Lilia walked through the village, returning the morning greetings from the people she passed. Reud had left a couple of hours earlier, racing off to investigate his latest mystery. It was lovely to see him animated about something, instead of hovering around her as if she was some sort of fragile glass sculpture. She knew it had been a very long time for him, centuries left alone in the dark, but for her no time had passed at all. From when everything went black in those dungeon tunnels, to opening her eyes in that crypt, it was like a blink. A mere moment. In that blink the man she’d married, so bright and full of wonder, had drained away to a shadow of his former self.

It was a lot to get her head around.

Shaking the thoughts from her mind, Lilia headed towards the Mayor’s house. A quick rap on the door and Rachel burst out, her face bright with excitement. It had only been a couple of weeks of training, but already she was showing signs of improvement. Her arms, exposed by her tight vest-top, were starting to gain muscle definition. Lilia was pushing her through the training that she would have subjected any warrior recruit to, but they always had their magic to aid them. Rachel was doing it all solely via force of will.

She’d have been truly formidable if she’d been born with an affinity.

“Good morning, Master Lilia!” Rachel said.

Lilia smiled at the woman's enthusiasm. “Ready to train?”

“Definitely! Let’s-” Suddenly she stopped, twirled, and dashed inside. A moment later, she emerged clutching a pair of swords. “I almost forgot, we finally received the practice blades.”

Lilia accepted one of the blades from her, testing the edge. Sufficiently blunt, to her relief. “Good, it’s about time you got used to the weight of a metal sword.”

Together, they headed north out of the village, to the secluded clearing they’d been training in. Rachel had taken Lilia there on their first day of training - apparently it was her refuge to escape from the world. Lilia had to admit, it was perfect. Just far enough from the village to make it unlikely anyone would stumble upon it, but not so far that it was too dangerous.

Arriving in the clearing, Lilia set Rachel to running laps to warm up whilst she headed to the nearby stream to fill their water skins. The water here was pure and sweet, running clear from a spring somewhere further north. Bending down, she dipped the treated hide bags into the water and looked into the mirror-like surface.

A stranger stared back.

With a strangled curse, Lilia jerked back to fall onto the grass. Immediately, she felt stupid for her reaction. That was her face, her new face.

With a sigh, she ran her hands through her hair, letting her heart rate return to normal. Being in another’s body, even if the body was now her own, was unsettling. It was shaped differently, moved differently, had curves in all the wrong places and jutting bones in all the rest. The face was a little too long, the nose just a little too big. It even had a similar brand to the tax collector on the collarbone, this one being of a lantern with an eye beneath it instead of his chain wrapping a cage. All in all, she felt ugly.

Something she would fix the moment she found a competent biomancer.

Returning to the clearing, she settled down in the centre. Feeling within herself, Lilia focused in on her magic, awakening it. Throughout her entire life, she had felt only a single affinity, her force affinity, making her a kinetomancer. That was what had led her along her path through life, to the academy, into adventuring with Reud, and finally into the war. Now, however, a new affinity had joined the first, sitting untapped deep within her.

It was that new magic she wanted to explore.

The affinity was strange, so unlike her own. Alien and angular, complex in ways so far removed from the one she was used to. Reud had said the previous inhabitant of this body had been a cryomancer, focused on manipulating ice, so she would have to focus on that to try to understand it.

Pulling mana into herself, Lilia shaped it with her force affinity. The spell spread over her body, sinking into her muscles and priming itself to aid her with whatever physical task she desired to accomplish. The spell was known as the sheath, and as long as she held this spell, she knew from prior experience that she could lift boulders, punch through walls, bend metal bars. It turned her from a dangerous threat to a true killing machine. Looking deep within herself, she focused on the way her affinity shaped the mana to form the spell, trying to understand it in a way she’d never cared to before. After a moment, she released the spell, the strength fading away with it.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Pulling in mana again, Lilia pushed it into the other affinity, carefully watching to see how the spell formed. The mana sunk into the affinity’s angular pathways, vanishing from her senses. No spell formed, not even the wispy mess that denoted a failed casting. Maybe she was activating it wrong? Too much mana, or too little? It was frustrating, especially given the ease with which she could use her force affinity.

