CH766 Thera’s Perspective

Thera knew she wasn’t the best with children. It was something she’d improved on drastically since she’d started working at different hospitals and clinics but the concern about it still lingered and now here she was, having just taken in a child like no other.

She couldn’t help it though, hearing her aunt talk like that hadn’t given her a choice. The indifferent, dismissive attitude she’d shown her own child just because it wasn’t good enough in her eyes brought back too many memories from her own youth of people knowing what she was and her inability to live up to whatever potential they thought she should hold. It was as disgusting as it was maddening and all of it tied together to force her to figure out how to deal with the situation from there.

How did one look after a juvenile great spirit, something that had never once existed before, with no warning to work off of? A being with the sort of power and skill that could not only wipe out armies but single-handedly manage an invasion point? Just thinking about it was leaving her light-headed but she forced herself to change her way of thinking. It didn’t matter how much or little power it might have held, she wasn’t interacting with a great spirit right then, she was dealing with a child and by all accounts intended to treat it as such.

Crouching down in front of it where it sat, she did her best to wear a comforting smile as she began talking, mentally screaming at the fact that the back and forth between her and her aunt had happened right in front of it and some of her own lack of restraint when talking to their mother.

“Hello sweetheart, I don’t know how much you know about me but I’m the daughter of the great earth spirit which means the two of us are cousins. My name is Thera, can you tell me yours?”

The fact that her aunt hadn’t even seen fit to mention what her child was called was a whole new reason to try and hide the anger she was feeling inside, with it only becoming tougher with the answer she got.

Staying quiet at first, seeming more hesitant than anything else, it eventually spoke, even if the young soul spirit seemed withdrawn into itself.

“I don’t have a name.”

“Pardon?” Thera asked, feeling the smile she wore take an uncomfortable edge that she tried to suppress.

“Spirits don’t need names, they’re used for mortals.”

It sounded more like it was repeating something it had been told more than anything else and while that may have genuinely been true for any typical spirit, she couldn’t help but question if it really was in that case here. Vividus had said the spirit in front of her was unusual due to the system effect that created it, who it was reflected in its form and by all accounts, its form was that of an incubus child, something that very much needed to be named.

Still, her disgust at the young spirit’s mother was nothing new, even if it was growing to previously unfelt proportions and she tried to keep that to herself while explaining as gently as she could.

“Well, maybe that’s typically true but names can be nice to have and I happen to be a mortal, so is there anything you’d like me to call you by?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“In that case, would it be okay if I think of something?”

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“If you want.”

“Alright then, let’s see…”

Oh gods above, how do you pick a child’s name?

It was something she never expected to have to do, to have it so suddenly dropped in her lap left her thoughts filled with plenty of not-very-good ideas.