Attracting Shadows

“You seemed like you wanted to talk to me about something?” Senka asked Beth. While John, Vivian and Aeolia had moved to the kitchen to do a final review of the beacons to ensure they worked as designed, the petite girl had caught the spirit’s attention and they causally hung back to gain privacy.

In truth, Senka had an inkling just what was on Beth’s mind. She hadn’t planned on trying to encourage an expansion of their little group right after she joined it but the smaller girl had presented too good of an opportunity when she interrupted them.

‘I would have liked to take things slow,’ she had thought shortly after. ‘Enjoy things with John and the girls, slowly bring up the idea of including Beth or Teri or whoever we may later meet and click with but that path has been closed off. Best to make the most of it.’

“I think you’ve got a good idea what’s on my mind,” Beth answered, her arms crossed under the slight bust in a defensive posture, her body slightly curving into itself, making her look smaller than she already was.

Unable to keep from teasing her, Senka feigned ignorance though she was unable to keep a smile from her lips. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“You know damned well what I’m talkin’ about,” Beth hissed. “You wouldn’t be smiling like that if you didn’t. Got an older sister, remember, and she would do the same thing when she knew something I wanted in on.”

Senka’s amused expression dropped into a serious one and she bowed her head and quickly said, “I apologize. It was not my intention to conjure such a comparison.”

“Ugh, it’s not like you could have known,” Beth muttered, obviously uncomfortable with the whole situation. “Just be straight with me.”

“Well, that wouldn't be the phrase I would use,” Senka remarked amusedly before reigning in her emotions and adopting a more serious expression. “But you’re right, it's time to stop beating around the bush. I presume you think I am trying to induct you into our intimate relationship, yes?”

Beth took a moment to process Senka’s question before answering, “Um, yeah, I guess. You don't need to use all the fancy words you know.”

“Can’t help that,” Senka said. “If you want, you can put the blame on John for being smart and passing that to me.”

“He pass this whole harem idea to you?” Beth asked.

“Something like that,” Senka answered. “Not as a directive, of course. More like he had that kind of desire deep down, buried but brought back towards the surface when he entered into his relationship with Aeolia and Vivian. I’m not sure why they affected me that way. It could be because John first used my vessel to come to Aeolia’s rescue that tied his relationships to my development.”

“And now you're going around looking for more chicks for him,” Beth said. “Got to catch ‘em all, right?”

“Do you really think John is the sort of guy who’d want that kind of thing?” Senka asked, her expression hard as stone.

Beth averted her eyes and answered in a small voice, “No.”

“Then it’s a good thing that isn’t my intention,” Senka said gently, placing her hand under Beth’s chin and turning her gaze back to her. “I don’t want to bring in just anyone. Only the people who fit.”

“And you think I do?” Beth asked in a depressed voice. “You weren’t there but I bet you’ve got some memory of how I met them. Hell, you were in John’s head last night when I took his phone from him and answered his mom’s text. This whole thing’s a mess.”

“No one is perfect,” Senka intoned. “And John doesn’t hold those things against you.”

“Doesn’t mean he wants to throw me down on a bed either,” Beth grumbled.

“Perhaps not yet,” Senka said. “But I think in time he will.”

Beth snorted. “Yeah, like he’d pick someone like me when he’s got Vivian, Aeolia and you.”

“Perhaps this is going too far, but do you know what John likes in a woman?” Senka asked.

“How the hell am I supposed to know that?” Beth spat before she frowned in thought. “Probably the smart ones.”

“That covers Vivian and myself, if you don’t mind me singing my own praises,” Senka remarked in a light tone. “But Aeolia isn’t someone I’d use ‘smart’ as the first descriptor. By no means is she dumb but John would be tearing out his hair if he was stuck with some airhead.”

“No,” Senka continued. “In a word, Aeolia is ‘strong’. Not just in body or fighting skills, but in personality and willpower. But that trait is something she shares with both Vivian and myself.”

‘And Teri, but let’s not over complicate things,’ Senka thought privately. ‘Best to keep things focused on Beth. Don’t want her to lose faith that John could see her romantically.’

“And I think you fit in that category too, Beth,” Senka finished. “Not that it’s the only quality that makes you stand out. Things would be fairly boring if everyone just ticked the same boxes without other things to add spice.”

A rueful smile crossed Beth’s face. “Maybe. But I’m just the punk bitch. I don’t have any grand aspirations. I just want to go about things freely.”

Senka smiled. “You know a bit of how school life is for John, right? How people like Frank and Vanessa treat him?”

Beth tensed slightly. “Yeah, I’ve had my own run in with them. I can imagine how they’ve messed with John.”

“In some ways, he’s chained down. Despite gaining friends and more, and all he’s seen in the past few days, he is still concerned about them,” Senka intoned. “I gave him a small peptalk and that seemed to work, but…”

“But you’re afraid he’s still got the old wounds ready to open up, right?” Beth cut in.

