'What should I tell him?' That was my first thought as we made our way through the door of the shop. Did Mr.Boonchuy even know about essence? From what I'd gathered at this bookstore, we were far from any place that knew of the Boiling Isles. What do I do then?
Glancing over at Mr.Boonchuy, I saw him staring off into the distance, his face tight like it wasn't just the sea or sky he was looking at. I wouldn't be either if I just walked out of a store, leaving formerly possessed people on the floor.
I paused at the thought as a pang of something like worry and realization trickled in. Was I really going to leave people on the floor like that? I'd been stupid and let myself turn to run like I always did after a battle when there were people to take care of it.
'They're possessed, so what's going to happen to them without a healing coven?' I asked myself that as I lost my focus and went back to memories of my own experiences with the possessed. The centipede, the monster who'd chased me out of the city, and finally, the image of Steve. His swollen tongue and slurred speech came to me in a flash.
Were the two going to deal with the same thing? I shook my head. 'Steve was released when the rain covered him, so no.' Then the image of the essence transferring came to me like a rock to the head. 'Wait, are their bodies damaged?' I turned and rushed back, paying little mind to the eyes of Mr.Boonchuy following me.
I knelt before I realized I had no idea about any of this kind of stuff. That didn't really matter right now, we could get whatever passed for a healing coven here to take them to the hospital. I turned back to Mr.Boonchuy.
"We need to call someone. They might be hurt." I pushed down spouts of panic as they rose. I didn't want to do something stupid when I had no way to heal anyone. It felt weird being this bothered by strangers. Sure, I'd been the target, but was it my responsibility? A flash of Raine in that hospital bed ran through my mind. I stiffened.
'Titus, can you check for more essence without hurting these two? Possibly heal them?' I felt frantic as the battle between panic and me was suddenly shifting. Mr.Boonchuy was down, next to me before I knew it. His phone was in his hands, his face switching between disbelief and his own panic.
"Wh- what do I tell them? They passed out? We defended ourselves when they attacked? No… that won't make sense." He turned to me. "That wasn't them, right? It was like one of those movies with monsters that take over bodies, right?" A hesitant nod accompanied my new pensive look. It was the best way to describe it. I mean, it happened to me a lot. The images moved through my head with the phantom sensations.
'I can't enter without hurting them,' a voice rose in my head. My focus flipped as I stared into my mindscape. 'What do you mean?' My mental voice was as shaky as I imagined my real voice would be. 'I can't enter them since I know I'll need to make tears in the skin and blood vessels to make it in,' That sent a chill down my spine as I thought of the essence that went through me. Was I going to die any day now? I'd had so much essence tear through my skin.
Titus sighed as if he knew what I was thinking. 'No, you were healed since I had the good sense to do so even before I considered you an ally. Your soul works as a good container for essence, so-,' A pulse of shock went through me at the thought of that. Memories wanted to flood through me, but Titus sent out a wave of thought that told me now wasn't the time.
'Not productive. Focus. I can do the same with them and exit in a less invasive manner like the mouth.' A pang of relief cut through the panic as things settled down. 'So they are hurt, but you can heal them?' A mental nod of the head and the unease vanished. My shoulders relaxed and I went to reach out. Titus could heal them if I just made contact, but then the uncertain voice of Mr.Boonchuy shook me out of it.
"Yes, we're still here. We don't know what happened. I already told you that! How long until the ambulance is here?" He went down a line of dialogue with whoever he'd been talking to without a rushed voice, which told me he was just as uncertain. It felt… weird. He was so much older than me, but he was panicking.
'He should be calm like Raine, right?' Raine had always remained calm in the worst situations. Even when he protected me from the centipede, he was still calm- I stopped as I thought it over more. It wasn't calm, the word I was looking for was focus. Mr.Boonchuy was trying to focus in the middle of all of this. He wasn't failing, but he wasn't succeeding either.
'I guess he doesn't have healing magic?' He would've used it by now if he did. I snapped back to the sound of groans from the two former attackers. They were waking up. I needed to heal them quickly. 'Titus, we need to do it now.' Titus let out an irritated noise. 'I need more time to heal them than whatever constitutes a "now".' I grit my teeth.
