"What's a calix?" Aiden asked the wisps.
"Oh, right!" Lucius said, hovering closer toward the boy. "We forgot to tell you."
"Riven, you're the nerd," Caelum said, flying to the side to give Riven the center stage. "Please do the honor."
Riven hovered at the top of the veranda, his light flickering as he struggled to recover everything he'd read a thousand years ago from his hazy memory. "A calix... is what we call a mortal who can wield the power of the gods."
"In ancient times," Riven began his story, "whenever an immortal perished in the mortal realm, we believed that a calix would be born of mortal descent. Its role was to act as a chalice for the gods, collecting and storing the power spilled from the immortal's essence so it doesn't cause instability in the mortal realm." He hovered closer to Aiden. "And you are a calix. You're a chalice of the gods."
"A chalice that collects and stores what's been spilled?" Aiden's eyebrows furrowed deeper. "So, I'm not allowed to use whatever power I get?"
Riven flickered. "Supposedly," he said.
"Supposedly," Aiden asked. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Riven delicately explained how a calix acts as a doer of the gods. Upon birth, a calix should already know he is a calix. He will live his entire life with the sole purpose of accomplishing tasks the gods assign him at the mortal realm. The gods would communicate with a calix in his dreams, and Aiden, surely didn't go through any of that.
Caelum bobbed himself. "I'll dumb it down for you," he said, "It's like being a knight, deployed with a sword, and a mission. But you--you were only deployed with a sword and no mission. It basically means you can do whatever you want with that sword, screw the mission."
Riven burned a bright red light, reprimanding Caelum for his words, his lights dimmed he almost merged into the background.
"That's the worst way to put it," Lucius said. "But quite accurate."
Aiden's eyebrows furrowed. "So
Aiden's face went slack. "So if there's no mission, whatsoever," he said. "Remind me why I'm doing all of this again?"
The three wisps glanced at one another. Lucius sent both Riven and Caelus signals, asking if they should just admit everything to Aiden and start begging. They couldn't tell the boy they needed him to be their calix, someone who would collect the spoiled celestial energy in the mortal realm so they get the chance to get their true forms back.
"Didn't you swear to take down that maid? And make her apologize?" Caelum interjected.
Aiden shook his head. "Not if she did it on purpose."
"Your stepbrother, then!" Lucius chimed in. "Weren't you going to take him down—with milk or something?"
Aiden shrugged. "Maybe, but he's not worth the trouble. Too insignificant."
Riven hovered closer, forcing a solemn tone in his voice. "Aiden, remember? We're doing this for Butler Mitch. His last words were to send you to the academy. He wants you to graduate!"
Riven's words seemed to have worked. Aiden had a quick recollection of the day he decided to attend the academy, his eyes became serious as he pictured the old butler and his selfless last words. "Right, this is what Butler Mitch would have wanted."
The three wisps glanced at one another, relief apparent on their faded blue lights. "Phew," Lucius whispered to himself.
The witch said that a power used is a power spent. So whenever I get beat up by someone who wields power, I can use their power once, and after that it's gone?"
Caelum flickered in agreement. "Yes. But we already know that," he said. "It's just a more complicated way to say you have to get punched before you get to cast a spell, isn't it?"
Aiden frowned. "Since you've put it that way, I guess we went through all that trouble for nothing."
Riven beamed a deeper blue in color. "No," he said, "Now that we know you're a calix, we have more ways to help you gather celestial energy."
Aiden's eyes lit up, and so did Caelum and Lucius.
"Really?" They asked in unison. "Bastardsson/I won't have to get punched again?"
Riven flicked green. "I'm not sure if it'll work," he said. "But some mortals practice a martial art that lets them absorb the energy in their surroundings, and develop their qi. It's commonly practiced in the East… something they refer to as Tai chi."
"Tai chi?" Aiden mumbled to himself. "I have absolutely no idea what that is."
"Doesn't matter," Riven said. "We can visit the town and ask around. We'll find you a Tai chi master."
Aiden slowly nodded his head. "Okay? But... with what?" He bit his lower lip. "We have nothing to offer whoever that may be?"
Aiden tugged the backpack off his shoulders and held it in his hand, showing the wisps their only possession. A backpack with a roasted chicken leg, some bread, and a box of a stinky handkerchief.
Caelum sighed, a part of his wispy form fanning sideways, "Right," he said. "You're a penniless boy who lives in a mansion."
"What do we do?" Lucius said. "Well, I saw some expensive looking vases in the hallway--"
He was immediately shut off by Riven reddish flare.
"We'll find a master first," he said, "Then will ask whatever his demands can be."
Aiden's eyebrows furrowed deeper, wondering how the gods worked around with one another. He wanted to tell them the mortal world is not like their world. You have to have money to get somewhere.
"I guess we'll see then," Aiden said.
Calix will wake up, and he will look around wondering what had happened. His eyes searched for the three strangers he saw before passing out, but all that met him were the three wisps, hovering overhead.
"What happened?" He asked them.
"You passed out," Riven said. "And now we're here."
Aiden looked around. He was back in his room. His eyebrows furrowed. "What happened?"
"Well, uhm," Caelum said. "That maid showed herself when you passed out."
Aiden's eyebrows furrowed.
"So, we're right," he said. "She's not a real maid."
"Absolutely not." Lucius said. "When you passed out, she came out of that hidden passage, restored the office to its former glory, and then teleported you back into your room."
"With those abilities," Riven said. "She's far from being normal."