12 Chilli (1/2)

Like before, the two walked through the magic themed club, this time without Ian trailing after them. All kinds of questions spinning through Mandy's mind, yet - since she would luckily be visiting a real magic library soon, she went with questions books wouldn't tell her. Of course, she waited till they were on an empty street before asking.

”That girl we passed,” she started. ”Does she have something against you?”

”What girl?” August asked, confused.

”The one who went into Grisham's cabinet after us. Tall, blonde, electric blue eyes,” Mandy said, surprised that August hadn't noticed?

August crossed his arms, frowning a bit. ”I have no idea,” he replied after thinking a while. ”Electric blue eyes... and since she is meeting Grisham directly, my guess would be Janis Tulorine, platinum grade witch. I don't remember even talking with her, though.”

Mandy felt relieved it wasn't another ex-girlfriend, but in that case, that dangerous look was... not good news?

”Maybe she has some beef on the Galord family,” August guessed shrugging. ”Half of the Galord family have gone down the paladin route, so that wouldn't be a wonder for a witch”

Mandy perked up. From the way August had talked about paladins, she had a hard time believing what he had just dropped. Was he bad mouthing his relatives?

August noticed her expression. ”That. My dad comes from a pretty huge and ancient family, but he kind of got disowned when he married mom. We didn't have much contact with them till recently.”

The previous conversation about Exorcists and Paladins having similarities resurfaced in Mandy's mind. So that wasn't August guessing at things, huh? Although, thinking on Janis - would someone recognize someone they haven't even met, it's not like surnames were tattooed on their forehead. Yet August had a twin. If you knew one, you could guess at the other.

”It's a shame he didn't change his surname, I know,” August said.

August shot off the mark. Mandy made a wry smile at the small complaint towards his surname, she didn't share the sentiment. It was a perfectly good sounding surname, contained a 'lord' in it too. She certainly wouldn't complain if she had a surname like that.

”Not that it would have helped,” August added, looking sideways.

”Why so?” Mandy asked. She had a feeling it had something to do with Sarah, but it was best to check.

”Ahaha, you'll see when we run into some people from the 'proper' part of the Galord family,” August said with a rather dead look in his eyes.

Mandy felt like she shouldn't ask more. So it wasn't Sarah. Well, seeing how August said 'when we run into', it was almost a set deal that they would run into some sometime.

”Right, what was that tea?” Mandy asked, remembering that she could drink it.

”Something that grows in Lunarian gardens,” August replied. ”Look up Lunaris in the library tomorrow.”

Tomorrow? Mandy's eyes widened, then a huge smile settled on Mandy's face. They would be going THAT soon? Great! Perfect!!

”There's something I need to look up as well,” August said before Mandy could offer a thank you. He seemed a bit embarrassed.

Mandy smiled. She was almost 90% sure it wasn't that. ”What do you plan to look up?” She asked, doing her best to seem neutral.

”... Just some things,” he replied, looking away, hinting that Mandy was right in her guess.

Mandy smiled more to herself. At times August could act really cute, getting embarrassed about doing favors to others. But a magic library - it could end most of her troubles!

”Anyhow,” August said, letting out a breath. ”In your place, I'd start with reading on Undead, especially ghosts, and move on to 'illustrated encyclopedia of common astrals', Solus and Terrea can wait.”

Mandy nodded. Well, learning about herself first was sound advice. She recalled the pancake bunny but figured she could ask about it in case she couldn't find it in the encyclopedia. The doll-like girl as well.

”Is there a drawback in being platinum rank?” She asked next, recalling August's defeated expression as he agreed to Grisham's offer. (And also anger towards Sarah for making the mission official)

”Guild can call upon you when a crisis hits,” August made a wry smile. ”And you can't bail out.”

Ah. doing heroic deeds didn't seem like August's thing. Wasn't August kind of weak too? ”Is that often?”

”No, but...” August's expression soured. ”Those are dangerous as hell.”

Mandy's expression showed worry.

”Not that I have a choice at this point,” August said, shrugging his shoulders. ”Guild has rules against snooping on platinums and even if it gets out that my astral body is...” August let out a breath, looking down. ”That thing. I won't be an exorcism target.”

Mandy pursed her lips. Knowing what happened last time when August spoke carelessly, she didn't dare to ask more on it even if there were no people around. It seemed like being an undead dryad was either as bad or worse than being a ghost. Grisham had seemed really excited to learn what August was... why was that, then? Mandy resolved to find out more tomorrow.

Just as Mandy made her resolve, the two went out on a crowded street and there were people around all the remaining way home. Mandy's mind wandered. She thought back on Grisham, the five worlds, how August had only mentioned Ahea, but not the other worlds.

As they returned home, Mandy asked: ”Are there exactly five dimensions?” Since August had mentioned only one but turned out he knew about more, she felt like checking this time.

”There are more,” August replied, as he took off his outdoor clothes.

Bingo! So her hunch had been spot on. Well, it's not like August or Grisham or anyone ever told that Ahea or the others were the ~only~ ones, but somehow Mandy felt like all of them had sworn some sort of evasion pact, where unless you asked, nothing would get told or even implied.

”And there are also partially formed ones,” August continued. ”The boundary, where the tentacle dog comes from, is one of those. There's another known partial one called the Scorch. Other than that - there have been people and creatures gone missing into those, but no one has come back to tell the tale, so - nothing is known about them. There are also no permanent gates or known formations to go to other places, entrances appear and disappear seemingly at random.” After telling that August went to brush his teeth.

Mandy picked up the pad to check the time - it wasn't nearly as late as the usual time for August to sleep, but he did look tired. Since they would be heading to the library the next day, Mandy choose to refrain from asking more today and went to buy some Harry books.

