Book 2 Chapter 72

There wasn’t much in her grandmother’s larder, but with some additions from Miss Mu’s food stores and a brief chat about recipes the group knew, they managed to cobble together a tasty meal for the group. As they ate they tried to stick to less heavy topics of conversation since everyone was already drained from earlier.

One of the main points of discussion was the matter of Willow’s education, especially since Grandma Thea was going to add to her working pool of knowledge.

She was amused when she heard that her granddaughter was sent to Madame Park for lessons on etiquette. Saying something about if the old woman had known about her ancestry she likely would’ve refused outright. Though she didn’t elaborate any further about the reasons why, much to the girl’s frustration.

Willow’s grandmother also seemed to find the lessons Mu had taught her about spirits and the like to be largely satisfactory, but she seemed rather dismissive about how theoretical a lot of the information was.

“You should be teaching her the practicalities of the world, rather than fill her head with random bits of knowledge.”

Her mentor chuckled. “But all knowledge finds a use eventually. Besides, the girlie seems to enjoy my ramblin’s. Right, Willow?”

Willow nodded. “Yup! Miss Mu knows a bunch of stuff, and it’s neat to hear about all of the things that she’s seen. Plus it’s useful to learn all I can about different spirits since mine are growing so fast. Something she teaches me now could be used to help one of them grow in the way they want in the future.”

She wasn’t really sure how much it actually helped, but she did try and tell her friends about some of the weirder spirits her mentor told her about just in case it gave them some inspiration.

At that her grandmother raised an eyebrow. “You are not controlling their growth at all? I knew your binding had to be rather lax since you had so many spirits, but I thought someone in your life would’ve stressed how important it is to keep your spirits under careful control. You’ll likely be passing these spirits on to your children, or at the very least to an apprentice of some kind. It would be best if they were complimentary to one another, not some random mishmash of concepts that fight amongst themselves.”

Willow was fairly sure that her friends would develop concepts that were at least of a similar theme due to the energy of the twins, but she couldn’t share that without bringing up another sensitive topic. The matter of her final two spirits and her shifting nature.

So instead she went with a different but still relevant truth.

“They’re my friends, not tools. I’m more excited to see how they grow than I am in trying to direct it any particular way.”

Grandma Thea seemed to be equal parts disapproving and amused by that answer. “Willow, something you must keep in mind is that spirits are not the same as people.”

She held up her hand when she saw her granddaughter was about to argue.

“I do not mean that they are lesser than us, or that they don’t deserve our respect for the power they grant us through the bonds we form with them. I mean that they are fundamentally different from us. Some are closer to human nature through the concept they embody, but most are better described as primordial forces of the world rather than people.”

Willow wasn’t sure where her grandmother was going with this, but she could feel that her mentor and sister largely agreed with her reasoning. Even if the mix of emotions in Maple’s core right now made it difficult to fully parse her feelings on the matter.

Though the girl still had a counter argument. “I was told that since I gave them names of heroes from Ma’s stories they would likely develop speech and more human-like traits sooner. So I think it makes sense to give them the freedom to choose what they wanna be.”

Her grandmother considered that answer before sighing in exasperation. “If that’s the path you want to tread then I can’t truly stop you, but keep in mind if you give your spirits that much freedom and they turn demonic then you’ll have no way to stop them. Can I at least see what bonding technique you used? It would do much to ease my worries.”

Willow began to fidget and her mentor looked equally uncomfortable since they both knew Thea wouldn’t approve of the binding technique her granddaughter had used.

Yet still the girl demonstrated it to her family.

Her grandmother looked entirely nonplussed at what she had just seen. “Is that even a binding technique? You asked your spirits if they wanted to be friends with you and a bond formed? Of all the nonsense…”

She pinched the bridge of her nose and Willow could see the frustration bubbling in her core. Thankfully it wasn’t spilling out and causing that unbearable weight like before, but it really did reinforce the feeling that her grandmother wasn’t the most emotionally stable right now.

Another detail clicked in place for Thea and she gave her youngest granddaughter a confused look. “But you were able to carry that pile of furs with ease, so you should have a strengthening component to your binding but I saw no such thing in your demonstration.”

Willow scratched her cheek as she worried they were getting to another difficult explanation and didn’t want to upset her grandmother so soon after the first time. “I’m doing core training to make up for that.”

Grandma Thea shot Miss Mu and Maple a glare. “Couldn’t either of you have stopped this nonsense? The girl’s hurting herself to make up for a deficit that shouldn’t exist. This path of hers has the potential to spiral out of control in so many different ways, and I’m frankly baffled that she seems as stable as she currently is.”

Her mentor smirked. “That simple bond of hers is unbreakable so long as the girl or her spirits don’t want to break it, and she’s as stubborn as I’ve ever seen when it comes to those she cares about. There’s also a stabilising element that she hasn’t brought up for whatever reason, but I think it’s time to introduce them to you.”

She then gestured for Willow to go ahead, and despite disagreeing with Miss Mu on the timing of it, she acquiesced.

The twins had, of course, been listening to the majority of the conversation, and knew that they would have to make an appearance at some point. Willow had also shared her concerns with them, and they’d previously agreed with her that now would likely not be the best time to make such an introduction, but if she was this deadset against her path then this felt like the only option.

So the twin spirits of Harmony and Change decided to give their introduction a little more gusto than they usually did.

They exited their internal spaces doing a dance of black and white that was beautifully mesmerising before separating into their childlike forms of light and night.

“Greetings to you Thea, I am Harmony.” Spoke the twinkling eyes of night.

“And I’m Change!” Continued the voidlike eye encased in light.

Her grandmother glanced at everyone in the room and began nodding to herself as if everything suddenly made perfect sense.

“I’ve gone completely mad, haven’t I?”