Author's note: this is from Seraphina's point of view

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As soon as I exited the portal, I exhaled in relief when I realized that I returned to where it started, in the back room of the sketchy bar.

The hooded creature gestured to me to head out of the room, when my phone rang.

"Yes, father. I am fine…", I responded to frantic inquiries from Aldus.

I was not fine. I was dirty and I smelled bad, and I had a horrible time in the Misty Forest, but I didn't want to make Aldus worry. I will tell him everything later, in person.

I glanced at Vesper who lost color from her face as I ended my call with Aldus, "We will talk when I reach home, father… Yes, I'm done, so it will be soon."

We stepped into the hallway when Vesper said, "You should clean up first. Give me a moment…"

I narrowed my eyes at her. Was she trying to be nice?

Vesper returned with the bartender who ushered me to a room upstairs.

It was a room with one bed and an attached bathroom.

Seeing that the bartender left, and Vesper was the only one with me in the room, I didn't need instructions. Going out like this will attract attention, and I was happy to wash away dirt and dried mud from myself.

At first, I thought that I will wash my hands and face but when I saw myself, I decided on a full shower. My hair looked like an abandoned nest with leaves sticking from it.

Surprisingly, after a day of frolicking in the woods, I was not tired. I took a mental note to ask Aldus if this was due to my exercises, or maybe it was related to my healing abilities.

After a much-needed shower, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were a clean dress and shoes waiting for me.

Vesper sat patiently until I was ready to head out. She was unusually quiet. What happened to all the snarky remarks?

"Will you tell me about the results of your pheromone control?", Vesper asked when we walked out of the dingy bar.

I didn't want to tell her, but at the same time it burst out of me, "I want to share the good news with my father first."

Vesper's face fell. "Good news? Does that mean you kept it under eight?"

I was confused by Vesper's reaction.

It's painfully obvious that she doesn't like me. I assumed Vesper will be happy that she doesn't need to look at me anymore.

Or was this related to Aldus? Hmph! I don't care about her love life.

The idea of Aldus and Vesper hitting it off and me calling her mother gave me the creeps. That is not happening.

"Eight? You said that I fail if it crosses fifteen.", I reminded Vesper.

"Yes, but I also said that it should not cross eight in order for you to pass."

"We will leave that for my father to decide. My goal was to gain enough control in order to prevent a riot when something startles me.", I shared my thoughts.

As long as men stay away from me, I didn't care if they will ignore me, like me, or adore me. I only wanted to prevent frantic obsession that will put me in danger.

I set as my personal goal to keep the value of my pheromones under twenty. That should prevent violent incidents. The worst thing that can happen was for men to fall in love with me, but that was not my problem.

With the highest value for today being fourteen, I was well within the range of what's acceptable, and I can continue fine-tuning it on my own.

From my point of view, my lessons with Vesper were over, but I wanted to hear Aldus's opinion.

I was frustrated that Vesper left me on my own. She was supposed to be by my side and use her powers to stabilize me when needed, yet she decided to enjoy in the sun while letting me fend for myself.

But this was good. At least I know I did this on my own. And I made a friend, Blackie.

A sudden sound caught my attention. Was that a gunshot?

I saw the commotion in the bank across the street.

"Is that a bank robbery?", I asked Vesper.

She gave it a casual glance. "It looks like it."

Another gunshot sounded and I spoke anxiously, "Won't you do something about it?"

Vesper looked at me blankly. "Me? What do you want me to do?"

I couldn't believe this. Is she messing with me on purpose? "Use your powers to help."

Two more gunshots sounded in succession.

"Help whom? The robbers?", Vesper asked.

"Seriously, Vesper. How can you joke at a time like this? Those are gunshots. People might be dying."

Vesper stifled a laugh. "You are kidding, right?" She laughed harder. "You are not kidding!"

"I don't see anything funny.", I said stiffly.

"You are an interesting one, Seraphina.", Vesper said while catching her breath. "If you want to help, why don't you do something?"

"I have no powers. If I get there, I will only make it worse."

She scoffed. "Excuses. If you want to do something, you need to do it yourself."

I opened my mouth and closed it. I couldn't deny that she had a point. I had no right to ask her to help others when I was unable to make myself go there.

I wondered if I would act differently if I had some useful power.

Three masked men dashed out of the bank and ran down the street, away from the bank and us.

Was someone harmed? What if someone died?

"How can you stand here and let it happen? With your powers, you could save people.", I persisted, irritated by Vesper's indifference.

Vesper rolled her eyes. "Even if I have a magic wand that can bring back the dead, what would that accomplish? In the grand scheme of things, nothing would change. The person I saved would die some other day. At most, I would get a thank you, and I would definitely expose myself. Mortals don't think kindly of us, Serina. They either see us as monsters that need to be killed, or they want to subdue us and make our powers their own."

Vesper continued walking and shot me a side glance. "It seems you are not convinced. Not so long ago, witches were burned on stakes for everyone to see, today, they take us to fancy laboratories to conduct experiments. The methods changed, but human greed didn't."

To my horror, I agreed with Vesper, especially because Aldus told me something similar more than once. However, there was a part of me that told me how sitting and doing nothing while people might be dying was wrong. "You talk about humans like they are lesser creatures. This was not about sacrificing yourself for someone else but helping out if possible. There were gunshots that can kill people, and you could have prevented it."

"Did you kill an ant?"

I didn't see where this was going, but I answered. "Yes."

"Did you feel remorse?"

I realized that she was comparing ants with humans in order to make her point. "That's not the same."

Vesper chuckled victoriously. "I will take your answer as, you didn't feel remorse. Who are you to say that two lives are not the same? Are you telling me that an ant's life is more important than humans? Is it because humans are bigger, or because they can talk, or because they look like you?"

Vesper's words reminded me of my dilemma before I killed Bob. I did it with a heavy heart because I spent the last two days with him, and because I believed that I'm saving Aldus by doing so. However, if Aldus handed me the vial and told me to smash it right away, I wouldn't have any problems doing it even if Aldus's safety was not on the line.

So, was it about being familiar with someone? Does this mean that it's easy to take a life if I don't know the creature in question?

"Aldus told me that you grew up with humans. Now that you crossed on the other side, you will change."

I didn't like what Vesper said, and I had to ask, "Change? In what way?"

"You said that you killed an ant. Do you know why you could do it without challenging yourself if that was right?", Vesper asked and waited until I shook my head to continue. "Because it's small. Not in terms of size, but in terms of significance. As an immortal, your perception of what's important will change. I see that you care about creatures with short lifespans. Given enough time, you will learn to avoid attachments that can only bring you pain, and your threshold of what is acceptable will shift. One day you won't hesitate to kill… bigger creatures. If you are lucky, you will realize that other than a few creatures dear to you, everyone else is insignificant."

"What if I'm not lucky?"

Vesper looked at me sadly. "Then, you will have no creatures dear to you."

The rest of the walk passed in silence as Vesper's words weighed on me.

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