Being unconscious and still vaguely aware of the fact my insides were molten lava was a novel experience.

Generally speaking, the whopping three times I'd ever passed out due to pain or shock, I was completely unaware of what happened during and afterward. This time? Not so much.

Something in me continued to roil, twist, and turn. Not even utter darkness could save me from that misery. It felt like I was in a coma, unable to move or do anything besides feel endless pain.

At some point, my addled mind realized that it had lessened slightly. Someone had turned the dial down from twelve to a mere ten. I wanted to whimper and beg someone to maybe take that to a generous six, but my hands were currently full just existing.

It hurts. Please make it stop. Please. *Please* stop.

Oddly enough, the fact that pain lessened somehow made it seem worse. The unknowable, sheer white agony had been replaced by a comprehensible, excruciating burning. My whole me was on fire.

Rather unfortunate that we’d never covered magical immolation in firefighter training. Shame, that.

Time marched on in a blur of pain. Gradually, ever so slowly, it either began to recede or I simply got better at dealing with that agony. I must have eventually passed out, because I awoke with a small jolt and a whimper.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

We were down to a near-manageable “four” at this point. My eyes swam for a while before I recognized that increasingly familiar ceiling and Siobhan’s face soon coming into view. She wasn’t wearing her nun’s veil, so I didn’t recognize her for a second due to the blonde hair.

I couldn’t help but let out a small groan of pain. My brain didn’t fully process the noise as my own.

After getting my bearings for a moment, I realized it was night time. Siobhan looked a bit disheveled, and after being gently picked up and hugged noticeably tighter than usual, I realized she’d been sleeping on the couch with a blanket.

“Dia, are you okay? I’m so, so sorry. We don’t know what happened. I should’ve told Elias to just not have a ceremony, but it seemed so unfair and I just—”

Siobhan continued to rapid-fire a lot of words at me, which only reminded me of one very important fact. I let out a tiny warble.

“Head hurtsss.”

I felt her audibly and slowly inhale against me, before she pulled me away to get a better look at my face. I squinted my eyes and tensed my jaw, hoping it’d make the magical migraine go away a bit.

Through my squinty vision and the relative shadow of the room, a mixture of emotion appeared on Siobhan’s face. I couldn’t quite place it, but I was worried she felt partly responsible for some jerkwad maybe-God shooting me in the brain with a light beam and doing what currently felt like the hokey pokey on my cerebral cortex.

“I wa’nna lay down.”

I spoke as slow and lisp-free as I could. It still came out a bit slurred, but my chagrin was an afterthought. I then did the sensible thing and plopped forward onto the closest comfortable thing nearby, namely Siobhan’s shoulder, and claimed it with my forehead.

I don’t know what I did to piss you off, Benevitas, or if that was really you or something else entirely, but please don’t shoot me in the head with lasers again. Fuckin’ ow.

A hand reached up my back, still feeling incredibly large compared to my now-tiny torso. Siobhan then proceeded to gently rub my back and rock me up and down. I clung to her while vainly attempting to will the remaining pain away.

That seemed to help a bit. I tried to stifle my whimpers whenever pain flared up.

We then spent an indeterminate amount of time cuddled up on the couch, as I passed out at some point without realizing. It wasn’t until the birds started chirping and sunlight filtered into the room that I woke up again, many hours later, still feeling a little groggy.

Siobhan was sitting on the couch, back slightly propped up against the side and head rolled to the side. It couldn’t have possibly been comfortable to sleep that way. I’d basically been draped across her chest and we were snuggled into a blanket.

The pain had mostly receded, leaving me only a bit muddled. Then I began to cope with the fact I felt like I had almost died again and lost all of this. That left me feeling panicked and sick to my stomach.

I’d been wrestling with all the care and attention I’d been receiving, mostly from Siobhan, but also from Eleanor and Elias. I wasn’t used to people being so nice to me. One of those dumb, silly, happy emotions kept wriggling in my chest and I had to resist the urge to poke Siobhan’s sleeping face.

Why are you being so nice to a little demon baby? You guys are way too kind and almost-definitely a bunch of weirdos.

Instead, I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the small sniffle that was threatening to build up in my nose. I didn’t need to exercise this morning, I could pretend to sleep for at least a couple hours. It was the least I could do.

----------------------------------------

The morning that followed was weird, chaotic, confusing, and went by in a blur.

