Chapter 3
Later that morning, I woke up on my own. I opened my curtains to find the sun blazing just over the trees. I put on a clean robe and wandered out of my room. In the foyer, I found Ailith, asleep on the sofa. I decided to leave her be. After a good deal of wandering, I found the kitchen. I realized I was famished and I had no servants to cook for me, so I decided to try my hand at making toast. I don't think I did it right. A few minutes later, I had several black pieces of bread and a kitchen full of smoke. It was only moments after that, Ailith showed up, bucket of water at the ready.
"What in blue blazes do you think you're doing!" I was mortified. I could feel the blood heating my cheeks and tinting them pink.
"I'm trying to make toast." Ailith was dumbstruck for a few seconds then she cracked. "STOP LAUGHING AT ME!" that quieted her down, a bit.
"I'm sorry Ciel, you're not the first person I've known who couldn't make toast. Here, I'll make breakfast. Just watch and learn." She grabbed four eggs, some milk, some fresh bread, and some butter. I watched as she melted a bit of butter into a pan. She cracked all the eggs into a bowl, added a bit of milk and salt from the cabinet, then whisked it together. She poured it into the hot skillet and pulled out a spoon and a second pan. She threw the bread I had made out the window and grabbed two fresh slices. She put them in the pan, then the oven. Turning to the eggs, she stirred them occasionally. A couple of minutes later she pulled the bread out of the oven, flipped it over, and put it back in the oven. She returned to stirring the eggs. "Grab two plates, cups, and sets of silverware." As I did that, she took the toast from the oven, the eggs off the burner, and a kettle on. It was only a few more minutes before we were seated at the table with two plates of eggs and toast, assorted jams and jellies, some butter, and chamomile tea. "Enjoy, Ciel." I took the first bite.
"This is at least as good as Sebastian's, if not better."
"Thank you. Before long, you'll know how to do it yourself" I sighed.
"I'm pathetic. I don't know how to survive without Sebastian."
"That's not pathetic, that's normal for a nobleman. Besides, you'll learn. You'll be making gourmet cuisine in no time." She was too kind.
"Why are you so kind to me. I've not seen anyone else here. But you're here trying to teach me."
"Hmm, I have my reasons."
"What could you want from me. I don't think I actually have anything." She seems shocked.
"Nothing Ciel, I don't need anything, I guess I just want to have some company for a while. Most other shadows aren't very nice. They're still bitter, about everything apparently."
"I want to offer you something, if you're going to be around helping me. It's only fair."
"Look, just letting me stay here is enough. It's nice here, and we could have fun together. Then we could both be happy."
"Ok, that seems… fair. By the way, where does the food come from."
"Where else, memories. If you want to try something new, you'd have to remember ingredients. Otherwise, you could remember entire meals if you want. I just like to cook."
"Wow, guess I should have seen that coming. Memories are life. Memories are real." This made her laugh. Our food was gone. She got up and grabbed the plates. I brought the tea cups and silverware. We placed them in the sink. Then Ailith started clearing away ingredients. Before long, we were back in the foyer.
"So, how old are you, like, uh…"
"Fifteen."
"Oh, just two years older than me then. I guess we don't age here."
"You can opt to, but you can't go from thirteen to twenty in three minutes, you would age like normal, day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year. Just as if this were the physical realm.
"Oh, and you opted not to?"
"For now."
"So how does this work. You said time doesn't pass here."
"That was just the easiest way to put it. Ok, time here is not synced up with life in the physical realm. Moments there could be years here. Years here could be nothing there. Same goes for the spirit realm. But, the ring returns you to the point in time that you left off at, until you get practiced enough to change this. Once you learn to control where in time you land, you can land anywhere, past, present, or future. Let me tell you, watching yourself as a shadow is the weirdest feeling ever. Sometimes, you remember feeling like you were being watched and finally understanding why. I also said it was boring here. Not always. You just have to learn to turn your memories into reality, but when you've been here as long as I have, your own memories become a little boring, and few shadows are willing to share theirs. Which reminds me, what do you want to do today."
