"It was really nice talking to you again, Aria," Marrianne says while wrapping me in a warm, wonderful hug. I hug her back for a while, wishing that things could have been like this, before she releases me, and I take a step back. "Come by again some time. Remember, my door is always open to you." Trying not to tear up, I nod strongly. Then I go on my way.
I'm a little way further, when I use telepathy on Reena without channeling my mark.
"Aria?" she asks. "How did it go?"
"It was great," I answer immediately. I just keep smiling, even as I walk through the streets. "But I never got to talk to you about what you told me - about how you set me up to meet Marrianne."
She's a little nervous as she responds, "Yes, I did. I wasn't exactly trying to keep it a secret anymore, but there's never exactly a good time to bring up something like that."
"Thank you." She's surprised by my beaming happiness. "No really, thank you so much. Even if I couldn't stay there because of my own problems, I can never thank you enough for letting me meet her."
"Aria..." Reena silently sighs, relieved by my positive response, then says, "You're more than welcome. I just wish I could do more for you. I promise, I'll keep trying, ok?"
"Yeah." With our short exchange finished, I pull the connection back, and pick up my pace toward home. I talked with Marrianne for a while, and I don't want to leave Emily waiting too long.
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I let Riko drop from my arms and head into the orphanage ahead of me, so she can work on recovering more lightning mana from the kids who aren't sick anymore, like yesterday. Then I go inside, straight toward the kitchen. There's a powerful scent throughout the entire house, like nuts, and something else. Oil maybe? I get to the kitchen, where I can hear Emily cooking, but she's surrounded by a crowd of children. They're looking on with obvious jealousy, pressing much closer than they were the last time. Without Mister Fredricson here, they must be a bit less afraid of punishment...
Even so, they aren't moving any closer, and when I push through the crowd, I see why. Andy is standing right next to Emily as she cooks, pretending not to pay attention to the other children, except when he throws warning glances their way.
"Hey Emily, I'm back," I say as soon as I make it through, and she turns toward me.
"Aria, you look like you had a good time." She smiles at me knowingly, but it's not hard to tell, I haven't been able to get the big grin off my face the whole way back.
"Yeah, I did." Then I look to Andy. "Thanks for watching out for Emily."
"It's no problem," he laughs, and rubs my head. "I like the hair."
"Yeah, what happened?" Emily asks.
Giggling a little, I'm embarrassed, but still end up beaming at the floor. "Marrianne brushed my hair for me while we talked." I didn't put it up again on my way home because I was just enjoying the feeling of it hanging all around me, so nice and clean and smooth after her taking care of it. But now that I'm home, with everyone staring at me...
Immediately nervous when I realize how many eyes are on me, I quickly grab my hair and put it up into a bun like Nana taught me. It takes a couple tries and it's pretty sloppy, and I'm not even supposed to wear it in a bun at my age, but at least it's not as eye-catching as when it's all down... Emily smirks a little as she watches, still keeping an eye on her food. Even Andy looks amused.
"S-so, what are you making?" I ask, trying to change topics.
"Breaded fried vegetables," she reports proudly. I tilt my head, obviously having no idea what that is, and she laughs while she explains. "Matthew taught me a recipe where he coats food in flour before frying it, so I'm trying something like that."
"Ooh, how is it?" I ask.
"I cooked a few test batches while you were out, so I think I have it down now. It should be really good!" I nod and move next to Andy to watch and wait patiently for her to finish. She's standing up on a chair with the food in the pan on top of the hearth, so I can't really see well, but that's fine.
After Emily works for a bit, pushing the food around and flipping it with a spatula, she pulls it out of the pan, into bowls Andy holds out for her. Why are there so many? When we push through the crowd and get to the dining room, Emily's other friends are there. She must have talked to them about food too, I guess. Even though it isn't Shanaday...
When we sit down and all start eating, everyone compliments Emily's food, and she puffs up her chest proudly. Giggling a little, I take a bite too. "Hot! Hot, hot!" I mumble, blowing past the food in my mouth repeatedly until it cools down, then I bite into it again. "Ooh, it's crunchy..." I sit and chew for a bit. The outside is surprisingly crunchy, and it tastes like nuts, while the inside is really soft. I guess she put nuts in with the flour? The vegetables have a lot of flavor too, even more than the stuff Eryk sends over. I mean, that's supposed to be more healthy than tasty, but still.
