The house was empty when Catherine returned home; a lonely welcome after what happened the night before. Her mom had already left for work, so as an only child with a single mom and no pets the silent house was a usual environment. Her mother was also a NSU, but she was still providing a good income as a successful business woman. Understandably, she didn't want a teacher spending the day alone with her daughter while she worked, so Mr. Fisher only came by during the weekend. Because of that Catherine's days mostly consisted of homework, self-study, watching TV and playing games.
Today it was exceptionally hard to focus on studying though. She sighed and closed her geometry schoolfile. No matter how hard she squinted at the tablet, the words on it were not sinking in. Her mind kept wandering on another subject. One that, contrary to her school subjects, she was eager to learn more of: Spirits. Unfortunately she would have to wait until she could see Silvester again, since she had no material to work with here.
...Or did she? Her eyes widened in realization and she scrambled off her chair to run to the living room. Mom you better have recorded it. She scrolled through the recordings with the remote and, to her relief, saw the documentary on Spirits. "Now where was I at? Around here?"
"-through loss of control. You should never, ever use Partial Morphing lightly unless you are forced to by circumstances. Always stick to the safe options of summoning."
The scientist went on with his warnings about Morphing. It seemed like it was something you definitely wanted to stay away from and, she knew from her experience last night, it could easily turn into a pile of bodies.
After the lecture, the scientist was finally getting to the point. "So where do we begin for summoning a Spirit? To the source of course." He rolled up his sleeve and showed the camera a metal bracelet he was wearing. "When we extract our Spirit, it is sealed inside an object of our choosing, or our parents' choosing if it is done at a young age. An object with a Spirit sealed inside is referred to as a 'Core'."
"Come on, tell me something I don't already know!" Catherine said out loud. After being alone in the house so much it became a habit.
"More than one Spirit can be sealed in the same Core, but it's impossible for one person to use someone else's Spirit so it's very impractical to do so. The object must usually be very durable and should be wearable, because to access the Spirit the owner's body can't be more than one foot away." He unrolled the sleeve and the camera went back to its previous position. "Once we have our Core, we can start using all the summoning techniques. And the most common one is this: the Beast Summon."
A faint silhouette of light shimmered beside him, quickly taking form and becoming a large, tall lizard. It had a thick snout with angled eyes that also covered the sides. White scales covered its entire body, except for the front of the torso which had very human-like arms and legs attached to it. It blinked once and quietly stared at the camera.
The scientist's hand gestured to present it. "The Spirit materializes its own body, but it still remains connected to the core and our mind."
Catherine flung her hands up to the sides. "He's not gonna say how he summoned it?" The actual process of the summons was crucial knowledge that she was lacking.
"It will usually do what we say or think." He continued. "It can also take action of its own will, even though cases like that are really rare. If I think about making it wave to the camera..." The big white lizard waved. "...It will naturally apply my thought process. This summoning method is useful for transportation or doing tasks while keeping ourselves out of harm's way, but it's also the weakest one. That is because taking physical form drains energy from the Spirit and in so doing it can't use its full strength."
The lizardman breathed heavily and passed the back of its hand across its forehead, imitating exhaustion.
"The size of a Beast is predetermined and can't be changed, but they are almost always on the large side. The space is a little cramped here though, so I can't show you too many demonstrations with the Beast Summon. Which brings me to my next subject..." The lizard beast faded into nothing as the scientist continued. "Partial Summoning."
Catherine straightened on the sofa; until this point she had already known about most of what the program had presented, except for minor details here and there, but now it was really going into uncharted territory for her.
"Contrary to the big, intimidating Beast Summons, Partial Summoning is all about subtlety." His hands slowly gestured down like he wanted things to stay calm. "It's a technique that allows us to channel certain aspects of our Spirit through our body while changing nothing on the surface. The way it looks, our ancestors might have called this something funny like 'magic'," His fingers wiggled in the air sarcastically. "But it's simply a result of our evolution. Now, for the demonstration I have to warn the faint of heart, but you will understand shortly." A scalpel was handed to him from someone off camera. "Thank you, Jerry. And since the fair warning has already been given-" In one quick movement he swiped the blade through his open right palm.
A certain girl on a green sofa jumped in surprise at the sudden mutilation.
Blood dripped from the scientist's fresh wound and his teeth clenched. "Oof! Went a little deeper than I intended. I'm fine, just look." The camera zoomed in on his hand and the red gash slowly closed itself until the only evidence of it were the streaks of blood it had left behind. The hand flexed a little and the image retracted back to its original position. "You see, one of my Spirit's abilities is healing. With a Partial Summon I can channel it through my body and use it when needed."
"Yes." Catherine told him. "But how?!"
Unfazed by her question, the scientist continued. "Another one of my Spirit's abilities is-" A metal bar was given to him from off screen, by most likely Jerry again, which he effortlessly bent in the form of a circle. "Strength. A common ability, but a useful one nonetheless. To what extent can we use these abilities though? It varies from one person to another; every Spirit has its own limits."