Though, that had taken her years of trial and error to work out, not barely a week.

She tried again, pulling in even more mana. Once again, as soon as the mana entered the affinity, it was sucked away into nothingness.

Lilia frowned. That was not how any of her professors had explained how magic worked. The affinity was supposed to shape mana, acting like a lens focusing it into a specific style of magic. You pushed mana in, and out the other side came a spell. It wasn’t supposed to absorb any of it!

Lilia tried a few more times, but the result was always the same. No spell, no magic. A fat old zero.

Lilia let out a sigh. It was an odd mystery, the kind that Reud would probably get a kick out of solving. For a moment, she entertained the idea of not telling him and avoiding the many long hours of being poked and prodded as he figured it out. If she did that, however, then she’d never figure out what was wrong with her. Besides, he’d be so excited to have something else to unravel, it would be a shame to deprive him of that.

Lilia noticed that the clearing was quiet, the sound of pounding feet no longer filling the air. She opened her eyes to find Rachel standing to her side, rocking back and forth on her heels, full of energy. A smile broke out on Lilia’s face at the young woman's exuberance.

“Looks like you're warmed up.” Lilia said, standing up and brushing away the grass stuck to her legs. Taking one of the practice swords, she took a basic stance opposite Rachel, her blade held in front of her, its tip right at the centre of her vision. “Remember, focus on your opponent, but don’t-”

Her vision went white as pain blasted through her mind. The sword dropped from her fingers as she clutched her forehead, her mouth open in a soundless scream. It felt like someone was trying to pound a nail through her skull, then filling the hole with molten metal. A pain that left no room for thought, for action, for anything at all.

The pain dulled a fraction, and through the agonizing haze, Lilia could make out what seemed to be words.

“... status… report… Isabella… message…”

The voice speaking seemed to be male, but beyond that Lilia could make out nothing more, the pain washing through her in waves making it hard to think.

“... return…”

Then, as if it had never existed, the pain was gone. The cool feeling of the grass pressing into her cheek was the first thing Lilia noticed. She must have fallen over. Rachel knelt beside her, worry on her face.

“Master Lilia! Master Lilia! What's wrong?” Rachel cried, shaking her shoulder.

Lilia pushed herself up onto one arm, gently prising herself from Rachel's grip. “It’s alright. I’m fine. Nothing to worry about.”

Rachel didn’t look convinced, but held out a hand, helping Lilia to her feet. Lilia smiled, forcing herself to look unconcerned. Inside, however, she was shaken. What exactly had happened? The voice, who was that?

It felt familiar, somehow. At the tip of her tongue.

Lilia took a step forward, and immediately a wave of nausea threatened to spew her breakfast over the ground. Lilia doubled over, holding a hand over her mouth until her stomach settled again. When she finally raised her head again, Rachel’s expression had gone from concerned to completely terrified.

Lilia forced out a smile. “Actually, I think I may head back and rest. I’m not feeling too great.”

She took a step, but dizziness sent her stumbling. Darting forwards, Rachel grabbed her, pulling Lilia’s arm across her shoulders.

“Let me help you for once, Master Lilia.” She said, holding Lilia upright. Lilia smiled thankfully, leaning on the young woman.

Together, they picked their way through the forest back to the village, the walk taking them over twice as long as before. By the time the wooden walls came into sight, the sun had passed overhead, midday having come and gone a while before.

Rachel helped her up to her room in the inn, before rushing off and returning with a plate of dried meat and bread. Rachel continued to fuss over her, and it took all of Lilia’s power of persuasion to convince her that she just needed some rest.

She really was a dutiful student.

Finally alone, Lilia sat on the bed with her back against the wall. Chewing on a bit of salted dried meat, she tried to make sense of what had just happened. What was that voice? Where had it come from? Why had it brought on that overwhelming surge of nausea?

Thoughts running through her mind, Lilia rested her head against the wall. Slowly, her eyes drooped shut, and she faded into blissful sleep.