For a moment, the room fell silent as everyone’s attention was focused on Grace.

  Yuzuriha took steady breaths, inhale and exhale, regaining her normal breathing rate after almost suffocating from Marcille’s pressure.

  What was that anyway?

  It wasn’t killing intent or some science related phenomena that just conveniently happens to set the mood. It felt like refined dominance over the very force that empowered life itself. And it all was coming from the woman she called an elder sister.

  ‘Somehow, I feel as though there’s more to astris than what Marcille is telling me. At this time, it should be obvious that this world isn’t normal but I’m still saying it. No normal human can do that’

  That suffocating pressure being the work of astris was the best explanation she could reach. So far, all she had been told about it is that it can help with her eyesight which it did, sorta.

  ‘I still don’t know how to feel about seeing things like this. It’s unique. Incredible. Colorful. But ultimately…alien’

  Quite the dilemma, but she couldn’t complain. It was either living with seeing nothing but colors or be blind forever. The former seemed much more attractive.

  It did come with its merits though, but this didn’t seem like a good time to cover them. The older woman had taken way too much time drawing this silence out.

  At least it gave Yuzuriha a bit to think before hearing the said truth Grace was about to tell Marcille.

  This was also an opportunity to learn about Grace’s character, like what kind of a person she is and whether or not she will actually do what she says?

  Yuzuriha waited in anticipation. A few more seconds passed before she sighed again and decided to finally talk while facing Marcille.

  “After our schooling session I took Yor to Benedict’s workshop–don’t tell him, please. That’s where she consumed something dangerous. Azure Ooze, a special tool I have been working to develop for three months using some materials I purchased at the Chunjiheti Guild. It took on the form of a slime and became something akin to a Sacrament, I called it Azure Ooze because of it. And due to its blue color.”

  Grace paused momentarily just in time for Marcille to interrupt her in a horrified tone.

  “Chunjiheti? A Sacrament? Grace, you promised you wouldn’t—”

  “I did not give it to her. I’m just as confused as you are. Something happened when Yor touched it. All of a sudden it went into her mouth and eyes. When I tried to stop it, I was thwarted away and rendered unconscious. I woke up to the sounds of Willow shouting my name. The good thing though is that it gave her better eyesight”

  The woman finished with that, and the room fell silent once again. But this time, only for a little bit before Marcille’s chair scraped loudly on the floor as she bolted upright. She dashed around the table and kneeled in front of Yuzuriha.

  “Yor—Yor, look at me. Open your mouth, let me see. Your eyes too, come on!”

  Marcille’s voice went from horror to nervousness in a span of a second while frantically cupping the blind—semi blind girl’s face. Yuzuriha could feel the slight tremble in her hands which made her worried.

  Even her rash behavior had startled her. She even heard an 'eep' coming from Willow.

  It could have been Leo, but that high pitch suggested otherwise. Just like her, the kids were also frightened by this sudden behavior from their older sister.

  “What—”

  Yuzuriha hadn’t gotten enough time to think about this situation, but the way Marcille was reacting right now made her nervous.

  “Just let me see. You don’t feel anything weird in your throat or chest, do you? What about your stomach? Are you hurting anywhere? Tell me if you feel pain?!”

  Marcille’s doting persona came out while checking her eyes first and making her open her mouth wide.

  And because of that, and the bombardment of questions, Yuzuriha muttered something incoherent which wasn’t enough to please Marcille. So, she turned sharply to Grace.

  “Can it be removed?!”

  Grace tilted her head and leaned forward, she seemed uncertain.

  “I…don’t know yet. But it’s adapted to her physiology and achieved something most Ascendants cannot. A Sacrament bonding to a human. If anything, this is revolutionary. We should—”

  “No, I won’t allow it! A Sacrament is dangerous, even if it's a phony. It would have been a lot worse if it was a Legacy. These things are usually in possessions of those bastard nobles”

  She stared at her little sister again, brushing locks of hair out of her face with gentle fingers. Basically, she was fixing up Yuzuriha’s face after messing it up.

  “This is bad. Owning a Sacrament alone would already draw the attention of Vultures and power-hungry scum. Do you understand what that means? If word about this gets out, then Yor would be in constant danger!”

  Hearing that, Grace’s body language retracted and she couldn’t get a proper sentence out. Marcille stood up and said…

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  “First thing tomorrow morning, I’m taking her to Tansy. She’ll know how to remove it. It’s late now, it would be a daunting task trying to find her. I might risk attracting unnecessary attention to myself too”

  And that was the last thing of substance that was spoken that night.

  Despite the sudden commotion, they had a rather normal dinner. Although it was filled with more tension than the one from yesterday. Everyone still ate their fill.

  Grace left the minute she finished her food, but not before praising Leo on his amazing cooking skills and inviting him to eat with her sometimes. She also did try to talk to Marcille and reason with her, but she didn’t want to hear any of it.

  What her older sister was worried about also had Yuzuriha on edge.

  Now because of this thing inside her, she has become a target for power hungry scum now. And as she was right now, she was practically defenceless.

  A lot happened in just 2 days. Following their dinner, and before bed rituals, everyone went to sleep.

