We sit for some time longer, my heart slowing down until I can think clearly and rationally.

"Emily," I call her again.

"Yeah?"

"Are you hurt? Would you like some earth?" Leaning to one side, she rubs her butt, wincing a little.

"It doesn't hurt as much as I expected," she answers. "Could I just have a little?"

"What about your tail bone?" I ask. She doesn't seem to understand, so I reach over. "How does this feel?" I very gently push against her tail bone. If he hit her in the wrong spot, it might be broken. Once more, she winces a little.

"It's pretty sore." I let out a relieved breath. If that's her response, then it isn't broken.

"Alright, let's go." We stand together, heading up to our room. We sit at the edge of my bed, Emily lying on her side instead as she pulls my hair out of whatever weird shape Helen put it in two days ago, before everything went crazy.

I'm surprised it held up as well as it did without too much of the hair falling out. I guess the stick did its job.

I set down my blackboard and chalk for later, then get to work. I say, "You're almost full, I'll replace the lightning." After just a few moments, it's done.

"Thanks Aria," Emily says softly. I roll onto my back. What now? I look at the lightning mana briefly and I'm about to convert it, when I finally have a good idea. Both the lightning and the earth I always need, I have a way to hang onto them. I grab that stone from under my bed. The not-manastone mana stone. I frown at it, both when I remember where it came from, and how I'm so confused over what it is exactly. On a whim, I channel my mark and ask Reena if there's any proper name for this thing.

The feeling that returns is... difficult. She's having a hard time answering. Then she apologizes softly and tells me that she shouldn't interfere with my studies into mana. I don't know why, so she vaguely explains that it has to do with the way I develop my abilities. Apparently, it is extremely important that I am the one who chooses how I should work with my mana.

I don't understand why, but maybe that is something I will figure out as I keep working on it? I at least ask her if calling this a manastone is a decent name, and she says that the name is... 'not inaccurate.' I guess that's a yes?

But then, she warns me very strongly, to be careful of words and labels for things. I give her a warm thanks and let her know I'll keep that in mind, then let the mark fade again.

"What was that?" Emily asks softly. Of course she could see me using the mark, so I explain.

"I was asking Reena what I should call this. Even though it's different from ours, she said that 'manastone' worked as a name... sort of." I give a crooked smile thinking about her last comment though. "I guess I could call it a neutral manastone, since it doesn't favor any one type..."

Staying careful of words and labels, I'm not completely sure what that means...

Emily is silent for a few moments, so I look over at her.

At the same time I look over and see her surprised face, she asks, "Wait, you can talk to Reena now?"

"O-oh, right," I realize aloud. I never really had a chance to explain what my mark is or how it works. So I quickly explain how I can channel it and how I can feel Reena's presence and share feelings to communicate, even if it doesn't work for speech.

"Huh, that's... actually really amazing," Emily comments. "You can just... talk to a god... She's really serious about helping you, isn't she?"

"Yeah, it seems like it. She saved me when I was being beaten, just like she said she would." I smile a little. After that, I think I can trust her.

"So, what now?" Emily asks quietly.

"Now..." First, I put the lightning mana into the manastone. Now I don't need to convert it back to colorless, and then use the colorless to convert to lightning again later, since that always loses some in the process. I can just leave it in the manastone for now and pull it back out later. Then I store it under my bed again. With that done, I'm reminded of one thing Reena made me think of, but I push that off for later.

With my immediate concerns taken care of, I take a few breaths, clearing my mind. I sit up and kneel like earlier. After sitting like that for so long, it feels like it helps me focus. I do it like I did earlier, closing my eyes and letting my thoughts calm.

Alright, what do I need to do right now? I lay out the things I need to get done. Homework and washing myself. Also apologizing to Eve and Jannette. Then there are the other things I want to do. Learn more about my mark and test what I learned from Reena.

I sit for a bit, letting my five tasks sit there before me. What to do first? Washing myself won't work since it's already after curfew. I will need to do that tomorrow. Since John will be here at first bell, I need to get up before any of the bells ring. For that, I ask Myra to wake me up when the moons start to go down, since she is always up at night. She shrugs and agrees easily.

That leaves four other things. Homework and testing that idea, I can do later. The same goes for talking to Eve and Jannette, that can come when we're all going to bed. Learning more about my mark I can do whenever we're alone, so I should do it while everyone is still at dinner.

