Vol 1.5 Those Who Tangle With the Witch of Despair pt 5

“It’s the process of dying piece by piece.” Lusha sat down in a clear forest. The trees here in the oasis appeared to be untouched by any semblance of hardships. They held vibrancy unlike the other foliage in the desert. Sitting upon a log, and listening to the sounds of the forest, was Eri.

“At some point you were no longer able to pay off your debt… thus, it is taking everything from you.”

Eri looked in her direction. She could not truly see at the moment, but her hearing was now good enough to hear the chirps of cicadas within the forest. The birds were a sound she had grown to miss.

“W-when.. Did I incur this debt?”

Lusha stopped and laughed. “Do you remember dying at all recently?”

Eri nervously answered as quickly as she could. “N-no. I would remember something like that… I-”

“Then it was most likely… at birth.”

“E-eh?”

Lusha nodded. Even though the woman could not see her. “You died when you were born. At some point in that process, you revived yourself using Mana that was not yours.”

“What do you mean? W-who’s Mana?”

“I’m not sure what to call that entity… the being. Th-at… mass amalgamation.” Lusha recalled having seen this creature during her divine acquisition. “Ignis Pneuma.”

“Ignis…Pneuma?” Eri was not one to believe in the faith. The tales of Ignis Pneuma, and even the tales of dragons sound like just tales. Yet, now she had met with one of the four great witches. There was no doubt the stories have something to do with each other.

“Aye… when souls are created they are imparted from this being. The greatest connection when this link occurs is during birth, and during death. You died at birth, and absorbed more mana… just enough to give your body the impetus to live. But you’ve had to repay that back ever since.”

“I don’t… understand?”

Lusha softly let out air from her nose. “What do you think a soul is… the thing that goes back to Ignis?”

“Your spirit? Or maybe perhaps is it just your consciousness?”

Lusha shook her head. “It’s Mana.”

“The soul is nothing more special than just a highly concentrated condensation of mana.”

She rested a hand on her head and began to exert more and more mana into her body slowly. Eri could feel the energy returning to her body little by little.

“Souls are a little more special of a kind of mana however. They’re able to accumulate, grow,. and produce it’s own mana. Thus, everyone has their own signature.”

“When you were born, in order to gain more mana, you snatched more from Ignis Pneuma on your way to birth. However… it was in the form of another soul. A soul on its way to rejoin Ignis Pneuma.”

Eri’s un-opened eyes widened. “Effectively… you have 2 mana signatures. One of which is being reclaimed by Ignis. Since your two signatures have now melded together.. The parts that are supposed to have been reclaimed… are being reclaimed.”

“So… what does that mean?”

“By now, you’ve probably blended with it to the extent that most of you will also be reclaimed as well. All the energy it takes to live, to feel, to see, to touch, to hear.. Smell… your body will lack all of it. And eventually, you will die.”

“D-die…?”

“From lack of Mana. Your body no longer has half of all the reserves necessary to function. This is much different than just running out of Mana… you will lose that other power source, and your current soul would be unable to keep up with keeping your body alive.”

“Do you understand?”

Eri silently nodded. “But… you said you can heal me… you can do it right?”

Lusha nodded. “As we speak right now, I’m pouring Mana into your body. Very slowly. I need to increase your mana capacity. The single soul left inside you can only hold up to that little amount. This will have to take approximately a year worth of time in order to fix.”

Lusha sighed. She had wished it would take even shorter than that. Her impatience was catching up to her. If her ability was going to aid Lusha, it would have done so already. In fact, the sole reason why the answer to her question is not yet conceived, is because it was better to wait it out until after she was healed. Such was the will of her power.

“After you're able to sustain your own mana capacity… you will be a lot weaker however. The rest will have to be according to you.”

“Um..- excuse me for asking. Isn’t it possible for someone else to heal me? I - I cannot possibly take the time of someone like you… a year? I’m– not worthy of anything like that.. So please, don’t burden yourself with me.”

Lusha released her hand- as she had just finished pooling in the proper amount of mana into her body. “That’s not it.. I’m the only one who is probably skilled enough to do this properly. If you’re over-fed mana, you run the risk of wraithification. I cannot risk that. You may very well be the most important person to me at the moment.”

Her cheeks flushed. She averted her blind gaze and held her head down. Why couldn’t her color have returned last. Now, one could easily see her flustered. “T-thank you, your highness.”

Lusha tilted her head, finding the girl’s behavior odd. Alas she dismissed it. “Come… we should head back now. We will begin again tomorrow.”

The woman nodded and followed closely behind her. Like this, they would continue meeting every morning at this oasis. She would continue to pour mana into the young woman until her vessel was completely healed.

Eri had realized every day she felt stronger and stronger. It was a feeling she had forgotten. She hadn’t realized truly how weak she had gotten until she began recovering. Weak still, but much stronger than she was during her illness.

With each passing day, she learned more and more from the witch. She was much different than the tales had stated. Her voice, soft, and despite her stern nature, she was kind. She was surprisingly very– human.

She wasn’t sure why they had to come to the oasis every day, but she dared not question the Witch. For some reason, she felt guilty for encumbering the Witch of Despair. Her powers were tethered to just her all this time. When it could be used for something better. Since Lusha’s appearance, her ability had fallen silent.

She hadn’t heard a single whisper in her head since they had began the healing process. There was a feeling of fear slowly that festered within her heart. If what Lusha said was true… and there were two souls residing in her.. What if the one that held the abilit– she stopped thinking of such an idea. Nothing good can come of it.

If it in fact was the case, everyone here– everyone she knew and loved would be dead and it would all be her fault.

“Alright… this should be sufficient enough to heal at least one more of your afflictions.”

Lusha lifted her hand from the woman’s head. “Open your eyes.”

She blinked a little bit, not realizing a difference. “Focus.”

She did as Lusha instructed, attempting to see any semblance of vision. “I..I don’t see anything.”

The same sheet of black covered her vision. “No– wait..”

There it was. A small, little tiny ball of light pierced her void. The tiny spark gradually grew and grew. First nothing but light awaited on the other side of its threshold. It was as if instead of being blinded by darkness, she was blinded by light.

She felt the strong urge to close her eyes, but in contrast to the amount of darkness she had always seen, her pure excitement had forced her eyes to remain open. She couldn’t make out anything, but she wasn’t sure whether it was just from the sheer amount of light, or happiness, tears began to flow down her cheeks.

The light finally adjusted, and revealed the picture that the world was trying to show her. The sun's rays greeted her through the gaps in the trees. Grass as green as the most verdant jade met her eyes and shifted about in excitement. If she wasn’t sure about it before, these were definitely tears of happiness. She had not seen for years now. Her first view of the world again was being obstructed by her own tears.

She could say nothing, only silently sob and break down in tears as she had finally regained her sight. Lusha rested a hand on her head. “That will be it for today… I take it you can walk yourself home. Be here tomorrow. On your own.”

With that Lusha left the woman to herself. She didn’t mind helping others like this. But truly, was her reaction not too much? Lusha pondered that herself. As one who used to search for emotion everywhere she went, perhaps that is the depths of emotion. But… over something like sight?

“Maybe I’ll never truly know what that is… huh?”