Soleil found herself being nudged awake.

“Hello Little Sun. Sorry to bother you.”

“It’s alright.” Soleil mumbled as she tried to get her bearings. They were still in the woods, which meant they had a ways to go. Maeve was nowhere to be seen.

A familiar feeling of wrongness soon greeted her in addition to her mother’s face. “I don’t feel good.”

“You were exposed to corruption again.” Veilura agreed with a concerned look.

“I think… I did it this time.” Soleil averted her gaze, remembering how the impact had hit Maeve and the corrupted tree.

“We can talk about it later if you’d like. I just wanted to let you know that we are not in danger. So you can learn to recover from Mana Corruption on your own, or I can remove it for you.”

It took Soleil a moment for her mother’s words to settle before she willed herself to decide how to respond. “Did you not heal this already?”

Her mother’s patient smile faded as something caused her ears to twitch. She briefly looked away before turning back to brush strands of hair from her daughter’s face.

If she was taking the time to fiddle with her hair, whatever her mother heard was likely not an immediate concern.

“We did. But when wounds are not life threatening, most will try to get your consent before applying healing.”

Soleil gave her mother a confused look. It was sometimes hard to forget that she was not a kid when one of her mothers remained readily available. She had to remind herself that she had been set free to make mistakes and discover things at her own pace.

Had she made mistakes? Or would Veilura validate this path of attempting to cultivate a pleasant rapport with the likes of Calamity? She still wasn’t sure how she felt about Malady, but for some reason she distinctly wanted to forgive Malady and Calamity both.

Malady had only blocked their path with two trees. Compared to the army of rotted plants guarding her little garden, Soleil wagered that Malady could have sent much worse.

Soleil circled back to the topic at hand, satisfied with how her first misadventures had played out so far. “I can remove it on my own? Even though I only have one uncorrupted level?”

“Currently? No. But if you gained another level or two practicing in safety, you could accept a little level drain in order to begin to remove the Minor Corruption affliction.”

And from there her drained levels would begin to recover like normal.

“I think… I would like to struggle through it on my own, even if I feel different while under the affliction.” Soliel did not entirely hate it. It was uncomfortable, but less so than it had been in the presence of Malady. “At least this way I’ll be on Maeve’s level.”

Her mother bit her lip. “I actually taught her how to remove corruption. She wanted to help you herself. I suspect she is off raising her own levels in order to heal this new affliction that her [First Aid] skill cannot.”

Oh. Well that made a certain amount of sense.

“[Heal] is an admittedly basic skill. But the act of transferring enough purified mana into a corrupted entity suffices for our purposes. Really any number of skills would suffice, but this is the quickest one for me to teach you.”

“And I can use it on myself?” Soleil asked, just to confirm.

Her mother nodded.

She had something else on her mind though. Better to handle it now before getting into the long process of learning a new skill. “You lied to Maeve, earlier. When you said that it was because we left Malady’s garden, you suggested her promise ended there.”

“It is the kind of lie that a human would accept.” Veilura said, a little too casually for Soleil.

“Why?”

Her mother remained a matter of fact. “I suspected that we would be attacked the moment that you chose to reveal the promise between you and Calamity.”

“Oh. Mana was likely listening again. Calamity suggested I upset it during our fight.” But something about that answer failed to satisfy even Soleil. She gave her mother a signal that she wanted some time to think. “I don’t want to hide anything. I want to handle everything openly and honestly. With everyone, if I can. If there is disagreement, I want to try and work it out.”

“Of course. An admirable endeavor. Even if many will see it as naive, it is clearly working for you.”

“Okay.” Soleil said, a weight feeling like it was off her shoulders. Maybe what she really needed was validation. She decided to return the favor by offering her mother a practical compromise. “But if we run into something else on the road that you suspect will not reciprocate, you have my permission to [heal] me.”

“Very well, Little Sun.” The look her mother gave her was a soft one. Before Soleil could decide whether it counted as pleased or worried, her mother clarified. “I was a little worried you were attempting to do too much on your own. But you’ve already strayed into a path I do not wholly understand.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Calamity scares me too.” Soleil admitted. “But I think they need help as much as we do. This whole Mana Corruption thing is something I can now inflict upon myself and others. I… don’t want to throw it around without really understanding it better.”

“I am sorry.” Maeve said. “Am I intruding on something I shouldn’t be?”

Soleil turned to give the knight who had just stepped out of the tree line an encouraging smile. “No. It’s alright. Veilura was just asking if I wanted [heal] my corruption myself or have it cured for me.”

Maeve gave Soleil a look of concern. She looked to Veilura, who simply hid her face behind a tail, before turning back to Soleil. “Okay. Um. Can I tell you what most humans would advise?”

Soleil nodded in agreement. “Yes. I would love to hear you talk about humans.”

The Knight Adjutant’s look of concern only deepend. Maeve looked like she needed a moment to come to a decision about something. “Okay. Well first, most would advise you to rush to a healer or cleric or your regional equivalent. Corruption is widely regarded as too serious to let go untreated.”

“Okay. Understood.”

