Evelyn really, really wanted to end the visualization right then and there and immediately examine someone else for comparison. There were so many unanswered questions burning in her head. Was this just about Samantha, or would she find the same type of thing in David's head as well? Or Dana? Or Gary? Did they all have the same issue with some brain regions not connecting properly to the mana? What about other animals? Ooooh... how about herself? Was this exactly what she had modified about herself yesterday?

So many things to figure out.

She stopped herself from rushing off, though. The clarity she was enjoying in this visualization was far stronger than any previous attempt, ever. Never before had she gotten even a glimpse of the mana patterns buzzing around inside someone's head. The quality boost from using white mana was inconsistent and unpredictable, and Evelyn still didn't understand the rules that dictated how that enigmatic form of mana behaved. This may never happen again.

So instead, she kept the visualization running so as to not lose it, while continuing on with additional, casual questions for Samantha. As the two talked, she watched the overall patterns in the magic. She didn't have anything specific to look for. Instead she tried to get a feel for how the mana behaved when Samantha was doing more than just sitting quietly.

Mana seemed to interact with Samantha's motor functions and senses quite a lot, especially her vision. These worked perfectly in sync with Samantha's own brain activity like they were made for each other. The display was almost hypnotic, and often surprising in its strength. Like, there sometimes appeared huge build-ups of focused mana in her vision center and optic pathways. The mana would become so strong and dense that Evelyn thought it might even be visible to anyone looking at her eyes. This would then kick off a flurry of complex activity all over her body that Evelyn couldn't even begin to understand. Still, she could definitely appreciate it; altogether, the patterns were beautifully mesmerizing.

She kept listening to what Samantha was saying, but it was difficult. She'd been focusing for so long, and the scintillating displays stole her attention time and again. Evelyn got lost in the flowing patterns, the bursts of color and glowing trails. Being able to see mana, actually see it, even if only through magical senses was transfixing. She had all but forgotten why she was doing this in the first place.

Then it all went sideways.

"...obviously not after the raccoon actually bit me. That little dumpster weasel did it on purpose, I'll bet," Samantha said with a low growl to her voice.

Evelyn was embarrassed to realize she was only halfway paying attention, but the burst of light and motion she saw in her visualization shocked her out of her reverie. The mana still swirled and spun, but a discordant churn soured the pattern. The predominant order was being supplanted by the chaotic mess that had previously been confined to the cortex and higher-order regions. It was leaking into the rest of Samantha's mind.

"It actually looked at me. Did I mention that? That greasy little hellspawn looked me dead in the eye, and I swear to God it smiled at me. The damn thing knew it was gonna die, it knew it had gone too far with James and I couldn't let it live this time. And it plotted its revenge. Right then and there, the creature silently vowed to haunt my memory and flay my mind. But I can't just give up. I can't let it consume me. Not yet."

It wasn't just the mana that started to fall apart. As the chaotic mana churning in her head began to escalate, Samantha's physical brain activity also started to get dragged into the maelstrom. The avalanche taking shape was, frankly, frightening.

She wasn't about to just sit back and let this happen to her friend. She scanned the internal landscape for clues as to what had triggered the effect and what was powering it. The chaotic mana storm was flashy, but it couldn't be the whole story. It was too random. There had to be something else, something predictable and consistent driving the other half of this disaster, otherwise the effect would have been random as well. Samantha kept talking as Evelyn searched for clues. She kept an ear out, though, just in case her friend said something important.

"Its glowing red eyes followed me home. They were dead and gray when it was alive, but now they shine in dark corners where I'm not looking. Sure, I was afraid of the eyes. But it's not really the eyes in the dark that we worry about, is it? It's what the eyes might be attached to that scares me now."

Evelyn just hmpf'ed in response, too engrossed in her search. However, nothing fit what she was looking for; there were plenty of effects but no causes. Plus, the growing mana cascade was making it all the more difficult to see anything at all. As order devolved into chaos, the eddies became increasingly powerful, not just more numerous. More and more mana was leaking out of the system and into the spaces between where it reacted with the more stable channels, diverting signals and creating more chaos. The patterns of light she had previously been admiring were looking less like organic fractals and more like car crashes.

Samantha's physical brain activity was becoming strained as well. Evelyn had only limited experience with this kind of thing, but she could see that the higher-order systems were losing ground and starting to go dark while the more primitive systems had started picking up the slack. It wasn't extreme yet, but Samantha would definitely be feeling it, probably confused and upset with a lot of difficulty focusing.

"I've been fighting against it for a while, you know," Samantha continued. "Before the animals got involved. But it was different then. It was just waves of dread and shadows. It was nightmares in the dark, not teeth in the woods."

Evelyn appreciated that Samantha kept talking, but the topic was a little dark. It felt... well, weird that Samantha of all people kept obsessing about fear. She normally would go to absurd lengths to avoid admitting even to herself that she was scared, and yet now she wouldn't leave it alone. Everything had to be about fear and darkness. It didn't fit. It didn't feel right.

"Maybe let's not talk so much about the shadows and teeth and eyes and all that?"

