I woke to the smell of sausage frying.

Even though my eyes were closed, I could ‘see’ the coloured blob of someone near the creek, a bright spark visible in their forehead. Three small blobs were present, dogs lazing in the weeds. The horses were a short distance away, noshing on the plentiful grass that grew along the bank of the creek. Since I hadn’t been killed in my sleep, I figured that the mystery chef was somewhat honourable and pushed aside the momentary thought of strangling them where they squatted.

“That smells good,” I said, sitting up and opening my eyes. My headache had vanished and I was feeling like my old self again. Maybe even a bit better. Still achy, but these days it was hard to sort out what was a normal ache and what was not.

I ‘saw’ the mystery chef tense up with my new vision, then relax slightly. A feminine voice with a Spanish accent replied, pushing all the right sorts of buttons inside my head. “Lazy D sausage. I grabbed it out of the bottom of a deep freeze, so it was still plenty frozen. You want a piece?”

“Sure,” I replied, pulling up my mask and pushing down my arousal. “Just don’t get too close. I had the virus a couple weeks ago.”

She forked a link from another pan onto a plate and brought it over, standing a bit distant as she held it out.

“Thank you,” I said, accepting the plate. “It’s been a few years since anyone has cooked anything for me”

“That thing in your head is blinding,” she remarked, staring at me. “It’s like looking at a welding rod.” [1]

I pulled down my mask and took a bite of the hot sausage, looking her over. A woman in her late 30s stared back, a few laugh lines around her eyes that the tender flesh of youth had failed to smooth over. She had a spark in her forehead like mine, a soft yellow glow under long black hair which was pulled back and braided. Her brown eyes focused on mine, hard and full of questions.

“You’ve got one too,” I said, “Can you do anything with it?”

A hard smile crossed her lips. Three sparkling silver threads sprang into existence, each leading in a different direction. A moment later two pit bulls walked out from the tall grass by the horses and a black lab came out of the weeds on the other side of the bridge. [2]

“Neat trick,” I grinned. “I can see that you have some sort of silver thread tied between you and the dogs. You’re controlling them? How did you do it?”

“What can you do?” she demanded.

I took another bite of sausage and shrugged, unsure of exactly how much information to give away to another person like me. “I can move things, heal people, step out of my body sometimes. See colours around everything that’s alive. I knew the dogs were there, but couldn’t see the bond until you activated it.”

“What else?”

“You’re pregnant,” I responded, pointing at her belly with the sausage. “I can see it glowing inside your belly.”

She clasped tattooed arms around her stomach, eyes wide with shock.

“I’m not a gynaecologist, but since it’s about as big as my thumb. I’m going to guess maybe a month or two?”

I could see the emotions on her face, swirling pinks, blues, and oranges rippling through her aura as she wrestled with the unexpected news.

“What else can you do?”

“That’s about it.”

“You’re leaving something out, I can hear it. I can hear when people are telling the truth.”

“That’s damn inconvenient,” I sighed, mentally planning my escape. Sling the two pits into her and the lab, call over Mr. Hatchet, and… My mind refused to take the scenario any further.

“You really want to know?” I asked. “I owe you a sausage, nothing else.”

She chewed her lip then made up her mind. “Tell me.”

“I have no intention on harming you. I’m heading towards Hammond to get my daughter and bring her home. Do you hear the truth in my voice?”

She nodded.

“Do you still want to hear what else I can do?”

She nodded again.

I stared her in the eyes, keeping my face expressionless. “I eat the dead.”

She took a step back, then another, eyes wide. “What… what do you mean?”

“Did you hear the truth in my voice?”

“Si. Yes, I did. It doesn’t explain what you mean.”

“Whenever something dies, I see little lights around it. I can eat the lights. When I’m finished, the body crumbles into dust. Sometimes it leaves behind a little rock.” I reached into my pocket and showed her the stones I had collected.

“Is that it?”

“What do you mean, ‘is that it?’, I’m some sort of goddamned vampire,” I grumped.

“Ghoul,” she said, shaking her head. “Ghouls eat the dead.”

I chuckled, running a hand through my thinning hair. “Well, that’s a big relief. I’m a ghoul, not a vampire.”

She turned around and squatted before the little fire, tending the sausage before it burned. Her aura lost the suspicious orange swirls and began cycling through sad blues and scared yellows.

