28.1 Forget Something?

The next day Natalie woke up surprisingly early. She thought she would have slept in given the hour she went to sleep but nope. Something else she noticed was the lack of grogginess that usually accompanied her waking up. Not to say there wasn't any disorientation, but that sluggishness went away by the time she sat up and got the blood flowing.

'Or mana, I guess.'

Stretching her body Natalie let loose a yawn that was more a force of habit than for anything biological.

'How does that even work?' She thought before shrugging, 'whatever, I'm not questioning the quirks of my body...although I probably should but in this case I don't really need to.'

So she didn't need to breathe but she could yawn.

So what?

Ezraphel told her that despite having the body of a corpse the mana and magic within her would allow her to simulate certain bodily functions making her appear more human. This is a roundabout way of saying that her body acts according to how she thought it should. Natalie still didn't know how deep that 'simulation' went but what she could say was that it did a pretty good job.

Despite the physical changes to her body there wasn't much of a difference in how it functioned. Certainly not enough to warrant a disruption in her routine and that's a good thing.

"That's enough of that" Natalie muttered as she shook her head and went to start her routine.

Admittedly she might have spent a bit more than needed in the bathroom bathhouse but come on, when is she going to get the chance to luxuriate in a magic bathhouse after this?

'Note to self: learn how to make that.' Natalie thought.

After getting out of the bath and choosing a wardrobe, which she managed to not sneer at, Natalie headed downstairs. She could already smell something cooking so she wasn't at all surprised to find Ezraphel in the kitchen preparing what she's sure to be a breakfast feast.

"Morning," Natalie muttered, taking out her phone and heading to the living room.

"Good morning," Ezraphel greeted then waited for Natalie to sit down on the couch before continuing "so you managed to cast the fireball spell last night."

Natalie abruptly froze, aborting her plan to kick her feet up on the living room couch to glance at Lilim.

"Yeah…" she answered hesitantly.

For her part Ezraphel didn't turn away from her work even as she replied "I should be angry about you doing unsupervised spell casting."

"Unsupervised? Yeah, sure," the Wight scoffed "we both know you've got this entire house on lock. Probably nothing happens in this place without you noticing."

This time Lilim did glance at her over her shoulder with a frown.

"That is not the point Natalie. Something could have gone wrong."

"The worst that could happen is that I set myself or the room on fire."

"Exactly."

"But both points are moot because I'm basically immortal and you probably put an anti-fire enchantment or something on the house."

"First of all you are not immortal, not truly. Second, I am rather concerned with how flippant you are with the prospect of being set on fire."

The Wight shrugged "well I'm technically already dead and I know how to heal myself now. Getting set on fire wouldn't be fun and maybe I'd get just a little traumatized but I'd get over it. Plus it would be a valuable lesson for me."

 "Nice rebuttal," the Lilim remarked dryly before turning back to her work "did you think of that before or after you decided to cast the spell?"

"Does it matter?"

"It does if I am to trust you with any more spells."

"I reserve the right to remain silent."

"You are not under arrest."

"I don't feel that way with how you're interrogating me."

It was at this point that Ezraphel realized she wasn't going to be getting through Natalie's bout of recklessness through the usual methods, so she switched up.

Turning fully to the Wight with a deep frown of disapproval she spoke "perhaps I should inform Stanley of this."

That elicited a reaction from the other woman who grimaced.

"You don't need to do that."

'Knowing Stan he's going to be a pain in the ass about it,' the Wight thought.

That's the thing about her brother. He acts like he doesn't care and in most cases he doesn't, especially when it comes to other people's business, but when he does actually care he can be surprisingly overbearing.

"I feel compelled to ask if there is going to be a repeat of this recklessness. I would rather not go through the theater of the fallout for when your recklessness eventually blows up in your face if it can be nipped in the bud early on."

"Okay rude" she frowned then sighed "okay you've made your point. I promise not to do any more potentially dangerous spells without your permission and/or supervision."

In hindsight it really was stupid of her to do it but she just couldn't resist. Hopefully such recklessness will be gone by the time she leaves.

Ezraphel held the Wight's gaze for a while before she also sighed, rubbing her forehead.

"I understand that I also bear some fault for this since I gave you the means of casting the spell in the first place, incidental as it may be. Regardless I will endeavor not to do so anymore."

Natalie wasn't really taking the conversation seriously. To her this was more like banter than a serious discussion...until now because she could see that Ezraphel wasn't faking being bothered by her unsupervised spell casting.

But just to be sure...

"Which part won't you do? Giving out instructions or spells?"

"The latter of course."

"Does that mean you won't teach me anymore cool spells?"

"I never taught you any spells Natalie" the Lilim clarified with a frown "and if by 'cool' you mean unnecessary then yes."

"Unnecessary?"

"The whole point of teaching you magic was to make you able to function in society without my constant oversight. I believe I went a bit too far in my enthusiasm yesterday. I mean when will you ever have need to use a fireball spell for?"

