The first sign I'd woken up was the dull throb from my head. I didn't know why, but, paired with exhaustion, it made me move, contrary to what someone might think. It made me squirm, more specifically. It was uncomfortable yet a warm embrace of sheets and pillows contrasted the throb. Was I sick? I remember somewhere in the last few weeks that Gary- or maybe Greg had gotten sick?
Past the pounding in my head, I felt a jolt of motivation as I remembered my job and lessons. "I need to get up…" I mumbled as the fog made my room look odd. The usual beige walls looked distorted. Something blocked it, and I noticed shapes standing just outside my vision.
My eyes narrowed as I turned, and I squinted at… people? Why were they… suddenly things snapped in place. Jumping up in bed, I focused on the group. My head throbbed, but my vision sharpened. In a room that was not my own, stood 4 witches with rounded ears. I recognized 3 as the family that I'd run from before and the other, probably a guard, that'd charged towards us before I fell asleep.
Realizing the danger, I pointed my finger at the man and tried to launch a gust of air, but nothing happened. The man gave me a strange look as he turned to the lady.
"He's awake now, so am I free to leave?" The lady frowned as her eyes lingered on me. What was happening? Was he not a guard? Did they not have time to tell the authorities here? That had to be it.
The lady stood there for a moment. She shook her head. "Wait a little longer," she leaned in slowly as I backed up. I had no idea what was going on. I didn't know what to expect as her face stopped at a comfortable yet close distance from me. "How do you feel?" I felt tired and some of my skin stung as I sat there, but otherwise?
"I feel fine," I watched the Lady's face relax as she continued. "Any problems with your head?" I thought about telling them about the headache, but I wasn't sure if I should tell a stranger about that. I shook my head.
The lady hummed. "I don't think we ever got your name, can you tell us what it is?" I felt uncomfortable at the question, but with another glance, I knew that I wasn't exactly in a situation where I could avoid answering, so I tried to think of a name that might work to make sure I wasn't recognized. It was a little hard with a throbbing headache even if it lessened as time passed. Finally, after a few more seconds of silence, I thought of a name that I blurted without thinking.
"My name's Chris," The lady nodded, accepting the name easily. Was it because I was a kid? The lady moved on to her next question. "Do you know who I am?" I nodded.
"You're the lady who talked to me outside," She gave me a strange look for a moment before a look of realization slid across her face. "We didn't introduce ourselves did we?" The lady pointed to herself. "I'm-," She paused as if thinking something over. "-you know what, just call me Mrs.Boonchuy," she smiled.
I gave her a strange look, but shrugged it off. "Ok, Mrs.Boonchuy-," Mrs.Boonchuy moved on. She gestured over to the man, who'd also talked to me earlier. "This is Mr.Boonchuy," I nodded and she moved onto the small girl just off to the side. "-and this is my daughter, Anne," the girl shied away like she was being accused of something as she hid behind her mother.
Mrs.Boonchuy chuckled as the 4th person in this group of strangers and possible guard started tapping his foot, glancing at his watch. "Look, I know this is important, but I have something to do, so can we speed this up a little," Mrs.Boonchuy frowned and turned to the man before sighing.
"You can leave then," the man looked a little relieved at that as he turned and walked out with Mr.Boonchuy, who escorted him out of the room. I glanced back at Mrs.Boonchuy as a figure a little smaller than me hid behind her. That girl from before peeked out at me.
It was weird seeing the look in her eyes turn shy when she acted so differently last time I talked to her. Mrs.Boonchuy cleared her throat. "It's good to see you ok… Chris," her eyes drifted off to the side as her last statement hung in the air. I took in her words as the name echoed in my ears. I didn't find the name comfortable exactly, but she looked almost as uncomfortable despite barely knowing me.
