Souls

Erinara

Jin and I woke up as the sun crept over the horizon. We ate more of the fish we cooked yesterday, packing the few remaining ones for the road. I collected the spell components I used to create a secure parameter around camp, while Jin equipped his armor and got his backpack ready.

Following the feather’s guiding light, we left the reddish forest behind after a few days of travel, instead moving through a jagged, rocky tundra. Moss of various colors covered the rocks scattered throughout the land. 

On our way through the tundra, we ran into monsters for the first time since our departure. Most of them seemed to be sensible enough to avoid us based on instinct alone, but some particularly aggressive or desperate ones decided to try their luck. Their attempts ended about as well as one could expect, none even managed to land a scratch on us before being struck down by us. Despite fighting powerful beasts, venomous slimes, and even stone golems, Jin’s blades never seemed to get so much as a scratch on their surface.

“You’d really think at some point even the dumbest of these creatures would figure out that fighting us is a death sentence”, I said, swiping yet another lower beast to the side.
“In fairness, we seem to be getting attacked less and less the further we progress. Maybe we’re getting a reputation already”, Jin joked, cleanly slicing a bird of prey swooping down at him in half, “oh hey there’s one behind… never mind.”
A three foot long mole-like creature had tried to burrow behind me to attack me in an ambush. It launched itself from beneath the ground, trying to stab its claws into my back. Instead, it was quickly met with a shadow spike piercing its chest. When the shadows dispersed, the mole’s body fell lifelessly to the ground.
The rest of the beasts finally scattered.
“That ought to show them”, Jin said.
He quickly and efficiently carved some meat off of some of the beasts.

We kept moving for hours, uninterrupted by any further monsters. The guiding green light aligned with the natural flow of a narrow river.
By the time night began to fall, we set up camp in a nearby rocky crevice, just big enough for us to create a fire and rest, protected from the wind blowing through the tundra.
Jin started cooking all the meat he had carved up earlier, while I placed enchantments on the rocks and ground surrounding us, making them impassable for any of the monsters.
As the scent of cooking meat filled the air, we started talking about free casting magic once again.
“Only very few warlocks have truly learned to harness their innate magic”, I explained, “Most warlocks never even bother trying to learn how to use their innate magic. And then there were those that are afraid of what they might discover, fear of being labelled an omen paralyzing them.”
Jin seemed to understand that.
The idea of discovering that one possessed a so-called cursed magic type had become a widespread fear ever since the story of the frenzy magic user circulated the nation.
‘How quaint’, I thought, a touch irony and twisted amusement lingering in my mind. It was followed by a stout resolution.
The first pieces of meat had finished cooking and were quickly eaten. While it was unusual to eat monster meat, as most people would have a massive issue trying to deal with them, the taste itself was amazing. It cooked surprisingly tender as well.

After we finished eating, I spoke up once again:
“I need to tell you something”, I paused briefly, “actually, showing you might be easier.”
Although I wasn’t sure if this was correct, I decided to trust my resolve.

Jin

Erinara reached out with both her arms, bringing them together to clasp her hands in front of her chest. A dome of shadowy magic encased both of us. The magic had pronounced deep blue colors streaking through the blackness of the shadows.

“This is my mana given form. In a way, seeing someone’s innate magic is like getting a glimpse at the representation of the caster’s soul", Erinara blankly said.

It briefly got quiet between us. The silence felt comfortable however. I stared at all the mana swirling around me. 

“Your soul must be pretty amazing, considering the magic ability you’re putting on display here.”
Erinara lightly tapped my shoulder with her fist.
“Thank you”, her voice was hushed, but reverent.
“Even without seeing your innate magic, I am certain your soul must be amazing as well”, she said, wonder softening her tone.

A silence fell over us for a couple of minutes again.
“I’m afraid I need to show you something else as well”, Erinara’s voice was almost inaudible.
“Is something wrong? Can I help you?”, I asked, worried that she was having a problem.
“I haven’t been fully transparent with you yet. I didn’t know how to tell you about this, and I guess I never found the right time to. No, that’s not right, it’s more like I was afraid to. And I’m sorry for what’s about to happen, Jin.”

That was the first time she called me by my first name.

Erinara raised her hands to her mantle. She gripped her hood on either side. Taking a deep breath, she pulled the hood back. In the same instant, her shadowy concealment spell dissipated.

Smooth jet-black long hair fell freely from the hood. She had her eyes closed. A look of grim anticipation was etched into her thin face. Her skin was slightly pale, although she didn’t look sickly. Two narrow dark blue lines ran parallelly, with some space between each other, from just below her eyes on either side of her face to the outside of her cheeks. The four lines continued down the sides of her neck, disappearing beneath her tunic. Her ears were pointy like those of elves, but much shorter. On top of that, structures of bone seemed to grow in crescent ridges from top to bottom over her ears, as if encased in strands of thin armor.
The most striking feature, however, was two large horns growing from the top of her forehead above the eyes. The horns initially grew upward, thinning the further away they grew from their point of origination. Each horn looped over itself into a tight single spiral. The left horn’s spiral formed from the center and moved to the left, the right horn’s from the center to the right. Finally, the horns ended in a tight pointed tip angled forward.

I stared at Erinara, blinking a couple of times, dumbfounded.
“It’s alright. I know how this usually goes. You don’t have to…”, she began.
“Sorry, but what is the problem exactly?”
“You- What?”, she asked in astonishment.
Erinara’s eyes opened wide in shock. Her pupils were colored in a vibrant purple.
‘Woah. I retract my previous statement. The horns are not even close to the most striking feature’, I thought to myself.
“Are you blind?”, she rapidly pointed at her horns and the bone ridges over her ears, as well as tracing the blue lines over her face.
“I’m an omen for crying out loud!”
“No. You are Erinara.”
Now it was Erinara who stared at me, though she did so in utter bewilderment.
After a couple of seconds, relief washed over her face. Her lips curled up in the most genuine smile I have ever seen in my life.
“I don’t know what I expected. That response is exactly something that you would say.”
A tightness seemed to exert itself upon my chest.
“People usually get scared seeing my body. I’ve lived my life in the outskirts of a country that widely uses magic for the most mundane activities because of my appearance. And yet here you are, not even flinching at an omen sitting right next to you. You truly must have a wonderful soul.”
“I must admit, I don’t quite understand the omen thing, but from everything I have learned of you since we met, you are amazing, Erinara. I don’t think I could see you any other way if I tried.”
Without another word, she leaned her body on my side slightly.
The dome of magic around us disappeared, unveiling a starry night sky with a crescent moon above us.

We simply remained like this for a while, before getting rest for the next day.