The Forsaken Hero

Things moved quickly in the days following the impromptu war council. Aerion and Elise were gone perpetually, visiting nobles and making final arrangements for the time he would be gone. The city and manor were quiet and subdued during this time, and during the few times I saw beyond the walls, I drew even more suspicious looks than usual.

But the time came that Aerion left, and with him gone, the house lightened up. R’lissea and Selena were busy studying the ninth-level spell, so I spent a few hours every day with Sari instead, taking over her tutoring. I knew far less than Selena in the knowledge of Enusia, and was little help explaining the customs and time-worn understandings of mana and runes. But I could offer her insight and experience in using her ability, a tool she’d find far more useful than an understanding of what I believed to be a flawed, imperfect perspective on magic anyway.

That’s where I found myself some three weeks later, sitting beneath a corpse of shade trees beside a stone bench. Sari knelt across from me, hands clasped, eyes closed, as she mumbled the words of a chant.

”That’s it, ” I murmured, nodding encouragingly as four magic circles appeared. ”Just a little more mana in the next few runes.”

Her tongue pressed between the corners of her lips as she continued, her ears pricked and focused. The slight swish of her tail brought a smile to me. Too cute.

Sari gasped as her spell let out a small flash of light, collapsing in on itself and forming a small, glowing ball of golden mana. She didn’t blink, staring at it for a few seconds as it bobbed up and down, shoving just above her cupped palms.

She looked up, her eyes wide. ”Did I...do it? It doesn’t feel–”

She choked as the breath left her lungs, doubling over and coughing. The golden ball winked out, letting the morning sun reclaim its shadows. Her souls stretched and strained, burdened by an unceasing flow of mana from the realm itself.

I reached over, gently petting her head as she continued to gasp. Breaking through was never easy.

A shadow fell over us, and I looked up to see R’lissea peering down.

”She finally did it? What kind of spell did she cast?”

”Detect Presence, like Gith’s ability,” I said.

”Is that the most practical ability for a young girl to know?” she asked, lips quirking in a smile.

I chuckled. ”Probably not, but it was the easiest. Her ability gives her a good grasp of souls and their general presence. It’s not much harder to put that to spell. ”

”I guess that’s true. And now that she’ll have more mana, she’ll be able to master more easier.”

Sari shivered in the throes of breaking through, shrinking closer to me. As I lifted her into my arms, whispering idle comforts in her ear, I studied the way the realm’s mana flowed into her. It was strangely familiar, like watching the natural diffusion of Adaptive Resistance, only in reverse.

A thought occurred to me, and I flared the ability, drawing on the lingering mana from Sari’s disrupted spell. The dispersal of the mana from my soul looked the same as the mana flowing into her soul, seeping through the very threads and stars of Fate itself. But what I noticed, truly comparing for the first time, was the way the mana flowed in. It was fine and delicate, so much so that it had taken me years to see it, and yet...there was something crude about it. The strands combined into one solid mass that compressed into the warm ball of Adaptive Resistance before being dispersed.

In contrast, the mana flowing into Sari was a seamless transfusion of the realm’s mana into her entire soul. The difference wasn’t a question of means, but surface area. No wonder I’d struggled to adequately absorb incoming mana. I’d been drinking oceans through a straw.

Sari’s mana evaporated, the last strained through Adaptive Resistance. So submerged in my thoughts, I hardly noticed, instinctively reaching out and searching for more. A bright, pure, clean mana responded, sending a jolt like cold water through my system.

My head whipped up, sending my hair lashing as I stared at Sari. My aura billowed around her, a whirlpool centered on the line of mana drawing from her soul to mine. Images flickered across my vision, and I swooned, feeling lightheaded. I saw her as a baby wrapped in soft fabric and held to her mother’s chest. And it wasn’t just sight, but everything. I was there, feeling her warmth, love, and care. All the things I’d yearned for as a child, yet had no memory of. But as soon as I knew it, it was gone, replaced by more scenes of Sari’s life, growing from a child to a young woman, from the day the slaves took her to when she plunged Alvern’s knife into her own breast. The pain, the wonder, the anguish, the joy. Everything.

I jerked back, gasping for breath, tears gathering on my eyelashes. The line between our souls broke. It had only lasted for a single heartbeat, yet that had been too much. My hand flew to my head, checking for ears I didn’t have. My heart almost stopped when I felt a tail I didn’t have twitch, but when I checked, it was just my demonkin tail.

”What happened? ” R’lissea asked, looking with concern. ”You just froze up! And then you’re aura went berserk.”

’I...I don’t know, ” I mumbled, rubbing my horn. I felt a strange sense of relief at still having one.

Looking up at R’lissea, I frowned. There were a few motes of gold in her hazy, green eyes. A dazed expression that shouldn’t have been there.

”Did you...see?” I whispered, a pit forming in my stomach.

”...something. I don’t know what. There was shadow, and darkness. Cold steel around my neck, and...pain. Unlike anything I’ve ever felt.” She shivered, clutching her skirt. It was clear from the way she avoided my gaze that she understood what had just happened.

My heart heavy, I turned to the Starguard, finding them with pale faces and shaking hands. Even though my aura was receding, the golden mist still curled around their feet. My tail drooped.

”My lady...” Luxxa said, her voice wavering. ”That was...you?”

I nodded. ”I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for that to happen. I just...”

I looked down at Sari, no longer seeing the mana flowing into her as wondrous. Her soul was the one I’d accidentally linked with. R’lissea seemed to have only seen a portion of me, but what about her? Had she seen everything like I’d seen of her?

Sari’s lips parted, letting out a small groan. I smoothed her hair back, noting how moist it was with sweat.

”What did you do?” R’lissea asked, kneeling beside me, taking her hand. ”Her life force is steady but...”

”It was an accident. I got carried away with Adaptive resistance and, well...siphoned her.”

”Her mana?”

I shook my head, wiping the gathering moisture from my eyelashes with the back of my hand. ”The mana from her breakthrough. The mana of the realm. It was...her. It was like I was drawing on her soul itself.”

”And that triggered whatever that was?”

”The same thing happened when I touched Fable’s soul when I healed his corruption, only this time, it was bigger. My aura just responded, like something else was driving it.”

”You did mention the Oracle of Eternity was growing more restless,” she murmured. ”I wonder what’s happening. Is it because your body can’t handle your growing power?

”Maybe. I want to ask Fate about it, but...”

”But what?” she prompted gently.

I sighed, letting my hand rest on Sari’s back. ”I’m worried it’s related to the Divinity. It’s been there for so long, just hiding beneath the surface. But recently, I...I’ve been starting to feel it. It’s like a part of me I didn’t know I had, yet couldn’t imagine being without.” I glanced back, watching the tip of my tail twitch back and forth. ”Like my tail.”

”But if that’s true, doesn’t that mean your divinity is...”

”Probably the source of my aura,” I finished. ”Maybe you’re right. My soul’s too unstable to properly contain it anymore, and it’s beginning to leak through the cracks.”

”Like a bleeding star,” she whispered. ”You should definitely talk to Fate about that.”

I nodded, letting out another sigh. ”I don’t suppose she didn’t know this would happen. I wonder why she didn’t warn me? Maybe it’s not the Divinity at all. But that’s for later. You didn’t find me just to see Sari break through, did you?”

R’lissea blinked, tilting her head. After a second, she gasped, jumping to her feet.

’I totally forgot! We’re going to try an eighth-level version of Arboreal World, and I want you to watch.”

”Really? You’re already at that point? Is Selena...?”

”No, she’s going to try tomorrow. Today, I’m going to try to break through, too!”