"I want to go see Elizabeth."
"I… advise against it."
"Why."
"Spend to much time in the physical realm, and you start to fade. You've got to learn to moderate your time outside the shadow realm. And choose wisely were to go when you do leave. Each time, you can bring back new memories to add to your home here, new things to do, but you can't bring memories of other souls. It doesn't work that way."
"Oh, when can I go back to see her?"
"It should be safe tomorrow, for just a little bit. The bigger gaps between visits, the longer you can spend actually visiting."
"Okay, so if I stay here for a week…"
"You could probably, safely, spend an hour in another realm."
"Oh, okay, so, we can wait a week, then you can really start teaching me to travel. Deal?"
"Alright, until then?"
The next week passed surprisingly quick. I got Ailith to show me what she used to do for fun. The first was Thursday. Ailith told me by checking a special wrist clock (a future device called a watch) always synced to the time in the shadow realm, even in other realms. That day, she took me to her memories. Instead of flying over them, we walked through the woods a good hour to reach a shallow stream. One side was a wall of rock that dropped into the deepest part of the stream. She finally gave me some underwear, then pushed me in, fully robed. She taught me to sit really still in the shallows until the little fish came up to us. Then try to grab them before darting away. She pulled out a bucket and filled it with water. We put our fish in there and she said we could go fishing later. At noon we sat in the sun, drying off and eating a simple picnic of cold cut sandwiches and cold milk. It started raining after lunch so we released our fish and went back home.
It rained all day Friday, so we stayed inside playing board games. I won the first game of chess, by breaking the rules. After that, even without rules, I lost, a lot. Saturday was clear, so Ailith introduced me to her sword. Her 'Blade of the Sun and the Stars'. The blade was silver and gold, swirling around, but not mixing. The hilt was red clothed and topped with a ruby eyed, diamond fanged, silver howling wolf head. She said she had forged that blade in her first life and has managed to keep it for every life since. We mock dueled the whole day. I got better as the day progressed until I beat her just as the sun set.
Sunday morning was a very serious lesson on her religion. She answered any questions I had about it so after lunch I decided to test her, see how far she'd go. I asked her several random questions that made no sense until we were both laughing to the point of tears. 'Do the brothers ever get into food fights?' I asked as seriously as I could. Ailith was better at keeping a straight face. 'Oh yes. They once got in a very serious crème pie war that lasted three years. It was paradise against punishment with the physical realm as their battle field. They took thousands of innocent lives but the final battle ended in each brother throwing their last pie. Each hit its target dead on and a truce was called. It took seven years to dig France out of the crème.' I was almost convinced that this had really happened when she broke and laughed herself to tears. Monday we made our own pies and reenacted the war, only this time I won, 1 hit to none. 1 hilarious hit straight in the face. Tuesday it rained again, which was beneficial until neighbor shadows came to complain about the pie crusts and crème in their memories. We just laughed and waved them away. Wednesday was a lesson and practice session controlling the rings. She taught me how to theoretically end up where I wanted. Then it was Thursday.
I woke up first. Ailith still slept on the sofa in the foyer. I reminded myself that I needed to get her her own room set up. I had been learning all week, so I snuck into the kitchen and managed to make the toast, eggs, and tea on my own before she woke up.
"Well done Ciel, I'm impressed."
"I decided to test myself."
"Well, today will be full of tests."
"What do you mean."
"I'm going to leave you in charge of directing us while we travel. I won't interfere. If you can manage it on your own, you can start traveling on your own. And you get a watch of your own so you can see how much time is passing here while in the physical realm." She beamed at me.
"Wonderful. I'm ready when you are."
"Eat first, its hard to concentrate on an empty stomach." Ailith watched the time and we left at 7:30. "You will have 1 hour of time in the physical realm no matter how much time is passing in the shadow realm."
"I know. We covered this yesterday." I was ready to head to the gates.
"Wait. Would you like to change?"