A quirk in her lips stood out. She looked uncomfortable. Why was she uncomfortable? I looked behind me. There wasn't anything that stood out, so why did she look like that? I looked down at myself and saw the bandages. 'I guess I got some scrapes?' They didn't hurt much, but was that why she was looking away? 'Maybe I should tell her I'm fine?' Breathing in, my lips turned up.
"Thanks for bandaging my legs," my voice wasn't loud, but it was happy enough, I thought. Her face eased a little as she turned back to me. "You're welcome," she sounded as friendly as last time. I felt a little relieved. I didn't know why, but I did. There wasn't a lot of talking after that as we sat there, not even the kid spoke despite being so chatty before. Though, seeing her again, the shyness looked different. She looked down, avoiding my eyes. I didn't know why.
It could have been the same reason, but she didn't do much. All she'd done was tell me about the Po'lease -was that the right way to say it?-, so maybe that's why? I leaned in closer. "Hey…" I thought about it again. A part of my brain is telling me not to bring it up. 'Then what do I say?' I'd already spoken and she was glancing up at me.
My smile stuck onto my face as my brain went a mile a minute as I thought of what to say. I rummaged through my head as my eyes went to a doll lying on the ground nearby in a pile of toys. It had the weirdest look with mostly white clothes contrasting a purple dress, black heels, and a golden crown. The most striking part though was the eyes, they looked so similar to my own.
"...what is that?" I pointed to a toy and the girl turned to look at the doll and her eyes widened with her new smile. "That's Azura!" I narrowed my eyes as she ran over, bending down to pick it up. Azura… it sounded so familiar. Maybe it's just how similar my name is to this doll's?
It didn't really matter right now as she ran over and stuck it in my face. I backed up as she ranted about a book about the witch in her hand before swapping her doll for a colorful cover. The book's title was "The Good Witch Azura," which felt odd looking at. It wasn't anything special for books besides the… familiar-looking characters in the background. That nagging familiarity wasn't just because of physical resemblance though.
'Where've I seen this before?' Did I want to know? My thoughts went back to the beach and those stalls. I'd recognized something there too, but- a knock rang out as everyone turned towards the door. A witch I didn't recognize peeked into the door, her smile looking tense, tense in a different way from Mrs.Boonchuy or the girl.
She stepped in, a little stilted, but still smooth compared to some other witches I'd seen. "Who-?" I was cut off as Mrs.Boonchuy stood up from her chair and turned towards the new arrival. "Hello, are you…?" The new lady nodded. "Yes, I'm Officer Smith," Officer Smith? Was this a friend?
She looked nothing like this family. Her build was completely different from either Mrs.Boonchuy or her husband with a wider frame that was built more like Josh's, with his broader shoulders and boxy frame. She had black hair tied tightly in a bun compared to the others' free-flowing brown, and she had a completely different eye color that looked closer to my hair than the hazel of the others.
I glanced between the two as they chatted, only to feel a tug on the sheets. Turning, I saw the girl, who had a worried look on her face. She was whispering something a little too loudly as I heard a word that made me tense. "...Police," I turned back to the guard at the room's only door.
I almost tried to scramble for the door before something in my head told me to wait. Why would I want to wait? There was a guard just a few meters away. Even the kid here was tugging at me. Still, a voice just outside of my aching head told me to be patient. The guard, turning her attention to me, walked over as she kneeled on one knee as she put on the same kind of smile I'd put on for the kid.
"Hey there, I'm Officer Smith, and I heard from the lady over there that they found you wandering around their house?" I made an effort not to show wariness as I nodded. It didn't work. I felt the stilted tilt of my head. It didn't change much about the guard's expression, but they adjusted their back, creating some space.
It didn't really make sense to me, but I felt a little more confident about slipping away in case I had to run. "Can you tell me why you were here around this neighborhood- or um, these houses?" I thought about it for a second. I didn't want to tell her I was trying to fight these guys for the food in their shop, assuming this was the same family that owned the home I'd gone to.