So, that comes first. I hold onto my calm state for a little longer, before opening my eyes. Once more, it falls away as soon as I get distracted by my surroundings. At least I've figured out what I'm doing. I glance over at Emily, who is still lying there, watching me.

"What was that?" she asks.

"I was just thinking through what to do next."

"Huh, kind of weird way of doing it," she comments.

"Mm, it's something I came up with based on a suggestion from Reena about being more aware of my mana. It really helps to clear my mind so I can think things through better."

"Huh, that's pretty interesting. How do you do it?" As she asks, Emily sits up, taking the same kneeling position I'm in. I grin a little as she does. I only chose this strange position because there was no other comfortable way to sit with injuries everywhere else. I only have so much time, dinner is probably ending soon, but I take a few moments to explain it to Emily.

"I close my eyes, and push away any thoughts that try to distract me. I breathe evenly and try to focus on myself. I focus on feeling all of the mana in my body at once." Even as I speak, I can feel myself following my own instructions, drifting back into that state once more until the words I'm speaking only occupy a small part of my attention, the rest expanding to cover my entire being.

"Not putting any control on it, just watching and listening to my whole self, letting it calm me down and fill me with a kind of... peace..." Once I finish speaking, I breathe in and out a few times, before opening my eyes again. It looks like Emily is trying the same thing, though her face scrunches up a little after a few more moments, then she opens her eyes and looks over at me.

"That's interesting. Kind of hard though." She smiles a little as she shrugs.

"Yeah, but it's been pretty helpful already." I'm definitely going to keep doing it, I can already tell that it really helps my current, damaged state of mind. "Anyway, the first thing I wanted to do was ask more about my mark, so I'm going to work on that for a bit, alright?"

"Sure," Emily nods. Then she closes her eyes. It looks like she's still trying out the mind-clearing thing I came up with. While she does that, I channel my mark once more. Reena waits patiently for my question, so I ask about the mark. Mainly, why it's visible at all. She responds, saying that it shows her favor of me, that she has given me a task. Like before, she immediately apologizes for not telling me what that task is.

She goes on with something about importance and support and moving or... something. And showing it to others for some reason. But still, isn't it just too eye-catching? What does that have to do with... whatever she was just trying to explain? I tell her that I'll continue to think about things with a mental bow, then release the mark again.

I still need more information. Reena's descriptions are too vague. With only the ability to pass feelings and ideas back and forth, it's really hard to talk about a new concept that I don't understand, since I'm not even aware of the ideas she's trying to send me. I need to talk with someone about this.

I look over at Emily and say, "I want to go talk to Jess and ask what she knows about marks."

After a moment, she opens her eyes and turns to me. "That should work, she would know a lot about that," Emily responds, before coming up with an issue. "Though, wouldn't that be a pretty weird question to ask out of nowhere?"

"Yeah, but I've already told her about my blessing, and I still want to tell her about some of the things I learn from Reena. I think she'd be really happy to hear about this, right?"

"Well, yeah, I'm sure she would," Emily agrees, "I just don't know whether it's actually a good idea or not."

I sigh. "Yeah. But I still want to know more. I mean, just to have Reena help me, why did she need to put these bright red marks on my face? What's the point of that? You know?" With how eager she's been to help today, I can't imagine that she had some stupid reason for the mark that would just make my life harder.

In the time it took us to talk through all of that, dinner ended. I can hear the thump of many footsteps streaming up the stairs. We both get off the bed. I stumble because my legs kind of started to go to sleep a little bit. Emily seems fine though, weird. But my legs are just kind of tingly, so I manage to ignore it as we leave our room.

"Do you know what room she's in?" I ask, but Emily shakes her head.

"Let's catch her on the stairs."

"Will she come up this far?"

"Yes?" Why is she saying that like it should be obvious? She shakes her head, surely realizing I have no idea, and explains. "All the kids below ten are on the third floor. Kids over ten are on the second."

"Oh." Yeah, that seems like something that would be really obvious to anyone who's been here as long as Emily. "Alright." Unfortunately, before we see Jess, we see Eve.

"Uhh..."

All three of us have the same response. I had something in mind to tell her, but that flew right out of my head when I saw her suddenly like this. And then Jess comes up the stairs, glancing at us all, stuck like we are and kind of in the way with kids looking irritated and walking around us, before moving on herself.

