A Witchy Inheritance

Chapter 15

Even though I knew Cicero was home waiting for me, that didn't stop me from dawdling on my way out of the library and on my trip home. I stopped by the gas station and filled up my tank, even though I still had 1/3 of a tank left. I went out of my way to go to Panera, instead of a fast food place, not only because I like the food better, but because I knew it would take longer for the food to be ready. I also stopped by a drive-thru 24 hour coffee stand to get coffee and drove the long way home. Part of me was embarrassed that I was avoiding going home simply because there was someone there. He was a near stranger to me, waiting in my house for me. I didn't know anything about him. For all I knew he could be prancing around the house in my underwear.

Okay, I was fairly certain he wasn't doing that, after all he was there because my aunt left him to me. I very much doubted she would will me a cat, man, person if he was dangerous or something I should be concerned about. But he was still a stranger to me. I was really struggling to build up the courage to go home. When I could finally think of nothing else to distract me on my way home I pulled my car into the development of townhomes where I lived. All in all I had wasted almost an hour and when I realize that, part of me felt bad. Cicero had been with me for two weeks now. That meant he knew my schedule, he knew how long it took for me to drive home from work. He would know if this trip took longer. Sure, I can lie and say that the food took extra time but lying on top of avoiding him just felt a little too much to me.

When I slid my car onto the parking pad I took a deep breath and turned my key, causing there to be a silence around me when the noise of the car and the radio stopped. I took another deep breath, then another before grabbing the bag of food, the two coffees, and my purse, having to rearrange the order in which I carried them three times before I got everything. I locked my car and headed to the door. By the time I was walking up the two steps to my front porch Cicero had the door open. I suppose cats had better hearing than human, did that pertain to wear cats as well or familiars? I didn't even want to think about the occasions that he could hear everything I was doing in the house. Against my will my cheeks turn bright pink, I could feel it. I pushed all those thoughts aside and forced a smile on my face.

"I didn't know what you liked so I just got a basic mocha for you. I didn't know how much research or time we would need so I figured a little coffee pick me up would be good."

Smiling at me, Cicero moved out of the way so I could step inside, then he closed the door behind me. "Thank you, I actually like mochas so that works great. I have a few things set up on your kitchen table so if we just head and there we can eat while I talk about what I found. Then you can describe to me exactly what it was that you saw in this vision you had."

I appreciated the fact he was getting right down to business. It meant I couldn't trip over my own tongue talking about anything else. When I turned into the kitchen I saw that he already had a stack of three books sitting on the kitchen table and what looked like a notepad with two pages flipped over and some writing on that third page. I carefully set the food and drink tray around it, the last thing I wanted to do was spill something on what was probably some expensive books. I then fussed around, putting my purse where I normally did by the front door, taking my phone out of it, then kicking off my shoes. By the time I got back Cicero was already at the table and moving the books and pad aside and taking the food out of the bag.

It was so domestic it made me itch. I've never lived with a man, even men I was in relationships with so seeing something this domestic in a home I lived in by myself for so long was such a weird scene it almost didn't feel real. I forced myself not to pause in the entry to the kitchen so as to not make my gawking obvious. Instead I headed right in and sat down across from him.

"I got the same half soup and half sandwich combo for both of us with an apple just to be safe."

He nodded along with my words and then rearrange the food on the table so there was an even amount of everything in front of us. For the first few minutes we ate in and awkward silence then around the time Cicero finished his sandwich he cleared his throat.

"All right, well I was able to find two books on the gift of the sight in the library. To be fair I actually found about a dozen of them but these two seem like they might be the most pertinent for what we were looking for. The bottom one is a book on how the sight can manifest in different people. It has a chapter on each version. Whether that be touch, smell, dreams, then there's a few that are really odd that I won’t get into. That's why it's the thinnest book. It gives just brief descriptions of each. It is actually part of a larger collection that talks about a lot of the common family traits that I thought was actually kind of interesting in the long run but not really usable right now. The other book I found was on ways of training a family trait when you are not a witch. It was weird that book came up but I thought that that might be of interest to you since you in fact are not a witch, in the traditional sense, but received this family trait. The last book, the one that's on top, is sort of your family history book if that makes sense. It has notes, anecdotes, and descriptions of important visions or issues that your family line had with the gift of the sight. It was the book in the box your aunt gave you that wasn't related to the library. It might not help you figure out the best way to use your gift but it might give you insight in to some special quirks that might only manifest for your particular family.

"Oh, while I was down there I fulfilled some of the backlog for the library. I didn't want you to get in any hot water with the ruling body of witch’s because the backlog was too long. So, I really only started researching two or three hours ago." He paused after he finished speaking, and I wasn't entirely sure he was done, until he picked up the spoon and began eating his soup.

I had mixed emotions about the fact that he had just started doing the librarians work. It'd been left to me I should be the one doing it. But at the same time I was grateful that he was willing to help me out. Then there was the dread about the fact that I can get in trouble for not being a good enough librarian. Anxiety swirled through my head as I finished eating. Once we were finished I cleared the table of the containers, curled my hands around the cup and motioned my head towards the pad of paper.

"All right let me know what you found."

Cicero nodded before sliding the pad of paper on to the table from where it had been stacked on the books. "All right, I was working on the hypothesis that your version of the sight is touch related. So with that in mind I skimmed the first page or two of each different incarnation of the ability just in case. Then I read the whole chapter on touch sensitive sight. The plus side is this is the most common way the site manifest. The downside is that it can be the biggest nuisance. Because until you train yourself to only have these flashes and visions when you want them, you'll just touch things arbitrarily and have them give you a vision. Even when you have a good grasp on the ability it can still pop up on you if you're tired, or stressed, or if you've been ignoring the gift and haven't been exercising it like you would a muscle. It will then force its way forward to get your attention. So I think that our best start would be to see if we can get you to practice. Are you okay with that?" While he started off confident by the time he got to the end that confidence had drained from his words. As if he was worried I would be outraged that he wanted me to practice.

While I was not entirely comfortable with it, because the whole encouraging this to happen thing wasn’t something I really wanted. I didn’t like the idea of a just popping up anytime. So, I closed my eyes and nodded. "Yeah, I guess we might as well."

Cicero blew out a breath, clearly relieved by my response. "Excellent, the first move will be to see if it can be triggered by an object and then if it's triggered by flesh to flesh contact. Hold out your hands."

I opened my eyes and watched him warily as he pulled a necklace out of one of his front pockets. It was a worn silver chain with a sort of circle pendant on it that wasn't an exact circle, almost as if it'd been pounded into the shape. He then looked at me expectantly holding it out above the table. Wary I slid my hands across my tablecloth and stopped when they lay under the necklace.

Cicero nodded approvingly before slowly dropping the necklace into my top hand. We both seem to hold our breath when, nothing happened. There was no weird jolt. The metal just felt warm in my hand.

"Anything?" Cicero asked.

"No, should there be? Am I doing it wrong?"

He shook his head and then lowered his hand to just above mine. "I'm going to touch you now." He then waited a beat before lowering his hand on mine and circling his fingers around the necklace I held.