"It's good!" Robin and Tony practically speak at the same time, before grinning and elbowing each other playfully.
"It's so weird, it's cooked, but still crunchy. I've never had anything like this before." Jess beams at Emily from across the table. I have to stifle a laugh when Emily's eyebrow twitches at the 'weird.' The others join in too, agreeing with big smiles and nods. Her grin turns stiff at the remarks, then her eyes turn toward me, pleadingly.
Seeing that look, I kind of want to tease her for just a moment, but... no. I like this a lot, and it isn't weird this time. "It's really good, Emily. Thanks a lot." I nod, and her eyes practically fill with tears.
"Aria!" she cries, coming and hugging me. I laugh and hug her back as she squeezes me tightly, and the others join in laughing too.
Once we get past that, Emily returns to her seat, and everyone goes on eating quietly. Mmm... It's so good...
"'Ey Aria, what'r you doing?" Andy asks through a mouthful of food.
"Mm?" I tilt my head a little. I have to finish chewing and swallow, before I ask, "What do you mean?"
"You're eating weird, you just keep chewing," he comments, more clearly this time. Immediately, I know what he's talking about, heat rising in my cheeks. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch Emily putting a hand to her mouth to keep from laughing. Sure enough, they're most of the way through their bowls of food, but I have a lot left still.
"Ahh, right..." I glance all around the room, trying to look anywhere except that them, and answer, "I was taught how to eat more, umm, politely, so I can fit in with higher class people at my job."
"You have a job?"
The question comes from all of them, in perfect unison. It's actually a bit funny, even thought it's mostly surprising. I've had a job for a while now, I didn't realize they didn't know yet.
"Y-yeah, actually. I do. It's pretty cool, but I had to learn how to do a lot of things differently to fit in, like eating."
"Wow, that's really impressive. Good job, Aria," Andy praises me. That just makes me blush more. I've been getting so much praise today...
We go on eating. A bit of conversation starts up, talk about what's going on in town, mentions of relief that a lot of kids who got sick are getting better. There are a few questions about my job, and Emily's too. Then Jess mentions that I never got back to her about learning more about the gods like I asked.
"Oh, I'm really sorry about that," I apologize immediately. "Some, uhh, stuff happened lately, and I couldn't really talk to you about that. Is it alright if we talk after this?"
"Sure, that's fine," she agrees easily, and we all go on eating.
Now that I'm looking a little more closely, I can really see the differences in how we eat. They finish their food way before me, but they basically shoveled it all in, so they have spots of oil and crunchy bits on their chins and cheeks, which they wipe off on their sleeves, getting their clothes dirty. They don't even seem to notice at all...
They keep chatting for a bit until I finish, then everyone splits up. Jess hangs around while me and Emily clean up in the kitchen.
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Once we're finished cleaning, we head back into the dining room, and Jess tells me about the other gods' marks. For the most part, they're based on animals or magical creatures, though I haven't heard of most of them before, so she has to describe them each time. I listen intently, reminding myself to go look at them in the church when I can.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Apart from those, Firos and Shana have the Sun and Moon marks, and Hurena has a tree for hers, which I guess makes sense. The weird ones are Arcanas, Venar, and Herat. I guess because they rule over things that don't really have any form, theirs are a little more strange and unique. First off, they're just called the Creation, Time, and Chaos marks.
Strangely, their shapes aren't based off of anything, as far as Jess knows. The Creation mark is just a circle with a square inside. The Time mark is a horizontal line with a few oddly angled, not-exactly-vertical lines through it along its length. And the Chaos mark is just a spiral.
Huh...
As weird as they all sound, I do my best to memorize them. Then I thank Jess, and she heads upstairs. I let out a breath and sink back in my chair. There's not much left to do before going to bed before the battle... It's a little after the ninth bell too. Everyone is home so much earlier today since there are still sick kids to take care of...