Maeve sighed. “Unfortunately I no longer count myself among most people. There was no way you were infected by a melee attack from that tree. But you’re corrupted again, which means you’re either consuming infected food. And I checked, everything we have is practically untouched. Or, most likely, you infected yourself when you briefly sprouted those wings.”

“[Calamitous-” Soleil started to say.

“Don’t.” Maeve interrupted. “You’re still in critical condition as far as I’m concerned. But I’m starting to wonder if I should stop treating purified and corrupted mana as an opposed binary. I don’t know though.”

Soleil cocked her head to the side. “Why not?”

“All my experience is practical and drilled into me. There’s um, forgive me for saying this, nothing practical or normal about your situation. Demons change regularly. That’s kinda your whole thing. But Veilura here is famous for going through about as many changes as one can go through and she still looks lost by some of the things you are doing. And I only just got here.”

“Oh.” Soleil said, wilting a little bit as Maeve’s words caused her to reevaluate a lot of what happened to her back into the mistake category.

“But I don’t disagree with any of it.” Maeve said. “You have way too many skills for your Soul Level. So I know you’re book smart. You have an impressive understanding of the theory of behind how mana and skills interact. I imagine you would not have been able to trip Calamity’s defenses otherwise.”

Soleil resisted the urge to turn away and squirm in her seat on the cart. “I’m not sure what to say.”

Maeve stepped up to the cart with a hesitant smile that quickly changed to something more stoic. “Soleil, I wanted to thank you for saving my unit. I know there’s not much I can do to repay you. And I know next to nothing about this [Calamitous Herald] business, but I know a kind and noble soul when I see one. If you would be open to the arrangement, I would be proud to pledge myself as Knight Protector to your cause.”

The feeling of wrongness wormed its way into the same space that feelings of embarrassment used to tie itself into knots. What she currently felt was next to indescribable. She found herself frantically looking to Veilura for support, only to find her mother’s eyes practically sparkling with delight. When she turned her gaze back to Maeve, she found the knight had fallen to one knee. Soleil’s cheeks began to grow hot. Something within her quietly began to burn.

Soleil gained a deeper understanding of [Fire Affinity.] The skill can now be raised to Rank 2.

Okay. No time to examine that particular development.

“I get the sense that you are pledging an important promise to me.” Soleil said with something loosely resembling composure.

Maeve met Soleil’s gaze. “A knight would not pledge themselves to another lightly. You have selflessly chosen to act on humanity’s behalf. While it would be callous of me to abandon the cause of protecting humanity’s food supply, most would expect me to report this plot to a higher authority. But I think you’re someone special, Soleil. Calamity herself thinks you can handle this. And I happen to agree.”

“Okay.” Soleil felt herself saying without really thinking. She had to stop, really reign herself in and look Maeve in the eyes. “Knight Outrider Maeve, I accept your offered support. Your perspective as a knight and healer will be most invaluable to my cause. It will be nice to keep you around.” Yeah, that sounded good.

Maeve bowed her head before rising to her feet. “From this day forward, my shield is yours.”

“And my flames yours.” Soleil said, perhaps with a bit too much passion. When had she risen to her feet? She slowly sat herself down when Maeve seemed to have nothing else to say. Was that everything? Did she accept Maeve’s oath correctly? She really wished there was a book or manual on this kind of exchange.

Why was her mother giving her an excited look?

“I think we should discuss what everyone intends to do once we arrive at our destination.” Veilura said.

Thankful for the change of topic, Soleil quickly agreed. “Are there multiple villages we are carrying supplies to?”

“It is just the one for now.” Veilura confirmed. “One of us will let the villagers know what is in each container. The rest will accept payment in the form of Goodwill which will be spent on securing lodging, and procurement of anything we might need.”

“To that end,” Maeve added, “We might want to take a look at any posted Requests that we will want to do. If nothing else it might give us an idea of where corruption is making its presence known. Everything else will be good for Soul Levels and earning more Goodwill.”

Soleil squinted. “You all are using goodwill as if it has some significance.”

Veilura offered a most warm smile. “Tokens of Goodwill is the name of a currency established by the Grove. Names and details of a promise fulfilled are inscribed upon a token, which in turn can be exchanged for services and goods in thanks.”

“It is not really a currency in the strictest sense.” Maeve said with a shrug. “But it is a serviceable barter system that is fairly widely acknowledged and accepted.”

Soleil thought about it for a moment. “So could I receive a Token of Goodwill from Maeve for saving her and her Knights?”

“You could.” Veilura confirmed. “But you will find that its worth may be hard for many in the village to judge. They were likely all counting on the unit of Outrider Knights to assist with some matter. But if you and Maeve fulfilled a board’s worth of requests, that Token of Goodwill would be seen as more valuable.”

“Interesting. But it sounds like we wouldn’t need it at that point.” Soleil said, only to find Maeve nodding in agreement. She had a Knight sworn to protect and support her now. Was that payment enough? Or was she oversimplifying things?

It sounded like they were going to get moving soon. Soleil offered Maeve a hand to help her back up on the cart. Upon accepting her hand, Soleil said what was on her mind. “I’m glad that you’re the one to be my Knight. I’ve decided that I quite enjoy your company.”