"Well-"

"And don't say something foolish like cooking. That spell can hardly simulate a proper stovetop, at least not without years of mastery. The same goes for self defense. As you are now there isn't much that can pose a threat to your well being that can be afforded by individuals or groups outside your military."

Natalie paused as she fought not to grimace as the statement showed Ezraphel's ignorance but Natalie wasn't about to bring up that conversation right now.

"Okay, then what if I go camping and need to make a fire?"

"You don't go camping," was the Lilim's deadpan answer.

"I was planning to cross that off my bucket list actually."

She wasn't even kidding either not that it mattered to Ezraphel who continued to give her an unimpressed stare.

"Come on girl you can't keep just the cool shit away from me."

"Can't I?"

"You really can't. See, you opened Pandora's Box and I'm afraid it can't be locked now."

"Oh really?"

"Yep."

"And pray tell what will you do if I don't teach you anymore spells?"

Natalie opened her mouth only for common sense to prevail in her gray matter, causing her rebuttal to die as her mouth clicked shut.

'What the fuck am I thinking?'

She was thinking that she would try to coerce Ezraphel into teaching her spells by hinting at her being able to 'experiment' with her magic on her own if she wasn't taught. Natalie was essentially demanding magic lessons like an entitled brat of a woman and she silently cursed herself for it.

One does not demand things from a powerful magical princess demi-goddess, especially when she really didn't need to go through all the trouble.

'I already fucked up once by not taking this as seriously as I should; I am not about to burn this bridge.'

Outwardly, Natalie took a needless breath to calm her nerves.

"Okay, I don't think we've been on the same wavelength during this entire conversation. I want to say I'm sorry for disregarding your implied order by casting spells without supervision. And I'm sorry for not taking it as seriously as I should."

"You know I could seal your use of mana to make it so that it could only support an illusion spell to make you seem human."

And that right there was the reminder that everything Ezraphel's done for Natalie was basically just to accommodate her.

Natalie winced "yeah, you don't need to remind me that you essentially have my un-life in the palm of your hands."

At that Ezraphel calmed down a little "that is not how I wanted it to be perceived."

"But it's not a lie though."

"I do not want you to fear me."

"Eh, in this case I think a little fear is warranted," Natalie admitted "being reminded that I'm not the biggest fish in the magical sea would help reign in any unfortunate tendencies I might develop."

Ezraphel still didn't like it and Natalie felt a little scummy for putting her in that position in the first place so after thinking about it for a minute she found a way to cheer her up.

"Look, I can see you're still upset about it so how about I make it up to you?" and before Ezraphel could say anymore, she quickly continued, "I'll help you pick out something for Stan's birthday next week."

"…"

As the word left her mouth Natalie saw the Lilim freeze in place. She did not move, she did not speak, and it looked as if she stopped breathing.

The whole thing creeped Natalie the fuck out.

"Uh, Ezraphel?" She called out even waving a hand in front of her face with no reaction.

That's when the Lilim spoke a single whispered sentence.

"Next week is Stanley's birthday?"

Startled at first Natalie took a moment to register Lilim's words before she too adopted the impromptu statue fad, complete with glassy eyes and looking more like a corpse than she ever did since her transformation.

They stood like this for a while until the sound of footsteps reached their ears and Stanley entered the kitchen having obviously just woken up given the state of his messy hair, crumpled clothes and generally half awake appearance.

"Morning," he muttered without sparing either woman a glance as he made his way to the refrigerator.

Taking out a pitcher of milk and retrieving a glass, he filled the latter generously before storing the former back from where he took it. After taking a long sip from the glass, he smacked his lips, perking up. The milk seemed to act as the equivalent of coffee. Stanley lost the last semblance of sleep and with that he finally seemed to notice something was amiss.

Turning towards the two women silently staring at him with blank expressions Stanley's heckles rose.

"What?"

They said nothing and the two continued to stare.

"WHAT!?" He asked again but louder.

Ezraphel opened her mouth only to be beaten to the punch by Natalie "nothing."

"Then why are you two looking at me like that?"

"No reason," Natalie continued feigning ignorance.

Scowling at his sister he redirected his attention to Ezraphel "Ez, mind telling me what's going on?"

Ezraphel gazed at Natalie, and upon seeing the meaningful look the Wight gave her, she made her decision.

"It is as Natalie said Stanley. There is nothing to worry about."

Contrary to her words his gaze narrowed in obvious suspicion "uh-huh."

He continued his glare, but neither of the two women budged. This is the point where Stanley would decide that pressing the issue was a lost cause, roll his eyes, and retreat to his office with maybe a few grumbles tossed in. Either way that would be the end of that as he chalked it up to a 'woman thing' and would forget about the encounter itself within a few hours.

