12 Chilli

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.

Soon enough Mandy had made two coffees - one with milk, other plain black, floating one in front of Ian, and as August came out from the bathroom - now cleaned up and fully dressed - she set down breakfast as well - omelet with toast, cheese, and salad.

"Thank you," Ian said, picking up his coffee. He went with the flow, but he was clearly confused on many levels.

August acted as if Ian being here or not made zero difference and sat down to eat. Like usual, he offered a hand to Mandy.

Ian looked like he wanted to ask something, but refrained. "Oh, it's delicious," he said, after having a taste.

"Thank you," Mandy smiled. But other than those words, no conversation happened till they finished eating.

"Is there a reason for holding hands?" Ian asked only as Mandy was floating the empty plates to the sink and no longer held August's hand.

"Ghosts can borrow senses from the living by touching them," August replied.

Ian nodded, then his eyes moved over to the red bunny who had just finished eating the chili. "So, dustbuns..."

"I hope you didn't vacuum them or anything," August said.

"No, of course not." Ian frowned at the idea. "I doubt they appeared only yesterday and I don't know why they are on my ceiling. Removing them without understanding doesn't feel right."

August looked impressed. "Dustbuns protect houses and bring blessings. As long as they are there no astral can come in and assault you in your sleep."

Ian looked relieved, then looked towards the fuzz on the table. "Do I need to feed them?"

"If your ceiling really is squirming, then you have been doing that already," August said mildly amused. "Just how much chili do you eat?"

Ian made a troubled smile looking sideways. "That does explain why my bundles ran out as quickly."

Mandy cast an incredulous look towards Ian. He was consuming them in bundles? He didn't look like he had any Hindu blood in him. What's with that crazy chili consumption?

August poked the dustbun. "You can change shape, can't you?"

"Chilli can," the dustbun replied and its face and ears sunk in the fuzz, then a humanoid girl like form emerged from within with the same red ears and a big fuzzy tail, she had long red curly hair, red eyes and an Arabian dancer like outfit.

Ian and Mandy peered at the little girl with surprise.

"You are the first one, aren't you?" August asked.

The now girl shaped dustbun nodded.

"How big is the one in the Aquarium?" August asked next.

Chilli frowned. "Bigger than me," she said.

"Can it talk?" August asked next.

Chilli nodded. "It lures the small ones in with a song," she said with a bitter expression.

"Mandy, can you give her another chili?" August asked then picked up his coffee to finish it.

"Sure," Mandy agreed and passed another chili to the girl. Just like in her bunny form, though, the girl bit on the chili rather than taking it with her hands. Of course, with a happy 'thank you' like before.

Ian looked at August with question marks in his eyes.

August sighed. "If it's a metal ring, then you have two choices - drain the water so witten grows weak, then break the ring, then it will die and you can take the ring for repairs, or - you can make the witten into your familiar. Since it is your ring, you will have high affinity with it."

"And what if I leave it alone?" Ian asked.

"Since you have a dustbun breeding grounds on your ceiling," August rolled his eyes, before continuing. "It will grow till a nymph state soon and then your house will probably flood during a storm, so it can escape to a bigger water space."

Ian's lips twitched.

"If you don't care for the ring, though, you can also release it in the sea," August said. "Someone will destroy your ring eventually when the witten grows and starts causing tsunamis or something."

Mandy pursed her lips. Why was August throwing such irresponsible options around? Having cleaned and dried the plates, she floated them back to the cupboard.

"Kill her," Chilli took the pepper in her hands to free her mouth. "She's scary and bad." Chili frowned as she said that. She resumed munching on the pepper right after making her point, though.

"Your choice," August shrugged looking at Ian and got up.

Ian looked like he was between a rock and a hard place. He picked up his own coffee to finish it as well.

"By the way, do you want to join Mandy in a library visit?" August asked, his expression blank.

Mandy already knew that blank meant - August was hiding something. But what was he hiding?

Ian cast a curious look at Mandy, inquiring for more details.

"Ah, to read about astral beings," she said. "Like dustbuns and wittens, I guess," she added. If August didn't hide his expression, Mandy would have completely mistaken this for good will. Ian was even more clueless than she was and different to herself he didn't have anyone like August to ask things, so... reading more about things would be good. Actually, August was being oddly kind towards Ian. ...What horrid thing was he planning?

"That would be great," Ian said, getting up. "...I don't even know how to thank you," he added, looking at August with sincerity.

August was shocked at the reaction.

"I pretty much blackmailed you, yet you..." Ian looked shaken up, like he was close to tears.

August opened his mouth, then closed it. Then sighed. "If you feel that way then bother Kenneth or guild next time when something happens," August said, annoyance settling in to replace his blank expression.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up," Ian apologized. Despite his handsome looks, Ian did look pitiful with bags under his eyes.

August let out a breath and went to pack up his laptop and suitcase.