"Wait-" I half turn when I see her walking away. Then I look back to Eve. "Sorry, I'll talk to you later, I have to talk to Jess right now," I say. She just gulps and nods before going past, speeding toward our room down the the hall in the opposite direction as Jess. Pulling Emily along, we head the other way.

"Hey, Jess," I call after her, and she stops.

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She turns back and tiredly asks, "Yeah?" We all automatically shuffle to the side so the other kids going to their rooms can get past.

"I have some things I need to ask you about."

"Ok, but can it wait until tomorrow? I'm going to bed," she looks a bit troubled by us asking this late, which isn't that surprising. Her expression alone makes my heart waver, but I press on anyway.

"Could we talk about it now? I'm sure you'll like it," I try giving a hint to convince her.

"Mmm..." she grumbles, but then agrees anyway. "Fine. What do you want to talk about?"

"We need to talk about it privately,"

"Oh." She finally gets it. All traces of her troubled look and most of her fatigue vanishes. "Come on, over here."

Jess leads us over to the end of one hall, near a window. This is one of the corners of the building that doesn't have a chamber pot, so it's just a little empty hall near the window. I guess we can't use any of our rooms like the other times we've had private discussions, because there are a bunch of people in them. But that just makes me wonder whether I should tell our roommates about this too, since they already know most of what has happened with Reena. Well... I guess I can decide based on what I learn about my mark. How important or non-important it is to keep it secret.

"So, what is it?" Jess asks quietly after we wait for the other kids to all disappear into their rooms. Now, the hallway is empty and quiet.

"I wanted to ask you about the marks of the gods."

"Alright." She looks a bit surprised for some reason. "They're just their symbols. They basically reference the god." Then she clears her throat a little and when she speaks again, it sounds like she's repeating something she's heard. "Long ago in the Ancient Times, the gods came to humanity and gave us their marks, images that symbolized them. Since then, we've used those images to depict and reference the gods."

It seems like she isn't entirely sure how to go on, so I ask, "What do we actually do with the marks? Do we use them for anything?"

"Well, all throughout history, people have drawn the marks on things to dedicate them to the gods, or to ask for them to watch over them. Or even just to make a point. Like, I think there was a story about a nobleman painting a nagi mark on a necklace he gave to his lover before their marriage, and they were blessed with many children."

"Ok..." I answer slowly, since I don't actually know what kind of mark that is. If it's about having children, maybe it's Lila's? "What about the gods, do they do anything with the marks?"

"The gods? They mostly just gave us the marks to use to represent them. Though, they do use their marks to make their most devout believers angels... Oh, not the magical creatures, I mean that they put their marks on them and give them important tasks to fulfill."

"Wait, hold on, there was a lot I didn't get there," I wave for her to stop. "What about angels and believers and...?"

Jess shakes her head. "Ok, right. I mean that the gods sometimes choose their most devoted believers and put their mark on them. They're called an 'angel' when they're marked like this because they become a direct servant to their god." Servant? Does that make Reena my master? It makes me think back to Eryk and his servants. That doesn't feel like our relationship at all... Despite my worried thoughts, I nod slowly as she clarifies, "The term is completely unrelated from 'angel,' used to refer to a type of flying magical creature." I wasn't aware that such a thing existed, but I guess I'll keep that in mind?

I think I'm already starting to see the realization in her eyes, even as she continues to speak. Asking what gods do with their marks is a really specific question, especially when it comes from someone who doesn't know anything about marks... "Anyway, they choose their special believers, put their mark on them, and give them a mission to fulfill. There are lots of stories about Rostor giving marks to important commanders in past wars, and tons of stories about Hurena marking her worshipers with missions to bring balance to natural wildlife. Things like that."

I take a deep breath. It feels like she already knows, but I'm sure she wouldn't say anything if I dropped it here. But I still need to learn more. "What about Reena?" My question is a confirmation.

"No way." We stand for a bit until she can do more than open and close her mouth in disbelief. "Can you show me?" Her eyes are glancing up and down, like she's searching for it on me somewhere. I put up a hand to calm her. Once she settles down, I channel my mark. Reena wonders what I'm doing for a moment, but I think she can more or less tell what's happening around me, so she just retreats gracefully, since I actually don't need to speak with her for once.

