It was rare that the pale woman sought me out, so I couldn't help but be sceptical when a servant came to our place at early sunrise. It was the morning after the party and the sands had only recently settled. I didn't want to entertain the idea of seeing anyone from that family today and tried to send the servant on his way.

"Regrettably Wife five has said that there will be grave repercussions for you if I come back alone. I think you should go, I've never seen her so determined."

The pale woman knew too much for me to ignore her, if she was threatening me then it must have been serious. I decided to go but I insisted that Hann came with me. I didn't doubt my ability to handle myself if it was a lie or a trap, what I doubted was my ability to remain calm and logical. At that moment, I was seriously considering striking Alex hard, something that would have been an executable offence. I needed Hann close by to make sure that I didn't do anything stupid should my temper flare.

It wasn't all that long before I was brought to a room on the upper floors, we usually spoke in a small meeting room at ground level. My suspicions rose but when the door opened and I saw the pale woman sitting atop a plain bed in an undecorated room I felt some of my tension ease. Hann stayed outside with the servant while I entered alone.

"Do not step too close."

I was taken aback by her words and froze in place. Her face was completely devoid of emotion, but there was clear focus behind her usually bored eyes. She mistook my apprehension for compliance and continued,

"Your company has been good so far, I wanted to extend a kindness to you in light of that. I will be direct. Were you going to kill master Alexander?"

I would never! I didn't like him the least bit anymore but I didn't think he was evil, he didn't deserve death. I spat out my answer quickly,

"No, of course not! Where is this coming from?"

Her face remained emotionless and she continued without giving me time to process the situation,

"Do not lie to me. These eyes witnessed your reaction to his embrace."

She must have seen me preparing to hit Alex or maybe she could read my emotions since she could see my soul. Either way, I needed to clear up the misunderstanding now.

"I'll admit that I was angry with Alex but I swear all I wanted to do was hit him off of me. It was too sudden and I'm not into the huggy feely stuff."

Her unblinking giant blue eyes were starting to feel a little creepy but I hoped that her lack of attacking or screaming was a positive sign. It felt like an age but eventually, she said,

"You appear confused, flustered. It is not quite what I was expecting. Enfura. Enfura the beastial? No? No reaction at all?"

"What are you going on about?"

I was completely lost, it just sounded like gibberish to me. Now we both seemed confused, she pondered the situation.

"How did you control the other you? It was screeching, imitating Alexander."

Screeching and imitating Alex? Finally, something clicked. I took a deep breath and sang Alex's straight swords song, immediately the pale woman almost jumped,

"Yes, that. How is it that you are doing that?"

If she knew that I was imitating Alex did that also mean that she could hear like me? Was it possible for a half-human to be a blade tender? When she described how she heard the world not once did she mention music. She just said that all living beings made constant annoying noises. I spoke softly to avoid being heard by prying ears,

"I was singing Ale–"

"Not you. The other you. Your singing was pleasant but I have never heard a soul vocalise before."

We simply experienced the world too differently. For a while, we had a back and forth conversation while trying to figure out where the misunderstanding was. I revealed that I was a blade tender and that I could hear music that everyone's blades produced but it didn't immediately help. She had heard of people like me before but it was her first time meeting one. I latched onto any scraps of knowledge that I could to try to make sense of the situation.

Whatever I was singing and whatever my soul sang were completely different. To the pale woman's ear, I was singing an unconnected song while my soul imitated the noise that Alex made. She described the sound of bladed individuals as 'Many whining screeches that were usually in harmony but descended into discord when they were upset'. The composition of screeches was different from person to person but never did they sound close to music. I asked if she could try to mimic the screeching noises but they were too complex for her to even try.

Another strange issue was with 'the other me' or my soul. My soul was apparently silent until I began to sing, it wasn't just when I imitated a sword's song it was anytime I sang. Even nursery rhymes triggered a screeching response from my soul. I had no way of proving what the pale lady said, I just had to accept her word. I didn't think she had a reason to lie to me about all of this but it felt like she was just making things up. I didn't feel anything different between talking and singing.

That was all that I could gather from our conversation. Without a way to look into her mind, this was as close as I would get to understanding this other world beyond my senses. Now more than ever I wanted even the briefest glimpse but it seemed to be impossible. Eventually, the conversation came back around to her initial concern,

"You might be a danger if you are indeed as clueless as it sounds."

She patted the bed and I cautiously approached and sat next to the pale woman.

"What do you know of life from the pre-intelligence times? Before you had cities and wages and domestication."

"I was taught that humans struggled to survive before the forge mother and the Lords appeared to guide us."

She nodded and sighed.

"Your 'religion' has almost erased history. Increasingly the truth has been slipping away. Consider this, how many humans would it take to slay a beast barehanded? How is it that humans survived before walls and blades?"

It was something that I never questioned. Because of their reputation and legends, I just assumed that the ancestors of house Karkarin and human ingenuity saw us through. That theory made little sense when looked at more carefully though. Would we have been capable of making weapons when we first appeared? Karkarin techniques produced unbelievable power but they weren't common knowledge, the techniques were made and refined by humans but not intrinsic to them. Where did we come from? No one ever talked in depth about the days before the beacons descended.

I was questioning everything I had been taught as fact. If a feline beast like the one that pulled Shryke's carriage came across defenceless humans, how would they have survived the slaughter? I couldn't imagine tens of humans standing a chance in the face of such danger. A large slime could eat a small group who were looking for water and carnivorous plants could pick off gatherers. We weren't like Crackle-boars that could have a litter of capable babies in a month, humans took a long time to have children that were born useless. How were we not hunted to death? While I was busy having a crisis the pale woman got my attention,

"The tribal humans of old were terrifying monsters, in battle they were wreathed in burning crimson light and swept through the lands killing and eating everything. The answer is Enfura the beastial, the primal god of humans. When Alex held you close I saw the other you lose shape and set ablaze. I recognised the sight. It was almost like the inferno from the memory rune but it wasn't quite the same."