I woke up in the morning, which was very rare for me, and began thinking about the things I wanted to do. Planning ahead is always good, even if you know that most plans you’ll make will not be accomplished, not in the way you want them at least.

I couldn’t really put my mind to it, so I decided to clear my head by flying. The experience from yesterday was new to me, but I found it really relaxing, the problems of control aside.

I didn’t want to wake mother up, so I carefully tried to lift the hand that wrapped around my chest, though it didn’t work.

“Mom, are you awake?”

“Yes”

I knew it.

“Can you let me go for a bit?”

“Don’t want to. Why?”

‘’I wanted to fly a little. Can’t I?”

I put the most pitiful expression I could muster up while asking her.

“…”

I can see the signs of internal conflict inside her mind. She’s almost there!

“Please?”

Upturned watery eyes, pitiful expression and a cute tone of voice should finish her off.

“Arrgg!”

She grit her teeth, she must’ve taken critical damage! Good!

“Can’t I?”

You are not my match. Concede!

“No.”

She bit her lower lip and the strength of her hug got at least three times stronger. How could it be? No, I refuse to believe it! I will not lose! For my pride as Aurora the Soul Witch!

“But mooom! I really really want to goooo!”

“Nonono.”

Damn, her hug got stronger yet again! Am I actually losing here?

...

After a few minutes, I already forgot why I wanted to go out in the first place. Well, since my head cleared up a bit I asked mom to talk about things.

“So, what is it that you want to talk about, Lavenna?”

“You know that I reincarnated, right?”

“Of course, my memory may not be perfect but I doubt I’ll forget it soon.”

How unexpectedly sarcastic. Though who likes listening to people beating around the bush?

“So, because of it, my soul is not in its top condition and-”

“What?! Are you saying that there’s something wrong with your soul?!”

Tsk. I wanted to word it better so mother wouldn’t worry about it and it seems I failed spectacularly.

“Relax, it’s nothing serious.”

“How can I relax? I may not be an expert on souls but I know that they are important! How can I relax when you say that your soul is in danger?”

“I’m an expert. And my soul is fine, it just doesn’t have enough special energy for me to use any good magic. And it’s recovering that energy and that’s the problem.”

A small lie for the greater good won’t hurt. And it’s not completely a lie, it does lack soul essence.

“So you are not in danger?”

“Yes, I’m safe. But since my soul is recovering the energy I need to get my magic back, the plane we’re in is being put under a bit of pressure which causes gods all over the place to want to stop it somehow. That’s why that guy from before came.”

Mother went silent in contemplation for a moment.

“What do we do then? Can we handle it? If you need anything, I will do all I can for you.”

“That’s reassuring. You see, I need resources to make some tools to take some of the gods that will come looking for trouble down. Small fry like the guy from before I can deal with easily, but I’m sure there will be many more to come, some of them will be hard to deal with without precise control of magic. I have a few enchantments in mind that I can do quickly and they will boost our ability to ward them off, but I will also have to make some stronger enchantments in the future, but for all of that I will need some resources.”

I’m sure it will not come to that but just in case if a True God comes knocking then we’re screwed as we are now.

“Something like this will be easy.”

“Maybe for the quick enchantments. The strong ones need rare and very precious metals and gems.”

“You underestimate the resourcefulness of Temerians, Lavenna. We hold all the mine deposits on the continent as well as when it comes to treasures in our possession, we have all kinds of them and in large amounts. Just say the word and I will get you anything you want.”

We spent an hour discussing the needed resources. It took so long because I wasn’t certain that such resources exist here and even if they did, I had to describe them as I didn’t know what they were called here. Except for a few we weren’t clear on, I found out that most of what I needed we could get. Mother had many jewels and random things inside her storage ring, so I could make double sure that we got it right for quite a few of them too.

