Chapter 7: Thoughts

Gale was reading on the couch when he heard a car door slam, instantly calling his attention to the door. Mandie had left to take Alice home almost thirty minutes ago, during which he, Chase, and Jackson had moved all the furniture in the conference room back to where it belonged and had begun their daily chores.

Thankfully, being a Tuesday, Gale’s only actual chore today was training with Mandie. Since she wasn’t here though, he had decided to study instead of help the others. Which the cousins had obviously been upset about, but couldn’t say anything because they couldn’t tell him to not study. But, now that she was probably back, it would be time for him to get to work.

Just to make sure, he built up some energy and sent out a small burst to cover the parking lot. It traveled smoothly over the area, passing by the cars without interference. Then it stopped. The energy shifted, condensed, and shot directly back at him.

With a quick flick of his wrists he easily dispelled the weak attack. There was only one person that could’ve done that, though the return did lack its usual punch he just figured it was the result of her lingering cold. Gale sat up, quickly memorizing the page he was on before he closed the text. If it was one of his own copies he would’ve just dog-eared the corner, but doing that to one of Mandie’s books was suicide.

“Mandie’s home,” he called to the others.

“That’s nice,” Chase said causally from the table that he was supposed to be dusting but was actually just standing at thinking.

Jackson walked in from the kitchen, “Already? That was faster than I expected.”

“Alice probably just live really close,” Gale said, remembering that she chose to walk instead of drive or get a ride.

The front door opened. Mandie walked in and threw her car keys on the small table next to the door. She looked at them for a second, then closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Thoughts on Nia?”

“She freaks me out,” Chase said, abandoning all of his intentions to clean the table and choosing to sit in the chair closest to him.

Jackson followed his cousin’s lead, “Something about her just feels very… off. It’s like something is wrong, but I don’t exactly know what.” He paused, trying to formulate his thoughts as he sat in his prefered seat, “She’s definitely different, I’ll give her that.”

Gale didn’t move. He just sat on the couch quietly, hoping that Mandie wouldn’t call on him specifically. He knew what was coming no matter he said about the asian girl, he’d let his guard down and she had grabbed hold of his anxiety and ran with it. It was only thanks to Alice that the girl didn’t make a complete fool out of him, and it was only time till Mandie reprimanded him for it.

Her eyes slid on him like daggers from where she was leaning against the door frame. “And you?” she asked, “What are your thoughts on Nia?”

He gulped and put on a fake smile, “Well, she’s certainly more spirited than other Summoning Spirits I’ve met. She’s got an overpowering personality, and doesn’t shy away from it, which makes it almost impossible not to notice her. Yet, somehow, spiritually she’s almost impossible to pick up.” He was rambling and he knew it, but he just didn’t know how to describe the girl.

It was odd, something like this had never happened to him before, he’d always been quite adept as understanding spirits. But now, he was at a complete loss. If he hadn’t known any better he would’ve said that she was purposefully amping up her personality while trying to hid her powers, but she could only’ve done that if she was a Curse Spirit.

“What about when you did pick up her power? What did you feel?” Mandie prompted.

He really thought about his answer. Chase and Jackson had basically agreed that something about her felt wrong, but Gale felt different. He felt confused. Completely and utterly confused. Any time he managed to focus on her he felt malice, honesty, deception, and compassion resonating together inside her soul before they slipped through his fingers only a few seconds after. It was impossible. Summoning Spirits just don’t express multiple emotions, much less contradicting ones.

He was just-

Mandie laughed, “You look just as confused as I feel.”

That was concerning. He didn’t know what his face looked like, though perplexed was probably a safe bet. But that didn’t matter, what concerned him was the fact that Mandie was agreeing with him. Mandie of all people! Sure she was currently under the weather, but that only affects her casting abilities, she should’ve had no problem reading Nia.

“Well,” he smirked, “Just take solace in the fact that I probably feel much more confused than you do.”

Her eyebrows raised and she instinctively shook her head, “Oh, I really doubt that. You’ve got to keep in mind that we probably all sensed the same things for the same amount of time. Plus I was talking with Alice too, which is pretty distracting when you’re discussing magic.”

It wasn’t that distracting, but Gale guessed it was distracting enough when the power source was constantly appearing and disappearing.

Mandie was speaking again, “Jackson, tell me what you specifically felt.”

“Her energy was… strange, to say the least. It was drenched with emotions, but it gracefully shifted between the different planes with little to no effort on her part,” Jackson confirmed for Mandie.

“And what’s so different about that?” She prompted again. She really was trying her hardest not to give us any information yet. What exactly was she trying to get at.

