THE KEEPERS RISE

Chapter 2 - Winds of Change - Part 2

*Remember to click the play button to listen to the soundtrack as you read!*

Miss Lexio gently picked up Velda and brought her inside. At first, Velda resisted the touch because she knew she was prickly, but a combination of logic and exhaustion forced her to give in. She was flickering in and out of consciousness, and that made it difficult to hold her with her prickles, but Miss Lexio managed, all the while thanking the fates for making meps immune to the poison of their own species. Cha was now attached to Velda with a pale stream of magic and spirit material. It was like a strange leash connecting the vaya's body to Velda's hand. This stream and Cha still didn't interact with the material world at all, but at least Cha was now visible, and it made every effort to help out. Once it was discovered that Cha could hold Velda, it was given the job to take her up the stairs and into her hammock while Miss Lexio washed her arms from the prickle cuts.

Days passed, and Cha watched Velda's condition fail to improve. As the magic took hold of her, a dark green streak began to appear in her top right fur prickle. During the rare moments when Velda woke up, Cha saw her eyes become ever greener. A few of the children came by to visit her, but Mortimer never appeared, and Cha began to wonder if it was out of spite or fear. Nevertheless, it was interesting for Cha to finally be noticed by material beings. It supposed that this was due to the faint magical glow that seemed to constantly surround it and Velda's Powerstone now.

Miss Lexio still had to care for Velda, of course. She brought her food and water and tried all the while to keep a calm demeanor, but Cha could see that she was disturbed by how Velda had changed. Cha had no choice but to keep track of Velda now. Cha was bound to the stone too, and though Miss Lexio had tried several times to help Velda's condition by yanking the ring off, it only came as far as her fingertip before being blocked by a green magical barrier.

The Powerstone binding was over and done for good, and both Cha and Miss Lexio knew that it was the reason she was so ill. A whole week went by with Velda never able to keep her eyes open for more than a few minutes.

On the seventh morning, when Miss Lexio sent a few meps up to the dormitory to bring the usual breakfast for Velda, Cha asked them, "How long has Velda been here at the orphanage?"

They were startled by Cha's voice at first, but then one braver one replied, "She's been here ever since I was a toddler, and I'm only a year younger than she is."

"Nobody knows who her parents were?" Cha asked incredulously.

"No. It's like that for most of us, you know." The mep went over to where Cha was sitting by the foot of the hammock and sat down beside it. "I never knew where I came from either. It's a miracle I'm alive. Miss Lexio is very caring if you give her some time."

Cha had been in vaya form simply because it was used to it. Now it did its best to replicate a mep body as it had first done when Velda had been bound to the Powerstone in the garden. The boy grinned in delight as he watched it transform. "I am sorry for all of you," Cha told him, "It must be a hard way to live, knowing that you may be forever without a family." Velda had mentioned during one of her transient wakeful spells that Cha needed to move its mouth when it was talking, so the vaya did its best to copy the boy's mouth movements.

"Yes, but at least Velda got one!" the mep said cheerfully. "She's got you!"

"What is your name, child?"

"San. Well, everyone calls me that. My real name is Santander. That's the name Miss Lexio gave me, at least. And you're Cha, right?"

"Chalchiuitl."