"Not to change the subject, but why did you vanish for a moment earlier?"
"To ask Beil a few questions and lecture him about trying to teach you the basics without an initial body test. I could have sworn I had beaten that lesson into him fifty years ago but I guess his mind was elsewhere."
Nova winced and felt the need to defend him. "Well I guess I am also not a typical case of soul transfer, what was he supposed to try and look for?"
Wanita gave her a calculated look. "While you are indeed an anomaly with your rapid progress, soul destabilization is quite a common problem. He should have tested you the moment he decided to teach you, especially with you not being born as an Ayakashi or Yokai. It was irresponsible of him."
Nova felt a mix of confusion and irritation. Wasn't she like a mother to him? She looked like such a kind person, especially her old lady self. Why did she sound so critical of him?
"Granted I am not familiar with this world, but isn't his soul too unstable to attempt the art of spirit energy manipulation beyond maybe a starting level? Why would he feel the need to retain information that was in no way relevant to him? He more than likely never expected to gain someone dependant on him as quickly as he did, especially someone like me who is advancing at an out of control rate. He never needed to know why an initial body test, as you put it, was such a vital step in teaching someone."
When she noticed Wanita looked like she was about to open her mouth, Nova took a few steps closer and raised her head. "And besides that, even if he forgot to test my body he did very well in my opinion with filling me in on a lot of much needed information. I know why spirit energy and mana cannot mix, that spirit energy lies in the body of creatures while mana is all around us, that Ayakashi and Yokai of the Hidden realm are separate entities from the Fae from the Land of the Yggdrasil. He brought me to you to get my memories back, he told me about the one who gave me my eyes, and he unhesitantly helped me narrow down my murderer's race."
At this point Nova was on the brink of screaming and Wanita looked unmoved and a little impatient.
"Not only has he selflessly helped me since the moment he scooped me up from the forest, he fought against the spell I had been unaware of myself emanating because he respects me and knew that something was off. He taught me how to stop it. He has been patient, kind, and careful with me, he hunted for me, and as I was morphing into a wyvern he tried his best to get me back to you because he knew that even if he couldn't do anything, you could. And finally," she said, taking a deep breath and calming herself, "he gave me my name. Out of all the possibilities he chose something meaningful to himself to make it special. To make me feel special."
While Wanita gave her a smile of false pity like 'oh you naive little snowflake', Nova rubbed her face and sighed. Now she was all tired and frustrated. Just a bit ago she was pitying Beil in turn for not having a stable enough soul connection in order to get stronger when she herself wasn't even connected to her own body. She felt like she had momentarily forgotten everything he had done for her sake, almost like she had felt that he was lesser than herself. She hated that. It wasn't who she wanted to be.
For a moment Emilia flickered into being again and Wanita frowned. Nova was letting her emotions take over instead of following the necessary steps to stabilizing her body and soul's connection. What was her priority? Beil? Yes Beil was a decent man, and the guy was like a son to her in some odd way, but the Itsumade was just one person and Nova's potential could one day either eradicate or protect hundreds, no, thousands of lives if she just took her situation more seriously than she did her friend's efforts these past few days.
"Nova, you should be prioritizing yourself at the moment, your self image is slipping."
Emilia flickered a bit more into her subconscious self and stabilized. The girl's eyes were now heterochromatic, one grey eye like a storm cloud covered sky, and one sharply icy blue eye with a dark outer ring. The freckles on her face were more abundant, her jaw was slightly more squared, most of her hair was still dark but streaks of very curly honeyed brown were scattered within the rest of the curtain of wavy silken hair. Her shoulders, though not as broad as Emilia's, were broader than Nova's. Her hands weren't calluses like years of working pottery would cause, still the newly delicate hands of Nova, but her lips were definitely Emilia's. She was taller, thicker, stronger. She was a perfect blend of the two, and she was furious.
"I am not the subject I was discussing at the moment, did you choose to just ignore the string of compliments for Beil that I was listing?"
Wanita looked like a fly had landed in her drink. "I always knew Beil was selflessly kind, there was no new information in all that you said, but kindness is weakness here. He tried to stop all out wars, and for what? Disputes will always happen, and if one refuses to choose a side than they don't belong on the battlefield. He was never strong enough to have any real impact, and he never will be. Quite frankly I'm surprised he managed to survive this long without coming back with limbs missing, or worse. The poor boy never listened."
"And neither are you," Nova spat with a deeply threatening tone which seemed to have very little affect on Wanita besides making her sneer, but Nova wasn't done. "Who are you to judge him for wanting to stop people from fighting? He lost his life in a war, I'd say trying to help prevent more death is a pretty reasonable response, even if it was brought on by trauma. Would you really have done nothing if a war broke out and you were close enough to make even a little bit of difference?"
Wanita's face shifted into an obviously fake smile for the second time, like 'oh you poor naive infant', and now that she had seen it this time Nova's fury rose even higher. She didn't care if she was taking some kind of bait, the blatant disregard for Wanita's so called adopted child made her blood boil. It felt so needlessly antagonistic, just like all those brats in middle school who dug their fingers into the most sensitive subjects they could find in a kid before ripping it out for all to see and judge: cruelty, for no good reason.
