If love requires sacrifice, count me out. I’d rather men sacrifice for me instead. What hot-blooded mortal wouldn’t want to sleep with a goddess?

~Aine, Goddess of Love and Vengeance

Crow felt foolish for storming off. He cooled off almost as soon as he left but could only sigh at his stupidity.

“It wasn’t their fault—they were just having fun. So why am I having such a hard time letting go of…? Am I angry?” Crow’s gloomy sigh echoed eerily in the previously dark caves.

A blocked path appeared before him. There was a small pond surrounded by the cavern walls, making it impossible to pass. However, he noticed a glimmer of light under the water. Curious, he swam underwater and found a small underwater tunnel connecting to the other side of the cavern wall. It was darker here, but his enhanced vision capitalized on the glowing moss.

Stepping out of the water, he found himself in a stone corridor with walls having a carved look. Even the floor here was flat and smooth. Thirty seconds later, he reached the first divergence from the main tunnel. Inside was a smaller cavern with another small pond that couldn’t have been more than ten meters wide. This one had steam rising off it, and then it all made sense. These were the steam baths the inn mentioned.

The sounds of moans, splashing, and laughter came from that room, so Crow turned and left with his cheeks burning. In hindsight, he realized this exotic destination was a romantic setting, but the thought left him more unsettled than not.

A few tunnels later, he found a cavern that was hidden and easily missed. Not hearing any strange grunts or moans, he cautiously entered, but since the room was smaller than the others, steam had rendered even his vision useless.

“Ah, well…” Crow muttered and slid into the warm water—no, it was probably nearly scalding hot, but to his body, it was warm. The water contained mana with a high purity level and was perfect for cultivating. Finding the water to be relatively shallow, he found a rock underwater to sit on and leaned back against the hot wall. He could feel the Scarification tattoo on his back pressing against it.

All tension bled out of him, and he sagged into a near drowsy state. Unaware of his surroundings, he didn’t hear the light cough at first. It was only after she increased the volume that Crow’s eyes wearily opened. Through the mists, he saw Song Lin appear like a ghost. Her pale skin pink from the heat, her black hair floated about her in the water, and her smile felt like sunshine. He’d entered through the only entry point into the water unless someone climbed over large boulders and jumped in, so he just now realized she must have been here the entire time.

“I-I’m sorry,” Crow mumbled. “It wasn’t intentional that—”

“It’s fine,” she laughed, but her eyes turned sharp in the next moment as she stared into the water toward his body. “Strange. Your Sacral Chakra is ready to open. You-you-you should have had at least another week before that happened.”

Crow looked worried upon seeing Song Lin’s face and her agitated movements underwater.

“It was the fae,” Crow explained.

“Those little flying things?” Song Lin’s face changed a few times, but she eventually got her emotions back under control.

“Yes. Apparently, they can turn into pure lightning mana.

“They can do that? What are the fae? We don’t have them on our continent that I’m aware of,” Song Lin asked.

“I thought I knew, but now I’m not so sure. Our oldest texts state that the fae are mana with the will of nature, or maybe they are remnants of elemental will. Which means they aren’t really alive, but something made of essence. That means their nature could give spirit to something without it, like a weapon.”

“Then why do you doubt?” Song Lin’s voice was soft but clear.

“The way they gave me energy earlier… it wasn’t as the books said. However, my experience does support a few other theories that were originally written off as crazy. What if the fae are actually intelligent? Does that also mean they make choices of their own free will?”

“Is this related to the Elves?”

“One book said Elves might have once been human. I didn’t understand it, but it mentioned people that lost their souls and will—”

“That was a real threat. The Vodun on the southern continent had an older and more sinister culture a long time ago. They had methods to erase a person from their own body. If something like that existed, then how would that relate to fae?”

Crow was shocked because nothing he’d read mentioned that. He knew of the Witch Doctors and heard of Vodun, but it was always related to their tribal nature. None of the histories he’d read mentioned anything about Vodun from the past.

“If that is true, then an ownerless body is similar to a spiritless weapon. Provided enough fae infuse it with essence, then it gains a spirit. I haven’t researched it that deeply, but there are more than a few cases in which the Essence of Fae is mentioned in the creation of life. An ownerless body would gain a spirit through this essence. Obviously, the fae aren’t human, so if the body didn’t have physiological changes after, I’d be surprised.”

“Like the pointed ears, twilight eyes, and an ethereal face?”

“Yes, but elves are just one outcome. Not all fae look the same, and their appearance is related to their elemental affinity. These lightning fae might produce a dark elf, but I’m just basing that on their coloring. Strangely, fairies all do look alike. Every text I’ve read said that a fairy is the evolved form of a fae.”

Song Lin eventually sat next to him. Crow long suspected the rock was set against the wall for this very purpose. It made it easy to soak within the hot waters and relax.