What was I going to say? There was that weird place with floating cubes where I'd fought Josh. That probably wouldn't work in that context since I don't think that was on the boiling isles. Maybe, I could reframe it? I was teleported and woke up on the beach? Hm… no. I was pushed through a portal? No, just leave out the portal. So what did I say then about ending up where I was from BonesBorough? Kidnapped? Yeah, that's a good explanation.
"I was um…" I paused as I saw the intense focus of the lady in front of me. It felt unsettling, so I glanced over at Mrs.Boonchuy. She didn't look weirded out by the look, but she wasn't the focus either. I turned my eyes to the only other kid in the room and saw her standing behind her mother. My lips thinned a little as the leg of her mom hid most of her expression, making it impossible to know what she was thinking.
My lips thinned a little as I decided to push through the uncertainty and speak in a way that wasn't too specific like the kid in the room. "I um, woke up on the beach and my head hurt…" That felt vague enough so far. "...then I walked around until I met Mrs.Boonchuy and Mr.Boonchuy and her," I pointed over to the girl as she hid away fully. The officer nodded as she wrote something down on a pad of paper I hadn't seen before.
She looked back up at me and went to place her hand on me. Was she going to take me to- jail was the word that came to mind and I clamped down on the discomfort remembering something I shouldn't know brought. It didn't really matter right now.
I flinched as she paused. "Thank you for the information kid, I appreciate it," I nodded and she stood from where she was. She turned to Mrs.Boonchuy and spoke a few words before leaving through the door.
'What was that about?' Was she not here to bring me to jail? Why wouldn't she? My head still hurts. Deciding that it was better to rest for now, I went to lie back in bed. That was the moment that the kid and Mrs.Boonchuy arrived at the bed.
"So Chris, how are you feeling?" I turned to look at the persistent discomfort on Mrs.Boonchuy's face. I already told her how I felt, but her expression seemed worse as something clicked and the whole picture became clearer. They'd called the po'lease. Why? I heard them mention it before I passed out, but if not to turn me into the authorities then what? I needed to know.
"Um…" I started to speak tentatively. "I'm fine, but why was there…?" I gestured to the door. Mrs.Boonchuy's face soured, confirming the root of her discomfort for me. "You see, the police help kids like you find your mom and dad," She answered as I stared on, silently.
'Does that mean there were other uses for guards besides arresting criminals?' I thought back to the coven scouts that had arrived after the centipede had died. They'd worked on getting rid of the thing as far as I knew, so it's possible that they helped with that too?
How'd I not see that before in BonesBorough? Then my mind went to my general lack of time spent in the place. I mean I'd barely explored the town with the… what? A month spent bouncing from one thing to another? I couldn't think much more about it as I saw the increasing discomfort of someone other than Mrs.Boonchuy.
The kid looked anxious at my far-off look. She turned away as I realized I was staring. Why was I in my head so much? I shook my thoughts off and smiled, shrugging. "Thank you," The sudden cheerier tone surprised the kid and her mother, or in Mrs.Boonchuy's case, eased whatever tension there was.
"Today's been pretty hectic for you, hasn't it?" I nodded, thinking back to my actions and all the things that'd happened to get here. "How about some soup?" I raised a brow at that.
"Soup?" Mrs.Boonchuy nodded. "Just some food I made earlier for Anne here," she patted the kid's head, and I turned to the now-named Anne. 'Huh, so that's what she's called,' my naming sense wasn't the greatest I knew with such gems as "Green hair" and "demon boy," so it was sort of a relief to have something to call her besides "kid" or "girl," especially in conversation.
While I was in my head, I failed to notice the cool air on my legs as the covers that I lay under were pulled back. "Do you need help getting off the bed or can you do it on your own?" I snapped back as I realized that Mrs.Boonchuy was talking to me and that she thought the bed might be too tall for me. I mean, I only got some scrapes that didn't hurt my legs much, so…
"Yeah, I can get down," She nodded as she watched me climb out of the bed and plopped down. Turning, I made my way to the door and the meal that was waiting for me.
