What Lies Beneath the Water

Look Outside the Box (55)

**Dahlia's POV**

Tomoe walked over to the cabinets and pulled out a glass bottle.  He then went through all of the cabinets and put in several herbs into the little bottle before handing it to me. 

"Give this to Aqua and tell her to drink it's tea twice a day in her mermaid smoothie.  It should make it so that her body accepts the power without consequences like the headaches."  He handed me the bottle and I felt bad because I knew that these herbs weren't going to taste good in a tea and it would make her awful smoothie even worse. 

"And with the introduction of her new powers it is even more imperative that you two stick to the rules we have placed.  It is also imperative that we start intense training with the two of you.  Aqua is going to have to learn to shut down the connection between you two, and you are going to have to learn to resist compulsion."  A shiver ran down my spine at the thought of learning to resist compulsion.  I had to watch Santino go through the process, and it was enough to make me weak in the knees. 

I nodded my head at the both of them and said, "But what about Uncle Vladimir, and Aqua's first period class?" 

"We will take care of all of that, but in the meantime just make sure Aqua stays relaxed and drinks the tea.  If you can, go to the beach with her, just please do notify us.  You can even take the three boys with you, but like I said, notify us."  I nodded my head once more before I pick Aqua up and walked back to our dorm room. 

On the way there, I saw Kal, Tyrus, and Silas who all flipped their shit out when they saw Aqua passed out in my arms.  I told them to calm themselves that she was fine, but to set aside free time on Saturday to go out to the beach.  They all agreed and went their way to their classes. 

As soon as I got to our dorms, I laid Aqua down on her bed and brewed her tea, which aroma was enough to make me want to projectile vomit.  I gladly poured it into her metal bottle and closed it to keep the aroma from engulfing the entire room. 

I stayed in her room for precautionary measures and started reading the Vetiti book.  I had become more accustomed to it and respected it as a separate entity to which it shows me what I need and not what I want. 

I let the book open itself and it flipped through the pages and landed on a page on compulsion.  The book went into the scientific specifics of compulsion.   It said: 

Compulsion is the action or state of forcing or being forced to do something.  It works by making a connection with someone through their eyes.  The eyes send a signal of submission to the brain.  This signal overrides all conscious thoughts and makes the victim a living corpse.  Only when the compulsion act is fulfilled, does the person regain conscious thoughts. 

Overriding compulsion is much easier said than done to those who do not possess the power of deflection.  In order to stop a person from being compulsed, they must rewire all-natural connections in the brain to shield the submissionary signal from coming through.  Doing this is excruciatingly painful. 

I ripped my eyes from the book feeling hopeless.  I knew what retraining your brain looked like; I had seen Santino go through it.  It was because of that reason that I didn't want to go through it.  I could be out for weeks just trying to keep the pain at bay. 

I closed the book and said, "Okay Vetiti book, I respect you and love the knowledge you lend me, but I need a way to go through this compulsion deflection without all the pain."  I asked it, and it opened to the same page as before. 

I groaned in frustration and read over the page again and again and again hoping to find something that I didn't read the first hundred times.  It didn't work and I ended up more frustrated than before, so I gave up and moved to my dimensional manipulation homework which made me more confused than the Vetiti book. 

"You are in a box, Dahlia."  Aqua coughed out and grabbed her bottle.  She took a drink from it and almost vomited before just shrugging it off and drinking more. 

"I mean I guess a room is sort of like a box?"  I questioned, and she facepalmed. 

"No, your mind is in a box and you are not going to understand any of those concepts unless you step out of the box and all the way out until you are out in the universe."  I was still confused and motioned her to further explain herself. 

She chugged down the contents in her bottle before slamming it down on her nightstand and turning back to me.  "Those concepts are beyond rationality, and once you truly understand that, you understand what it is teaching." 

"You've already lost me."  I stated plainly. 

"Dahlia, you are looking for answers within your box when the answers are in plain sight outside of your box in the universe." 

"What the hell are you talking about?  Did that smoothie fuck up your head?  Are you hallucinating?" 

"Box, Dahlia.  Remember your box!"  She said before snuggling under her comforter and quickly falling back asleep.  I was convinced that she was high off of the herbs from the tea that Tomoe gave me to give to her. 

Aqua kept mumbling in her sleep which made it harder to focus also because I couldn't get her box talk out of my head.  It made me want to set my dimensional manipulation book on fire and use it as a source of heat so that it could actually be useful for once. 

I threw the book across the room and went back to the Vetiti book which opened up to the same page, but when I reread it, my eyes focused on one line, "...they must rewire all connections in the brain to shield the submissionary signal."  Then it finally occurred to me that the book's wording was specific for me.  I was the shield in the blood bond, and my blood bond was the key.  I was too stuck in my box to realize it. 

"AQUA YOU ARE A FUCKING GENIUS!"  I shouted as I jumped around the room in happiness. 

She opened her eyes and tried to rub the sleep out of them.  "What did I do now?" 

"You gave me really good advice while you were sleeping that helped me out a lot." 

"Oh, well you're welcome?  I don't really remember." 

"That's probably because of that tea that Tomoe and Kou want you to drink twice a day in your smoothie.  Those are the herbs, and I put a cup of the tea in it already and you drank it."  I told her and she just nodded her head and opened up the bottle of herbs to smell it.  She then gagged at the smell and shut the bottle. 

"Don't you have classes to attend to?"  She asked me. 

"Nah, Uncle gave me the day of because of your stupid stunt.  I would have killed you if you actually died, you know?" 

"You would have already been dead, Dahlia." 

"There is always a way, Aqua."  I smiled and got up from my seat to grab my dimensional manipulation book. 

I stared at the book and Aqua and then back at the book.  I wasn't going to understand the subject if I didn't ask for help but asking for help was something that I despised so deeply.  It brought me back to my days at the farm when I was helpless and week.  I never wanted to be like that again. 

"Aqua, do you mind helping me out on dimensional manipulation?"  I asked very quietly. 

"Yeah, no problem!"  She smiled and patted the space next to her on her bed. 

**

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