“No.” Zero hesitation.

I mean, why would I!? There’s obviously something weird going on here. My paladin is acting strange and I have no idea what it means. Ah, she’s tearing up… e-ehh?

(Maybe you should just, I don’t know. Let her have this too? You’re probably going to be making a lot of compromises going forward, since reminder: she owns you too. Right?) Nyx says.

I blink. Hah, forgot about that. Well… Maybe I’ll just…

“Ok, so wait. Why? Why do you want that?” I ask. There! Now I have an angle to escape, whatever this is.

(Doubtful.)

Ok, sure, shut up for now.

Izahne takes a moment to gather her thoughts, and then quietly says, “W-well… it scared me at the time, but… when we had a blood pact, we felt… close. Very close.”

Huh. “Okay, and…?”

“Can… can I have that again?”

I sigh. Is this another one of those human things? Is this normal?

(Not… completely I guess, most people don’t actively try to be magically bound to the whims of others, but… maybe this one is just a special case?) my Assistant answers. (You could always try it temporarily and if it’s a problem you could break it. Maybe it’d be convenient to know where she is? It does seem to offer that kind of benefit. It’s probably going to gain more effects when you level the Skill more.)

Fine. Just fine. Whatever.

“If you really want it, I guess we can for now.”

She immediately brightens – gods, it’s like she just ate a ton of souls. Anyway, I use Blood Pact again, and she immediately accepts. I feel that same awareness of her pop into being again, on the edge of my psyche. Ah, it’s with… what is this? It feels weird.

(Looks like your bond leaks some emotions with it. I wonder if it’s two-way…? Ask her. You really should.)

Ugh, fine.

“I can feel some of your emotions. Can you feel mine?” I echo Nyx’s query.

Izahne furrows her brow for a moment in focus, and then says, “I can feel… something. But I’m not sure it feels like an emotion… more like an emptiness? Some kind of need, hunger maybe? And, a deep exhaustion, as though I’ve been running for much too long…”

Huh. So, is that emotion?

(They’re definitely feelings people can experience, and it sounds like she can feel your needs at least… Let’s try something. I want you to think about how it felt when you ate that mechanic. Really try to envision it, and how it felt,) Nyx suggests.

I give it a try. I remember that it felt really, really good, but I’m not sure I have words to express it…

Izahne’s eyes shoot open. “Ah! Is this, coming from you?”

“What do you feel?” I ask.

“Oh, this is… it feels... I feel… like I’ve just done something I’ve been wanting to do, waiting to do, looking forward to. It feels so satisfying…” she slowly describes.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

I nod. “I see. You probably don’t want to know what that was.”

“I DO! PLEASE TELL ME!” she says suddenly, pulling even closer.

(Heh, we got a live one for sure. She’s definitely a ‘special case’.)

I sigh. “Fine. Nyx suggested I try remembering how it felt when I ate the soul of that ascendant I hunted a while ago. The one who used to have Philip. It felt good. I always have this quiet pull in the back of my mind to feed, and that made it quiet.”

My paladin is quiet for a moment, and then says in a small voice, “Oh.”

“Yeah, ‘oh’. Humans usually don’t like talking about me eating them from what I can tell. This is just something I have to do to live, so you should probably get used to it,” I say.

That seems to have successfully killed the conversation, although she’s holding on to me a bit tighter than she was before. I can feel something through our link again, and I can tell it’s not a good feeling. If nothing else I guess this bond could at least give me a way to understand what exactly to call these kinds of emotions.

(What you’re feeling is pity. She pities that you have to eat souls. Which is kind of ironic I guess, considering people have to eat to live too. What you should learn from this is the perspective people have regarding killing and eating other people. It’s a major social taboo. I already know you don’t share it, considering the number of wraiths you’ve eaten,) Nyx explains.

Yeah, they don’t taste very good though. It’s sustenance, but eh. I get more from a small nibble of these humans than I ever did from them.

(And that’s fair. What I’m saying is, you have agency. Izahne is probably viewing your hunger as a curse instead of a means of growth or even a combat style. You have enough control to show her that it’s just another tool in your arsenal, and you can limit using it to monsters and self-defense.)

Yup.

(Are you going to limit it to monsters and self-defense?)

…

(Nemesis?)

…

(I’m going to keep asking until you answer.)

I roll my eyes. Do I have to?

(Yes, unless you want every adventurer on the plane to consider you a target of opportunity or even a preferred hunt target. AND STOP, no, before you say ‘that just gives me a reason to hunt them back’, they will bury you with numbers. Pretend you have some modicum of self-preservation. Alright?)

Fine.

(Is that a yes?)

Yeah, sure, whatever. I’m irritated so I absentmindedly take another nibble of my paladin, who over the past couple moments had begun quietly snoring again. She lets out a small moan and clings tighter, but I’m pretty sure she’s still asleep…

(She is. People still react to things when they’re asleep, you know.)

Well, I do now.

***

Several more hours pass before Izahne wakes up. She looks around groggily for a moment, including a numb smile in my direction, before her eyes shoot open and she practically leaps out of bed.

“What?” I ask.

“Alarm!” she says while frantically putting on her stockings. They’re where she’d left them, folded on the dresser alongside the rest of her uniform.

I have no idea what she’s getting at, so I ask, “Alarm what?”

“I didn’t set an alarm! We’re late, probably!” she squeezes out between the collar of her undershirt, blouse, and blazer.

Huh. I don’t care. Anyway, she’s hopping on one foot while tugging on a boot when a knock at the door comes, followed by Omorth’s voice.

“You should get up if you haven’t. You’ve already slept through breakfast,” he says.

Izahne produces a dissatisfied noise, and I can feel something from her linked to it as well.

(Frustration. She knows this could have been avoided,) Nyx says.

I see. She feels a lot of negative things.

(She felt incredibly happy when you ate her vitality in her sleep last night. I know you felt it.)

Did I? That wasn’t just, from consuming vitality?

(Nope.)

Huh.

(No, that is not normal.)

Yeah, you said that already.

Anyway, we finally leave our shared room – her scrambling hurriedly and me nonchalantly walking out with my hands behind my head. The party gives me strange looks while my paladin grabs a handful of burned plant paste – toasted bread, apparently. Pearl finally breaks the silence.

“Did you rest well?” she asks. I assume she’s asking me, since Izahne mostly definitely has too much in her mouth to speak.

“I literally do not sleep.”

“Sleep and rest are different! You didn’t sleep but you still rested. Was it good?” the healer probes.

“Good enough I guess. She was happy about it though,” I say while gesturing at my paladin, who promptly chokes on her food and takes a moment of coughing to clear it.

Pearl smiles brightly. “Oh, wonderful, wonderful! By the way, you aren’t planning to go in those clothes, are you?”

I’m presently wearing ‘pajamas’ that Izahne had chosen for me in the earlier shopping spree. I shrug and swap them and my school uniform from my dimensional storage. Pearl blinks.

Izahne finally finishes the bread she was eating and then says, “I need you to teach me how to do that sometime.”

“Yeah, sure.”

And so we left my lair for my second day of academy life.