Without waiting for a response, I lightly slapped my cheeks and shook my head, putting on a shaky smile, “Both of you go back where you were, I’ll be back in a minute.”

After sharing a glance, both Klein and Theo nodded. With a couple of final affirmations and a promise of future interrogation, they uneasily went back to the training field. I had meant it when I said it. Honest. I thought I would stand up and walk back into the group of strangers. But the memories that had helped to calm me were still circling my mind. And as I looked at the closed door, I couldn’t bring myself to grab the handle.

“[Translucent],” I whispered to myself.

Speaking it aloud didn’t truly serve a purpose, or maybe it would be better to say it served me emotionally rather than out of necessity. As the color of the world drained away once again, I felt the cold pull of mana from my stomach and the dulling of my senses. The grayscale hallway, the muted ambient noise, even the fading scent of clay -it all comforted me in a way only someone who was terrified of the world could be comforted.

After the initial wave of relief, I had the awareness to be disgusted at the whole melodramatic mess. Yet, despite my own awareness, there was nothing I could have done. The response had been so visceral, so ingrained, so immediate, that it didn’t matter that I could rationalize it. It didn’t matter that the eyes of children shouldn’t mean anything to me. That the experience of being watched wasn’t foreign. That I am comfortable in front of others. Those things don’t matter to me-

No. I dug my hands into my scalp and clenched my stomach, Those things didn’t matter to Maria.

For all the laughs and small smiles with the knights, the truth is that Eunora’s body and Maria’s mind haunt me. And the dichotomy felt like it was splitting my skull into two.

“Eunora, Maria,” My voice ragged as I whispered to myself, “I can’t be either of you again.”

But how can I do that when I’m forced to bear the Dawn identity?

I could feel the normalcy I’d built in Fellan over the past weeks begin to crumble as I understood why it had felt normal at all. I had been Maria, strong-willed and mildly charismatic -not the neglected, self-conscious Eunora.

How many people have I really been around at a single time since awakening -or coming to Fellan? How many of those were true strangers? A handful? And of those how many did I interact with -or interact with me?

Forcing my arms down, I crossed them and gripped my sides, the realization churning my stomach -even if something hadn’t rewritten my [Skill], this was bound to happen. Turning away from the door I walked away from the training field. As I walked, I didn’t see another soul. Just empty offices, with racks of weapons on display, and classrooms with open doors and empty seats. I had circled back to the front of the building, facing two sets of doors -one leading back to the registrar’s office I entered through and the other an exit leading to the side of the academy.

I wish I could say I thought about it. That I agonized over if I should go back, try again, overcome whatever that fear had been. But the truth is that I barely spared a glance back as I opened the door to leave the academy.

The door opened to a gravel path that clung to the outer walls of the academy. At the edge of the path, knee-high grass and overgrown bushes built up until the thick forest obscured the far-view.

A part of me screamed to stay on the path, to find where the carriages were, to go back to the estate, that the forest is dangerous, that I am weak. Yet there was another voice whispering gently. It told me that the suns are rising in the sky, that there are hours until I’ll be able to go home, that a brightly lit forest is bound to have a clearing somewhere. Somewhere to be alone. Somewhere to escape from this academy -from the pieces of a past me.

So I followed the voice that promised me an escape from this reality. The voice that said I could go back to pretending it was all dream -that if I slept for long enough I would go back home. I stepped away from the path, careful to navigate the roots that blocked my way into the deeper forest. As I walked, I ran my hands along the bark of the trees, feeling the rough texture roll across my skin. After a dozen steps past the treeline, I looked back over my shoulder to take in the view of the academy slowly being blocked by rows of thick monotone trees. Then the moment passed and I decided to keep going into the forest.

Maybe if I had been walking normally, without my [Skill] activated, I would have seen the difference in the leaves -how they were shifting from emerald greens and deep blues to the color of midnight. If I could see anything but shades of gray, maybe I would have seen that some roots weren’t the brown of bark but the deep purple of a fresh bruise. Maybe.

Instead, I continued on. Minutes passed, and the pull on my stomach turned arctic. As a shiver made its way into my core, I felt the thread of magic snap -and with it came the revitalization of the world. I flinched as I was forced to take in the vibrancy of the forest. As I adjusted to the greens and blues of the forest, I waited for the sound of the world to fill my ears. To hear the insects buzz, birds chirp, the rustle of the wind -even the sound of the distant academy.

