“Love is supposed to be something beautiful. But they turned it into a collar to bind us with. Doesn’t your heart burn against the injustice of their tyranny? I won’t wait for a hero to rise up and set us free. If you need a hero to follow, then I’ll be the one! Even if I burn alone for our freedom, make it the beginning, not the end.”

  -Kalen, husband to Karin (the night before his public execution)

  Kris, Age 19:

  It was her birthday, and once again, she was back visiting her friend in the hospital. Monitors and other vital sensors were connected to Mari, and her already pale skin had grown increasingly sickly despite the doctors’ best efforts to maintain her health. Nothing quite made up for proper food and exercise.

  Kris held firmly to Mari’s frail fingertips, tracing small circles in the palm of the girl’s hand. Any minor sensory output could trigger some sort of reaction, and she’d run out of words to offer weeks prior.

  Then, the monitor nearby let out a soft chirp.

  Kris’ head snapped to it so fast it probably strained a muscle, given how stiff her neck was from how long she’d spent sitting there. She’d been fighting with her mother over how Mari had ended up, so there would be no birthday party for her. She refused to go home to one.

  The monitor went silent, and Kris felt her chest tense up as she first looked to the heart rate monitor for some sign. The audio was disabled for normal heart rate, though. Nothing was out of place there.

  She tried to make sense of the other machines and displays, but when a medical aide entered the room, she looked to the professional for some clarity.

  Only surprise was written on the Ravien man’s face as he moved to the screens and started tapping away.

  “What is it? The noise I heard?”

  “We had a notice at the desk. The brain activity spiked from your friend.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Mari:

  “How is our progress?” Mari asked Medjay as they sat, facing one another cross-legged in the training room on the second floor of the circular mansion she had assembled. They had grown more comfortable in time, but her new [Intuition] told her that something was hidden underneath Marielle’s expression whenever they spoke.

  “Hmmm.” Medjay hummed slightly with her eyes closed, holding to the visage of Marielle, wearing a Japanese outfit often worn by martial arts practitioners. “The issue won’t really be your mind anymore. Your body has become a bit frail. More frail than it already was. I’m concerned about how long you’ll need to rehabilitate yourself.”

  “Are we really on that much of a time limit? Between the two of us, we can give the information Karin needs for the threat assessment and work on getting into shape to track down Marielle.”

  “Actually, I’m staying here. I’m not letting us have a tug-of-war over controlling your body by surfacing as both of us. Unless it’s something only I can take care of, I won’t interfere. And I refuse to simply steal your life from you.” Medjay shook her head, her eyes still closed. “I could teach you a few body cultivation techniques, but relying on them entirely would restrict your actual growth, which would limit your potential.”

  “Those are certainly words. Not words I understand, but they’re words.” Mari grumbled in a rare new spark of half-mirth.

  “You’ve been cultivating a steadily expanding mindscape already. Your soul is a much more complex thing, and you’re better off just consuming Marielle’s after laying her to rest. Body cultivation is an easier thing, but it has benefits and drawbacks.”

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  “Hold on, you really want me to consume the soul of Marielle? Doesn’t it seem a little poorly thought out to consume the soul of a blood-crazed monster?” Medjay visibly flinched at her question, and Mari had to admit that the topic was more than slightly insensitive. After all, it was Medjay’s old body.

  “Yes, but no. Marielle is infected with a bio-weapon that affects the body by halting aging, corrupting the mind in the process. I’m not really an expert, but that’s not something that gets done without mana being involved. I’ve been going over what conclusions I can draw from your conversation with Alynne, but I’m no magician. I believe magic can be classified as anything that isn’t restricted to just expanding the limits of the mortal body and perfecting the mind or soul, like tangibly changing the world around you through similar means.” Medjay took a deep breath before delivering the full lecture. Mari just strapped in for the intellectual curiosity to be ranted out at her.

