I held Anna there in my arms while she calmed down, and the blush faded from her cheeks. For my part, I, too, was blushing like a sunset, though I calmed down a little quicker. I had been the one to make the move, after all, so it only made sense that I recovered first.

I spent the entire time paying attention to Anna's face.

I had to admit to myself, at this point, that I liked seeing Anna off guard and blushing, I liked teasing her. And if I was reading her face right, Anna was okay with it, maybe she even liked it. I could tell by the way her mouth hung open for a moment, her eyes blinking before softening, her mouth drawing back into a happy, small smile. She looked happy, genuinely happy for a moment, and what a gorgeous moment it was.

Despite that, she was older than me, of noble birth, wealthier, my magical teacher, at a higher level than me, and honestly, probably higher on any metric of importance than me; she seemed to like it when someone else took the lead. While those things didn’t matter to me all that much, I supposed maybe Anna was thinking about the situation in the same way, only instead of not wanting me to be uncomfortable, thinking she had some power over me, and taking it slow and steady, not pushing me, not testing my boundaries, and being incredibly passive. If that was the case, it was a little sweet, but it would also leave us estranged. So I made a note of it to myself that maybe I should try to poke at boundaries a little. I was trying to woo her, after all, it made enough sense to me that I should be at least a little active in the process.

“So, are you willing to accept that promise? You being womanly doesn’t bother me, Anna, I’m dating you because you’re a woman, not because I expect you to act like a [lord] and bottle everything up until you die,” I asked her, smiling down at her in turn.

“Well, um… yes. Yes, you have. I, uh, don’t suppose you're looking to make any more promises to me?” She asked, blush deepening from embarrassment.

“Well… I suppose I could. Would you prefer I make them like this, or would you like me to make them in the study or even in the bedroom?” I asked her suggestively, teasing her.

Her blush, as I did, deepened again from my insinuation. It was a full-face thing, the type you got when you held your breath.

“You know what, I have one more, I promise you that I’m never going to stop teasing you. You’re too cute when you blush, not too,” I told her, leaning in and kissing her a fourth time.

This time, when she recovered from it, she started pouting and wiggling in the way one does when one wants to be let down. I got her back on her feet, and she stood up straight for a moment, brushing out her clothes to thin any bunching.

“I have a few questions if you don’t mind me asking them,” I told her, “though if you don’t want to answer, I’ll keep them to myself.”

She turned her attention away from her clothes and back to me, pouting a little, her eyes still puffy from crying.

“I’m not cute!” She told me, pointing at me.

I smiled and told her in my best appeased the noble voice, “Yes, Mistress, of course, mistress, anything you say, mistress.”

She glared at me, still pouting, before she nodded and sighed.

“Go on then, I can’t say no to you, especially when you smile like that, but get rid of the voice, please, I don’t need to be reminded of when I was a kid.”

“I’m going to level, probably a lot, so what are some good skills to aim for?” I asked her.

“You do that a lot. Your starting to talk about skills like they’re something you shop for,” she said, making me almost pucker my mouth with the lack of thought I put into it. “There are some that sound kind of weak but are good. [Ritual] style skills, which let you cast a spell slowly, are good for really big spells, I use it when I enrich crops. There are [Spellbook] skills which help you remember everything in that book, like spells or your skills and stuff. Hmm… Proficiency’s are always a bit of a drag, but if you get a proficiency in a type of magic, those are good, I keep wanting to get [Nature Proficiency]… I can’t think of much more quiet, general, low-level stuff... Yup, that’s it.”

She told me, pausing, thinking and pausing again before finishing her shortlist.

[Ritual], [Spellbook] and proficiency’s

I had a few things that could benefit from magical proficiency, maybe I would pick up one.

Should I tell her? I mean, I’m not the type to keep secrets, but she can’t even use the secret, and it is one of those weird secrets connected with the soul that seems like I probably shouldn’t talk about them, but it’s also one that shouldn’t cause harm on its own.

“Anna, can you keep a secret?”

“Hmm… yes, I can. Why? Do you have a secret?”