“It’s only natural to worry over people you care about,” Senka said. “And it’s only natural to hope that the best of people they hold close rub off on them. You strike me as someone who doesn’t care what those sorts of people think.”

“I mean, I don’t,” Beth shrugged, “but it’s not like Vi and Aoelia are the kind of people to let those brain dead A-listers run over John.”

“True, but they can’t be there to stand by him during school hours,” Senka remarked. “And while I can provide words to boost his resolve, having someone physically there is something he’d appreciate.”

Beth frowned. “They do have some weird hateboner for him. Miss Queen Bee and some of her flunkies tried to corner me yesterday.”

“I recall you telling John about that,” Senka intoned, a small smile gracing her lips. “You caused her a bit of discomfort.”

“Well, she deserves a bit of that,” Beth said with her own grin. “Okay, think we’ve gone off track a bit. So how are we doing this?”

“Slowly, I’m afraid,” Senka answered. “This is a delicate situation and if we move too hastily, it could sour things. I need to broach the issue with them.”

“That’s fair,” Beth remarked with a sigh. “Man, why did I have to get the hots for complicated people?”

“It does make things all the sweeter when they work out.” Senka smiled.

“Never been all that good at waiting for stuff,” Beth admitted. “I can, and I’m not going to rush in and fuck things up, again. I’ll be a good girl.”

Senka grinned and leaned closer, her breath tickling Beth’s face teasingly. “If this works out, I’ll be sure to give you a good reward.”

Beth shivered as Senka withdrew then pointedly looked away, failing to keep her expression neutral or blush free.

“That was a dirty move,” the shorter girl huffed.

“Think of it as me getting even for the earlier interruption,” Senka retorted. “Now, I think we need a bit of a cover story for why we’ve been having this heart to heart.”

“Vivian was spitballing on how I could apply my powers,” Beth said. “And, well, I’ve got some dark running through my mana and you’re, well, all dark, so…”

“We chatted about how my use of mana could translate to your own,” Senka finished, nodding. “Yes, that sounds like a good excuse. Anything in particular you talked about?”

“The big thing was me being able to ‘jump’ off the air by sticking the air together into something solid,” Beth summed up her chat with Vivian.

Senka hummed in thought as the pair slowly ventured out of the room.

“I’m far from an expert on this sort of thing,” the spirit said, “and I trust Vivian to not have come up with an impossible idea. Dark mana naturally pulls things in. I can see that aspect being the key to pull the air together.”

“Well, nice to have a second opinion that I could do it,” Beth remarked with a hopeful grin. “Ya know… Nah, forget it.”

Senka looked back to her, a curious expression on her face.

“Now I want to know,” the spirit quipped.

“Let’s just say some characters in One Piece can jump really, really good,” Beth answered as they reached the kitchen where John, Vivian and Aeolia were bent over the table, a large piece of paper laid across the table.

“You two took your time,” Aeolia noted as they entered.

“Beth had a question regarding my use of dark mana,” Senka explained smoothly.

“The air jump idea?” Vivian asked.

“Yeah, didn’t want to derail the product testing,” Beth said. “How’s that going, by the way?”

“Just getting them charged up,” John said, lifting one up. “Want to charge yours?”

“Yeah, might as well take care of my own charging,” Beth answered. John tossed it to her and she caught it easily. He turned to pick up another when Senka slid next to him and placed her hand atop his as he touched the beacon.

“You’ve been using a lot of mana today,” she said softly. “I think you deserve a bit of a rest. Let me take care of this.”

“You sure?” John asked. “I don’t mind.”

“It’s fine,” Senka firmly stated. “You’ve had to cut your mana to keep me summoned, it’s the least I can do.”

John smiled bashfully at her and nodded, his hand slipping out from under hers.

“So, just run mana into this, correct?” Senka asked Vivian.

The redhead nodded. “Yep. Pretty simple mana collection system. Soaks up any directed into the material.”

“Which is really weird for me,” Beth reported. “Is it supposed to be hard to not switch halfway to my normal sticky magic?”

“You might be too used to using your mana’s innate properties and are reflexively switching to them,” Vivian answered, stepping over to the struggling Beth. The redhead placed her hand atop of the one Beth held the beacon in and said, “Relax a bit. If you need something to think about to keep from reflexively using your mana, think of it like flowing into a bucket instead of infusing the disk.”

Beth stiffly nodded and Senka’s lip twitched into a small smile as she imagined what was going through the tense girl’s mind. John caught her amusement and asked, “What’s so funny?”

Beth’s eyes flashed with barely contained worry and Senka answered, “Oh, nothing much. Just had a thought that this might be the first step for Beth to learn how to air jump. Learning to control the various aspects of her mana and how to apply them to reach her desired effect.”

“You make a good point, Senka,” Vivian said. “Going back to square one might be the best way to figure out how to do what you want.”