Both women knew this series of events to be true with varying degrees of certainty based on their familiarity with the man. So imagine their surprise when, instead of retreating with his half-empty glass of milk, he instead gained a complicated expression as he regarded them and after a moment downed the rest of his drink before moving over to place it in the sink. The movement brought him close to the two and when finished he turned towards them with folded arms.

"Alright, what is it?"

The two once again shared a look with each other before looking back at him silently, urging him to continue.

In response Stanley rolled his eyes. "I feel like this is a situation where you guys are angry at me because of something I did or didn't do but you won't tell me what it is so I'm left to figure it out on my own while stewing in the uncertainty. After a while you decide to tell me what that thing is and I feel stupid and/or remorseful that I didn't figure out something so 'obvious' and you get to have one more thing to hang over my head for the foreseeable future."

He said all of this with a deadpan glare that caused both two women to blink.

"Wow, how many times has something like this happened with you two?" Natalie couldn't help but ask.

It has to be a lot if he's self-aware enough to point it out the way he did.

"Oh, this doesn't happen with me and Ez," Stanley informed.

"Huh?"

"Ez knows the kind of person I am so she doesn't jerk me around like that...often. This is clearly your brand of bullshit," he finished with a pointed glare at his sister.

"Excuse you?" Natalie frowned.

"Clearly Ez wanted to tell me what was up before you shut her down." His eyes narrowed. "I don't appreciate you trying to teach my girlfriend your fucked-up feminine mind games, Natalie."

"I am doing no such thing."

"Alright then" he turned to his girlfriend "Ez, why were you giving me the Stanley, you idiot look?"

Once again Ezraphel opened her mouth and once again Natalie cut her off "don't answer that."

"You just proved my point."

"Yeah sure," she said, rolling her eyes "out of curiosity do you have any idea what next week is?"

Stanley blinked "next week?"

"Yes."

Stanley frowned and scrunched his nose up for a moment as he contemplated the question. The two women looked at him in anticipation, waiting for that spark of realization to hit, only to be rendered shocked as he once again went against expectations.

"I don't know. What's happening next week?"

"You're kidding me." Natalie said incredulously, "you seriously don't know what next week is."

Once again he thought about it for a moment before shrugging "should I?"

Natalie sputtered for a moment before composing herself, "are you fucki-okay, think Stan think? There is an important event that is happening on a particular day next week."

"Important to who?"

"To you!" she exclaimed pointing at the man.

In response Stanley huffed "if it was important to me then I'd remember. Since I don't it's not really important."

That seemed to floor his sister whose expression of incredulity turned rather somber.

"Wow..." was all the Wight could say to that.

"What?"

"Oh Stanley," even Ezraphel said, looking saddened by his answer.

"What is it now?"

"That was significantly sadder than I expected it to be," his sister admitted. "I don't know how to react to that."

Stanley looked like he was about to blow his top, yet he merely looked between the two women. Seeing that neither women were willing to be forthcoming with any answers he decided to drop it…for now.

'Whatever, I'll figure it out myself.'

Without a word he left the two women.

Once he was gone Ezraphel looked curiously at Natalie and asked "why did you not tell him?"

"I think the better question is, why doesn't he remember his own damn birthday?" Natalie shot back with a grumble.

"Stanley does not seem to be aware of special occasions such as holidays to begin with. I assume this to be a regular occurrence."

"What? It is most certainly not a regular occurrence" Natalie air quoted before hesitating. "At least it wasn't as far as I knew, but... I don't know the current Stan as well as you do. Is this really a thing with him?"

"So far Stanley has only ever recognized a single holiday without prompting from an outside source and was actually enthusiastic about it."

"Halloween?"

"Halloween."

"Yeah, that'd do it." Natalie sighed, looking back to where her brother disappeared. "It's either that or Mother's Day."

At that Ezraphel perked up. She opened her mouth to ask feeling a tinge of desperation to know. However she hesitated and by the time Natalie turned back around she had recomposed herself and stayed silent.

"I'd say better that he not know about it for now since then you could give him a pleasant surprise but..."

"It will not be long before Stanley realizes."

"Right so…" she trailed off scratching her head "I mean, I'll still help with getting a gift."

She was interrupted by Ezraphel shaking her head "thank you but that will not be necessary. Just informing me of his coming birth date is enough."

"Does that mean you'll teach me all the cool magic stuff?"

"We'll see," Ezraphel said before turning back to preparing breakfast.

"Is that a yes or a no?"

"If after I teach you all the prerequisite spells for maintaining a human façade and you've managed to exceed my expectations before Stanley's birth date, then I will consider teaching you those 'cool spells' you desire."

Her answer caused Natalie to slump.

"That's not fair."

Ezraphel ignored her and moved away to continue making breakfast.

"That's not fair."

*Snap*

And just like that Natalie was teleported out of the kitchen and into the living room yet Ezraphel could still hear her as plain as day.

"THAT'S. NOT. FAAAIIIRRR!"