"Again!"
"Once more!"
"Ahh!"
Jay kept trying to touch the magic beam, but it didn't show any effects. The magic eluded him, and Jay wanted to curse himself for getting the wrong powers from his parents. He could have gotten super vampire speed or Plant empathy, but no, he got sunlight irritation and low magic affinity.
"I'm tired!"
The ghost then took back the beam, and walked to Jay. The ghost was shorter than Jay, and so, the ghost had to hover a bit higher to look into his eyes.
"It's okay! Everyone is born with something. You will find your power too!"
Jay was devastated, how happy he was to find out about his ancestry, and how sad he was to know that he couldn't tap into any kind of magic potential. The reversal caught fast, and now he was hoping to get a reprieve from everything.
Seeing his downtrodden look, the Ghost Familiar floated towards him, "It's okay, you know, if you can't do it on your first try. There are plenty of people who are weak once, but become strong later."
Yes, not everyone can be like geniuses. Jay now understood that his path would be made on hard work, and more hard work. That's doable.
"What else can I do to become good at instincts? Meditate?"
The ghost zoomed away from him, trying to open the door, and then looked back for a while. The ghost nodded and left.
Jay didn't know that the ghost was worried about him. It was not easy for him to get his magic power, and that would worry anyone closer to him.
The ghost cooked a lot of food and waited for Jay to come back. Seeing no sign of the teenager, the ghost familiar finally floated out and watched Jay meditate.
Jay opened his eyes and saw the ghost watching and observing his every movement.
"You know, you are surrounded by magic everywhere, especially in a higher concentration in the magical world. Why don't you try to feel that? It's intangible, but you can find its presence."
Jay felt that this was all some kind of jelly talk, as it made him feel like he was trapped in one and unable to get out. Sluggish mind, slow limbs, something was trapping him.
He voiced the feeling.
"It's just your mind trying to find a way out, I guess. See, you haven't been exposed to magic, and now you are trying to get comfortable with it. Go with the flow, and Jay, I wouldn't worry if it took me years!"
Jay didn't know how many lies the ghost was telling him, but at this time, it felt good to hear the words. He felt happy, even, glad that someone was shouldering his pain with him.
"Let's eat and then we will go shopping, okay?"
The shopping was not the way he thought it would be. They were searching for a totem so they could enter the street. The ghost had forgotten so many things, and Jay was getting anxious.
"I remember it being a peach blossom!"
"There's no peach blossom here, but there are so many musical instruments, which one do you think is the right one?"
They were standing in an open place with musical instruments placed before them, and Jay understood that tapping the correct one would grant them access to the shopping street.
But what about the correct one? There were thousands of mouth organs here, and he didn't want to use one someone had already used. That would be a gross kind of password.
"Maybe it's the harp, try it?"
The ghost looked at the harps in various sizes and glanced at Jay.
"I'll try!"
The first harp had broken strings, so Jay didn't think that was it. Then he looked for a smaller one with working strings, and preferably a melodious-sounding one. There were ones that sounded like chalk on a board.
Or a hissing cat.
"You are playing so badly that the cat hates it too!"
The ghost pointed at a black cat that was hissing at Jay.
"Sorry about that!"
"Kids like you don't know the importance of being quiet. Come, I'll take you in if you promise not to raise such a monstrous concert again!"
Jay's face turned red at the comment, but he followed the black cat.
The cat found the largest harp at the centre; it had many fingerprints, and that should have been the first giveaway. They were wasting so much time searching for it that they missed the behemoth harp altogether.
The cat pressed a paw on a string, and then a portal appeared around it, and it vanished. The ghost and Jay followed in the cat's footsteps, and they entered the market street.
Shopping wasn't occurring in a mall but on a street with peddlers, and hawkers setting stalls. The only thing was that they were selling expensive and cheap things together.
The ghost took them to a stall that the cat was visiting. The cat turned to look at them, and its whiskers trembled. Jay was sure the cat would scratch them.
"See if you can buy this, mister?"
The ghost took out a potion and asked the stall owner.
"I'll give you twenty-five hundred coins!"
The ghost agreed.
"You idiot, don't you bargain?" The cat hissed again.
"You, it's worth ten thousand, and you know it!"
The stall owner laughed and answered, "It's worth a try, anyway, I'll give you ten thousand, how about it?"
The ghost agreed with a happy look now.
They got a card with the deposit, and they followed the cat again.
"Why are you following me?"
"You can get us not scammed!"
Jay felt embarrassed for the ghost. They were shamelessly following the cat because the cat helped them get more money.
"I'll help you again, seeing you don't know that the price has increased. What do you want to buy?"
So, the cat took them to buy clothes, herbs, vegetables, fruits, and potions!
"Now, let's go our separate ways!"
The ghost looked reluctant, but Jay was curious.
"Why, do you still want to follow the cat?"
"Boy, can't you see, the cat is a high-level demon?"
Jay didn't see that! At all.