I go upstairs where Emily is sewing, sitting in the clean spot of the floor between my bed and the far wall. When I move to sit down next to her, I notice that it's started to get dirty again. Assuming I make it back, we'll have to clean again. Even if we can't clean the whole room because of issues with the others, I have to keep at least this one spot clean...
In any case, when I squish right up against Emily, in the tiny space between her and the wall, she raises an eyebrow. I form a telepathic connection and give her a nudge to let her know. "Oh, ok," she responds silently. "What is it?"
"So, there was something I learned today that I need to ask you about."
I hold back any feelings with my words, but Emily gets a little worried anyway. "Go on..."
"Marrianne told me about the blight."
"O-oh!" Her eyes go wide for a moment, body jolting, but she recovers a moment later so Helen and Eve, also sitting in the room, don't notice.
"Why didn't you tell me that I'm going to change into a monster sometime in the next two years?" I ask, trying not to let my fear show.
"No no, don't worry," she responds immediately. "You won't."
"What do you mean?" I ask, not understanding how she could be so certain.
"I don't know really. I uhh, I asked Reena about it and she said that wouldn't happen."
"She- wait- when- huh?!"
"Back when she marked you..." With her thoughts, I can feel her soul rolling back to those memories, then all at once, the memory comes, flowing into me...
In the darkness, a voice appears, Reena's. "Like I said, she asked me to help take care of you, but that wasn't all," Emily narrates over it.
Then, "Wait!" yells herself desperately, from her memory. "What about her disease? I can't do anything to help her with that! What do I do if she changes?" she shouts into the dark.
Then Reena's voice comes again. "Don't worry, Aria will be fine. She won't change."
"Really? Why not?" Despite not forming the thoughts into words, she continues on, thinking that not all children with the blight must change after all. Or maybe because she- I mean, I- is a rail unit?
"I can't explain, but I can promise you: Aria will be perfectly fine, the blight will not harm her. There's nothing to worry about."
"Thank you..." Emily's memory says, as the vision pulls away, suddenly cutting to the dark sky and the feeling of stone on her back, me calling her name, before she drops the thought and the memory recedes.
"Woah, ok," I mumble, shaking my head a little. That felt pretty weird. "Ok, so, uhh, Reena told you I'll be fine? Why didn't you tell me?"
Immediately embarrassed, Emily answers, "I didn't want to tell you about the details of the blight because I was worried you, uhh, would worry about it a lot." She doesn't say it. Doesn't even think it directly, but the feeling still comes through loud and clear. Emily thinks I would have killed myself. I cringe a little.
I sigh silently. "You put me before all of the people I could have hurt if I'd suddenly turned into a monster."
"I did."
I don't know what to say to that. One part of me wants to be mad. She intentionally didn't tell me that I might have been extremely dangerous to anyone around me. But... I can tell, it's because she cares about me, way more than I care about myself...
I have absolutely no idea how to respond. What would I have thought? What would I have done? Her worry... would I have killed myself? I don't know, but I definitely would have considered it...
"Aria, please don't be mad," Emily pleads, "I did it for you..." Her shoulders shake a little, her eyes glassy. "Besides, it doesn't matter now, Reena already said you'll be fine."
I lower my head, sighing. "Fine. I'm a little mad that you hid it from me, but I understand why." I have plenty of experience with Reena doing the same thing... "Still, she said I'd be fine? Why?" Emily already thought through a couple possibilities, either that not everyone with the disease changes, or maybe because I'm a rail unit.
"Umm, there was one other thing," she mentions, her thoughts indicating that she wants to tell me everything because she feels bad for hiding it from me before. "I talked to Francis about this, and he thought it might be possible that the reason they make the rail units age faster has to do with their 'real' age. So most of them die before they get too close to the age they'll change. I have no idea if that's relevant, especially since you won't, but... I thought you should know we considered the possibility."
"Oh." I'm a little surprised by the idea, but much more surprised that she talked to Francis about it and he also decided to hide it from me... "Fine, fine, not getting mad about that," I tell myself, and consider what Emily told me instead. I really don't know though. It could be connected, but it could be a coincidence, there's no way for me to tell without more information. So I'll just keep it in mind... Turning my thoughts back to Emily, I say, "I'm going to talk to Reena about this, see if I can squeeze any more hints out of her."
