With a shudder of ecstasy the angel leaned away, tilting her head back slightly and looking down her nose at Noth with an almost sinister grin.

She all but lunged at the boy, the bracelet already in her hand, and Noth instinctively flinched and closed his eyes. He felt an almost searing pain wash over his arm and bit his lip hard in reaction, shutting his eyes even tighter. Her hand laced its fingers with his on the unafflicted side. Another hand lifted the burning side’s hand, and a kiss was quickly planted on its palm. The kiss seemed to spread a cool, summer breeze through him, the feeling licking away the pain and even healing his now bleeding lip.

There was a humming, almost glowing feeling that was suddenly faintly radiating from where the pain began, and when he opened his eyes he realized that his mother’s bracelet was now fused with his flesh, just a little up his arm, below his wrist. He pulled his hand from the angel’s and ran it over the bracelet, feeling the smooth transition between his skin and the bangle. Perhaps to another person who wasn’t too close it would just look like it was a type of flat armband style of cuff, the kind that laid against your flesh, but as Noth slid his fingers against it, he came to realize the truth. It was stuck on him. It was stuck inside him. His mother’s bracelet was f u s e d with him.

The angel could see the disgusted and panicking look on the boy’s face growing more and more each second, and when he started scratching at the offending sight, she grabbed his hand away and hugged his face into her chest, cutting off his vision.

Of course, she was failing to mention that most of the people in this world who would do such a thing were considered ‘Oddballs’ or ‘Reprobates’, but what he didn’t know won’t hurt him, and she didn’t think that anyone would ever notice that it wasn’t just a regular fancy armband anyways. She continued to pour more excuses/reassurances out of her mouth.

The angel smiled tenderly, and she pulled back a bit so she could look down at her young charge’s face. Her voice dropped to almost a whisper.

It took Noth a few moments to process just what she was saying.

“We’re bonded…? What does that even mean? And what sort of wish should I even make?”

The confused and slightly pouty look on his face made the angel panic a bit, seeing that she’d failed to put his mind at ease and her voice moved one octave higher in response.

Noth hadn’t missed the pleading look on her face, nor the begging tone in her voice. The imploring spirit was clearly trying to gloss over something for the nth time this day, and with how she’d been so eager to overshare some of the scarier things she’d told him on this day, he could only become more worried of what she’d consider so awful as to need to hide it this desperately. But, on the other hand, if she thought it was so frightening that he didn’t need to find out about it right this instant, then maybe she had a point. Maybe he was, in fact, not ready to learn about it. He decided to let it slide for now, but Noth had grown cautious after these past 2 years, and he knew not to fully forget about such a worrisome thing. For now however, let’s just see how helpful this new power was supposed to be.

“Okay…And what am I supposed to say? Do I just say ‘I wish’ and then whatever I want?”

The angel’s face clearly looked relieved when the boy had decided to go along with her, although her face started to take on a cynical look the more she talked.

A concerned look crossed the child’s face for a second before he decided to just ignore the blasphemous things he’d just heard. What would he wish for? This was a test, so maybe something simple to start out? He wasn’t too enthused to have to say silly things, or make a big display, so starting off with a small and simple wish seemed to be the right choice. He didn’t know how he could ever manage to put his embarrassment aside long enough to pull off what was required of a truly big wish. And how do you ‘put power into it’? Despite feeling a bit confused about some of the directions the angel told him, Noth could feel the giddiness in his heart rising as he thought of a few trivial wishes, the excitement starting to become visible on his little face.

“I wish… um, I wish for some new clothes?”

He looked up to the angel to confirm he’d asked the question the right way, but then an abrupt tingling feeling made him look back down. His worn and torn clothes he’d been wearing for the past 2 years, the remnants of the fancy outfit he’d worn for his big day at the temple, had been fixed! Not only that, but he could feel that they even fit his body better than they ever had! Noth opened his mouth wide, his eyes shining in awe. He started patting his clothes down all over, trying to make sure that what had happened was really real. As he patted over his sleeves he could feel that the area over his now concealed bracelet was strangely warm. When he started to reach over to pull his sleeve back and take a look, the angel suddenly swept him up into a tight hug.