Dinah was apparently being kept with Eleanor, because the two entered the room later on. I got to watch Siobhan’s boot up sequence, which I found oddly amusing and doubly cute.

Apparently, I’d unintentionally caused quite the fuss yesterday. Due to that, I was quickly hauled off to see Elias, who proceeded to examine me like I was a ghost. Far too much staring and brow furrowing. Mostly, he asked me a bunch of questions and apologized for what happened. I think he was trying to make sure I didn’t get brain damage or something.

After checking my forehead for the third time, he conjured a small light on his fingertip and waved it in front of my eyes and had me open my mouth, too. The casual use of magic fascinated me. He’d done an excellent job of accidentally distracting me. Now *I* wanted to use magic. That’s so handy!

Elias followed up by examining most of my skin for any burns or bruising. The back of my head was just a tad sore, but other than that I was apparently fine. I’m almost a bit surprised I wasn’t more injured, as I vaguely thought I’d smacked my head off something when I got brain-lasered.

He let out a very audible sigh of relief, before motioning to Siobhan. While she picked me up, he walked back around his desk and plopped into a chair. Poor guy looked tired. I had a feeling he’d lost as much sleep as Siobhan. Despite the fact none of this had really been in my control, I still felt guilty.

“I’m sow’ry.”

Elias’ head perked up my way and he gave me a small grin.

“What for, child? Don’t be sorry. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

While he gave me a reassuring smile, I quietly kept my thoughts to myself.

I don’t know. Sorry for being a little weirdo? Sorry for messing up your ceremony? Sorry for making you lose sleep? Sorry for being a magnet for inexplicable phenomenon?

Maybe I hadn’t done anything wrong, but it still felt like it. I bottled up my self-criticisms and tucked them away.

The “adults” in the room conversed for a while before we returned. Siobhan seemed quite relieved. She wasn’t very energetic today, so we only spent a short while reading. Downtime wasn’t bad every once in a while. We both needed it.

Several of the nuns actually visited today to check on us. I couldn’t tell if they were concerned for me, Siobhan, or simply curious. I suppose if you’re living in a monastery or covenant or whatever, there isn’t a lot of excitement. When I really think about it, I’m actually surprised we don’t get visitors waaaay more often.

As the day continued on, I found the evening returning into something resembling my new ‘normal’. The following day only had a minor hiccup or two, and the days after even less of note. After a week, we were completely back on track to Mundane-ville. Thank Nex.

The complete change of pace in my new life compared to the previous still took getting used to.

Days slowly trickled by in idyllic fashion, with tiny bumps here and there. I continued doing my best to become fluent and independent. It was small, but I still had a shred of pride and dignity left. I didn’t want to keep spending moments of weakness being comforted by someone who was mentally my age.

And so, with a busy mind and weary body, those days quickly turned into weeks. My melancholy had mostly faded away.

It was hard to believe. One day I stopped for a minute and realized—I was having fun playing with Dinah and Siobhan. Eleanor was even growing on me. The random visits and trips around the abbey we’d go on helped me get a better scope of my surroundings.

The abbey had a main chapel with numerous pews. Apparently they held religious services twice a week for the townsfolk, though I still hadn’t really met anyone new besides the monks and nuns who lived here. I suspected that was intentional.

Attached to what I’m calling the “left” side of the chapel was a hallway and series of rooms containing a library, storeroom, and a few doors I hadn’t been in yet.

On the “right” side was a hallway that opened up into what were basically dormitories. The monks were on the “north” side, and the nuns on the “south” side. There was an open courtyard in the very center with the gazebo I’d already seen.

On the “east” side there was a kitchen, what I thought was a laundry room with a ton of bed sheets and the like, a room that smelled like ink, and some more rooms I hadn’t yet explored.

There was also an exit on the east side that led to a garden, which had me very curious. Were the plants here the same as on Earth? I wanted to run around, sampling all the vegetables and learning about them, but I was still working on my crawling proficiency. Such athletic coordination would have to wait.

Besides the garden, the only other thing that’d heavily caught my interest so far had been Elias’ displays of magic. Physically being a baby and all, I was pretty sure no one was about to start teaching me magic. No one wants a toddler throwing fireballs or shining finger flashlights into their eyes when they don’t get milk.

