Chapter 59 - Melodies and Memories

"Now then", Voxea began as she sat herself on my bed across from me, "I shall now teach you two of my favorite spells: Ice Road and Snow Ring".

"Shouldn't we be doing this outside? That way you can show me how they work?", I asked her.

"No need. I learned that since we are bonded together that there's this neat trick I can do. The first step of which involves you focusing on that connection between us", she said with a teasing smirk. "Now go on and listen in. Once you hear it, tell me and I'll do the rest".

I shrugged at her answer and did as she instructed. I entered a meditative position and closed my eyes, focusing intently on the connection between us. Part of my instructions on becoming a maji involved me learning how to, in my case, "listen" to the aether. Every maji, she tells me, have their own way of sensing the aether with one of their six senses: touch, taste, sight, smell, hearing and intuition. Due to my hearing, I was instructed on how to listen to the "melodies of the aether".

As I entered deeper and deeper into my meditative state, I began to hear the countless melodies that made up the aether around me. At first it was confusing, hearing what sounded like hundreds of different instruments and songs going off at the same time, but then I learned how to focus on just one particular sound at a time or several at a time. I even learned from doing this that a special melody originated from the bond between a binder and their majimonster. The first time I figured this out was when I saw my father coordinate some of his monsters to do some household chores and decided to do some listening meditation around him out of curiosity. Between the thee monsters and my father, I heard three distinct melodies that belonged to each of them. I soon discovered that this was the case for my mother and for myself as well. I haven't tried this on other binders yet, but I was curious what their melodies sounded like as well.

Eventually, I found the melody I was looking for and focused on it. Out of all the sounds of the aether, the connection between Voxea and I was unmistakable. It had this distinct tone that when I described it to Voxea, she told me that it was the sound of violins and saxophones. I didn't know what those were, but she assured me that they were favorite instruments.

"Okay Voxea, I found the connection".

"Excellent and now for the odd part...", Voxea trailed off as she spoke.

"...Whenever you say that, it always seemed to end with me scre-AAAAAAHHH". With that retort of mine, I suddenly felt like I had slipped down a rather steep hill and into a dark void.

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After what felt like a few minutes of me screaming in abject darkness, my eyes were suddenly blinded by bright lights. I closed my eyes away for a few minutes to readjust, rubbing my head in pain.

[AHAHAHA IT WORKED], I heard Voxea shout.

[What work-wait...why are we talking in thought space], I asked as cautiously opened my eyes. My eyes then shot opened as I saw that the Voxea standing in front of me was not the majimonster I had binded, but the ghost I had seen from the first time we met. I quickly examined myself ton confirm I didn't change as well. Thankfully I didn't, but I did notice my hand looked rather...opaque.

[Why are you back to ghost form and what just happened]?

[Both of those questions can be answered with one answer: We're in my memories!], she said cheerfully.

[What?], I asked.

[Well, I knew that with the bond that formed between majimonster and binder, that thoughts and feelings could be conveyed, so I wondered if memories could as well. Turns out, yes. Yes they can. I just didn't expect being inside of it].

[Alright...and we're in your memories because...].

[I could teach you outside in real space, but I believe it would be much faster if we did it in my memories instead], she said seriously, [Well more specifically, from who I learned from and from my point of view].

I was going to ask how that would work exactly, but I was interrupted by a second plunge into the void.

[Don't worry about it Silvia! Just remember, it's all in my head!], I heard Voxea shout right before returning to abject darkness.