The mile a minute questions and the constant nuzzling he was receiving successfully distracted the boy. He tried to push and wiggle free, and when he finally managed to fall out of her hold, his butt plopped on the hard, wooden floor. Noth looked to his left and right. He took in how odd it was to be nicely dressed in this slightly worn down room, and he knew immediately what his next wish would be. But this next one would be much bigger than just his small wish for clothes. It’s good to test his limits but…was he really going to do this? With a slightly shy, if not agitated, look on his face, the child clasped his hands, blushed a little, and turned towards the heavens.

“Oh graceful and loving God-dess, who watches all of us. Um… Uh… Could you, please… Um… I wish that this villa was as pretty, and warm, and clean, and, um…nice as it used to be! Please.”

Noth shut his eyes tight once he was done speaking, squeezing his hands together uncomfortably hard as he cringed a little from the embarrassment. A strange creaking and groaning sound, accompanied by an almost numbing buzzing feeling, made him open his eyes. All around him the house was suddenly repaired and new looking, as if by magic. Well no, precisely by magic. Even the furniture looked brand new, and had been put back into their proper places. The draft that had continuously tickled at him had also been fixed! He slowly spun in a circle, completely amazed by the spectacle, and consciously ignoring the crescent shaped eyes that the giggling angel was making at him.

The boy ran over to touch the curtains, the glass, the bedposts, the blankets, the mattress. He ran his hands over almost everything at least once. Then, when the boy was satisfied that everything was really actually for real fixed, he ran outside the room, letting out an all new gasp at the beautifully immaculate hallway. He sprinted down the hall, almost stomping his feet, just so he could feel how solid and not broken the floorboards underneath the carpets were now. He skipped down the stairs and bursted into the kitchen, pulling open every cupboard, one after one. When he saw they were still mostly empty like he’d left them, he took in a deep breath and instantly announced his next wish, eyes wide and expectant.

“I wish that my kitchen had food in it!”

He stared at his opened cupboards, and even though he felt the tiniest of the tingles that he’d felt so far, he didn’t see anything happen. A corner of his mouth rose in confusion, and he silently pointed at the empty cupboards as he turned to look at the angel. With a sweeping gesture, she motioned towards the kitchen table, and there, sat upon it, was one small plate of meat and potatoes, with a single roll on the side. Noth toddled over to look at it, his little face blank for a few moments as he stared at the meal, before he realized his mistake. He hadn’t been exact, not at all. His wish wasn’t very grandiose either, neither in wording nor substance.

With a shrug, Noth accepted his loss, and sat down to eat the summoned food. As he pulled up his sleeves a bit so as not to dirty his freshly made new clothes, a sight caught his eye that made him freeze. The bracelet. The. BRACELET. His mother’s bracelet was cracked all over! A small shriek escaped his lips as he grabbed his wrist and leaned down for a better view. At the sight of his panicking, the angel rushed over. She’d been too late to stop him from noticing this time. Noth started opening his mouth to recite his next, obvious wish, when the holy spirit clapped her hand over his mouth.

It took a second for Noth’s worked up brain to be willing to understand what the angel was frantically explaining to him, but once he had calmed down a little while watching her gesticulate and spew out words at him, he started to digest what she’d been saying. His mother’s keepsake wasn’t going to break; Not so long as he was careful, anyways. The cracks were a necessary and thankfully temporary evil. There was even a chance he’d get so good at his wishes that the cracks wouldn’t even have to be there. What she’d said when she had first made the deal with him was true. The harm done to his bracelet came completely from his actions alone. Noth started to absentmindedly eat his food as he mulled this over.

His heavenly spectre relaxed around the same time that she noticed that he was relaxing, and decided to loosely wrap her arms around him while he ate, a perfectly loving smile on her face as she watched him. It reminded Noth of his mother, and for a moment he felt conflicted. Was he letting this stranger he suddenly met just today get way too close, way too fast? Should he stop how touchy she’d been with him? He wasn’t looking at her like a replacement for his mother, was he? He felt that that would just be too disrespectful to the memory of his mom, that she was so easily replaced in a day.

The memory of when the angel had scared him earlier was of course still fresh in a corner of his mind. No, for all that she was acting motherly to him, he couldn’t really see her as a mother. She was far too unfamiliar, mystical, and just plain odd for him to get a good understanding of how he felt about her right now. It had only been a day, however. No need to rush his evaluation. The only thing he could think for now is that she hadn’t noticeably lied to him, but that didn’t mean that she’d outright always told him the truth either. If this partnership of theirs was going to continue, he’d need to find a way to convince the divine spirit to spill some answers. Sooner rather than later would be preferable.