“Well, it’s hard to constantly shift energy in the first place. I doubt even you could maintain a pattern like that at full power,” he said to the exorcist. “On top of that, you need to consider that she’s being weighed down by her emotions, which are an anomaly all in themselves, but there should be no way she can seamlessly move her energy into different planes without intense concentration. It’s also strange that she seems to push her powers away from her.”

“What do you mean?” Gale asked. He hadn’t thought she’d been pushing them away, it was more like she was keeping them active. Ready to use at any moment.

“Most spirits focus their powers around themselves as an extra layer of defence. It’s what gives them their glow and decreases the effectiveness of physical attacks. After all, you can’t hit something that doesn’t have a physical form on your plane of existence,” He answered in his usual monotone growl.

“Well yes, I know that. It’s why we use magic after all,” Gale moaned. He’d been looking for a simple answer, not a lecture.

“Nia pushed her energy away. She effectively abandoned all of her defence in a room full of spiritualists-”

“You have a good point,” Gale interrupted before Jackson got into another one of his tangents. “But that’s only if you look at it like she abandoned her defence for nothing.”

“What would she gain from it?” Mandie asked.

“Attack obviously.” The way Mandie looked at him prompted him forward. “Think of it this way. If she had wanted to cast a spell would any of us have caught it? No, we wouldn't have,” he clarified before anyone else could respond. “She kept her energy away from her so we wouldn’t see her as a threat, but if you look at the way it shifted you see that it was constantly ready for an attack and it would be impossible for us to see what spell she was using because we couldn’t sense it half the time.”

Chase raised his hand, unnecessary, but Mandie signaled that he could talk with a nod of her head. “Are we sure she isn’t a Cursed Spirit?”

Gale had been wondering about this as well. Sure he had looked at the girls energy the moment he could see her, and it was as golden as the morning sun. So really, there was no way she could be. But Gale had meet a Cursed Spirit before, and he’d had the same sort of feelings around them too. The knot in his stomach, the anxiety in the back of his mind, and the cold on his skin. It was all the same, though he did have to admit, it wasn’t as strong a feeling with Nia.

Mandie sighed and rubbed her eyes, then chose to sit down at the head of the table closest to the door. “She’s not a Cursed Spirit, no. Though I can see how you came to that conclusion.”

“Then what is she?” Chase asked.

Mandie sat in silence for a few moments, almost like she was fighting with herself whether to tell the group or not. “She’s a poltergeist.”

Before the words were even out of her mouth Gale had rocketed from his seat at the couch over to the table, “That’s impossible!” Gale, Chase, and Jackson exclaimed.

“I have evidence,” she mused.

“I don’t believe you,” Gale stated. It was a bold move, but Mandie normally appreciated it when he challenged her opinions. Though Gale had a feeling it was more about proving him wrong then her actually being right.

“Remember when Alice’s birthday is?”

“Yeah, it’s today,” Gale was honestly surprised he had remembered that.

“No it isn’t, it was last night.”

“She said it was on the eighteenth,” Chase agreed.

“Exactly right,” Mandie smiled. Just what was she getting at? “But it was last night.”

Suddenly it hit Gale. How had he not seen it before? Well, to be fair, he hadn’t really thought about it before. Why would he? He had no reason to. But now that Mandie had called his attention to it it was so obvious!

Chase spoke before Gale could, “She was born at midnight, wasn’t she.”

“Midnight between December seventeenth and eighteenth,” Mandie smiled. “And if you recall she summoned Nia pretty much at exactly midnight.”

Of course Jackson and Chase wouldn’t remember, they had been unconscious. But Gale remembered, he’d seen it happen. He’d felt the pull of energy , he’d seen the chain form, and then stop. He’d seen the burst of power that was slowly convincing him that Mandie might not be too far off the mark. He just hadn’t put it all together until now.

She’d been summoned at the moment Alice turned eighteen. So the contract had to’ve been terminated, but there was no way she could’ve been standing in front of them an hour ago if that had been the case.

“The burst of power Gale and I saw, which you guys saw the aftereffects of, is eerily similar to the energy release from a terminated Summoner Contract. Mix that with Alice’s birthday and Nia’s emotions and oppressive personality and you get the perfect recipe for a poltergeist.”

“So that’s why you basically used an enslavement spell to bind her to Alice,” Chase stated.

“Basically?” Mandie questioned, “There was no ‘basically’ about that. It was a full blown oppression spell, power restrictions and all.”

