They need to paint the ceiling, I'm getting tired of waking up to this boring view. I was sick of waking up in the infirmary, I mean other than the ceiling I just kept getting hurt and I look stupid. I brought the memories from when I passed out up in my head and I snapped my eyes open. I could make noise again. I'm not sure if talking was going to happen immediately, I'd not spoken in years and it was probably going to be a mess getting used to that again. I sat up on the bed and pulled my knees up, this was a lot to take in. I paused and covered my left eye and felt my stomach churn.
I bolted out of bed and slid into the bathroom just in time to loose anything I'd eaten into the sink. Oh god. I have magic. I looked down at my hands and couldn't stop the tears from falling down my cheeks. I had the one thing I hated so much because I was so selfish that I had to talk again. That's not right, I deserved the ability to speak, I wasn't born mute I was made in a horrific moment and I deserved to be able to speak, no matter the repercussions. I just needed to make a trip to Fiore for Porlyusica to put it all back into a lacrima and my life would go on as normal.
"It won't go back in now that it's established in your grown body Asher" A soft voice behind me drew my gaze and I looked into the lavender eyes of the Master of the ugly ceilinged guild. I could feel the tears dripping from my chin, what is he saying.. I can't get rid of it?
"I'm sorry Asher, it won't recede now that the pathways have been set. We have a mage en route that has a difficult magic as well, he has offered to help you get yourself under control of the magic." I dropped to the floor and sobbed into my knees. I could hear a weird sort of keening noise and it took me a minute to figure out it was coming from me. I lifted a hand to my throat. Gods can someone be so happy and so scared at the same time?
I lifted my eyes to Kaleb's soft ones
"Hi" I choked out, my eyes flew wide and I felt a grin split my face. I could talk, I could really talk out loud. Gods above I could sing again and get into arguments and laugh.
"welcome back" He held a hand out to me and I hesitated before taking it. I was terrified of touching anyone, what if I stole his magic without meaning to, I'd kill him! I shook my head and scooted myself back away from him further. I stood without breaking eye contact and let him know I'd follow behind him. He led me to a office that flashed green and purple when the door closed.
"This room cancels all magic it will be safe in here until we can get someone to come and get a read on your magic. My brother is heading here from Fiore with a team of mages that can help you adjust to using your magic after so long" I nodded and moved to sit on the comfortable looking couch, I pulled my knees up underneath my chin and started writing a list in my head about what I needed to do before I could open the shop again. I needed to meet Kaleb's brother and his team, maybe get some practical control for my magic, I absolutely needed to get some speech therapy or at least work on that by myself.
"Kay-Kaleb" I winced at how raspy my voice was "Thank-k you" I pushed out.
A warm smile graced his face "You're very welcome Asher" he moved to sit behind the desk to work on something from his lacrima tablet. I started working on saying the alphabet out loud, which was way harder then I thought it would be and I got stuck several times, Kaleb helped me with pronunciation when I was really struggling. I had gotten through the alphabet and started working on names of the people I'd met the past two months, again Kaleb gently corrected me when I made a mistake. I was finally able to get words out again but i felt like I was like a two year old.
I huffed in frustration as Kaleb gently guided me, yet again, with pronunciation and he chuckled at me. I stuck my tongue out at him when he turned his face to look at the door
"I saw that" he said as he stood and went to open the door. I felt my face heat up and knew I was bright red. Stupid tall handsome men and their stupid faces.
"Ka-Kaleb? Can-can I go sh-sh-shower?" I pushed out as he came back into the room with a tray full of delicious smelling food.
"Of course, there's a hot pool and shower area through the door behind the desk, feel free to use anything you find in there. Lunch is here when you're finished" He smiled at me and I grinned back before practically skipping to the bathing area.
"Shower fir-r-st, I can soak later" If I kept using my voice it would get easier to use, I was already losing some of the stutter I had from trying to hard to pronounce the words. I slid my clothes off and set them on the counter beside the towel cupboard and turned the hot water on in the stone tiled shower. The water was pouring from the roof like a waterfall and I was automatically in love with this bathroom. The water itself had the spicy citrus smell of the Grass Sea and I inhaled the steam into my body. The water from the sea was so good for the body. I grabbed soap and a sponge and started scrubbing at my body, I could still feel sweat sticking to my skin.
I wrapped a towel around my chest and dried my hair on another, I didn't have towels this nice back home, it was like rubbing my head with a cloud.
"soft tow-wels" I frowned "towels" I corrected myself. I shook my head and grabbed one of the robes that was hanging on the back of the door and slid myself into it. I could hear voices outside of the door and got too curious, I cracked the door as silently as I could and peeked out to the office. A man in a full medieval knight costume was talking to Kaleb, He had a giant hulking blonde behind him looking bored and another, shorter mind, man with long green hair seemingly taking notes. I tilted my head to the side and watched the knight take the metal helmet, which was really just a visor, off and grin with his tongue sticking out. How odd is that? He was handsome, not in a classical way, but his high cheekbones, red eyes with circle marking on the outside of his eyes was striking. He grinned with his tongue out again at something Kaleb had said, he had perfect teeth too. The two men embraced and I heard the word brother come out. This must be the brother that was called to help me adjust.
