CH770

“And thus ends one task for the night,” Ben said as they walked home, trying to sound bright as they went. “Now all that’s left is to talk to Sonya and sort out Mora’s room, it will be great. Is there anything you want to have for it, buddy?”

“I don’t need anything.”

“Sure, but we’re not talking about need. Furniture you’d like, books or art or anything else?”

“...I’m fine.”

The kiddo’s definitely making this hard by keeping me from his thoughts.

Mind reading was just such a handy skill to cut out formality and get to the heart of any matter, having someone block him out couldn’t help but be a challenge in comparison, but if the kid wanted some privacy then Ben had to at least try and respect that no matter what challenges it raised, all while Thera brought up another issue.

“Oh gods above,” She muttered, realizing something she should have thought about long before. “Um, Mora, what would you want to do tomorrow? The option is either coming to work with me or Ben, but… I’m going to a hospital and there’s not going to be a lot I should be exposing a child to…”

“He can come with me while I work if you guys want. I’ll already be training Delair, I can teach him some stuff while I’m at it if he’d want.”

“Okay, maybe that would be for the best-”

“I’ll go to the hospital,” The child told them, making his opinion known for the first time and stepping a bit closer to Thera while she looked at Ben, getting a shrug in return.

“If it’s what he wants then why not let him? If it gets too much or he gets bored just take a break and come bring him to me, I can come up with some entertaining options.”

“...Okay, sounds like a plan.”

She wasn’t sure if bringing Mora with her while she worked would really be a good idea but the entire matter left her torn. She wouldn’t normally bring a child but she’d allow any spirit to follow her without a second thought, figuring out how to manage someone who was both was already proving complicated.

But in that single day he’d barely said anything when he hadn’t first been asked, she couldn’t just deny him when he’d spoken up to come with her. It was something she’d need to explain to her coworkers when she arrived but she at least needed to try, with the swarm of worries going through her head only getting replaced by the time they got home, with talking to her aunt being left as the last priority.

But one that was going to have to be delayed. It was late enough that Sonya had likely been long asleep, her work as constant and exhausting as anyone else's which delayed their talk to the morning and left Ben and Thera to bring their voices down.

“Should we quickly clean out my old room then?” He asked as she shook her head in response.

“We can tomorrow, it’s not like we have too much in there aside from your tree.”

“Fredrick’s a bush.”

“Maybe it was at one point but I have no clue how you’re getting it to grow so big. Either way, it’s comfortable enough for the night and we can work on it from there. Mora, will you be okay in here tonight sweety?”

“I can be.”

It was said as neutrally as anything else he had spoken across the day but it still left Thera to pause before ultimately giving in.

“Okay, but if you need anything, our room is just over there so don’t hesitate to come in and wake us, alright?”

“Alright.”

“Okay, in that case, have a good…” She trailed off, a look dawning coming to her face as she did, realizing once more that she couldn’t just focus on his youth, she needed to be aware of his total spiritual heritage. “You don’t need sleep, do you?”

“No.”

Ben pinched his brow. It was a point he hadn’t considered either, being caught up in the rest of the day to the point that he hadn’t bothered to think over all of the implications of looking after a spirit but that was an obvious one without much of a real solution.

Mora would never sleep but even if Ben himself could go days without by that point, he still required some, with Thera being the worst of the three for staying up, even with her levels of sleep resistance. Combined with all of their obligations in life in general, it meant that even just trying to split how much either of them got through the night to make sure there was always going to be someone with the boy would prove to be a struggle, but the alternative was to leave him alone for hours at a time.

But was that so bad? He wasn’t as mentally young as he was chronologically, there was no reason he couldn’t spend a few hours by himself and so long as Ben got a handful he could wake up early to spend time with the boy. It obviously wasn’t ideal of course, but it was too late to try and figure out a better solution, leaving just how to get the child to spend his time.

“Mora, will you be okay for maybe three hours if neither of us is awake?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Okay, is there anything you like to do? Books or games?”

“...The only game I’ve played was cards today.”

He felt Thera tense up slightly beside him and didn’t need to be a mind reader to know she was cursing out her aunt in her thoughts while Ben just tried to wear a gentle smile.

“I see, well in that case, that means there’s plenty for you to try and explore. Hopefully, we can find something you’ll have fun with. Give me just a minute.”

He went to the living room where the rest of the games he’d made were kept, grabbing all of the single-player ones enchanted on diamond screens to bring back with him before placing them all on the desk in the boy’s new room.

“Alright, there you go. Since you’ll have the time, why not run a bit of mana through each one and try them out, if there’s anything you really like then I can make you more like them. And as for books… Hmm, what are some good ones?”

The amount of his new world’s fiction he’d read was on the smaller side, all the more so when it came to children’s media, but he materialized entire books he thought might be entertaining, pulling from Earth’s stock as well after translating it in an act that seemed to once more capture the young spirit’s interest, even if only briefly.

It seemed the boy had a curiosity for materialization but that was something that could be looked at further later, for the time being, there was nothing else he or Thera could do, especially not when they were already tired, so with more worry than either wanted to admit they said their goodnight and promised to wake up again soon before going off to their own bed, where Thera promptly buried her face in Ben’s chest.

“It hasn’t even been a day and I’m already doing so badly at this,” She muttered, her voice muffled as she spoke. “Ben, how am I supposed to get a kid to open up to me?”

“Time and patience I think is all we can do… But there’s another thing I should probably mention.”

“Is it going to make things even worse?”

“It’s something that’s going to need to be addressed and dealt with, so a little?”

“...Okay, just tell me.”

“I’m pretty sure Mora is suffering from depression. Not like Ogilt levels of depression but the brief look I got in his head was pretty bad.”

“...Of course he is. Gods above, I need to… have some strong words with Vividus.”

She was trying to not voice her blatant desire to murder her aunt when the life spirit’s child was near enough that there was a very real possibility he’d overhear their talk but she didn’t need to, Ben got the point loud and clear.

He was even feeling plenty of the same. In every way Delair was a ball of life and energy to be around, Mora was withdrawn into himself, barely talking more than he needed to and seeming pretty firmly like he wasn’t inclined to say more. A terrible start to an immortal life that seemed entirely brought on by the ones who had brought him into the world.

But again, it wasn’t an issue with an easy fix. It would take work and time that both he and Thera were in short supply of and at that moment what they needed was rest, so doing their best not to dwell on it, Thera eventually went to sleep while Ben forced his mind to his god’s realm for what already felt like a busy night ahead.