Chapter 26 - Ignorance

It shouldn’t have been surprising that Cris picked up Rapsodia di Miele – after all, Holly herself had learned the spell in the same manner. Yes, simple observation of an Ossia spell being performed was all that was required for a Resonator to be able to utilize the technique.

Holly carried a handful of freshly plucked calabash fruits, smiling at the small haul of them. She appreciated not just the capabilities of the sound-based magic they carried, but for her new ossia spell. Thankfully, her curiosity about where these strange spells originated from was answered by the Maestro during their walk back to the base camp.

“Huge Scherzando is where ossias come from in the first place,” said Mick.
“Huge?” questioned Holly.
“Huge.” Mick nodded as if that’d satisfy the plant.

“If Scherzando are left alone long enough they grow massive,” said Kat.
“They get smarter, stronger, and start developing ossias,” added Rob.
“How big is massive though?” was the more concerning question on Holly’s mind.

“Hmmm…” The four came to a stop, and Holly turned to face them.

“Probably about as tall as these trees,” Cris mused.
“Nah girl, you’re just saying that ‘cause you’re short. They’re definitely way bigger.” Kat patted the zalavan’s back roughly.

“Truth is, they can vary in size,” Mick clarified. “Depending on how long they’ve been left alone they grow bigger and stronger.”

Holly nodded slowly. That was… horrifying. She understood why hunters were paid to do what they did. She understood why Maestro comfort was prioritized. And she understood why the MA Offices had such ubiquity.

If there was no incentive to deal with the beasts, civilization would be overrun in no time. Especially with how many Scherzando she had seen on a nightly basis.

As they crossed through the base camp, Holly noticed Cris and the rest of his party were following her. She knew based on their trek last night that the MA Office was in the opposite direction. She did have her seeds and her knife on her, but her hands were full of the calabash. The safety of their company was much appreciated.

“Where are you planning on going next?” asked Cris of Holly as they pressed on into Ralevi proper.

“I’m not sure!” Holly said with a titter. “There’s so much to see!” she added.
“There’s a riverboat on the east side of town that leaves daily,” the other zalavan suggested. “Maybe you could take that down to its end. Something to see if you haven’t been on a boat before.”

Holly considered the idea. Perhaps when Cris and his party moved on, she’d do the same. They did mention at one point they’d been in Ralevi for a month now.

“How often do you move to a new city?” wondered Holly aloud.
“We kinda let the wind guide us.” Cris looked to his Maestro.

The man shrugged. “Pretty much. We had been moving from city to city for a while and decided to take a break here. It’s a big city with a lot to explore, but mainly we needed the break from traveling,” explained the Maestro.

“We’re starting to get a bit stir-crazy here, to be honest,” Kat chimed in.
“You’re starting to get stir-crazy,” Rob corrected.
“Okay look Mr. Crocodilian, just because you can wait forever doesn’t mean the rest of us are comfortable with it!” protested the cat.

Holly couldn’t help but giggle. This was nice.

They soon arrived at the hotel. Kat and Rob threw themselves into a couple of seats in the lobby. “You can take her to her room,” Mick told his Resonator.

“Shouldn’t be long,” Cris said with a short wave to his companions.

---

The trip up to the hotel room was awkward, neither zalavan uttering a word.

“Hey… Cris?” Holly finally worked up the nerve to speak as they reached her room.
“Yeah?”
“Umm… well I just…” She cursed her weak willpower as finding the words suddenly became difficult.

“What is it?” asked the lycoris.

She kicked herself mentally and forced her gaze to meet his. “I was wondering… why do they call you a girl?” she spoke of the curiosity that had been bothering her since she had met his traveling party.

His expression remained frozen for a moment, worrying Holly. She had good reason to be concerned as his countenance darkened considerably.

“They don’t… understand us,” he began, his voice low. “You and I both know how gender works for our people,” he paused, allowing Holly to confirm – which she did with a nod. “Right, well…” he trailed off, considering his next words.