“I’m Emmett Carter. What’s your name?”

“Sarah Rodriguez.”

“Been here long?”

“Since the day before the storm. I had a fight with my boyfriend.”

“Ah,” I mumbled. “That’s rough.”

“It’s not so bad. Not with how everything is burnt up now.”

“You’ve been in town?”

She nodded. “After the storm. Everything caught fire. If the rains hadn’t come, it would still be burning.”

“Is the hospital still there?”

“They had tents in front of it. I didn’t stick around. The national guard and police were all over the place.”

“Any hints on how you were able to bond with the dogs?” I asked. “That seems like a pretty handy ability.”

She shrugged. “Swartz, my lab, was was easy. I did it sometime during the storm. We were down here and he was shivering in my arms while the lightning blasted everything in Plainview. I remember talking to him and telling him everything was going to be okay. He kept wanting to run off every time the thunder rolled over us, so I …pushed out… with my mind and commanded him to stay.”

She swapped out the sausages in the pan for fresh ones, then continued. “I couldn’t bear the thought of him running off and leaving me alone. I shared our fears and calmed him down. He was a good boy and stayed.”

Niko thumped his tail against the ground at the praise.

“The other two came after the storm and were a bit more difficult. I had to fight them for dominance but now they all acknowledge me as the pack leader.”

“Fight them?” I asked, curious about what she meant.

“I can see the thread that binds me and Niko, so when they came growling around the camp, I tried to do the same with them. It was instinctive, like I’d been doing it my whole life I had to push through their defences and connect with their spark. Once I was inside, we fought for who was going to be top dog.” She laughed. “It was like staring down two stubborn toddlers until they decided to obey.”

I chewed on that information along with the sausage, and then tried to replicate Sarah’s trick with bonding animals. Flinging out a thread at Miguel, I poked through his aura and observed him flinch at the contact, throwing me some side-eye.

Pushing through his material form, he stamped and chuffed until I made contact with the spark inside is chest. Alien, horsey thoughts filled my head.

I projected my will. “I am your master… obey me?”

Miguel agreed with a loud snort. There was no contest of wills, more like an acknowledgement of a fact.

Hell, that was easy. I repeated the process with Sparky and got the same result.

I could feel their presence in my mind, solid, sturdy, comforting. They acknowledged me as their lead mare. Wait, what? Lead mare? I probed their minds, full of questions.

It seems that the lead mare is the one that directs the herd to water, grazing, and away from danger. I was their lead mare. Sparky was the lead stallion, the one who protects the herd from danger.

Whatever. We’re bonded now, and I could direct them with a thought.

“I see you managed to bond with the horses,” Sarah said, pointing at the sparkly threads that connected me to my new bonds.

“Yeah,” I laughed. “I’m the lead mare now.”

She chuckled at that. “They don’t think like us, but they feel just as strongly. I know when they’re hungry, or thirsty, or smell something funny. It gets a bit crowded in my head sometimes when they get chatty.”

I finished up the sausage and walked over to the creek. Using my psychic arms I washed up the plate and fork, then popped out my false teeth and gave them a wash too.

“That’s pretty handy,” Sarah said, accepting the items and placing them on an ice chest to dry.

“It’s been useful so far,” I nodded. “I’ll be going now. Take care of yourself.”

“I have my dogs and a gun.”

“Guns don’t work anymore,” I told her, swinging up into the saddle. “You’re going to need a good knife, maybe a hatchet. A machete would be better.”

She stared at me in disbelief. “You’re not lying.”

“Nope,” I tugged Sparky’s reins and headed up the embankment.

“Stop!”

I pulled Sparky to a stop and looked down at her.

Her aura swirled with indecision. “You said you can heal people. Can you… can you help me?”

“How?”

“I can’t be pregnant right now,” She said, wiping suddenly at her eyes and staring at the ground. “Not here, not like this. You understand, don’t you?”

I pinched my nose, sighing deeply. “Your body, your choice,” I said. “And I respect that. But I’m not a doctor. I’m just some guy with… superpowers.”

Her shoulders slumped. “Will you try?”