“I do, it’s a secret too dangerous for mortals to know, a truth about the soul and the deepest underpinnings of the world we live it,” I told her, nodding like I was a [Sage], just a [Beardless Sage].

She looked at me like I was pulling her leg, one dainty eyebrow raised.

“Woe, disbeliever, woe be to you,” I told her, bopping her nose. “I talk about skills like I can pick them because we do, we just do it while we dream, next time you think you’re going to level, keep in mind the skill you want, maybe that will help.”

Her eyebrow dropped, and she got a look of confusion and more confusion.

“I can’t tell if you’re being serious or not, but knowing you, you are being serious,” she said, sighing. “Though honestly, I’ll try it, if you level, I might level, so I might get a skill tonight, too, I might as well.”

“I can guarantee you won’t be… wait your level when I level? Since when?”

“Since you became my apprentice, apprentice. I’ve been getting a trickle of experience when you get experience. It’s honestly a bit crazy how fast you’ve been levelling, I would complain, but it’s been giving me a kickback for helping you learn magic, and I have no problem with free levels.”

“Well, I’m definitely levelling tonight, probably a lot, maybe you’ll get some too.”

“I can always dream. That’s a good secret, I’ll keep it tucked away up here for when I level up again.” She told me, taping her head.

“Good place to keep it, I might become a [Journeyman Mage], Oh, what’s the next spell I’m supposed to learn? Is it going to be a cool spell? Is it going to be like a [Fireball], or some kind of fighting magic?”

She looked at me with a tired smile, “It’s a-uh… a secret.” She told me, interrupted by a yawn.

She was starting to peter out, and I wasn’t the type of person to pester her for every iota of life. She could keep her secret, I would find out what spell was next soon enough.

“Ok, keep the secret for now sleepy head, lets head to bed,” I told her, giving her a head rub.

She looked up at me when I pulled my hand back, and I looked down at her. She wasn’t moving. Noticing my attention, she gave me the biggest saddest eyes and lifted up her arms.

Wordlessly, I understood her meaning, and I had to stop myself from laughing.

I lifted her up under her arms and let her dangle a bit like a cat before running to the room as fast as I could.

She let out a little “WEEE” that made me almost choke as I brought her in and put her down, and we got ready and went to bed.

It was deep into the night, the world dormant beyond the shuttered windows when we tucker ourselves down under the covers.

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Anna foisted herself up against me, and I wrapped up around her.

“Sleep tight,” I told her.

“Don’t let the bed bugs bite,” she mumbled back.

“Silly Anna… We don’t have bed bugs.”

I fell asleep and woke up refreshed, staring at a sky full of stars and an aurora of flittering green and blue, my back bought by an invisible sea that stretched out forever, out and out into the dark space that made up the core of my soul.

It was refreshing.

My whole body, not being my real body, was totally free of any of the remnants of pain or stiffness.

“Ohh, that’s nice.”

“Is it?”

“Yeh, I didn’t even notice all the little bits that hurt. Do you think it’ll heal?”

“How should I know? Do you think I spend much time with meat? I’m made out of soul, which, if I’m going to be honest, seems way better than having a meat body.”

“It’s nice, but honestly, I doubt I could spend time with Anna if I was a ghost or learn magic. Can you learn magic?”

“Saphine, I literally perform soul magic, I do that all the time, that’s what I’m here for,” she griped, “now, will you get your ass up so I can do what I came for?”

“I was being rhetorical, just. Just give me a minute. I just want to relax for a second before you stick those wiggly things in me.”

She leaned in over me, staring down at the body that wasn’t a body, with her face that wasn’t a face. Arms behind her back like she was staring down at a fascinating thing on the ground.

“You do realize,” she told me, “Your soul is made out of those ‘wiggly things,’ right? It’s just Anima, experience enriched by your essence and formed into a string of endless possibilities. Anima shapes mana and is the superior magic.”

I looked at her wiggly not face, the bits looking both familiar and unfamiliar to the things I expected from a face. Her features were beginning to become familiar. I decided to suck a little information out of the humanoid squiggle.

