A Mother Knows

As Jasmine starts to leave the house, she stops when she sees several boxes blocking her porch, such as it is, “Umm… what's this?”

“Some things I ordered last night to make our lives a little more comfortable,” the ring chuckles, “exercise clothes, some dresses, a little mid-range jewelry to distract from my anchor, satin sheets, a wardrobe to store things, a phone, a tablet computer, some shoes, and a few other odds and ends.”

“And you didn't think to clear this with me because….?” The woman taps her foot.

“It didn't seem like a problem?” The mage is a little confused, “It's nice stuff, I used my money, and you'll get to use most of it too. Once unpacked and set up it will all fit in the one wardrobe. If room is a problem I can arrange a bigger place.”

Jasmine takes a slow breath, “Okay. Just… umm… talk to me before making any big purchases, please, this place isn't very large.”

“I can fix that…” the ring begins.

“Not right now, please,” Jasmine takes another breath, “I wouldn't want to be stuck suddenly unable to pay the rent or mortgage or whatever if you vanish on me.”

The symbiotic soul laughs, “Okay. That's actually a pretty sane response. Do we have time to get everything inside before we go?”

“Doesn't matter, we need to do it,” the woman shakes her head, “this area isn't exactly bad, but boxes left out all day tend to vanish, so we should get it all back into the apartment now.”

“All right.” The ring pauses, “Do you want me to take over, or…” Jasmine just groans and gets to work.

Ten minutes later, they're at the bus stop, watching the bus leave without them.

“Ugh. Mom's gonna kill me…” Jasmine rants, “Why'd you have to make me late for work?”

“Busses don't travel in a straight line,” the Mage shrugs, “How do you feel about me flying us there?”

“Ah, I don't think I want to advertise to the world what we are just yet,” the mortal objects.

“Flight and invisibility, then,” the ring amends, “it's how we got to the local dive last night.”

“So that part was real too, then…” the woman pauses and looks around… nobody nearby, “...fine. But we shouldn't vanish from plain view.”

“Not my first rodeo,” the ring thinks back as he walks them to some cover behind a tree… where he says a few words in a long-forgotten language, and they take to the sky unseen by mortal eyes. Just a few minutes later, they're landing behind the pawn shop, and canceling the spells.

“Ah… can I do that?” Jasmine asks as she walks around to the front of the store to unlock it and start the day, back in control.

“Yes and no…” the ancient entity answers from the back of her mind, as Jasmine turns on the “Open” sign, “I could craft a device to let you fly, but flying has a pretty steep learning curve, and you couldn't just think at it; you'd need to manipulate physical controls. Also, skeet.”

“Right… it was so fun, though…” she sighs, and gets out her phone to text her mother, “Hey Mom, no rush, but there's something important that I need 2 talk 2 you about in private. VERY hush-hush, in person ONLY. Nothing bad. Love you.” She adds a couple of hearts, and hits send.

Not ten minutes later, the white forty-something brunette Samantha Smith rushes in, her hair a mess and her shirt not yet tucked in, and gives her baby a hug, “So who's the father?”

Jasmine laughs, “I'm not pregnant, Mom, I…”

“So you're engaged?” Samantha interrupts.

“Ah, no, I…” she starts in.

…just to be interrupted by the bell over the door as a man in a mask walks in, raising an **** rifle and pointing it at the pair.

The mage takes over, speaking a word in an ancient tongue, causing glowing blue bands of light to appear around the crook, quickly closing and squeezing, collapsing his arms against his body and his feet together… which also forces him to drop the rifle.

“Oh, so you're a…” the older Smith turns back to her daughter, and she pauses as she looks into her eyes, “WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER?”

The symbiotic soul blinks, “You can tell?”

“A MOTHER KNOWS,” Samantha screams as she bends down to grab the discarded **** rifle, “WHERE IS SHE?!”

‘Well… this would be the shortest reset on record, but that's not actually going to hurt us long term…’ the ring thinks as he answers, holding up Jasmine's hands, “She's fine. She is in ‘the back seat’, so to speak, but she's still in here, seeing and hearing everything. I've done nothing to her without her consent. I acted now only to defend her.”

“So now that he's down, bring her back,” the older woman doesn't move her eyes from the possessed woman.

The why not is easily answered; the ring speaks, “The restraints will vanish when I do. We need to…”

He trails off, because the older woman hits the captive on the head, very hard, with the butt of the **** rifle, and the crook goes very limp as the echoes of a sickening cracking sound fade away. “PROBLEM! SOLVED!”

“Oh, mama,” Jasmine reaches out, back in control, as the restraints fade out of existence.

“She fractured his skull, he needs an ambulance or healing magic if he's to survive the next five minutes,” the ring warns his host from the back of her mind.

The woman drops the **** rifle and gives her daughter a hug, “Oh baby, I thought I'd…”

“Shh, shh, it's okay, mama,” the younger Smith reassures the elder, “it's fine. He wasn't lying, I agreed to this, even the emergency takeover… and I'm not even stuck, he'll leave for good if I want him to.”

“He?” The mother's ears perk up, “You're dating?”

“Not exactly, but we are very close…” the host begins, “...but can this wait until after the idiot isn't dying at our feet anymore? Go ahead and take care of it, please.”

The guest speaks a word and touches the man's head, popping the bone fragments back into place and accelerating the tissue growth just enough to fuse everything where it belongs. “There… and he's not going to remember any of this.”

“It's strange watching you two switch like that,” Smith the elder comments, “so you wiped his memory, then?”

“No, you did…” the symbiote hands control back to the body's owner.