Quinn awoke bright and early the next day. She had plans that she had to get done rather fast. She set up for the meeting and went about her usual daily routine. After she was halfway through her workout, someone knocked on her door. It was quickly starting to become a common occurrence, which was quite frustrating.

The ex-scientist moved the chair out from the door’s handle and opened it, a knife tightly clenched hidden behind the door. The white-haired freak from the other day was smiling brightly at her. His broad and muscular frame filled up the entire doorway. “Might I come in?”

Quinn stepped aside and opened the door fully for him. She had already planned this course of action yesterday, so she didn’t hesitate for a moment. “O-of course.”

After he crossed the threshold, he spoke up. “Good evening, miss.” The venerus dracis looked around the room in appreciation as if it was the first time he had seen it. He easily walked over to the table and took a seat. Everything about him seemed far more formal than it had the other day. “I have come to you since you have something I desire.”

Quinn sat on the other side of the table and produced the small red bead from her pouch. While she was doing that, she hovered her foot just barely next to her chair’s leg. “I-is this it?”

His reaction was immediate. His eyes snapped to the useless trinket and saliva clung to his fangs. He restrained himself mere moments later, but she had seen the full possessiveness of a venerus dracis and it was quite unsettling. “Naturally.” He was back to his calm, slightly crazed self. “Shall we exchange names as a… investment in our business deal? I am known as Nikiter Novikoff Dracis.”

He had three names, huh? It was quite weird to hear a long name once more. She had already given up her surname since she wasn’t a noble. It was easier to just go by Quinn than stir a pot of mayhem claiming to be a noble. “Quinnzel, but uh, everyone calls me Quinn.”

The broad man clasped his hands on the table. “Then just Nikiter.”

“So, what are you willing to offer me?” The sooner they got done with this, the better. She did her best not to forget Rimor’s warnings about the Venerus. That being said, she already had an idea of what she wanted. She asked to see if he had something better than what she planned for, which Quinn highly doubted, but it never hurt to ask.

“Straight to business. I like that.” Nikiter leaned back in his chair in a relaxed way. His posture was one of a rich noble that could buy the world offering a few coins to a pauper. “I can offer you almost anything you want. No price is too high for me as long as it isn’t a gemstone.”

Rimor had written that the dracis were extremely covetous about a single domain. The crazed man must be after gemstones above all else. “Of course. I am seeking knowledge.”

The dracis frowned. “Unfortunately, I am quite lacking in this regard. I don’t tend to keep books around.”

It was a good thing she wasn’t wanting books then. “I am seeking knowledge about a-athyrn. If you can grant me the knowledge I seek, I will gladly give you this small Night Drop.” She had made up a name for it last night to make it seem more valuable than it was. She had no worries about there being another compressed blood drop since it was made from her blood using her unique Mana Signature.

“Night Drop,” he muttered to himself as his eyes tore holes into the crystalized blood. “What a fitting name… unfortunately, the knowledge you seek is quite… difficult to disclose.”

“Oh?” What was he talking about? According to Rimor, Venerus Dracis would do anything to gain what they covet. Surely a bit of information wasn’t too hard.

“The venerus lejis are quite strict about sharing information… but as long as neither of us spill… deal, but you must tell me where you obtained this Night Drop. And you called it small; does that mean there are larger ones?” Greed was easily noticeable as he almost dropped with it.

She was barely paying attention after he said deal. She handed him the small crimson drop. He greedily snatched it from her with his large grasp. The next instant, the blood gem disappeared into one of his pockets. “And?”

Quinn shook her head. She had a plan. A linguistic trap, if you will. Assuming he fell for it, she was going to get more out of the deal than what the ‘Night Drop’ was worth. “You first.”

“Okay.” Nikiter stretched out his hands and popped his knuckles. “Where do I even start?” He paused for a moment too long. She thought her plan failed, but then he continued. “Athyrn is similar to mana, in a way. The difference is that athyrn is ambient in the air whereas mana is restricted to a living creature. Athyrn can’t be around mana in its natural state. Usually, athyrn avoids creatures with mana - such as humans. That was why I thought you were a venerus.”

She had figured the part of the two energies being unable to coexist out. So far he’s shared nothing she didn’t already know, but it was still nice to get confirmation on her theories. It was quite gratifying to be told you were correct after making a guess about something. It was the original reason she wanted to be a scientist before her dad's death.

“All venerus can use athyrn to some extent. The different clans all have their own ways of using it, but we all share some common uses.” He stopped and looked at her expectantly.

“You haven’t told me what I wanted to hear yet.” She looked at him with a poker face of boredom. It was slightly difficult with how fast her blood was pumping. Thankfully, venerus didn't have extreme hearing like some vampires told about in stories.

He looked at her and his expression visibly sunk. “I just told you about athyrn.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Her trap’s time had finally come. “I appreciate it, but the knowledge I want isn’t about athyrn, it's about how to use it. I already knew about all of that.”

Nikiter’s face fully dropped as he realized what happened. He sighed deeply. “I really, really don’t want to piss off the lejis…” He reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out the bloodstone. “B-but I need this. Gahhh…” He groaned deeply. “Ok, fine. A deal is a deal after all… what can you sense of athyrn?”

Quinn activated her senses. The am- athyrn was quite peaceful in the room, as it had been. The difference was in the venerus. Unlike when she had sensed it around other people, the athyrn easily flowed through and around the man’s body. As it passed through, it changed slightly, gaining a manic and greedy vibe. After it passed entirely through and left, it returned to its normal state. “The aythrn flowing through you.”

