Christian spread an old blanket on the stone patio at the back of the house, since the ground was still damp from the frequent rain, and added a pair of cushions on top. Pearl settled herself on one, her injury healed and no longer interfering; Christian kicked his running shoes off before he joined her, legs crossed in a mirror of her position.
The feral colony’s big orange overlord lay in his favourite place on top of the picnic table, enjoying the sun and watching his people. That currently meant sharing the top of the table with a diminutive black and white female with extra toes. Eavesdropping via her senses had been an uncomfortable experience, since she’d been in the middle of a stalk-and-pounce that had taken down a pigeon nearly as big as her with such lethally effective skill he was quite sure it scarcely had time to realize what was happening and no time at all to react. It wasn’t like she had to, he made sure they had food available, but cats were cats and if he wanted them around, he had to accept them as they were. She’d eaten it, at least, after diligently plucking the feathers so she could reach, each mouthful followed by a vigorous shake of her head. And her emotions throughout the hunt and meal had been... uncomplicated, the satisfaction of a creature fulfilling drives millions of years old and doing it at a superlative level.
It had still been a lesson in being careful when making contact, because he had no idea what he might find, and the sensory flood could be strong enough to make it difficult to untangle himself quickly and break the connection.
“You’re fortunate to have such a beautiful place to work,” Pearl observed. “Among other options for places to work when your needs are different.”
“Yes. I’m extremely grateful for my family, and I miss them. Well, obviously I don’t miss them all the way back to the eighteen-fifties when the house was built or before that all over the world, but I’m still grateful to those ones. I miss my great-aunt and grandmother who died and my parents and grandfather who moved.”
“I understand. Family matters to kitsune too. We have... clans might be the best translation, and the more powerful look out for the less, and the less in return often run errands or do what we can to help the more, which can give us opportunities as well to grow. We often wander alone, but we can always go home.”
“When you were hurt?”
She grinned. “I suppose I could have called for help, and someone from my family would have come, but I’d have had to go home with them and it would have interrupted my exploration of this part of the world. And I wouldn’t have made a new friend. And a higher-level kitsune stepping into this reality near here would almost certainly have upset your lamia friend, even if it was only briefly. And I’d likely have gotten at least one lecture on carelessness.”
“Makes sense.” He wasn’t going to point out that it made the ‘rescue’ much less of one, and therefore altered the perceived ‘obligation’ to repay him with lessons. He had no idea what the kitsune perspective might be or whether it would offend her. “But I’m glad you weren’t in bad danger.”
“Mm. So. You’ve been practising.”
Christian nodded. Alexandra had even conceded a respite from her chase games around the house, to let him focus on learning as much as he could from Pearl while she was here. “I can drop in on Sid in the house, and get a really vivid impression of what he’s sensing. It isn’t perfect, but it’s better than the first couple of times, and it’s clearer if I touch him but obviously that’s only helpful at super-close range. And I think I’m getting surface-level emotions along with it, but I think that might be because I’m picking up the physical responses to the emotions, heartbeat and muscle tension and that kind of thing, rather than getting emotions directly, because that isn’t really the same thing.” The differences between his senses and Sid’s, and the no-contact exchange of information, had made it a considerable effort in multiple senses and the results had been fuzzy at best, but growing more distinct each time.
She nodded in turn. “That seems plausible, and strongly suggests that you still have room to grow within this particular skill.”
“As long as I’m outside, I can do it with my feral cats, too, although not quite as well. None of them seem to mind, although they do notice. I’m still not having any luck with anything other than the cats, though.”
“Well, you are quite attuned to them. You’re kind to the wild things but protective of the cats. That isn’t a bad thing. This is not a skill that is common to human witches. It does share some common ground with summoning, since it involves connection and interaction and communication, but there are some significant differences. That attunement to the cats might be helping you to make the necessary contact and achieve the rapport you need. You are determined and diligent, and I think that given time and the foundations you already have, you’ll be able to expand beyond the cats to others.”
