Book 2 Chapter 39

Mu became a little grumpy when she heard Willow had tested the Madame’s mental technique without his mentor being present.

“You shoulda let me check it over first.” She grumped that night when he’d informed her.

Willow shrugged, not really understanding what the big deal was. “You let her teach me all kinds of stuff so I thought it would be fine. Worst case Harmony and Change would be able to notice something’s wrong.”

She sighed out a cloud of smoke. “Fine, I suppose the worst was unlikely to pass. Run the technique again and let me get a scan at least. Curious what the old bat came up with.”

He complied, the complicated technique now fairly familiar to him after an afternoon of making use of it. It was surprisingly easy for him to maintain as well despite the mild discomfort brought on by the loss of a sense.

His mentor placed a gloved hand on his head, her other one still holding on to her old pipe.

He could imagine that his teacher’s curiosity flared up massively after getting a proper look at what Madame Park had made. Sadly, due to his currently bound senses, he couldn’t much of a reading on her immediate reaction.

Willow began to hear his teacher begin to mutter to herself as she examined the intricacies of how the technique was constructed before eventually a wide grin split her face.

“Oh that’s fascinating! And surprisingly clever for the old bat. She also seems to have foregone any tricks or traps that I can see so there shouldn’t be any issues in continuing to use it.”

Was that a risk? Meh, no use fretting about it now.

As the scan seemed to be coming to a close he disabled the technique and his sensory capabilities returned to full strength in short order.

Mu pulled out one of her journals and began frantically writing in it. “Any side effects or issues on your end?” She asked while continuing to draw diagrams and theories on how the technique functioned.

“It feels weird to not have my senses, but there’s no pain or discomfort.” He rubbed the back of his head a bit bashfully, remembering one minor issue. “I do seem to be bumping into stuff more often when it’s on though.”

“Oh? Is it disrupting your sense of balance or something?”

He shook his head. “Nope, I just use my spirit senses for more than I really thought about.”

Turns out, being able to passively perceive his surroundings was useful in making sure he didn’t walk into stuff, and he was a bit of a klutz without it.

Who would’ve guessed?

Mu took a brief break from her scribblings to give him an evaluating glance. “I suppose using your senses like that would come second nature to you, huh.”

Willow shrugged. “I mostly used it to figure out what people were feeling. Took me a bit longer to get a sense of what different objects or plants and animals felt like without looking at them first.”

The way qi moved through or permeated an object was difficult for him to describe with words. Even with two seemingly identical items there were differences that were readily apparent to him.

He continued to explain to his mentor what his everyday experience is like. “Most of the time I don’t really notice what it is I’m sensing unless it’s alive, but I know something is there so I know not to bump into it.”

Mu nodded to herself. “Sounds plenty handy anyways.” A thought seemed to occur to her. “Wait, is that how you always seem to know when I’ve bought you sweets?”

Willow grinned.

“Bah, I thought I was just bad at hidin’ them or something. Shoulda known somethin’ fishy was happenin’.”

The two of them chatted and bickered further for a time until it became late enough for them to need to sleep.

“Night Willow.” His mentor called as she settled into her bed.

“Night Miss Mu.” He called back, getting cozy in his own bed.

However Willow was much too excited from his joy filled day to sleep just yet.

He sent his projection to Change’s void, wanting to spend some extra time with his friends.

“I can go to cities now!” He called excitedly to the yang spirit.

Change grinned. “I’ve heard, friend! Glad you got that problem of yours sorted. Wasn’t fun seeing you suffer like that whenever you were in a crowd. Your pain is our pain, y’know?”

Willow had his projection hug his friend. “Thanks for worrying about me.”

He chuckled. “Anytime. So was there something you wanted to do? I can grab my sister and some of the young’uns if you wanna play a game.”

Did he want to play a game? Running through the void was starting to lose some of its luster due to how much time he’d spent here when he was cooped up all winter. He did still want to spend more time with his friends though…

Oh! He hadn’t done that in a while.

“How about I tell everyone some stories instead?”

Change’s facsimile of a face grimaced slightly.

“Aw, all right… I’ll gather everyone together.”

Willow knew that Change preferred more active forms of play, but his heart wasn’t in it tonight.

“Good evening, child.” Greeted Harmony, her starlike eyes twinkling in anticipation. She seemed to enjoy the stories his mother left him almost as much as he did. The yin spirit often commented on how unrealistic some of the powers put on display were, but otherwise seemed to enjoy herself the few other times Willow had done this.

Soon Willow was surrounded by his friends as he began to tell stories close to his heart.

Of his younger friends Eos and Phoebe were the two who most enjoyed storytime.

His little flame burned brightest whenever exciting storybeats happened, and flickered in uncertainty whenever a tense moment occurred. The fire spirit was honestly a perfect audience for a budding teller of tales.

What his thoughtful stone lacked in noticeable reactions they more than made up for with their unwavering attention to the story. He could always feel the weight of their gaze whenever he spoke, and he knew that Phoebe was taking in the details of whatever story was being told.

Xandra seemed to like the stories well enough, but spent more time trying to reenact them with what images they had available so Willow was pretty sure his friend disliked the lack of visual components to storytime. He’d shown them the one scroll he had available to him, the story of Eos lovingly painted by Aunt Jieun, and he was sure the reflection spirit had gotten far more from the experience than any other storytime.

Calypso and Andrea were seemingly just happy to be included, but despite Willow making sure to transmit the meaning of the stories as he spoke, he was unsure how much the little raindrop took in.

Andrea and Change often went off and played a game by themselves partway through storytime, and while it made Willow a little sad that not all his friends shared his interests, it was still fine to him so long as they were in each other’s presences.

He honestly felt like he had much to learn about the art of storytelling, but what he lacked in skill and tact, he more than made up for with sheer enthusiasm.

It was late into the night when Willow finally grew tired enough to properly sleep as he often did, surrounded by his friends in a void of white.