“Isn’t magic mana?”

She huffed, “I am insulted by your lack of culture, though I’m not surprised. Magic is magic. The natural world has its ways, and anything that cares little for the natural world’s way is magic. You lot have mana, I find mana icky, you know, on account of it wearing me down into experience like sand on the beach. Because your [Druid] likely doesn’t understand it well, Occult magics like Soul magic blur the line and show that mana might be the rule, but there are exceptions to those rules.”

“Ohh, I get it. That sucks that you cant do magic stuff, with mana, that is. How do you hide from mana, isn’t it everywhere?”

“I’m a spirit, I don’t spend time on your plane of existence, Saphine.”

“Where do you spend your time? Spirit land, land of the spirits?”

“The spirit plane, Saphine, it’s not spirit land, it’s the spirit plane.”

“Gotcha, heard loud and clear, Sophia, loud and clear.”

“Good, I won’t have you belittling my- Sophia?”

I smiled a little at her as she caught it.

“You know, you told me I could come up with a name on account of you being a [Guide]. So I came up with one. Sophia. Or Sophy, if you want. Honestly, I came up with it on the spot, but it fits, and if the glove fits… Do you like it? I could go back to the slate and think a little harder.”

“It’s horrible,” she said a bit too quickly, “But I suppose I would hate to tax your mind any more than it can take, so, I will accept it.”

Translation, I don’t like to admit I like it, good job me.

“Heh, you like it,” I teased.

“I do not! Not one little bit! I take it back, keep your name… I’ll just, keep having no name, its not that bad,” she said, turning away from my prone form, unable to lie to my face.

“Sure, whatever you say, Sophia. So, how many levels did I get, that’s a lot of light up there, not as much as the big time, but close.”

“Oh, yes. It is a lot. I would say you’re some soul masochist, but this time it's much more manageable. You’re not going to get an overall level, but you will get quite a few class levels.”

It was a bit wild that a similar amount, just a few levels apart resulted in such a huge difference, and kind of dumb, I wanted more levels, but I supposed they would start rolling in soon.

“I hate averages.”

“Your mean level is probably the only thing keeping you from accidentally reducing yourself to chum. Your distaste for math aside, it’s not that hard to wrap your head around. You sucked up a lot of souls, but they were all low-level before they died, and they were in that [Soul Well] for quite some time, they were barely even there anymore.”

I didn’t nod, but I hoped my silence would be taken as understanding.

“Okay, Sophy, hit me with it, what are my levels going to be?”

“Well, your main two classes are going up to 28, not crazy, certainly not as crazy as your girlfriend, your [Apprentice mage] surpassed 10 and is now level 13, and [Woodsman] is now level 9. You're going to have to class up once and get a bunch of skills. It won't be as bad; your two new classes will feel soft like your classes last time on account of getting so many levels, but you won't be down for the count.”

“Oh thank every god and goddess under the sun, except death, I was a bit afraid I was going to be out for a week again.”

She smiled or did the next best thing with her face.

“You’re totally going to start this with or without me standing up, aren’t you?”

The smile grew. Then she spoke, and the pounding of her words and the lights in the sky the kaleidoscope of colour, was sucked in and slammed down around me and into the black, the ripple like always, only came up to me but bothered me not at all never cresting against my form. Bubbles like the boil in a pot let up wafts of coloured gas in the place of steam.

I barely paid attention to the words, their weight far outstripping the full weight of her words and their perfect nature, just the same as a skill or spells name, her words were both word and not word, a language of absolute and perfect definition.

My very being quaked at those words, like the steel under the hammer of a [Forgemaster], and yet it was not a bad thing. I decided to pay attention to everything but the words. The ripple and bubbles and the black sea at the core of my being that fed everything that was connected intertwined with all the rest of my being.

The dark reminded me of something, of a darkness not unlike it, that I had seen in the soul of the monster. It was of a kind, though this was within me, while in was out for everything to see with the monster.

I wonder if it was connected or if it was just a coincidence.

