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_ Castit _
"I don't think this enchantment business is working again," I muttered, annoyed at the can as I flung the can across the living room with just a flick of my two fingers. I watch it hit the glass wall and fall to the ground, glaring at it intensely. Now you listened because I TOUCHED you.
"... Maybe because you're not thinking of the phrase in your mind. It worked yesterday---"
"Only just one time, the rest of the day it didn't want to work anymore." I cut him off, looking grumpy.
"... Yes ... but we made progress yesterday. Just ... gotta get that progress back." Neptune said, giving me a look of annoyance. I'm a terrible student, aren't I? "Make sure you switch between the methods if thinking doesn't work for you anymore."
"How does that even work? Thinking enchantments shouldn't be erased from me completely." I asked, placing a puzzled expression on my face.
"Well, since you forgot to change, I guess I'll have to go over them again." He told me as I rolled my eyes. "The three methods towards enchanting things. Enchanters, I believe have these same ways though I don't know if they can do all three like how we non-enchanters cannot. The three methods are; Speech, Sign, and Thoughts. Speech is simple but I think you aren't dumb enough to think it's gonna work again. Signing enchantments is difficult to do as there are two subcategories to this: Gesturing and Actual Signing. Gesturing is using your brain to think what you want to do with this object or person and Actual Signing is using sign language to enchant things. Thoughts with enchanting should be easy enough for you as YOU have already enchanted something yesterday. But instead, you choose to go back to speech and think that 'Oh, this shit doesn't work.' Only one of the methods you will be able to work for you, not all of them, Castit."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I grumbled, looking away. "I think I got it already."
"Do you now?" He asked with annoyance. "Because I would love to continue this session with you." He added on with sarcasm in his tone. "What worked yesterday that made your enchantment work?"
"Maybe because WE WERE OUTSIDE." I whipped my gaze back to him, shooting him a daggering glare.
He drooped his ears, turning his head away from me and towards the glass wall. "I was afraid of that answer. I only went out to do it because of the fresh air, and now that it's fucking cold outside to the damn -10s, that just makes this whole entire situation even more difficult."
"It's not that cold, stop your complaining. You could easily transform into your wolf-fox form if you wanted to." I rolled my eyes away.
"EASIER FOR YOU TO SAY." He hissed at me. "Feaolks with their dumb cold resistance."
I snorted as I felt his glare on me once more. "I don't know what you are complaining about. I did say you can switch into your wolf-fox form to be protected from the cold." I said.
"... LET'S JUST ... get back to the lesson." I hear him growl as I grinned down at him. He wasn't facing me anymore as he stood up and walked over to the fallen can. I think he's jealous of me being a feaolk because of that cold part. Eh, I wouldn't sweat it on becoming a full-fledge feaolk, they're the worse anyway. "Wipe that grin off of your damn face." I gazed back at him who was glaring at me.
"I think we should take a break, you're too mad over this," I said, keeping that grin on my face.
"Too mad my ass' Please, I really want to get this over-"
"Then YOU shouldn't have got mad OVER MY OWN RACE resistance." I cut him off. "I can't help what I am born with, and neither should you continue this unnecessary conversation. Let's get a move on, shall we or do you want to continue your meaningless words?" I added, glaring at him with annoyance. You know, I'm starting to see the bad side of this.
"Fine." He walked back over to the couch and sat on it, sitting the can on the couch. The can start to float up to my level height. "Let's work on erasing the enchantment on the can, hm? Should be easy. Remember the phrase for Enchantment Erase?"
I stared at the floating can, looking around at the glass wall, which was a door mind you. I just forget to call it a glass door. There is something out there that makes the enchantments work for me so ... what is it? Air? ... Well, if it was air, it would have already worked by now seeing how air is all around us. Wind? I tilted my head slightly, nodding my head slowly. That could work. The glass door slid just a little as I saw Neptune flinch from its movements. I shook my head and glanced back at the can, feeling the cold breeze enter and pass right by me. At the same time, I thought 'I enchant this to erase the enchantment on this can.'
