Sara sat down in the water, just shy of the gradient to the wading depths. Sakuya moved further away from her and started treading water again, watching Sara.
The guitar glowed briefly, and then shrank back into a mote of light. Sara looked at it, and pointed her finger upwards. The familiar drifted up, following her gesture.
She twirled her finger. The familiar did a small loop-the-loop. She looked over her shoulder at one of the other familiars, and it too started dancing in the air.
Sara brought her hand down, and a mask of focused determination fell across her face. The three familiars suddenly leapt away from her in a straight line, fast as an arrow. They stopped three meters away, and began to glow brighter still.
The amplified glow burst into focused beams of light, shining down on Sara in the middle of their triad. Her head tilted slightly, her chin closer to her chest now. The familiars behind her dimmed, and a solid tone started to echo forth. As Sara focused, the tone began to change pitch.
The familiar in front of her stopped shining its spotlight on her, and fell dormant as Sara focused entirely on the familiars behind her. The tone quieted, and then picked back up ? this time as a sequence of musical notes, ascending in an arpeggio before returning to a neutral C.
They stopped resonating behind her, and she looked up surprised. ?That was incredibly easy. All I did was imagine playing some music, and they did it for me??
Sakuya smiled warmly at Sara. ?Very well done, too. I don?t think anyone?s ever used familiars in such a fashion, too. I?ll have to ask Patchouli about that later.?
A stray thought from Sakuya?s mind sounded off Sara?s mind, no doubt picked up because it was directed at her.
I suppose she?s a Youkai of Music, then.Sara kept her expression neutral, instead making all three familiars go through an arpeggio.
Of music? No, there?s much more to me than just music. Let them think that ? I will answer to it, but I shall be the Youkai of Cunning.?Let?s see what other kinds of sounds I can make??
For the next twenty minutes, music could be heard flowing from the bath of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. At first, it had no audience, but slowly, a rapt group of faeries began to congregate around the chamber door, listening intently.
Acied scratched at his chin. Apparently, already knowing how to read was proving to be a disadvantage; some of the letters bore striking resemblance to the script he?d learned to write in back in his homeland, and while he didn?t know all the other alphabets on Kaetir, he could recognize some of the letters.
Unfortunately, this ?English? seemed to have taken a little from everything he knew, and it was throwing him off.
Koakuma had noticed. ?It seemz yoo must unlayern wat yoo know already, Ahseed. Pearaps we should find a commun ground for yoo like we did wit? Sara??
Acied nodded. ?If I could think of anything common ? even some of your numbers look like letters from Kaetir.?
Koakuma frowned, and grunted in consternation. ?This coad become rather difficult, t?en. We may ?ave to teach yoo by sheer repetition.?
The lesson began again, and again, starting over with the basics multiple times for nearly an hour after Sara?s departure. The fact that each letter had multiple sounds attributed to it was throwing Acied off; some of the languages on Kaetir behaved the same, but not the dominant language in Rispaire, his homeland. Instead, Rispaire?s alphabet was based on multiple cryptographs, each representing one specific sound. To read in Rispainian was to literally read phonetically.
You?d think that with only thirty-six characters I could figure this out already? why do they need to have so many different sounds for each letter? Acied scratched at his forehead, ruffling his bangs. It?d be easier to use a different shape for a different sound, wouldn?t it? Why does there need to be so many sounds put to one letter?
He heaved a sigh. ?Man. Let?s see if I?ve got this straight, then? The first of five letters, called vowels, is the first letter of the alphabet. It has two primary pronunciations, and an additional third sound when modified by surrounding consonants. ?Ae?, ?uh?, ?ah?. Right??
Koakuma nodded. ?Although, t?ere are a few moar sounds yoo are miszing for t?e letter ?a?. We?ll steek wit? t?e sounds yoo haf nao, and work wit? what yoo know so far, rat?er t?an confuze yoo wit? t?e additional sounds. Nao t?en ? what is t?e second vowel??
