Golden: The Collection

Chapter XI: The Night Before

I'm back and here to declare this hiatus to be officially over!
We having a waltz with them diff perspectives today. Please pardon the typos, as per usual.

8:42PM

Aureate threw herself on her bed, heaving an exasperated sigh into the empty air. The plush she'd had since sprouthood, Stuffy Flower, was being squeezed tightly between her leaf blades. Aureate fidgeted with the button eyes, the string on the back of her stem, the stuffing peaking out from a crook in her petals, all to no avail. Eventually, she gave up, casting Stuffy to her side as she mulled over her late mother's words in her head. She frowned, brows furrowed when she found she couldn't recite it word by word in her head.

You sure do a lot of thinking lately, princess.

Luz interrupted her thoughts. She hummed before issuing a command.

Come forth, Luz.

It'd been awhile since he last materialized, and had plenty of time to recharge. That much was evident, with his spirit-ly glow looking brighter than ever.

"Whatcha need?" Luz tilted his head at her. Her frown deepened at that, causing Luz's friendly demeanor to drop into a more serious one. He hovered around her, getting a good look at her face, expression quizzical and concerned.

Aureate shook her head, motioning for him to back away. "Im fine, Luz. I was wondering why you tend to switch between formal and common folk speak," she said simply.

Now it was Luz's time to frown.

"Uh, that is most certainly not the number one thing on your mind, but alright," Luz crossed his leaf blades. "I'm sure it's because I've been alive so long and witnessed so many time periods, I tend to talk differently sometimes, as the slang rubs off of me."

"That makes sense, apart from how you exclusively swap between formal and common folk speak. It's weird."

Luz averted eye contact, growing flustered. "Princess, badgering me about my mannerisms is not the best use of your time! I'm sure this wasn't even what you wished to discuss when you summoned me."

An involuntary smile crept onto Aureate's face, but didn't last long. Luz's words sunk in, and she began to look into them a bit deeper than she probably should've. Namely, the word, 'summoned'.

"What do you mean, I summoned you? I can't summon anything." Aureate asked. "A Gembearer is fully capable of forcing the spirit of their gemstone to materialize, even if it's against the spirit's wishes." Luz said, wording it in a way that he'd read it somewhere. "I've always called it 'summoning', because that's sort of what it is."

"I didn't know I could do that," Aureate reveled, eyes a bit wondrous, prompting a chuckle out of Luz. "There's a lot of things you don't know, Princess Solarex."

"Like what? You've merely been teaching me the basics, but I think I deserve to know, at least, of the more advanced techniques, yes?"

Luz looked like he wanted to lean against the bed frame—but didn't, as he would've phased through it—when a mischievous smile overtook his features. "Sure. For one, did you know you can turn invisible?"

The wondrous look Aureate had before was nothing compared to her expression now. Luz took it as his chance to continue, "In manipulating the lightwaves around you, you're able to make illusions, and that includes making yourself invisible. Though, that isn't the limit to manipulating lightwaves, so be sure to get creative!" The spirit winked.

"H-How do I manipulate lightwaves?!" Aureate demanded, eyes starry and shining.

"Princess, you said you solely wanted to know of the techniques. I can't teach you those just yet," Luz said, a sort of reluctance lacing his tone. Though, Aureate did not let it stutter her.