'Then what do we do?' Titus sent a strange set of shapes at me. They felt blurry as I looked at them, only parts standing out to me as he did so. 'What's this? We don't have time for blurry images!' Titus didn't respond before he rose out of my hand in that same blurry set of shapes.
'Now channel your remaining magic,' I was confused, but I listened as it shot off to my arm, stopping only once it circulated through the essence shape. The effect was almost instantaneous as a surge of magic stronger than any I channeled erupted in blue light.
The first thing I realized as the healing wave hit wasn't that it was a healing wave, though it came to me seconds later. No, the first thing I thought was- 'those were glyphs,' followed by the fact that the essence in my hand was gone. The groans of the two eased as their faces relaxed, a glance from Mildred was the only evidence they were about to wake up. Now that I thought about it, I was feeling relaxed too.
'That's the soothing effect of strain in your body halting,' Titus answered, the words rippling in my mind like water, only making them known on the surface, but not truly processed. That was the case until a mental jolt interrupted my swaying. I didn't realize I was swaying until the jolt. 'I understand it's soothing, but we need to focus,' I nodded as I looked at the blue around me. The two were still on the floor, but Mr.Boonchuy was now swaying as I'd been.
"Wake up, we need to go!" I shook Mr.Boonchuy, and he flinched. "H-huh? Chris, what happened? Did you do this? I feel sleepy…" I shook him again as he jolted. "I said we need to go!" He gave me an odd look, but stood as we made our way from the blue glow. The feeling of the soothing turned weaker as we left the store until we crossed the threshold and felt nothing at all.
Stepping out, we were met with one or two curious-looking people with those rectangles that Mr.Boonchuy called a phone held out. We quickly walked away as we turned a corner. I wanted to say we were safe, but the image of the essence-possessed-people made me stare at the others around me like they were suddenly going to rush me. There was something wrong going on here, and I felt like that paper being handed out had something to do with it.
I tried to remember who gave that piece to Mr.Boonchuy, but I hadn't been paying attention at the time. I was more focused on my dilemma of where I was. I just didn't have time to think about all of this right now. The image of the Boonchuy house came to mind. I wanted to be back there, it was the only place I knew here even if I'd been there less than a week.
My thoughts were interrupted as a halting hand landed on my shoulder. I saw Mr.Boonchuy still holding his phone to his head as he talked to someone on the other end. 'Is he still talking to the healing coven?' Well, not the healing coven, but whatever they had here. I filed away that gap in my knowledge before I noticed the man looking at something.
I turned to see what it was before spotting a familiar car pulling up. Relief shot through me and I rushed to the car. I tugged at the handles until the door unlocked and hopped in. Mr.Boonchuy followed after, stilted as he held the phone, staring at the corner.
"So how was your day together?" Mrs.Boonchuy turned to us with a smile unaware of the situation. "Did you see what I was talking about, Bee?" Mr.Boonchuy's head snapped over to her with a focus that already told her his answer. He nodded before turning back to me with that same look. I shrunk back.
"We are having a talk when this is over, ok?" His voice was serious in a way that no one except Raine or Eda had ever used. I sat there as Mr.Boonchuy kept on the line with the person they'd called an emergency responder.
Realizing I wasn't in any danger now, my mind did the one thing it always did after a fight. I drifted into my thoughts about everything. The lack of a map home, the essence that'd taken over those people, and the feeling of emptiness in my hand where essence once sat.
#
Officer Smith's day had been uneventful up until the call. It was more busy work, and more research into that boy, Chris. She hadn't made any progress with the chief, she'd asked, but he dismissed the evidence as circumstantial. He couldn't divert manpower from "real crimes," after all.
He'd told her to research it on her own time as if to dismiss her, but that didn't stop her. She took the whole thing as a challenge. She'd been doing exactly as he said outwardly, but it was secondary to what she was really doing. It felt like dead end after dead end as she tried to find anything about a boy named Chris with his description, so did that mean he was taken and modified to look like that, pointy ears and all?
