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POV: Ana

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Her mind stirred.

Ana felt as though her body had been squeezed; it was like her soul had been grasped by a monstrous hand with innumerable fingers.

'Was I even conscious..? What a horrifying feeling.'

She just couldn't recall what she had dreamed about—she wasn't sure if she wanted to.

Inelegantly, she began pushing herself off the ground, and the cold, coarse floor scratched at her hands, worsening her mood even further.

She went to complain to herself, but her mind halted, shocked into silence by the sudden realisation of the state of her room.

Her mouth—Syrin's mouth—opened and closed like a fish lacking air, all her words leaving her faster than they came.

Each time she went to speak, a new detail would catch her eye, and a new wave of infuriation would assail her.

"What. The. Fuck."

She couldn't help but vocalise her rage; it was all she could do to stop herself from passing out.

The books she had collected, the gold she had stored for trips to the capitol, and her expensive tools—all were eviscerated as if they'd been pushed through the backside of the fucking fold.

When she got to her feet, she began brushing the dust off of her black dress, only for her blood to run cold.

The anger vanished as she dashed over to a nearby wall.

Her eyes were locked open, their moisture drawn out into the desert dry air while she fixated on a shattered frame scarcely clinging to the stone.

It took her a while, but she broke her eyes away from the sight and began feverishly searching the surrounding floor—if it could even be called that anymore, it was a struggle just to not puncture her feet.

...There was nothing.

Only fragmented stone and a coat of dust that had drifted from the crumbling bookcase.

She closed her eyes and unfurled her tightly clenched fingers before sighing mournfully.

That dream was over, just like that.

Calming herself, she chose to focus on her new body, one with so much potential.

This was more important for her now. The body of a true, natural-born demon, and an apparently rare evolution at that.

But that was likely par for the course...

However, it seemed to have come with more problems than she bargained for. Every step of the way, she had underestimated just how much she needed to exchange in order to take this body, and even after doing so... this had happened.

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If she was still in her old body, then she might have obliterated the room in its entirety. It was almost lucky that she would need time to acclimatise to this one.

Getting up, Ana left the room, unwilling to deal with it now.

All she needed was time, and she could wait.

The touch of the frigid air picking at her skin drew her attention, and it only soured her mood further.

However, before she could begin walking and contemplating just where to go next, a not-so-distant shout caught her attention.

It was high and familiar to her but sounded mildly discrepant in comparison to her old set of ears.

Was it Karin?

She hadn't exactly spoken to her many times before. But she knew that the girl liked to go out into the wider world every now and then. It was rare that someone like her—someone who enjoyed leaving and had the means to survive—would actually choose to stay instead.

Immediately, she wiped the identity from her face.

You can't choose carelessly how to appear. You only have to do a few summonings to understand that much.

People are much less suspicious when you fake a poor mood than when you fake a good one; if it's even a little off, they will notice.

"Syrin!"

Her voice came from behind. It was tired and faintly laced with annoyance.

Ana turned her head first; a weakly raised eyebrow pointed in Karin's direction.

She watched as Karin furrowed her brows, appearing unsure of how to approach or read her seemingly unbothered expression.

Ana took every micro-movement into consideration.

"What are you doing here?"

Karin finally spoke, her arms crossed, after stopping just a few paces away.

Unsure of how to respond adequately, she hesitated; it was obvious that she was already straying far from Syrin's countenance, but she at least knew that a day wasn't enough to be confident in your grasp of a person's character.

She pondered for a moment while turning her body slightly around but still not quite facing her.

Karin went to open her mouth again, but Ana quickly responded before she could speak.

"I... was asked to do some kind of dark magic lesson by Elech; I even got this thing."

In a moment of inspiration, Ana pulled out the key and note she had used to trick Syrin.

She did not directly look at her, choosing only to glance at her from the corner of her vision.

Momentary surprise made its way onto Karin's face, but it was quickly discarded; she was looking it all over, but Ana had seen enough to deduce that she found this to be believable given what she had seen of Syrin so far.

Looking down the hallway, Ana began walking away, ready to leave.

However, without turning, Karin quickly spoke again.

"Are you sure you didn't steal it from somebody? Apparently... one of the Aosma trees went missing, along with the soil... It's quite interesting that it is so close to where I left you earlier, huh..."

Ana wanted to slap herself in the face. Just what was going through this child's head... Not only that, but she couldn't see Karin's face anymore and had no idea what her tone meant.

Was she being serious? Was she interrogating her?

She could only play it cold, like she didn't care.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

The tone was even and lacking in any emotional inflection; Ana used this to her advantage and began walking away while Karin was mulling over her words.

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Karin turned her head and watched 'Syrin' walk away.

Her mouth was slightly open, ready to speak, but she hesitated.

In the end, she only found herself frowning. Her initial anger, albeit slightly playful, had vanished.

'Is she alright? Tired maybe?'

I want to ask, but... is she not interested in others? There are quite a few Demon's like that, but she didn't strike me that way at all.

Her thoughts stirred but didn't mix, and she found that there was no conclusion to be had. Perhaps this is simply what she was like, and her attitude bounced around.

However, she couldn't quite shake the feeling that something was off or that something had happened.

Syrin had not met her eyes, despite always having quite a full-on look for the brief time she had known her.

The lack of energy and snide remarks were one thing... but a person's eyes don't fundamentally change. That's what she had learned in the outside world.

In the end, she could not find it within herself to ask. Syrin had not said much, and, at the end of the day, it wasn't really her place to pry either.

But she still wanted to help her and to be on her side.

'I'll tak to her when she's back to normal... and she's going the right way back it seems.'