#
Officer Smith was deep in thought as she stepped into her car. The call that she'd gotten about a lost child wasn't all that strange. You have kids getting lost all the time in the city. Most were sent home safely with their worried parents, but that wasn't what she was thinking about.
The kid, Chris, had some odd looks for a child. The deep blue hair of the kid wasn't something she usually saw in a kid his age, but some parents tend to let kids do what they want with their hair. The other standout was those ears. She'd never seen a kid with cosmetic surgery, or at least none that young.
'There wasn't even scarring,' There'd be some physical evidence of the change usually, but there was nothing, no deformation or lines. 'Actually, how young would he have been if the scarring was completely gone?' It felt unsettling to think there was someone who'd do that to a kid.
'Was he running away from someone?' It'd make sense. The kid was tense the moment he saw her. 'Did he think that I was going to drag him back to people like that?' Her grip tightened on the steering wheel. She had to file a report for the kid, but maybe if she talked it over with the chief then she could have him placed under a fake name?
Officer Smith sighed. "I'll get to it when I can," she decided as she started her car and pulled away.
#
Roderia wasn't having a good day. He had everything figured out. The kidnapping, Alexandrius's collapse, and sending that mutt-shaped parasite to capture the chosen. It was perfect! So how did he fail? There had to be something that he didn't account for… was it the mutt?
He was sure that the parasite's wounded pride would have it motivated. It'd been denied so many times in its schemes that he was sure it'd fulfill the mission, even to spite him by destroying the chosen's soul. He'd accounted for that and was on standby to snuff out what was left of it. It didn't. Why didn't it? Why!
He'd arranged for this to happen ever since the discovery of the mutt's breach into this world. Now the chosen was in a place he had no way to get to under the scrutiny of… that thing. After the capture of the mutt, the presence appeared, its stare pressed down on him. Even so, it wouldn't stop him. He'd gathered enough essence to hide away in the blessed sanctuary for now and his agent had made it to the other place. He could take care of- something battered against the sanctuary.
"Damnable servant of the blight…" he snarled reluctantly. His lord was always listening, after all. They abhorred his impurity. The unsettled emotion he possessed was as impure as the boiling lakes in this place, mixed with the blood and bile of the impure.
He needed to make a vessel to escape to. This one had run its course, so who could he take? A slight, almost imperceptible tendril shot out with a copy of his mind that most essence wielders could never hope to replicate as the pressure came down harder than ever. Roderia grunted with the irritating pressure eating away at his escape. That didn't seem to stop the tendril though. Slithering through the forest, it made its way out past the suppression. The fool of a presence underestimated him and his skill.
The tendril slithered its way through greenery and roots like a snake as it searched for a suitable host. It spent hours of slow progress making its way through the brush. It felt like nothing he could find fit his standards.
"It's all dumb beasts and mindless trees!" He knew there were smaller sorts of flora and fauna too, but why pick something so insignificant? It would be an insult to his lord. There was nothing worth the divine material he'd expended his precious, gifted energy for in the small and insignificant. That's when it hit him. The sense of a soul of exacting standards, a twisted sapling devoid of the blessed essence yet fit perfectly for his designs. He'd seen plenty of saplings that could be called twisted, but most weren't ripe enough to pick.
So with an all too eager effort, his copy made their way to a figure harvesting the most noxious of substances with a crooked smile on their face.
#
The food was amazing. I finished the soup so fast that I thought I might choke on the pieces of tomato or those soft white cubes. I think Mrs.Boonchuy called it tofu? It had this sour taste that I loved. Anne didn't look all that impressed. She talked about something called pad thai. That sounded familiar… where had I heard that from?
Thai… Thai? Thai! This has to be related to that Thai Go place! Wait, but wasn't the whole goal to get food from Thai Go? '...I did it? Woohoo?' I felt a little awkward as I stared at the people I was going to fight(?) for their food. I mean I didn't think of fighting them, but I didn't think of other things, did I?