"If you're done sneaking Asher, you can come be introduced" Kaleb pushed the words into my head, I hadn't seen his mouth move at all from the smirk that had settled onto his face. I felt my face heat and I stuck my tongue out at the platinum blonde.
"I saw that" he said out loud this time and turned to give me a crooked grin.
"Not sor-rry" I pushed out and opened the door so I could walk into the room with seemingly more confidence than I actually had. I was in a robe for craps sake. "Sorry" I corrected myself and he smiled at me again.
"It's getting better already, you'll be back to singing in no time Vulpecula" I looked up to him wide eyed and felt my eyes start burning.
"How" I walked quickly over to him and grabbed his shirt in my fists "where di-did you hear th-that" I demanded and if I wasn't so short I probably would have been more menacing. I just barely came up to the man's collar bones and had to crane my neck backwards to even look at his face when I was this close.
I closed my eyes and backed away from the silent man, I knew exactly how he got to that word. I could still see the smiling face of my mom as she called me her little fox and would ruffle my hair. I hadn't been called that in years, I'd almost forgotten how it sounded. I wasn't mad per se, just surprised, I wanted to hear my moms softly lilting voice call me that again. I was slowly getting used to the noises that could escape me now, a weird hiccuping sob came from my throat and I started crying harder.
"geez Kaleb, look what you did to the poor girl" a new voice came up beside me and put a hand on my shoulder. I looked up at the man with the stick figure on his face and searched his eyes. They were red with almost a green tint to them, it was amazing and beautiful, the swirls on the corners of his eyes just added to the look. I remembered where I was and why he was here and I pulled myself quickly out from under his hand.
"can't touch me" I whispered "my magic ta-takes magic from people" I reached up and wiped the tear tracks off of my cheeks and pulled my robe even tighter around my body. I stepped around the man staring at me and went back to my perch on the couch, pulling my knees up and wrapping my arms around them to keep me as small as possible.
" Bix, I brought you here to help Asher try and control her magic, I know you don't have the same type of magic but yours is just as deadly if you don't keep tight control on it. I'll also be having Vander help her once she gets a little more in control. We've set up an apartment with magic cancelling runes, she doesn't like magic partly because of how violent her magic is. We can set up a room downstairs for training if you'd like." Bixlow nodded and came to crouch in front of me, his forearms resting on his thighs and his head slightly tilted to the side.
"You don't have to tell me what happened, but I'll help as best I can. If you're uncomfortable with anything just let me know and we can change the tactics around to make it better for you." he gave an impish smile and my face cracked slowly into a small smile in return.
"Thank you Bix-xlow" I furrowed my brows and looked at the man who had started laughing
"It's pronounced Bicks, Asher, just call me Bix" His tongue was hanging out of his mouth again
"Bix" I nodded and reminded myself to work on his full name for when he inevitably got on my nerves.
It was an interesting couple of months after that initial meeting, I had grown comfortable with Bix and surprisingly with Laxus and Freed too, though they never said much unless it was to make a comment to Bix about the training. But I saw the two almost always talking amongst themselves quietly. I had gotten a very large handle on my magic and after almost ripping Laxus' magic out two or three times they had deemed me as able to start copying magic safely. I had copied most of the people that were with me on a regular basis, except Bix's magic. He had told me it would not go over well if I could do what he did on top of my own magic.
I still didn't like my magic, but it was very handy when I could drop into shallow voids to avoid people, or hear certain people's thoughts. The shape shifter I had copied was probably my favourite though. I could only keep 2 full transformations in my arsenal but it was more than enough for me. I couldn't copy the dragon parts of the slayers, but I got the elemental magic they held. Iron, lightning, poison and lunar. I couldn't do a quarter of what they could, but the healing and poison immunity have been very helpful when it comes to work at the shop. I had had to hire another person to help me run the store while I trained, but he was doing an amazing job of keeping things running smoothly and would call me whenever he didn't know something.
"Ashhher come play with meeee" a whining voice sounded from behind me
"No Bix, I have to go to my shop and check in with Nathan, and I have training with Vander later. Maybe after that, if its not tag again" I grinned at him and patted his cheek.
My voice coming back had been a huge turning point in my life. I had gone from totally detesting magic to sort of grudgingly accepting it. I would hop on the chance to lock it back up though, absolutely. I had spent a lot of time with the Pradesh family and all of the people they had in their weird little clan. It was a solid family group and it made me miss my dad.
I smiled to myself and skipped to the gate outside of the guild. I had fibbed to Bix though, I didn't need to check on Nathan, I knew he was doing well. I slipped into a shadow and raced to meet with Vander at the cafe he recommended earlier last month when we met last.
"About time you got here, you're almost late." I deadpanned at him and dropped into the chair on the opposite side of the table.
"Did you find him, is he still there?"
"yeah, but he works at the gladiator pits now, which is going to be a awful place to sneak into Red." I nodded and handed him the envelope of jewels and he slid me the folder that I had requested.
"What are you going to do, you know I'll get my ass kicked if you get hurt"
"I'm going to go have a conversation with my father" I gave him a wicked grin before sinking back into the shadows and slipping back to my apartment. I had plans to finalize.