Afterward, I watched the can fall onto the couch, nodding slowly as I gazed up at the glass door, enchanting it to move back to its original place. "... You could have said something." He said, staring at me.
"I'm sorry, you were too busy being angry," I commented, glancing down at him.
He glared at me as he turned away from me. "So ... Does wind allows your enchantments to work?"
"Yes. I don't know why it allows the enchantments to work that way. Also, why is it automatically working? Shouldn't it work and try to work inch by inch instead of right away? This isn't normal." I asked, looking confused.
"As I said two days ago, it is probably because your from an enchanter family." He answered before shrugging. "I'm not so sure about the genetic levels on that. Maybe you're secretly an enchanter and you don't even know it yet."
"If I was one, everyone, even my parents would have told me by the age of three," I told him. "I'm not one because no one told me I was one."
"... By the age ... of three?" He asked.
"So, it wasn't mentioned in the enchantment book, huh?" I asked, tilting my head.
"... The enchantment book doesn't describe what enchanters are or how they are. It just lists all of the enchantments. I tried finding an enchanter book here but I don't think they have it." He spoke, frowning slightly.
"I don't think Enchanters want you to find out about all of their secrets. But yes, by the age of three that is when the enchantment magic starts to kick in. I think my sister was making everything fly with her hands without realizing she could do it." I commented.
"... Gesture enchanting huh..." He mumbled, looking impressed. I shrugged, turning over to the outside world through the glass door. "Well, that's just some interesting information to discover. We can take a break here I suppose ... unless you want to erase some more enchantments for practice~"
"How so?"
"I could set up some objects to float around and a timer on how fast you can de-enchant them." He grinned up at me.
"No thanks." I turned away and headed for the kitchen. "I don't even want to try that."
"Awwww, it'll be fun~" He charmed, which failed on me.
"No, you damn flirt." I hissed over my shoulder before hiding in the kitchen.
"Eeee, you're no fun." I heard him huff before whining as I rolled my eyes. Jeez, he goes from chill to mad, to fucking flirting with me. Why? What is there to be interested in me? Nothing at all of course. So, he's just teasing me then to get on my nerves. He did mention it before but ... the teasing kind of ... turn into flirting almost.
I shook my head and stood by the sink, glancing down at the water. The water waves shifted into a memory of the past when my sister discovered her enchantment magic. It soon shifted to me trying to do the same thing but failing every time. I frowned at the memory, looking away. I know it's the truth that I don't have enchantment magic. I know it is. I'm nothing more than the specialty of my sister, I'm just plain ordinary with unknown abilities that came out of nowhere.
But soon enough, they'll go away on their own.
I nodded to myself before pulling myself out of the memory. I turned and stepped in the next day. Speaking of that, it's time to put my plan into action. I went over the two enchantments I've learned over two days--- which shouldn't have even happened to begin with. Should have taken an entire week, not two days. Anyway, afterward, I left the residential area and search for my mom to invite her on a walk. When I did so, she seemed excited at the idea. I didn't pay attention to that because there could be a chance she is controlled by Aloe. Making her much to be excited about me and then torture me later on.
We walked on the particularly snowy wooden platform, padding past the folks in silence. Some folks greeted my mother with smiles while others gave her wary and disgusted looks. I frowned at the sight, remembering the conversation with the demons. It's really true and they aren't lying about it at all. I turned my head over to my mother, who was greeting them all, even if they gave her looks that weren't friendly, she would give them smiles regardless. Her face was also filled with a relief expression like she hasn't done anything to damage it.
I narrowed my eyes, getting thoughts in my head if she wasn't placed under a enchantment or not. "I am seeing faces that are disagreements." She began, allowing a frown to settle on her lips. "I do wish they could see the truth rather than be told by it so they could see who my older sister really was. While we're on this observation, did I make the right decision to banish her from this colony?"
You're asking me this rather than your second in command? Who, mind you, had proof that Aloe was trying to do something to the colony? I guess .. you don't trust the leaders you made for this colony. "Yes. You did." I answered, before adding, "Why ask me instead of your leaders? Shouldn't you ask them this question?"