That made it even worse. She felt her disgust boil beneath, only placated by the knowledge he was with decent people right now. That quickly changed when she heard a familiar name on the emergency responder line. She rushed to the scene, taking on the job with a mix of fear and eagerness that should never have mixed.
When she got there, people were lined up at the place like a spectacle rather than a crime scene. Things must have ended already if there were civilians, so that was a relief, but a discomfort fell over her as she cleared her way through to secure the area. "Out of the way people! This is a crime scene!" She set out cones from the back of her car, wrapping tape like it was a one-man show.
'Ok that's done,' She stared at her handiwork of yellow tape that more specialized responders might find clumsy, but she knew what she was doing. She wouldn't have made it this far in the force if she wasn't practiced. Following this, she made her way inside to the sight of two bodies- no, they were just unconscious. She could see the rise and fall of the duo's chests.
This didn't stop her as she made her way over. They were potential witnesses, and she couldn't leave them there to sleep. "Hey, can you hear me?" She shook gently. She wasn't like the rougher cops, after all. She had some sympathy, even if it was mixed with a short temper that wanted to shake them harder.
"Wake up!" She realized she shook harder… damn it. She reigned her temper back in as she watched one of the two wake up. They'd jolted at her yelling, scrambling to see what was happening. The old man was the first to react as he saw the characteristic fabric of the law. He focused on her badge before turning to her face.
"Y-yes, Officer, what can I do?" The words felt rehearsed. Run-ins with the law then? Could be a culprit, but he'd been knocked out as far as she could tell. An unwitting victim, maybe? That felt more in line with her gut. "I need you to take a deep breath, and tell me what happened here." She gestured to the mess and even a few knocked-over shelves.
That was eye-catching, but the damage to the wood didn't look to be from a prolonged struggle. More likely, the culprits were passing by as one of the victims fought them. She kept her scan going and spotted a door leading further back, ajar like someone forgot to close it. Did the culprits escape into the back? The information from the caller said that there were two attackers, and that they'd left.
They had to escape through there. Officer Smith rose to her feet and pushed the door open softly to the image of a disheveled break room. There was another door too, but it was shut. She wanted to check the locks, but she'd be messing up the crime scene more at that point. Returning back, she saw the confused face of the elderly man. He looked baffled at her sudden return as she remembered her question.
She cursed herself for the almost scatterbrained action before she returned. "Again, tell me what happened." She didn't point out the mistake she had made as she listened to the man's story about his day being uneventful with a few customers coming in to browse through the books. One even had blue hair and pointy ears that he'd never seen on any kid before. He'd admitted to eavesdropping too, probably in some hope that this would help get back at whoever did this to his store.
He talked about the strange in-and-out conversation that sometimes dropped to whispers, while other times being too loud to miss. This was when three customers had been in the store, and had been like that until he felt something piercing his skin. Then he woke up here feeling… good? Was it some kind of drug that induced euphoria? That might have explained why they looked so relaxed. She asked further about the blue-haired child, and if he caught the kid's name.
They answered Chris, and she felt that mix of worry and validation again. A second scene where that kid was involved? It could be a coincidence, but she needed to be sure by following up with the man who'd reported it, Mr.Boonchuy. "I'm going to go for a moment to talk to other witnesses." The man nodded as she stood.
"I want you to tell the woman over there if she wakes up, that she needs to stay put and wait for the police to return, got it?" The man nodded, and she made her way to the reported car that Mr.Boonchuy and Chris had fled to. The talk that followed matched up with what the bookstore owner reported. They'd walked to check out a book the kid was looking for, but were attacked by two people. Mr.Boonchuy claimed it was a failed robbery, but the look on his face said otherwise.
She tried to insist on a longer account, but he'd clammed up. That was all he was willing to say… but a glance gave away something more as his eyes led to the kid. He brought his eyes back as quickly as they landed. He looked nervous, but that wasn't enough to continue her questioning. She'd headed back after that. She was frustrated. She wanted to find out what importance that kid had to whoever this was.