As Mandy cleaned the coffee mugs, she thought that Ian had just escaped some horrid revenge setting on top of those Troyan horse glasses.

Ian went to put on his shoes, not forgetting to take Chilli with him. Even though he had carelessly grabbed her before, this time, he put out his hand, inviting her to climb on it, which the dustbun did. Rather than stopping on the hand, the girl kept climbing and found a place in a pocket on his chest.

As Mandy joined Ian by the door, Chilli looked up. "Ghost, what is the beautiful one?"

Mandy got confused by the wording. What did she mean? "Beautiful one?"

"She means August?" Ian checked, looking at Mandy.

Mandy made a wry smile, Ian having realized sooner than she had felt iffy. Had he just casually admitted something amazing, though?? Mandy's inner narrator went crazy with romance plots.

"Well, he does look handsome," Mandy agreed, but would a creature refer to someone or something by standards like those? No, in fact, if even dustbuns recognized something like that as a fact, it was only further proof that any feelings and skipped heart-beats were merely due to that. Heck, even Ian felt that way... and that was reassuring to no end.

August had heard Mandy's words, even if he had missed the previous ones. "Glad to hear," He looked to be in a good mood as he got his coat and shoes.

August being in a good mood just from being called handsome surprised Mandy. Wouldn't it be more like him to go 'yeah, that's what I'm like'? Mandy would have been embarrassed had she called him cute and he had heard it, but calling beautiful things beautiful was mere fact statement.

"I smell my kin on you," Chilli said to August.

"My body houses three of your kin," August replied, as he turned to walk out. This time Ian moved to exit first, only Mandy staying behind to close the doors.

Eh? Three of Chilli's kin... "...Organs with a will of their own?" Mandy mumbled, as she passed through the now closed doors.

Ian looked surprised at the first line, but what Mandy said made him furrow his brows as he walked downstairs.

"Yes, there's a dustbun type that feeds on blood. Most guild members keep some on them in case of an emergency. They can replace your blood or an organ if things go south," August explained.

"Ah, okay," Chilli accepted the explanation with no change in expression, in contrast with the other two who showed surprise and bewilderment. "They give happy waves," Chilli added.

Waves? Vibes? Not that it changed anything, but at least it seemed like the dustbuns that served as August's lung, kidney and blood were happy to be serving that role. Mandy had a feeling they had trained August to keep them happy though, given his previously grief-stricken look about enforced sobriety and smoking ban.

Ian looked conflicted for a moment, but then his expression eased. "Regular humans can't use them?" He asked.

"No," August said. "It takes some aether to bind them and normies don't have enough for forming the agreement."

Ian nodded as he headed out on the street, not looking all that disappointed. He had expected a reply along those lines. Rather than walking ahead, though, he stopped, aiming to follow August as he didn't know if the library would be in the same place as the guild or elsewhere.

"Are they like familiars?" Mandy asked.

"No, contract workers," August said, turning to head in the opposite direction from the guild. "Familiars die with their owner. The dustbuns in me feed on my blood and aether and when this body dies they will come out stronger than before."

The line about familiars made the two become thoughtful. For different reasons for each. And Chilli used the chance to ask again.

"What are you?" she asked August, peering at him with innocent, curious eyes.

"What will you give me in exchange for an answer?" August asked.

Hm, why hadn't August given the same 'half-ghost' answer to Chilli? Mandy figured there was a reason, yet - asking about it would only arouse needless suspicion. Right now it only looked like August either didn't want to reply or wanted to gain some benefits from answering.

Chilli thought about it. "A child and dancing skill for a day," Chilli made an offer.

Dancing skill? That was a curious offer. Offering a child seemed kind of morbid, though. It wouldn't be as morbid had Chilli offered it while looking like a fuzzball, but like this it felt very odd.

"Not interested," August said.

"Aw, shucks," Chilli said pursing her lips, but she didn't seem too down about it.

"Is it a secret?" Ian asked, just to check.

"Just common sense on this side," August replied. "Your identity gives away your strengths and weaknesses. Unless it's obvious like with Mandy or Chilli, you better hide what you can."

Ian nodded. Well, it is true he wouldn't be able to tell that August was a half-ghost just from looking at him and there was no difference in the way August looked through the glasses and without them, differently to Grisham, bunny-eared baristas or most other people he had spotted in the guild before.

Ian's glasses were still on his head, otherwise he wouldn't be able to see Mandy or Chilli, so he did spot some odd things with his peripherals, but following Mandy's advice he forcefully avoided to look towards those. In that sense, he matched up with Mandy who did the same thing.

Seeing the direction they were walking in, Mandy asked: "Public library?" It wouldn't be, would it?

"Same building," August confirmed and the group stopped their conversation for a while, as they had entered busier parts of the town. Ian put on his glasses as well not to meet eyes with someone he shouldn't.