Sunshine and Strings (closed)

Liam was glad to take advantage of a sunny day and bring his cello out to the courtyard. He sat on a bench with the instrument between his knees, the case closed at his feet. After some thought he launched into Loreena McKennitt's "As I Roved Out", wishing he could sing along as he played, like Eve had often done when she played her harp. But Eve was only too happy to sing instead, even if only he could hear her. It would have sounded better with a few more instruments, but that couldn't be helped. He was still having fun regardless.

Mollie had been sitting under a near by tree just soaking up the outside. The colors were finally becoming familiar to her. The grass, trees, especailly the shimmery aura of the trees by the forest were different then what she was used to at home but had a hint of nostalgia.

She perked up when she heard the sound of a lovely stringed instrument. Mollie turned to look around the tree until she saw the soft aura of the one she could only assume was playing. Her eyes narrowed and she tipped her head, looking closer. She bit her lip and carefully crawled on all fours towards the person. It wasn't really worth the effort to stand and walk the few steps to risk getting tripped up and falling on her face.

She sat on ther knees, with a straight back when she felt like she was close enough and smiled softly as she listened. "You're music is very beautiful," she cooed softly. How blessed she truely was to meet so many people who were musically inclined.

Liam raised a brow as he caught sight of someone crawling across the grass toward him, and smiled at the compliment. He stopped playing and lowered the bow, tipping his head in the lass's direction. "Thank you. Are you okay down there? Did you fall?" Looking a bit closer at her face, he noticed the milky tint to her eyes. He didn't see a cane close by, though.

She smiled and shook her head. "No, I didn't fall. Sometimes it's just easier for me to get around this way."

She shifted a bit closer and noticed there was something odd about this new person's aura. . . was there a void around his head or? She blinked a few times and bit her lower lip. "Um, if you don't mind me. . . there's just." She gestured to the back of her own head and mumbled, "You're aura is strange there. Are you okay? Do we need to find Miss Ellie or another healer for you?"

Liam blinked again. "I don't think I follow you. My aura is strange?"

Two and two came together, and he shook his head. Clearly this lass could see Eve's aura alongside of his; he wondered idly what they both looked like. "Oh, no, I get it. I don't need a healer. It's a bit complicated. I'm curious, though -- what exactly are you seeing?"

Mollie stood carefully and with gentile steps made a circle around the sitting boy. "So an aura takes up the entire entity of a person: their arms, legs, and most importatnly their head. Generally a person's aura will manafest or be more concentrated in certain places like the head, heart, hands, neck.. . but there's a part of your aura that is missing." She gingerly reached out to place her hands on the side of his head where she saw where the void was. "Right here. It's like there's either something stifling your aura or trying to take over? I can't tell. Around the edges of this 'void' for lack of a better term there are colors that aren't found in your aura and then just nothing. I haven't seen anything like it."

She carefully moved to sit next to him and looked him over once more. "Other than that, your aura looks perfectly healthy. All the colors are fine, not strange jerks or flaws in your pattern. Do you know what this is?"

Liam listened in silence as the lass spoke, and held still to let her touch his head. He nodded and smiled as she pulled her hands away. "Aye. It's my sister. Long story short, her soul's stuck in my head. Funny though, I would've thought she had an aura of her own that would overlap with mine, not just a blank space."

He paused, realizing they hadn't been introduced yet, and held out a hand. "My name's Liam, by the way."

She smiled softly and nodded. She had noticed that he had shifted but couldn't quite tell what he was doing. She hesitantly reached out her hand and somewhat made contact with his hand, gently gripping it. "I"m Mollie Geist. It's nice to meet you."

She tipped her head and pursed her lips slightly, thinking. "If you don't mind me asking. . . did she die? Because I have never been able to see a ghost or anything like that. Maybe without a body of her own she can't make her own aura. . . but there is that tinge of color surrounding the void, like I said that aren't found anywhere else in your aura. . . maybe that's a little bit of her poking through."

Liam smiled back. "Nice to meet you too, Mollie."

At the question, he nodded slowly, then remembered her eyes and spoke. "Aye. Just this past summer, not long before I found Lakeshore. Or maybe it found me. We came to Dunehelden to find a way to set her free."

Mollie nodded, thaking in the information and thinking. "I'm sorry to say this bluntly but since she is in a sence . . . dead. . . then it would make since for her to not have an aura that I can see. I can only view the auras of living things. . .so buildings, particularly stairs and walls are my worst enemies." She smiled softly, trying to be a bit funny. "I'm sure that if they are able to put her back into a body that she can inhabit again and connect with that she will get an aura again. It will be interesting to see what her colors tell me. She might be too bright for me to look at for long." She paused for a moment and looked over at him. "What is her name?"