He looked surprised as he stood up. “Good, that makes this much easier. You have good senses for a beginner. I am going to teach you Mistwalk. It is an ability that turns your body into mist, making you nearly invisible and allowing you to move rapidly. Be warned though, Mistwalk is extremely draining and disorientating. Most venerus only use it as a last resort. Oh! And it is quite difficult to fully master.”

Quinn felt her ambe- athyrn sense tingling as the athyrn inside the man changed. The particles - or maybe units? - of energy didn’t flow through him as it once had and seemed to be locked into Nikiter’s body. Instead of remaining neutral like they usually were, the bits of athyrn took on a foggy-water feel as they went about a qualitative change.

She had been practicing her senses back when she thought it was amber, so they were much sharper than they originally had been. Thanks to this, she could just barely make out what was going on. A tiny pinprick in the middle of a single athyrn unit changed, causing the entire rest of the unit to change. It was almost like a nucleus in a cell making the decisions for the cell.

That change rushed over the man’s body in a cascading effect as tens of thousands of tiny units changed. Although it was extremely quick, she could barely make out his head turning transparent and slightly crimson followed by the rest of his body. Soon, a mass of blood-red mist floated in the air before her in the vague shape of Nikiter.

The red mist form barely lasted fifteen seconds before Nikiter was back to normal. He looked noticeably green as he grabbed onto the table to stabilize himself. He was panting rather hard as he sat - more like collapsed - into his seat.

“You good?” Quinn asked.

The venerus nodded. “I -haw, I'll be fine. Did- haw, did you get that?”

She thought so. Still, he had no idea if she could do it herself. “I guess. How do you control the athyrn though?”

“With- haw, with your mind. Similar to how mana is con- haw, controlled with willpower and intent. You might not even be able to- haw, manipulate athyrn since you’re a human.” The color was returning to his face, albeit very slowly. He seemed to boast none of the super healing the vampires in her previous world were said to have.

So she would have to experiment and find out for herself. Not now though. Especially not when the venerus dracis was sitting so close by. The creepy venerus dracis that had broken into her room with his massive frame and acted like they were relatives.

Quinn stuck out her hand. “Pleasure doing buis-”

“Wait! You still haven’t told me where you found the Night Drop.”

What was he on about- she rethought about the past couple of minutes. Damnit! She got scammed! She was so caught up in her own sca- linguistic trap, that she hadn’t even noticed he amended the deal. This asshole took advantage of her innocence! “I-I made it on accident.”

The venerus’ eyes flashed with greed as he looked at her. Even a blind man could clearly see the thought going through Nikiter’s mind. It was obvious he was thinking along the lines of ‘I should kidnap her and force her to make more’ with the way he was twitching. Sanity seemed to prevail at the last minute, and the look vanished. “Well, it was a pleasure doing business. If you so happen to make more of these Night Drops, I would be more than willing to trade again.” He offered her his massive hand.

Quin shook it with a light grip trying to ignore the fact his hand was at least two times bigger than hers. “Of course.” Never! If she ever saw Nikiter again, it would be too soon. She definitely didn't want to be with a creature as covetous as him, especially after he was thinking about kidnapping her. Besides, there was little to no chance she would ever make such a cursed item again when she remembered how painful feeling her skin flayed off her flesh was.

The dracis stood up and walked out the door with one more greedy look back, leaving Quinn to herself. The first thing she did was shove a door under the handle once more to keep intruders out. It wasn’t the best defense, but it was better than nothing. Of course, she also relocked the door with the latch. As they say, it is better to keep an honest man honest.

After that, she disarmed the makeshift explosive trap she had set up before the meeting. Using the bomb she got from Atamai, she had set up a small string under her chair that she could step on to explode the device. Of course, she was going to get caught in the blast, but it was better to have something prepared just in case. Thankfully, Nikiter was quite a bit more tame than she was expecting.

Quinn returned to her seat and sat down. She closed her eyes tightly and focused her senses on athyrn. It was abundantly around her as usual. She focused on a single unit - grain? Her focus was lost as she tried to decide what to call it. It was almost like a cell in the way it was so tiny… how about… athyr? That sounded nice.

She returned her senses to the athyr, feeling it flow through the space around millions of its siblings. Quinn withdrew all of her mana into a small ball in the middle of her heart as she once had done weeks ago. Instantly, millions of athyr rushed into her like water filling a void as the mana receeded. The weight inside of her slowly vanished as the mana curled up into a ball.

Each athyr had a single point in the middle of it. It felt barely off compared to the rest of the ‘cell’. That was what she focused her mind on as she envisioned an athyr in her pinky turning to the same misty water that Nikiter showed her. It slowly changed with massive resistance as she tried to force her mental image on it.

Maybe she was going about this the wrong way… athyrn flowed like water. In fact, it easily moved around her the first time she had ever messed with it. It flowed with her peaceful and calm suggestions. Maybe she should try that instead of the forceful way she treats her mana?

Quinn changed tactics to almost requesting the athyr to change of its own free will. It easily worked as the entire nucleus followed her mental suggestion. The rest of the ‘cell’ followed after that and the entire athyr changed to a similar vibe as the mist. The process was extremely tiring, like using a muscle that had sat idle for twenty-five years. She followed the same tactics on the rest of the athyrn in her hand. Slowly but surely, her pinky was turning into a mist.

The ex-scientist barely got the transformation to her palm as mental fatigue crashed onto her. She collapsed onto the table in a catatonic state as he pinky rapidly returned to flesh and blood. She was too unconscious to notice it, but the athyr flowed along by as if it had a mind of its own. It forced its way to the ball of mana in her core and smothered it, compressing the ball tightly to make more room for itself.