***

When Mandy was partway through the sixth book, the doorbell rang.

Rather than doing the usual zombie walk, though, August noped out of it and closed his ears, aiming to ignore it with force. His eyes were still closed, although his eyebrows had scrunched up a bit.

”I'll check,” Mandy said, floating over. Differently to August, she could just peek her head out of the door.

Yet as she the girl did, her eyes met Ian's. His eyes were red-ish like he hadn't slept at all and there was a troubled expression on his face. The glasses August had given were placed on his head, ready to be moved down if a need arose.

”Umm, August is still sleeping... would you like to come in for tea?” the ghost asked, figuring there was a reason he came like this.

”Sorry,” Ian said, removing his hand from the doorbell. Something popped out from the inner lining of his jacket, looking at Mandy with curiosity - a bright red fuzzball a lot like the one Ian had stepped on in the guild room, except this one was, yep, bright red and with smaller ears than that one.

Mandy floated her head back in and opened the door.

Ian stepped in, whispering. ”You wouldn't know what this is?” he glanced down at the fuzzball.

Mandy shook her head. ”I'm as clueless as you are,” she replied in a whisper.

”I'm Chilli!” A bright voice came from the bunny.

Ian grabbed at the fuzzball to hush it, but stopped part-way spotting August. August was disheveled, wearing a very oversized shirt and pajama shorts. His bedhead formed two cat ears on his head. Ian's cheeks turned red-ish and he looked away.

Eh? Mandy noticed that reaction. She glanced at August, it wouldn't be the cat ear bed-head, would it? Hm, Hmm... No, well, August did have that androgynous appeal and since he started getting enough sleep and ate normally, he was on the track to look more like Sarah, not a zombie, and Sarah was a beauty by all means and purposes.

Mandy's inner narrator pulled out a pen starting to delusionally make-up the scene of Ian awakening to the glory of boys love. (Of course, in her mind it was 'I only like you because you are you and that has nothing to do with gender'.)

August yawned, then looked at Ian unamused as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. ”Don't tell me you came because a dustbun freaked you out?”

So it's called a Dustbun. Mandy observed the creature, getting distracted from the forbidden romance narration - it looked more like a plushie than an animal, more like a hamster than a bunny. Very fuzzy... Mandy wanted to poke it, but she had no idea if her hand would pass through or if that was safe.

”... it's not only one. My ceiling is squirming in them,” Ian said, his face paling. ”And there's this cat eared water thing in my aquarium that ate one of them...” Ian looked like he had seen a ghost.

”Witten, huh...” August tilted his head, his shirt sliding without care to reveal more of his collarbone.

This time even Mandy felt a bit flustered. How the hell was August exuding random sex-appeal like that? If Ian didn't react to it (and he was male! Delicious detail for her inner narrator - but consciously Mandy knew that most men didn't find other men even the tiniest bit attractive), Mandy would have started to question the universe at this point. And why hadn't she noticed before, she was living with August. Right... August was very quick about dressing up each morning, showing this much skin was not his usual style.

”What's in its stomach?” August asked, but he did cast a fishy look at the two of them, sensing that something was off.

”That! Right. My ring. It ate my ring! I couldn't find it at all, but it had it,” Ian said, his eyes elsewhere again.

August rubbed his temple, looking annoyed. ”It didn't eat the ring, it got born because you dropped that precious ring in the aquarium and forgot it there.”

Ian looked shocked and fell silent, thinking on it.

”Hungry! Gimme chili!” The red fuzzball jumped off of Ian, starting to float downwards.

Ian caught the fuzzball by reflex, like a person used to escaping animals would.

”Does it eat chili?” Mandy asked August, like Ian avoiding to look at him. She didn't mind feeding the creature if that was the case.

”It says so,” August shrugged, turning around. ”So annoying...” he mumbled to himself and went back in the room to find some clothes to wear.

Mandy floated to the kitchen to find some chili, while Ian stood in the corridor, still thinking. ”So that's when,” Ian finally recalled how that happened.

Ian placed the fuzzball on his shoulder and took off his shoes before heading in. Different from the first time when he came as a policeman, the room looked clean and lived in. ”How do I get my ring back?” Ian asked.

”Murder witten, take the ring,” August replied and headed in the bathroom with a small pile of clothes on his arm.

The wording made Ian silent.

Mandy meanwhile returned and held a dried chili out to the dustbun. ”Thank you!” the bunny said with cheer and bit on the chili, starting to slowly munch it down.

It really eats it! Mandy smiled. ”Tea, coffee?” Mandy offered to Ian.

”... ah, thank you, coffee with milk would be nice,” he said. ”If there's no milk, then tea would be better.”

Bad with bitter things, huh? An adorable trait for a muscular policeman. ”Feel free to take a seat,” Mandy pointed at one of the chairs by the table and Ian took her up on the offer.

Meanwhile, Mandy used telekinesis to fill up a pot with water. Might as well have breakfast... ”Ian have you had breakfast already?” She asked. As she turned back, she saw Ian zoning out looking at the floating utensils.

”Ah, no,” Ian replied.

Mandy had guessed as much. Ian looked like he had been frantic to come here. As she opened the fridge to figure out what she could make, she asked. ”Why didn't you go to the guild?”

”Ah--” Ian made a questioning expression at himself. ”I didn't think of that,” he honestly admitted. ”And I live in the building across the street.”

Oh! Turned out they were almost neighbors then. Coming to the closest place when you were shaken up made sense as well. ”Any allergies?” Mandy asked.

”None,” Ian replied.

That made things easy. Mandy took out eggs, stuff for salad and bread and started using telekinesis to cut things up, she used her own hands to whisk the eggs, though.

Ian glanced over at the dusbun who was happily eating chili, then turned his eyes to watch the ghost work with wonder.