What was the deal with monsters, what about them was so different from us? Beasts were no different, they were just big, scary or magical animals, animals were also no different from us. Hells, as a Kobold, my ancestors literally formed from parts of beasts and the blood and wisdom of the Kirin.

I decided plants were hugely different, they were kind of alive in their own way, the land proved that when it talked about them as a part of itself. They might not have a soul, but they had a collective something, and that was the land, nature itself.

“Hey, I’m done… Come on get up already!” Sophy wined.

I sighed at my own lack of knowledge.

“Say, Sophia, why are monster souls black like this essence stuff?”

She coughed in surprise, and I had nothing to do but blink at her.

“Gods, you do just ask questions like, ‘hey, what’s the meaning of the universe,’ in the same way you would ask about someone’s favourite food. It’s because of what happens to a monster’s soul. When a monster becomes a monster, its essence is forcibly manifested, which is what happens, stage by stage, as your level reaches the same points classes class up at; its what increases your ‘proficiency,’ which is basically how much your soul flexes on the universe. Gods have a huge proficiency, which is why they stay where they are, and the world isn’t a nightmare realm.” She paced away thinking, sorting the strands, silky and fantastical in their make, on her arm like some kind of pet noodle before coming to a stop and spinning to face me again.

“It is supposed to be manifested in stages, the dark one decided he needed a bunch of strong [Henchmen] right now and cheated, giving them an immense power up, at the detriment of their soul's ability to manifest again. They still level, like everything, but their soul never increases in the same way yours will. The darker the soul, the earlier they did it. Like everything in this world, it was, and continues to be, a trade-off.”

There was something about the way she said it, some deeper meaning to her words that I lacked the background on. It was a weary thing when she said it.

It made it feel like a [Trade Off], not just a trade-off.

She reminded me in that moment as nothing less than what she no doubt was, despite the silliness and the alien way she worked. She sounded like the sands of time made manifest before me. A million grains of sand spent, with unending more above her yet to fall.

A part of me, one that sook, craved even, a closeness with people, especially from those whom I was familiar with, wanted to get her to open up, come closer and share her deepest parts with me. The part of me, the part that knew full well that sometimes people trying to look out for you or get you to open up just hurt more, and that sometimes all you could do was be there for when they were ready to come around, even if that was never, was the smarter of the two parts.

So I didn’t pry. I didn’t poke or prod.

“Thanks for telling me, I feel like every time I find something out, the complexity decides to increase, and I find that I know nothing. You give good answers to stuff.”

“Well, thank you,” she told me, as I snapped her out of her thought, “yes… Well, I suppose we should get to giving you your skills and then advancing your [Apprentice Mage] class, I don’t want to be here all day after all, I have a date.”

“A date? I didn’t know that Spirits had dates, I thought you guys didn’t do stuff like we do.”

“We don’t,” she smirked, “I’m going to talk to an older, more experienced [Guide], and then we're going to do a Horizontal Anima Transfer.”

She had an expression I had never seen on her squiggly noodle face, I wouldn’t have been able to tell what it was if not for her voice.

She had spoken it as if it was a lewd act like she was going to go and get laid, or hold hands aggressively.

“I… I don’t know if I want to know what that means, and honestly, I don’t want an answer, just fuck me up and then go do whatever variety of things your about to go do.”

“Mmm. I’ll get right to it, I can't wait. I bet I’ll get so many new structures. I’ll be soft for hours after while I incorporate the Anamid into myself.”

“Oh gods, why does that sound so dirty, can we get going here, or do you need a minute?”

“Its not dirty, Saphine! Don’t compare it to what you people do, it's nothing so crude. He’s just going to penetrate my form and load me up whi-”

“Will you stop that? Down girl, let's get this over with, and at least make him get you dinner first.”

“I have needs Saphine! And those needs don’t include food, they include the transfer of Anima structures like new skills Piped straight into my form until I swell with new potential.”

I tried to cover my ears, but it was no use, they weren’t ears, after all.

I suppose, at the end of the day, our two peoples were more alike than not, including being thirsty for close contact of the squicky kind.

And if that didn’t just cap off a day of horror, I didn’t know what would.