HP: Spirit Talker

Talking to my mother wasn't easy — that's the best way I can describe it. We talked in my future office, but there were only a few chairs I'd brought with me, and we settled in.

I was not in a hurry to arrange the furniture and all the final arrangements, because in two thirds of the rooms the expansion of space will be put on powerful anchors, and this part of the mansion will also be connected to the overall control system through the control room, the ring and bracelet of the head, as well as most of the functionality will be subject to Momo.

So we spent over two hours behind closed doors. At first it was more or less the same: I told her everything about the situation with Minhe, everything I had learned and thought about. Junko didn't want to admit that I was right to sacrifice ten years of my life to the ritual, but there was nothing she could do about it, so she "saw", as they say, "without fire".

Just as an act of trust, or an exchange of weapons — to whom — how, told that I developed an artifact of revenge, because it was with the help of my "Gaze of Nemesis" and people were destroyed.

The ritual I performed strikes the ancestral altar, and the stronger the altar, the more powerful the blow should be — it was instinctively felt during the ritual, which I could have interrupted when I realized that two and a half dozen bulls were not enough .... very few, so I had to pay for years. But the destruction of the altar was not the death of the family and the clan, but the artifact that was thrown into the rift channel was aimed at the blood and the magic itself, so the revenge was fully accomplished.

Junko just shook her head and told me to think about the consequences from now on. As if I wouldn't. I may be strong, but I cannot defeat such a crowd of mages, sorcerers, and even priests on my own. Afiri had already told me something about the dead, and I was convinced that I had done the right thing.

Then we came to what was most important to the woman: the rebuilding of the clan and my role in it. For the first time, she told me her plan in full, explaining what, why, and how. I could see and feel that she was afraid of my reaction to her words, but she told me everything. And then she was silent, waiting for my reaction.

As if I did not understand that everyone in this world is looking for his own advantage? Or haven't I ever seen how reasonable people twist the facts from the most unbelievable angles to make the facts most favorable to themselves?

The Spirit Alliance had found an advantage and was determined to make the most of it. The introduction of Ayakashi blood into all the senior branches of the clan would be an eternal alliance, well, for ten generations to be exact, and that was just for the ordinary Semiye.

The Hoshino are known for their almost telepathic connection between relatives, we can sense each other. And if our blood has an admixture of strong blood with a "spirit" bias, we will feel new relatives as part of our own family, and therefore we will not be able to fight.

That's clever, very clever. And Junko turned pale when I expressed my thoughts: it's one thing to have a connection of two or three generations, and quite another to be so seriously estranged from people. But I didn't mention a nuance that I learned from the ancient Chinese scroll "The Eternal Song of the Children of Heaven", because knowing it, I can bypass some of the "unsolvable" problems, and some of them can even be used to my advantage.

But I'm not in a hurry to make such plans, I'm just making small notes of the thoughts I had while studying the massive, heavy scroll made of a solid cloth of gold foil on a thick jade stick. Thirty-one centimeters — that's what I got when I measured the thickness of the scroll from the stick to the outside, i.e. the radius, for the sake of interest.

Junko tried long and hard to prove the necessity of obtaining shards from Hoshino's altar. She explained that when the altar splits, after the magic is released, there are mini-copies of the entire energy structure of the altar. This means that if everything is done correctly, the altar can be restored to its former form, albeit slightly weakened, but that's another matter.

I had to pretend that I didn't know this, but in fact, this information was in the scroll and I had already studied it. Hiding my secrets for the time being, I insisted that I had better chances here in Britain, because there is no emperor or king, and the others can be talked to by force in case of anything. In short, we argued for a long time, and my mother even told me that she had managed to seize an amazing trophy in the form of the last shards of the Karasu family, which the woman wanted to offer to the Ayakashi.

However, I had to lay my cards on the table, as the mother was horny and unwilling to listen to me, and I could barely restrain myself from restraining the impetuous woman and taking these treasures by force. At the slightest hint that I had five gifts and the sixth was on its way, Junko froze and her eyes glazed over.

She was silent for a few minutes, and only then did she agree to listen to my arguments about my choice of residence. After she had more or less calmed down, the woman agreed to take a break from discussing this topic, as the information received should be taken into serious consideration. That was the end of it.

Lizzie was waiting for me in my temporary bedroom (I'm going to do an extension, that's why it's "temporary"), very gentle and affectionate that night. A real woman! In just about an hour and a bit, the girl completely chased away everything dark and bad. I had no nightmares that night.