The Fool 15

The process went back and forth a few times. Al never really left but he could chit chat with Cray while the green lady kept the archer company. They both felt really bad for her when she opened up and told her story and helped her by sharing some of their own. Although no one could remember specifics, they could remember the feelings.

Al knew that Cray and the Green lady got up to some monkey business and even though that disturbed him, ultimately it made them all feel a little happier. So, he kept his discontent to himself. Wanting someone to confide those discordant feelings to, Al went looking for White only to find that the guy had moved to their other house, leaving most of his stuff behind.

That was fine. Eventually, he knew they'd all be staying in the same house some day. Looking around the temple part of his home, however, Al shook his head and got busy again. Later, Al had finished doing all he could for the time being and was really proud of how everything was coming together. With an armload of things he thought Cray would be interested in, he called his friend and the green lady over to take a look.

Neither Cray, nor the green lady were that happy to be interrupted but she was feeling a bit tired anyway. While he was there and the green lady was resting, Cray lent a helping hand for a bit but Al could tell his heart wasn't in it. The archer wanted to get back to doing more monkey business with her. It still bothered Al but Cray was an awesome friend and there wasn't really anything to complain about.

While they were waiting around, the archer saw that there was still quite a bit of stuff that wasn't useful to them but might be to someone else. Al confided that in the early days, there had been a few other friends around and he had collected it to share with them but hadn't been able to get around to it for some reason. Cray pointed out that it was getting in the way and making it hard to finish what Al had started.

It made Al sad but he had to agree that it was true. He couldn't get himself to just throw it away, though. Brainstorming, they came up with the idea to have a yard sale giveaway. Al could sense a couple of neighbors and two homeless people he had some kind of arrangement with. Cautiously, they invited them to the edge of his property.

Immediately, Al noticed that the neighbors were little better than kids. They were close to being men, one a little more than the other, but he caught them acting high and doing dumb stuff. So, it was hard seeing them as anything other than children. He didn't really know how to handle the situation but the green lady did. She sternly but lovingly helped the two boys iron out things while they looked over the stuff Al was giving away.

Seeing what was left, Al had the two homeless people comb over it. They, of course, wanted everything that was left. He didn't really have a problem with that but the green lady and Cray did. They didn't really think much of the homeless people but even though they didn't seem good, Al quickly came to their defense. He argued that it's not like they CHOSE to be homeless and desperate people would do what it took to survive. For some reason, his heartfelt words managed to touch one of them and they began crying.

Seeing one display weakness, the other attempted to jump them. The green lady wasn't having that and moved to murder the mean one. Al interceded and gave the mean one a different choice. If the mean one would take out the trash for them, Al would give them what was left of the giveaway stuff too. But after that, they would have to f*** off.

Faced with a no brainer between oblivion or garbage and free stuff to pick through, they agreed. Between Al, Cray and the green lady, they got the kids sorted out before taking care of the crying one and pushing some rotten garbage along with the remaining giveaway stuff to the mean homeless person. Goals taken care of, the kids went back to their homes while Cray and the green lady went back to monkey business to Al's humored annoyance.

With nothing better to do, he conversed with the crying one that looked shinier and happier. Over to the side, the mean one wolfed down all the garbage and leftover giveaway stuff until they became like a large, dark tick and fell somewhere, leaving a confused and weak looking person behind. It was another homeless person that the mean one had eaten but hadn't finish digesting. The one he was conversing with turned out to be equally confused but so nice that they went over and shared a little of what they had so that the other one wouldn't fade and disappear.

They were all clean and relatively put together again but they were still homeless. Al knew that meant they would eventually become no different than they had been before, if left as they had been. Reaching deep for an answer, he remembered that there was an Oberon and a Titania doll in his attic. Why he thought such a thing could be a home, he wasn't quite sure but he knew they could. He fetched them and filled them with a touch of free floating 'self stuff' along with two pieces of some life giving hard stuff from some other place outside of himself that he could reach.

Al barely had time to give the dolls to the homeless people before the green lady felt what he was up to and grew upset that Al was giving away 'real things' from the 'real world' to strangers. After she got done chewing him out, they forgave each other, him for being a spendthrift and her for overreacting. And while hugging it out, they weren't 'they' but one and aware that they were part of one person called Orison.

