Chapter 60 - Little Voxea

Once more into abject darkness, once more out into blinding light. At some point, I had to give Voxea a rather stern talking-to about putting me through all these magical experiments. Call it foreshadowing,but I swear this is going to lead to unintended consequences. I didn't even hear that last bit from Voxea before ending up... wherever I was.

As my eyes adjusted to the new setting, I was greeted by a mirror and face that wasn't my own. Instead, I saw the image of a noble girl with high cheekbones and soft eyes that had a familiar glint to them. She appeared to be counting while brushing her hair with a silver hairbrush.

I tried moving my hand, but nothing happened. I appeared to have become an unwilling observer in the head of some noble girl.

The girl in the mirror just continued to brush her hair until she said aloud the number three hundred. She then nodded to herself and said, "Now you're ready to greet Grandpa, Voxea".

That simple sentence struck me like the lightning strike from my father's Shockatoo! I was not only inside the head of any girl, I was inside the head of a much smaller Voxea and was now seeing everything from her point of view.

Before I could mentally digest the idea, the sound of door opening happened behind me. Little Voxea turned her head away from the mirror to stare at the person who had opened the door. On a side note, it is very disorienting to have someone else turn your gaze without permission.

Standing in the door way was a pretty older woman in early twenties in a strange black and white dress. The woman made a curtsy motion before saying, "Miss Albathorn, Lady Albathorn sent me to inform you that Grandmaster Alabthorn will be arriving soon and that you are to join her in greeting him at the foyer".

"Very well. Thank you Camille, I will be downstairs shortly", Little Voxea said in a prim and proper tone. It sounded a bit odd having known the more wild Voxea for much longer. The servant girl did another curtsy before leaving the room and closing the door behind her.

I began to wonder why I was in this memory if I was being taught spellcraft, but as soon as the servant left, Little Voxea turned away from the door, muttered what I recognized as a spell under her breath and threw a dagger made of ice at a spot above her mirror. Evidently, that might be why I'm inside this specific memory.

Before the ice dagger hit, a glowing rune appeared at the spot and absorbed it. The rune then change color and a beautiful tapestry appeared and covered the mirror. Upon closer inspection, the tapestry was actually a large map of a house, presumably Voxea's house.

Little Voxea stared at the map and began muttering under her breath again and doing this hand movement that I recognized as merchant finger calculation. After a few minutes of this, she suddenly stopped and placed a finger onto the map.

Her finger was placed at a square which I assumed to be her room. She then began to trace a route, or what I assume was a route, from her room to what I assumed was the foyer, whatever a foyer was. Little Voxea did this a couple of times, tracing a different route each time, until she nodded in affirmation after the thirteenth time or so.

Little Voxea turned away from the map and stared directly at her feet, which were covered by a cute set of black shoes. She proceeded to click her heels together and that little motion caused the aether to stir once more.

I could feel that the surrounding aether and her internal aether were moving to her feet. Aether began to condense around her feet, forming a rainbow colored cocoon around them. The cocoon then burst, revealing a pair of beautifully patterned ice skates made of ice. Unusually, the floor beneath the skates became covered in ice.

Little Voxea initially stumbled a little after casting this unusual spell, but quickly steadied herself. My point of view suddenly lowered as Voxea crouched downwards into a position I recognized as a racing pose towards the door...I have a very bad feeling about this.

"Estimated time of Grandpa's arrival is fifteen minutes. Estimated time of Gustav being done making the cream puffs, four minutes. Time it would take to walk from here to the kitchen and then the foyer: twenty minutes. Total time if I use the ice blades: just enough", Little Voxea said aloud to herself. Oh no...

"Leaving in three".

She is aware the door's closed right?

"Two".

Why do I feel even more aether gathering in her feet?

"One".

If only I could brace myself...

"Go".

And with that proclamation, she launched herself at the door!