“I knew it,” a sobbing whisper reached my ear.

“You doubted it?” I asked, with a playfully offended tone.

At the moment, I was basically being clinched by Faye. Before I could even observe the insides of the tent she jumped me like a lioness grabbing its prey and hugged me. Caught off guard, I simply stopped moving and waited for her to vent her pent-up feelings.

In the meantime I looked around me, curiously inspecting my surroundings. The large tent was very bare, with a simple cot and a large stack of books and wooden boxes heaped up in a corner.

I immediately noticed Jonah’s face turn into a grimace. His eyes darted at me. It was as they were asking me why a peasant like me was being treated so well by Faye. Hidden behind the layer of alleged superiority, I could see an almost invisible hint of jealousy.

I found it strangely amusing and reacted by reciprocating Faye’s hug. Jonah’s expression distorted even more. I knew Faye was well equipped both in the brains and look department, but I couldn't have predicted such a development. After all, in the original timeline Faye should have been much older, but now she was close in age to the other important characters.

I let her cry for a while, where she mumbled almost incoherently but I was ultimately able to piece together what she was saying. While I was receiving special treatment from Tobias, she had remained catatonic for a little less than a week due to the shock caused by the experiences of the previous days.

She had been taken care of by Tobias himself and his direct subordinates. After a quick recovery thanks to her mental fortitude, she had tried to reunite with me but she had been precluded from encountering me.

Tobias had explained to her the situation of my previous body and she had fallen into a spiral of self-deprecation, feeling responsible as she was the one performing the surgery on me.

When three weeks had passed and notice of me stopping breathing had arrived, hell broke loose. I couldn’t decipher exactly what had happened during this period of time, but it ended as quickly as it arrived, with her falling into what others considered a delusion.

“Of course not! You're a cockroach, I knew there was no way you would be dead,” Faye responded smiling.

“Well, that is debatable, but I am certainly alive now”

I tried to separate myself from Faye, but she didn’t let go, so I simply continued speaking.

“What have you been up to?”

“I prepared myself,” she answered.

Then she explained what happened. She had finally calmed down, so I didn’t need to struggle to understand her words. After becoming “delusional”, she decided to get to work.

“The surgery failed due to my incompetency. I decided to strive to be better”

She spoke to Tobias and she told him she wanted to become useful.

“I wanted to be ready for when you returned”

Apparently, Tobias was waiting for this moment.

“He had me sent to the Delta Perimeter, in order to learn and practice Moulding”

Tobias contacted the Deleon family and had them prepare everything necessary to ensure she could nurture her talents.

“Not gonna lie, I was surprised when Jonah himself came to pick me up”

The young heir to the Delta idolised Tobias and he personally took charge of his request.

“I owe much to Jonah. He sent masters to instruct me and even gave me a small facility where I could practise freely without risking others seeing me employing mana”

I sent a rapid gaze towards Jonah's face to study his expression. It had simply reddened a bit, most likely due to moderate embarrassment, but for the rest it didn’t contain any malign intention. He was privy to Faye's true nature.

“Blind hatred is for the commoners. Me and my peers have been educated better than that. The ruling class ought to keep their mind free from such trifles and focus on understanding the enemy, without preconceptions and prejudices clouding its sight. Moreover, Patriarch Miller took her under his wing. There is no reason why I should doubt his unerring judgement,” he explained, speaking over Faye and seemingly reading my mind. It was indeed true he idolised Tobias.

I learnt another useful piece of information. Contrary to what I had assumed in the past, I was not the only one without innate hate for the genais, or at least someone had been able to get over it.

Anyway, although I had always thought of it as innate, it was true that loathing was taught by others and not inherent to human nature. It was normally instilled from an early age to make sure children would be ready for the war that was to come. This educational practice had been going on for generations.

I returned my attention to Faye and opened my mouth,to interrupt her stream of words.

“Why did you take up Moulding?”

She reclined backwards, without letting me free from her embrace, and sent me a dumbfounded look.

“Well, first of all, I needed employment”

“You could have lived off Tobias”

“I didn’t like the idea. He was kind, don’t get me wrong, but I felt like he saw me like some sort of pawn”

I thought back to Tobias’ last word after he cut my limbs and I understood where she was coming from. She continued speaking.

“Also, I wanted to learn more about mana, ether and their interaction with matter. I hoped they would help me refine Forming. To that aim, I also worked in a clinic to further my medical skills”

I stared at her. There was something else she was reticent to say. She finally gathered the courage to speak.

“Well, I also felt like if I didn’t do anything, I would be nothing but a burden. I’m working hard to make sure I will be useful. Power-ups, resources, weapons… I’ll provide it all”

I gave her a good look. She looked extremely tired and undernourished. It was easy to see that she had been overworking herself all this time, from how thin she was to the bags under her eyes. I thought back to one of our last conversations.

“Forget what I told you,” I said.

“What?” she responded with a puzzled look.

“About leaving you behind, thinking primarily about my own wellbeing, etc. I had stones in my brain at the time. I won’t leave you behind, no matter what happens. It would be boring without you”

There was the possibility she had been acting this way due to my past words. Although I didn’t properly feel guilty about what I had said time ago, I was still being honest. I didn’t want to survive anymore, I wanted to live and Faye was part of my life.

I didn’t want her to spend herself, so I tried to somewhat reassure her about the future. Contrary to my expectations, her eyes burned with fury and a low threatening voice left her lips.

“Stop. Don’t you dare say that. You cannot die. For any reason. If I am a burden. Throw me away. I don’t care. If you die. I die,” she chanted, while her eyes turned cloudy.

Repeated trauma had messed with her head. The piled up pressure had broken her mind. I detached her from me, put my hands on her shoulders and shook her vigorously, trying to make her come to her senses.

“I appreciate your dedication, but it is not needed. You are not a burden, you are a motivation,” I told her, simulating the kindest smile I could muster.

My eyes were emotionless. This was not the Faye I was interested in. I didn’t appreciate this broken version. I wanted a companion who made living more interesting, not a shadow of her former self obsessed with me. I would need to find a way to bring her back on the right track.

She probably sensed something was wrong and rapidly regained clarity. She cleared her throat.

“Anyway, I have something for you,” she changed the subject.

She walked towards one of the wooden crates and opened it up. She fished inside it and extracted a weapon covered with a cloth. By the shape of it, it seemed to be a mace. I was greatly intrigued.

“Before opening it. Please, be lenient. I made this while I was feeling particularly down…”