"What? Why?"
"No reason, just thought you might rather go in this." She pulled out my clothes. Ones from when I was alive. "The robes are informal wear and this is a special occasion."
"Thank you. This is wonderful." I changed quickly, leaving my white robe on my bed. I returned to the foyer. Ailith looked skeptical.
"What? Is something wrong?" I checked to make sure I had put on everything.
"I'm impressed. I was afraid that you might not know how to put it on by yourself." She was teasing me. I scowled and stalked out the door.
"Come on, let's go." She laughed. It was infectious. Before long I was smiling too. We walked to the gates and my old walking stick was still comfortable in my hand. We got to the gates in half an hour.
"Ready?" My answer was as confident as I was.
"Yes." She took my hand.
"Lead the way." I took us outside the gate. Closing my eyes to concentrate, I thought about Lizzy, willing us to land next to her present self. Ailith had said only picture the face. Anything extra could confuse the ring about what you wanted. I felt the ground fall away and I opened my eyes. The darkness became a garden and the ground came back to our feet. Lizzy was having a picnic lunch with her maid.
"I'll leave you for now. I will be back in one hour. I'll see if I can find any new memories to bring back. Well done Ciel, half the test passed." Ailith smiled, then disappeared. I approached the picnic and sat next to them. Lizzy was staring at nothing while her maid Paula pulled out the food.
"Do you think he's alright. Do you think he got hurt in the fire. He could have, you know. What if he was at home." I wondered who she was talking about.
"The servants all said he got back after the fire had burned out. I'm sure Ciel is fine. After all, he has Sebastian. Sebastian is a wonderful butler who would never let anything happen to Ciel." I felt my stomach flip. Lizzy was worried about me. I should have known. "Here mistress, eat. You'll feel better if you do."
"No thanks, I'm not hungry." I could hear her whisper, "Please Ciel, come back safe. Please don't be hurt."
"Please mistress, you need to eat."
"Yes Lizzy, please eat, for me." It was useless. She was oblivious to my presence.
"Maybe later. Just not now." Paula sighed
"Yes mistress." She packed the food back up.
"Please Lizzy, don't do this to yourself. Please eat and have fun. I'm fine. I'm happy. Please be happy." She just sat there, staring at the clouds. Paula took the picnic back to the manor. I stayed, watching the clouds with her. Time passed in a blur. Before I knew it Ailith was back. "I wish I could do something for her, tell her I'm okay so she can move on."
"Hmm, she can't here or see you, but he can see other things."
"What do you mean?"
"A sign. Of course she would realize it means you are dead, but it will allow her to move on and not cling to false hope."
"You can do that?"
"Yes, something simple, but obviously yours… Ooh! I know!" I watched as she placed her hands on the ground and closed her eyes to concentrate. I watched as the ground I front of Lizzy began to tremble. She looked down and watched, mesmerized, as something began to grow from nothing. It started out like a dead stick, then it turned green, grew leaves and thorns, and finally, midnight blue petals with a black center. Lizzy starting crying.
"Oh Ciel, I will miss you. So much. Thank you for telling me." Lizzy picked the rose just as Paula came back.
"Mistress, it is time to come in. Oh! Mistress what is wrong?"
"Nothing, its nothing. I'm okay. Look what I got."
"What a pretty rose! Oh, come mistress, we must get it some water before it wilts. I've never seen one like this." Lizzy followed Paula and they disappeared together over the hill.
"Come on Ciel. Time to go back." Ailith was standing, watching me. I realized I was crying again.
"Ok, yes let's go." Getting back was easy. The whole day had passed in the shadow realm. When we got back to the manor, Ailith pulled out a box hidden in the sofa.
"Here. You earned it." Inside was a watch, like hers, only midnight blue.
"I don't need it. I won't be traveling anymore."
"Well, keep it, so you can stop asking me what time it is." I sighed and put it on. I could feel myself crying again. Ailith came over and embraced me. She whispered in my ear, "It gets easier. It gets better."
