Free Web NovelChapter 63: Chapter 63:Her question
Percy remained frozen, the plate in his hands tilting slightly before he caught it and steadied his grip, as the sensation had arrived quietly and suddenly.
Thankfully it didn’t seem to be from any haunteds but an Anchor since he was still conscious and not on his way towards it, this only happened with Anchors.
He kept his hands moving over the plate and let his eyes do the work instead, drifting across the kitchen without turning his head.
His gaze settled on the cupboard in the corner. The one Mrs. Callyst kept her spices in.
He had a reasonable idea of what was in there that hadn’t been there before dinner.
Behind him Dana was saying something that made Mrs. Callyst laugh, the easy back and forth of two people who had decided to like each other and were getting on with it.
Percy set the plate down on the drying stack, reached over and opened the cupboard in one motion, and closed his hand around the box before he could second guess it. It went into his coat pocket.
He turned back to the sink and finished the last plate with more speed than it required.
"Right." He dried his hands and turned toward the table. "I’ll leave you two to it. Could do with some fresh air."
Neither of them had fully registered he’d spoken before he was already moving toward the door.
"Don’t go too far," Mrs. Callyst called after him.
He was already outside.
---
The street was quiet. He walked quickly until Mrs. Callyst’s house was well behind him, then broke into something closer to a run for the last stretch.
He pushed through his own front door, shut it behind him, and stood in the hallway breathing slightly faster.
He didn’t bother going upstairs and immediately pulled the box from his coat and held it up.
It had already started. The faint mechanical click of the mechanism engaging, the small sound of it catching, and then Zara’s voice came through.
She told him he could take his time, that she wasn’t in any hurry to know the distance between them. Then the hazy figure, how does a person appear that way, and did they know magic.
A pause.
"Are you able to do magic too?"
The message ended.
Percy waited a moment to confirm the message had truly ended. Then he raised the box and spoke.
"I appreciate your patience. I still don’t have an estimate of how far we are yet and I’ve been busy with other things." He paused briefly. "To answer your questions, the hazy figure is a person known as a Haunted. A Haunted is someone who can use magic, as you’ve described. And I too can use magical abilities, since after all I’m a Haunted myself."
He shifted the box slightly in his hand.
"But mind you, not all Haunted possess the same ability. It can vary quite a bit. Also it would be best to keep the knowledge about haunted a secret too since you might not know whether they would target you for knowing ."
He stopped there and let the message end.
Then he stood and waited.
He wanted to see what the box did next before Dana or Mrs. Callyst came looking for him. It was a practical enough reason to stay put and he was curious besides.
A few minutes passed. Nothing happened. He was beginning to think he’d need to wait longer when the box gave the first sign , a barely perceptible shift, something he felt in his palm before he saw anything. The weight gradually began going first, he could still see it clearly in his hand but it felt like holding nothing.
Then the edges began to go. Slowly, as though something was pulling it back from the outside inward, almost like a drawing disappeared under an eraser stroke.
Then it was completely gone.
Percy looked at his empty hand for a moment.
"So regardless of where it ends up it returns to its original position." He turned his palm over once.
"Weight goes before the visual. But the question is whether it’s the opposite coming the other way or the visual first, then weight. And does it appear somewhere hidden or just wherever it happens to land."
He filed it away and headed upstairs. His room was quiet. He opened the cupboard.
The box sat exactly where he kept it.
He looked at it for a second, then closed the cupboard.
"Something to test another day."
He headed back out and down toward Mrs. Callyst’s house, shelving the thought for now.
---
Percy found himself standing in the white space again.
"Again."
He looked around slowly. White in every direction, the same as before , no walls visible , he could see no edges, nothing to orient himself against. He took a step and heard the wet sound beneath him, felt it faintly through his soles. The floor was white too, a thin spread of liquid that hadn’t quite reached his feet properly.
"What kind of dream is this."
He started walking. No particular direction, just forward, since forward was the only thing available.
Then he saw the figure again.
Far away, tall, standing still. Percy squinted but the distance swallowed the details. He couldn’t make out the face or much else but the clothes were clearly a man’s.
The figure took one step toward him, like last time.
Still too far to see clearly. Still just a shape against the white.
Percy tried to close the distance. His legs moved but something stopped him once again, the same invisible wall as before, no shape to it, no surface he could press against.
He turned and walked the other way instead.
His eyes opened.
Familiar ceiling above him. He sat up quickly and stayed still for a moment, waiting for the details to dissolve like usual dreams he would have but they didn’t. He could still vividly remember everything.
"That’s strange."
He sat with it for another moment.
"I should ask Lyro if it’s related to being a haunted or not." He paused on that. "No. Charles. If he’s available."
