Galen Vesa

“You tree hugging lunatic!”

Vittoria aimed her finger at me, her face flushed by a storm of raging emotions.

“Don’t you even dare move from that spot!”

I smiled. Today’s weather carried a high chance of flying fists and bodily harm. Especially in her presence yet, I smiled still. It felt like a thing I should do.

“You, you...”

I braced myself for an attack, ready to dodge would she again try to break her arm against my face.

“You crazy lunatic...”

She tossed herself at my neck and hanged there crying. Chuko, Li and Zee soon followed her example, and I became stuck in the middle of weeping maidens, trying to crush me with their pillows.

“Even after I said and did all those things you still...”

More weeping choked her while at the same time, her long, pointy ears escaped from underneath her hair and went boink, flap, flap.

Wait a minute, what is this?

I had to free my arms and rub her ears between my fingers. My eyes did not deceive me, these were real.

Oy, twiggy, what the heck?

We swapped her body when others were mourning and you were recovering. Master Altina thought it would be safer to say you sacrificed part of your life force to save the girl. While not common, such magic is known to exist and is easier to accept. People still sing songs of long dead hearos who gave away their life in this way so others may live. As for the changes in her appearance, I was in no state to create a perfect copy however that can also be attributed to the spell they think you used. Transfer of life force always leaves visible changes, be it eye or hair colour.

Well, to me it looked as if the dryad just slapped Vi’s face on one of her clone bodies. Although, the wolf’s involvement bothered me more than that.

Yes, she knew. She came to me right after my barriers failed. She came to stop us but arrived too late. She found me with the deed done and the girl in my arms. Would I be a human, I would have died that very moment. Her blade pierced my heart.

It took four more deaths of my body before she calmed. Together we moved the girl in secret and disposed of her expired shell. The rest the wolf took upon herself and others accepted her lie so, please remember my useless master, nobody else knows. Not even Vittoria herself is aware we moved her soul to a new vessel. Best if that knowledge dies among the three of us. Master Altina insisted.

The way she spoke insisted, carried a sinister undertone in my mind.

“P-please stop doing that...”

Hmm? My fingers were still preoccupied with Vittoria ears. Long enough for the gesture to become inappropriate.

“No. This is your punishment. Punishment for not letting me know earlier.”

And for some unknown reason, caressing her ears felt, right. Pleasant almost. I could sense her hot blood and burning mana, flowing through myriads of tiny veins in her long ears. Whenever I run my fingers along the length of her new ears, they twitched and trembled in my grasp.

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“Your voice... What happened to your voice!?”

“Nothing. My throat is sore. “

I had to let go of her ears as now even my cursed enchants avoke and began spreading their influence. Others noticed it too and backed away. Well, all aside from Zee who kept hugging me from behind.

“Mmm, I could get used to that... h-hey!”

Zee’s sister backed up by Chuko and Li pulled her away. It appears some of her old habits were still there.

“Looks like that did not change.”

A new voice I was not too keen on meeting joined our group.

“Tala...”

Whatever was about to happen, Vittoria tried to get between us, but her old girlfriend ignored her and we came face to face.

“I have said and done things I should have not.”

She dropped to her knees and pressed her forehead into the dirt.

“I beg your forgiveness!”

Logic cringed deep inside me. We were again drawing too much attention.

“I am no saint. I helped my friend since I could. There is nothing more to it so please stop that. It makes me uncomfortable.”

Friend. That word tasted so weird in my mouth. Were these people really my friends? Would they even care? I watched the healer get up, large beady tears dangling from her chin. She meant what she said but, did I?

“I’ll be leaving as soon as I clean up and change.”

“But you just...”

“I’m sorry.”

Pushing through the still growing crowd, I stumbled my way into the dormitory and its attached bath house. Not that I needed a scrub but since I already came here, I tossed my robe away into my ring and let the cascading water of this indoor waterfall wash over me. How unearthly good it felt. Must be Water’s doing. Well, five more minutes won’t hurt, would it?

“Fat ass. Move.”

To accent her order, Chuko smacked my wobbly behind, her powerful slap echoing through the empty bath as I stood there and gawked at her bare body.

“Move.”

Annoyed at my lack of response her arm repeated what it did just a moment ago, each repetition electing a satisfying whap.

“Well, what are you waiting for? We don’t have an entire day.”

Guiding her sister by hand, Zee came and hip-bumped me out of the way and pulled the little girl under the cascading water.

“Come here little stinker we need to scrub away all that dirt.”

“...b-but we already...”

“Hush my pipsqueak, listen to big sis and pass me the soap.”

What might have been a curious coincidence, became an outright scheming when Li, Vittoria and even Tala suddenly entered the bath and began showering beside me. Though I had no time to ponder anything else since another smack on my rear brough my attention to the maid holding her outstretched palm before me.

“Soap.”

I put in her hand the bar of olive soap I held and watched her lather a piece of soft cloth guildmembers used instead of sponge.

“Sit.”

She ordered me toward the tiled bench that separated the showers from the bathtub. Well, not exactly a shower I was used to, just a place where warm water cascaded down a ledge, creating a curtain.

“Sit.”

Baffled, I followed her request and sat down. Sometimes Cora would scrub my back when I asked her, but this time Chuko chose that role. Unsurprisingly, the others soon joined her. Vittoria and Tala knelt beside me, and each began to soap up one of legs while Li and Zee focused on my arms. The little shrimp, otherwise known as Zee younger sister, covered in a layer of foam, got delegated to wash my hair but mostly just played with my mane.

“It worked...”

“See I told you it would.”

“What...”

I got a mouthful of soap as a small hand tried to wash my face.

“What worked and what exactly are you doing?”

“Well, “

Zee scrubbed my armpit then went somewhere that wasn’t my arm.

“Your damn charms are out of the picture for now.”

She kept on exploring until Chuko moved her hand back to my arm.

“Within the empire, it’s illegal to use that kind of magic near a child. I though there could be a failsafe and, it seems there is.”

Huh? Indeed. Instead of the troubling runes, something else was chugging my mana. Something that, did nothing. It only purpose being the need to drain power away from a few selected runes carved deep within me.

“And I wanted to hold a little, thank you party. After all it’s not always when someone returns from the dead.”

Vittoria spoke meekly, her hands running up and down my calf.

“but since you don’t have much time, I thought... we might... please, stay one day. Alari says you can spare one day. They will help with the carriage to make up for that time.”

Tiny wind spirit in the shape of a butterfly sat on her arm. It indeed looked as it she was whispering into Vi’s ear.

“You stay. Party. Lots of meat. We share.”

Chuko hugged me from behind. Sigh, Logic scream ~No!~ inside my head but something else with me, told me I wanted to say yes.

“Alright. I’ll stay one day. No more.”