Orlouge Training Lesson 7: Armonia Orlouge.

[Silence Sei]

Each of the items left the rack quickly. a shaker of ground red pepper, some beef bullion, a few different herbs and spices, a loaf of bread, six types of cheese, and several condiments. They had found their way into her basket, full of the stuff she needed to make sure her family got fed. With Kyla here staying with them for a bit, Armonia Orlouge needed to make sure she was well off also. One can not train on an empty stomach, after all.

Rather than physically carry the basket herself, Armonia used her gift of telekinesis to allow the basket full of goodies to trail behind her in mid air. Behind Armonia was Kyla, her granddaughter that had wished to train under her. Armonia straightened her light blue hair as she drew similarities between the two. Kyla had inhereted her grandmother's telekinesis, or so she had heard from Sei. Perhaps instead of training her with shadow and light magic (Her boys were much better at that stuff than she was anyways), she could focus on that.

After all, telekinesis really helped in Armonia being a good housewife and mother of six. So often would she have to sweep, cook, and feed one of her children all at the same time. Luckily, when you can feed physically, and then split your mind into both cooking and sweeping so the tools did the work for you, it simplified life to the most comfortable of situations.

"Don't chew your nails sweetie, it's a nasty habit," the woman said, turning around and blinking. "Oh! Kyla, I'm sorry, I was just remembering how Sei used to that when we went shopping together. I do hope he's gotten over such groteque tendencies. He has, hasn't he dear?"

[Amber Eyes]

“Yeah,” Kyla spoke, pulling her own nails from her mouth, “Well, I mean, he kind of has. If he stays busy, then he doesn’t tend to do it as much, but when he has idle hands, he tends to gnaw until there aren’t any nails left.” Kyla wished she was joking about her adoptive father, but her memories knew the truth. Sei was a compulsive nail biter, and probably would be until the day he died.

“Well, that’s an improvement, at least,” Armonia spoke slowly, as if not believing her own words. The Mystic matriarch turned around, her basket of groceries following suit as she walked towards the vendor of their market.

Kyla mindlessly followed, watching her grandmother so easily levitate a basket full of items. Meanwhile, the ‘Daughter of the Dragon’, as Anita so often called her, could barely lift a basket with her mind, let alone one loaded down with necessities. She watched as each item floated from the air towards the counter where the merchant stood, carefully examining each thing.

She wondered why nobody said anything to her grandmother about her blatant use of powers. After all, mages did not go around starting fires to help them cook, casting water spells to make baths, or even making mud so their kids could play in it. Yet, here was brave Armonia Orlouge, so willing to use her telekinesis so flawlessly; it was almost as if she was doing it to show off. If the face on their vendor had not been so straight and serious, Kyla would have believed Armonia had invited her to shop just to flaunt.

“Did you hear me, dear?” Armonia spoke, snapping her fingers in front of Kyla’s eyes. She shook her head out of her daze, staring at her relative as if she had been asked a hard question. The smell of the strawberries nearby caused the girl to lose her focus once more, though she talked while she tried to find the fruits.

“I’m sorry, Grandmother Orlouge. Did you say something?”

“Oh!” Armonia said, her body shaking with a sort of child-like giddiness, “Such manners! You have no idea how refreshing it is to hear somebody apologize in our household! Just for that…” As Armonia spoke, three small packs of strawberries rose from behind the counter, and floated safely on to the counter top. “I said, would you mind going back and getting a couple of jugs of milk? In my hurry I forgot to grab some.”

Kyla nodded, her eyes remaining on the plastic container of strawberries for just a moment. She turned around and began walking back towards the back of the store. Halfway through her trek, Armonia’s squeaky, gentle voice came echoing through her mind. “By the way, Kyla. When you pick up the milk, be sure to do it with your mind. Consider it some preliminary training.”

She sighed. Why did even mundane tasks have to be so needlessly complicated?

Oh yeah. It’s because I’m an Orlouge.