Liam nodded again. "That makes sense. Her name's Eve. You can talk to her directly too, if you want. She's linked to all my senses, so she's listening in on us right now. I'll relay her words when she answers." He frowned a little. "If you don't mind me asking... have you always been blind? Do you know the colors of people's auras?"

She gasped softly and clasped her hands in front of her mouth. "Oh no, I hope she didn't find it offensive that I called her a void. I'm sure her colors will be lovely once she is in a body of her own."

Mollie lowered her hands slowly and offered a soft smile. "I've allways seen the world as I do now. So unfortunately I haven't found a way to express the exact colors of what I see to you. I know the name of what your colors are: Red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, pink. . .but I don't know what they are compaired to what I see." She giggled. "Once one of my teachers showed me the fruit called after the color orange and I told her what other things were similar in aura color with that 'orange'. She got very frustrated with me because 'there can be no way that an orange and a trout are similar in color'!" She laughed softly and sighed.

/Tell her not to worry about it,/ Eve told Liam, watching Mollie curiously through his eyes.

Liam relayed Eve's words faithfully, then grinned at Mollie's explanation. "That sounds fascinating. I wonder if there's a way to teach you what the colors are, so you can put the proper names to them. My hair is yellow, for example, and my eyes are grey. Eve had reddish hair and blue eyes."

Mollie smiled softly and nodded. "Thank you. I would feel terrible if I had offeneded someone before I propperly met them."

She smiled shyly and shrugged. "I'm sorry but those are just words, I'm not sure how to relate those to what I see. The only way it could work is if someone seeing the way you see could somehow look into my brain to see what I see. I've only met one person who might be able to do that but. . . I wan't to protect him and make sure he is comfortable with what he would have to do. . .I don't want to force anyone to do something for my benefit. I don't have any power or anything of great worth to offer as a reward to ask anyone to either. I'm simply at ther mercy of fate and circumstance."

Liam nodded, wrinkling his nose. "Aye, I know how that feels. I found this place totally by accident, and I only enrolled when it was clear I wouldn't be able to find my way home right away." He shrugged. "But, it is what it is. At least here I have the chance for others to help Eve."

She nodded. "I was able to enroll here because apparently one of my gardian's went here and thought that it would be good for me." She smiled and her voice softened. "I didn't realize how right he would be. I can actually have friends here and I'm not so different that I get made fun of. And living in a castle isn't too different from living in an orphanage in a Cathedral. So where -did- you call home, Liam and Eve?"

Liam looked at her in sympathy. "I'm glad you've found a place to fit in. Being bullied is always hard. Eve and I are from Tralee, in the south of Ireland. How about you? Where's this cathedral-orphanage of yours?"

She smiled. "That sounds lovely. I'm from Ulm, it's a fishing town in Southern Germany. Do you guys have any family back home that might be looking for you? Anyone to miss you?"

Liam nodded. "Our parents are back in Ireland. They know I'm here -- I've been able to call them with the phone at the Drunken Loa -- but I have no idea how time's passing over there, if it is at all. If someone does find a way to get us home, we're aiming to go back to around the same time we left. It'll be less confusing that way. Though, I still haven't told them about Eve. I dunno what I'll say if we get her a new body, either. I've been talking with people, and we've got some ideas in place, but it's still kind of up in the air. I'm not even sure it'll work."

She pouted and gently placed her hand on the back of his shoulder, to be reashurring. "I'm sorry about that. For both of you.. . Is there no way to get her actual body back and to try to reanimate it?"

Liam shuddered and tried not to gag. "I doubt it. She was buried back in August, and I don't imagine she looks pretty good by now. I think we're better off trying the ideas we have now."

She rubbed his back and bit her lip. "I-I'm sorry. It was dumb of me to ask. Of course that would have been the first option. Maybe you can find someone who looks similar to her. . . I'm not sure. I'm sure that the teachers are better equipped to handle the situation than I am. At least you were able to save the most important part of her."

Liam nodded again. Whatever accident had trapped Eve's soul in his head, it had been to their benefit. "Aye. We'll see.

"So what about you? Do you have any siblings?"

She folded her hands into her lap and looked down at them, shaking her head softly. "No. My mother died giving birth to me and she had no form of identification. They couldn't find any form of family for me and no one ever came to claim me. . . so I just kind of appeared and have always been more or less alone." She smiled at Liam, being cheerful. "I don't mean for that to sound as sad as it does. It's just a fact you know. But that's why I'm happy to be somewhere like this where I at least fit in a bit better."

Liam nodded. "That's true. How long have you been here?" She looked about old enough to be a sophomore, but then, it was hard to tell people's ages sometimes.