"Urgh finally home!" Irene said flopping on her bed with her wet hair since she just finished taking a nice bath.
"Young Lady Irene! I know you're tired but let me dry your hair more first," Elle scolded as she saw Irene's wet hair touching the bedsheets.
Irene sighed and got up, she walked to the vanity. She sat down, Elle grabbed a soft towel and started to dry Irene's hair thoroughly. Irene felt really comfortable, she then looked at herself in the mirror.
Irene touched her face, still soft as ever, she thought. Irene's beauty was surely unmeasurable, she looked unreal with beautiful eyes and healthy long white hair. Irene felt proud of her looks in this life.
Can you stop admiring yourself?
Irene suddenly was ticked off.
"Please stop talking in my mind."
After Elle is done, we are having a talk.
"Yes, yes I know!"
"Undine is sure talkative"
I heard that!
Irene then ignored the bickers in her head, she did not notice Elle's glances at her.
"You're all grown up," Elle said teary, Irene looked at her awkwardly. "Uh, Elle! Don't cry! Um, I am still a child...ish well..." Irene tried her best to comfort the crying Elle.
"Your a sweet child," she responded with a small laugh, Elle patted Irene's head with soft smiling eyes. Irene just smiled and closed her eyes, Elle was really Irene's mother figure.
"Okay, now I am done, call me when you want to go to bed," Elle said getting ready to leave, Irene just nodded her head eagerly.
Irene watched the door carefully as it closed, "Undine, you can come out now," she announced which a ting water figure appeared in front of her.
"Hmph, how dare you ignore me!" Undine yelled as soon she came out, Irene just chuckled at this childish behavior. "Yes, yes I was wrong calm down," Irene said as she gave tiny pats to Undine.
"I am only going to forgive you since I, Undine-" Undine seemed like they were going to another speech about how amazing she was, Irene did not want that. "Please stop before you get ahead of yourself," Irene sighed as she shook her head.
"Fine."
Irene then explained her past troubles as Cha-hee to Undine, the spirit listened carefully and as anger slowly rose in her. "H-how dare they!" Undine yelled, started to bicker on how unfair Cha-hee's life was.
Irene watched, "Yeah, life is so unfair," she said as she was remembering everything that happened to her as Cha-hee and Irene. Suddenly something clicked in Undine's head.
"This cannot just be a coincidence," Undine spoke as they thought about more, it seems way too weird.
"You and original Irene had more things in common than just family issues," Undine continued to speak, "You guys must have been connected in some way!" Undine said as Irene watched her in shock.
"Yeah, let's not go there just yet," Irene said, they can't just jump to conclusions like that, of course, Irene has thought about that.
"Now, let's pretend to go to bed and summon the others," Irene said as she looked at the clock, Undine just nodded, but this bothered them really much. Undine, clenched her tiny fist, Sylph would know the answer about this... (Pop quiz, do you remember who or what is Sylph? Don't cheat, be honest!)
Irene later on called Elle, then her night routine continued as usual. Elle tucked her in no matter what age she was and kissed her on the forehead and left the door bidding Irene a good night.
"Phew, so who should we summon tonight?" Irene asked Undine who has been unusually quiet, Irene was a bit worried, "Sylph," Undine said calmly.
"Sylph?" Irene wondered why Undine wanted to summon them but decided not to question it. Irene took out her papers of the summoning circle and started to copy the summon circle of Sylph.
After Irene finished, she was sweating a bit. "So for the elemental of air I just need a jar of air?" Irene asked confused about what she needed to summon the Elemental of Air. (Who remembered?)
"Actually no, that is what is written in the books however, it still works without the jar," Undine answered while chuckling. Irene raised an eyebrow, not sure if she should believe this child.
"Air is around us, why do we need to collect air in a jar to summon Sylph," Undine said, "Yeah, that's more logical," Irene responded feeling kind of dumb.
Irene took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she kneeled on the ground; putting her hands in the middle. "From the ancient years, the living reason, the enlightened spirit of Air, I hereby summon Sylph!"
Like before parts of the circle started to light up one by one, Irene felt like she was getting sucked in again, however this time she was calm and had more control.
Undine trained her well for the past years, Undine taught Irene to learn how to control her elemental spirit energy in her also even taught her how to control her mana. These classes helped her improve more of swordsmanship.
Finally, a seeable gas figure appeared, Irene observed the little spirit, who didn't speak as soon they entered. After some seconds of silence between the three, Irene whispered to Undine, "What's going on?"
Undine started to sweat, you could tell small droplets of water falling to the ground, Irene looked at the water spirit with a mixture of confusion and worry. Irene continued to think, and finally, a memory clicked into her head.
Undine was trained by a Sylph!
Irene looked at the spirit of air, they looked wise and elegant, Irene felt a large pressure and presence of the little spirit. Irene wanted to break this silence and decided to introduce herself first.
Irene quickly got up and patted her legs and curtsied, "Um, I am Irene Gracia," Irene said nervous, and finally, she heard a voice.
"Nice to meet you," the spirit said, Irene, looked at the spirit who is now looking at her, examining her.
"You seem to be talented and not from here," Sylph said straight-forwardly. Irene took the hit and shook it off.
"Thank you, and your correct," Irene answered politely. "Undine, get the contract out, I like her," Sylph said.
Irene's eyes lit up, "Oh thank you!"
Irene had finally signed with her second elemental spirit, Sylph. Irene's energy was drained once she woke up in the morning, summoning spirits takes a lot of energy out of the user, Irene hated how it worked.
It was even worse than she had to wake up this morning due to class with Ralph.
"Why are you so weak today?" Ralph asked Irene as they were training, Irene was sparring with a dummy. Irene yawned, "I am tired that's why," Irene answered casually, Ralph grumbled.
"Not in my class!" Ralph yelled.
Irene's mornings were tiring.
She had to train with her elemental spirits learning how to use and control water and air then go to swordsmanship class.
However, this helped.
"Wow!" Irene said surprised as she controlled the flow of water with her hands, she was getting used to this. Undine smiled proudly at her.
Sylph's was harder to control, it took her some months before she could finally master it, Irene beamed as she realized she had finally made some decent wind currents.
"Hm, not bad," Sylph said calmly, in other words, Sylph was quite proud of her too.
Finally, she started to summon the third one.
"Oh, from the ancient years, the walking hell, the vigorous fire, I hereby summon Salamander," Irene said in the summon circle as the middle candle had shaped a small human figure with its fire.
Also it has spikey hair, Irene thought it was pretty cute.
S felt as drained as ever, but it was worth it.
"Nice to meet you Salamander, I am Irene Gracia," Irene curtsied as she went to the introduction right away. Irene was begging that this little spirit was not as chaotic as it was said to be.
It seems like her prayers were heard.
"Hello Dear, I am Salamander," they responded calmly after some talking back and forth, they signed the contract.
Irene later learned that the book got it all wrong about Salamander's and Undine's personalities.
"It seems they switched personalities," Irene said laughing the two looked at her confused.
Irene first trained with the spirit then summoned the other one, Irene now has one left. Irene circled the days on the calendar.
"It seems that I have to summon the last one on my birthday," Irene said looking at the calendar, the three looked at Irene and nodded.
"Talking about my birthday, Count's death day is approaching soon," Irene said making the atmosphere more serious, by this time all three knew about Irene's true identity.
"I shall summon the last one," Irene said.
And prevent the Count's death.
Mal, it's your turn.
~Author's Note~
Finally we are approaching the more juicy stuff!!! Just you know I have a doc that I plan my plots and stuff, and one of my plots are coming up, sadly I can't say anything.
- ANMU