Pieces of Sonder

“Jika, Shaman Evenkey is here to see you,” Tamila called as soon as they entered the house.

Frantic footsteps followed from upstairs.

“Jika be careful!” a voice shouted from a far room.

“I’m fine mom!”

Bounding down from the stairs a small blur crashed into Freya’s arms. 

“Hello Jika, how are you?” Freya said lifting the small girl up.

“I’m great! Mom thought I fainted but it wasn’t anything!” she pouted. Her short brown hair framed her puffed out cheeks.

Freya set her down, she was getting almost too heavy to pick up now.

“I brought some guests with me, these are my friends Heilong and Bis.”

Jika hid behind Freya for a second then stepped forward to introduce herself.

“Hello! I’m Jika Cloverfield. It’s nice to meet you!”

“Hello Jika,” they both said. 

Infamous Biscuit bent down to Jika’s height, “Sorry to intrude in your home. It’s nice to meet you too.”

Jika giggled, “Are you really Freya’s friends? Are you also shaman?”

“No, we aren’t shaman, but we’re trying to learn more about shaman.”

“I want to learn more about shaman too! I want to be a shaman like Shaman Evenkey when I grow up.”

An older woman wearing an apron entered the room, “Thank you for coming Shaman Evenkey. She had a fainting spell earlier this morning.”

“Did not!” Jika said, pulling at Freya’s cloak. “I just felt a little tired.”

Freya crouched down and held out her hand. Jika put her hand ontop of Freya’s. Extending her mind to examine the little girl’s meridian lines, she found a normal amount of energy. Not too much, but not drained either.

“Everything seems fine now,” Freya said.

“See I’m fine!”

“Let me see your talisman.”

Jika reached under her shirt to reveal a wooden pendant on a chain around her neck. 

Freya touched a fingertip to it.

“There’s still energy in it. Hopefully, she really was tired and it wasn’t a fainting spell.” Freya said to Jika’s mother.

“See, see I told you so!”

Freya patted her head, “Still you should be careful. Don’t try to cover it up. Your mother just wants the best for you. I’ll recharge your talisman since I’m here.”

“Thank you so much,” Jika’s mother said. “Sorry to bring you all the way out here. She just tries to hide it so much I don’t know when it’s real or not.”

“It’s okay, I understand. Let me know if anything else happens. If it really was another fainting spell I can try a different talisman. Oh, also Jika let me see your mark.”

Jika pulled back her sleeve and showed the small glowing mark on her upper inner arm.

“It’s getting really small now,” her mother said. “It used to be so much bigger before.”

Freya nodded in agreement, “Hopefully, that means the fainting spells will go away soon.”

Jika beamed, “I hope they go away! But then does that mean you won’t come visit me?”

The little girl looked up at her with large sad eyes.

Freya laughed, “I’ll still come visit you, now let me charge your talisman.”

Freya made Jika sit near her mother before taking the talisman off. She showed it to Infamous Biscuit and Heilong.

“I made this talisman for Jika a few years ago. It channels the magic that makes her have fainting spells and discharges it safely. I have to charge it with my qi every so often.”

“By charging it do you mean ‘pushing out your qi’ like you said earlier?” Heilong asked.

“Yes, I have to push my qi out and into my shaman staff. Hopefully, you guys will be able to do something like this soon.”

Holding both her staff and the talisman, Freya directed her qi into her shaman staff. With her other hand she gauged how much energy made it into the talisman. Once the wood of the talisman felt full to the brim with energy she pulled her staff away. 

“I guess there’s not that much to see,” Freya said scratching the back of her neck with her staff.

“That’s alright it’s still interesting to see shaman work first hand,” Heilong said, still looking at the talisman.

Freya put the talisman back on Jika. After talking to her mother a little bit more they bid them a good afternoon.

Jika waved at them through the window as the left.

“Her magical malaise began when she was three. Her mother hasn’t let her out of the house much because her fainting spells are unpredictable,” Freya said as they walked back towards town.

“What is magical malaise?” asked Heilong.

Freya blinked in slight surprise at her question. She waited for Infamous Biscuit to explain out of habit, but he also looked stumped. Magical malaise was rare but still felt like common knowledge to Freya. Feeling a little smug that she knew more than them for once, she explained.

“It’s an umbrella term for unexplained magical curses that appear at birth or in the first few years of life. Jika’s condition is relatively minor compared to other types. My master once treated someone who had magical flareups that poisoned the air. His entire family died when he was only four. It wasn’t his fault, but it didn’t help his conscience as he grew older.”

“But you can grow out of it right? You said her mark was growing smaller or something,” Infamous Biscuit said.

Freya nodded, “Usually children will grow out of it by the time they are ten. Nobody knows how or why, but they often disappear on their own.”

“That’s a relief.”

The path back into Safka widened as they continued walking. 

“By the way, why are we going back to town?” Infamous Biscuit asked. “Since we still have some time do you want to go to a practice field or something?”

“I need to change out of my shaman gear first. Also, my friend Yina might be done with my new outfit.”

“Oh, your friend that made that shirt you found at the auction?”

“Yep, her name’s Yina. She owns a dress shop in town.”

“Really,” Heilong jumped into the conversation. Since leaving Jika’s house she seemed lost in thought, but her eyes shined with interest now.

“Does she custom design clothes?” Heilong asked.

“She can,” Freya answered. “Actually she wanted to meet you guys and maybe do business with you. She gets bored making basic clothes all the time.”

“Can she make something fireproof?”

Freya looked at her, “Why do you need something fireproof?”