I wrestled with my own emotions, looking at down at her. Back in university when the boy’s mother and I were dating, there was an “accident”. We were both young, wanted careers, and an unplanned pregnancy was not part of the Emmett and Sylvia Kick the World in the Balls life we had envisioned. So there was an abortion, and it was done for financial reasons. Yes, adoption was an option. So was raising the child ourselves. But the reality of student loans, no health care, and precarious finances was the reality of the situation. The pregnancy was terminated.

And fifteen years later, during one of our worst, and final fights, she blamed me for pushing her into it.

I think that hurt me more than anything she’d ever said before. I still remember the date, September 8th, when three souls walked into the clinic and two walked out. I had made clear a dozen times that I would support her no matter what choice she made.

Maybe… I don’t know, maybe the budgets that I drew up weren’t as helpful as I thought. Maybe I should have just kept my mouth shut and let her make a decision without my input, even when she asked for it. I was young, and I thought I was being helpful. That’s all I ever wanted, was to be helpful.

I shoved the old thoughts back in to the box with the monkey and kicked it. Hard.

“Estas segura?” I asked in Spanish. “You literally met me fifteen minutes ago.”

She hesitated. “Estoy seguro. You haven’t lied to me yet.”

“That’s because you haven’t asked me any hard questions, Sarah”

“Are you going to hurt me?”

“No. I’ll to do my best to help you.”

Ves?" She said with a half-smile. "Fuiste sincero, yo lo sabría."

See? No lies, I can tell.

I backed the horses down the incline and swung down from the saddle before I could change my mind. “Go lie down and get comfortable. No promises. I’ll have a look and if I have any doubts, I’ll call it off.”

Sarah grabbed a rolled up foam pad from behind one of the totes and spread it out, then looked at me. “Do I need to get naked?”

The tension in my gut burst and I laughed. “No. No, I don’t even need to touch you, I think. Just lie down and let me have a look.” I pulled down my mask and smiled at her. “Sorry for laughing, I’m just a bit nervous.”

“That’s okay. I understand. So am I.”

She lay on the foam mat and waited on me, knees up and slightly apart.

“Put your legs down. Just like you’re going to sleep.”

She dropped her legs and I pulled up my mask, then dropped on my knees next to her. The dogs took up positions around us, the silver cord between her and them sparkling in my auric sight. I ignored them and focused on the task ahead.

Sarah was a matryoshka doll, shells nesting inside shells. Her aura wrapped around her physical body and a small spark was lodged in her forehead. Slightly below her belly button, in her womb, was another aura wrapped around a tiny physical body which contained another small spark. A little thumb-sized embryo. More salamander than human at this point, it resembled something out of a horror fiction more than a baby.

“This may feel strange or hurt,” I warned her. “I’m going to push a tiny thread through your aura and see what’s going on in there. Let me know if you’re uncomfortable.”

“Okay.”

I crafted the thinnest thread of aura that I could and tried pushing it through hers. It was like trying to bore a hole through a steel wall with a needle. Every attempt bounced off her psychic shield. I didn’t want to force my way in.

“Can you feel what I’m doing?” I asked, frustrated at my efforts.

“I can feel something,” Sarah replied. “It’s like a mosquito biting at me.”

“I’m trying to get through your aura and I don’t want to force my way through. Can you try to let me in?”

I kept a steady pressure against the field and the consistency slowly changed from steel to butter. It wasn’t easy, but I managed to push through and expand the opening.

Sarah sucked air through her teeth. “That was like an electric shock.”

“I’m in now. I’m going to have a look around.”

I aimed for the spark in her womb. She gasped as I pushed through her body.

“That was like a needle going inside me.”

I thought back to the thick tentacle I had forcibly shoved inside the asshole earlier today and shuddered at the thought of what it must have felt like. Focusing, I took a deep breath and unspooled the psychic thread inside her until I reached my target. The small aura gave only the faintest of resistance. I wriggled the thread into the tiny thing and examined the spark contained therein.

There was nothing there.

Every time I had touched a core, the spark of a living creature, there was an intelligence. A presence. I knew Sparky was a horse, the rabbit was a rabbit. The core that I crushed in the nameless man earlier at the church was human and filled with pain and terror. What I sensed now was potential. It was alive, but it wasn’t sentient. It was like a seed that could grow into a mighty oak — or poison ivy. It was a computer in need of an operating system. Did it want to live? Yes, just like a tree wants to live. A primal urge to consume nutrients and grow.

