Chapter 259 - 212 - Neglect
"Famiglio Incendio,Presto!"
The trio of Taika, Pacifica, and Rebecca held hands, linked together in a circle. In the middle of their ring, the results of the three spells coagulated into a small fox of shadow energy. Yellow dots for eyes allowed the rhythm beast to see its surroundings.
"Good, let's try without holding hands," directed Shouri. The girls nodded and broke their chain, stepping back from one another.
"Famiglio Incendio, Presto!" came the casting in tri corde.
Unlike the previous casting which effortlessly popped into existence, the second tri-element fox had noticeable lag before forming, but did ultimately appear next to its shadowy counterpart.
"How'd that feel?" Shouri questioned, the delay not escaping his scrutiny.
"Fine to me," said Rebecca.
"A bit slower than when we're holding hands," Pacifica added.
"Really slow," Taika concluded.
Shouri hummed thoughtfully. "We can't use any re-cast modifiers, so I wonder…" he mused aloud, typing up notes on one of the tuners. His trio waited patiently, taking in their handiwork of two rhythm foxes of mixed breeds. The healing fox was always a little miracle, being shimmering golden light not unlike the glow Taika took on when casting the healing spell that made its form.
The shadow fox was another beast entirely. Given its dark shade, it resembled the spell's more sinister cousin, the Scherzando.
"Paci, Rebby, you two now-" before Shouri could dole out orders, Rose popped into the room from one of the wall-mounted electrical sockets.
Shouri jumped, as did his trio – to his defense.
"Woah! Relax! Just checking in on ya." Rose projected a barrier of sparks in front of her to dissuade any further hostilities.
After finding his heart, Shouri let out a dramatic breath and glared down the Ethereal. "You could have knocked," he pointed out.
"My house, my rules," countered Rose.
Shouri grumbled something under his breath, while Pacifica placed a hand on his back impart some serenity into the boy.
In the interim, the inventor noticed the pair of elemental foxes that graced her floorboards. "Oh, wasn't aware people were casting like this again." She crouched down to examine the two rhythm beasts.
"Yeah, Sarayul's retainers or whatever taught us how to cast them," Rebecca said.
Rose lit up upon hearing the other Ethereal's name."Oh! How is that old fart?"
"You know him?" asked Taika.
"Of course, all of us Ethereals meet on occasion. Discuss the state of the world, what have you." Rose stood back up straight. "Not that mortals should be made privy to the dealings of the timeless," she shot down Shouri's line of thought before it could get going. "Ninah and Tayls still haven't let me live down showing Sarayul television and the internet. The man was driving himself mad in his mountain temple. They say he's lazier than ever. Got a good laugh out of me regardless," the Ethereal boasted.
"That explains so much about both of you," Shouri mumbled.
"Anywho, how do you feel about spreading this one far and wide?" asked Rose.
"Huh?" The four blinked, unsure of what she meant.
She grinned. "I'll tell you the secret behind it. It's actually pretty easy."
Zephyr's eyes fluttered open that morning with purpose. She was a proper Resonator now. She was before, but now she had a Maestro. Her contemporaries would scoff at her – they didn't know what they were missing.
The warmth, the comfort, the pleasure.
She understood why Resonators stuck around their Maestros. It felt good. So good.
Not even just the pleasure of casting magic, but the comradery, sharing your life with someone from a different walk. It was things she had never even considered enjoying.
Also, Mila was warm. Very warm. There were perks to sharing, Zephyr had discovered. The cat's ears twitched, her face contorted in annoyance, and finally she let out a grunt of frustration.
The fire element opened her eyes with ire. "They're loud," she growled.
"Shouri and them?" Zephyr questioned.
"Oh, they wake you up too?" asked the cat.
"No, you can hear them?"
"Against my will."
The two girls looked to their Maestro, who slept blissfully through the noise. "He's always like this," Mila informed the fairy. "Goddamn house could cave in on him, and he'd sleep right through it," she grumbled.
Zephyr nodded slowly, hopping up and taking a place on the cat's shoulder. "So you're a light sleeper then?" she guessed.
"Had to be."
"Why's that?"
"Grew up on the streets. You either sleep with an eye open or you end up dead. Or worse," she told her tiny counterpart.
Thinking about her own experience, that tracked. "You got a point I suppose," Zephyr conceded.
Their attention returned to their snoozing Maestro. Without needing to confer with the other, the two decided to protect that carefree slumber of his.
"What do you mean you don't have food?" an irritated Shouri questioned their Ethereal host.
Rose raised a brow, behind her desk as usual. A menagerie of tools, circuit boards, and complicated diagrams littered her desk. "I don't eat. Simple as."
"Sarayul eats," Taika noted.
"Yeah, we made him food for like half a week or something," Rebecca chimed in.
The lightning Ethereal turned her gaze on the two foxes. "I haven't gotten that bored yet. I'm only 478 years young," she snarked back before returning to her work.
"Only." Shouri rolled his eyes.
"You're really that old?" asked Vince, brows furrowed as he tried to grasp the concept.
"Say old again." Rose threatened the young Maestro with a screwdriver's tip.
"What do you mean about being bored Miss Rose?" asked Pacifica.
"Don't call me Miss," the inventor grumbled. She flipped her tool around to resume what she had been working on.
"We got a lot of time to kill. Some Ethereals go out and learn everything they never had time to in life. Others hone their skills or talents. But eventually they all hit a certain point. They do everything they ever could have wanted to. So they get bored. They fall into a routine. They stagnate."
The mortals in the room remained quiet, watching the small inventor tinker with her work.
