Thread:Enchanteddragons/@comment-32460917-20190614051425/@comment-32460917-20190619083537

The behavior of the shadows made it very clear to Altair that someone was watching. With that in mind, she simply used the other objects in her room to monitor the suspicious shadow. Small eyes sprouted from the air, prompting Chan to sigh.

"I get how strung up you are on security, but does it matter that much?"

"Apparently it matters enough to whoever sent it."

"Fair enough."

~ ~ ~

The shadow eye next to Galaxian continued to be very stare-y.

~ ~ ~

Altair's final destination was a circular room designed with an astrological motif. The high ceiling was colored darkly and speckled with symbols not dissimilar to the stars and moons on Altair's clothing. It was next to one of the prominently moon-shaped symbols that the witch hovered. Chan, meanwhile, took a seat next to a sun symbol embedded into the wall.

"So." Altair crossed her arms. "You want to get rid of the spell right? What have you tried?"

"Nothing, actually." Chan admitted rather sheepishly. "I didn't want to make things worse so I didn't try messing with anything.

Chan's response was met with a theatrical sigh from Altair. "Alright alright, I guess we have to start from the top. How did you cast the spell?"

"Well you gave me this big magic textbook and told me to read a page, I still didn't understand so I cast something on my own-"

Altair buried her face in her hands. "So why are you asking me? You didn't even follow the spell I showed you!"

"You're smart! I thought you'd know something." The goddess fired back.

The witch grumbled under her breath. "Whatever. What did you cast then, if it wasn't my spell?"

"An application of my powers over memory, mostly. It was a spell to make everyone forget that I existed. Specifically, it made people forget my presence until, well, they bumped into me or I talked. Both of those things kind of can't be possible without a presence so they cancel out the spell. Only temporarily though."

"Honestly it kinda sounds like you made a wish and then it was granted." The witch replied with a huff. "It does make sense though. The powers I got from you don't need any symbols, runes, or words to activate, and I'm guessing it's the same for your other powers too."

"Yeah... they're based on emotions, unsurprisingly." Chan leaned forward, hunching her shoulders. "For instance, I can only use my whimsy powers if I'm calm or happy."

The shadow eye blinked. Altair's eyes, on the other hand, only narrowed, "Guess you must be pretty happy right now then. In that case, it might help to remember how you were feeling when you cast your spell."

Chan gave the witch a small nod and closed her eyes, trying to recall. It wasn't long before she ended up at a familiar wall of blue and purple fire.

"I think... fear? And maybe a little bit of sadness. I did something to the humans before and that's why they were chasing me. That's probably what I was sad about. Still, I didn't want to be found so I kept running. Then... I got caught. And then I came back. Got caught again..." Chan's eyes were open at this point, but they were blank.

Altair coughed. Chan jolted back, her usual poker face replaced with a look of actual shock. "There's a crack, I guess." The witch remarked. "Did you remember?"

Just a hazy image beyond a screen of flames. "A little bit. Should be enough, hopefully."

"Good good." Altair yawned. "Need me any more or...?"

"I think talking it out to someone might help." Chan responded, her voice swelling with excitement. In contrast, Altair had to suppress a groan.

With no words of dissent from Altair, Chan continued. "I think the 'side effect' had something to do with my inability to control my powers. In the past, the output was always too much, an example being our transfer of course." She swung up a hand to point at Altair. "I didn't mean to give you almost a third of my power, but it's yours now anyway so I don't mind."

"This part I don't remember as much of. The gist of it though is that I tried using my powers on a human but, like I said, the output was too great and I ended up hurting them. It wasn't just one either, it was definitely more than several. Because of all of those accidents, the humans wanted me dead. I was a pest, you see? All the people who ran into me got hurt so they thought the only way to stop me from hurting more people was to kill me."

Altair didn't really see, but the point from earlier had at least stunned her out of her bored demeanor.

"You know I can regenerate right? I'm pretty sure I was hurt when I first barged in, so you saw my body pull itself back together. It was the same when they killed me the first time, I just healed back up. Grew back my head, grew back my skin, and kept running. Despite how many times that happened though, the humans would keep chasing me again."

"I'm pretty sure the reason my magic was sealed away was because it was what started it all. You said my powers felt like they were meant to grant wishes right? I guess a part of my 'wish' then was hoping all of that struggle had never started."

At the end of Chan's story, all the witch did was tilt her head. "Alright, now what about your solution? Did your talking lead you nowhere?" Her head abruptly righted itself. "Wait, if you can grant your own wishes, just wish for your spell to go away! It's as easy as that."

Chan shook her head vehemently. "It involves my emotions too. I can't get rid of it if I'm still afraid."

"Then stop being afraid! Do you need me to give you a pep talk or something? You're a deity and they're tiny humans! Plus, you can regenerate from anything, why are you afraid of them?"

Chan exhaled, clutching her chest. "You do realize most fear is irrational, right? Besides, aren't you afraid of them too? Or was all that talk about surviving and avoiding humans just an excuse?"

Altair promptly clammed up at that, giving the goddess an opportunity to suck in more breath. Even if she was starting to clear up the haze in her mind, she had to peel back layers and layers of built up negativity. As her lungs tightened with every breath, she could feel the black liquid start bubbling up her throat.

An awkward pause ensued. Altair seemed reluctant to start blabbering again, and Chan was fighting the urge to vomit.