Still, I was trying to formulate a way to broach the topic to either Elias, or maybe glean some insight from Siobhan. If I learn that finger-light thing, I’m definitely calling it “Shining Finger” and waving it around like a lightsaber. Or maybe I can turn it into a laser pointer somehow and play with cats. The possibilities are exciting. Hmhmm.

I was already a little red potato, so surely Elias teaching me how to do the finger-light thing wouldn’t make me stick out much more. Right?

Though, I was a bit worried. From my very skewed perspective, I felt like being a demon-thing meant I’d probably be able to do at least a little magic. I hadn’t really seen anyone besides Elias do any, but some of the tools they used around here seemed like they ran on more than just science.

I’d never seen anyone put oil into the lamps. Electricity didn’t seem to be a thing. That fountain in the gazebo area had me wondering too. So it was with curiosity that I spent several nights trying to ‘feel around’ for maybe a sixth sense, or some demon-y shenanigans.

Unfortunately, my search was fruitless. My hopes of being some sort of magic-sensing child prodigy weren’t realized. My attempts and actions just left me feeling silly.

Hnngh. Maybe I was doing something wrong? Unfortunate, but I decided to worry about that later. For now, I’d been spending the past few weeks since the laser incident on trying to stand up properly.

“Come on, Dia! You can do it!”

Appreciate the support, Sib. But I really and emphatically can’t.

Siobhan was cheering me on this afternoon as I was doing my best impression of standing upright. It’d been roughly three months since I woke up here, and I was making good headway in the locomotion department.

My progress made me simultaneously pleased and frustrated. Getting used to my new body was a bizarre experience that I’d have trouble putting into words. It gave me new respect for physical therapists and people who had to go through such a process. I was formerly used to being in shape, yet now I’m in the shape of cherry gelatin. Frustrating.

With my feet not-so-firmly on the floor, I clung onto the couch for dear life. My legs were still too weak. Today wasn’t going to be the day either. An assisted upright position was my limit. I let out a small grunt of exertion.

“Nnnn.”

“You’re doing so good!”

Admittedly, it was hard to maintain a sour mood when I had my own personal cheerleader. While standing was only an interim goal for me and thus unimportant, Siobhan had a far more keen interest in my progress.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

When I finally plopped back down on my butt, she seemed both disappointed and relieved. The former was self-explanatory, the latter was probably because that meant another day’s time for her and Elias to mentally prepare for a demon on the loose in the Abbey.

As nice and relaxing as it’s been the past few months here, I’m getting a bit cooped up. The company is lovely, but I have a firm desire to see more than this room 95-percent of the time.

I crawled over to Siobhan and made a hugging motion, before plopping onto the nun.

“Good girl, Dia. You’re learning so fast. Soon you’ll be walking around just like Noel and Chelsea!”

“Hehe.”

I let off a small giggle to match the mood, but I wasn’t sure how to feel about being compared to the 7 year old children. The girls were less skittish now and had moved into the ‘curiosity’ phase, but we still hadn't interacted all that much. They seemed nice enough, which was more or less the surprising trend around here.

Eleanor remained impassive. I was becoming a smidge offended by her ability to resist my winsome charms.

Elias continued to pop in periodically and do the finger-magic thing. Attempts were made to try figuring out what brand of sorcery he was up to, but my best guess was he was feeding me magic or something. Which was weird, but cool. It might also explain the fact I didn’t seem to make waste, despite the fact I was still spitting in science’s face.

The fact I was now a demon was a bit surreal. Perhaps it would be different in the future, but I honestly didn’t feel all that inhuman, other than skin color. Mostly, my discomfort stemmed from being like two feet tall. Besides, if being a demon meant you didn’t have to poop? I feel like people would actively embrace demonhood, honestly. That perk is bananas. Huge fan.

Anyway, I’d made an attempt to ask Elias about it recently, but he gave me a surprised look before more or less deflecting the question. That only made me more suspicious. It made me wonder if Siobhan and Eleanor couldn’t do magic, so Elias had to.

Don’t worry, Sib. Even if you maybe can’t do magic, I still think you’re awesome.

I happily nodded to myself while smooshed against her.

The rest of the day progressed normally, with me spending some time playing with Dinah and attempting to read over Siobhan’s arm as she taught me the Scripture.

This Benevitas fellow seemed a little sketchy to me during the whole laser beam fiasco, but after careful eavesdropping and my limited inquisition skills, I was told I’d actually been blessed that day and it was a good thing. Whatever that meant.

