18 Apartmen (2/2)

Mandy could get about paladins, but ugly people? That was a peculiar type of discrimination. She gratefully took a cream puff and sat down on the moss overgrown sofa.

Tia also took a seat, taking a cream puff for herself. ”This feels like a picnic,” she said with a smile.

”Are other cursed forests like this?” Mandy asked, then bit into the cream puff. Her eyes sparkled over. Delicious~! Especially so after eating that wild apple.

Tia thought about it as she munched on her own puff, then replied: ”The innermost parts are kind of similar, but they have animals and astrals making them rowdy. Although there are differences between terrains based on the dryad living in it, so… hmm, this might be a very Gus-dryad space the way it is. He's not good with bugs in particular.”

Mandy could believe that. But speaking about cursed forests... ”Tia, can I ask you something possibly uncomfortable?” Mandy asked.

Tia's eyes narrowed in faint amusement. ”Sure, sure~” She said.

Erk. Was Tia the type who loved nasty gossip by some chance? People ought to be more wary of uncomfortable topics. Perhaps asking Tia was a bad idea. ”Uhm, how to not get babies in these places?”

”Oh,” all amusement faded. ”That's not even uncomfortable to ask. Any book on cursed forests would have that - to get babies you need to stay in the cursed zone for the whole time, if you phase shift even once it would fail even if you are on your eight month with a big belly what have you.”

Mandy let out a relieved breath. That was something good to know and it also meant that August was pulling her leg with that line. As long as she goes back to being a ghost often enough she would be under no risk whatsoever!

”Y'know, cursed forests have a bad rep because many undead use this property to kill their unborn children and suck up that lifeforce directly,” Tia added.

Mandy's smile cracked.

”There's this particularly nasty astral called the Devouring mother. If a ghost causes her own miscarriages over and over at sixth month or later, she would gain a lot of aether fast and advance into a monster you need at least gold class exorcists to deal with,” Tia made spooky hand gestures. ”A child eating monster, no less. They sneak into schools or orphanages and slowly charm all the kids, then have them offer their souls to her.”

Mandy paled. Ok. Point taken. Phase shift every day. ”Are undead generally like that?” She asked, although she had a feeling she knew the answer already.

”Ah, yup,” Tia nodded, then finished up her cream puff. ”You and mom are exceptions, not the norm.”

Mandy felt a resigned smile settle on her lips. ”Are undead dryads also…” How to word it? Evil? Dangerous? ”Bad?”

”No,” Tia replied. ”It's the other way around with them, the destructive ones are the exception, normally they are the same as any other dryad. In fact, I can't even tell the difference when meeting them. Undead ones mix in with regular ones and you can only tell when the fog appears or if the dryad casts a dark alignment spell. According to August there isn't even a separate name for undead dryads in spirit tongue, they are all called the same.”

Hmm. This almost gave her the feeling that even if that library was huge and even if seeing people had centuries to gather knowledge, there were a lot of blank spots in that knowledge. If dryads actually appeared freely, if they could talk to humans… wait. ”Can dryads talk to humans?”

”They talk in spirit tongue, if a human understands then - yeah, they can talk,” Tia said.

Oh. Mandy squinted. Those sounds August made - the sound of leaves ruffling, of water flowing - not only Mandy doubted a human could even make sounds like those, to even understand them… okay, yep, that might make things difficult.

”August taught human speech to Cerise, though, so there might be dryads like that too, who knows,” Tia added.

Mandy straightened out where she sat. Taught? She couldn't imagine August spending that much time on someone.

”Ah, yeah, doesn't sound like the current him,” Tia laughed a bit, but there was a trace of sadness in her voice. ”That August died after all.”

Lost memories... It was a harsh way to put it, but from the way Tia did word it Mandy could tell that August had lost so many memories that he no longer… ”Sorry.”

”It's fine, I mean, the only Gus I know is the current one My earliest memories are from after he got uh-- severe amnesia,” Tia said.

”How much does he remember?” Mandy asked.

”Now that's an uncomfortable question!” Tia said, but she laughed, then leaned in to talk more quietly. ”I have no idea, truth be told, but it's better if you don't ask Sarah or Mom about it. You won't get an answer, just a really painful smile.”

Mandy nodded at that.

”I lost all my memories,” August said with a sigh, appearing only as he took a scone from the pastry box. He had cleaned up and now wore a white dress shirt with dark pants, his now longer hair was brushed sideways giving him a bit of a cool yet casual barista feeling. (Which fit his personality even less than any other look he had had before)

Tia and Mandy both startled at the appearance, as August had literally popped up out of nowhere.

Eh-- what was happening? Mandy was too confused to say a thing. Could August teleport? Why did he teleport to deliver a shocking message, making her unable to pick which thing to ask about?! Sneaky!

”You are welcome,” August added sarcastically as he sat down by his still opened suitcase and bit into his scone.

”Uh, right-- the fog,” realization passed Tia's eyes. ”He heard everything we spoke about.”

Mandy pursed her lips. The fact that August had heard everything was less surprising compared to the teleportation part-- ”And he teleported…”

”Nope,” August said. ”I merely used fae paths to walk here from the bathroom.”

Tia nodded at that part. ”That part isn't surprising at all, I'm more surprised about being surprised--- no, right, it isn't normal to have a forest inside an apartment.” She cast a questioning look at August.

Mandy's eyes formed straight lines. So that's not even surprising… well, August had mentioned he had run from the dragon using fae paths. If that looked like this, then... Not a wonder he could escape. And from the talk with Grisham it seemed like other people also thought it was teleportation, yep, yep, who could blame them?

