//However dangerous and cruel these lovely creatures may be, do not fear. As long as you do not give your explicit permission for the consumption of your personal life energy, there’s nothing the Silver Souls can do to you. As one of the ancient laws of magic and order states; “No creature may it be mortal or not can never take what was not freely given. May it be affection, worship or life energy, as long as the transmitter is unaware or unwilling those gifts can never be granted. As long as magic rule over fate, this law shall remain”.

So do not worry of being caught unprepared or forced. This can at least never be the reason you die in your sleep.

The only real concern on this subject is the little detail of the devastating beauty these Silver Souls possess. It is almost irresistible, which might make refusal a complicated and hard thing to do without proper training of your mind strength. A suggestion to accomplish this is to train while your physical shell is young as the mind is more perceptive to changes in the early stages of the lifecycle. We recommend to read at least one of the following volumes; “Mindmagic and how to avoid being eaten”, “Mental training for the less gifted” or “No mind, no life”.//

- The encyclopedia of magical myths and dangers, chapter 14, page 637

“Oh, my! How impolite of me. I completely forgot to introduce myself. My name is Cal. Nice to meet you. What shall I call you, little girl?”

The girl felt a bit of surprise by Cals’ behavior, she had after all introduced herself with a mans name. But the girl shrugged and stopped caring about it almost immediately. She assumed that it was a nickname of some sort or the result of Cal having horrible parents who gave their daughter a male name. She reflected instead of how to answer Cals question in the best way possible.

What should I say? It would be stupid not to take advantage of this opportunity to create a new identity for myself. This is the moment I have been waiting for, the moment that will change my life. So come on now, a name…a name that sounds good but not boringly average as my present name…hm…come on, come on. Cal will get suspicious if I take too long to answer. Who doesn’t even know their own name? Now I got it!

“You can call me Cealine.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“Cealine? That is a pretty name.”

“…ehm… Cal is it alright with you if I ask you a question?”

Cal froze for a moment and gave her a forced smile.

“Of course you can. Ask away!”

“Well, here’s the deal. I want to reach the end of the path and I was wondering if this direction is the most efficient way to reach it, or is it better if I turn around and walk the other way?”

“Eh?”

Cal looked at her dumbfounded.

“Eh? What’s the matter?”

She answered Cal when she saw her reaction.

“Could you please repeat the question?”

“…which direction should I go to get to the nearest city?”

“Oh, I see! This way is the nearest to get to city T, it’s only a two day walk from here.”

Cal smiled and pointed behind the girl.

“If you walk that way you will reach a small settlement, village V, in five days. But I wouldn’t recommend walking that way. The deeper parts of the Forest of Redemption are quite dangerous at night.”

“Oh my, I see. What do you think I should do then, Cal? We are in the middle of the forest, after all.”

“If you do not mind, little girl, may I suggest that I accompany you towards city T? I am on my way there myself, and it is safer to travel in numbers."

The girl was both relieved and happy about that suggestion. It would make the whole experience easier if she had a guide that knew the local language. She was also very pleased that she had asked Cal about which direction would lead to an end faster. As it was now clear that she had walked in the wrong direction and would’ve wasted precious time of her wish otherwise.

“Would you really do that? Thank you! That’s so nice of you, Cal. I would love to travel with you.”

“Great! I hope we will have a pleasant and peaceful journey together.”

Said Cal, but the girl missed the triumphant spark that flashed through Cals’ eyes. They both decided to go towards city T and started to walk side by side on the pathway made out of dirt.

Now, now. Do not think less of the girl, which we for now can call Cealine.

She may be the type to focus on other things than the obvious sometimes…most of the time… but that doesn’t mean that she’s an idiot.

She understood perfectly that Cal had, mere moments before they started talking, injured if not killed another human being.

However, she weighed her three most obvious options;

1. Ignore Cal and the man only to find the end of the path by herself and waste precious time of her (maybe temporary) wish.

2. To panic at the sight of Cal, scream her head of and run for her life in the opposite direction. That would most likely get her killed or exhausted and lost, as she wouldn’t have had stayed on the path for fear of being visible to Cal.

3. Pretend like nothing strange happened and ask for the fastest way to an end by the only other human in the vicinity (that coincidently speak the same language as her).

We don’t have to mention which action seems like the best in this situation.

So her decision to spend time with Cal had nothing to do with the fact that Cal had preformed real magic and that Cealine hoped to be able to learn a magic spell or two.

No, of course not. No one would be insane enough to ignore possible murder for the prospect of learning magic…right?