Beth’s posture relaxed slightly, but a slight frown worked its way to her lips. “How come I didn’t have any issue with using Thornbite or burning my insides with the fire crystal?”

“If I had to guess on just the empirical evidence, I think that’s because your mana kept moving in those cases, generating the effect for each item, but effectively pools in the beacon,” Vivian speculated. “Your mana didn’t get the chance to apply its effect in those cases as it was converted or used by the item. The mana going into the beacon’s battery is far more static overall.”

“Guess that makes sense,” Beth said, her focus on the beacon.

“Feels like you’ve got it.” Vivian smiled and stepped away. Senka thought she caught a flash of disappointment flit across Beth’s face, before she smiled widely at Vivian.

“Yeah, mana’s going in just right,” Beth reported before turning her attention to John. “What was the charge speed again?”

“Ten minutes for a ten hour charge,” he answered. “For me that’s two mana every minute.”

“And that’s because of the limits of the charging array,” Vivian interjected. “Transferring too quickly could lead to a premature burnout of the array. I figured we’d prefer long term use instead of quick charging.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a good trade-off,” John said. “I’d hate for mine to burn out mid charge and leave me with a dead piece of metal.”

“I think an occasional review of them all with Observe might be in order,” Senka suggested. “Would give us an idea how they **** during normal operation.”

“Good idea,” Vivian said. “How about we check in three days?”

“Sounds good to me,” John answered. “That’ll be about six full charges, more or less. Should give us a good idea how they hold out.”

“As good as it is to get all this planned out,” Aeolia cut in. “Can we move to something a little less ‘worky’?”

Senka laughed. “Perhaps we should decide on what we’re going to watch next? John and Beth have had their picks, and I haven’t had the chance to find something of my own to share. It’s only fair for you or Vivian to make a suggestion.”

Aeolia shrugged. “I haven’t really watched a lot of stuff.”

“Neither have I,” Vivian confessed. “I preferred to read when I wanted some entertainment. Though I never had pleasant company to enjoy a show with me.”

“Sounds like me and John have to pick up the slack then,” Beth said with a grin. “How about we do a lightning round and just throw out some stuff? See if any of them sounds cool to ya.”

Senka smiled as John and Beth began to rattle off various shows and films they liked, continuing on long after the beacons were fully charged. They had amassed a good list of things to watch later when John looked at his phone.

“Geez, it’s been an hour already?” he remarked.

“Time flies when you’re having fun,” Senka sagely said. “I suppose it’s about time to go, right, John?”

“Yeah,” he replied. “It’ll take about thirty to get home. Don’t want Mom to think I’m hanging with a bad crowd and can’t keep my appointments.”

“It wouldn’t be good if she started to pry into things and found out your place of work has absolutely no footprint,” Vivian said. “I should probably set up something online in case she does.”

“Well, I’ll tell her we’ve got someone working on that and it’ll be ready ‘soon’,” John remarked. “The firm she works for had their website down for like a month while the people they hired dragged their feet with making an updated one.”

“Well, I still will feel safer with some cover story,” Vivian affirmed.

“Just make sure we won’t get flooded with calls to do whatever it is you said we’re doing,” Aeolia commented. “It could get annoying.”

“I wasn’t planning on putting a phone number on it, just a fake email,” Vivian reassured the winged woman. “We can talk about what we can put on this site to make things look convincing later.”

“Guess I should head home too,” Beth cut in.

“You don’t have to,” Vivian interjected. “Oh, I know. We could have a little bit of a girls’ night.”

A flash of indecision crossed Beth’s face and she said, “Ya don’t need to change up things for me.”

“It’s not like we really had any plans set,” Aeolia remarked with a shrug.

“I think it’s a marvelous idea,” Senka chimed in. “After all, isn’t Saturday night the ‘party’ night?”

Vivian perked up, her gaze shifting between Senka and John. “Actually, do you think you have enough mana so Senka can come?”

“You’re making that sound like you’re asking her dad if she can come out and play,” Beth pointed out.

John’s face twisted as if he tasted something sour. “Not sure how I like that comparison. And I’ve only got enough mana for about an hour and a half. Not exactly a lot of time for fun.”

The words had scarcely left his mouth when a popup flashed before him, angled in a way that Senka could read it without issue.

Think of this as a bit of a late Birthday gift. Don’t expect stuff like this on the regular. Have fun!
Senka’s manifestation limits paused for the next 8 hours. Sustain cost remains active.

“I suppose we could consider Thursday my birthday,” Senka mused. “I wonder how one repays the kindness of a supreme goddess?”

“By not wasting her efforts,” Aeolia suggested. “Looks like party time is on.”

“Wouldn’t want to disappoint her, I guess,” Beth muttered. “So, where’re we headed?”

Thanks again for reading this little story. If you liked the chapter, please hit that thumbs up, and if you want to support my writing, check out my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ScrapCrow. Get access to my chapters before they’re published here and join my private Discord.