Portrait of a Mother
Even after returning to the castle, Bayul remained lost in thought. That the spirits' energy was draining so quickly because of the spirit stones was still nothing more than a guess. There could be other reasons entirely. And so he was carefully weighing every possibility he could think of.
"Is Bayul angry at us again?"
Watching him with anxious eyes was none other than Tempesta. In the end, unable to bear it any longer, the boy drifted over to Innocent and asked in the tiniest of voices.
Tempesta had seen it all, after all — the way the priest at the temple had gasped in astonishment when Bayul handed over the herbs, thanking him more than ten times over.
When the priest had asked where on earth he'd gotten them, and Bayul had made an excuse about bringing them from the castle, Tempesta had said nothing and simply looked the other way. He was the one who had worked so hard, but if it made Bayul happy, that was enough.
"I didn't do anything wrong, did I?"
Tempesta's restless back-and-forth drifting through the air seemed excessively on edge.
"Hey! Quit darting around, you're making me dizzy."
"Tell me. You know something, don't you?"
Tempesta pressed his face right up close and asked again, in a voice that was barely audible.
"You really are a coward, aren't you?"
"What?"
"Stop fretting and just feel it. You can tell just by sensing him."
Innocent, apparently fed up, thumped his own chest with both fists and tilted his chin toward Bayul.
"Just stay put for a while."
"Next to you?"
"What, you don't want to?"
"It's not that I like it."
At Tempesta's blunt confession, Innocent's eyes flashed for a moment — but remembering the morning's events, he forced himself to hold back.
"It's the same for me. You think I'm doing this because I like you?"
It's all because of Bayul. He told us not to fight, so I'm holding it in. Ugh, so annoying. So annoying.
Innocent barely swallowed the words, then added:
"You're far too hasty. That's why you and I don't get along."
"Don't pick a fight with me."
They had only just managed to calm Bayul down. Tempesta had no desire to stir up more trouble today, either.
"You're the one who wanted to know. Should I stop talking, then?"
Tempesta meekly flew over and settled beside Innocent.
"Now, try to feel it. What Bayul is feeling right now."
Anyone could figure it out with just a little attention, and here he was pacing in circles judging only by appearances. Utterly pathetic.
Where did a thing like this even come from?
No matter how I think about it, he's an idiot.
Innocent barely kept himself from saying all of it out loud.
"Oh? So it's not because of me?"
"You finally get it?"
"Yeah. He seems to be seriously thinking about something."
"Then surely you know what you need to do now?"
"What's that?"
Not only an idiot, but completely oblivious too.
Innocent clicked his tongue and said quietly:
"Just stay quiet. That's how you help him."
"That's it?"
"For now, yes……. It seems to be because of us, so we need to be even quieter."
It was Shame. The leaves of the large potted plant by the window rustled, and his muffled voice drifted out.
"Shame, may I ask you something?"
At that moment, Bayul, who had been deep in thought, sprang to his feet and walked over to the plant.
"Did you hear all of that?"
At Tempesta's whisper, Innocent merely shrugged. Bayul's mind was filled to the brim with spirit stones, while the timid Tempesta was still worried about whether he was hated.
"When you guided me and my friends through the Forest of Corruption, you said something, remember? That in the forest, you become even stronger. That no one could defeat you there."
"That is so……."
"Then what about here? There's a vast forest behind the castle, too. Could it be the same here?"
"Hmm…… I'm not sure……."
"What do you mean, you're not sure?"
"I don't feel certain of it……."
Not certain?
An Earth Spirit who governed the soil and all green things, unable to feel confident in a forest? It made no sense — especially when this place was far safer than the Forest of Corruption.
"Shame, how do you feel right now? Compared to Carrington, I mean."
"My strength is slowly returning……."
"It isn't harder to move here in Hamilton than it was in Carrington, is it?"
"It is a little uncomfortable……. I often feel a sort of stuffiness……."
"Me too! My body doesn't feel right either."
"You too, Tempesta?"
"Carrington was much better than here."
"That it was. I miss the Water Garden."
The spirits had circled around Bayul since they were very young. Following him all the way to Carrington had felt as natural and inevitable to them as fledglings chasing after their mother.
At first, he'd only wondered because of what Shame had said, but now that Innocent and Tempesta said the same, it was practically certain.
"When you said you grew stronger in the Forest of Corruption, I assumed it was simply because it was a forest. But now I have a feeling that's not the whole story."
"……?"
"There's that stone you like there, isn't there, Shame? You told me that looking at it put you at ease, and that was why the Forest of Corruption was safe."
"That's right……. The Forest of Corruption is safe."
"I've been calling that stone a spirit stone. I think it's because of that spirit stone that you, Innocent, and Tempesta all grew stronger there than you are here in Hamilton."
"We grew stronger?"
"Yes. You said good energy flows out of the spirit stone, didn't you? It seems that energy didn't just put you at ease — it also bolstered your power."
"Ah! That rock — I like it too."
Innocent had raised such a fuss that Tempesta couldn't go to the Water Garden anymore (though he did sometimes whip up gusts of wind there to vent his frustration), but the Forest of Corruption was somewhere he made use of often enough.
"It's still just conjecture, but I believe the spirit stones were scattered across the world by the Spirit Kings before the Spirit Realm fell. For the sake of newly born spirits and Spirit Users."
"Spirit Kings……?"
"We're spirits, and we have our own king? If there's a king, do I have to obey him and everything?"
"I won't have it! If it's not Bayul, I don't want anyone!"
He had three spirits of his own, yet knew nothing whatsoever about the Spirit Realm. It was hard to imagine a more contradictory situation — and precisely because of it, Bayul felt an even deeper sense of responsibility.