“Why don’t Druids capture them?”

Crow chuckled.

“I’m serious!” Song Lin’s soft voice rose, thinking Crow was mocking her.

“You don’t capture fae because they are mysterious, fast, and I’ve never heard of anyone able to catch one. There are plenty of documented cases of people trying, but every single one of them ended up with miserable lives. The final belief is that a fae is linked to karma or are part of an ancient existence linked to karma. Either way, never deliberately try to harm them in any way.”

“They can curse you?”

“I don’t know, but seers have gone blind trying to perform divinations on them. Fairies are possible to catch. Most of them consider it a fun game and will give their captor good luck. But it comes with rules. First, never hold one for longer than a month. It might continue to follow you, but you must free it. Second, never harm or kill one, or they’ll mark you to warn other fairies about you. Worse, the fae will never approach you. There are no curses or calamities, but fairies are mean if you anger them.”

“You can’t get rid of the mark?”

“Nope. The marking isn’t something we can detect or cleanse. Call it another mystery. Want to hear my theory?”

“Sure!” Song Lin nodded.

“I believe they might be linked to luck which is a branch of karma. To us, luck is unfathomable, but what if they could manipulate it. Turn it against us, mark our luck like a dog marks a tree?”

“You’ve read all this?” Song Lin asked, fascinated. The Druid people and their histories were mysterious and contained a depth few outsiders could ever fully comprehend. In this one conversation, Crow had changed a lot of the way she saw the world.

“I have. Books, scrolls, texts, ancient tablets, and more are contained within our libraries. Some are older than Father Oak. Sage’s Mind, which they call a memory like mine, allows me to store everything. So I spend a lot of time cramming books into my head without really comprehending what I read. The only thing I do is categorize the content and rearrange things so that it is easy to recall it when I need it. It is impossible to know everything all at once. The only things I actively know or keep in my mind are my own life experiences or those topics I take time to comprehend. It is like having a library inside my head allowing me to read whatever I want when I need it.”

Song Lin gave Crow’s words some serious thought. She had long since stopped seeing Crow as a child, but more importantly, she didn’t have a choice. Crow had always been a bit quiet, a scholar who was already more of a man than her fiancé ever was.

Song Lin swam in front of Crow until she was less than a meter from him. Her dark eyes stared deeply into his. Her pale skin looked enchanting in the blue glow coming from the walls.

“Would you like to open your Sacral Chakra?” Her question was unexpected. Crow suddenly felt a little uneasy. There wasn’t a sense of danger, but Song Lin’s eyes glittered with a mischievous light, and in the last month, her interactions with him had changed. Previously, when she was training with him, there was this indescribable suffering in her eyes.

Crow actually remembered a large part of the conversation she had with his father when he was younger. So he understood some of her grievances, but he’d never brought them up. It was not those grievances that caused her suffering. Now that he was staring into her eyes, the only thing he could see was a decisive resolve. An instinct told him this resolve, and the previous suffering was related to this one question.

“What do I have to do?”

“Trust me,” Song Lin smiled sadly. “Do you remember what I told you at the very beginning about this path?”

“Which part? Not able to be my teacher? Sacrifices? Or the vow?”

Song Lin sighed, and her Shield glowed brightly within the water. It was the first time Crow was able to clearly see through the water and saw that Song Lin was not wearing any clothes. In her hands were the acupuncture needles, and she slowly approached Crow.

“Stand up,” she ordered, and he obeyed. “Now turn around, and you aren’t allowed to turn back unless I say so.”

Once his back was to her, she stood up and approached him. Her pale flesh pink from the warm water, but she had a flawless body with full, pert breasts, a slim waist, and seductive curves along her hips and rear.

Needle after needle went into his flesh. “Now. Cultivate and send your mana through the first level, into your Root Chakra, then through the pattern I just showed you, and into your Sacral Chakra. Got it?”

“Yes,” Crow said breathlessly and slightly distracted by the thought of a nake Song Lin standing behind him. Still, he had strong willpower and focus, so he turned back to the task at hand. Before long, he felt the chakra forming almost effortlessly. It was only after about thirty minutes that he felt a minor, easily handled explosion within that void. Then he felt radiant energy, like a miniature sun, consuming every bit of energy he was cultivating.

“Good,” Song Lin’s hands moved quickly as she removed the needles. “Out of the seven chakras, this is the only one that is different for both men and women. Men are often betrothed at an early age because this chakra ignites a fire inside them that can only be quenched in one way. Do you know what we call these virgin brides?”

Crow swallowed hard as he felt Song Lin press against him from behind. The fire inside the Sacral Chakra was growing at an alarming rate, and it was overwhelming his self-control.

“W-what?” Crow gasped. His breathing had turned erratic. “H-h-help me.”

“The bride is called the Sacrifice. It was the reason I couldn’t be your teacher. I chose to be your sacrifice.”