“The invitation to the temple didn't come from the Voice. It was the sister who came by with the crystals you asked for. You'd like her, she's kind , absolutely nothing like the Voice. She wanted to let you know that the adventurers you saved are flesh and blood again. Some of them are even aware enough that they asked to meet you. You have to show up, it's important.”

My ears flicked back, I was curious about the sister who Thorn said shared a Concept with me, but I was more curious about the odd amount of certainty he had injected into telling me it was important.

“Why is it so important? I guess it's the right thing to do to let them thank me, if that's what they want, even if it feels like it'll feed my pride. But it feels like you know something I don't.”

The door to my room opened, and Thorn set down three baskets. I watched curiously as he filled each of them with different types of mana crystals from large sacks that he seemed to conjure from the air. My stomach growled, but I didn't move from my position. Staying curled around Torill's still changing form was more important than the buffet that my companion set out.

“I don't know why, like I don't know why you need these here right now. But I know you do. I also know that I need to leave you alone now, I'll be waiting outside your rooms.”

Thorn left without saying anything else, and didn't respond when I tried to send him further questions. My companion followed it up by reinitializing the wards that blocked any form of mana from flowing in or out of my room. I cringed at the feeling of the walls closing off my perception of the world outside my room.

I didn't move though, as the reason for his actions became clear. The mana density in my room climbed quickly as what had to be hundreds of air, water, and life crystals in the three baskets Thorn had set down leaked their mana. Considering how low the density of mana had dropped outside, the room had become a far more comfortable environment for me.

I let out a contented sigh as I ate the mana that came in contact with me, and I wasn't the only one. Torill let out a groan that held so much hunger that it made hungry practically vibrate in sympathy. She was still sound asleep but her mouth moved as though she was eating, and she was.

I saw the mana being pulled into her, but she wasn't getting much, my own pull was so much stronger than hers. I immediately stopped eating, she obviously needed it more than I did. Hungry protested, but both kind and protective helped me beat that Concept into submission.

I helped pull mana to her. Torill's consumption was slow at first, but it quickly picked up speed. I began to worry when she started glowing, but every instinct I had screamed that it was a good thing so I continued pulling mana to her. Soon her body was awash with green, yellow, and blue light. As the minutes passed, the glow steadily increased, it swiftly got to the point where I had to close my eyes, and dampen my mana senses.

Pressed against me as she was, I felt her body begin to twist and shift. I heard the sickening sounds of bone snapping and muscles tearing. I almost stopped pulling mana to her, but the momentary hesitation caused her to let out a heart-rending groan that triggered my Concepts.

I put every ounce of my focus into pulling the mana to her, and the mana came. I heard hundreds of mana crystals shatter as I forcefully pulled the mana out of them. The density of mana around Torill skyrocketed, it took her five seconds to consume it down to the last mote.

I wasn't sure if it was luck, or if Thorn's ability was just that good, but it seemed to be precisely the amount of mana Torill had needed to complete whatever was happening to her.

My mate grew larger and heavier, I had to blindly adjust how I was lying to give her space. When she was done, she was still smaller than the size I had settled on to be a bit more comfortable indoors, but not by much. I thought she was likely the size of a large cart horse.

When she stopped shifting, she stopped glowing, so I took the opportunity to open my eyes.

Her body had completely changed, she was a feminine version of my true form. There were a few interesting differences though, some of the features from my alternate forms were far more pronounced. Her stripes didn't glow like mine did, instead they were black like mine were in my demihuman form.

She had a lovely crest of feathers on her head that resembled a crown, and a coating of feathers on her forelegs, with a large fan of feathers on the backs of those limbs. I was almost jealous when I realized that she had talons instead of paws in the front. She would have a huge advantage over my true form when it came to manipulating objects.

My attention was drawn away from her new shape by the most terrifying thing I could imagine sensing. Mana was swirling inside her chest, squeezing itself into a ball, a core, but there was a turbulence in the mana. The system information that had been provided to me because of my class's ability to form cores, and my own experience having reformed my earth core, told me she was in trouble.

The mana that formed a core had to be quiet and smooth, or there was a risk of it condensing into something lopsided. If a core was anything but a perfect sphere, it would crack, the formation would fail. It was a brutal test that every spirit beast had to pass, and Torill in her unconscious state was already failing. At least the mana felt pure and Concept free, it would not drive her insane, but I knew a failed core formation would still be terrible. I had a premonition that the System would take action against her if it registered a cracked core inside her.

I had been under the impression that forming a core was a personal thing. The System had led me to believe that it was something that you could not help with. Watching the mana swirl inside Torill's chest, I knew it was wrong. It probably wouldn't work for every beast, I was fairly certain that it would only work because both the core-to-be, and my own primary core were composed of pure Conceptless mana.

I moved fast, squeezing mana out of my core, creating an aura of pure mana. I hadn't experimented with a pure mana aura, I had no idea what it could do, but that didn't matter. I could control the movement of pure mana in my aura, like I could any other form of mana when I used my aura while channeling it.