“Can I ask, without being offensive, why you offered to teach me this in particular? I’m absolutely not complaining in the slightest, it’s fascinating and I definitely intend to keep working on it until I get better at it and I’m not limited to the cats anymore, but were you expecting me to be able to pick it up?”
Pearl laughed, that staccato fox-bark sound she made so often. “You’re Ruth Terevan’s nephew. That it would be a success at least with the cats was very probable.”
“You know my aunt?”
“I know of your aunt and her affinity with cats. And everyone knows about Terevan witches and summoning.”
“Really? Do I want to know what it is that everyone knows? Should I be worried?”
“You’ve had ancestors who were clever and creative and curious, and that attracted the interest of kitsune that were around at the time. Terevans often have a knack for summoning and a... a sort of family culture that encourages it, among other things. And it is highly likely that Terevans will tell the truth, keep their word, and not try to use direct or indirect force. Nothing terrible. Kitsune talk and we have a long collective memory. There is nothing at all that should worry you. So. I know of your aunt and your family, so I felt it would be insulting to offer to teach you something too simple or common.”
“I see.” So the challenging skill was actually a compliment of sorts, even if it was to his family in general and not to him as an individual. “I’m glad our reputation is a positive one. I’ll do my best to live up to it.”
“I have no doubts at all about that. And I have no doubts that you’ll master this skill completely, given time. You know how it works, I don’t think you really need me. I’ve explored a lot of this city, and I think it might be time for me to move on.”
“Already? No, it’s been a couple of weeks, hasn’t it?” He’d been so fascinated he’d lost track of time. “That’s how long you planned to be around.”
She smiled. “I’ll come back in two or three months to see how you’re doing and whether you have questions or anything. I promise, and kitsune don’t break promises. If for some unfathomable reason I absolutely and completely cannot make it within a reasonable time, I’ll ask a kitsune friend to come in my place, but I don’t think that will happen. It wouldn’t be hard to convince one, though, if I tell them about the warm welcome here.”
“Hospitality matters.” He considered it to be the place where compassion and courtesy intersected, in many cases. “I’ve enjoyed having you stay here.”
“Yes, and thank you. So. Let’s see what we can do about refining this particular skill and giving you a clearer connection. I think it might be the most useful approach to concentrate on the cats for the time being, and once you are truly comfortable with them, then choose a single species other than the cats and focus on them. I think you won’t need many specific species before you find you can reach anything. The chickadees are cute and often around, as are the sparrows, but you might find the squirrels easier, birds are... a bit alien. And the squirrels are so accustomed to human presence that I suspect they’d be receptive.”
“Cats, then squirrels... so the raccoons that show up now and then, since they interact with humans less than squirrels do, would be harder?”
“Probably.”
“And birds are very different which also increases the difficulty. Got it.” That limited his options considerably, but she was right: he had the basics, now it was a matter of stretching magical muscles and mastering the required skills.
She laid her forearms on her knees so she could offer her hands palm-up; Christian laid his over them, straightening his spine and closing his eyes.
Lessons with his family, even when superficially similar, were simply two witches doing roughly the same thing at the same time, and they both had to verbalize in order to communicate.
Pearl, on the other hand, could create a psychic connection with him not unlike the one he was working on with the cats, except that it allowed two-way communication without words. She had initially demonstrated what to do and he’d imitated it as best he could; now, he did his best to reach out to the ferals over on the picnic table. At least they weren’t doing anything potentially disturbing, just relaxing in the sun. She could, somehow, perceive what he was doing, and offer little corrections and suggestions.
He expected it to tire him less than it had the first time—repetition helped to build endurance, after all. Everything was ready in the kitchen for him to quickly throw together post-lesson tea and snack, though he thought she needed it much less than he did and had been indulging for more social reasons. If she was leaving, well, she had nothing keeping her here, and at least he could hope that she left with good memories.
