addie raised her chin up smugly.
“Well that’s true I guess. But I’m still wearing shorts.” Her tone sounded final like the decision wouldn’t be overturned by even the most powerful of dictators.
And Addie certainly was feeling a bit dictator-y. “I think we should both wear dresses.”
Auntie walked a bit further into the room and stood in between the two girls, “Addie, how about you wear a pretty dress and we let Nettal wear her own choice of clothes?” Auntie tried with a calm tone.
Squishy bumped his cool scaly head up against Addie’s leg in a comforting motion. A feeling of acquiescence pushed into Addie from their bond, “Not you too, Squishy!" Addie rolled her eyes, "Fine!”
“That is very mature of you, Addie,” Auntie praised her, making her feel good inside.
“Addie, I actually wanted to talk to you a bit before we go, is it alright if we talk now?” Auntie bent down a bit with her hands on her waist.
“Sure, I guess,” Addie shrugged.
Auntie stood back up tall and then walked over to Nettal’s bed and sat down on the lower bunk. “Nettal can stay too since she’s been helping to heal your soul.”
At the mention of healing, Lotty perked up his ears and moved his head, looking more involved in the conversation. While Addie and Nettal had been getting ready, he had just been resting on the floor near Nettal’s simple wooden desk by the window. The morning binary light streamed gently into the room, giving him a nice sun-bathe.
“Christena and I were talking last night about the conversation we had about you staying for another week.”
Before Auntie could continue, Addie spoke up, “I thought you said you were going to let me stay!” Panic pushed its way down Addie’s throat, filling her up with fears of being forced to leave early.
“Don’t worry, you can still stay for this week as we discussed."
Addie let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding. Then she asked, “So what is it?”
From her position on Nettal’s bed, she waved her hand gesturing for Addie to come closer.
Once she made it closer to the bed, Auntie held onto Addie’s hand, “Simply put, we are still a bit concerned about your soul. You said there are still cracks in it, right?”
Addie glanced at Nettal and then back to Auntie as she nodded her head.
“Well, Christena and I are worried about your mind.” Auntie crossed one leg over the other and squeezed Addie’s hand reassuringly.
Addie tilted her head in thought. She didn’t really remember anything like that, but the thought of it scared her.
“We think you might have suffered some memory loss from the cascade. It’s just too strange that you couldn’t remember your father’s name last night. Violet got a message off to Tom last night, and he agreed with us. We’ll need to figure out if there are any other gaps in your memory.”
The next few seconds of Auntie’s talking barely registered for Addie. She heard the words fine, but a blanket of fog seemed to cover her mind, forcing the meaning to take a moment to get past a fuzzy barrier.
“What?”
“I said, I think you may still be under some mental effects from the bird. In the first place, we are having trouble understanding how you two bonded in the first place, since all bonding initializations, even ones that result in a cascade, usually require some level of consent from both parties. Is it possible you can bring the bird out?”
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Looking deep within herself, Addie felt around her soul shell. It looked like her bird was still spread out deep within the scarred cracks of her soul shell.
She dropped her head then, Addie said glumly, “I can’t. She’s hiding right now.”
In sympathy, Auntie reached out a bit and gently stroked Addie’s head. Her fingers broke apart some of the tangles in Addie’s long red hair. “That’s alright. She’s not in trouble, not now at least. When she’s feeling more comfortable, can you bring her to me?”
Despite Auntie’s soft and kind tone, her words made Addie shrink back as her bird’s fearful emotions bounced around the inside of Addie’s soul.
“Maybe.”
“Alright, don’t worry about it too much right now. I don’t want you to use any of your new magic until after Christena can give you some lessons, though. Alright?” Auntie’s tone was gentle but firm.
Addie nodded her head.
“Good.”
Auntie let go of Addie’s hand and leaned back as she relaxed a bit more. Then, she moved her eyes between Nettal and Addie a few times. “You girls finish up soon, and then Christena and I will take you to the library. Mr. Owlcharge wants to bring Lily along too.”
The previous dark mood instantly lightened and Addie smiled wide, “Great! I can’t wait.”
Auntie chuckled. Then she moved on, “After we get to the library, Christena will stay with you while Mr. Owlcharge and I take care of some things in town.”
After that, it didn’t take long to finish getting ready to go out to the library.
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“Shall we proceed to town hall?” Mr. Owlcharge gestured down the street while looking at Auntie. Arlie was wrapped around his pointing arm.
By his side, Lily let go of her dad’s hand and started walking over to Nettal’s side.
