It's all my fault.

Orivaneia was heartbroken, but she quickly got to work on their campsite after they went deep enough in the forest, fluffing up the moss and arranging the ferns with determination.

She told a squirrel nearby, “We are not sleeping on twigs tonight.”

“This may be the last night for my cutiepie empress, so it will be a comfortable one.”

Suzuha, however, paid her no mind. “Ori? Light please?”

“Oh right.” She quickly made a little fireplace like usual.

“Mmmhmm, thanks.” Suzuha settled by the faint glow of the embers, one of the library books open on her lap. Her finger traced the characters. Next to her was the improvised alphabet chart that Vane had drawn for her on a piece of bark.

"A… be… ku…" she said, her voice hardly audible. The noises were awkward and alien to her tongue. However, she persisted.

Orivaneia stopped working and watched the girl, resting her chin on her hands. "Suzu..." Her chest was constricted in a terrible knot. Suzuha was learning a new language during what would probably be her final hours in this world. Not crying, not screaming, not praying to the useless goddess sitting three feet away from her.

Just… studying. As if she had a final exam tomorrow and not her final breath.

This is my fault, Vane thought, the cheerfulness she wore like armor cracking under the weight of her failure.

My duty was to keep her alive. And I’m failing. She’s fading, and all I can do is make a soft bed of leaves.

“Suzuha,” she said, her voice small.

Suzuha didn't look up. “De… e… fu…”

“Suzuha... please stop.”

The quiet chanting paused. Suzuha’s orange eyes lifted, catching the firelight.

They looked tired. So incredibly tired.

“We’re not giving up,” Vane declared, pushing herself to her feet. Her wings flared, scattering a few loose leaves.

“I am Orivaneia! I slew the Demon King! I shaped the mountains! I will not be defeated by a simple… mana deficiency!”

She raised her hands, palms facing Suzuha. A soft, golden light began to coalesce between them, warm and pure.

“It’s... my fault... my mistakes... Giving you my mana is probably the dumbest thing I could ever done.”

“What do you mean?” She murmured.

“It’s... your mana clashes ok?” She snapped, “Your mana is actually very holy! What we call radiance elements... but...” Orivaneia looked down. “When you got here, transported in this world... I may have mistook you for another being and... accidentally took all of your power. All 1,2 million... Your mana clashes with mine and I’m scared…”

“Huh?!” Suzuha face seems to be darker now, “So you say it now that it’s all your fault that my mana is about 10 when the kingdom tested me?!”

“T-That’s... But I tried to make it up to it... I followed you to the Field of The End and tried everything... But it looks like I messed it all up. Your body now is not compatible to do anything at all... I even gave you my name, gave you everything… But…”

“Ori...”

“Alright then! I’ll force my own divinity into you if I have to! Just hold still! I’ll make it up, ok?!”

Ancient words that made the very air hum with power, poured from her lips. The light intensified, growing from a soft glow to a very big and blinding sphere of orange light.

Suzuha observed, but her face remained unreadable, and suddenly it sputtered out with a sound akin to a melancholy little sigh. In the low firelight and flames, a few golden sparks shrunk back to the ground and disappeared.

And then just silence.

She slumped as she gazed back at her empty hands. “No,” she muttered, dropping her wings. One tear ran down her cheek, and then another, and still another. “I can’t ... I can’t even do that...”

She sank to her knees, burying her face in her hands as quiet, hiccupping sobs shook her, “I’m sorry, Suzu-chan… I’m so sorry. I’m a terrible goddess… I’m so useless… You should be the next saint that this world has but... I’m too scared that time… Please forgive me! I will do anything really if it means that you would survive…”

Amidst the sound of her goddess weeping, Suzuha’s voice cut through the darkness, calm and steady. “Radiance... How strong is it really? Do I still have it?”

Orivaneia nodded, “Yeah! Of course you had it still! You’re a very holy being! Like me, like many gods, you’re destined for greatness. One drop of your mana can kill any dark magic being... If I didn’t mess it up that is…”

“Orivaneia...” Suzuha said weakly.

Orivaneia slowly looked up, her face still full of tears but hoping, “Yeah...?”

“Can you... leave me for a bit? I want alone time...” Suzuha smiled softly, “Just a few minutes is fine. I won’t be mad, just bring me food after? I don’t want my last moment for you to be crying over me, let’s have a feast maybe?”

Orivaneia nodded quickly as she left. “I’m sorry, Suzu-chan... But you’re right! I’m gonna bring you the best food from the store in that village! Just you wait! Your goddess won’t bring you down again!”

As she leaves, Suzuha wait a few moments before chuckling, “Radiance... Heh. Lucky me... And this alphabets are too easy…” She looks back to her book, “10 hours in that library are more than enough for me to understand how to read.”

“‘Vampiric Thaumaturgy,’” she read aloud, her pronunciation still stilted but the words are clear. “‘A forbidden art practiced by only the most ancient of their kind. It is a form of mana transference. A siphon... They can drain the very life force, the ambient mana, from one vessel… and grant it to another.’”

She looked at another page, “And how do I become...? Ah... I see...” She smiled as if everything was falling into place.

“That man...” Suzuha’s gaze was fixed on the fire, yet her mind was back in the library, under that cold, assessing stare. The look of a man who didn’t see a person, only an object for his use.

The same look that haunted her waking nightmares. Back then her breath would hitched but she always forced it down, building a wall of ice around the memory, brick by agonizing brick. She couldn't let Orivaneia see. She couldn't let her know.

But now, “Perhaps this is my revenge for my childhood self.”

Moments later, she hears rustling not too far from her and the same aura she felt at the library. The same chill in her spine yet boiling her magic circuit that she thought she didn’t have. “Ahhh... Alone again… guess I’ll wash my face in the river. Hope nothing jumps out at me…” She said loudly, waiting for another noise.

After she did hear another, she put down her book and went to that river.

Killing 2 birds with 1 stone am I right?