I looked over at Zu. “Those are new…” He said calmly. “They look good on you.”

I sighed, deciding it might be best to just ignore him for a while. “I’ve been… Training with dark magic… To try and fight the Ghoul…”

Zu leaned in closer. “Well, it’s not a bad thing, if it was negative energy my stone would have absorbed it. That’s probably what happened when your skin was turning grey. My soul stone has the power to absorb curses.”

Finlo stared at me closer. “So, not a curse then? That only leaves one other option.” Admittedly, with both of them staring so intently at my face, I began to get embarrassed again. But I was starting to get used to it, so I was at least able to stay calm.

“Wait, now it’s turning red, I didn’t think that was a side effect of dark magic though.”

“No, it's not. In humans that’s a sign of poison.”

“Wait she was poisoned? You… Don’t seem that worried though…”

Suddenly I felt the urge to scream bubbling up inside of me. “Finlooooo…” I whined as quietly as I could.

He raised a finger to his mouth for me to be quiet with a grin that made me want to slap him. “Ok, ok I’m sorry. In all seriousness though, if it’s not negative energy, it’s actually going to be harder to remove.”

Zu tapped his invisible horn. “It’s like this ok, soul energy is fundamentally one step below manna, like how blood is under your skin. When it overflows it causes your manna to spill out like sweat, but when you have a lot of it then it bleeds out and takes over your manna circuits, causing those black marks. Your body continues to regenerate manna though, but with no circuits to flow through it condenses and crystalizes, that’s what forms the manna crystals inside monsters.”

I started to feel a headache. ‘The soul is pretty easy to move around, so if that’s the case can’t I just take the energy out of the circuits and condense it back down?’ While I got lost in my own thoughts they continued talking.

Finlo sighed. “Cool. Obviously, we don’t want her to turn into a demon, so how do we avoid that?

“If they are fading on their own she should be fine, but the marks around her heart and just under her sternum will be the darkest. If those stick around they might start causing problems.”

He leaned back on his hands. “Well, what do you want to do? you’re the boss.”

“First, can you explain what exactly is wrong? I just want to make sure I at least know what’s happening.”

He threw a playing card on the table. “It's like your manna is a boat and your soul is the water, if the boat sinks too much it will be completely covered in water, weighed down, and never come back.” He said, covering the card with his hand. But to an extent, if you get enough water out of it, it would theoretically float again. If it stays under for too long though, the wood rots, or in other words, your Manna crystalizes, that’s when you become a demon. The stronger the wood the slower it rots. Make sense?”

I let out a deep breath, “So someone like me…”

“Right, in this metaphor you are certainly stronger than most, so you don’t have to worry about any of this at all, at least so long as the marks aren’t dark and covering your entire body for, months if not years.”

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

‘I’m strong?’ I had assumed that like in everything else I was below the standard, I didn’t know how to respond to the good news that I wasn’t. I finished condensing my soul as much as I could, it was like there was a heavy lead ball in my stomach, weighing me down. “Are the marks gone?”

“Faded, but still there.”

“So I’m taking on water…”

I loosened my grip on the energy and felt it spill through my body again to try and relieve the intense pressure in my chest.

“And their back.”

“What if I just tell them the truth?”

“Terrible idea.” They said together.

“Go figure…”

I closed my eyes trying to think of a better place and time to ease the stress I was feeling. As I inhaled I could smell the memory of sweet spring water flowing from waterfalls and my mind took me back to when I ran away with Fritz, sprinting as fast the the wind would take us. “I want to run away…” I groaned, leaning forward on the table and resting my head.

“Give me three minutes,” Finlo grumbled standing up and beginning to pack his things. “I’ll meet you at the stables after I open the castle gate.”

I rolled my head over to the other side. “I was joking… We can’t do that…” Breath filled my lungs to the brim, but the air felt shallow. “Zu, you’re coming with me anyway, right? Can you hold two illusion spells?”

He flicked his fingers and I felt a strange tingle flow over my face. “Yeah, but if your father can use magic he will probably be able to tell. I’m not very good with hiding my manna flow.”

I let out another groan. “What if I just say that the Ghoul cursed me?”

A dull thud vibrated the table under my arms as he began to tap it with his finger. “If you were cursed bad enough to look like this you probably wouldn’t be able to move, no, you'd die within minutes.”

“You’re sure this pendant can’t absorb it somehow?” I asked, sitting up again and trying one more time to condense the energy inside of me.

“I mean, there might be a way, but Oni is one of the monstrous races. So if I get a hold of too much soul energy it wouldn’t just give me black marks on my skin, and without proper training, I’d become a monster… So…”

I slowly pressed a hand over my ribs. “Wait so you’re saying… The stone doesn’t heal, it just moves injuries from me to you?”

He nodded. “Yeah, but not just injuries, it allows us to share anything, and it goes both ways. The sensation of touch for instance.”

‘Suddenly this gift feels a bit too intimate…’ “So wait… Like… When I’m taking a bath…”

He raised his hands. “Hold on!”

Finlo snickered. “You said anything.”

I was glad he was having fun… but I was far from laughing.

“First of all, in order for us to share senses we would have to both be trying to, it's impossible to accidentally do something like that. Second, you would have to be wearing it, and third, I would never do something like that!”

“Ok. but it still feels a little…”

“Well it saved your life didn’t it…”

‘Doesn’t that mean he took those injuries though?’ I reached back to my ribs. “Did you…?”

“That’s not what we're worried about right now.”

‘So he did…’

I let out a sigh, leaning back. “Hey Rafi, can you help me out here?” Of course, the other two were thoroughly confused, but I didn’t have any better ideas. Just like before the whispering echoes ran through my mind. “Oh, but I’m having so much fun watching you get embarrassed.”

“Not you too…” I looked back at Finlo and Zu, who just shrugged at each other.

“Honestly I’m surprised you didn’t ask me sooner. If you channel dark sight that should help you feel the essence of your soul and spend some of the energy up, from there try condensing it like you have been. ”

‘So I had the right idea after all.’ Focusing all my energy, I followed the steps she had given me. “Is it gone now?” I asked

Sure enough, it was. And after a while, it worked completely. There was a catch though. I still wasn’t that good at it, so I had to continuously channel the darksight spell in order for my skin to stay clear.

“Siya… There’s something you should know...”

I turned to Zu as we started to wrap things up.

“Normal people wouldn’t be able to tell, but to dark magic users, when you're using that spell, I can see a black fog around your eyes.”

I was a bit surprised that he just admitted to using dark magic, but I wasn’t too worried about it. “Thanks but I should be fine for now at least if I just keep my skin clear. I’m not really planning on using dark magic that much after I kill this demon, so it should work out.” I smiled back at him as I left, but I could tell from his eyes that my words didn’t reassure him. It only made sense though, he was a member of a monstrous race, so he knew all too well that people could become monsters.

All I knew about them was from what Mara had taught me. They were races that were born “close to darkness” and because of that, they were easily corrupted into monsters. Humans turned into demons, but there wasn’t much difference overall, the point was that he must have known the risks. If anything it made me glad he was so worried, it meant I probably didn’t have to worry about him using dark magic, regardless of why he had in the past.