“Regardless,” Chase continued, “You used it so you could contain her if she ever lost control, even though you knew what type of strain that would place on their relationship.”

“It should hardly affect their relationship,” Mandie insisted. “Alice doesn’t know it’s there and Nia has a strong enough personality she’s not going to let herself be badgered around by it.”

“But what if Nia finds out what the spell is?” Gale asked. Even though she would’ve been in a binding contract anyway he couldn’t even imagine how she would react if she ever found out she was under Alice’s complete control.

“I can assure that she won’t find out what it means,” Mandie smiled.

How could she be so confident about this? For being ‘not a Curse Spirit’ she’d already shown plenty of knowledge about spiritualists. She’d known Mandie was sick, she’d accurately guess all their ranks, she’d even been able to classify them! There was no way she wouldn’t eventually figure it out.

“How do you know?” Chase asked. “She’s already done a pretty bang up job figuring out everything else about us even though she apparently doesn’t have an exorcist background.”

Great minds think alike.

“She won’t figure it out because she already knows what it means.”

Gale’s jaw dropped, “That’s worse.”

“Oh yes, it’s much worse. But, it also means that she’ll be on her best behavior. And it gives me an idea… But I feel like we’ve gotten off topic,” Mandie, the queen of getting off topic, was trying to get them to focus, so this had to be important.

“Are all of you sure that she didn’t have any black haze hanging around her?” She asked.

Gale had checked, of course he had after hearing that she’d gotten defensive about it, but he’d come up empty. They all shook their heads, none of them had seen anything.

But that was impossible. Or, at least very unlikely unless Nia was the luckiest person around, or well, ghost. There was no way she could’ve known everything she had unless she’d been an exorcist when she was alive. But the evidence didn’t support it, and Gale didn’t feel like thinking about something that confusing, so he had ignored it. Of course Mandie hadn’t, she’d probably even go visit the society just to make sure Nia wasn’t some all powerful spiritualist from way back when.

“Should we contact the Society? They’d probably have some ideas about what’s up with her.” Chase mentioned.

“Calling them in would just get Alice wrapped up in the system, besides, I’d rather deal with this on my own for now. I’m sure none of us would be fans of a bunch of exorcists sniffing around and getting into things they shouldn’t,” if anyone knew what the Society would do if they were called in it was Mandie. “Hey, quick side question,” she turned to Chase and Jackson, “Were you two at resting levels when Nia read your classes?”

“Oh, yeah!” Chase responded, “How the hell did she coldcall us like that?”

“I’m not sure,” Mandie bit tentatively on her bottom lip. “There’s a small chance that she knows what the resting levels are for each class and she pegged you two that way. But what’s really scary is that she guessed my rank.”

“She guessed your rank?” Chase asked.

“She called me a First, I’m just trying to figure out how she knew…”

“Why wouldn’t she know? She got the rest of us,” Gale pointed out. He understood that coldcalling was hard to do, but with plenty of practice people could easily read other exorcists experience levels. A spirit should easily be able to look at how much spiritual skill someone has, though they definitely shouldn’t be able to guess exact ranks.

“Currently my powers are only at half strength, which means that she guessed my rank by reading my skill set, not my power level,” Mandie explained.

“I’m still not sure what you’re getting at. Skill reading is a learnable skill, so why would it be ‘scary’ that Nia managed to do it?” Gale questioned.

“Skill reading is something that a spiritualist can learn to do, and I can see where you’re coming from with Nia being a spirit and all.” Mandie conceded, “But a skill that like that has to be refined before death, and it can take decades to master.”

Gale was finally starting to connect the dots, “But, if Nia is truly sixteen...”

Jackson continued the thought “It means she either randomly guessed Mandie’s class level or her powers really are at the same level as a poltergeists.”

Chase nodded, “So,” he turned to Mandie, “Apart from not contacting the society, how are we gonna handle this?”

Mandie stood and sighed, “For now we’ll do what we always do: observe and make conclusions. With Alice working with us it’ll be a lot easier to keep an eye on Nia. I’m sure she knows she’s being watched, which will minimize the danger. But I am planning to fly up and do some research tomorrow.”

Even though Gale had called it he was still shocked. Mandie hadn’t been back to the Society since they had gone over her head two years ago. She’d been pretty livid with them since then, she’d even threatened to leave the Society and start freelancing like Chase and Jackson. Though her Commander had somehow convinced her to stay, Gale was still trying to figure that one out.

“What to come?” Mandie directly asked Gale.

“Not really,” He laughed.  Not a bit. Not even if someone paid him. He was hoping to make it through the rest of his life without ever stepping foot there again. He knew it wouldn’t happen, but he could dream.

