Message from the author: Thanks so much for your patience, I've taken you critiques into account and hopefully this chapter is better than the last. Sorry for it taking so long as between work, and school starting up again it's been hard to work on this. Hopefully you guys enjoy it!
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Mia's room is on the east side of the house so she's the first to wake up to the morning sun. She stretches and smells herself. She stinks badly. She desperately needs a shower. She gets up and looks through the cabinets in the room, finding a white towel, embroidered with a Best Eastern logo on it. She takes the towel and some low rise jeans and a red v-neck shirt she had gotten last night and made her way to the bathroom. She gets her clothes off before looking into the shower. It was a simple system. Two knobs, one marked hot, one marked cold. She turns the hot knob and feels the water for a bit, ice cold. She shakes her head, turning off the hot knob and turning on the cold knob, thinking that the knobs had gotten flipped when it was installed. She feels the water again and once again ice cold. She sighs softly, turning off the water again. She wraps herself in the towel, looking down at herself. It is barely covered enough to be considered decent but it would have to do, the clothes she had stripped off were too dirty to put back on, maybe too dirty to save in the washer. She steps out of the bathroom. She opens Adrian's door, but much to her surprise he isn't in there. She looks down the hall and she sees the basement door is open. She comes up to the door and pushes it very softly. It creaks open, it is dark and quiet down there. She takes a deep breath, holding onto the towel and making her way down the stairs.
She makes it to the bottom of the stairs to find a dark basement. All the walls were covered in shelves full of books, bins and boxes. On top of one shelf is a bleached human skull, and all around it was assorted books that she couldn't make out the spines of, but they were well worn and cracked, like someone there is a voracious reader. Her eyes track around the room before moving inwards towards a large workbench. It was dirty, beakers, vials, stand alone Bunsen burners that had run out of propane, papers and journals, and right on the close end to her, sitting right in the middle, was a lump of leather. The shape of it tells her that it is Adrian fast asleep on the workbench. She takes a couple steps closer, seeing that he was holding a braided copper wire that had a few charms in it in his left hand, his right laid under his head.
"Well, the apprentice finally makes her way down here, and he knows how to choose them," A voice rang out, a proper British accent, "You've known him for less than a week and you're already giving him the bath towel treatment. How risqué," the voice cooed
Mia's head whips around trying to find the source of the voice, then her eyes spots it. The bleached skull on the shelf had two little motes of blue light coming from the eye sockets. She gets a chill down her spine and pulls the towel tighter around herself. Was it because it was cold in this basement or was it because she was talking to a skull she couldn't tell. She asks, "Who are you?"
The skull, its jaw moving in the mimicry of how a skull would move if it were alive and talking, answers, "Well, I am a spirit of air and knowledge, but you mortals are all about names so you can just call me Bob."
"Bob," she parrots, "Is that like your actual name?"
"No, darling. Us spirits of air and knowledge don't have names, but when we find ourselves under the supervision of a mortal mage, be it a wizard, sorcerer, warlock, or witch. We usually take a name suited for the dialect. For this area, it's Bob," Bob responds.
"Bob?" She once again repeats. She thinks about the name. The skull takes a name suited for the dialect where it is. That only drew more questions. She looks back at the skull and asks, "So if you were in Mexico, would your name be Juan?"
Bob rattles his teeth together and the motes of light turn into bright little pinpoints. They then suddenly flare back out and he says, "No I believe the air and knowledge spirits over there go by Alejandro this millennia."
Mia looks at the skull confused, but decides it was best not to think about that any more. She asks, "So are you a skull? Like a ghost haunting a shell?"
"No, I'm not the skull. Mister sleepy wizard down there just has a knack for the theatrics and gave this vessel to me to inhabit. My true form is non-corporeal."
"Non-corpore- what?"
"Non-corporeal. Not physical. Not real," The skull growls out, "Do they not teach you vocabulary in school anymore?"
"So you are a ghost?"
"No, ghosts are spirits of the dead that have not moved on from their mortal lives. They are nowhere near as smart as me. I am currently living."
Mia nods, starting to comprehend this thing. She asks, "Alright Bob, how long have you lived for?"
Bob chatters his teeth again, apparently that was his way of thinking. He finally says, "I'm nearly 1266 years old. Plus or minus a few years due to calendar changes and time spent in Faerûn."
"Faerûn?"
"Land of the Fae. Adrian calls it the fay-wilds, others call it the land of fairy but don't say that to any fay worth their weight in salt. Just kinda don't call any fay fairy. It's just incredibly rude."
"How so?"
"It'd be like calling you mortals, monkeys. It's just not a very polite word to say."
"Well if you're just a spirit in a skull why don't you come out here and show me your true form?"
The skull then yawns, somehow, and says, "No can do. You ain't my boss and my boss is currently asleep. As should I."
"Well Bob, then why is the water all cold? Is the water heater out in this place?" Mia asks, crossing her arms.
"Oh, the water. I'm sorry but I don't worry myself about things so mundane, here let me wake up my boss. You can ask him," The skull responds, before turning to look down at the sleeping form of Adrian. The skull shouts, "Adrian! Boss! Wake up, your apprentice is here."
Adrian jumps in his sleep, sitting up before his eyes open. He looks around, seeing the shadowy form of Mia before haphazardly waving his right hand around and the basement lights up with dozens of candles. He was wearing the clothes from yesterday, but had added a heavy leather coat over the top of them to stave off the chills in the basement. He yawns and says, "Good morning Mia. What are you doing in a towel?" His mind didn't seem to be all caught up just yet and likewise wasn't reacting correctly to seeing Mia in the towel.
"The water is cold," Mia states, crossing her arms again.
"Yeah, it's always cold," Adrian responds, still groggy.
"Why?"
"Well you see. Hot water heaters have tiny, sensitive, and crucial electrical components that make sure the propane gas in the tank doesn't get too hot. The magic coating this house would cause those components to fail. I'd prefer to not have a 50 gallon bomb next to my house."
Mia stops and thinks about that for a moment before saying, "That means no hot showers?"
