Fragments of Ash Vol. 2 (Urban Fantasy)

Chapter One: Bookworm's Return

Ada was knelt on the living room floor, the sofas and tables were pushed to the edge of the room. She was looking over several pieces of paper, each with scribbles of insignias, signs, seals and runes. Her pen was starting to run out of ink; several hours of research, slaving over these images, doing nothing but researching, researching and researching, it was one of those day. Her obsession had taken over her but her results were as thin as always. The fireplace in the corner was beckoning to all the sheets she had, that's how frustrated she'd become.

Eleanor walked in with a tray of tea and cakes,

"What a mess," she said, "have you figured anything out?"

"Maybe, and don't worry, I'll clean up this time." Ada rolled her eyes,

"Isn't this stuff going to stress you out? You know we're clearing a nest tomorrow night right?"

"Yeah. I know," Ada said, "this is relaxing, trust me." Liar.

"Ah, well have you found anything?"

"This is the most progress I've made:"

Ada put a piece of paper in the centre of the pile, it had an incredibly complex and meticulous seal drawn on to it,

"See this? It's the seal on my chest, took a lot of research and memorisation to get all the details on exactly what it looks like, considering it only activates every now and then. I'm not always near a mirror." she said,

"Right, huh, why's it so complicated? I don't remember it looking like that."

"Because the version you saw was the skeletal structure of it that burned onto my chest. There are multiple spells layered on to this rune; the person who drew this," Ada tried not to stare at Eleanor, "was a master craftsman."

"Right, so is that why you don't know what it does? Because all the patterns are layered on top of each other?"

"I've managed to finally at least isolate one," Ada enthusiastically brought some out some other pieces of paper, they were also marked with pen, and made see-through with oil, "these five seals put together," she overlapped the pieces, "create a soul seal."

"Right."

"Which, if you look closely," Ada overlapped the piece of paper over the original picture of her seal, "is present here!"

"Wow, you've actually made some decent progress..."

"After several months, I guess so... I've still got a long ways to go though, I'm not sure what the soul spell is linked to, whose soul is it linked to? How does it affect me? And realistically, it looks like there are perhaps hundreds of spells threaded in here," she groaned, "I've literally learned thousands of seals in the past year, I only just managed to find the right ones, how many more 'til I find the others?"

Eleanor put her hand on Ada's shoulder comfortingly, "You'll find out eventually," she smiled,

"Thanks... oh yeah!" Ada remembered something, "I promised Ciel that I'd stay at his tonight, so-"

"No."

"What? Why?"

"Boys make girls exercise all the wrong muscles."

"Y-you can't be serious!" Ada blushed,

"Deadly serious. I don't want you messing up tomorrow because your silly hormones got in the way of your work," Eleanor crossed her arms, "got it?"

"Tch."

Ciel wasn't going to like that.