Chapter 10 The Judge and the Flowers

Looking at the "sparrows," porcelain figurines that housed spirits of a slightly higher rank than the spider, allowing them to think and consciously speak at the level of a six to seven year old child. Incidentally, in the past month or so, the spirits have become noticeably smarter by about a year of a child's development.

And now these fidgets are scurrying around the tree, happily playing catch-up. One of them flies into the dense branches and slows down, while the other catches up, crashes into the branches and folds its wings.

For a minute there is nothing to be seen but a cheerful chirping and shaking of the branches, with leaves flying out. Then both sparrows fly down, hit the ground with a thud, and fly off in different directions. A few seconds later, they were on my shoulders, reeking of happiness and the joy of battle.

— Master! Master! — Light gray sparrows with white bellies and red and yellow lines around their eyes and beaks chirped in unison.

— They're so cheeky... — I smile because their cheerful characters always cheer me up. — Are you hungry again?

— Are you hungry again? No! — again in one voice, but this answer surprised me. — We are hungry, — said Big Brother. — But we can't eat before we move, it'll be easier! — Like a machine gun, the birds shot out.

What migration?

— We made new bodies! — Junior replied immediately after smelling my emotions.

Let's be clear: when these two bandits aren't lazy, they are very good at sensing emotions, even catching the surface thoughts of humans and animals. And since I have a contract with them, they are used to my magic, which has already become a part of them, and everything increases in them.

This allows me to establish a kind of telepathic channel over great distances. But only when both sides are "open" (they don't care, and they are always open, but I get a headache from their endless stream of emotions and quick thoughts in about ten minutes), and so the brothers can read my most vivid emotions and thoughts, so they respond immediately in conversation.

— What were you doing? — I must have misheard you.

— Bodies!!! — the sparrows repeated happily and loudly.

So I didn't hear you...

— Tell me. — I sighed heavily.

Even porcelain figurines of birds, when the spirit contract in them, become alive and no less strong than real animals or birds. I had strengthened them even more, so I really didn't understand the question about new vessels.

— When we made the spider, — the elder said more thoroughly, — we thought, why not make living vessels for ourselves? We thought about it and chose a picture, and yesterday we finished it and decided to tell you. Here it is.

We should take note of the "living" and ask about it in detail, but for now we should finish with this question.

— Why didn't you tell me anything? — I ask, pretending to be interested, even though I already know the answer.

— They were busy!!! — they all answer slyly, but their emotions clearly indicate that they are mischievous.

— Okay, I don't mind. — I really don't mind, the rituals of releasing the spirit from the vessel's shell and placing it into a new one don't take much time and effort, so I don't see the point in prolonging it.

— We'll be right there! — I said and set off in the direction of the next grove. That's where we made the spider, by the way.

A few minutes later, they each brought their own figure. It was quite entertaining to see a sparrow flying with a magpie in its legs. Well, we have to admit that the brothers had worked hard, and the wooden figures turned out beautifully: every feather was highlighted, every line, the figures looked as if they were alive, and they were painted with taste.

In fact, the only difference between the wooden birds was the color — one was red with orange, the other was blue-blue with a light gray stripe on the chest. Both of them had an imaginative pattern of curls around their eyes, down their necks, over their bodies, and on their wings, as if they were woven with woven grasses. The color of the pattern was bright green.

Strong beaks, claws that seemed to be made of stone, and beautiful crests on their heads. Looking closer, I realized that they were the figures of large jays, only decorated with hearts. Hmm... compared to the porcelain figurines, these look much more serious, and they feel quite different, as if they were really alive, but not like birds and plants. Strange.

In general, I did not bother for a long time: I drew a double circle, laid out the four sides of the stichi, and called the Judge Spirit to witness the fulfillment of the contract by the parties and its continuation.

He gave him magic, and the porcelain figurines fell lifeless into the grass, and two blue balls, a little larger than a golf ball, floated in the circles. And then the second ritual — almost a copy of the first, except that he placed wooden birds in the circle and poured grain liberally around them, which disintegrated in the air.

Again I gave magic to the judge, and the spirits entered the wooden statuettes. As they spread their wings and took off, testing their new abilities, the Judge approached me. This spirit, by the way, looks like an old, gray-haired raccoon, wearing a haori cape, a conical wicker hat, and a small stick in his paw. He was about my shoulder height, and his long, waist-length beard was covered with beautiful pink and blue flowers.

The spirit smelled of the freshness of a healthy forest, of its strength and serenity. As he approached, the spirit waved his hand, urging me to bend toward him. Spirits like that are not to be trifled with.

Mayuri-san has told many stories about such creatures, and in the mystical world they are untouchable, and fools who dare to raise a hand against a Judge will be punished by nature itself. Judges are truly honest and just, and they will never touch an innocent man or charge him with a crime. So I immediately kneel before him — I have nothing to fear. The spirit's eyes, black with silver sparkle, flashed with approval.

— Hold out your hands, young heir to the star... — The old man's voice was soft but firm.

I obediently raised my hands, palms up, and folded them into a boat. The spirit nodded, and with his free paw he pulled two flowers from his beard. Flowers with long, thin stems. He placed the pink and blue flowers in my palms, covered them with his paw, and spoke again.

— Take care of them, — the Judge said in a deep, alien voice, looking into my eyes. — It is time for the lost to return to the world. Lost children make their mother happy, and these two are the first of many. Take care of them and don't let the thin stream dry up... — with these words, the spirit squeezed my palm a little and disappeared with smoke.

I looked in front of me and couldn't get over what had happened. I didn't understand everything, but apparently the judge was talking about the brothers, and there was something else I didn't know. But I do know this: when a sorcerer summons a ghost and agrees to work with him for a long time, the ghost quickly gains strength.

 A single dose of living magic, i.e. from a living being, and a constant inflow make a big difference, and the spirit grows in "rank" and gets smarter right before your eyes, overcoming decades of growth in months.

As a result, over the course of a few years of contract with a sorcerer, the spirit grows significantly, and if omnipresent in a material medium, can come to life in the form of a mystical beast, or ayakashi.

So the "living plant" feeling of the wooden statuettes, even before the spirits were omnipresent, has now shifted to something closer to animal. I don't know what the Brothers will become, but the Judge wouldn't say anything if they were just Jay Familiars like I thought before.

And he did not give me such rare flowers: pink flowers grow in nature only on the eastern slopes of the mountains, they bloom at dawn and are called "dawnflower", and blue flowers grow on the peaks, they bloom at noon and are called "azure". The flowers are from the same family, the "Measure of the Day", and there are four such flowers in all, including the "Sunset Flower" and the "Moonflower".

Each one is special in its own way, and has certain properties, either pure or mixed with something. Very rare, VERY rare, grows only in magical, open-air places, loves to have spirits and various magical creatures around. THIS gift is awesome, especially in the hands of a Judge!

Even though Dawnflower and Azure are magical plants, they can't live on magic alone for long. In addition, such plants are subject to special external conditions, such as the fact that these particular flowers must see the open sky every day, otherwise they will wither and die.

So by the end of the day, both flowers were in a wooden pot (herbal spirits at work again!), standing on a special shelf for flowers on the porch, among other plants. The spirits had grown an unusual pot for me: there was a crystal buried in the wood at the bottom, into which I poured all my reserve, so that the plants would not feel the lack of magic.