"They are all fairly busy to ask and often times... I make these tough decisions on my own." She answered.
... Well, if there was an idea that could sprout in your mind, you could have called a leader meeting and gone over the decisions if banning Aloe was a good move or not with them. But I guess it didn't come up. "Didn't Akakku tell you to exile Aloe?"
"He was the one who told me about ... the recent incident, but no, he did not. He suggested it to me and I went ahead with it but he didn't tell me the order at all. It was made all on my own." She answered.
"With Akakku's suggestion," I added.
"With his suggestion, yes." She nodded her head.
"I don't think you should worry about the choice of banishing her as it was the right decision. You are free of her control. Speaking of her ... I don't think she's gonna keep away since most of her family is here and not separated." I said. While she's ... controlling Purity in a way without being noticed.
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"... What do you mean by I am free of her control?" She asked me, turning her head to me.
Oh. That might have slipped in on accident. I shrugged in my mind before opening my mouth to speak again. "Are you ... perhaps under an enchantment right now?"
"... No, I am not." She shook her head, blinking her eyes wide. "Does it seems like I was under one? I made sure twice to see if I wasn't anymore this morning."
I widened my eyes slowly at her answer. She can know if she's placed under one? Well ... I guess it's the power of a powerful enchanter's trait. I nodded slowly, glancing up at her. Oh, and she is also not lying about that. If I don't say anything about someone lying, then they are telling the truth. "I ... was just making sure you weren't under one. Since ... last time..." I trailed off as I stared down at the snowy pathway. I felt fear crawling up my spine and greeting me with a twisted smile. I shuddered, feeling my muscles tense up. She's not here anymore, why am I still afraid?
"... Take some time to say what you need." She said, grabbing my gaze. "We have all of the time in the world." She gave me a soft, gentle expression. I slowly nodded, feeling touched when she said that. Soon I was feeling fuzzy inside as it was pushing away the fear that appeared to terrorize me. I took a breath in and let it out a second later, feeling confident enough to finish what I was saying.
"Since last time ... is when Aloe put one on you."
My mother frowned with confusion in her eyes. "I don't know why Aloe likes to put enchantments on me." She soon looked disappointed. "Our mother would be very disappointed in her if she found out she's been manipulating people with her enchantments. I don't think it's her purpose to do that and I don't know why she began it as often as she did. I feel like ... she left behind a mini her."
"Purity?"
"Yes." She nodded, continuing her frown. "And I can't help but think it's all my fault that I didn't do anything about it."
I looked confused, tilting my head with curiosity. When she said that statement, we arrived at a familiar seating area where I was with Neptune last time. It was a place where good folks were standing all around but not too crowded to enter. What does she mean by this? "I don't know what you mean, Mother."
Her frown deepened. "... You don't remember those times?"
"... No...?"
"Oh god ... she really did continue abusing you." She looked away from me.
I widened my eyes, halting as I stared at her. "... How- wait. If you knew I was, why didn't you do anything?!" I hissed, turning my stare into a glare. I may not remember the full picture of my life when I was young or know the pieces of the picture frame, but hearing how you didn't do anything makes me filled with rage. You're my mother for crying out loud! Shouldn't you do something to stop it?!
"... By the time I knew Castit, it was already too late." She spoke sadly, beckoning me over to one of the round table seats. What do you mean? I narrowed my eyes before following her. She let me sit down first as she sat across from me, assuming I didn't want anyone to sit next to me. "You may be questioning my answer, right?" She asked as I nodded. "Well ... Aloe told me after we left the colony, stated that you did a horrible thing back then and thus she punished you for it. I ... don't believe ... the truth of it. I believe she did it because she thinks you did a wrong thing."
Probably but before you tell me, I'm puzzled about everything. "Can I get a run down on everything? From start to end? So ... I can better understand this." I asked. This makes me want to ask my real sister about it all. I don't remember what happened and it's making my curiosity about it grow even larger than before.