Acied paused for only a moment. ?Ee. Most commonly used letter in the English alphabet, has several different sounds and modifiers from consonants. Bloody hell if I can remember them, though. I think we need to? what?s wrong?? Koakuma had started blinking rapidly as Acied was talking, looking bewildered.
?Aye kinnae ayuner stayihnd you, t?e spellcard ?as fayeelud. Wish hold get Sara und wrekasdit.?
Some of the words ? ?spellcard?, ?you?, ?cannot? ? came through the language barrier as intelligible words that Acied knew. They weren?t translated into Kaetin, but nonetheless he found he knew what she was saying ? at least, in those cases.
What would it be like when he had more time under the spell?s effect?
Koakuma rose from the table and pulled a Refined Mental Arts card out of a pocket. ?Wish hold go nao. Weanihd to kasit ahn Sara, oar t?e card woant weark.?
She turned and strode towards the exit of the library, almost leaving Acied behind before he caught up with her.
Wait a second. Sara?s taking a bath.
This will NOT end well.
The faeries had given up all pretenses of subtlety and flooded into the bathing room after listening at the door for a few minutes; their mad dash into the hot bath came to an almost comical halt when they spotted Sakuya floating in the middle. When the Head Maid simply smirked and nodded at them, they continued pouring in and rushed to the waters? edge.
After a few more minutes of
that behavior, their collective attention span began to wane and a large portion of them began to play in the bath. The attentive audience to Sara?s music had shrunk down to just four faeries and Sakuya, who had wrapped her towel around herself and perched atop one of the decorative rocks on the waters? edge. Despite this, Sara continued to produce entire ranges of music, playing a harp in her hands and generating supporting music from the other two familiars.
She?d just started to introduce a second instrument from each familiar when Koakuma stepped into the bathing room. Sara twisted around to look behind her at the sound of her entrance, and smiled warmly.
Then, two random neurons bumped into each other in her head and she suddenly realized that if Koakuma were there, Acied wasn?t far behind.
Instantly, the music stopped, all three familiars shattering out of existence into brief motes of light, as Sara reached out with her mind. Indeed, Acied was a short distance further from the hot-bath chamber doors, coming closer.
One of the faeries that were still sitting close to her drifted around in front of her to see what was wrong. At that moment, Sara panicked, snatched the small faerie up, sat down in the water, and tried to cover herself with an equally panicked faerie.
Koakuma easily recognized the gestures and turned about on her feet, slamming the doors shut before Acied could enter.
?Waugh!? he said as he bounced off the door that had so rudely impeded upon his path.
?Gomen nosaaai.? Koakuma seemed almost nonchalant about how she?d blocked him. She turned to face Sara, and tapped her finger to her head.
Sara stared at the winged woman, then nodded in understanding as she focused her telepathy her. ?The spellcard wore off. I need to recast it on you while Acied is nearby; the range will easily reach him from where you are now. You can? let go of the faerie. I think you?re drowning it.?
Sara looked down at the still-squirming faerie ? the same one who?s head was nearly underwater because of how she was holding it.
?Oops.? She turned it upright and patted its shoulder before releasing it, nodded in apology. The faerie scooted away, using its wings to propel itself through the water and back to the other three faeries that were listening to her play. The small group hugged the shaken faerie in an attempt to calm it down.
?Refined Mental Arts,? Koakuma stated simply, brandishing the card in front of her. She wasn?t posing as dramatically as Marisa had ? instead, she just held the card in front of her, staring past it at Sara.
?Gifts of Language!? She raised her hand up above her head, and the card traced a glowing path through the air as she did so. It stayed in one piece, however, rather than shattering apart to indicate that she?d used the entire card.
?Thank you, Sara. We will return to the library, now.? Koakuma turned to leave.
?Ah! ?wait, please. Tell Acied I?ll be back shortly.? Sara huddled down into the water, hugging her knees to her chest.
?I?d say it?s about time you got out of the water. Look at your skin ? you?re turning all wrinkly.? Sakuya grinned as she gestured at Sara. The young musician looked down at her legs and gasped in surprise.
?Ew. Yeah. Time to dry off.?