”I don't know how it happened either,” August replied to Tia's look. ”I hibernated for a week and woke up to this.” He ate up the scone and reached for another one in an uncharacteristic display of hunger for him.

”...A week, huh?” Tia slowly rolled her eyes. ”That's exactly how long Sarah has been missing.”

August's expression became completely neutral. ”What a coincidence,” he said.

Tia glanced at Mandy.

Mandy had to avenge the toaster! Tia must not know! ”A coincidence indeed,” she made an equally neutral expression to August's.

”Ugh - coincidence my ass!” Tia said. ”What the heck did you do to her, I can't track her down at all!”

August's expression became very done. ”I will return her in three months.”

Tia sighed. ”...What did she do?” She asked, calming down.

August made a sardonic smile. ”Nothing much, just sent Gerald We-- now Garold to spook me a little, y'know, pretend to be out for revenge about some paladins. Then he goes and recognizes me as an undead dryad by my smell and starts grinning like a madmad with his weapon activating. So I tried to kill him with all I had with my weak ass body, so...” He used his palm to point at the surroundings.

”Okay,” Tia had a dead look in her eyes. ”I will cancel her missions for the next three months.”

Urk. Mandy squinted in disbelief-- Sarah… why? Just why? Knowing August's history with paladins… That's beyond spooking, that's at the level of half-killing your sibling, or attempt at causing a heart attack.

”Thank you, that's very considerate,” August said, his fake smile fading as he took another scone.

”I'd really like to ask her how the heck did that happen, but-- okay, three months it is,” Tia nodded to herself. ”We can celebrate your birthdays after that.”

August sat up straighter, then tilted his head in thought. Then let out a long sigh. ”How stupid.”

”What is?” Mandy asked, August seemed to have realized something.

”With this timing, all that mess was probably to get me to go to the party location in some way or form. She pulled something a lot milder last year around this time,” August said.

Mandy's eyes and mouth resumed forming straight lines. Stupid indeed. To half-kill your brother to try to get him to go to a birthday party…

Tia's expression matched up Mandy's for a bit, but then she let out a breath and took another pastry. ”So-- you say you lost all your memories?” She switched back to the topic Mandy was also burning to know.

”Yes, the only thing I remembered was what I had written. I inferred pretty much everything from there. And before you make me into a tragic protagonist of sorts - I have no issue with that. In fact, that's the part I'm happy with.”

Oh, well, that was a bit anticlimactic. The tragic heroine needs to anguish about that part. Mandy pursed her lips, feeling silly for doing exactly what August said not to. But - ”Why would you be happy with that?” she had to ask.

August made a slightly despairing smile. ”The me from back then had a crush on Cerise. If you meet her, you'll know that it's a blessing to forget all that and lose those feelings.”

”Ah, yeah, Cerise is dumb like a brick,” Tia made an expression of full understanding. ”Do mom and Sarah know that?”

”They avoid the topic like the plague with that weirdly considerate smile,” August shivered, looking a bit creeped out.

Ah, an embarrassing first love, huh? Mandy made an understanding look, her own first love had also been-- well, yep, it's good that it ended before it could even begin. Who knows by what logic puppy love forms, but it sure disregards logic or even preferences you develop later on. But… hmm, perhaps August had been really happy together with Cerise and that's why Sarah and his mom made those expressions?

Not that Mandy could find that out, or perhaps she could ask his dad? Not that it mattered much since even August himself had no memory of it whatsoever. This seemed like a good chance to ask something else that was bugging her. ”If you are fine with that part, which part makes you refer to yourself as 'that thing'?” Tia had said that undead dryads were only considered to be threats, but were not that bad actually.

August squinted. ”This weak ass body, weird inhuman smell, the fact that I need to hide what I am, astrals clinging on me whenever I neglect presence manipulation and lookie here,” August took out a scalpel from his bag to cut off a strand of his hair. As his hair fell, it turned into cherry blossoms and the hair grew back almost instantly. ”Now I'm even stuck with this hair length.” He looked done.

”Hmm, I like your hair and scent, tho,” Mandy said with a small smile. Well, Sarah had also said August was weak and he had said he couldn't use healing potions or the like and considering August had multiple dustbuns in his body which prevented him from doing what he wanted, Mandy could infer that regeneration magic was also a no-go for him.

Needing to hide what you are might be the biggest bummer, though, recalling what Grisham had said it was pretty clear that August failed at it miserably and possibly without even realizing. Some other things August had said also implied that August did not realize a lot of these things himself, after all, if you were odd just by existing how could you have the same common sense as other people? Not to mention August had no memory whatsoever of the time when things like common sense formed.

The thing with astrals clinging on him was something Mandy didn't know about, though. Chilli had called August beautiful, perhaps astrals clung to him because they felt that way? Tia had also said dryads avoid ugly people, perhaps that was a thing? But-- the important question was - did astral beauty standards overlap with human ones? Perhaps it was something akin to the beauty of the soul kind of thing?

August returned to drawing runes on paper, but his ears were red and he looked both a tad happy and embarrassed about hearing what Mandy had said.

Mandy also averted her eyes for a bit, otherwise, she felt like she might be tempted, her eyes fell on Tia who had grown oddly silent.

Tia had an enlightened expression like an old sage watching fresh spring leaves. ”I'm happy for you,” she said, when Mandy's eyes met hers.

Mandy weakly punched Tia's shoulder. This certainly explained August's troubled expression about needing to call her for help. Tia would tease the hell out of them--

”Since you are so happy, how about you take these and set them up over the windows,” August said, holding out a stack towards Tia.

”Sure,” Tia replied, switching gears, and took the stack, looking over it.

August returned to drawing, after taking another pastry, and Mandy got up as well to follow after Tia. It was time to find out what these charms did!