"Right, right." She nodded, clearing her throat to begin. "Aloe ... disliked the things I taught you guys when you and your sister were younger and she wanted a say in how I raised you two. From how we were raised, all enchanters in enchanter families were destined to become the best like their parents. As you can assume, Aloe was the best in my family when we were still growing into adults. She would always make the right decisions that best described the name she was gifted with."
"Let me guess, stupid?" I asked, resting my head on my arms on the table. I bet it's not and it's something she's not in the current state she is in.
She chuckled, "... Not really. The name she was given to her would grant good luck in her life--- as well as positive energy. It also had other meanings, but she would best describe it as having such beauty to attract the others." She said, resting her hand on her head. "... And ... she did, sort of."
"Sort of?" I snorted. "So, did this one run away when you say "sort of?" I don't see Aloe attracting someone to like her. She's too manipulative to even love someone.
She chuckled with a smile on her face. "You could say that. Before you two were born, my sister and I were picked to possibly be a ... male feaolk's partner. This is not how feaolks choose their partners so don't follow this example. What differs this special occurrence from the normal choosing was that ... Elegant planned something ... something to protect us all."
"Who's him again?"
"Another enchanter who's the leader of the Eastern Feaolk Colony. He's ... self-centered but does care about his people ... whenever he feels like it." She answered, looking a little disappointed.
"Oh. Seems to fit him perfectly." I nodded my head slowly. "What was his plan?"
"His plan was to create a feaolk who had both enchantment magic flowing within the feaolk and Wind Elemental powers. Your father, the male feaolk came from a line that had chances to have a Wind Elemental offspring. But ... the given take, it didn't seem to be the case as producing a Wind Elemental offspring is rare." She answered.
"... I guess his plan failed since neither of us is those things," I said.
She nodded slowly as I sensed something suspicious in her. I raised my brows before dropping them. Did she lie there or ... particularly lied about that agreement? Infact, the real question is, does she knows something that I don't know? Eh, I shouldn't worry about it too often. "Anyway, we both had a week with him. Aloe was first and I was second. You can guess that Aloe didn't get a chance to keep your father to herself."
I gave a snort. "I bet he was like me."
"... The other way around." She corrected me as I blinked in surprise. "You take a whole lot after him." She frowned slightly. "And it makes me miss him."
I tilted my head with curiosity sparkingly in my eyes. I could probably ask those questions now. "Was he an enchanter like you?" I asked. Since ... the Eastern Feaolk Colony is full of enchanters, only some or a few are non-enchanters. I think...
She shook her head. "No ... he wasn't, just a non-enchanter." She answered, looking to the left of her as she appeared to be thinking for a moment. She turned her gaze back to me. "I did say before he was from a line that had chanced to have a Wind Element offspring, correct?" I nodded. "Well ... he was a Wind Elemental." I widened my eyes, very widely as I continued my stare at her. "And an ancient feather at that. But he pretended to be a normal feaolk that came from a bloodline where his previous family members were Wind Elementals."
"... Why?"
"He didn't trust my colony. The Eastern Feaolk Colony. It's where you were born in." She answered. "I don't blame him."
"... What did he look like?" I asked, becoming curious about my father. That is smart of what he did there. I wouldn't trust a bunch of enchanters either.
She smiled softly, "I think ... if I can remember. He was silver-haired with blue highlights in his hair. The goofiest-looking man you could ever spot. His wings were gorgeous with a fade that faded from silver to blue. And ... his spotted swirl feather patterns were beautiful to admire."
I shouldn't have asked that but now she is in a "lovey-dovey" mode over him. Eeeeehhhh this is so awkward. I slowly nodded, looking away from her for a moment. I blinked for a second, remembering the description she described him. ... Someone else is like that appearance as well. Memories flashed to the part where I saw a colored picture of that Western Feaolk Colony leader. The one book about feaolks that Neptune owns. "... Did he happen to go by the name of ... Whirlwind?" I asked, slowly turning my head back over to her.
She blinked at me with surprise. "Yes." She nodded, tilting her head. "Did he tell you?"
"No, a book did," I answered. ... So ... what does this mean?