For now, everything was only supposition. To know for certain, he would have to return to Carrington and verify it. If he could clearly establish the difference between a place with a spirit stone and one without, then beyond any doubt, some great secret was waiting there —!
"Ah! The natural disasters!"
Struck by a sudden thought, Bayul kicked the floor hard. Aidan had said it plainly during their conversation at the imperial palace — that Carrington was strange. The whole empire was groaning under calamity after calamity, yet Carrington alone was untouched. Too untouched, he'd said.
At the time, Bayul had simply taken it for a blessing. But perhaps it was no mere coincidence at all.
What if the spirit stones were behind it?
Harmonizing with nature was a spirit's duty. If the spirit stones were performing that role in their place, everything fell neatly into place.
Wasn't the energy flowing from the spirit stones what was restoring nature's collapsing balance?
If Bayul's hypothesis was correct, then another spirit stone might exist in a region spared from natural disaster.
The true power of the spirit stones.
He had to find it out.
He ached to share this news with his friends at once, but with the holidays upon them, there was no way to do it.
"Whew. For now, let's dig through more books!"
One of the things Bayul had resolved to do upon returning to Hamilton was to search the castle libraries. Somewhere in them, there might be books about spirits — books like A Guide to the Great Path.
"Bayul, what kind of book?"
"Should we help?"
"Would you?"
Touched by how eagerly they volunteered — and finding it endearingly cute — Bayul couldn't help but chuckle.
"Anything old and worn-looking will do. There are libraries scattered all over the main castle, so let's split up and search together."
"Got it!"
"Leave it to me, Bayul!"
Innocent and Tempesta shot away as if racing each other. Shame gave no reply, but he was surely already on the move. Bayul couldn't afford to laze about either. There was no guarantee he'd find anything, but he had to try everything he could.
"So there really isn't one."
He had thrown himself into the search so thoroughly that he'd lost all track of time. Before he knew it, the sun was sinking toward the horizon. The gloomy weather had already left the interior dim, and now it had grown dark enough that he needed to light a candle.
"Are you in here, my lord?"
He had put off eating altogether and was turning pages by candlelight, holding the taper in one hand, when the library door opened and Death and Amon entered.
"What brings you two here?"
"Ah, we are cleaning."
"…Cleaning?"
"Yes. By the head butler Cunning's orders, we are tidying every corner of the castle."
"Without any cleaning implements, if I may ask?"
The men who claimed to be here for cleaning were completely empty-handed. No broom, no dustpan — not even so much as a rag to be seen.
"Ah, that is……."
"Looking for a book, are you?"
Death sauntered over to Bayul's side. Perhaps it was the dimness of the room, but his presence seemed unusually heavy.
Darkness, and Death.
A strange thought crossed Bayul's mind: how remarkably well those two suited each other.
"What sort of book?"
"Just…… something I'm looking for."
"We'd be glad to help. Could you tell us the title?"
Amon stepped forward in his characteristically gentle tone to offer his aid. Bayul was grateful, but a flicker of anguish seized him — was it proper to speak of spirits to them, or not?
They surely knew nothing of what spirits were. Bayul was utterly unprepared to explain where to begin, or how.
"Ah, if it is something you'd rather not share, that is quite all right. My senses are rather keen, you see — I happen to be quite good at finding things. Say, for instance, that secret chamber over there behind you. Or something of the sort. But everyone has their circumstances, so please feel free to decline; I will understand perfectly."
"A secret…… chamber?"
Amon's hand pointed at a bookshelf packed wall-to-wall with books. Bayul could hardly grasp what he meant.
"Hm? You didn't know?"
Amon started in feigned surprise and stroked at his hair as if Bayul ought to have known already.
"If I heard correctly, there is some sort of space behind this bookshelf. Something of that nature."
"Yes. Quite a spacious one, at that."
It was a fact even Bayul, who had spent his whole life in this castle, had never known. He marveled at how sharp one's senses would have to be to detect such a thing — even as a burning curiosity about the hidden chamber pressed down on him.
"Shall I open it for you?"
"…Is that possible?"
"It is not particularly difficult."
Amon wasted no time. He walked straight to the bookshelf, swept his hand along it once, muttered a low "So that's it" — and half-pulled several books from their places here and there, leaving them jutting out at angles.
Then something remarkable happened.
With a soft clunk, the bookshelf slid smoothly backward — and a new space truly appeared before their eyes.
"Shall we go in?"
Bayul nodded without quite realizing it and stepped carefully inside. The chamber was sealed on all four sides, darker even than the library.
Relying on the modest candle in his hand, he surveyed the room with caution. It seemed to have stood empty for a long time; dust hung thick over everything.
A red carpet covered the floor, and a sofa and table furnished it — a plain, unremarkable room. Bayul could not for the life of him understand why such a place would be so secretly locked away.
"……!"
And then he found it. As he absently moved the candle, his arm swept back and its light fell across one wall.
"A portrait," Death said, drawing near before Bayul noticed and regarding the painting as if appraising it.
"A very beautiful lady."
Amon murmured in admiration with his unseeing eyes.
"But who is she? I don't believe I've seen her at the castle."
"…She is my mother."
When he was a child, he had finally tracked down the portrait his father had hidden away — only to tumble from a ladder and break his leg, earning himself a terrible scolding. After his leg healed, he had searched for the portrait again, but he had never once seen it since.
"So this is where it was hidden all along."
No wonder he'd never found it.
His mother in the portrait was still dazzlingly beautiful. The mother he had no memory of ever meeting in the flesh — his own mother. At this unexpected reunion with her, tears welled up in Bayul's eyes.