“Hold still.”

“But it tickles.” Lilia protested, squirming away from his hands.

“I can’t help that, but we have to understand what happened to you.” Reud said, gently pushing mana into her again. They were in his workshop, in the tunnels beneath the city, the room containing a number of tables laden with stacks of parchment, dimly lit by lanterns hung on hooks on the walls. He’d finally cornered her and dragged her off, determined to get to the bottom of the issues she’d experienced on the day the Seekers had attacked Littlestream.

“It’s nothing, just some affinity problems. Nothing to worry about.”

“Lilia, you almost lost to some middling kinetomancer and his sparky friend.”

“I… well…” Lilia looked away.

“That’s not the performance I would have expected from the former diamond ranked adventurer, Opalstar.”

Lilia blushed. “Oh gods, just let me forget about that name. I was young and foolish, alright?”

“Foolish or not, you earned the prestige that kept the name on the lips of everyone in the land, and you certainly wouldn’t have done that if you were beaten by every little mage that came along, so hold still and let me get to the bottom of it.”

“Fine, let's get this over with. Just don’t go spreading that name around any more, I’d like my embarrassing history to stay in the past, thank you very much.” Lilia grumbled.

Reud smiled as he focused deep within her once again, letting his mana explore her soul. He hadn’t put any time into exploring the new affinity her new body had provided her with during their time in Littlestream, but that had to change. If the nausea that had nearly got her killed was a product of trying to use it, then he had to determine why, and try to fix it.

It was too much of a risk for her to experiment with, otherwise.

From his experience, an affinity manifested as part of the soul, close to the borders where it bound itself to the flesh that kept it anchored in the material world. The fact that Lilia said she could feel a second affinity just shouldn’t really have been possible, unless her soul had changed in some way.

Focusing, Reud pushed his mana deeper and felt around the tethers that bound her soul to the stolen body, sensing the spell that still held her there. It had dissolved a little, her soul starting to absorb the mana fetters and amalgamate almost as if it had always been in place, but there was still a long way to go.

Then he felt it.

“Huh.” Reud said.

“What is it?” Lilia asked.

“I guess I didn’t fully remove the other soul.”

“What?”

“The Seeker, part of her soul is still there, in you.”

Lilia’s eyes widened. “That’s… bad, right?”

“Not quite. Give me a moment.”

Reud explored around it further, trying to feel out the extent of the remains hiding deep within Lilia. The Seeker’s soul was far from intact, barely more than shredded remains, echoes clinging desperately to their former tethers. But that must have been where the new affinity originated from.

“It looks like the remains of her soul still have the ice affinity, but it's torn up and unusable in its current state. No wonder you had issues channelling through it.”

“That’s disappointing.” Lilia said, frowning. “I got kind of excited to play with some new magic.”

“Well, all is not lost. I can either extract her soul, or try to piece it back together. It’s a bit of a risk, but it could give you a real usable affinity.”

“Do it.” Lilia said immediately.

“Don’t you want to think a bit? It’s not exactly risk-free.” Reud said, raising an eyebrow.

“Do it, I trust you.” Lilia said again. “Cryomancy is cool.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Reud’s eyebrows raised further.

“That was not intentional, honest.” Lilia said, a smile tweaking the corner of her mouth. “But in all seriousness, I know you’ll make it work, and a second affinity would be… You know. Kinda awesome.”

Reud nodded. The power boost it would give her would certainly do wonders to keep her safe, but was it worth the risk of messing inside her soul? What if he made a mistake? What if something went-

Lilia squeezed his arm. “Reud, stop worrying. Just get on with making me into a one-in-a-million mage with two affinities.”

Reud smiled, the worries fading away.

“Okay, hold still. This may… tingle.”

Reud let mana surge through and out of him, flooding through Lilia’s body. It washed around the fetters holding her soul in place, and slammed into the remains of the Seeker’s soul, sweeping them off to coalesce into a single point. The soul fought, but it was weak, unable to put up any kind of substantial defence in its shredded state.