It didn’t feel good. My scalp tingled thinking about it.

Despite my initial and continued reservations, I attempted to say a small prayer as thanks. Appearing ungrateful to the local deity seemed an ill choice. I just hoped he didn’t make it a habit of nearly killing me with his gifts.

While I was feeling silly that night for mentally talking to a God who probably wasn’t even listening, busy doing important God-stuff, I decided to thank Nex too. Despite the initial bumps and several glaring concerns, I was slowly digging out of the depression and anxiety hole I’d been chucked into. While a healthy amount of apprehension remained for future events, I was, dare I say, feeling optimisti—

*knock knock knock*

… I take it back, I’m not optimistic. Everything is awful. Go away, whoever that is.

I stared at the door, daring it to open up and ruin my peaceful evening. My mouth formed a へ shape as I pouted at Siobhan leaving me.

“Just a moment!” she called before making her way over. Upon opening it, one of the monks stood there and they quietly spoke for a few minutes. I think his name was "Brother" Andor, as they called the monks.

I was still wrapping my head around the lingo and memorizing faces. "Sister Siobhan" sounded so serious. I hadn't been out in the chapel to associate with the nuns much, and the monks even less so, save for Geoffrey and Elias visiting sometimes.

Since I was a baby, I could unashamedly eavesdrop on the conversation while pretending to play with Dinah. I just had to pay enough attention that she didn’t put her fingers up my nose while trying to palm my face, but I could handle a bit of multitasking.

“I’m so sorry to bother you, Siobhan. Melody seems to have caught a chill. Would you be able to assist?”

“Certainly. Though, was Prioress Anita busy? You know she’s better than I am at healing.”

My ears perked up.

“Well, actually…” Andor paused, “The Prioress was up early this morning, and when I went to ask, I was told she was taking a short rest, so I thought to ask you. Father Elias has been so busy of late, I dared not ask him unless the matter turned more serious.”

“Absolutely, I agree. We should let Father Elias rest. He’s been looking haggard recently, so I’m glad you came to me after seeking the Prioress.”

Siobhan turned to Dinah and myself, before looking at Eleanor.

“Would you be able to watch the girls for a short while?”

“Of course,” Eleanor nodded simply.

As Siobhan left the room, I felt an intense curiosity build. They said healing. Like, magic healing? Or just ‘doctor’ healing?

I really wanted to watch.

Dinah and I were on the floor atop a blanket being used as padding. I recalled the first few times they’d let us play around. They’d watched us like a hawk. Some of it was probably due to my ‘condition’, but most of it was likely because babies gonna baby. I’d be stressed out too. I still worried sometimes that Dinah was going to smack her head while trying to roll around. She wasn’t quite adept at the crawling stage yet.

Disentangling myself from both Dinah and the blanket, I sat up and looked at Eleanor and did my best to speak clearly. Hearing ‘my’ voice was still unusual and distracting, like someone was repeating what you said a split second later. That coupled with a chronic case of ‘baby mouth’ and my first set of teeth finishing coming in, I was still working on the finer aspects of vocalization.

“Eleanor, what is Sib goin’ to do?”

Eleanor looked up from her desk at me. I could almost feel her raising an eyebrow.

“She’s going to heal Sister Melody.”

I mentally groaned. I gathered that much.

“Is she gonna use magic? Like Elias ‘n his finger light?”

I raised a chubby little palm and pointed my finger out to accentuate my meaning.

The nun stared at me for a moment. I began to wonder if I’d said something wrong, but thankfully she continued after that hang up.

“Finger light, she says,” Eleanor said wryly, “Yes, Sister Siobhan is going to use magic to heal Sister Melody. Sister Siobhan is probably the best at the Sacred Arts, after Father Elias, Prioress Anita, and … mm, perhaps Brother Felix?”

She sounded unsure on that last part. And I mean, that Andor fellow came here before going to Felix it sounded like. Didn’t that mean Siobhan was like, in the maybe-Top 3 at magic’ing here at the Abbey?

My eyes lit up.

“Cool!” I said gleefully.

That means Siobhan isn’t just awesome, she’s awesome *and* knows magic! Why didn’t anyone tell or show me this sooner?

“Can you do magic too, Eleanor?”

I watched as a frown immediately appeared on her face. There was a long pause. Sensing I’d asked something wrong, I suddenly wished I’d kept my mouth shut.