  However, Yuzuriha couldn’t fall asleep.

  No matter how much she tried it was hopeless.

  She squeezed her eyes shut and laid in the same pose for a couple of minutes, but that did nothing. Even when she tried to occupy her mind with useless thoughts, like counting sheep. It was still hopeless.

  However, that didn’t stop her from trying. She twisted her legs to the right for a bit of comfort. Nope, nothing. Switched her pillow’s side to the cool one, but still no difference.

  Even when she tried flipping herself fully around like a log, she accidentally nudged Willow, who was sleeping beside her today instead of Marcille. Yuzuriha almost woke the sleepy girl but with an incoherent mumble, she settled back to the land of dreams again.

  Taking a breath, Yuzuriha gave up. Her eyes were starting to hurt after all.

  ‘It’s no use. I was unconscious for 5 hours, it's expected that my body wouldn't feel tired. So, what do I do now?’

  She thought for a bit but nothing worth doing surfaced into her mind. So, she stared up at the ceiling instead, hoping that will make her tired if she does it long enough.

  It was at that moment that she realized something.

  ‘Huh, I can see in the dark’

  The ceiling, or rather the mosaic of energetic strands that was the ceiling were fully visible to her, the same way as when she woke up. It was like looking at the inside of a tree if it had veins of light running through it.

  This made her curious.

  The night was utterly still inside the room but full of strange sounds outside. Through her enhanced senses, she could hear carriages creaking over cobbled stone, the clop of horses' hooves passing by and sometimes the thumps of something heavy.

  She couldn’t tell what it was but the shouts that often came with it made her not want to figure it out. There were a lot of unexplained noises she couldn’t wrap her mind around.

  And tonight especially, Yuzuriha’s thoughts were like tangled weeds.

  ‘There’s a Sacrament inside me now. Azure Ooze, that’s what she called it. It seemed to have lessened my blindness according to Sawatari. Marcille says it could put me in danger. And Grace sees this as revolutionary. More importantly, something slimy is inside me now’

  Yuzuriha sighed and slowly sat up.

  ‘I can’t just lie here like a lump of bread dough. If I keep thinking like this, I’ll stress myself bald!’

  She glanced at Willow one more time, before slipping out of bed, bare feet brushing gently against the cold floorboards, making sure to make as little sound as possible.

  “...I need to move. Just a little and figure this out”

  Down the hall, past Leo’s closed door and then into the bathroom. Unlike the last time where she had a difficult time navigating on her own, this time around it was no problem at all.

  The bathroom wasn’t anything fancy. It was simple with stone tiling, a chipped but functional bathtub, an old flush tank toilet and a modest wooden sink cabinet with a cracked mirror fixed above it.

  Looking around a bit more she saw toothbrushes inside a cup and a couple of wash towels. To add to that, the iron pipework running under the sink was visible to her now, even through walls.

  It was weird, being able to see the anatomy of a bathroom and all.

  ‘I’m basically a walking magical x-ray machine. I wonder if I could make a career out of that in this world?’

  She immediately scrapped the idea since that wasn’t something she saw herself doing for the rest of her life.

  ‘That said, I wonder which era this world is in?’

  From what she could tell from the accents of the people she’s interacted with, the food, social, political, economic class-based society and the lack of developed modern technology. She could compare this to the late 1800s to the early 1900s of her old world.

  ‘Or in other words, an alternate Victorian era…’

  No way. What were the odds of such similarities?

  Scrapping the idea off, she turned her attention to the mirror before her. Other than the description Willow gave her, Yuzuriha was also curious on how she would see herself.

  “Willow said I’m about the age of 13 so my appearance should be that of a developing teenager. Short blonde messy hair and colorless pupils, like two moons”

  Honestly, she preferred that description over the one she was seeing right now.

  The mirror didn’t show her reflection in the traditional sense, mostly because she also wasn’t seeing in a traditional sense either.

  Instead, it showered her with a woven silhouette of pure astris. She had no defined facial features, no eye color, or skin tone. She looked more like a shape of light than a human.

  A bit discouraging but it wasn’t so bad. At least she made herself believe that.

  “I wonder what would happen if I focus more on trying to mold this shape into something a bit clearer, what’s going to happen?”

  And so, she squirted her eyes more and willed her perception to see what she wanted to see. Since she didn’t know how to go about that, this was the best way to approach it.

  Luckily it worked, at least sort of worked. When she looked again, her “eyes” were like luminous threads pulling inward like whirlpools of energy. The breath pulsing in and out of her nose was strangely visible.

  And around her chest, her heart was a central node of white-gold strands, tethering out like a spiderweb to the rest of her being.

  ‘It’s incredible but this isn’t exactly what I was going for. But, yay! Progress I guess’

  Yuzuriha couldn’t help but feel unsatisfied with what she had achieved right now. Frankly speaking, she didn’t even know what that was.

  However, the more she stared at her heart, the more she realized there was something off.

  Right in the center of her soul, she noticed something when she continued to focus intently. It was a sigil, a glowing symbol that took the shape of an eye with branches and a bite mark

  “What…is that?”