"Oh, it's not the teeth and eyes that matter. It's actually the blood that made the difference," Samantha added sagely.

"Right... Blood is pretty important. Anyway, we should probably--"

"It's everywhere," Samantha continued in a conspiratorial hush. "It covers everything. It never goes away, it never hides. Horrible and splendid. Red like a painted sunset. But it's always painted onto the world with my own hands. It's... beautiful despair. Everything I touch. I can't wash it off."

"Cool...." said Evelyn. "Anyway...."

She was trying her best to figure this out, but it wasn't working. She'd tried five times to just heal Samantha to stop the mana cascade, but it didn't work in the slightest. She was starting to get really worried about whether she'd be able to even help at all. And if she couldn't, what would happen to Samantha? The damage being caused by the mana storm didn't leave any physical trace that she could see, but that didn't mean it wouldn't be serious anyway.

"I have to carry it with me, you know," Samantha continued, "it doesn't let me leave it behind. The blades of wind and nightmares. It bites me until I bleed. It shouts at me to run and hide. It attacks with my hands. It whispers that I can't be safe. It's telling me that I have to...."

Samantha shuddered, her whole body convulsing for a second before she drew a ragged breath.

"I don't want to," she said. "I don't want to, but I'm afraid."

Evelyn could see that Samantha was in bad shape. Her eyes had gone unfocused and unseeing. Her body began to shiver and she didn't seem to be trying to control it. The mana storm was playing havoc with her senses: her sights and sounds, her equilibrium, her sense of reality, none of it would be functioning properly right now. The chaotic interference had grown beyond all reason and had reached a threshold that Evelyn didn't know how to interpret. It was now obliterating nearly all attempts at rational thought, and yet something was still fueling it ever stronger.

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This was not good. This was very much not good.

Evelyn felt drawn back again to the fear in Samantha's words, the wrongness of it. Not that it was ingenuine or inappropriate, it certainly wasn't. But it was... not Samantha. It felt added, like a new feature tacked onto her personality. It felt as though a part of her mind--

"Is it that simple?"

She narrowed her focus to just the part of Samantha's brain responsible for fear and aggression. Finding the right structure, she settled in and started looking for anything out of place, anything that could be fueling this mess. The longer she looked and the more she thought about it, the more she disliked the options. She wasn't sure what would be worse: discovering some sort of damage that hadn't responded to her healing, or discovering nothing at all and being left without any answers while still running out of time.

A few unsuccessful minutes later, she had to admit that there was nothing to find. No problems, no damage, nothing abnormal. It was... fine. It all worked just fine. Better than fine, in fact. It was one of the few structures that would continue to work just fine even as the chaotic mana grew ever more intense. Since the fight-or-flight response was critical to survival, this would be one of the few brain regions that would stay consistent and predictable despite the....

"Oh."

"Oh damn. That's not good."

Evelyn followed that thread and played out the inevitable result, and her heart sank when she recognized what was happening to her friend.

Even though the internal mana storm was chaotic and struck randomly, the effect wouldn't be random. Rational thought depended on a delicate balance, but animalistic responses like fear and aggression would keep going strong even when the system was damaged. Plus, those brain regions had far stronger ties into the mana system so they'd be extra sensitive to false-triggering by stray mana, and when active they'd feed even more mana back into the storm. It was an endless cycle that fueled itself ever higher.

Worse still, the psychological effect was... scary.

Samantha's ability to think clearly and respond rationally would slowly wither as the storm inside her grew stronger. At the same time, she would start feeling more and more upset and afraid for reasons that didn't make sense. She would become increasingly desperate to fight or flee or both, but wouldn't have any idea what was haunting her. It sounded awful.

Samantha was unbelievably strong, though. Her experiences had made her scarily good at managing her reactions in horrible environments. It was a skill she wouldn't wish on anyone; it had cost her more than any kid should have to endure. But out of that crucible Samantha had emerged with the strength and raw willpower that few could ever achieve. Samantha was uniquely well-equipped to withstand this assault and could deal with it far better than most people.

That said, "better than most people" didn't mean "good." Most people would likely flee until they felt cornered and relentlessly attack everyone and everything around them. It would be difficult, nearly impossible, for someone to avoid giving in, for someone to stay... themselves... under the kind of assault this internal mana cascade would bring. As one's very thoughts and focus evaporate, and with all of their senses and instincts telling them they're in terrible danger and need to fight back, "most people" wouldn't stand a chance. Samantha was strong, but this was a lot.

Evelyn wasn't going to just leave her friend to that fate. And now that she knew what the problem was, she went to work at fixing it.

Or rather, she tried.

Using her new understanding of the resonance fueling the storm, she tried to inhibit the feedback cycle. It didn't work. With her understanding of the feedback, she tried to slow the impact. It didn't help. Using her influence on Samantha's senses, she tried to interrupt the fear response. It didn't stop. With her understanding of the fear activation, she tried to stop the mana escalation. It didn't even slow. The lack of results was maddening, infuriating.

It was unfair.