Looking at Wanita's unchanging expression made Nova deflate slightly. What was the point of her anger, it was only going to start a fight she didn't need. "I want you to leave now."
Wanita shifted her weight from one foot to the other and leaned a hand on her hip. "Why, after all your chatter you think I should just go without adding a bit more of my own? I was also under the impression that you needed my help."
"I never asked for it," she barked and Wanita scoffed. "Get out."
"Nova, stop acting like an ungrateful spoiled child, your condition is a very serious and unique case and I know that if you don't let me help you you will die."
Well she thinks that she knows everything, doesn't she. "That is not definitive, and you no longer get the privilege of observing something so powerful and obscure. You're only here to satisfy your own intrigue, aren't you? Man," Nova laughed incredulously, "you must be ancient and bored out of your mind. Thank you for unlocking most of my memories, now leave."
"Most of them?" Wanita looked like she had just gained a tidbit of juicy information. She thought that she had unlocked all of them and now she wanted to know who was powerful enough to have managed to block more than she had detected. The fact that she wasn't even angry with being rejected by Nova made the latter clench her teeth.
All at once Nova gathered all the energy she had and snapped it behind Wanita like a javelin, shooting it at her back. She knew the crazy woman would notice it but as she was trying to force the old lady out, this was all she could come up with. She for sure wasn't as strong as her, but this mild throw of a metaphorical punch may be enough to get her attention.
It worked. Wanita casually batted it away and laughed. "Did you really think that would make any difference?" She turned and realized that she had just asked the air. The instant that Nova had made her energy dart over in Wanita's general direction she had chosen to wake up and vanish, leaving the image of a young Wanita to grumble.
In the real world Nova opened her eyes and saw her own claws laying in front of her in the dirt and ferns before shifting to sit up. How had she even managed to do that? Wasn't she disconnected to the spirit core? All she had done was want it to move and it moved for her, she didn't even have to touch it phisically this time.
Yanked from her thought, Nova snapped her attention to the old woman who was no longer sitting on her neck. Wanita was conscious and staring at her, eyes like daggers.
"Nana, what happened," Beil asked innocently. Nova only wondered for a moment why he had not just joined them before Wanita returned to the center of her attention. She had a gut instinct of either fight or flight and she took a moment to remember that she hadn't sensed Wanita's movements all at the time when she had brought her to the ground. Neither was an option.
While she was trying to regulate her hightened emotions and take the more mature route in this argument, Wanita looked like her facade of concern had spiderwebbed like thin ice.
"Little girl, you are causing me quite a bit if grief. Open your mind and let me back in so that I may help you connect your soul."
Nova clenched her teeth. "Nothing stopped you before." She noticed Beil quietly watching, having been ignored by his Nana for probably the millionth time he knew when to become a wall flower, and that hurt Nova deeply. How many years of neglect had he faced that he lost himself to her will?
"Except this time you have put up a mental wall," she said matter-of-factly, but it was Nova's turn to be intrigued by a bit of information.
"Is that so? Aren't you strong enough to break it?" What's with the fake politeness? If she wanted to she could just break the wall, unless, maybe she wasn't strong enough? Nova glanced at Beil for a second, wishing to incorporate him into the conversation somehow but not wanting him to be the target of Wanita's aggression, before staring her in the eyes.
"Nova, you can fight all you want, but you're only hurting yourself."
"Don't say my name. You don't get to."
"Oh you listen here, No--" Wanita started before flinching. Her attempt had backlashed hard and she felt the pressure of the girl in front of her. How was she so goddamn strong? It was hard enough getting into her subconscious without being invited the first time, now it was impossible, and the girl's will was yet strong enough still to block her name being said? How?! She is just a snake!
"That name," Nova continued calmly while Wanita's pride and energy control was the only thing keeping her from taking a step backwards, "was given to me in kindness. You don't get to say it in possessive anger."
Wanita knew she was physically stronger than this child, there was no doubt, so why wasn't she trying to hold her down? Break her resolve enough to bend her will?
As Nova had been projecting her thoughts as words all this time she had yet to open her mouth, and as she did so the razer sharp white teeth glistened in the evening light.
"Wanita," she uttered with her mouth.
Instantly the pressure doubled, no, tripled and she buckled as her old knees gave out. Instead of fear, which would have been the most reasonable response, or even anger at being outdone, Wanita felt awe, envy, and acceptance.
"Even if I end up hurting myself, that is still my decision to make. And for your information I am taking Beil with me. You never appreciated him anyway." With that Nova turned and realized Beil had shrank drastically, balling himself up on the ground. Oops, she had said his name out loud. She had no idea phisically speaking would have such a dramatic effect against the much more powerful woman, there wasn't even an implication that her will was stronger while she was in her meditative state. She wasn't even sure how she had managed to make the energy do what she wanted at the last second, but that wasn't the concern at the moment.
Nova closed her mouth tightly and nosed Beil gently in the side. His shaking stopped after a second and he raised his head from under his wing.
"Nova?"
Wanita looked up at them in surprise. So the child could block individuals? Not even she could block one single person without affecting anyone else around her. That snake was a monster and she still could not cast one spell of her own. Never in her thousands of years had she heard of such a powerful entity that was not already the ruler of a country, and here she was right in front of her, having not even reached her full potential. Why the hell had she decided to think that she was better than her?