When Nema's grandfather came back, this time without anyone accompanying him, he still had a slightly clouded expression, even though he seemed to force an unconcerned expression onto his face. Maybe he got a headache or some stomach pains?
I [looked] closer at him, but his body is in good health.
If it's something mental that bothers him, then I am of no help at all. I barely understand my own thinking process, so how should I get someone else in that regard?
He walked past me and Nema, signalling us to follow him and lead us to a part of the garden, that is surrounded by cherry trees and gives a bit more privacy.
We often have magic training at this place and the uneven stones of the paved ground already tell a story of my many failed attempts to use magic.
The ground is a bit bumpy and many stones got cracked from my explosions.
The cool magic gramps signalled us to stop and then turned around to look at us.
"We won't do anything new today and the writing lessons afterwards are cancelled. I will tell you more after the training."
No classes? But I want to have classes.
Why is it cancelled?! Can we at least read a book?
Please let me at least read a book.
What should I do otherwise, if you just cancel the classes? This is everything I care for, you know?
Of course my mental rant stayed unnoticed and the cool magic gramps just kept going as if nothing happened."
"Last time and the time before, I showed you how to change the properties of your Aether while manipulating it." He gave Nema a quick look, who then took a few steps to the side to create some distance. Then the cool magic gramps looked at me and let out a small sigh. "Pura, basic training. Create a closed circle without any properties, so it won't explode."
I took a deep breath and lift my left hand, pointing into the air with my index finger. Secretly my tail follows the movement to help me visualizing better what I am about to do, but no one besides me would be able to see this.
I draw a simple circle into the air. A nice 39 centimetre in diameter and perfectly round.
But nothing happened.
I [see] Nema starting to smile and biting her tongue in her closed mouth so she won't burst out laughing. You are mean, you know that?
\\No, don't let her distract you, silly me!
I concentrate again. Focused on the tip of my finger and the tip of my tail, that touches it, I draw the circle again. Slower this time, but the Aether follows with a minimal delay.
It's nothing fancy. Just a plain old, perfectly round circle. Apparently one doesn't need any fancy symbols or spells to create magic.
As long as the concentration is in the right places, there is nothing needed to create a way that the Aether can follow to create the wanted magic. I can proudly say, that I have the concentration, but sadly I seem to lack talent.
Oh, maybe I don't always have the concentration.
As I am thinking of how to do it instead of what to do, the nearly completed circle of Aether vanishes and mixes into the air.
I hear a small chuckle from the girl to my left, but paid it no mind and instead draw a third circle. Again the Aether follows my movement and this time I complete it.
The small layer of Aether stays in the air for about three milliseconds and the joy to have finally made it grew inside me. Then the circle bursts open and explodes.
The cool magic gramps makes a fast swiping gesture and lets some Aether leak from his palm while doing so. It mixes with my starting explosion and nullifies it.
"Not good, do it again."
I sigh in my mind and [look] at the girl a few meters to my left. She had a big grin on her face, that clearly shows her superiority and lifted a hand with her palm facing up.
There was no movement and she just let some Aether flow out of her palm. It mixes with the air and ignites, so that there is a small flame hovering a few centimetres above her hand.
The girls grin got bigger and more Aether is leaving her palm. It doesn't mix with the fire immediately and instead copies the oxygen in the air just to get sucked in by the flame and then burn up. The temperature of the small fire immediately rises and it's colour changes to blue. Of course she had already mastered how to change her Aether's properties.
As if she knew that I was [staring] at her, she started to move her hand with the fire around. Splitting a part of her Aether and leaving it in the air every now and then, so that the fire would stay in those places she drew a big smiley that sticks out its tongue.
//What a meanie!
I want to copy the gesture and stick out my tongue towards her, too, but the cool magic gramps made a sound of clearing his throat, so that I would concentrate again.
…
The sun climbed to its highest point and started sinking again slowly. The training took about six hours until Nema's grandfather finally gave up for the day.
As per usual, I didn't succeed once. No matter what form I use, it would always end in an explosion. I just wanna do cool magic stuff!
The cool magic gramps clears his throat again and his clouded expression from the morning, that vanished over the course of training, came back as if it always was on his face.
He absentmindedly started to stroke his neatly cut beard, as he was seemingly searching for words.
"I will come straight to the point; we are moving."
What a weird statement. Of course we are moving.
Its obvious, right? For example, one needs to move their lungs, so that they can breathe. Also there are many factors in a human body, that move on their own to provide the ability to live, so not moving would mean death.
Of course I could literally be not moving at all, but that is a special case.
The cool magic gramps only paused for a second but his next words made clear, that I had the wrong impression of moving.
"The city is back to its old state and our old home got rebuild quite a while ago, so we shouldn't be occupying the town hall much longer any more." He shifted his gaze and looked directly into my eyes. Normally people seem to avoid that because of the mismatched colours. "We would have moved back to our old home quite some time ago, but to be honest, no one knew what to do with you… Normally it would be usual for a chosen one to stay in the protection of a cities center, but me and my daughter, as well as my son in law don't think it would be wise to let a child get raised by a group of middle aged politicians."
He showed a faint smile. "So if you want, we would like you to come with us, Pura."
Eh, what?
My brain needed a moment to get what he wanted to say. Why shouldn't I stay here?
Before I could get an answer to this, Nema came up to me and grabbed my hands with a big smile on her face. Out of reflex I pulled my hands away immediately.
Don't touch me!
She completely ignored that and took them again.
"Ohh, that would be so cool!", she happily announced. "Our old home is really great, you will love it. You can finally leave the house and I can show you my favourite playground!"
