At first I figured the guy was just causing a commotion regarding someone else, but then he walked up to Mary and tried talking to her. I was confused by the guy's actions. As far as I remembered from what Mary once taught me when she visited, Your Grace was used to address royalty. But if so then why was he trying to talk to Mary.

I was born in a secluded village. I don’t know much about Nyx’s past but even if she used to be royalty it would have been a long time ago and since she had to make herself known to people I doubt anyone still alive would be able to remember her. Mary was always really graceful in all of her actions so she seemed like she could be royalty and she was always really busy. The more I thought about the more it made sense but there were also a few holes in my theory.

While she may have been really busy, I didn’t think that royalty would be able to just visit some random house in the middle of a dangerous forest. On the other hand Nyx always teleported her here so maybe Mary always secretly left to visit? Mary also does seem to know a lot about the Empire’s capital and its history.

That was when I remembered the history lesson. Mary told me that a talented Holy Spirit from the Daphne family had married a man from the Lagraz family and they became the next King and Queen of the Empire. But Mary said that the woman from the Daphne family was only a Holy Spirit, not a Great Holy Spirit. If Mary was that Holy Spirit did she lie? Or maybe she wasn’t the Great Holy Spirit by then?

Before I could continue considering the plausibility of my theory Mary talked to the man. “Why don’t we take this matter inside. As you can notice we seemed to have drawn quite a crowd.” I looked around and saw that there were a lot of people around us. I remembered that the guy had shouted Your Grace so I guess it's normal that a crowd of people wanting to see royalty had arrived.

Mary soon brought Nyx, the man, and I inside the shop we planned to go in and started to chide the man for attracting the crowd of people. “Carl I was walking around the capital incognito for a reason.”

“But ma'am you disappeared from the castle causing quite a stir. It’s only natural that your son would worry and send out people to search for you.”

“You know that I’ve occasionally disappeared before and I would always come back fine.”

“That may be so but during those times you would inform someone about your departure or leave a letter. When you went missing we searched your room for a letter and questioned the servants but none could recall anything that mentioned you were leaving the castle.”

“Actually that’s kind of my fault,” Nyx said guiltily. “Mary and I were in a hurry so we neglected to inform anyone of our departure.”

The man that I now know is called Carl began to question what they were in such a hurry for.

“Well my daughter Kat had finally woken up from a two year long coma and I invited Mary over to celebrate since we were friends.” Kat pointed at me before saying, “The young woman over there is Kat.”

“Very well then. With that all sorted out may I ask why you decided to visit my shop?”

Curious by what he said I spoke up, “Wait this is your shop?”

Mary began to properly introduce me to Carl. “Yes, this is his shop. We’ve known each other for a little over a decade now and he serves as my retainer. When he expressed his interest in researching how magic affects animals I invested in him. With the investments one of the things he was able to invent was a magical device that weakened animals by suppressing the magical power inside of them.”

With introductions now over Mary began telling Carl what we wanted to buy. “We want to get one of those magical devices that suppress an animal’s magic power. Preferably in the form of an accessory that can be attached to fur.”

Carl went into the back room and brought out something that seemed to match what we wanted to buy perfectly. The accessory was made of silver and when it reflected off of the sun it would glimmer. It reminded me a lot of how my hair would occasionally shimmer as well. It was in the shape of what humans believed the Spirits looked like, which was a tiny person with silky wings growing out of their back. The irony of an actual Spirit wearing something that resembles what people think Spirits were supposed to look like wasn’t lost on me and I decided I wanted to get it.

I don’t know if Mary knew that I really wanted to wear it or not but she decided to buy it. Carl said he would place it on the royal family’s tab and gave Mary the accessory. Since there was still a crowd of people outside hoping to look at royalty, Nyx teleported us back to her home in the capital before I put the accessory on.

Nyx was curious how it was affecting me and asked, “So after putting it on how do you feel? Is it sucking away your magic or giving you any better control over your magic?”

I halfheartedly imagined Nyx getting splashed by a bunch of water while I hoped that my control was fixed now, It wasn’t. A second later I told a very wet and annoyed Nyx that the power I can actually use in a single spell is restricted but I still have no control over whether I cast a spell or just imagine casting one.

With our plan only kind of successful I was feeling a bit disappointed when Mary started to speak. “Well at the very least when you accidentally cast magic the effects won’t be as drastic. But I still believe that it would be for the best if we were to try plan B.”

“Wait, what's this about plan B?”

“I wasn’t sure if the magical device would actually fix your magic because while your soul may work like an animal’s, there are still quite a number of differences between the two so I created a backup plan. In the case of you being unable to regain control over your magic I can use my authority to enroll you in a school that you can practice your control again. In the meantime Nyx can search the world for another solution.”

“Wait, since when did I agree to leave Kat alone?”

“You’re the one who would be best at exploring the world to find a new solution because of your teleportation. You can easily teleport between settlements and back here whenever you want to see Kat again after all.”

“Fine, but don’t expect me to find anything that will actually help. I’ve lived in seclusion for quite a while so the world has changed a lot from what I know. It doesn’t help that I’m not the best at communicating with other people if the topic isn’t about magic or Kat.”

“What have you been saying about me to other people Mom. It better not have been anything bad.”

“You don’t have to worry about that. There’s nothing more perfect than you Kat.”

We continued to banter for a few minutes but I know we only did it to distract ourselves from the possibility that I may never have complete control over my magic ever again.