"Oh my gods..." Jess breathes the words. Then she covers her mouth with both hands before she starts squealing to keep herself quiet. This time, it takes her a while to control herself again. I silently nod to Reena before letting the mark fade. "Ok ok ok," Jess rambles to herself as she shakes, clearly still trying to calm down. "She... marked you..." She slowly breathes few more times, a big grin on her face, then meets my eyes again. "What do you want to know?"

"My main question is, what is it actually for? Why is it so bright and flashy?"

That seems to confuse her. "It's so everyone can see it. It's an extremely powerful mark of authority."

"Authority?" I don't know this word.

"Umm, authority is..." Jess thinks for a moment. "It's like, when you have the right to tell people what to do because you're important. So your mark tells everyone that you've been sent on an important mission that you need to accomplish. Because it was given by a god, you have to be respected, and they should support you. Or at least not get in your way."

Ah, I get it now. Those ideas about importance and support from Reena, she was trying to express the concept of authority. That and how it should help me get people to do what I want. But Jess is still speaking.

"Doing anything to try to stop you would definitely make a god angry at them, so even if they don't want to support you, no one's going to stop you, you know? In any case, your mark gives you the authority to speak for your goddess so you can accomplish her task."

I nod slowly as it all sinks in. So the reason it's so visible is to make everyone see it and help me, or at least not try to stop me. But if the whole point is that it gives me the authority of my goddess, then isn't there another problem? "But what about Reena's mark?" I ask. "I thought no one cared about her that much?"

"That... is a good point," Jess realizes aloud. "I mean, she's still a goddess, which automatically demands some respect, I guess. Just... maybe not all that much, since no one has ever actually seen her do anything." I can see the pity forming in her eyes.

"Ahh..." I want to grumble to myself a little. The whole point is to give me her authority, but she doesn't really have any herself... It reminds me of one part of that dream. She said she can't offer me anything for helping her. Apparently, that includes her mark not even being all that persuasive. To go so far even though she has nothing to offer, what does Reena need so desperately?

Turning my attention back to Jess, I ask, "If it lets me speak for her, what if I say something she doesn't like, or doesn't agree with?"

She immediately flinches back. "Definitely don't do that. Use your mark to do what she wants you to do, that's the point. If you try to use if for other things, like selfishly trying to benefit yourself, she'll definitely get mad and smite you or something. There are a lot of stories about angels letting the power go to their heads only to be killed by their gods for their betrayal."

"Ahh..." I grimace. First because that's really bad, and second because I know what her next question is.

"Speaking of... what is your mission?" Jess asks quietly. Almost like she isn't sure if it's even ok to ask.

I continue to grimace, even as I grin awkwardly, with worry clear on my face. "I don't know. Reena can't tell me."

"She..." Jess can't even put the rest into words.

"Yeah." I answer her unspoken question.

"That..." She shifts over to lean on the windowsill. "That's really rough. Why did she mark you if she can't even tell you what she wants you to do?"

"Well... I think she has her reasons." This one I don't answer directly, even though I think I have some idea. I don't think it would be fair to Reena to discuss private things between us with others. Except Emily, of course.

From what she said, it definitely has to do with her deciding to support me. And maybe it's also part of her apologizing, she did say that she didn't mean for things to happen like they did and that she was wrong. I feel like she had a lot of different reasons for it, actually.

"So, is that it?" Jess asks.

"I think so... No wait, I did want to know more about the mark itself, since Emily only knew the basics." I glance at her, smiling even though all she can do is shrug, her little smile back saying 'sorry.' "So, I know that it's call the 'Kitsu Mark' and it's supposed to be based off of a magical creature. Do you know anything else about that?"

"Sure," she nods, and immediately starts to explain. "It is based off a magical creature called a kitsu. So that's where the name comes from, obviously." She just puts her hands up to say it's that simple, and I nod back. "Kitsu are small, strange creatures, that look kind of like foxes."

"Sorry, what is a fox?"

"They're these small furry animals," Jess responds. That describes most of the animals I've ever seen... With my own eyes anyway.

"Umm, a little more descriptive please?" I try asking.

Emily comes in to help. "They're about this big." She moves her hands to form a generally rectangular shape to give the dimensions. Overall, it looks bigger than a hobin, a little smaller than a rechit. "They're usually orange or brown, with pointy ears, and big poofy tails."