My aura filled the room, intruding into every crack and crevice. I worried for a moment that I would have to force my way past the passive mana defenses everyone was meant to have from the System, but they seemed to barely exist. I did have to focus to push my aura into her, but I didn't feel like I was breaking through a wall. I merely had to work it through the dense mana that already filled her body.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

I was astonished to find that my mana was ever so slightly more powerful than hers. I didn't think that it would be, I knew she was a few levels higher than me, and was certain she had more intelligence and wisdom than I did. Despite that, I knew that with her asleep and my aura infiltrating her body, I could take her mana from her. It would take some effort, but it would be an easy way to solve her core formation problem.

I shook my head, taking her mana would probably kill her if she had become like me in more than shape, and it definitely seemed like she had. When I noticed the drool hanging from my mouth, I knew where the idea had come from. I squeezed my eyes shut and let out a low growl, I never hated hungry more than that moment.

The mana vortex in Torill's chest drew my attention away from the horrible curse of a Concept. Her mana was growing less stable by the moment, I had to do something to calm it.

I couldn't take control of it, that would require making it mine. If I did that, any core it made would belong to me. I had to find some other way to influence it.

I tried surrounding it with my mana, and it seemed to help, but it wasn't nearly enough. My next step was to try pushing my mana into hers, and at first that seemed to make Torill's mana go wild. It bucked and surged, resisting the pressure I put it under. Thankfully, I was able to tell that such a reaction actually meant that I wasn't putting enough pressure on it.

I threw everything I had into putting uniform pressure on the rebellious energy. My jaw was clenched so hard I cracked a few teeth, I didn't feel it. My claws sank deeply into the mattress, leaving some unfortunately large furrows in the fabric, I was oblivious to it. The effort of forcing the mana that would form into Torill's core to submit had become my entire world.

I had no idea how long I struggled with it, but it eventually worked, the mana began to flow smoothly. I didn't let that stop me from continuing to apply pressure. Even though it was flowing without so much as a ripple, I didn't dare give it an inch. For something that I knew contained not even a hint of sentience, let alone sapience, the mana inside Torill sure acted as though there was a will behind it.

My efforts eventually saw fruit as the energy condensed and solidified into a perfectly round orb inside Torill's chest, before fading nearly entirely from my senses. I laid my head down, and heaved a sigh of relief.

My relaxation was short-lived, as Torill went from unconscious to throwing herself from the bed with a thunderous roar. She crashed to the ground in a heap, and followed her roar with an attempt at speech. Her attempts grew ever more frantic as she failed to make a single intelligible sound.

I hopped off the bed, and nuzzled her shoulder.

“I'm sorry,” I sent, before explaining in detail what had happened.

Torill growled, then let out a huff.

“Not fault, mother plan.” The words were surrounded by gibberish, and I got more emotions and images than I could easily process packaged with them. I tried to share my insights on how to use mind speech more coherently.

“Sorry, this better?”

I was a little jealous, and sent as much in a message that carried more emotion than words.

“Don't be that way. This is close telepathy. I have telepathy before. Not hard figure out. Not big new.”

I looked at her with concern, the sending felt perfect, the words were clear. There was only the slightest emotional content in the message, and it was mostly uncertainty.

“Think System confused. Language lost, language given, takes time, resettle. Leave. I want, alone, meditate.”

I nodded, I didn't want to leave her alone, but I understood why she would want to be by herself for a while, so I didn't protest. I licked the feathers on the top of her head before walking away.

“Thanks,” she sent as I made my way out of my room. I could tell that she put emotions in the message on purpose this time. It was nice to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that she cared for me, and really didn't blame me. She wasn't even upset by the changes, just frustrated by having to learn some new things.

I sent her the emotional equivalent of a warm hug, along with a taste of my strong desire to help her in any way I could.

“You sweet, kind, I just need time. Prefer alone, used to alone.”

I acknowledged her message, and unlocked my room, letting out a groan of happiness as motes of mana from outside made their way in. The mana was fairly sparse, but Torill had completely cleared the mana from the room during her transformation. I hadn't realized it with how much I was suppressing hungry while I took care of my mate, but I was starving.

Thorn held a bowl full of life mana stones to me, and I gobbled them down.

“ How many more of these do you have?”

“The church was very giving. Three more sacks.”

My eyes widened, and before I lowered myself to beg for more, Thorn had another bowl in his hands.

“How is Torill?” He asked casually as he held out the bowl for me.

I huffed as I ate the crystals, air this time. I enjoyed the sensation of pure suggary sweetness as they moved through my body.

“She needs some time alone. You'll have to see what's happened for yourself.”

“Ah, I see. Well, perhaps you have some time for those meetings now. It is getting late, but it's not quite too late for them just yet.”

I looked at the door to my room. I had the strong impulse to wait outside, just in case she needed me.

“Come now, she's a grown adult and she has spirits that she can send to fetch you from anywhere if she really needs you. I doubt she would appreciate you hovering.”

I nodded, he had a point.

“Okay. Let's get these meetings done with.”

He nodded, and started walking with a smile that was ever so slightly smug. I chose to ignore it, and held my head high as I followed him. I begged whatever entity oversaw fate that the Voice wouldn't ask to see me.