Instead, the sound of silence pressed down on me. It was the kind of empty silence that screams. It made my muscles tense. Scanning the treeline around me I searched for the source, a monster or a man. Yet as I looked from one tree to the next, nothing caught my eye -but sharp rays of light were breaking through the canopy and making me squint. As I went to shade my eyes I noticed the discoloration in the forest -and I realized it was already too late. Then there was movement.

Snap. Cra-CK.

The sound sprung from all around me, and before a breath passed my legs had black roots constricting my movement, and my arms were held in place -my wrists forced to hold still halfway up my face.

“Breathe, Eu-” I cut myself off, and an ugly expression filled my face, contorting my mouth, “Ma-”

Again, I choked on my name, and I thrashed my body in frustration -succeeding only in rubbing my skin raw. Despite my above-average strength for a child my age, my 32 was just barely average for a young adult.

In other words, I thought, as I fought back a scream, I’m fucked.

“I’m so fucked!” For good measure, I did scream that.

And then the roots began moving, wrapping themselves tighter around my body. The rough edges ripped into my exposed wrists and began scraping my forearms as the roots found a path beneath my clothes. I took a sharp breath and squeezed my eyes shut, trying to maneuver any way I could to loosen the grip of the roots. All that did was worsen the stacking scrapes across my body. I could feel the barbs digging into my skin, the sting of air hitting a fresh cut growing into true pain as the wounds began to widen. The roots continued tightening, pushing themselves underneath my skin.

At first, the pain was a sting, a rug burn. Then it became the constant feel of scraping a knee. But now it was different. It was the feeling of a needle under my skin. It was the cold flow of an injection spreading through my veins. It was different. But there was no doubt that the urgency of escaping had doubled as something entered through the cuts across my arms. As the cold spread through my veins, I felt pinpricks begin to grow in intensity through my biceps and torso. Just before the ice in my veins reached my heart, my mind froze. As if a rope broke, I felt something fall away.

In hindsight, it was most likely the magical equivalent of an adrenaline rush. But at the time, it felt as if my humanity was ripped from me and all that was left behind was rage. My body stilled, no longer thrashing against the vines that contained me. No longer was I screaming. My voice had lowered, coming out more like a growl than any semblance of speech.

“[Shadow Conjuration + Shadow Manipulation]”

Unlike the usual pull of magic, that familiar cooling sensation, this was arctic. It was as if my blood was flash frozen, and pain radiated from my veins. Where blood was exposed, where the roots rubbed against my skin, where they were wrapped around my legs, darkness began to pool. At first, the black haze emerged from my open wounds, as if standing in for where my blood should be, but moments later the shadows of the roots began to animate and spiral up the vines, moving ever closer to my body. As the conjured darkness and the natural shadows met, the haze expanded to encompass my body and any roots within half a foot -the shade encapsulating us in an opaque black.

“Do. Not. Touch. Me.”

With every word, the shadow capsule pulsed and collapsed inward. The darkness thickened, solidifying as it condensed around me. At first the capsule simply seemed to be tightening against my skin, pressing roughly into me as the roots were, but as quickly as the shadows began to become corporeal they released their grip on my body. The shadows broke off into tendrils that circled itself as I spoke, and by the time I finished speaking there was a fully solid spiked ball of darkness hovering in front of my body.

“Get OFF.”

Another spike of pain flooded my body as I willed the shadows to cut the roots from the base. The ball began spinning, faster and faster with every breath. As the spikes began to blur, the ball snapped to the nearest root base sticking out of the ground. One moment the root was taught between the ground and my leg, the next it was severed -one half wriggling on the ground, one half limply wrapped around my ankle and calf. The ball snapped to the next -a root that had caught my wrist, and another. The darkness began jutting around -as soon as it was finished with one root it was already heading towards the next. Soon all the tension was gone, save for a single root wrapped around my throat that was protruding from one of the upper branches of the tree behind me. As soon as the root was severed, all my weight came down and I crumpled to my knees.

The abrupt movement ignited a surge of icy pain and I let out a strangled sob. Behind me, the ball of darkness stopped spinning and began hovering in place. Had I the wherewithal to analyze the ball, I would have realized that it was incomplete. And ugly. In my memories, I think of it as a miracle -a dark angel saving the day. In truth, it was a piece of magic powered by a convoluted mixture of rage and fear -it was hasty, unrefined, and dangerous. And not just to the roots it severed - it was sucking out every last bit of mana in my body. My [Skill] levels were low, and my actual stats were worse.

