Chapter 35- Lessons!
Scribble, scribble. Shift paper, scribble.
"What are you up to, Vessel?"
Nicole looked up from her writing. The paper scroll in front of her was half covered in hieroglyphs, the reed 'pen' in her hand damp with ink. Nessert was floating over her shoulder, the doll-body sitting lifeless in the corner.
"I'm trying to figure out how to set up a temporary Sleeper Barrier. With Ryou and Bakura around I don't want a repeat of the Punisher."
Nessert nodded, spirit and reincarnation shuddering. It had been way too close a call.
There was a tap on the door at the top of the stairs.
"Hey! What's up?"
Nessert floated back, reentering the doll body as Nicole smiled.
"Come on down and see for yourself."
Ryou made his way down the stairs carefully. Perched on his shoulder, trying not to look curious, was Bakura.
"I'm working on a barrier spell to use during your first few training sessions. Sometimes, when a magician is inexperienced, demons and other dark spirits will try to… possess them, or cause other harm while their spirit is somewhat vulnerable."
Nessert nodded while Bakura looked startled.
"THIS IS DANGEROUS TO YADONUSHI? And you call yourselves his friends…"
Nessert blinked.
"I never said anything about frie-"
"Everything about what we do is dangerous! That's what the training is for!"
Bakura thought this over.
"That makes sense, I guess. What will Yadonushi be learning, to start?"
"Well."
Nicole thought this over. What had been HER first spell?
"I thought we'd start with some of the pure-mental spells. They're somewhat easier than written or spoken magick."
Nessert looked interested.
"Are you gonna teach him shape-shifting?"
Nicole nodded and Nessert did a little pout.
"Don't we have enough mangy animals around here?"
"Yeah, but I'm not getting rid of you any time soon."
"Hey!"
Bakura mentally cheered. What better ability of a thief than to become anything? Ryou, however, had a more innocent reason to be cheerful.
"You mean I can become an animal! Sugai! How does it work?"
"You let go of your 'humanity, which isn't becoming evil. You're, just, losing the human mindset and body."
"That's cool! But how do I choose what animal?"
Nessert laughed meanly until she was silenced by a glare from her host.
"You don't. People's personalities influence what they become, to start out with. Prefect that and you can become just about anything you want."
She looked back down at the scroll. The ink had dried, so she carefully rolled it up and tied it with a green thread.
"Come on, we can't do much here."
She started up the stairs, Nessert following her like a shadow. Ryou followed her.
"Where are we going?"
"Deeper into the woods! All you've seen is the deer path, now I'm taking you to the Rocks."
"Alright."
Bakura hoped they'd learn quickly. Sure, he already knew some Shadow Magic, but this was something the Pharaoh knew nothing about!
Sugai: Japanese for cool. I hope I'm spelling it right!