She'd check again after everything was looked over. After all, she was working with so little, and facts were a peek into the truth.
#
We were back home before sundown with a box filled with bread and cheese called pizza. The two adults of the house looked as tired as I felt, but Anne was quick to lift their spirits, talking about her books and toys. It was nice, like a paradoxical, new routine I'd known forever.
I made my way to the table as the box was set down and opened. An aroma I never knew I missed, jumped out at me, the Boonchuys serving pizza to Anne and me. I didn't wait to eat as the hot mess of cheese and bread steamed in my mouth. I had to spit it out. Anne scrunched her nose at the chewed-up piece of food as she complained before Mrs.Boonchuy explained blowing on food to cool it down.
Dinner continued on like this as I tried to successfully eat pizza with Anne finishing up quicker than I could eat half my pizza. "Can I go play?" She looked eager to leave the table and her parents didn't disagree. Now, Anne was gone, the three of us here with our unfinished slices. A look went between the two adults before turning to me.
"Chris, we want to talk about what you did back in the bookstore." My hand paused on my slice at the voice of Mr.Boonchuy. I was mid-reach for it. A flash of my earlier promise to him rose past the cheesy haze of my food. "What about it?" I kept my calm on the surface, but I was already imagining how they'd react to the essence I had. The feeling wasn't good, like the same aggressive look I'd imagined Raine would have had.
"Let's go somewhere more private. We'll finish dinner in a minute, ok?" Mrs.Boonchuy joined in. I nodded slowly. An uncomfortable feeling blanketed me as I followed them to the same guest room I'd woken up in. The discomfort rose as thoughts rose with the impending conversation.
Would they drive me off? I was being chased by someone. It'd be dangerous for me to stay here. I wasn't part of a normal life. I knew that by the time I had a giant, rotting bug chasing me that I wasn't living normally. Their magic couldn't be enough to do anything to someone like the possessed Josh. They'd ask me to leave, I know they would. I was knocked out of my thoughts soon after as the first question came.
"You were called something… Chosen. What does that mean?" I pursed my lips. I barely had an idea myself, but I promised to answer these. "I'm not sure. I think it's some kind of religious thing?" I thought back to the mention of a priest. I thought about it more as my panicked moments came back in a slow crawl.
'There's something there… I just need to remember,' I dug through the haze as I saw the moments' clarity like the struggle to focus from Mr.Boonchuy, and words from Titus that I couldn't make out now. I remembered other things like the two people stirring, and the feeling of my hand's essence being drained away in a flash of blue light. I gave up as the two asked the next question.
"So is it a cult? Are you some kind of magic cult thing? You mentioned witches-" I cut Mrs.Boonchuy off with a shake of my head. "No, I'm not part of whatever a cult is, and witches aren't part of cults. They're just people with magic like you." They gave me a strange look at that.
'Did I say something wrong?' I got my answer soon after, their faces stuck between confusion and disbelief. "Chris, we don't have magic," My mind boggled at the words. Didn't have magic. That was crazy! Everyone on the Boiling… Isles.
The map came to mind. I wasn't anywhere near or far from the Boiling Isles. That brought so many questions to the surface like how anything worked in this world?! I didn't have the right to ask that now. I was still keeping my promise… but I couldn't help myself.
"No magic at all?" They shook their heads and I felt so incredibly stupid. Not just stupid, shocked at the revelation. The reactions of the two felt obvious now, why they acted so odd. Why Mrs.Boonchuy questioned me so much. I was even less normal in this place. Was this even the same world?
That last question felt like a piece of a puzzle fitting into place only to show I'd assembled the edges of an unknown. A blank space lay inside, terrifying in the way I couldn't see anything matched up. The idea I'd have to waste time trying piece after piece until I stumbled on the solution. The idea that Raine was laying in that bed, waiting for a procedure that'd risk a worse fate than any burns that some possessed witch received.
Could I make it back before they risked Raine in some treatment or surgery? "Do you need a moment?" A voice broke through the spiral. The eyes of Mrs.Boonchuy leaned into my space. I shook my head. She paused there for a second, but she didn't push.