She'd done the work. She had figured it out. She had solved the puzzle. But it didn't matter. She didn't have an answer. Just because she understood the problem, that didn't mean she could actually do anything about it.

She was out of time and tried everything she could think of. Healing did nothing. Intervention did nothing. Mana manipulation did nothing. She even tried to directly interrupt the chaotic signal patterns in Samantha's head. Nothing worked. Nothing helped. Evelyn could do nothing to save her friend.

Samantha's words had slowed as Evelyn worked, she'd spoken less often and more deliberately. It didn't seem meaningful, but Evelyn listened just in case. Then her eyes grew distant and her words even more careful.

"I didn't want any of this. I didn't want to be this," Samantha admitted with quiet solemnity. "But we both knew that this was where it would lead. We both know how this ends. I will only end us."

After those last words, Samantha stopped responding entirely. Not to sound, not to sight, not to touch. She was just gone.

Evelyn's heart pounded in her chest. She was scared for her friend and furious at the world. Nothing she knew how to do seemed to affect Samantha at all. She was alive, perfectly healthy and completely healed, but her mind had gotten lost somewhere inside itself, battered beneath the hurricane of chaotic mana that raged inside her head. Evelyn had been worried that there would be some lasting damage, but now even that seemed optimistic.

Focusing all of her will, all her strength, all her control, Evelyn tried to slow or contain or even affect the mana storm. It was like trying to slow a tornado by blowing on it. Nothing worked. Nothing even came close to working. She wasn't just running out of options, she never even had any options to begin with. It felt hopeless. It was hopeless. Evelyn desperately wanted to do anything but give up, but there wasn't anything for her to try.

Then came yet another surprise.

Without warning or preamble, Evelyn's visualization suddenly shifted and expanded, and then there were two individuals inside the space. She had no idea who it was, or whether they were even human. Still, the newcomer felt familiar somehow.

The fact that a second entity had forced its way into this picture at all was something Evelyn found deeply confusing. So far, Evelyn had never been able to visualize two people at the same time. Even just visualizing herself for reference when healing someone else was more than her mind could process. So when the visualization expanded, her ability to see and sense the world around her sputtered out completely, rendering her entirely blind and senseless. Only the visualization existed.

This second entity released a short burst of white mana into Samantha, but unlike when Evelyn used mana of that type, this burst didn't immediately convert into any standard mana pattern. Instead, it remained undifferentiated as it tracked through her channels, its shifting rainbow pattern far more clear and prominent here in this space. It took no more than half a second for the white mana to flood her entire body, then it all just disappeared. Evelyn watched with confusion trying to track what was happening, but it was gone; not converted, just gone. An instant later, the whole makeup of Samantha's entire mana structure flashed into visibility with blinding brilliance, then shifted into a sort of after-image that seemed almost tangible.

In no more than a moment the entire process was over, then a deluge of mana flowed out of Samantha and into the other entity. The outflow of mana was mostly green, presumably Samantha's primary mana attunement, with yellow seeming to be her secondary and blue not far behind. Evelyn was left dumbfounded by this impossible display. As far as they had learned, actively pulling mana out of someone wasn't something that could even happen. But far more surprising still, the magical brain activity in all its spiraling chaos had gotten pulled along with the rush, like water through a siphon.

Once clear, the magic in Samantha's head slowly faded back into existence, lighting up in a calm and orderly manner. It was like a reset button had been pressed in Samantha's brain, ending the storm and bringing her back. Just like that. Like nothing had ever happened. Samantha's mana wasn't even depleted. It was more like this stranger had skimmed the film off the top of the pools rather than draining them.

When Evelyn looked, Samantha's mysterious savior was already gone from the visualization space, leaving not a trace other than her miraculous recovery. The entire process, from the moment they appeared until they left again, had taken less than two seconds.

The deluge of mana had flowed out through Samantha's right shoulder, which made Evelyn think that the entity she saw was in fact a real human who had used the shoulder as a physical contact point. Evelyn dropped her visualization and brought her focus back to the room, expecting to see some mysteriously powerful healer standing behind the couch. What she saw instead was at the same time even more surprising, while also being glaringly obvious in retrospect.

"There you are, little guardian," David said, his hand resting on Samantha's shoulder, "welcome back."

Samantha jolted awake and inhaled sharply. She opened her eyes wide with surprise, then squeezed them tightly shut, quickly putting her hands to the sides of her head as if trying to push back a headache.

"Oh dear god...." she said, "I swear every time this happens it gets even worse."

"Alright," Evelyn said, trying to make sense of the last twenty seconds, "can somebody please tell me what the hell ju--"

Then Samantha vomited.

Evelyn, kneeling by the couch in front of her, caught it in the face.

"Evie!" Samantha squeaked, weak as a kitten, "Ohmygodimsosorry."

"Nah," said Evelyn, shaking off her hands and looking around for anything clean to wipe her eyes on. "It's... fine."

Gary, offering to grab a wet washcloth, hustled off toward the kitchen. A few seconds later he came back emptyhanded.

"David," he said, "why doesn't the water work?"

"Yeah..." he replied, "I've been meaning to bring that up...."