“Yes, in a moment.” Auntie glanced over to the girls standing in front of the library entrance, with Christena just off to the side. “You three be good and listen to Christena.”
The girls nodded their heads.
“Mr. Owlcharge and I have been looking into ‘Black Cloak’, as you call him, Addie. We’ll have some more news for you soon.”
The two adults turned around, but before they could walk on Addie asked, “What happened to Black Cloak after...” She trailed off.
Auntie turned her head back to answer quickly, “We have him in custody right now, but he isn’t telling us much. Let’s talk more later, ok? I’ll answer all your questions.”
“Ok, Auntie,” Addie agreed.
Addie watched for a moment as the two adults walked off, but her sightseeing was interrupted when she heard the skidding sound of the massive library doors opening. She turned around to take a look, and Nettal was pushing with her whole body weight to try and open the massive ornamented wooden doors.
From the outside, the library looked almost like a big white-gold soup bowl turned upside down with a longer rectangular piece leading into it. The structure was made from white stone-bricks, with golden paint making up various mythological and historical symbols across the building. Addie recognized Aggan and Servus and various depictions of flying golden dragons, but none of them looked like Sen.
Christena walked over to help open up the massive double doors, and they finally made their way inside. The doors slowly began to shut on their own once everyone made it into the reception area.
The long rectangular hallway had some brown leather couches on one side, and a reception desk on the other side. The four of them made their way over to the reception desk, with Squishy and Lotty following close behind them— Lotty’s hoofs making clacking sounds as he walked on the stone floor. Fluffy looked around the somewhat dark room, from her position on Christena’s shoulders, and sniffed at the air a bit.
The few candles on the desk lit up the room in a much darker contrast to outside, and Addie watched as her shadow danced along the far wall.
Lily walked forward closer to Christena, and held onto the back of Christena’s skirt, making her turn around briefly to look at Lily. After a moment of silence, it seemed like Lily didn’t have anything to say, so Christena turned toward the man at the reception desk
“We would like four library passes for the day,” Christena spoke to the man at the desk. He had black hair and some strange device on his face.
“Why is that weird thing on your face?” Addie spoke louder than she intended to, her voice echoing down the otherwise quiet hallway.
“Use a softer voice in the library,” Christena reminded Addie.
“It’s quite alright,” The man started, his voice upbeat and his face smiling, “These are called ‘spectacles’ and they help me with my poor eyesight.”
“Oh cool! I use my spatial sense to help me when I can’t see very well, too! Why don’t you add some windows so it’s easier to see in here?” Addie suggested.
The man laughed, but he was still careful to keep his volume low. “The glasses aren’t for when it’s too dark. I need them all the time, even when there’s plenty of light. Otherwise, things look blurry.” Then, he started shuffling around some small wooden cards on the desk.
He turned back to Christena, “Four library passes for the day, correct?”
“That’s right.”
The wooden cards clattered on his desk for a moment as he piled them up on one another. Then, the man gathered them up into a single pile and passed it to Christena.
“Make sure you bring those back before you leave. Also, just a quick reminder on the rules. No taking anything out of the library. Additionally, no damaging any of our books. All books you take out to read should be returned to one of our book carts by the end of the day. If there’s something on one of the high shelves, make sure to ask one of the wandering librarians to help you get it down.”
“What happens if I accidentally break one of the books?” Nettal raised her hand into the air to ask her question.
“Then you’ll have to pay a repair fee.”
Nettal nodded her head in acknowledgment.
Addie would try her best not to damage one of the books. They didn’t use any money in her small village so she didn’t have any now, either
They started walking down the reception hall to enter into the library. Lotty seemed interested in Lily, maybe because he had never seen her before, and so he walked up to the tiny girl and started sniffing her.
The shy girl turned around with a bit of panic on her face, and she walked around Christena to hide behind her.
“He’s friendly!” Nettal said. “He just wants to say hi.”
Still hiding behind Christena’s leg, Lily moved her head around to glance at Lotty. She held onto Christena’s dress with one hand and quickly waved with her other hand before dropping it.
Christena scooped Lily up from under her arms and then readjusted Lily’s position so that her small body rested securely against Christena’s chest with her left arm supporting Lily’s legs from underneath. Lily instinctively grabbed onto some of the fabric on the front of Christena’s maid uniform. The sudden motion spooked Fluffy, who jumped off Christena’s shoulders and started chittering by her feet.
“We have a nice garden for your bonded if they need space to sit out in the sun. Just keep walking toward the back doors of the library and it opens out into our fenced garden.” The man spoke up from behind them.
“Thank you for all of your help,” Christena said. Then, everyone started walking into the library proper.