After we were done I remembered that we never really got a chance for mother to teach me our race’s unique traits and among them, there was one that turned people into useless dolls, so it was better to actually get to it. When I reminded mother

“Oh, right! With all that has happened I actually forgot about it, forgive me.”

“No, it’s alright. Let’s start then. I have already figured out how to control my fangs I think, so can you tell me how to retract my wings now?”

“It’s very easy. Just focus on the feel of your wings and imagine that you feel nothing there.”

How strange, let’s give it a try.

…

Did it work?

I took a look behind me and saw that they disappeared. How mysterious. I tried to get them back out and it worked. I then tried to make only one disappear. Then only a part. Then I imagined them being different from normal. I continued to push it until I found the limit to their flexibility of form, creating all kind of weird abominations.

In the end, it turned out that the wings can only grow on my back, right behind my shoulders, have the same color, their maximum size can wrap around me six times, their texture can’t change much and their shape can turn very strange if I wish for it. I also can’t separate them from me.

I retracted them again and we returned to the lesson.

“Oh my, you are quite good at this, Lavenna. I can only have one shape and the same size and flying is not very comfortable. I’m very proud of you.”

“Thank you.”

“We can now talk about the special skill all of us Temerians have. It’s called “charm”. You must remember not to use it carelessly or better yet, never use it!”

“I still don’t quite understand what it does.”

“It more or less allows the victim’s heart to be seized. If the victim isn’t in close proximity to the caster then he or she may show signs of withdrawal symptoms and long exposure to the skill will destroy the victim’s sense of self and morality and will leave only an easily controllable puppet. It doesn’t work on immortals though.”

“I see, how does it work and how to stop it then?”

“You need to put the person under strong mental pressure so that their defences will weaken and then you will have to leave a very strong impression of yourself inside their minds. Usually, that happens when you put them under pressure though. The rest will be done through your skill independently.”

“That’s all?”

“Yes.”

“I see, it’s indeed dangerous.”

I have no idea how that works. What’s worse, as I am now, I will always emit huge presence whenever I need to deal with pests, so it will be a problem for me if I unknowingly start a cult or something like that.”

“How do I deal with that?”

“You just have to leave a vague impression of yourself. There’re many types of spells that can mask you and make mortals not pay too much attention towards you.”

“Makes sense somehow. I don’t understand and therefore completely trust this world’s magic, so I’ll do my own, okay?”

I put my attention on the connection I have with my soul. It has been growing stronger by the day, which is really pleasing to know as the range of my spirit sense and the quality of information I receive from it are growing too.

Come to think of it, I could try and evolve my spirit sense into the Mystic Eyes if I wanted to. Maybe later.

I send my mind through the connection and reach the core of my soul.

The core is the most important part of any soul as it allows it not to fall apart and depending on its structure many things about a person will be determined. Even if most of a person’s soul is somehow destroyed, if the core stays, there’s always a chance for a recovery.

Anyway, I also use the core to store the most important enchantments I made. The things like the defences against curses, mind control, attacks on the soul, the magic I used to store my memories and the magic to transfer it to the body and many other things.

I also have a few dozens of concealment enchantments, though they need to be activated and adjusted, which takes no time at all.

I return my mind back to my body.

With accelerated perception it shouldn’t have taken up too much time, right?

“I’m back!”

Mother makes a strange expression and I can almost see the question marks around her head. Well, from her point of view it must have been close to me speaking and then yelling “I’m back!” all of a sudden.

“Anyway, now that skill is not a problem.”

“Are you sure, Lavenna?”

“Yes, I’m sure. No need to worry, I’m certain it will work.”

The enchantment on full power would let me hide from a young dragon right before their nose, so it’s obviously able to hide me from some mortals.

“I see. It was unexpectedly fast. I was prepared to spend a week teaching you.”

Mother looks a bit sad now.

“I guess it can’t be helped. Let’s go back home now, I will talk to some clans and will introduce you later. We’ll be able to solve our need for resources like that too.”

“Okay”

And like that our small vacation together ended.