"What about you?" Zephyr hesitantly spoke.
"I know I'll be just like the rest of them some day. For now, there's too much work to do," said Rose.
"Work? Like what?" Vince questioned, drawing the white tuner from his side and looking it over.
Her head snapped up, the glare magnified by her glasses. With a snap of her finger, Zephyr's tuner vanished from Vince's hand and appeared in Rose's. She tossed it into the air and formed a bolt of lightning in her hand, gripping it like a spear. Immediately the five Resonators in the room tensed.
Rose launched the bolt like a javelin at the falling tuner, easily hitting her mark. The device flew like a cannonball from the strike, slamming into and embedding deep into the concrete behind them.
The mortals just stared blankly, unsure of what just happened. "Go on, go get it," she demanded.
Vince did as he was told, running over to inspect the device. He extracted it from the small crater and looked it over. "It… still works. There isn't even a scratch," the young Maestro noted.
Shouri hummed thoughtfully. Now that he really considered it, he never heard anything about broken tuners. The only problems he ever heard about were people losing them.
"That was Fulmine di Zeus, the lightning Ultimate spell, wasn't it?" asked Vince.
The rest of the group turned to the young Maestro, who kept his gaze locked on the caster of the mystery spell.
Rose smirked. "Good eye. It was," she said with a chuckle.
Vince looked over the device again. It still worked and was in pristine condition.
"Can they even be broken?" Shouri wondered.
"It's possible. I think they call 'em 'cracked eggs' out on the market. I'm sure you've seen a fake tuner about." Rose's gaze was on Shouri specifically, who nodded in agreement. "But I got the physical protection down to a science. Usually, you need something like the Solar ultimate to break one down."
"What's that one do?" Taika asked innocently.
"It… uh… creates a massive explosion. Like enough to wipe out a town. The Maestro has to die to cast it," Rebecca spoke uneasily.
The room went quiet once again. "Second casting kills the Resonator. Good spell that one. Had some words with that fucking cat about that one," Rose scoffed.
Everyone present remained quiet as they processed that information.
"Anyway, go get food. Maybe bring me back something. Been awhile since I ate. Probably a decade or two," she said, waving them off.
Pacifica looked to Shouri, who appeared especially bothered by the revelation of the Solar ultimate.
Loggiavento was in the same mood as it usually was – Maestros and Resonators working together on their shared land. Yes, the little mountain cradled town was as peaceful as ever, the wind whistling over the mountains to gently carry the heat away from the little village. Tranquility cracked as the roar of a plane sailed overhead disturbed the town, landing on the tarmac on the far edge of the plateau. Where the citizens of the quiet city looked on with hushed wonder, such noise was common to a group that came from the city. With that in mind, Shouri and company paid it no mind as they continued on their way to brunch.
"What's up Sho?" Pacifica asked, as they trailed behind the rest of the group.
He grunted, deciding whether he wanted to share his thoughts. Pacifica took his hand and gave it a pleading squeeze, which wore him down in an instant. "Aura," was all he had to say.
"It's okay, she's okay," Pacifica reassured him. "What did Rose have to say last night?" she asked.
"She insisted Aura was fine," he mumbled.
"And you threatened her, right?" Pacifica asked.
"Am I that predictable?"
"To me, yeah."
The audacity earned a smile from the Maestro as he squeezed her hand back.
"Hey! Break it up back there unless you wanna share!" Rebecca shouted.
"Ho fame!" Taika protested, pointing at the restaurant.
"Yes yes," Shouri chuckled, trying to pick up the pace. However, Pacifica pulled back on him. Before he could question what she was doing, she grabbed him by the shoulders and planted her lips against his.
And then chaos as Rebecca blasted over, shoved Pacifica out of the way, and got in a round of her own with Shouri.
Taika arrived at this point and gently separated the trio, before taking her own sampling of Shouri's lips.
"Don't I get a say in this?" questioned the Maestro, wiping his lips dry after the triple attack.
"No!" answered the three Resonators.
"Damn, I want to be them," Zephyr muttered.
"Behave," Mila warned.
Brunch was peaceful, the group of seven taking the same large circular table they dined at the day prior. The quality remained just as high in both food and atmosphere. Though the latter was spoiled by the entrance of a noisy group.
Pacifica jumped, whipping her head back to Bakr, the kind camel that topped off their rhythm yesterday. His easygoing demeanor had faded, daggers directed at the door where the boisterous party stood.
Willka greeted the group, but Pacifica could sense his greeting was terse, even without being able to hear him.
Shouri and Rebecca also kept a close watch on the new group. Vince's duo just chatted with their Maestro, but Pacifica caught onto the fact that both Resonators were also on the alert.
"At least it's not just me," muttered the otter as she tried to pay attention to her food.
Every passing moment tested Shouri's patience and Taika's willpower to hold him back.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"What a dump this place turned out to be," said the lead Maestro. He was accompanied by two other Maestros and three Resonators. Two of the Resonators looked healthy enough, the third though… he limped in slower than his frame would have suggested.
The lead Maestro wore two tuners proudly on his person, one yellow and another red, matching with the healthy pair in their company. The third brown tuner to go with the limping earth element was missing, as least from immediate display.
"Something's wrong with his legs," Taika murmured.
"Ricerca Vitale, Allegro," Shouri whispered to his fox. He silenced the subsequent beeping from the spell upgrading.
"Wait, before I use it Sho, let me use the next rank," she requested.
"Oh sure. Ricerca Vitale, Moderato."
Taika nodded and focused on the ailing Resonator. Her hands clasped to her mouth as the data streamed into Shouri's tuner