  “All forms of cultivation through ‘non-magical’ means involve yourself. Confined to your own body, mind, and soul. As soon as that effort expands beyond yourself, it requires a catalyst to do so. Alynne mentioned what mana was, yes? It sounds like it’s an unnatural catalyst formed from the fallout of a weapon being used. For now, I think of mana as a sort of nuclear radiation. Some places have it stronger than others. Based on what I know and what you’ve learned over your school life on this world, I believe mana is slightly richer on Sylvaria than Earth.

  “This bio-weapon uses mana to force the changes on a person through a self-replicating blood borne pathogen. I might’ve been resistant to it because of a more powerful body. Hell, a properly immortal body might even manage to be entirely immune. I—Marielle—wasn’t a true immortal in body, though. Just made stronger through some cultivation. I never truly wanted to leave the bonds of humanity behind. Funny how it turned out, in the end.”

  Mari listened as Medjay turned more quiet as she wound down. She’d known, in some capacity, that she had been talking with Marielle, not the Medjay, in truth. Her new mentor had been holding it all together as best she could. It wasn’t Marielle’s life she’d been talking about for the weeks they’d been working together. She was Marielle.

  “So, want to explain why you’ve been trying to take on the role of the Medjay?” Mari cast an accusatory glare at the older woman.

  After a long pause, Marielle shrugged, then sighed. “She’s the teacher. She was the one with all the wit and conclusions. She was the one with the millennia old mission to protect humanity on Earth. I hoped I could try to fill her shoes for a while. I’m not anyone special. So yeah, you get whatever memories were stuffed in my brain and got mapped into yours. A slice of half-truths sewn together with some basic inferences. If you want a deep dive into mana, you’ll need to find answers along the way.

  “Anyway, back on topic, I’m not completely certain what changed, but if Marielle’s body weakened at some point, it probably allowed the bio-weapon to affect her. And with what she had as a baseline, she’s certainly one of the stronger monsters out of the bunch.”

  “How does this relate to me consuming her soul?” Mari tried to pull the woman back on track. She could only process so many of the intricate details at once.

  “Soul cultivation is the hardest part. Your body and mind are easy to understand and improve, because they’re tangible parts of you. Your soul? That’s a whole different realm of comprehension. Best way for you to jump-start that aspect is to just take it from someone with the experience. I’d rather it go to you than fade away.”

  “So I could just cultivate my own soul, then?”

  “You’ll be much too busy for that. First, it takes decades to centuries of meditation.” Marielle finally opened her eyes, staring deep into Mari’s. “You—or anyone else—would need an immortal body just to prevent yourself from being infected, or to cure what’s already there. And body cultivation only improves what you already have. Off the bat, you were frail, weak, and had little stamina. And then you went into a coma for about two months with somewhat limited medical professional care. You need to exercise, recuperate, improve your baseline, and then work on perfecting a halfway decent result.”

  Mari shuddered at the thought of what state she must’ve been in.

  “Good thing you’re on a planet without a culture around alcohol. I can’t imagine how much harder it would all be if the overall health of this world was as bad as Earth was. There wasn’t even clean air to breathe there. My lungs were pretty screwed.”

  “Hold up.” Mari’s mind briefly froze. “How long did you say that coma had been going on?”

  “Just short of seven weeks. Amazing how your world and mine have similar orbits and day lengths. Almost seems like it was artificially made that way.”

  “Shit.” Mari cursed, pounding a fist into the floor.

  “Ah. Your girlfriend’s birthday?”

  “My what now?” Mari growled as she stood up. “If we’re done for now, then I need to wake up.”

  “I’ll miss having the company.” The visage shifted to the blonde’s. Mari almost wished she could change appearance that quickly. “But sure, you can go back now. Just remember to work out. I’ll do what I can in the background.”

  With a casual wave, as if shooing off a bug, Mari found herself pushed back into the formerly fractured place where that voice—Marielle’s voice—had guided her when the procedure had first begun.

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