"My brain hurts," I heard some noise as the figure of Mrs.Boonchuy faced me. "Your head hurts?" I paused at the question and shook my head. "No, I'm just thinking," she let out a sigh as her focus went back to the bowls she was washing.
The sink steamed as she shifted her arms around the sink with her purple sleeves occasionally threatening to slip down and get wet themselves. A clattering noise from the dishes ringing out around the room. It echoed on the walls and cabinets that hung above and below with the wood adding to the noise as Mrs.Boonchuy occasionally knocked her white pants into the cabinet doors. It all felt sort of soothing for some reason as I sat there.
'I wonder why?' Something familiar rose from the back of my mind as the familiar click hit me. I stiffened and looked for something to distract. Something dangerous maybe? A person to find? Even sorting some books!
I jumped up from my chair and stood near the sink as I tried to see what was happening in the dish cleaning dip of this counter. "Hey, can I help?" Mrs.Boonchuy jumped. Looking down at me, she relaxed and shook her head. "I can handle this, you just go play," what? Go play? Why? What do I even do? Mrs.Boonchuy probably noticed my confusion with her own expression turning strange.
"...you know, play," my frown deepened and she sighed. "Anne," she called out as the girl turned from her newly emptied bowl. "Can you show Chris your toys while I clean the dishes?" Anne glanced towards me curiously, her previous hesitance gone.
'Do kids change that quickly?' I mean I was a kid and I did forget about my goal for a bit, but I think assuming you're going to be arrested makes a lot of people forget stuff. Then again, I probably wasn't that far off in age from Anne, so I guess I'd be the same as any other kid, or worse with my memory problems. I think it would make it worse at least. I wanted to sigh.
Suddenly a hand circled my wrist and I was off. A door opened and I found myself in a room of purple rather than beige like the rest of the house. Moving past a bed the color of Raine's hair, we finally stopped as a chest opened and Anne almost dove in to grab a familiar doll.
"Hey, do you remember this one? It's Azura!" I nodded, confused. "Yeah?" She pointed at me, ignoring my confused voice. "You have the same eye color!" I nodded at her words. "What about it?" Anne's face scrunched the way I'd seen on Amity before when she got frustrated, it was funny.
I thought of the party she invited me to. Would I get back before then? I felt for it in my pockets. A thin bump stuck out in my pocket as I reached in and grabbed the card. It had purple and green accents that were in the same stylized writing you might see in an old book. I read out the text in my head.
'You're officially invited to the gathering of one of the up-and-coming abomination production companies. Alador and Odalia Blight humbly welcome you for fine refreshments and even finer foods,' it sounded sort of stuck up, but I didn't care. It was a piece of home.
"What's that?" Anne looked at the fancy invitation with curiosity, seeming to forget her doll and whatever she was thinking about. "It looks so cool!" I didn't know what to say about that, but it was kind of cool looking now that she mentioned it. Still seems stuck up though.
I shrugged and put it away. "Just a card," Anne leaned a little too close as her eyes sparkled. "Can I have it?" My brows furrowed and I stepped away. "No, it's mine," I felt my body tense a little. "My friend gave me this," Anne dimmed a little at that as she frowned.
"Fine," that was… easy? Why wasn't there more arguing? "Why?" Anne gave me a strange look and shrugged. "I got stuff from my friends too," She had friends who gave her stuff? Maybe it was like my invitation then? I smiled a little as I spotted the Azura doll. "Was that from your friends?" Anne turned and saw the doll in her hand. She nodded more energetically and put it in front of my face.
"Yeah, and they said the book was super cool and they saw Azura do magic at a cool place in the city!" I quirked my brow and nodded. "Yeah? So she's real?" Anne nodded. "Yeah, and you also have eyes sort of like hers, so I thought you could do magic too!" I nodded again.
