Chapter 6
Those Left Behind
Vigau, Arielle, Bonaventure
After weeks of being dragged around some of the most miserable places on the planet, living in stinking holes in the ground and having her life threatened time and time again, you might think Gally would be overjoyed to be left to tend the house while Giger and Mordekai were away this time, but as terrible as the experience had been, being left behind had its own misery to it. No one would ever accuse Giger Taus of being a trusty support, Gally was sure of it, but not having him around filled her chest with this squirmy feeling she hated even more than the stench of unwashed Dog-men or the foul-tasting rations that only met the bare minimum requirements to keep her from starving to death.
Although she had gotten used to the company of the three familiars, she did not know how to deal with Kamellia, to say nothing of all the other new additions to the household. The boy Perseus, supposedly a fellow Ancient, was very quiet and never strayed far from Kamellia. The five girls mostly stuck together but would follow Kamellia's instructions. That left Gally as the odd man out and even now she was not entirely comfortable with where she stood.
The best she could do was try to focus on the housekeeping tasks Giger would have her do if he was around. Of course, Kamellia and the girls had been doing the housekeeping while she was gone, so even there her domain had been invaded.
At the moment, however, Kamellia was giving the girls a magic lesson, so Gally could focus on dusting the bookshelves and stay out of the way. She had watched Giger give several lessons to Yugo and the format seemed similar, if at a lower level. It should not have surprised her that two pupils of the same master would have a similar teaching style.
"Jeanine, you need to redraw your circle," Kamellia said. "Don't draw from the wrist. Use your whole arm."
She demonstrated the motions, but it seemed like a wasted effort to Gally. The red-haired girl was about as lively as a boned fish. She clearly had no desire to learn magic and probably would not have even had the wherewithal to get up in the morning if not for the tireless efforts of Green and Purple. (Gally had not bothered to learn the girls' names, so she had taken to identifying them by their rather vibrant hair color.) However, Kamellia remained committed to teaching all five of them, refusing to leave behind the listless Red or the apparently dull-witted Orange.
Green leaned into Red and started guiding her hand, saying, "I'm not going to keep doing this forever, Jenny. You need to get over this. We can't change what we've done, but we can take responsibility for it by mastering our powers. You're the one who opened this door, Jenny. You can't turn back now."
"We're in this together, Jenny," Purple added.
"Rats in the same sack," Blue chimed in as well in her usual lazy singsong, "squeak, squeak, squeak..."
Red started to cry, but Green made no effort to comfort her and gave a severe look to anyone else who might try.
"Who are you crying for, Jenny?" Green asked. "The people who got hurt? The people who got killed? Their families? Our families? Or are you just crying for yourself?"
Anger flashed in Red's eyes and she slapped Green. Green took the hit with barely any change of expression and needled her further, saying, "Bullseye?"
Red slapped Green on the other cheek, prompting Purple to say, "Bernie, Jenny, both of you, stop!"
Even with both cheeks reddened from the two slaps, Green had the same impassive look as she replied, "We can't keep going on like this, Margot. You've heard Ms. Reis. The best we can hope for is to become mid-level mages. We're going to need every ounce of power we can get to survive and we're going to need each other. We can't just keep relying on other people to protect us."
Now that she had been stirred up, Red snapped back, "It was just a game! This was never supposed to happen!"
"Well, it did happen," Green countered. "The game became real and we have to deal with it, so why don't you stop feeling sorry for yourself and take this seriously?"
Red raised her hand to slap Green again but stopped herself. She turned back to her magic circle and sulkily grumbled, "I just have to follow the lessons."
"That'd be a step in the right direction," Green said as she turned to her magic circle as well.
With that settled, Kamellia said, "Shall we get back to our lesson then? Check your connections."
They touched their magic circles and they all glowed except for Orange's, which fizzled out shortly after she started to channel energy into it.
"Amelie, please check Mariangelique's circle," Kamellia told Blue.
Blue leaned over to look at Orange's circle, then licked her thumb and wiped away a couple markings before making several corrections. When she finished, she checked the connection herself and everything seemed to be working.
With that taken care of, Kamellia then said, "Now perform the incantation."
Kamellia and the girls did their incantations and a little tongue of flame appeared in front of them. The fact that the color of each tongue of flame matched the caster could not possibly be a coincidence, Gally thought. She seemed to remember Giger's experiment with the Witch Crystal and apparently a mage's hair color and the signature of their æther were connected.
"Now I want you to try controlling the flow of your æther to change the size of your flame," Kamellia said. "Too little and you'll snuff it out. Too much and we'll all burn up."