"Ooh," I mumble when I imagine that.

"Usually you can only find them away from towns and farms. I've seen one or two when I went deeper into the forest. But they're really quick, so I've never gotten anywhere near them."

"Ok, thanks." I sort of have an idea now, so I turn back to Jess.

"So, kitsu are similar to foxes. I think they're about the same size, maybe larger. Their fur is white, and they have multiple tails. But the part of them that stands out the most is that they're incredibly intelligent, and have all sorts of strange magic powers. Supposedly, they can just vanish into thin air. And, uhh... shapeshift..." I'm not sure why she stopped all of a sudden. Some thing about 'shapeshift'?

"What does 'shapeshift' mean?"

"Well, it means they can change their forms. Kitsu are really tricky. It's said that they'll transform and make themselves look like humans to do all sorts of mischief."

"Ok..." Them being able to transform is pretty amazing, but it sounds like she's still going somewhere with this.

"So, I was just thinking, you might want to be extra careful showing off your mark. With your white hair and the kitsu mark, instead of thinking you're an angel, people might think you're actually a kitsu pretending to be human. Especially since you can do strange things with that energy you talked about..." Jess looks at me with a complicated expression. "Aria, you're sure you aren't actually a kitsu?"

I... have no idea how to respond to that. When she puts it all together like that, I really do sound like one. It's especially odd how close to the truth it is. I may not be a kitsu, but I am pretending to be human.

At least I manage to shake my head and respond, "No, I'm definitely not a kitsu."

"Right, yeah, of course," Jess giggles a bit. "Why else would you come asking about Reena's mark?" She shakes her head with a grin. "So, uhh, anyway..." She's finally trying to get back on track. "Like I said, Reena's mark is based on the face of a kitsu. The red triangles and circles are like the ones on a kitsu's cheeks and around their eyes," she traces the shapes out near my face where my mark was as she speaks. "The white triangle is its snout."

"Ok..." I mutter. I nod a few times while I think through all of that information. It sounds like Reena's mark may actually be pretty troublesome, not that it's really her fault. She only has so much authority to give me, and it's thanks to my own appearance that people might end up thinking I'm actually a magical creature when I use it...

I look back up. "Alright, I think I understand now. Only one other question. Why is Reena's mark a kitsu?"

"Why? Umm..." She considers the question for a while. "I... don't actually know. When the gods gave humanity their marks, that one was hers. I don't know if they ever really gave a reason."

"Alright, that's fine. I'll try asking her about it some time. Thanks a lot, Jess."

"It's no problem, really. Thanks for showing me your mark. I'll keep all of this a secret of course."

"Yeah, thanks for that, Jess. I'll come ask you more about the other marks later, I have to learn them, you know?" Being marked by one of the gods and not recognizing the other gods' marks even if I see them would be... really bad.

"Good, you really have to know them." From her look, she's definitely thinking exactly the same thing I am. I should also go look at them in the church next Shanaday. If there was a plate for Reena with her mark on it, there must be ones for the other gods too.

As we wave goodbye and head back to our own rooms for the night, that makes me wonder. Should I go and introduce myself to the other gods? They're always talking about the gods in vague terms with how they think and react to things, but it kind of sounded like they're always working together.

Since Reena chose me for something important, does that mean the other gods are involved? Or that we should let them know? I mean, it sounds like the gods choosing an angel is a really important thing. Should the other gods know about that? Actually, I wonder if a god is limited to one angel at a time or not? More questions to ask Reena...

Besides that, there's the matter of me supposedly speaking for her, in order to fulfill her goals, even though I don't know what they are. And I'll make her angry if I use it for something other than her goals? But she was the one who didn't tell me what she wants...

No, I shouldn't think of it like that. She gave me her mark, it's up to her to decide how I use it. I have to keep talking to her. We have to talk things over and discuss what she does or doesn't want me to do in her name, whether it relates to my unknown task or not. If we're working together, we have to talk to each other. I slowly release a breath, and a hand falls on my shoulder.

I look up and see Emily. "Looks like you finished whatever you were thinking about," she notes with a little grin. "We're here." Right, we're already standing in front of our room. I take a few moments to set aside all of my thoughts about Reena and the mark for later. What I need to do now is talk with Eve and Jannette about yesterday. "Alright."