“No,” she said in a bitter tone, “No, I can’t.”

Eleanor’s eyes drifted over to Dinah, around the room, then back to the table in front of her. She sighed and picked up a book, then began reading it. I wasn’t completely sure what I’d said wrong, but a few things were obvious. Eleanor continued to hold the book up without turning the page.

My stomach began to feel funny. I didn’t know what to say. Dinah continued to absent-mindedly grab my hand while I sat upright, oblivious to my distress.

“I’m sorry. Eleanor is still cool, too.”

While I’d certainly meant it, that just earned me another blank stare. She didn’t seem to believe me, but the fact she was helping raise some kids that weren’t even her own? I still respected it, even if it was just a job of sorts she’d chanced into due to staying here, or something.

Despite obviously not being a fan, Eleanor was still very professional with me and had never done anything mean or wrong when Siobhan wasn’t here. That counted for a lot in my books right now.

There was one thing I’d noticed recently. I felt like my hearing was better here than back on Earth. Not sure if I’d ruined my ears with all the metal and screamo music in my past life, or if it was normal and new-me is the outlier. Yet despite my fresh set of ears, I still almost didn’t catch her muttering from this distance.

After staring at nothing for a while, Eleanor had closed her eyes, shook her head, and sighed again.

“Of course the demon child is trying to console me,” she said in little more than a sarcastic whisper, “Because that’s apparently how far I’ve fallen down the well.”

I felt a bit offended, but also worried for her. There was obviously something going on there that I didn’t want to poke. I’d really meant it nicely, but sometimes I forget that despite my best attempts to talk clearly, the same words from an adult and a child have completely different implications. No adult wants to be comforted by a kid, let alone a baby.

It was my turn to sigh.

Bleh. I’ll just keep playing with Dinah until Siobhan gets back. Might make things worse if I keep opening my dumb little mouth about stuff I’m not fully privy to.

Sorry, Eleanor. I made the atmosphere awkward.

… Sure wish I could’ve gone with Siobhan instead and seen what healing magic looks like. Did she glow like Elias? Was it even something visible? Would Melody cough up a bunch of germs and phlegm, or did it just magically disappear?

Questions.

Maybe Elias was doing some weird healing magic on me? But then, if that were the case, couldn’t Siobhan have done the same?

My thoughts became jumbled and looped back around in circles. I’ll have to ask later. There must be a reason.

I hope everything’s okay with Melody, though. I’m not sure what level medicine and magic this world has, or the scarcity of magic, but at least it didn’t sound serious? I’m sure they can handle it. If there were a magical plague all of a sudden, I really don’t think my conventional knowledge would help much.

… And now I’m worried about magic, demon-only diseases. Yup. Great job, brain. Gonna need to get those mental images out of my head. I will definitely be praying to Nex that any magic germs stay far away from us, thank you very much.

----------------------------------------

Several days later, when Eleanor had taken Dinah for a walk, I worked up the courage one evening to ask Siobhan the big M-word question. What followed was an awkward rejection I wasn’t fully mentally prepared for.

“Ah… Dia, actually, you probably won’t be able to learn any magic from me.”

I felt like I’d been verbally slapped.

“W-What? Why?”

I couldn’t keep the petulant whine out of my voice. Perhaps I had managed my expectations poorly, but I certainly thought that given both my unusually red circumstances and strange arrival here, I’d have at least a teeny, tiny bit of magic.

My emotions must’ve read clearly on my face, as I forgot to control myself. Siobhan went into “full reassuring motherly figure” mode, straight down to the voice.

“It’s okay, dear. You’ll probably be able to do some magic. It’s just…”

She paused, collecting her thoughts. My lungs started working again.

Magic was still on the table, right? There’s just a caveat. Is it like, some God-thing that I have to pray a lot to do healing magic? Like a Cleric or Paladin in books and games?

I took a second to relax. I could do that, maybe. As long as Benevitas didn’t laser my brain again. At this point, I’d completely swapped sides and was pretttty firmly convinced Gods existed. If Big B wanted some prayers or chants in exchange for magic, that seemed more than fair. I’d do so in complete seriousness.

I gulped a little, wetting my mouth as Siobhan finally continued.

“Magic is different for everyone. Most people, when they get older, can do a tiny bit of magic. It takes a lot of practice to get good at it, and there’s all different kinds. You’ll probably have your own kind when you grow up.”