"You're ok to answer questions?" I nodded. They looked at each other and then sat down meeting me at eye level. "Then is it ok to ask where you came from?" Her voice was softer now, less insistent as her eyes focused on mine. I stared back. I knew I was looking for something. The confusion, surprise, maybe even fear. I wasn't normal for this world. I was a witch, and these people were… something else. I was something else to this place. The feeling felt isolating. It felt just like the hospital.
Despite that, Mrs.Boonchuy wasn't like those nurses who'd pitied me. Her eyes didn't hold anything like that. It was just kindness, a kindness that gave more than a passing like… Raine. I bit my lip. I remembered the hospital again, but it wasn't the nurse or the doctors this time. It was the genuine, awkward attempts to connect from the person who'd saved me.
Finally, ignoring my hesitation, I spoke. "First of all, my name isn't Chris, I'm… Azure." The reintroduction didn't stop there as I spoke of the Boiling Isles, of Bonesborough, of my makeshift family. I explained how I'd gotten here fighting a person taken over just like those two people in the bookstore. It was sort of foggy, but I knew most of the details. Dropped into some dark place, ran away, gathered my energy, and attacked before ending up on the beach.
'Come to think of it… How did I do that? I know I ended up on the beach, but what caused it?' I wanted to think it over, but there was someone in front of me. "...so that's everything- or just about?" I watched as their expressions twitched in a way I could only see as holding back. I wilted a little as Mr. and Mrs.Boonchuy stared as if they were looking at a bundle of mysteries rather than me.
Mrs.Boonchuy seemed to notice soon after as she caught herself before nudging her husband then nudged him much more forcefully when he didn't respond. "Ow! Wh- oh, right." Mr.Boonchuy pushed away his previously dumbfounded look in favor of something less distracted, less uncomfortable.
I was back to being just Chris- or Azure now. That felt good. I wasn't something alien to them. I was just a person. It made me homesick in some ways. I wanted to see that look on Raine, and maybe even Eda's face too. The Boonchuys were still a little startled, and they said as much, but they knew me now. I was just a lost kid, and they'd do as much as they could to help me find a way back.
"Don't worry, we'll look after you until then…" I saw a glint in their eyes as they looked at each other. "Though we'd like to have some things happen before that like-" Mr.Boonchuy's eyes sparkled as he interrupted his wife. "-Magic! Can you do that glowing thing again? The one that made me sleepy!" Mrs.Boonchuy looked annoyed at the outburst, but she wasn't much different in her excitement, just a little more reserved. The phrasing was kind of ominous at first, but all they wanted was to see stuff from my world.
'What would that be called? A world show? A world Exchange? Other World stuff demonstration?' I didn't know. Luckily, I had two adults in front of me, so I asked them. They paused their excitement as the question fell from my lips. "Oh, you mean a culture exchange?" Mr.Boonchuy answered first. "Yeah, that's it!" I pointed to him before a laugh from Mrs.Boonchuy stopped us both.
Just then I realized how ridiculous this situation was. I made a big deal about telling them something as soon as I realized it wasn't common sense. I'd done the same thing before, yet I didn't learn a thing. That was stupid, but it didn't matter. Adults other than my family were here, and ready to help me find my way home. These were adults I could trust, so…
I conjured a gust of wind as I condensed it into white streaks that finally shaped themselves into something I tried at the hospital. A straight stream of air became the vague shape of a dragon, the thing I had in my head like the ones in books. Chris knew about dragons, I knew that now. I knew that a lot of the things I knew were from Chris. The me of before wasn't my focus right now. Now, it was time to forget for a moment and have fun.
#
Roderia, or rather, the piece of Roderia possessing his puppet felt it. A sudden disconnect from his web of blessed essence as his puppeted body sat on the pews of the new church that his faithful cohorts worked day and night to build in the name of their lord. 'Ah, how glorious it is…' but that was merely a distraction for now. His efforts had borne fruit the essence he'd distributed to the posters around the city had caught something to the west of him.