I paused and considered what I was about to do. I am about to remove a potential life from the world. Am I sure about this? Should I just strangle it? My stomach soured at the thought.

“Estas segura de esto?” I said. Are you sure about this.

“Si.” She responded, closing her eyes tight.

Taking a deep breath, I enveloped the tiny spark in my psychic thread, then gave a small tug. It pulled free, a petal from a flower. I extracted it through the layers of flesh and aura until it rested on my hand. A peek inside Sarah revealed that the embryo was already breaking up, surrounded by dozens of glowing motes that were being absorbed into her body. All I had to do now was release my psychic grip on the tiny spirit and it would drift free and evaporate.

In a sudden flash of inspiration, I pulled out the stones in my pocket and held them near the embryonic spirit. I pushed it towards them, but it showed no interest, drawing nourishment from my aura. Releasing my grip from the tiny spark. It wobbled for a moment, then darted inside one of the white stones. A moment later, the stone began to glow faintly. [3]

Sarah watched the process, unable to see the invisible mechanics of my work until the stone glowed. “What did you do?”

I shrugged. “I kinda offered it a choice, return to the universe or move into one of the stones.”

“You spoke with it?” she asked, the horror evident in her voice.

“No,” I assured her. “It wasn’t sentient. Just a blank slate, a pure existence like a tree or a flower.” I fumbled for words. ”It was a spirit, not a soul.”

She looked at the glowing stone and a small silver thread darted from her head, connecting with it. Her eyes lost focus as the thread sparkled and glowed, then she blinked and the thread faded.

“I can sense something there,” she nodded. “It’s like you said, blank and unformed, but I made a connection. Give it to me,” She demanded, her eyes glittering dangerously. [4]

I handed her the stone with the unformed spirit inside. She held it in her fingers, gazing at it intently, then clasped her fingers protectively around it.

“So, it’s over?”

I looked inside her, watching the motes appear and vanish. “Yes, it’s over. I’m going to try healing you now.”

I reached out another small tendril, this time aiming for the spark in her head. There was some resistance at first, but her aura gave way and I connected. This was a different experience than in the church and a sudden dizziness washed over me as I experienced bilocation. I stared at her, staring at me staring at her. Our emotions and thoughts mixed, sloshed between the two containers of our material bodies, sharing a connection deeper than anything I’d ever experienced before. It was a violation, a sharing, a blending, as two souls merged into one.

I jerked back and broke the connection.

“That didn’t go as planned,” I said, rubbing my eyes to clear them.

“It was like I was inside you; like we were sharing an existence,” Sarah said, sitting up.

“Well, I don’t know how to heal you,” I confessed. “Maybe I can just push some energy into your aura?”

“I feel fine.”

“Like I said, I’m not a doctor but there’s, um, leftovers. That’s how you get sepsis. I have no idea if your body is going to take care of things naturally.”

“Okay,” she sighed. Her accent caressed my ears, stirring things inside me that hadn’t been stirred in years. “Try again. Just don’t do what you did before.”

“No worries about that,” I promised. “Give me your hands.”

Shoving the stones back into my pocket, I reached out and took her hands into mine. Pushing out with my aura, I concentrated on pushing the golden energy into her. It flattened out against her aura, meeting resistance. Then it began to merge and flow, blending into hers with a hundred golden filaments that dipped down to touch various parts of her body and vanish. She smiled at me.

“That’s just like a glass of sweet tea on a summers day,” she purred, mimicking my thoughts on the matter. “It’s like I was thirsty and didn’t know it.”

I cut off the flow after a minute and her face registered disappointment, then surprise. “It’s warm,” she said, pulling out the tiny spirit stone and holding it between two fingers.

Small golden flakes were visible in the the glowing white stone. [5]

* * *

Footnotes:

1. Those who have a spirit stone can always see the mana stone of others.

2. Sarah Rodriguez is the first recorded Beast Master

3. This is a forbidden necromantic magic, punishable by Shattering. The non-tainted foetal spirits of sapient creatures should be released into the aether.

4. The first recorded bound spirit. Refer to ‘Demons and Spirits, Volume I’ by Olga Rodriguez for further reading.

5. The first recorded Soul stone.

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Copyright © 2021, Conteur. All Rights Reserved.

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