"Yeah, you can't?" Anne pouted and shook her head. That was odd. Was it some kind of condition like my amnesia? My body relaxed and I thought of what magic I should do. I looked down at the ground and thought about Earth glyphs… 'No, that'll cause damage,' I went to my soul sight spell. 'I don't even know if I could show her the effects or if I could cast it on her,' then came wind glyphs, and thought of the harmless breezes I could make. That'd work.
"Watch this," I said as the kid focused intensely. I manifested a swirling wind as the doll was yanked out of her hand, flying around. I made the doll float in front before awkwardly circling her. It was harder than I remembered back at the hospital for some reason, but I managed it.
"Mom!" Anne suddenly called loudly as I flinched. Rapid footsteps came from outside as Mrs.Boonchuy swung the door open. "Annie?" She looked around apprehensively before seeing we were just fine. Then she saw my magic and froze.
"Look, Mom, it's magic!" Mrs. Boonchuy's mouth hung open as I held Azura there in the air. What was the problem? "Azura's flying!" Mrs.Boonchuy blinked, straightening her back before looking around the room like she expected strings to be tied to the ceiling. When that didn't work, she turned to us.
"How is that in the air?" Anne pointed to me at her mother's question and I shrugged. "I used magic to move it with air," Mrs.Boonchuy's brows knit together. She looked confused. "But magic-..." she looked between me and the doll before kneeling.
"Ch-chris, if that's your 'magic' then could you make it move?" I nodded and it shifted to the left. Mrs.Boonchuy swiped her hand above me as her arm met air. "Huh," she was slack-jawed as she looked at the doll. Just then, a headache started to form as my grip on the air flickered.
"Um, can someone grab the doll?" Anne turned to me with a question in her eyes. "It's about to fall," Mrs.Boonchuy got up and went to grab the doll, the last vestige of the current dissipating as she did. She flinched back a little before her reflexes kicked in and she caught it.
She was still after that. She stared at the doll like she couldn't believe it was real. Then with a sudden jerk, she turned to me. "Chris, you can control wind?" I flinched, stepping back before nodding. I heard something like "mo phi" before Mrs.Boonchuy noticed what she was doing.
"Sorry, I just… are you the child of a shaman?" My face screwed up in confusion. "I… what? What's a shaman?" My confused look persisted and Mrs.Boonchuy stared distantly into me. She snapped out of it soon after and started to explain what a shaman was. My eyes widened.
"Do you understand that?" I nodded. "So are you the child of a shaman?" I thought about it. "No, my parents are witches," that seemed to throw her off. It had the opposite effect on Anne though. "You're a witch!"Anne charged over almost bowling us over as she bombarded me with questions that I had no idea how to answer until she asked who my teacher was.
"Oh, that's Malphas, my oracle magic teacher," Mr.Boonchuy tensed at that. "Oracle?" She spoke questioningly. I nodded. "Yeah, it's magic that can see the future and souls," Mrs.Boonchuy snorted at that.
"What?" I gave her a curious look and she shook her head. "You can see souls?" I nodded. "They look like acorns to me," Mrs.Boonchuy gave me a strange look at that comment. Anne looked between us before asking in a voice a little too loud, "Make Azura fly again!... please?" I flinched again and held my head.
Mrs.Boonchuy's expression turned to one of concern as she kneeled in front of me. "What's wrong?" I rubbed my head. "It hurts," Mrs.Boonchuy nodded. "Can you tell me what caused it?" She examined my head. "I think I used too much magic," Mrs.Boonchuy nodded with a lost expression.
"Do you have something you want me to do?" I shook my head. "No, it just felt better after I ate," Mrs.Boonchuy's lips pursed as her eyes took on a distant look. "Do you wanna eat more then?" Anne's voice stuck out in the silence. I turned to her. "I don't know, I'm full," Anne's lips thinned and she took on a look similar to her mother. What was going on?