The Riddle Of Magic

Chapter 29: Aroma Arcanum

They didn't see each other again until the following evening. Alastor had kept to himself the majority of the day, lingering in his tower or in his study. He was reading when Charlie arrived, almost half an hour later than their lessons usually began.

His apprentice knocked so quietly he almost didn't hear her. The Pidgin's trilling alerted him as it hopped onto the back of the sofa from its perch on his shoulder. Its excitement roused the attention of the other shadows gathered nearby, and he flared his energy to make the lot scatter as he went to answer the door.

Only the smallest spectre remained, staring at him with abyssal eyes until the Radio Demon recalled it into the shadows of his glove.

He opened up the door, and saw Charlie waiting quietly, leaning against the opposite wall. She was dressed down tonight, wearing a baggy pink sweater, with black leggings and flat pink shoes. Her hair was barely tamed, hastily pulled back in a low, loose bun.

Her attire might have been appropriate for casting, but she looked as if she hadn't slept since their last meeting. "You're sure you're up for a lesson tonight? I'm going to insist on scripting, dear." Alastor told her.

She was clearly past the introduction for the rune, any further delays would just be her purposefully stalling - avoiding instruction.

"I'll be fine," Charlie mumbled, clearly feeling otherwise. There was a tension to her movement as she stepped across the threshold. She seemed on edge. Distracted. "Should we practice... here?" she asked as he closed the door. "Or maybe somewhere else, since we're not using the grimoires tonight?"

His smile tightened with annoyance as he looked back from beside the couch. She hadn't followed him, staring back at him from the wall near the door. "We're practicing here. These are private lessons, after all. Where else should we be?"

There was something like fear in her eyes, rubbing her arms anxiously. Something was worrying her about staying in his room. "I don't... think tonight is good for me, Al. Can we meet up later in the week?"

Alastor didn't feel like rearranging his schedule yet again. "If you mean to quit, just tell me and we'll get it over with, sweetheart. I've other ways I can spend my evenings!" He wasn't going to keep waiting for her, constantly playing second fiddle to whatever she deigned needed her attention more.

He might as well have struck her from the wilted look in her rose-colored eyes. "I'm not quitting; I... just don't feel like practicing today," she protested, though without much fight.

"Or most days, it seems like!"

The snide comment made her frown deepen. "I don't feel like putting up with rudeness either! Please excuse me." Her black lip quivered as she tried to keep her dignity, stepping back to the door and pulling it open.

A sense of doom crept over him, as though they were poised upon the edge of a cliff. "Wait!" he called, more strongly than he meant, so much so that she jumped as she turned back.

"Yes?" Charlie asked, her voice high and trembling, as though she might weep at any second.

The deer demon didn't know what he was doing; only that if she left now, something horrible would happen. He'd trusted his instincts all his life - and his afterlife - to keep him from oblivion, and he decided to hold to their warnings now. "That was discourteous of me," he apologized. "If you don't want to practice tonight, you don't have to. You can stay, if you want to simply visit." He went closer to the blonde demoness, keeping his movements slow. She looked much like a deer herself, ready to bolt if he moved too fast. "Please," he murmured. "Stay."

He was near the door but not blocking it. She could rush away, if she wanted to.

But she lingered still, conflict in her rose-colored eyes as she stepped back away from the door over toward the sofa.