Gally certainly hoped Kamellia had taken some form of precaution against the latter. Maybe she needed to go to the well and fill up a bucket or two.
"We have studied how air flows into and out of the body, how blood flows within it. æther is no different. Just as you can take deep breaths and shallow ones, you can let a lot æther in and out or you can let a little. Let your breathing guide you.
"Magic circles, incantations, reagents, rods, staves and wands, they are nothing more than ways to help us focus our æther, to give it direction, shape... purpose. Just about anything can be used as a focus, any object, any action... Use your breathing now. First, shallow breath. Make the flame smaller."
Though Red and Orange struggled a fair bit, with Orange's flame getting snuffed out before the exercise ended, Green, Purple and Blue were having less trouble, especially Blue, who seemed to be able to manipulate her flame quite easily.
"Mariangelique, recast and join us as we make our flames bigger," Kamellia told Orange. She then said to the others, "Be especially careful with this part, girls. It's easy for magic to get away from you when you're channelling extra energy."
That seemed like more than enough reason to not do it, but Kamellia was committed to going forward in spite of the danger and none of the girls were going to raise any objection. Gally thought about speaking up, but she could already imagine her opinion getting steamrolled, so it would be better for her to say nothing.
Either it was more difficult to increase the power or the girls were being self-conscious about losing control as the flames did not grow as smoothly as they shrank. Red's flame popped like a bubble, then Orange's did, too. Green was maintaining stricter control while Purple's flame was undulating as it grew, but Gally was not sure if it was on purpose or not. Then there was Blue, who idly divided her flame in two, then split it further as she spread her fingers apart so that each finger had its own tongue of flame. The flames danced about as she wiggled her fingers.
"That's an impressive display, Amelie," Kamellia said, "but you're supposed to be following instructions."
"Oh, sorry..." Blue said. "I was just thinking it could use some friends..."
"It would figure that you would have the most talent out of us," Green grumbled.
"Amelie being the way she is allows her to align with the flow of the æther," Kamellia said, "but you should not diminish your technical skill, Bernadotte. Your ability to recognize and decipher magic circles means you will not be as reliant on grimoires and you'll eventually be able to craft spells of your own."
Turning her attention back to the dusting for a moment, Gally noticed a pair of red eyes looking back at her. Prissy was huddled up on top of the bookshelf about as far back as she could go.
"What are you doing back there?" Gally asked.
"What business is it of yours?" Prissy asked in turn.
She did not seem to be in a good mood, but she was never in a good mood when Giger was not around. It would have been wise to leave her be, but Gally could not quite help having a response for her.
"I can't really dust with you in the way like that."
"It's clean enough," Prissy said. "We actually have people who know how to cook and clean now."
"Well, sorry I don't meet your discerning standards, Princess Priss," Gally retorted.
Prissy's head drooped and she flattened her ears as she muttered, "Even if you burn the bacon, it was better when it was just you."
Gally seemed to recall that cats tended to be rather territorial. It would appear to be true for the magic pink ones as well.
"Things'll go back to normal once Giger and Mordekai take care of things," she said, trying to be encouraging.
Her efforts went over about as well as a lead balloon.
"You can't be that stupid, can you?" Prissy said. "I guess you can't tell. You're a mundane. Master Grummond, the way he's changed... There's no going back to normal."
With the things she had seen, Gally knew it, but apparently a creature like Prissy could tell just by feeling it.
"So that's where you've gotten to," a voice said.
Gally nearly jumped out of her skin. Kamellia was standing right over her shoulder.
"I could use your help," Kamellia said, reaching in to get Prissy.
Prissy dug in her claws as she was pulled out.
"I don't think she wants to," Gally said.
"There isn't much she wants to do, Galatea," Kamellia replied. "If every mage was beholden to the whims of their familiars, nothing would ever get done. Barz has spoiled her too much. I can't blame him. She is a little cutie, but she'll have less time to mope if she's making herself useful."
Once Kamellia succeeded in getting Prissy out from the bookshelf, she rested her hand on the feline familiar's head and she transformed into human shape, about the same age as the girls. Gally remembered Prissy usually being quite happy whenever Giger would let her take human form, but she did not look happy now.
Gally was about to say something, but a look from Kamellia silenced her before she could even open her mouth. Kamellia led Prissy to join the girls and Gally was left with little else than to resume her work.
That squirmy feeling in Gally's chest became more insistent. She wanted to be somewhere else, but where would she go? To think the day would come when she would look to Giger's constant griping for comfort. She had to be going out of her mind.