He felt like something was coming to an end. A flash of images depicting old lives forgotten lead to the different lives of his shadowy echoes. Between the two sets, there weren't many major classifications of intelligent life he hadn't been. There hadn't hardly been a type of person he'd not 'worn' either. A soul indiscriminately sought fulfillment and that journey meant many roads. The revelation was that the form of a vessel wasn't nearly as important to a soul as it's experiences were, especially ones that forced a person to grow beyond the boxes people caged themselves in.

***

He woke up. With a surety he hadn't possessed before, he didn't feel like an Al or an Orison. One was only a part of him and the other he was only a part of. Before addressing his traumatized or otherwise engaged group, the first thing he did was give himself a name to use until he was 'whole Orison' again, if ever. Sitting up from the nest of salvaged bedding and cushions he'd been laid on, He walked over to Cray who was still numbly fumbling to dress himself because 'the kids' were still dealing with their own issues.

Squatting down, he pulled everything into place, buttoning and buckling whatever needed it. "I know. Inside, there was a pretty lady and what I hope you see as a nice guy. Outside, it's just me. I want to freak out, kick scream and cry but that isn't going to change what is or stop what's going to be. So, how about this?

"I'm sorry for anything I might have done that hurt you. Thank you for all your help, too. And if I managed to do anything right, that you might have actually appreciated, you're welcome."

Cray tried to speak but all that came out was mostly stuttering and a few weak moans of scared hopelessness.

Smiling and projecting as many positive vibes as he was capable, the young mage said, "It's not as bad as it seems. In a couple of days or so, you'll be able to talk and move around alright... I don't want to hop you up too much but what I was mostly worried about was your soul's loose connection with your body. The body, I'm pretty sure we can do something about real soon."

Unable to help from projecting some uneasiness, he added, "I knew it was going to be bad and I can't even imagine how much pain you were in. Did I do the right thing trying to save you? Do you hate me?... There ended up being a lot more consequences to what I tried to do for you than I thought there'd be."

It was hard for Cray to spit it out but he insisted til he managed to express that he didn't hate the young mage and wanted to share that he was also sorry, thankful and was happy to do what he could. As pretty a picture as those words painted, the young mage could see that there was a lot of turmoil going on behind Cray's eyes that a few simple words on either side couldn't resolve.

The young mage said, "Until this life is done and I move on to other things, whether that be wholeness as Orison again or something else, call me Aleph. I have a desire for oneness, as the name suggests, but it also holds Al and Epha in it. That was what the one friend Green had in that other place, called her.

"Whatever we accept, reconcile or decide to put behind us amounts to, we can start fresh today with that. Besides, we have a whole winter of getting sick of what remains of the ration bars and whatever that magic spoon makes to figure it all out... Hi. I'm Aleph Rainier. Pleased to meet you Cray."

Aleph extended a hand in greeting. A little jerkily, Cray did the same, looking a great deal more relieved. Hitting them both with Presto, the young mage got dressed after realizing that he needed to. And with barely suppressed fury, he stalked over to where Hunter sat cradling the head of Cole who had fell asleep while having an emotional meltdown.

Before he could begin, Hunter tried to take the initiative. "I didn't think we could do it. I just wanted to imitate so I could learn. Please don't be mad! It was-"

The young mage made a snapping shut motion with his hands that he'd seen Macy use before. "Being the last one to wake up means that I have a healthy dose of plausible deniability to keep me from wanting to beat you to death. Whatever you saw or know about what happened today, keep it to yourself and I'll begin to forgive you... Everyone gets 'one'. Betray my trust again and you're going to have a hell of a time earning it back.

"That aside, are you and Cole alright? Is there any spiritual or mental damage that I need to be aware of? I might still be angry but we're still all each other has to survive this. I wouldn't want to see either of you hurt just because of some relatively basic human error type stuff... Er, maybe people error? Error's that entities with emotions and crap, can make. The more I know the less I understand."

Looking slightly conflicted himself, Hunter said, "We were lost sharing things when you flagged us over to you. After that lady helped us shove ourselves back where we were supposed to be, we snapped out of it. We kind of had a realization. I died from being shot and he killed himself after shooting a kid before he became who he is now.

"Putting it together, along with his 'debt' to me... Whatever. I mean, yeah, it makes me mad but he lived a short and horrible life between then and now. He even answered the call to serve off his debt and all that. It just sounds stupid to be all hateful, now."