As the edges of my sight darkened, a new sound permeated the clearing. A familiar sound of rustling and dragging. The roots and vines that had been holding me remained still, but as I raised my head I saw three miniature Blights made of the midnight colored vines emerging from the forest. Whether they were young and freshly formed or simply a variant I couldn’t tell. All I knew was that if they attacked at once I wouldn’t be able to fight back.

One last push.

I let out a guttural scream.

“AWAY.”

As the freeze in my body fought against me, tearing my veins to shreds, I let the pain fuel my screams. Even as the monsters paused in their approach, I continued to scream -one barely understandable word, over again and again. And again.

“AWAY.”

The only desire I had was for them to go, to abandon their approach, to flee. I didn’t know if Blights felt fear, or had a sense of self-preservation, I didn’t know if they were the type to fight to the death. But still, it was all I could do. And these monsters were barely half my height -they wouldn’t even reach past an adult's knees.

“AAWAYY-AWAYY-AWAY-AAWAAYYY.”

They were still, but they were staring. Their corrupted root heads tilted in a disgustingly humane way. Their “eyes” of torn bark seemingly focused on me. Then their heads snapped up, focusing on the air above me.

And then there were two Blights left.

It had happened too fast for the monsters to react. The ball of darkness that had been hidden behind my shoulders began spinning once more while I was screaming. Whatever time I had bought, it was enough. The ball’s speed was strong enough for the jagged spikes to rip through the neck of a Blight with little resistance.

As it’s tiny body fell backwards, the other two stared at the ball of darkness for a moment. Their heads turned back to me, who had never faltered in my screams.

“AWAY-AWAY-AWAY-AWAY”

They both met each other's eyes and made a series of rustling noises that sounded like sticks being hit together, “Tktktk. Tktk! Tktkt!”

Raising their disfigured arms they stuck their hands up and ran back into the forest, ‘tktk’ repeating in various tones as they fled.

“AWa..y.” I coughed, as my screams were forcefully halted by the pain in my throat. As my eyes landed on the downed Blight, I felt a final surge of arctic pain throughout my body and a snap as the ball of shadow expanded into a haze. Within a breath, even the haze was dispersed and the shadows of the forest around me, the roots that had attacked, and even my own shadow, returned to their rightful place and shape.

As the chill left my body, a new ache replaced it. Fatigue settled deep into my muscles, but no longer was the pain of magic forcing me onto my knees. After I tentatively put pressure on one leg, I was forced to steady my shaking muscles before fully standing.

These same monsters killed Arlen. They nearly killed me.

I felt rage begin to roll my stomach anew.

Twice.

Twice is too many.

“First,” I ground out, stepping towards the Blight’s corpse, “It was this body.”

Step.

“Next,” Step, “It was this family.”

Step.

“Then,” Step, “It was the gods.”

Step.

“Now,” I stopped right next to the thing’s body, it’s head settled inches above where it should be, “It is you. Monsters.”

I bent and lifted the severed head, having to use both my hands due to its size, and held it up at eye level.

“I can’t kill myself.”

“I can’t kill my family.”

“I can’t kill the gods.”

“But,” I snarled at the lifeless mass of plant matter, “I can kill you.”

Dropping the mess, I looked at where it landed with disgust, “And I will kill the Blight plaguing this godforsaken forest.”

With a final kick, sending the mass halfway across the clearing, I began looking around -ignoring the feeling of system notifications building.

I’ll deal with that later. In the meantime…

“Fuck,” I muttered, “Which way did I come from?”

[Translucent: While not invisible, you allow light to pass through you as if you aren’t even there. As such, the colors around you fade from your view to allow you to present as if you are a light shadow cast over the area you stand in. Total effectiveness is dependent on your Perception and Magic stats. Additional effects unlocked upon level up.]

[Shadow Conjuration: As a Young Lady of Darkness, you will become a master of the unseen. Whether you wield the darkness offensively, defensively, or passively is dependent on your will. With this Skill, you will be able to summon a hardy Shadow that can become corporeal. Total effectiveness is dependent on your Perception, Magic, and Divinity stats. Additional effects unlocked upon level up.]

[Shadow Manipulation: As a Young Lady of Darkness, the world of the stalker shall be yours to command. Whether you animate the shadows to do your bidding, wrap yourself in the comfort only darkness can bring, or simply wish to obscure yourself -this Skill will allow you to manipulate natural Shadows according to your will. Total effectiveness is dependent on your Perception, Magic, and Divinity stats. Additional effects unlocked upon level up.]