"Alright," she agrees immediately, mostly just glad I'm not that more mad at her.
Then I pull away from Emily's soul, and reach inside my mark instead. I connect to Reena and give her a nudge to let her know. It feels like the right thing to do, otherwise I might overhear her thinking if she didn't notice. Actually... No no no, that's a terrible invasion of privacy! I push away that idea immediately.
"Aria? What is it now?" Reena wonders, since it hasn't been that long since I called on her last.
"I found out about the blight today."
"Oh." Her soul suddenly stills, hiding any emotions she might have in response to that.
"Don't worry, I already talked to Emily about it and she told me that I don't need to worry about changing. But I just wanted to know..." How do I word this in a way that might get something out of her...?
Like with the connection between mana and magic, it works best if I state things, like I know them, since it seems like she usually isn't allowed to talk about stuff unless the mortal she's talking to already knows, so let's try it like this...
As I consider my options, also I realize that there's a definite upper-hand based on who is using telepathy. Right now, I can feel Reena's thoughts, but it's up to me to send her mine. Bluffing like this wouldn't work if she could feel all of my thoughts instead...
"I already know that our manastones make changes to our souls. So, based on what I've heard now, I think I figured it out. The manastones stop us from turning into monsters." At least that seems like the most likely guess...
Reena hedges awkwardly. "I, well... I can't say you're wrong, but, mmm... It's not quite as simple as you're thinking, but..." she sighs. "I'm sorry, I can't tell you any more."
Yes! I got it right! Well, not entirely, if the second part of her answer is any indication. So it is the manastones, but there's more to it that I haven't figured out yet. It probably has to do with the way they change our souls, since that's the biggest question mark left. I've already figured out that they're why we can use our mana.
"I'm not so sure of that." It's Maven who suddenly speaks up. He's resting lazily in his burrow, so he has plenty of time to listen in on my thoughts. "We haven't gotten any confirmation on that yet. Based on how you were able to make changes to Emily and Eryk's souls so they could use magic, and manastones make much larger changes to souls, it's a good assumption. But it is still an assumption," he points out.
"Ok, that's fair," I agree. "I'll keep that in mind." Ok, so our manastones definitely change our souls, and it's highly likely that is why we can use magic. And now, according to Reena, they also make it so we won't become monsters.
I try to follow that chain of logic. If the changes to the soul from a manastone stops us from becoming monsters, then the blight relates to the soul, right? Other than aging faster, I'm not aware of the manastones changing our bodies, so that's a... probably.
That means that the blight affects the soul. So, it's not a disease that affects the body, but the soul instead... Like something bad that's supposed to grow in our souls...
"Does that relate to those evil stones inside monster souls?" I ask before I think better of it.
As expected, Reena answers, "Sorry, I can't talk about that." Of course she can't. "However-" I perk up when she suddenly goes on, and now, I feel the bit of joy mixing with paralyzing terror. "Aria, be very careful of monsters. You've already found that they have, as you say, evil stones, inside their souls. Please, be extremely wary of those stones. They are far more dangerous than you can possibly imagine."
I gulp involuntarily. "Y-yes, I'll do that." I'm absolutely taking a warning like that to heart...
"Now, is there anything else?" she asks, recovering her usual calm far faster than me.
"No, I think that's all. Thank you." With that, I pull away. Why is Reena so scared of monsters? I still haven't looked into those stones as much as I should have, and her telling me that just makes me even more anxious about it...
Sighing lightly, I lean against Emily a little more, and start to silently tell her all about my time with Marrianne. I go on for a little while, before it's time for bed. I pack up my stuff for the battle tomorrow, then lie down with Emily.
I don't know if it's nerves or what, but just like last time, I can't fall asleep at all. It just... it feels like I'm not tired at all. After a little while, Emily clearly picks up on it. Hugging me closer, she hums softly in my ear. It's a vaguely familiar tune, one I've heard from her a couple times before. I wonder where she learned it...?