Dawn Walker

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It was not exact. It was Annoying. But useful enough.

He tapped one finger once against the chair arm. The problem circled back to the same point.

How would he do it? Not whether. But How!

Leaf was tiny enough that a normal turning process must have felt ridiculous.

She was only six to eight inches tall, a little forest spirit girl more suited to sitting on leaves and playing in the first green patch of the Void Land than to anything involving bloodline conversion. She could not speak properly either, at least not in any way the rest of the house would call speech. She made sounds, gestures, feelings, small little bursts of intention that were more emotion than language.

That was the problem.

Or so Sekhmet thought at first.

He sat in the chair near the window and let that thought turn over slowly while dawn crept against the shutters. If he could not explain the process to Leaf properly, then he could not judge acceptance cleanly. And forcing it on a tiny spirit without understanding how she would react was the kind of mistake that only looked clever right before it became expensive.

Auri would help, of course. Leaf lived near her in the Void Land. They had become neighbors in the quiet way strange creatures did when they shared a patch of growing life in a dead world. Auri watched her. Protected her. Leaf trusted her.

But Auri was not the first one Leaf had chosen.

That thought came to him more slowly.

Bat Bat.

She was the one who made Sekhmet accept Leaf to his void land. She was the one who spent more time talking.

He had seen it too many times to ignore once he let his mind settle properly around it. Bat Bat was the one who played with Leaf. Bat Bat was the one who crouched in the grass patch and chattered nonsense while the tiny spirit stared up at her with those bright little eyes. Bat Bat was the one who had once spent nearly half an hour making tiny clicking noises and chirping nonsense to a cluster of bats while Leaf watched like it was the greatest performance in the Void Land.

Sekhmet had seen those moments before and dismissed them as Bat Bat being Bat Bat.

Now, for the first time, he considered the possibility that Bat Bat had not been talking nonsense at all.

"Interesting."

He looked toward the door. Then he called for her. It did not take long.

Bat Bat had either not slept yet or had slept in a way that involved one eye remaining spiritually awake for summons and mischief. She arrived at his room with her hair half-settled from sleep, her expression brightening the moment she realized she had been called privately instead of corrected publicly.

"Master, Why did you call me? I was trying to sleep," she said, stepping in. "If this is praise about the battle, then I accept it in advance."

Sekhmet ignored that.

He shut the door once she entered and looked at her long enough that her grin faded into alert curiosity.

Sekhmet said, " Stop your chit chat."

Bat Bat tilted her head. "Is this serious?"

He replied, "Yes."

That pleased her in a quieter way. "Oh!"

She stepped closer and sat when he gestured toward the chair opposite him. For once she did not drape herself across it like an insult to furniture. She sat properly, though her fingers still moved against the armrest with leftover energy.

Sekhmet asked the most important question to her directly.

"Do you understand what Leaf says?"

Bat Bat blinked once. Then twice.

Then she looked almost offended that he had only just now asked something so obvious.

"Yes. I understand what she says."

The answer came so quickly that he narrowed his eyes.

"Can you speak with her?"

Bat Bat nodded. "Yes."

He watched her carefully. It didn’t look like a joke. Or No flourish. It was just the truth.

He felt very interesting.

He asked, "How?"

Bat Bat opened her mouth. Then closed it again.

Then made a vague circular motion with one hand that solved absolutely nothing.

"I understand what she means somehow," she said. "It is not like normal words. It is more like a..." She paused and frowned at the air, trying to catch the shape of something slippery. "... Like a little gust of thought. And bat thoughts. And flutter feelings. And the tiny sounds in them that are not really sounds but still mean something."

Sekhmet said nothing.

Bat Bat kept going because once she started describing something strange, momentum usually overpowered dignity.

"It is like when a bat chirps and you know if it means food, danger, annoyance, sleep, or that another bat is being rude without needing a dictionary." She waved her hand again. "Leaf is like that too, except greener."

That was an insane explanation. And somehow, he understood enough of it to believe her. Because Sekhmet also understood what his summon bats wanted. He can understand their scouting report without talking to them.

Bat Bat noticed the look on his face and lifted both hands defensively. "I told you I would not be able to explain it properly."

"You can talk with the bats."

Inside his mind he thought Leaf was a forest spirit. How did she manage to do it.

She looked scandalized. "Of course I can. I am a bat too."

That part she found obvious.

Sekhmet leaned back slightly in his chair, studying her in a new way now. Bat Bat had always seemed half-made of instinct and noise. But instincts were not the same as emptiness. In her own strange way, she had a line of understanding with the small winged creatures under his bloodline and, apparently, with Leaf as well.

Interesting. She is slowly becoming very useful.

He decided not to waste time circling it.

"I want to give Leaf power."

Bat Bat froze for a beat.

Then her whole face lit.

She asked, "Really?"

Sekhmet replied, "Yes."

She leaned forward so far she nearly came out of the chair. "Real Real power?"

"Yes."

Bat Bat’s joy lasted exactly long enough to become suspiciously practical.

She asked, "What kind?"

Sekhmet held her gaze. "The kind that might let her grow stronger. Like Lily and Mira. She can also help the Void Land. Change more of it."

Bat Bat’s eyes widened. "Oh."

That oh had actual thought in it.

Better and better.

Sekhmet continued, "Your job is to explain everything to her."

Bat Bat went still again. It was not because she disliked the task. It was because she understood it was a real one.

"She trusts you," he said. "You will ask what she wants. You will tell her what I am offering. You will watch her reaction."

Bat Bat’s voice dropped slightly. She asked, "You want her answer?"

Sekhmet replied, "Yes."

That pleased her in a deeper way than flattery ever could have.

Then, because she was still Bat Bat, her excitement jumped to the next obvious question.

"If she gets power like Lily and Mira, will she be able to fight with me?"

Sekhmet looked at her.

Bat Bat pressed on eagerly. "And drink blood with me. If she gets stronger. Can we play in a blood drinking competition? Can she do that too?"

He answered simply. "Yes."

Bat Bat gasped as if he had just announced the moon could be stolen by effort alone.

Then she stood up so quickly the chair legs scraped the floor.

"She will love that. She will say yes. I know it."

He almost asked how sure she was.

Then decided against it. Bat Bat was not guessing. Not in the way she guessed other things. This was one of the rare subjects where her certainty came from connection instead of noise.

"She may not," he said instead. "That is why you are asking."

Bat Bat nodded quickly. "I know. I know." Then she drew herself up, suddenly solemn in the strange serious way she only became when a responsibility actually mattered to her. "I will tell her properly."

Sekhmet watched that settle into her. This was not a game to her now. This was Leaf. Her first little friend in the Void Land.

The tiny spirit who played in grass and watched the bats and listened to Bat Bat’s impossible habits as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

That made Bat Bat the right person.

"You will not frighten her," he said.

Bat Bat looked almost offended. "I never frighten her."

That answer came too fast to argue with.

"She laughs with me," Bat Bat added, with unmistakable pride. "She is my best friend."

Of course she did.

Sekhmet nodded once. "Then you take responsibility for her."

Bat Bat went very still. It was not a joke. There was no dramatic whining. No strange royal declarations. There was just a seriousness that sat strangely but honestly on her.

"For real."

"Yes."

Her expression changed again, this time into something softer than excitement and much steadier than pride. It did not make her look less like Bat Bat. It made her look more fully like herself.

Then she said, with total certainty, "Yes. I will take care of it."

The word landed cleanly. She would take responsibility. Of course she would. Because both of them will cause too much headache for him in the future.

Note: Read readers if you want read about what happened to Blood god after he died. Then read the book I tagged below 👇.