Catherine heard the front door open. She hadn't realized that it was this late; her mom was back from work. She quickly changed the channel and assumed a slumped position on the sofa to seem casual.
Moments later, Mary walked into the living room and immediately noticed something was off. "Hey, Cathy." She greeted her daughter.
'Cathy' raised her hand in a lazy wave. "Hey."
"Everything alright?"
"Yeah." She answered without looking away from the screen. "Couldn't really concentrate on studies so I was just watching this to clear my head."
"The Spirit who loved me?" Her mom said skeptically. "I thought you hated those soapy dramas."
Whoops. "Yeah... I do hate it. Watching it makes me realize school isn't so bad after all." She closed the TV and hoped the subject would be gone with it. Just as she got up from the sofa she was suddenly tackled from the left by an unusual motherly hug. "Um… ok?" was her awkward response.
"Yes, I'm glad you're ok." Mary said without letting go. "You must've been so scared yesterday."
Catherine hesitantly hugged her back. "I'm fine, mom." She was trying not to remember the train crash and the minotaur from last night, but her damp eyes were giving her away. Luckily her mom couldn't see. "…I wasn't even close when it happened."
Mary let her daughter loose and quickly turned around to grab the bags she came back with, subtly hiding her emotions as well. "Ah well! Just another reason to stay away from Spirits as much as possible." She then made her way towards the dining room. "Come on, let's get this dinner on the table."
Catherine followed her, relieved that she hadn't pushed the matter further.
Later that night, Catherine was lying in bed and making good on her promise to call Melany back. Through the computer on her lap, she answered the video call without delay. Catherine waved at her. "Hey Melany!"
"Oh my..." Her friend replied. "I thought you'd be in a much worse mood considering what happened."
"How can you tell? I just said 'hey'."
Melany pointed at the screen. "You have this giant grin on your face like you have something that you just can't wait to tell me."
Catherine put her hand in front of her mouth and shook her head embarrassingly.
"Well, go on and tell me what it is." She continued. "I can't wait here all night; I have school tomorrow morning."
"Ok. Someone who lost control of his Full-body Morphing crashed into the train just before I could get on it." As Catherine started her story the sensations of the event started flooding her; the screeching metal, the shock to her knee, her heart racing...
"...Go on." Melany said.
Catherine, having paused without realizing it, came back to her senses. "After that I couldn't go back to your house because the way back wasn't safe."
"Probably not." Her friend added. "We could hear loud noises all through the night around my place. The news showed some areas that were all burned."
"Anyway, you know how I mentioned someone helping me? Well, I took shelter at his place."
"His place?!" Melany exclaimed, her eyes widening in shock. "Catherine, what did you do last night?"
Catherine immediately understood what she was implying. "No! It was nothing like that!" She said waving it off. "He just let me sleep on his couch while the incident blew over and I grabbed the first train in the morning."
"And he didn't ask for anything in return?"
"Nope."
"Did you see his Spirit? What was he like?" Melany seemed to be getting more and more curious about Silvester.
"He never showed it. On the other hand, he was not quite what I was expecting from a guy. Then again, my experience with guys is next to none."
"Was he weird?" She asked raising her eyebrows.
"Well he was cool-headed, mysterious, reassuring, kind..." Catherine rested her head in her right hand. "He treated my knee, kept watch for danger at the window through the night... and he played me a lullaby with a real instrument when I couldn't sleep." She noticed her friend was remaining still, speechless with her mouth hanging open. "Is that weird?" She asked unsure.
Melany struggled to find words for a few seconds. "Uh... It's weird because there's no way such a dreamboat exists. Next you're gonna tell me how handsome he is?"
Catherine straightened her back and waved it off again in defense. "No, I haven't even thought about him in that way at all! He's way too old; at least in his mid 20s."
Her friend rolled her eyes. "Please Catherine, as if his age has any importance. I bet you even remember the color of his eyes."
"I do remember, but that's only because-"
She was cut off by Melany's loud gasp. "I knew it! You're crushing so hard on this guy! Did you at least get his number?"
"No, but I am planning to go see him again..." Though not for the reason you're imagining. Catherine thought.
"Just keep a little free time for me; we have to see each other again this week." Melany added.
"For sure, just tell me when you want to meet up."
"Alright, we'll stay in touch. It's getting late so I'll head off to sleep." She waved at the screen.
Catherine waved back. "Good night."
"You too."
The call ended abruptly and Catherine was left alone again. She sighed, still thinking about what her friend said about having a crush on Silvester. She didn't really believe it since she barely knew him and she just wanted him to teach her about Spirits. Adding to that the age gap, there was just no way it was anything of the sort. In any case, I'll be able to see just how things develop once I see him tomorrow. With these last thoughts she closed her computer, then closed the light and went to sleep for the night.