"Oh. Right ... I should've assumed by the questions you asked about your father." She nodded slowly.
"... So ... I'm the son of a leader?" I asked. Huh ... Neptune will not believe me when I tell him the news about this. This makes me excited but ... at the same time annoyed about where I got my leadership traits from. However ... with the current status of the group and him ... I might not tell him until he can be fully trusted.
"Yep. Always was one." She smiled softly before dropping it and it turned into a frown. "I remember so many memories of the good days and yet ... they were filled with so many bad ones."
"Wait ... how did he manage to meet you if he was a leader of another colony?" I asked.
She stared at me, shrugging. "I can only guess he made arrangements to the plan that Elegant had. The rest of it ... you might have to find your father and ask him about it."
"Speaking of that ... I would like to know what happened to him please," I said, staring firmly at her. Don't tell me he faked all of his love for us, please don't make that be the truth of it all.
"Of course."
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"A year later and you guys were born. ... I think my doubts as a parent were terrible when you and your sister turned three. When we discovered Purity's enchantment magic, that is when Aloe started to stir me away from you. She believed that the ones who had enchantment magic were to be praised while the non-enchanters were to be left behind. Gladly your father was there to keep you up but ... he disliked the way I followed my sister's footsteps." She said, frowning.
"Yeah, I would also dislike why you did that in the first place." I glared at her.
"Do not worry, I'm trying to learn from my mistakes from years ago. I continued to follow her up until you two turned six and Aloe almost stole one of your growing feathers. They were the same feather patterns as your father's, which ... excited her for a moment." She said.
"... Why? Why did a pattern excite her?" I asked, looking confused.
"Each feather pattern tells you how many abilities you have as a feaolk. Since you had the same one as your father's, you had all of the abilities." She answered me.
"Oh." I blinked, nodding my head. "... Makes ... sense," I said slowly, remembering a time when Aloe would pick my feathers and wear them as her own. I lowered my head, seeing flashes of my young self all smiles with bruises and bandages on him as my aunt would just give me simple affection and not a whole lot as she does with my sister.
"... Castit?" My mother's voice snapped me out of the flashback, looking up at her. "Are you okay?" She looked concerned as I frowned slightly.
"... I'm fine... memories are just ... resurfacing and they aren't good ones," I mumbled quietly.
She nodded slowly and continued. "Two years passed on by with occurrences that took place between Aloe and your father, but in the current year that happened after the first ... Aloe told us that he was trying to do something horrible and cruel to you. After all, he always took you away from us for long periods."
"... Maybe he was trying to..." I trailed off as I had another flash of memories flying through my head. Faces of laughing ones, a little me bouncing around a blurred-out face on an adult, who I assumed was my father. He looked black-silver coloring instead of blue-silver. I blinked and glanced up at her. "... He wasn't."
"I know." She frowned, looking down at the table. "That is when he was banished from ever touching his children. I wish it didn't happen and never listened to my sister."
"Well. I'll assume after that it went downhill where I couldn't remember a single thing." I said, sitting up. So ... is it a lie that Aloe made to get him away from me since she knows he will protect me?
She frowned at me, nodding her head. "I wish I could go back in the past to change it."
"You can't do anything about it you know. We'll just have to live through it." I said. She nodded. I rested my head on my hand, tilting my head slightly. "Have you tried to find my father?"
She frowned and shook her head. "I'm afraid he's still mad at me."
"Well, he might not be if you go out and search for him," I said. "He's in the Western Feaolk Colony, surely you can go and find them there."
"If I didn't have a colony to rule, then I would." She told me. She tilted her head, thinking of something. "... There is one thing that I find strange to this day. Never found it strange back then, but now that I recall it... it's odd, to say the least." She spoke. I blinked at her, tilting my head slightly. What ... are you talking about? "When you guys were young, Aloe seemed to be obsessed with Purity, once mentioning that she wanted to train her to become the strongest enchanter in Enchanter History. Thought it was normal when she mentioned it but ... I started to see her grant Purity some tools or at least bonding with her the most instead of bonding as a family. ... Even when ... Purity looked up to her alot and always become ... dull or just disliked when I was around."