Aleph grew thoughtful. "Okay. Well, if anything changes, don't hesitate to come to me with important stuff, now or any other time in the future when I'm miffed at you. Angry doesn't mean I don't care. We good on that?"

Hunter nodded silently.

He added, "I hope you do get along. Since you guys managed to mark each other's souls pretty solidly, there's a good chance you're going to be running buddies for a long while. That can be a good or very bad thing if you start not getting along.

"Oh, just an FYI. Don't do what we did today, again. Not unless you have a damn good reason and some side help to set a disruption timer. Theoretically, we could have stayed locked in that state til we died."

Not knowing if it was day or night outside, nor how long they'd been there, Aleph made the call to pack it up and be on their way. Seeing that Hunter was filling the storage bag with nothing but books, he interrupted the process by giving his protege a strict limit. He made it a little easier by taking some books himself along with the basic alchemy equipment that the lich continued to maintain.

It would still be some time before Aleph's inner space was 'illuminated' enough for him to use the majority but an extra couple of footlocker's worth of space had been added to the shoe box's worth that he had before. The badge and cellphone, the only items in the previously small illuminated space, had been joined by a few others. A bag of gems and coins, a broom a fancy looking tome and a hand mirror had joined the mix.

However his space was making itself available to him, it was doing so from last to first. He could vaguely recognize that the newly revealed items were among the ones Al had been pelted with on the stairs. As he reached to pull them out, the first glimmer of light refracted off the mirror and hit the book, producing a copy before the mirror felt completely mundane in his hand.

That wasn't the only thing that happened. He also saw them growing fuzzy around their edges. There was a hint that if he pulled them out, they would just simply vanish. It was a frustrating mystery but then he remembered that the force likely responsible for their creation was also responsible for basically stealing it all back for everyone else too. Being accidentally drawn into his space was the only thing that had kept them from being snatched back.

As for all the 'spring cleaning' his soul had endured, he felt light and unburdened. A large reason why he hadn't had a total melt down like Cole had was mainly because of that. His casting time was also faster and more efficient. Not only was his magic reservoir and channels a bit deeper and sturdier, he had managed to cobble together a meditation technique that was as good, if not better, than the one Red had taken when the Orisons split apart. As much as he didn't want to admit it, that was mostly due to the useful parts of Adam's inheritance that contained a Rogers family secret 'veins as channels' magic cultivation technique.

After taking a peak out at the other side of the emergency escape tunnel of the lich's, finding some vulgar wealth and offensive consumable magic items along the way, they rested behind the magic seal trapdoor until daybreak. With some time to burn, Aleph demonstrated an alternate version of the fixed meditation technique to Cray. It would definitely help with recovery speed.

"What's the deal? We're doing what you're saying to do but it's not working for us," Cole said as he tried to follow the lesson from the side.

The young mage replied, "Cray has a good chunk of this already in his memories. I'm just fixing it to work on ambient magic rather than the supplement combo it was originally intended for. When we have time, I'll teach you guys from the beginning. Besides, Hunter needs to learn the version I use. That's going to take much longer."

Time was of the essence once dawn came. Two Enbarrs and a breakfast on the road later, the young mage continued keeping Cray supplied with a trickle of filtered magic essence to meditate with while teaching Hunter about magic cycling. Both horses were indistinguishable from each other and ran as smooth as silk, allowing conversing without fear of a bitten tongue.

As it neared evening, they started looking for a place to tent up in relative safety. Ruminating over the day, they had made good time and distance despite problems. At every rest, Aleph would hit the four of them with a short burst heal aimed at the tender parts to deal with adjusting to life on horseback while even meals were eaten on the go, only dropping the spoon that made such a thing possible once.

The first night was an exercise in trying to preserve frayed nerves as the only thing they could find was a hillock with only a reasonable hollowing to provide cover. After doing what they could to camouflage under Cray's guidance, everyone but Hunter took a turn at watch. The boy was just too jumpy to be allowed to pull a shift by himself and there wasn't really a need to have two sentries.

Despite a little initial awkwardness, no one had a problem with the puppy piling in the tent either. It got too chilly at night for anyone to think of anything but trying to get warm enough to sleep comfortably. It weighed on everyone that if the weather took a turn for the worse, what little space they could provide each other for shifting around would turn into a luxury.