Before he knew it, it was evening already. Louis ate something at the cafeteria, _something_ being actually a good word to describe it, took a bath and fell into bed.
The charm Kay had given him caught his eye.
The small golden sun twinkled with reflections from the light above. As it caught more of his attention, it seemed to warm slightly. For a moment or two, there was an odd sensation that Kay was nearby enough to touch. Was it just his imagination playing a trick on his tired mind ? Or was there more to this little charm than he'd originally thought ?
Louis picked up the comm, hesitated, but ended up calling Kay's apartment.
When the comm rang, Kay glanced at the comm panel. Noticing it was Louis, she answered it quickly. "Hey, Louis", she said warmly, with more than a little curiousity "What's up?".
"Oh..." his voice trembled as he spoke. "You're...home..."
"Of course I am", Kay answered, feeling more than a little puzzled as to why he was asking. Hadn't Anwyn already told him that at some point earlier that afternoon ?
"I...er...How are you? How do you feel?", he continued.
A wry chuckle came in reply. "I've been worse, and still eventually recovered", Kay admitted, then added quickly "but don't worry ... sooner or later, I'll adjust. Afterall, it's not as if I have any BETTER options."
Louis tried to think of something to say, but couldn't come up with anything. "I...I just called because...I...er...wanted to know if everything went ok with your boss...He seemed a little...picky."
This time, a flow of bubbling laughter came across the comm. "ONLY a _little?", Kay giggled, "He must have been having an unusually GOOD day then. Oddly enough, he apparently dissaproves of me LESS, now that he thinks he's caught me doing something that he considers _normal_ for new, young personnel. At least he's stopped calling me Ice Princess. He was the one who created that ridiculous nickname, and I never liked it anyways".
Louis smiled to himself. "I'm glad you feel good enough to laugh so much. I...like the way it sounded.
Starting to blush a bright red, Kay giggled again, then replied teasingly "So I _amuse_ you then, do I ? Hmmmm ... If you hang around with me long enough, maybe you'll hear it more often".
"Is that an invitation?", he asked, smiling.
Another though occurred to her. "I've got some rather _interesting_ local company coming over for dinner in a few minutes, if you'd like to join us", she invited.
The invitation totally surprised him, and that was perceptible in his voice. "I...I don't know...I'm pretty tired. Ask Anwyn how the day went! But...I really wanted to see you...Besides, I have something to give you...But perhaps you'd feel more comfortable if nobody witnessed it...It's not much, but I hope you'll like it...Er...I don't know, do you _want_ me to go? I don't want to give you even more trouble. Won't it be...awkward?"
"I'd love to see you tonight ...", came the wistful answer, "and whatever you wanted to give me, you could always wait until _after_ my guests leave". But, Kay wondered to herself, was it fair to keep him up when he was tired ? She likely would have talked herself out of it, if not for the copper sparkles reflecting off her Brigid's Cross and catching her eye.
It reminded her that she'd given its companion charm to Louis. Voila! Instant channel. Her own power reserves were nowhere near fully-recharged.But she was willing to take the risk that she wouldn't need all of it tonight.
Louis' heart warmed when she said that. She actually wanted to see him? And he could be the last one to go out. That meant a few hours with her, hopefully. If only he weren't so tired...
"Lately, it seems that my life is full enough of trouble that it's awkward at best anyways", Kay admitted, with a wry chuckle. It was rather an understatement indeed.
"My guests are Gifted folks", she explained, "and as far as I can tell, the lady is friendly, well-practiced in her talents and holds no ill-will towards me ... I've never met her mate, so I don't know how far to trust _him_. Either way, they're likely to be sources of _useful information_".
"Wait a minute, do I hear right? Are you really trying to _convince_ me to go?", he teased.
"Of course I am,", replied Kay, grinning happily to herself And I think I can do something about your tiredness ... temporarily at least ... if you want me to ... ", she added temptingly. "If you want to give it a try, then look into that little charm I gave you. Pretend that it's a viewscreen and that you can see my face in it. Imagine me in as much detail as you can. If nothing happens, it's no big deal. But if it works, you'll feel refreshed by a small surge of warmth".
Energy-transfer was a very minor prayer, and the effects didn't last very long at all. But it was better than nothing. For a small amount of energy (and with the channel being items that both still carried Kay's _own_ resonance), this should be both foolproof and quick. If he was willing,then surely she'd be able to accomplish it before her arriving guests finished making their way through the building's hallways.
"Imagining your face in front of me is not exactly a difficult thing...", Louis said softly. "I'll do that...It is...safe, right?"