Christian spread an old blanket on the stone patio at the back of the house, since the ground was still damp from the frequent rain, and added a pair of cushions on top. Pearl settled herself on one, her injury healed and no longer interfering; Christian kicked his running shoes off before he joined her, legs crossed in a mirror of her position.
The feral colony’s big orange overlord lay in his favourite place on top of the picnic table, enjoying the sun and watching his people. That currently meant sharing the top of the table with a diminutive black and white female with extra toes. Eavesdropping via her senses had been an uncomfortable experience, since she’d been in the middle of a stalk-and-pounce that had taken down a pigeon nearly as big as her with such lethally effective skill he was quite sure it scarcely had time to realize what was happening and no time at all to react. It wasn’t like she had to, he made sure they had food available, but cats were cats and if he wanted them around, he had to accept them as they were. She’d eaten it, at least, after diligently plucking the feathers so she could reach, each mouthful followed by a vigorous shake of her head. And her emotions throughout the hunt and meal had been... uncomplicated, the satisfaction of a creature fulfilling drives millions of years old and doing it at a superlative level.
It had still been a lesson in being careful when making contact, because he had no idea what he might find, and the sensory flood could be strong enough to make it difficult to untangle himself quickly and break the connection.
“You’re fortunate to have such a beautiful place to work,” Pearl observed. “Among other options for places to work when your needs are different.”
“Yes. I’m extremely grateful for my family, and I miss them. Well, obviously I don’t miss them all the way back to the eighteen-fifties when the house was built or before that all over the world, but I’m still grateful to those ones. I miss my great-aunt and grandmother who died and my parents and grandfather who moved.”
“I understand. Family matters to kitsune too. We have... clans might be the best translation, and the more powerful look out for the less, and the less in return often run errands or do what we can to help the more, which can give us opportunities as well to grow. We often wander alone, but we can always go home.”
“When you were hurt?”
She grinned. “I suppose I could have called for help, and someone from my family would have come, but I’d have had to go home with them and it would have interrupted my exploration of this part of the world. And I wouldn’t have made a new friend. And a higher-level kitsune stepping into this reality near here would almost certainly have upset your lamia friend, even if it was only briefly. And I’d likely have gotten at least one lecture on carelessness.”
“Makes sense.” He wasn’t going to point out that it made the ‘rescue’ much less of one, and therefore altered the perceived ‘obligation’ to repay him with lessons. He had no idea what the kitsune perspective might be or whether it would offend her. “But I’m glad you weren’t in bad danger.”
“Mm. So. You’ve been practising.”
Christian nodded. Alexandra had even conceded a respite from her chase games around the house, to let him focus on learning as much as he could from Pearl while she was here. “I can drop in on Sid in the house, and get a really vivid impression of what he’s sensing. It isn’t perfect, but it’s better than the first couple of times, and it’s clearer if I touch him but obviously that’s only helpful at super-close range. And I think I’m getting surface-level emotions along with it, but I think that might be because I’m picking up the physical responses to the emotions, heartbeat and muscle tension and that kind of thing, rather than getting emotions directly, because that isn’t really the same thing.” The differences between his senses and Sid’s, and the no-contact exchange of information, had made it a considerable effort in multiple senses and the results had been fuzzy at best, but growing more distinct each time.
She nodded in turn. “That seems plausible, and strongly suggests that you still have room to grow within this particular skill.”
“As long as I’m outside, I can do it with my feral cats, too, although not quite as well. None of them seem to mind, although they do notice. I’m still not having any luck with anything other than the cats, though.”
“Well, you are quite attuned to them. You’re kind to the wild things but protective of the cats. That isn’t a bad thing. This is not a skill that is common to human witches. It does share some common ground with summoning, since it involves connection and interaction and communication, but there are some significant differences. That attunement to the cats might be helping you to make the necessary contact and achieve the rapport you need. You are determined and diligent, and I think that given time and the foundations you already have, you’ll be able to expand beyond the cats to others.”