“What matters to them isn’t what’s up here,” he pointed to the flowers atop his head, “but what’s down here,” his pointer finger fell to his waist.

Holly furrowed her brows. “But that’s just wrong. We’re not the same.” She wore her confusion openly, no mask required.

“Yeah, well thems the breaks I guess.” He shrugged. “I gave up on correcting them a long time ago. I guess it made more sense in our native tongue where we have pronouns to cover for flowers, fruits, and hybrids. The Maelish language isn’t equipped for a trinary sadly,” he explained.

That was a piece of trivia she hadn’t known. “We… didn’t always speak Maelish?” she questioned.

Cris snorted. “Nah. Stuffing us in the gardens, they wanted to make sure they’d always be able to trade with our Grand Malus’, so they killed our language and gave our ancestors only one option; speak our language.”

Holly could feel herself bristle up with annoyance. “But we’ve already adapted to their language. You should be called a boy,” she protested.

The lycoris chuckled hollowly. “Trust me girl, I’ve had this conversation a million times. They don’t listen. Kat and Rob tried to humor me, but I think Mick told them to stop.” Cris placed a hand on Holly’s shoulder. “Look, don’t worry about it. It’s fine. I’m glad that you’re mad for me, but it ain’t gonna change.”

She couldn’t contain the sparks of anger that festered under her skin. However – it was so weird. Why couldn’t respect be paid to him? Why weren’t Resonators respected as a whole? It didn’t make sense.

“Hey hey.” Cris pushed her chin up. “I appreciate it, I really do – but I’d feel bad if you lost sleep over me.”

Holly flinched, stepping back and tearing her eyes away from his, begging her cheeks to stop being so warm.

“Here.”

When she finally mustered up the courage to see what he had for her, she found a small vial being offered. It was filled with what looked to be fluff. She recognized it in an instant.

“Dandelions?” she asked. She wanted to accept them, but her eyes trailed down to the cluster of calabash in her grasp.
“Yeah, I was thinking about how to repay you for those cocas, and I thought that I wanted to see you with some dandelions.” He tapped his head just under one of his flowers. “You burned your hollies tonight, so I figured it was free real estate.”

The fluster in Holly’s face was so intense she thought she was radiating the heat of a fire element at that moment. She couldn’t form words, so nodding addressed his implicit ask. With the non-verbal permission granted, he slipped the vial into her jacket pocket and stepped back.

“Can’t wait to see them tomorrow!”

---

Holly stood in the bathroom of her little hotel room. She stared at the little fluffball of dandelion seeds. They were tiny, so a lot could fit in the small vial he gave her. There was an oddity she noticed about the vial.

Picking it up, she held it at eye level. She twirled it between her thumb and index finger, scrutinizing the contents.

“Hmmm…”

She left the bathroom and crossed the room to her balcony. Stepping outside, she gripped the vial with one hand and aimed her opposite palm out. “Chiaro Cielo Mattutino!” she called. Her eyes widened as she felt her rhythm connect with the vial, and then the seeds stored within. The spell cast as intended, a ball of yellowish-white light forming in her hand before firing out into the clouds above. The sky cleared, allowing the moon to shine brilliantly on the zalavan.

The now clear skies were of no consequence to her – this vial was made of some kind of rhythm-conducting material that allowed her access to its contents without having to open it up. While not useful for her bigger seeds, this would make organizing smaller seeds so much better!

She had to get ahold of an organizational system like this for her own usage.

For now, she returned to the bathroom. Once more facing herself in the mirror, she plucked some of the mass of dandelion from its container, carefully drawing some of the tiny seeds contained within and massaged them into either side of her head.

“I hope he likes them…” she mumbled to herself. It took only a moment for her to realize what she had said, and immediately tore her gaze from her own reflection.

Whatever was happening to her was terminal, that much was certain.