Leaving the house? We are literally outside in the garden at the moment, but I get what she means with that. I am forbidden from going into the city and actually are not even allowed to explore the city hall. Of course that doesn't really matter as I can [see] the whole thing if I want.
The reason for that is obvious, considering this world and especially its religion. I was too important for this cities reconstruction time and people wanted to keep me away from danger, I suppose. But now that the city is back to its usual state, I can go? That would be nice.
I ignore Nema's hopping in excitement while she holds my hands and look at her grandfather to nod. At the same time I take the information of me wanting to go with them and mix it with his Aether.
His smile got a bit brighter but I still see the glint in his eyes that is now more serious than before. Is it because of what I just did regarding my form of communicating or is there some other reason I don't know about? Who knows.
"I'm glad to hear that." He finally stopped stroking his beard. "I will inform everyone. You two should get your belongings. We will leave in the evening, so be ready by then."
We got back to the house together, but then the cool magic gramps didn't enter it with Nema and me. Instead he turned around again and walked towards the big gates at the gardens entrance.
I don't have any belongings, that I would need to get, so instead of going to my room, I followed Nema who still didn't want to let go of one of my hands.
Moving out, huh?
I am curious but scared at the same time.
New experiences are always scary but what's more is, that I don't know the people I'm moving in with. I know Nema, of course and her grandfather, too. I have seen her dad, who works at the city hall quite often and he talks to me regularly, but I don't really know him. I know, that she has a mother that I never met before and as far as I know, she doesn't have any siblings. But what about the rest of her family? Are they really okay with letting a complete stranger, a weird child that is believed to be some kind of blessing from the gods on top of that, live with them?
We go to Nema's room and with every passing second I get more and more anxious. I shouldn't have agreed to this.
When we enter her room, Nema finally lets go of my hand. She starts to stroll around the room, gathering her favourite dolls, some small figures and other toys and places them in a colourful backpack, that she found under her bed after searching for a while.
I sit down on the edge of said bed and watch her.
There are quite a lot stuffed animals spread across the room, but only a few chosen ones get to be stuffed in the already full backpack. I can't seem to find any system in her choices.
It took her about an hour but finally Nema seems satisfied with everything in her backpack, that gives the impression of bursting open any moment.
Evening is not a very specific time, but there are still a few hours left until one could say that the afternoon got replaced by the evening.
We play cards to pass some time. Nema taught me the rules and they are quite simple but she always remembers a rule she forgot to mention earlier or adds something new, when she is on the verge of loosing. If she is allowed to cheat, then so am I and thus I [look] at her hand and the deck, to create some small advantages. It is fun and very good for distracting me of what's about to come.
Every now and then some people in worker uniform enter the room accompanied by Nema's father. They load a lot of stuff like the leftover toys and some clothes in big boxes and leave again.
Somewhere in between the woman with the sunny nature, who often cares for me, brought us some glorious bread and a bowl of soup for Nema.
The more time passed, the slower it seems to go on and my anxiety came back stronger than before.
….
I am in a car!
One of the floaty train thingies!
And it is awesome!
It is a bit slower than I can run, but I assume, that this is not its maximal speed.
Nema's dad is driving the car and talks about special landmarks and buildings as we pass them, while some soft music is playing in the background, coming from the cars radio.
I can clearly hear him and of course also [hear] him, but I am not listening.
My nose is just millimetres away from the window, as I observe the city outside. It really is big and has different layers of roads for people and vehicles to move on, but it somehow feels different from a big city that I pretend to have no memories about.
The sun vanished quite some time ago and the sky is pretty dark, but the countless illuminated windows in the buildings all around make for a beautiful scene too. I said countless, but actually we passed 1.866 illuminated windows, since we left the city hall. Just imagining at least one person behind every one of them made me a bit nauseous.
Suddenly the fast gliding car slows down a bit. We go around 3 more curves and then finally come to a halt.
"There we are." Nema's father announced and turned off the car.
I want to leave immediately, but can't open the door from inside the car and instead have to wait for him to open it from the outside.
Damn you, child safety lock.
After leaving the car, I find myself in front of a very tall building and Nema's father guides us inside. Nema herself rushes forward to push a button next to some weird metallic looking doors, that seemingly would glide open sideways. I've never seen one, but this should be a lift, right? And it will bring us to the apartment where we will live from now on… right?
Suddenly I feel the urge to swallow, as there is the feeling of something stuck in my throat. I [look], but of course there is nothing in me.
"No need to be nervous, we are happy to have you with us."
I look at Nema's dad, who just said that with a warm smile and for a moment consider asking him how he knew, but then the lift arrived.
Lift is weird.
I don't like it.
It's like falling, but slower and backwards and feels completely wrong.
I had to endure this odd feeling for 52 seconds until we finally reached our destination and stepped into a bright hallway. There are a total of six similar looking doors and I guess, that each one leads to a different apartment. I forbade myself from [looking] behind them out of common courtesy.
One of the doors got opened from the inside, when we started walking towards it and an old lady with brightly pink dyed hair stepped out in the hallway.
I don't know her, but I have [seen] her quite often actually and I am very thankful for her existence. She works in the city halls kitchen and is in fact the glorious being, that creates my beloved bread.
Behind her is Nema's grandfather and even further behind, in the apartments hallway stands the sunny natured woman and waves at us with a big smile.
Only now I see the connection and discover something painfully obvious. This must be Nema's mother.
This is… awkward…
So they all are not really strangers? My anxiety drops by about fifteen percent and I breath out in relief.