Eli hugged Dara after a moment as he awkwardly patted her back, confused by the sudden affection. Behind her, he caught the guards silently closing the door.

She let go and stepped back to look up at him with a smile that could light up any room. “I wanted to thank you again for healing my father and helping me get home. I just saw him, and he’s doing so well that he’s already trying to get back to work,” she said with a shake of her head, and her long dark braided hair swung as if to emphasize her words.

“That’s great, Dara. Happy to hear the good news,” he said with a smile, then frowned as her last words registered. “Wait, he’s healed enough to work? That seems really fast with how bad things got last night. Then again, I just about passed out at the end when the two healers were doing their examination, so maybe he’s better. Ignore me,” he finished with a shrug.

“Yes, he’s not one to rest if there’s work to do, and sadly there’s a lot right now,” Dara said as her smile wavered. “He’d like to talk with you in a little bit. Before that, though, I thought you and I could chat a bit more if you have the time?”

He chuckled as he glanced around his largely empty room. “Dara, I have an abundance of free time. Let’s take a seat. I kinda devoured my breakfast, so I can’t offer anything to eat unless you’d like some of our trail supplies. How about some juice?”

At Dara’s nod, he poured drinks for both of them while she sat down. She took a quick sip but didn’t say anything else while keeping her eyes down on her drink and slowly turned the cup in her hands, almost absently, nervous about something.

“Is something wrong?” he prompted after a few more moments of silence had passed.

She finally looked up, a hint of color in her cheeks. “We need to talk about your aura again.”

“Uh, did I do something?” he asked, trying to remember if he’d lost control, but nothing came to mind. At least, nothing like in Herria.

“Remember when I taught you aura discipline?” she paused, but he nodded, unsure where this was going. “I showed you how to feel your aura so you didn’t shoot it out in uncontrolled bursts.”

“Of course,” he slowly said as he remembered their night in the clearing near the river. It had taken him hours of practice to learn how to feel and contain his aura, even with Dara’s instruction. He felt his face heat up as he remembered his loss of control with those two inane guards outside Herria.

She frowned at the cup in her hands before setting it down and sat back, finally raising her eyes to him. “I was never a good student regarding auras since the subject didn’t seem very valuable. I mean, beyond basic control, what good would it do me? Still, Gifted Slana made me learn an exercise when I was younger to help strengthen my control. I hadn’t used it much in the last few years, so I forgot to tell you earlier. I’m sorry,” she finished, looking down as a bit of red colored her usual dark complexion.

“That’s okay,” he said with a grin. “A lot was happening at the time. No harm, no foul, right?”

Dara let out a small snort as her eyes darted towards his door before settling on him again. “Well, that’s the problem. You’re scaring our people, Eli. Your aura is leaking a bit.”

The pieces fell together as he glanced towards his door as well. “Oh. Is that why they acted weird earlier?”

“What?” she replied with confusion as her dark eyebrows quirked up with surprise.

“Well, I wanted to get some writing supplies and breakfast, but I forgot to get dressed before talking with the guards and servants. So they weren’t acting that way because I was in my underwear?”

She stared at him before suddenly snorting in a small explosion of smothered laughter. Waving a hand as if brushing some annoying fly away, she still needed a few moments before trying to talk through her amusement. “I can just imagine your expression when you realized, especially how red you were when we bathed at the river.” She smiled as she wiped the moisture from her sparkling eyes. “I told you before that people don’t care much about nudity, and what you do in your own room is your business. I wouldn’t suggest strolling naked into the dining hall – rumors would only spread faster.” She shook her head before continuing. “I shouldn’t laugh since I’m partially to blame.”

Feeling like he couldn’t get much more embarrassed, he tried to move things along. “Okay, so they weren’t reacting to me in my undies, but my aura. Got it. What is this practice you wanted to teach me?”

“Just a simple exercise,” Dara began. “It’s similar to the practice we already did but slightly different. Instead of feeling or directing your aura, just imagine it as a shield held in place – you aren’t trying to move, extend, or retract it. Simply imagine firming it into something almost solid and then relaxing. You already know what your aura feels like, so you should be able to do this.”

“What would this do? Would my aura become even scarier?” He didn’t want that since he’d already accidentally scared more than a few people.

She paused for a moment. “I wish I knew more about auras or that I’d asked more questions, but I can only share the little I remember. This exercise allows you to strengthen your fine control. Imagine it as flexing and building up a new muscle that you didn’t know you had, if that helps. With my new aura gift, I’ll need better instruction once these current troubles pass, and my father just offered to find a specialist to support my strength. I’m sure you could learn at the same time,” she finished with a bright smile, the fire back in her eyes.

Dara then proceeded to walk him through the exercise a few times, using herself as an example. Eli toggled his Manasight to observe how she powered it, but it looked as simple as described. The energy in her core slowly moved outwards towards her skin. Her blue power held steady instead of disappearing in a flash like during their training as a slowly shifting haze of blue energy surrounded her body. After about a minute, the blue color retracted and disappeared back into her mana system, where it slowly moved inwards towards her core.