Oh. Well, that wasn’t so bad.

“When do you think I can do magic?” I asked.

Siobhan looked like she’d sucked on an orange. She regarded me hesitantly.

“Honestly, I don’t know, dear. Most children awaken to their magic when they’re between nine and fourteen. But for you, it’s a bit hard to say.”

“Is it because I’m red?” I gasped.

My silly observation earned me an abrupt snort-chuckle and eye roll from the nun.

“Yes, it’s because you’re red,” she chuckled, poking my nose, “You’re just a bit … special. Dia is a very smart girl—” I’m really not. “—so you’ll probably figure out magic a little sooner than other children, but I’m not sure. When you grow up nice and big, and if you ever feel any weird stuff or see waves of bright colors, come talk to me and we’ll figure your magic out together, okay?”

“Oh’kay,” I nodded seriously.

Since I hadn’t seen any other demons running around the abbey or heard stories about them living in town, it was a safe bet that I was a little unusual. It was disappointing, but I sort of understood Siobhan not having those answers. Demons didn’t seem to be common. I’m not sure if that was good or bad, but it would’ve been nice to ask a demon about demonic common sense.

Regardless, this conversation was enough to excite me. I really wanted to learn magic. The thought of doing something that defied modern scientific knowledge tickled my lizard brain on an instinctual level. Because fuck physics.

As an added bonus, if I could learn to heal scrapes or injuries, or cure sicknesses, I felt like my odds of fitting into society would go up, despite my complexion. Helping people out would feel great, and it’d probably earn me a lot of trust and good will.

Or maybe they’d still hate me anyway. I really didn’t want to get lynched out of town when I got older, or some equally awful situation. That was an actual, deep concern of mine since arriving here. Perhaps I’m just bringing past-life prejudice here, though? I hope that’s the case.

Still, if healing magic turned out to not be an option, and if I learned or ‘awakened’ to some other magic, I could probably think of a helpful use for it. Unless it was like, weird magic. Like gluing stuff together. Or talking to animals. Or seeing really far. While doable, that might be a bit harder to utilize.

Ideas began to swim around in my head, but I pushed them away. I should temper my expectations and focus on the here and now. Like trying to actually walk, instead of just standing up like a newborn deer.

With renewed gusto, I coaxed Siobhan into helping me attempt walking. She patiently held my literal hands and gave words of encouragement as I willed my legs to not fail me.

I managed two shaky steps forward.

Siobhan’s cheering laughter was infectious. A dumb smile stuck to my face, as I tried not to be proud of such a minor accomplishment. After the praise died down a bit, Siobhan relaxed. My legs now wobbly and exhausted, I fell forward and collapsed onto Siobhan, who easily caught my modest weight.

“Good job, Dia! I can’t believe how quickly you’re learning.”

A squishy hug was presented to me, as I tried not to get too full of myself. It was just a tiny step, but it felt so good. A small giggle escaped against my will.

“I wanna walk ‘n go places with you ‘n Eleanor,” I nodded into her shoulder seriously, “When I'm bigger I’ll try healing magic ‘n help you too.”

Perhaps, had I been paying more attention, or had I separated from being hugged, I would’ve noticed the look on Siobhan’s face. It wasn’t until some months later I put two and two together.

Instead, I was busy being distracted by an odd sensation when Siobhan’s much bigger hands were running up and down my back. As the bottom of her palm reached the small of my back, I felt a small twinge and a tickling sensation. She seemed to notice my jolt and pulled away slowly. A curious glance was shared.

“Everything okay, Dia?”

I wrinkled my nose up. I wanted to turn around and feel why that was ticklish by myself, but baby arms still kinda suck.

“My back felt weird.”

“Here, let me see, hun.”

After a bit of fussing with my shirt, Siobhan began examining and lightly poking at my pudgy little back. It wasn’t until she went a bit lower that I felt that ticklish sensation around the tailbone region.

My lower back twitched involuntarily again.

Siobhan rubbed lightly. Back twitched.

I’m not sure I like what that feels like.

Siobhan let off a thoughtful hum from behind and above me. Meanwhile, I grappled with figuring out that foreign sensation.

“I guess that’s normal?” came the confused reply, “We should ask Father Elias.”

A small pit formed in my stomach, as I tried to process the thought that crept into my head.

I swear to Nex, if that’s what I think it is and I can’t wear proper pants, I am going to be *so* upset.