Mandie nodded, “Right well, we should probably talk about Alice, shouldn’t we?”

“A complete novice,” Chase was again the first to speak, “But not lacking talent,” he hastily added.

“Yeah, Alice definitely has great potential,” Jackson agreed, “It’s hard to imagine that she doesn’t come from a line of exorcists.”

“What?” Mandie asked.

“Well, she and Nia resonate almost perfectly, which is something I’ve never seen in a novice Summoner,” Jackson responded, “Especially considering Nia-”

“If I didn’t know that that was Alice’s first summoning, I probably would’ve pegged her as an expert,” Chase interrupted.

“Same with me, but like I was saying,” Jackson continued, “A resonance like the one between Nia and Alice isn’t something I’d expect from a new bloodline. The only other pair that I’ve seen immediately sync that well was the Commander and his spirit blade, and he comes from one of the longest family lines to date.”

“Kauzic’s blade technically isn’t a spirit,” Mandie countered.

“But it is a cursed weapon. And only people with a long history of powers can resonate with cursed weapons. Much less resonate with them completely,” Chase argued, “Com’on Mandie, even with your family line you can’t resonate with a weapon like his. That just shows how amazing the Commander is.”

“But you also have to keep in mind that it’s not impossible for people with amazing abilities to come from unknown families,” Gale countered, “I mean, look at the Statson’s. They came out of nowhere.”

Mandie groaned, “You’re not obsessed with them too, are you?”

“I’m not obsessed,” Gale responded a little too quickly. “I just think they’re a valid family to bring up if we’re talking about powers in relation to bloodline.”

Mandie was unfazed.

“He’s got a point.” Chace added helpfully. “Their family line only goes back two generations but they’re one of the strongest families affiliated with the society.”

“That’s true, but there’s only two of them so far. Chances are that their bloodline won’t continue for another seven generations… I feel like we’ve gotten off topic again.”

“Just a little,” Chase laughed.

“Awesome. So basically we’ve agreed that Nia’s scary, Alice is talented, and we need more information on both of them?” Mandie confirmed.

Gale thought it over. Sure Nia was scary, but Alice really was talented. If anyone could keep an overbearing, impossibly strong spirit under control is would be her. She certainly had a soft spoken, dominant, aptitude going for her. But she was completely untrained.

“I guess since you’re going to help Alice with her powers, yeah, I agree,” Gale confirmed.

“That’s the best way to look at it, so I’m on board,” Chase agreed.

“I agree that we need to look further into Nia, but, as a Supporter, I’m not all that interested in Alice,” Jackson added.

“Awesome,” Mandie looked at her wristwatch, “Now, since it’s only nine-ish, who wants to go to brunch before we get back to work?”

“Me!” Everyone responded at once.

Mandie hadn’t offered to take everyone out to breakfast in months. Actually, Gale realized, Mandie had never offered to take them out for breakfast. Someone else had always suggested it, she had only ever agreed. Why was she doing this now? What was she trying to cover up by ending the conversation?

“Alright, you guys head out to the car. I’ll meet you out there after I make a quick call,” Mandie said. She didn’t appear to be hiding anything, she seemed perfectly normal.

“Common, Gale, let’s go,” Chase said, holding open the front door as Jackson walked outside. Gale grabbed his jacket and rushed over to the door, he could hear Mandie dialing the phone.

Who was she calling? What didn’t she want us to know?

As the door closed behind him, Gale could hear the first few words out of Mandie’s mouth.

“Hey, Bea. You an-” the door slammed shut.

Bea? Gale had never heard that name before. Just who was she calling?

What are you up to Mandie?

Author's Note

New Edit: Here there be changes

As always, any review is greatly excepted. Also, I may change this to chapter 8 later, depending on how the next chapter goes.
If you have any comments on whether you want a chapter with Alice and Nia before this one, let me know and I'll change the order once I have the next chapter written.
Also, do you think this is too dialogue heavy or confusing?

Reviews

[Krizito]

Dialogue heavy? I think it's got a nice combination of dialogue and narrative. I particularly liked how you brought the family lines into this, gives us a lot to look forward to. Still going strong - and I'll have the next Nia chapter after this, not before..

[Zoë]

Thanks, its a chapter where most of the characters are talking rather than acting, so i was afraid it had to much talking and not enough doing. The family lines will definitely become more important as the story progresses, so i figured now would be a good time to start bring them in before they become too important.
Hopefully ill have chapter 8 up by the end of the week :)