"That's because she was ... changed completely to how Aloe wants Purity to be as. I don't know when it happened--- probably after you guys chased my father away but ... Aloe used some form of enchantment to alter Purity's personality to her own liking." I said.
She widened her eyes at me, looking horrified. "W... Aloe did that?!"
"Yes. She did." I nodded.
"... She really doesn't like my family if she did that to us." She frowned.
I nodded slowly, thinking about what she said before. Aloe wanted Purity to become the strongest enchanter in history? Why? I tilted my head. Maybe Aloe is using her for her own benefit but ... for what? What could she possibly want with us? I think this could be a serious matter to discuss with my group members. Or ... we could capture Fake Purity and have her spill the information to us about Aloe before we turn her into the Real Purity. I slowly nodded my head.
"Is she enchanted now?" My mother asked me.
"Probably." I nodded. "I was going to have my group lure her in and remove the enchantment off of her." Is that the right choice to tell her? I don't sense any suspicion in her.
"I could do it if you want me to unless you already have friends that are enchanters." She offered.
I widened my eyes at her as she looked determined after she notice my reaction. That could work but ... I already changed some things I want from her. "... We have. He's not an enchanter though. He knows an enchantment that can erase it."
"Non-enchanters can learn enchantments?" She asked, blinking her eyes with curiosity. "I never knew about that."
"Yeah." I nodded my head. "But ... I bet it's less powerful than the normal ones."
"Should be, that would defeat the purposes of non-enchanters." She said before looking behind me. "Well ... I believe our time is up." I blinked with confusion. "Your sister is here ... with a friend."
"With a friend?" I turned my body over to her, who stood far from the entranceway. A familiar person was standing right next to her and they were a friend I know quite clearly. I smirked before removing it and turning back to my mother. I need to tell Carla about this new change of plans. We're doing it today; it doesn't matter how much trust we gained from her. "Can you distract Purity for a moment while I talk to her friend? It's ... something important ... I want to talk with her about."
"Will do." My mother nodded her head with a smile.
I nodded and turned, getting up to my feet. She did the same as we walked over to them. I stared at the two, talking normally with no signs of wrongs, making me nod once. So it's working and she's literally falling for it? They turned to us when we halted. "... Hello mother, brother." Purity began first, staring at both of us with suspicion.
"Hello, my daughter."
"... Did you talk to Carla's group about how they treated me poorly?" Purity asked, almost making me freeze up. Oh god, I forgot about that part of the plan.
"Yes. Yes, I did." Mother said, nodding her head to the lie she made. I did my best to not widen my eyes as I frowned with pretend guilt on my face. "It was shameful of you two to disrespect Purity." She turned to me with a disappointed look, then to Carla who displayed the same expression as I had.
"Yes we know, mom." Carla frowned as I nodded with a quiet frown. Nice to play into this, mother. I'm starting to like this side of you.
Purity puffed her chest out, looking all proud and smug. "You better not do it again!" She glared at both of us. We both nodded once more before she smiled with delight.
"Purity, I have something to talk to you about. It's your aunt." Mother whispered to her, gesturing her away from us.
"Oh? What did she say?" Purity said and surprisingly she followed her away from the two of us. Once the two were away from us, Carla looked at me with surprise. "Well, I don't think telling her was the plan about this."
"I didn't tell her anything. She just knew we were trying to do something right about Purity's mindset." I whispered. "But yes, I did tell her ... part of it."
"Well. We--- wait, isn't she enchanted?!" Carla whispered to me, looking wary.
"She isn't. When she does know she is enchanted, she immediately removes it." I whispered back.
"Oh. WELLL, that's our smart mother!" Carla smiled proudly.
"Yeah ... and I changed something up in the plan so you might have to rush to the four's home and tell them about it," I whispered, looking back to the two farther from us and back to her.
"Oh... I can do that. What did you change in the plan?" Carla eyed me with her folded arms.
I smiled nervously, opening my mouth to tell her the new plan.
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- End of Chapter 25
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