He followed her instructions as he slowly moved his energy towards the edge of his skin, where he felt like his body ended, and the rest of the universe began. Instead of directing or releasing the energy as before, he focused on holding the energy in place. It was a strange sensation as he felt a pressure building, much like the pressure he felt in his lungs while holding his breath underwater. Instead of a strain in his chest, he felt it all over his body as if the pressure sought some release. Once he relaxed, his white energy seeped back towards his core. He took a couple of breaths, almost an involuntary reaction, as the weird full-body pressure disappeared.

“Very good,” Dara said with a wide smile. “I can tell that you did something. Even now, I feel your aura a little less. So just do that a few times a day as practice. Before you know it, you’ll have even better control.”

“Huh, that wasn’t too bad,” he replied quietly, half distracted as he continued to think about the sensation. “It really does feel like a new muscle I’m trying to use.”

A nagging thought suddenly intruded, remembering the colored cloud he’d seen within Wybert and Dara last night. Eli had already guessed it was related to auras, but how the purple poison had interacted with Wybert’s body and the yellow cloud inside him had been strange.

“What is it?”

Her words pulled his wandering thoughts back. Figuring that his friend was his best bet for figuring it out, he toggled the “???” that had appeared in his HUD the previous night. Unlike Manasight and Lifesight, the room didn’t brighten, darken, or otherwise change. The only difference was a hazy light blue cloud residing within Dara. As he’d seen before, it didn’t do anything but just existed within the center of her body.

“I have a question for you,” Eli began, pausing as he thought through his words. “Last night, when I healed your dad, I kinda got a new power to help.”

“You what?” Dara’s eyes had gone round, and her eyebrows perked up with disbelief.

He felt his face flush, her shock only reinforcing how different he apparently was from everyone else. “Yeah, it kinda just happened,” he muttered self-consciously, looking down at the table. He’d never been anything special back home and couldn’t understand why he had such weird powers here.

“Of course you did,” she said, startling him with the laughter in her words. He didn’t see any of the fear or uncertainty she’d shown on the trail when he’d first used Manasight. Instead, she was laughing and shaking her head as if it was barely a surprise. “So, what is this new gift?” she asked, leaning forward with interest.

“Well, that’s the thing, I’m not really sure. It seems to be some kind of aura vision, but that’s just a guess. Take you, for example. When using the new power, I see a faint light blue cloud within your body. I saw something similar inside your dad last night, but it was yellow.”

“Huh, alright,” Dara replied, her eyebrows scrunched in thought. “I’ve heard of visual auric powers, but they’re so rare that I don’t know much beyond when they’re spoken of in stories. There’s a famous saga where Dia Firinnea used something like that to pierce a demon’s illusion, or another when she could tell the truth from lies, but those were just stories. Spirits, I wish I’d paid more attention when Slana talked about auras,” she continued, anger and frustration seeping into her words.

“That’s okay,” Eli replied, strangely happy to find that it wasn’t completely unknown. “Just knowing that others have something like it makes me feel a little better. Do you think this auric specialist of yours could help?”

“If not, then we can find someone else,” she replied, her frustrated look evaporating into a smile. “Even though auric powers are rare, they’re not completely unknown. We’ll figure it out. In fact, I bet my father could help if you decide to share this with him. He knows many people, and his connections extend well beyond Northmarch and the Alliance,” she finished, pride leaking into her tone.

“Thanks,” he replied, feeling like one of the burdens weighing him down had grown a little lighter.

“Okay, so ready to meet my father?” she asked. “He’s certainly curious to meet his miracle healer.”

“Sure, just let me clean up real quick,” he said, still distracted, but he got up from the table. His notes and supplies disappeared as he touched each stack in quick succession. “What about the dirty dishes?” he asked with a gesture towards the remains of his breakfast stacked near the door.

“Oh, one moment,” she said as she got up and walked over to the chime. “Just press this twice if you need a simple cleanup. Tres or Jento will be by to pick these up after we leave. They’re responsible for this floor of the manor, with Jento in the morning and Tres in the evening.”

He nodded, trying to commit their names to memory, and glanced around one more time to confirm that he’d cleaned everything up. “All ready. Let’s go see your dad.”

“Oh, I’ll just show you the way. I’m about to meet with Eyonne,” she said as her mouth firmed with determination. “My father thinks I need a refresh with some of my training, especially given recent events. I’ll be seeing Tanca later as well.”

“Fair enough,” he said as he followed.

Dara opened his door as the two guards outside made way for them. Eli went to close it, but the woman guard was already closing it for him. He gave her a nod and smiled in thanks, but she simply stared back silently before slowly nodding back. Turning to follow Dara, he glanced back to find the guards following them down the hallway. Surprised, he didn’t say anything, assuming there were more questions he’d have to ask his friend when they had more privacy.