Acied sat down at the table once more, and stared at the runes in front of him. Koakuma said they were called ?vowels?, some of the more important letters. Every written or spoken word in the English language had to have at least one in it, apparently.
That?s a pretty stupid rule. Acied shook his head.
Oh well, it?s how they do it. Grin and bear it.After he had shuffled through the pages in front of him and found the one with a large ?E? scribed across the top, Koakuma restarted the lesson.
?So ? to continue, we left off wit? t?e letter ?Ee?. Yoo ware right about it being t?e most communly used letter in t?e Englisch language. Can you ??
Sara?s sudden reappearance cut off Koakuma?s lecture, as she?d stepped up silently, catching them off-guard.
?Ah ? hallo, Sara.? Koakuma sat back in the seat, allowing herself to fade from prevalence at the moment, letting Acied and Sara talk.
Acied was without words, however. Instead of the sundress she?d worn to the mansion, she was wearing an elegant dress, cinched tight with a sash tied about her stomach into a ribbon at the small of her back. The ribbon was jet black, and the dress was deep red. After the bath, having been cleaned and washed, her dark brown hair had straightened back out and was catching the light from the candles and torches in the library magnificently. As the sleeves neared her wrists, they opened up and ended in frilled lace. The skirt of the dress was layered; deep red for the outer layer, with an open patch exposing the black under-layer, with a series of white straps crisscrossing over the black. Sturdy boots with two-inch thick soles and three-inch heels augmented her relatively short height.
She grinned at him.
Okay, so I?m using one of Sakuya?s old dresses? not the sundress. Still got the expected result from it.?You look? amazing.? Acied looked her up and down. Sara?s grin turned into a warm smile, beaming radiantly in appreciation of the compliment. It was a much-needed morale boost.
?Thank you. You look scruffy.? She gave a small curtsy, and then beckoned for him to get up.
Sakuya chose this moment to appear from behind Sara. She was wearing a similar dress, but the colors were bright ? radiant blue and silver instead of red and black. It was a shocking change to her traveling cloak, or her maid?s outfit.
?She?s keeping the dress. I don?t fit into anymore, and after how long it took to get it on her, I?m not about to let her get out of it for at least another hour.?
Sakuya pinned Acied in place as he was halfway out of his chair with a glare; her stern gaze seemed to add an afterthought to what she?d just said ?
?Understood??He nodded after a moment?s hesitation. ?Thank you ? so far, the only thing we?ve been able to get for her is Keine?s old stuff. This?ll take the burden off of her, as our host, at least.?
Sakuya nodded, and moved to seat herself next to Koakuma. ?The bath is ready for you, Acied. If there are any faeries remaining in there, they shouldn?t be. Do not hesitate to chase them out with force if you need to; faeries don?t die, even if you kill them.?
Sara and Acied stared at Sakuya, and blinked in confusion.
??what?? Sara sat down in Acied?s now-vacant seat and stared harder at Sakuya, debating on whether or not to prowl into her mind and see if she was being serious or not.
?What do you mean, ?what?? Oh ? right. Forgive me. We?ll continue Sara?s reading lesson for now, and I?ll explain on the various beings living in Gensokyo when you return from the bath,? Sakuya clasped her hands on the table in front of her, and nodded at Acied.
Taking his cue, he bowed slightly and left the library. Sara tapped her finger to her chin.
?What the hell?? she finally asked. Sakuya smirked at how she?d said it with a straight face and no inflection in her voice.
?I said I?ll explain it when Acied gets back, don?t worry. It?ll be your little mystery for now ? no cheating and reading my mind, now, okay? If you haven?t already.?
Sara shook her head. ?No, I haven?t. Let?s continue with the lesson then, please, Koakuma??
The winged devil sat upright in her chair again, and produced one of the larger books Sara had been working through when last she was studying.
?Of carse. Miss Sakuya will obsarve, pearaps??
The document I have this saved to has reached 42 pages, and that's not with all of the story involved - that's just a few snippets out of this. Granted, the paragraphs are double-spaced, so it's probably just more like 20-some pages. Still, whew.
This is what I was channeling for Sara and Sakuya's new dresses.