“Can I ask, without being offensive, why you offered to teach me this in particular? I’m absolutely not complaining in the slightest, it’s fascinating and I definitely intend to keep working on it until I get better at it and I’m not limited to the cats anymore, but were you expecting me to be able to pick it up?”
Pearl laughed, that staccato fox-bark sound she made so often. “You’re Ruth Terevan’s nephew. That it would be a success at least with the cats was very probable.”
“You know my aunt?”
“I know of your aunt and her affinity with cats. And everyone knows about Terevan witches and summoning.”
“Really? Do I want to know what it is that everyone knows? Should I be worried?”
“You’ve had ancestors who were clever and creative and curious, and that attracted the interest of kitsune that were around at the time. Terevans often have a knack for summoning and a... a sort of family culture that encourages it, among other things. And it is highly likely that Terevans will tell the truth, keep their word, and not try to use direct or indirect force. Nothing terrible. Kitsune talk and we have a long collective memory. There is nothing at all that should worry you. So. I know of your aunt and your family, so I felt it would be insulting to offer to teach you something too simple or common.”
“I see.” So the challenging skill was actually a compliment of sorts, even if it was to his family in general and not to him as an individual. “I’m glad our reputation is a positive one. I’ll do my best to live up to it.”
“I have no doubts at all about that. And I have no doubts that you’ll master this skill completely, given time. You know how it works, I don’t think you really need me. I’ve explored a lot of this city, and I think it might be time for me to move on.”
“Already? No, it’s been a couple of weeks, hasn’t it?” He’d been so fascinated he’d lost track of time. “That’s how long you planned to be around.”
She smiled. “I’ll come back in two or three months to see how you’re doing and whether you have questions or anything. I promise, and kitsune don’t break promises. If for some unfathomable reason I absolutely and completely cannot make it within a reasonable time, I’ll ask a kitsune friend to come in my place, but I don’t think that will happen. It wouldn’t be hard to convince one, though, if I tell them about the warm welcome here.”
“Hospitality matters.” He considered it to be the place where compassion and courtesy intersected, in many cases. “I’ve enjoyed having you stay here.”
“Yes, and thank you. So. Let’s see what we can do about refining this particular skill and giving you a clearer connection. I think it might be the most useful approach to concentrate on the cats for the time being, and once you are truly comfortable with them, then choose a single species other than the cats and focus on them. I think you won’t need many specific species before you find you can reach anything. The chickadees are cute and often around, as are the sparrows, but you might find the squirrels easier, birds are... a bit alien. And the squirrels are so accustomed to human presence that I suspect they’d be receptive.”
“Cats, then squirrels... so the raccoons that show up now and then, since they interact with humans less than squirrels do, would be harder?”
“Probably.”
“And birds are very different which also increases the difficulty. Got it.” That limited his options considerably, but she was right: he had the basics, now it was a matter of stretching magical muscles and mastering the required skills.
She laid her forearms on her knees so she could offer her hands palm-up; Christian laid his over them, straightening his spine and closing his eyes.
Lessons with his family, even when superficially similar, were simply two witches doing roughly the same thing at the same time, and they both had to verbalize in order to communicate.
Pearl, on the other hand, could create a psychic connection with him not unlike the one he was working on with the cats, except that it allowed two-way communication without words. She had initially demonstrated what to do and he’d imitated it as best he could; now, he did his best to reach out to the ferals over on the picnic table. At least they weren’t doing anything potentially disturbing, just relaxing in the sun. She could, somehow, perceive what he was doing, and offer little corrections and suggestions.
He expected it to tire him less than it had the first time—repetition helped to build endurance, after all. Everything was ready in the kitchen for him to quickly throw together post-lesson tea and snack, though he thought she needed it much less than he did and had been indulging for more social reasons. If she was leaving, well, she had nothing keeping her here, and at least he could hope that she left with good memories.