And Reud was a master of soul magic. It didn’t stand a chance.

With the soul gathered up, he began to fuse it back together, pulses of intense mana softening its ethereal substance and letting him stitch the parts back into one. Anything too damaged, or with too little connection to the affinity at its core, he melted away, the destruction of the excess material turning into intense bursts of pure mana that fed back into the spell. Little by little, he formed the very core of what provided an affinity to a person.

Centuries ago, he’d done similar surgical experiments on other captured Lightire mages, trying to figure out a way to distil what allowed them to use mana into something he could use to intensify his own magics, and speed up the timeframe for the resurrection spell. Sadly, though he’d been able to cut the souls down, the resulting parts refused to bind to anything but their disintegrating original bodies, and as a result the experiments had gone nowhere.

This time, however, he had the perfect vessel to place the soul back in to.

Forming a new branch of the spell binding Lilia’s soul in place, Reud slotted the soul-wrapped affinity into it, pressing it down into the core of her being. It nestled in place, right up against the border of Lilia’s own soul, beside her force affinity.

Lilia let out a gasp as the spell settled into place, a shiver running through her body.

“Oh, I feel that. I feel… whole.”

“I think it should be good now.” Reud said, wiping his brow and sitting back. “Why don’t you try a little bit of mana.”

Lilia’s brow furrowed as she concentrated. Reud kept his soul sight open, focusing on the affinity he’d just slotted into her. A trickle of mana ran through Lilia, and down into the affinity along the channel the spell binding it in place had created for it.

Then a sliver of something shot into Reud’s leg.

Reud jerked at the sudden sensation, just as Lilia let out a silvery peal of laughter.

“Did you see that! I did it!”

“Yep, you sure did.” Reud said, grimacing as he pulled the needle of azure ice from his thigh. It melted in his palm, leaving behind a pool of clear water that evaporated into nothingness as the mana faded from it.

“Oh, oops.” Lilia said, finally noticing what her spell had done. “Sorry about that, I got a bit excited there.”

“It’s fine, I’m happy it works for you now.” Reud said, smiling.

“It felt strange, different to my force affinity. More… rigid?”

“Did it feel okay to use? No pains? No nausea?”

Lilia shook her head. “Felt perfectly fine, to be honest. Maybe I should try a little more mana?”

Reud gestured at the far side of the room, empty bar a lantern hung on the wall. “Go ahead.”

Lilia stood, holding up her hand. She focused a moment, then something twinkled into life around her hand. A glittering mote of light that drifted slowly to the floor. Then another appeared.

And then a flurry of snow burst from her hand, flying out in all directions.

It filled the room with a sparkling white cloud, drifting down from the ceiling and settling in piles along the wall. The torchlight reflected through the snow, refracted by the tiny ice-particles and sending iridescent light dancing over the walls. Each snowflake that touched his skin sent a little lance of cold into his body before fading, tingling little pinpricks of sensation that ran down his spine.

“It’s so beautiful!” Lilia said, grabbing his hand and pulling him up too. “They’re like little gemstones dancing in the air.”

“Yeh.” Was all Reud could say in response, caught up in the wonder spilling from Lilia. She pulled him into a little dance, her left hand held high and continuing to billow out the sparkling clouds of snowflakes. Her excitement was infectious, and a wide smile spread across his face too as they danced.

Lilia stumbled, and fell into one of the piles of snow that had built up on the floor, a white cloud puffing up around her as she did so. Reud fell on top of her, surprised at how soft the substance felt beneath his knees, like the mattress of the softest bed he’d ever touched.

The softness only slightly spoiled by its ice-cold touch.

Lilia locked eyes with him, an intensity in her gaze that took his breath away. Reud leaned down and pressed his lips to hers, kissing her deeply, passionately.

Then, with her burning hot body pressed against his, it didn't feel so cold any more.