It was fortunate since he was almost to his limit when it came to keeping in contact with all his pieces in such small quantities. He'd already dispatched someone to that area, and they'd be here any minute with news of the Chosen's location. Soon he'd be out of this damnable world, and back to the whole mind he was meant to be, an adult with rational thoughts that didn't involve a random persona or emotional outbursts.
Just thinking about it made him more frustrated than he should! He wanted to growl, but he took a breath and remembered his lord. He was glorious and unending in his existence as any perfect- suddenly, a slam came from the doorway as one of the faithful ran in. Roderia felt a spike of prepubescent irritation at his private moment being ruined, but the face of the faithful was enough to stop him.
"Father, the first of the faithful, Michael, greets you." Ah… this was the greedy beggar he'd blessed in that alley when he first arrived. How fortuitous that the first was the one to find the Chosen. Roderia smiled with the puppet's body as he made his way over to the first of the faithful. "Please, sit. I want to commend you on your success in finding the Chosen…" Michael sat with a sigh of relief only to straighten up again as the child body of Roderia leaned closer. "Now where is he?"
#
"...now where is he?" The Father's tone was decidedly less patient as Michael felt the blessing in his body churn with discomfort. He knew what would happen if Father Roderia was given a poor answer. Images of a convulsing body only able to scream through its eyes came to mind in the aftermath of a failure to infiltrate the police station just a few days ago. The Father's eyes looked on with punishing glee. That same Faithful didn't fail again.
"I… saw a boy with an unusual appearance; blue hair and pointy ears. A man too, I think he was of Asian descent, though I couldn't tell you more specifics beyond the tan complexion, yellow collared shirt, and jeans he wore. He was calling the child, Chris." The Father's brows knit as he straightened, followed by a sudden sigh of relief from Michael. The Father stared off for a moment as he mouthed the name. Strange, but the Father was full of eccentricities, so Michael didn't pay it much attention. Michael sat there for minutes as he waited for Father Roderia's reflection to end, the same name repeated every once in a while before the Father finally snapped out of it.
"Ah, what were we talking about? The Chosen, correct?" The Father turned back to Michael with the same scrutiny as before, only a more prominent glint giving away that the Father was considering the name. Michael nodded. "Yes, Father, the Chosen was seen with this person I speak of." The Father nodded and smiled. Michael felt a rush at that. Fulfilling the Father's wishes was like fulfilling his life itself! It was better than any drug he'd taken before in his sinful past existence!
The Father watched with clear praise before Michael further elaborated on the location near the shore. He told the Father about the attempts of newly inducted Faithful to capture the Chosen before their blessings were eradicated by the blight that the Chosen had used. Just explaining it made Michael's expression twist. The Chosen had used such a repugnant thing. That blight was heresy to the Father and the Lord! Heresy!
Michael only realized his state when the Father placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. Ah, he'd been disrespectful. Michael's expression relaxed as it turned guilty. "F-forgive me, Father, I was simply-" The Father raised his hand and shook his head. "It is ok, the blight is quite the troubling thing." Relief swept over Michael as his Faith renewed. The Father was benevolent, just as the Lord would want!
"Now you know what we must do to save the Chosen from going astray, correct?" Michael eagerly nodded. "Find him, and bring him back to the arms of the Lord!" Michael knew this from the moment he became the first of the faithful. It was the duty handed down via the glorious blessing! He knew it by his very soul!
The Father nodded as he started to pace the hallowed gray of the church's walkway. If only he could have been the one to construct this. It was shameful he wasn't part of the sacred construction effort of this sanctuary like his brothers and sisters. Michael broke out of his reverie as one final step echoed from where the Father stopped.
"We will continue as we have. Instead of capture, communicate to the Faithful that we will finish the Lord's sanctuary and use any more information collected from our efforts to bring the lost lamb into the fold once we are ready." Michael nodded with fervor as the Father smiled, one last comment slipping out before the Father could stop himself. "Though, maybe a bit of hardship is needed for the Chosen to understand his place?" The Father's eyes turned to the nodding Michael, a shiver running through the First of the Faithful again as he recognized those eyes of punishing glee.