There was a pause before she answered. The worried insecurity showed in her voice as she admitted, "You sometimes show more trust in me, than I have for myself, my dear friend. My self-control is mostly recovered. But I want to keep this small and indirect, to minimize any risk of destabilizing _your_ control. If yours slipped and you actively _reached_ for me (rather than calling and waiting), then I'm not completely certain that I could stop mine from slipping as well. In the absolute worst case, it'd trigger my fail-safe instincts to push you away. And then we'd both end up with headaches again".
Kay paused again, to reassess her reasoning. "Otherwise, I don't see any reason why _not_ to try it", came her thoughtful comment. Then she continued, starting to sound more confident, "Afterall, I'm not touching you _directly_. I'm only touching a familiar token that still feels like part of _me_. And I'm not trying to do anything _new_. This is something I learned from a Priestess of Wicca a few years ago. Being a small and simple charm, its effect is only temporary. Plus, it only involves a small amount of power that gets focused through an old Gaelic prayer that the old grannies back home always sang when someone wasn't feeling too great".
"If you still want to try it, I'll leave it your choice whether or not to leave the comm connection open. On one hand, it might help you picture me better. But on the other hand, it might be more of a strain on your control".
Louis thought for a second. "I'll leave it on. I think it may be easier to connect with you..." He felt strange. He had always tried to be as objective as possible, despite his gifts and despite the fact that he wanted to _learn_ about these things (not _do_ them). He took a deep breath, focused his eyes on the charm and imagined Kay's face on it. "Okay...I am ready".
Kay took a deep breath, and began to light the small covered- container candles at each of the four quarters of the invisible circle that enclosed her apartment. Earth brown, Air white, Fire Red and Water Blue. She named them each one as she lit it: the body, the breath, the blood and the spirit of her Goddess.
Finally she sat facing the red candle, closed her eyes and felt along the meridians of her chi until she could feel the inner radiance that lay just below her navel. Then she reached up to the copper Brigid's Cross around her neck. Stroking it softly, she began to sing softly in Gaelic.
The birds and kitten initially watched with great curiousity, wondering whatever their human was up to. Humans did some very odd activities sometimes. Then they arrived at the unananimous decision that the contents of the food dish were even more interesting.
By the second verse, Kay felt ready. She pictured the small gold sun that had hung around her own neck for so long, and she reached out in the direction of Louis' apartment, seeking the little charm that still carried her own resonance pattern.
When she found it, she very lightly nudged a small piece of her own radiance towards it. It took more determination than she'd expected, to NOT give in to the temptation to seek any pattern other than her own.
Louis tried to relax and tell himself it wasn`t such a big deal, but the fact was that it _was_ a big deal. At least to him. He had never done anything like that and sometimes he doubted it was possible. Sometimes he thought his own strange powers were just a dream...But this was real. He could feel energy - Kay's energy? - flowing through his body, motivating him. By the time she finished, he already felt a lot better.
He opened his eyes, that he hadn't even realized he had closed and sighed. Tentatively, he spoke..."Ka-Kay?"
"What's wrong ? Did I hurt you by accident ?", Kay asked him rather sharply, worrying that something had gone wrong without her noticing it. She was tempted to reach out to him to check, but then sternly curbed that impulse. If things WEREN'T okay, then her touch would likely only make it worse. And maybe NOTHING was actually wrong afterall. It might just be that perhaps he simply wasn't used to being the focus of this kind of prayer.
Louis couldn't help but laughing. "Hey, calm down girl! Nothing happened! It's just...I did not know if it was over already...It is strange, but I _do_ feel much better."
Kay grinned, feeling very much relieved. "In _my_ religion, we feel like that at EVERY worship service", she said softly, thinking back to the first time that she'd felt the Blessing. "The prayer-song helps a trained priestess to raise Power, so that her companions-in- prayer may warm themselves from it. If a Channel is devout enough and has enough of the Gift (whether awakened or latent), then she can often even share the warmth of the Divine Blessing with head-blind folks whose prayers are sincere".
Mairead pawed at Kay's knee, to remind her that her OTHER company would soon arrive. Her sensitive feline ears could very faintly hear footsteps at the far end of the hallway outside, and she recognized the voices.
When Kay ignored her, Mairead walked over to the door and began to mew loudly and insistently. "Hush little one", Kay told the kitten, looking up and sending her a small wave of reassurance.
She then turned back to the comm. "well, Louis, mon ami, my cat says that they're almost here. Why NOT come over ? I doubt you'll find my approaching guests to be at all boring. Just remember, don't trust them too far. Afterall ... regardless of how nice they might seem ... they ARE still Comyn sorcery-workers".
Louis rolled his eyes, glad she couldn't see him. "I'll go...I'll be there in a few minutes..."
"Excellent !", Kay replied, "I'll see you you soon then. Bye". Then she closed the comm connection.