Caius finished eating his dinner. Whatever the flowers had done to his sight was, just barely, starting to wear off. The only difference so far was that, when he closed his eyes, his view dimmed slightly.

  He felt like he had processed everything he had learned. He definitely hadn't extracted all the information there was, but he was one man with one memory and no way to take notes. It would have to do.

  Hopefully Idunnir would be ready to talk soon, but he refused to push. He of all people knew that sharing was difficult. Still, he might as well wait in relative comfort. With some fumbling around he found a comfortable spot to lie in the grass.

  Eventually, she came over and lay down next to him. "Thanks for being patient. I've never told anyone about this."

  "No problem. Take all the time you need, if you still want to talk about it." He answered.

  She started at the beginning, laying out in broad strokes how she had grown up and joined King Felix' soldiers. Not the current king, the previous of the same name. She added that there was a common joke that the ruling family stuck with the name so they wouldn't need to change the coins or statues.

  "I was one of the better students in training. Every year they pick out the best dozen or so to train for the elites. Came with benefits, like better quarters and food. And..." She paused for a while, and Caius waited. "They start giving you the tea, though they call it 'The Fortifying Brew' which nobody else call it. Everyone just calls it tea, or blue tea if there's confusion."

  She sighed and took a longer break. "Just a pinch of herbs in some hot water, split between four trainees. Everyone knows what it does, it's just a bit too expensive to drink all the time. Keeps you sharp, helps learn things. They give it to sick people too."

  "How much it does varies too. Some people get a lot more benefit than others. I was one of them, once I started drinking it..." She stopped.

  "Ever since I can remember, I've just... felt what other people felt? I have... two sets of feelings? I can hear...?" Idunnir sounded frustrated, like she was groping for a concept that didn't exist. Suddenly, she rolled onto her side. Caius could feel her eyes boring into the side of his head as she asked "Wait, you understand what I mean?"

  Caius had been more than a little surprised, but he didn't have too much trouble adjusting his worldview to fit this revelation. He decided that answering her wouldn't count as interrupting. He hated being interrupted and did his best to avoid doing it himself. "I've read a lot of stories. Do you get words, pictures, or just feelings?"

  Possibly stunned, Idunnir kept staring at him for a moment before lying down again. "Feelings."

  "I don't think this language has a word for 'empath' so let's call it your talent. You can tell which ones come from where? For example your own are clearer?"

  She sounded relieved, or at least more relaxed, as she said "They all feel the same, but I just... know which ones are which?"

  Mulling it over, Caius finally figured something out. "Those wolves! You were confused because they didn't feel right?" He didn't realize until after he spoke what he had said. Bringing up that incident couldn't be pleasant for her. Here she was opening up and he might well be hurting her.

  After a moment, she reached over and patted his hand reassuringly. "It's fine. Yes, those... things..." she sounded absolutely revolted as she mentioned them "Even animals have feelings of a sort, but they didn't."

  Caius put some more pieces together. "You can tell when something is going to move? I can see how that would be useful in a fight. Especially when you need to save energy."

  Stolen novel; please report.

  "Yes." Was all she said.

  There was another long silence. Caius broke it first. "You were telling me about when they started giving you blue tea?"

  "Yes. I was always small for my age, and I wasn't very strong. But I could beat anyone in sparring because of my... talent..."

  Caius remembered the grace she possessed when practicing. She certainly wasn't dependent on her gift. He decided to say so. "I suspect you learned quickly and practiced hard too."

  "Once I drank the tea that first time... everything changed. I was hungry all the time, I started putting on muscle. Like I said, some people get a lot of benefit out of the tea. Not everyone who does gets sick. But..." her voice turned less animated, "Everyone who gets sick got a lot of benefit out of the tea."

  "What do you mean by sick?"

  "Once they've tried the tea, they crave it. Much more than usual. But it also helps them. Especially the trainees, the ones that do better like me get more tea because of their performance. Most of them eventually lose the taste for it, like it stops helping. But people like me... it keeps helping but we keep needing more."

  This sounded like a known issue. Caius wondered if it was irresponsible of those in charge to let it happen. But from the way Idunnir told the story, it sounded like they couldn't tell the difference between someone who benefitted greatly and someone who became dependent. At least not until it was too late.

  "Eventually, your lips turn blue. That's the sign that... you're..." her voice cracked a bit and she stopped.

  Caius reached over, much like she had earlier, and took hold of her hand. When she didn't speak further, he guessed. "That you have to keep taking more and more, or be sick and miserable for the rest of your life? I can't say you made the wrong decision."

  Idunnir moved her fingers to interlace with his. "Yes. It goes further. Once it reaches your fingers, you might not survive. Once it reaches your eyes, you're a dead man walking."

  Caius gathered his thoughts. Her hand was calloused and almost as large as his own. Holding it felt nice. A physical connection to go with the emotional intimacy of the moment. Thinking over everything he had seen happening inside her, he thought he could finally put together most of what happened.

  He did have to make the assumption that the blue discoloration was caused by what he was mentally labeling the 'black impurities.' Possibly they wouldn't appear if you combined them in just the right way, through a process more complex than tossing them all together in a pot.

  Assuming the red represented something vital to life, which he guessed based on the fact that Idunnir got sleepy when it was interrupted, her body seemed to make it out of whatever the other colors represented. Possibly magic of some kind, since that was what he assumed the golden glow was.

  When Idunnir was in the tent earlier, he was sure he had seen her body absorbing some of the gold from the bottom of the tent. So all the golden light inside her came from her... soaking up, for lack of more accurate terminology, his energy. That was fine by him, he didn't seem to have a shortage.

  It explained why that cloak he had magically made insulating and waterproof had stopped being magical after he wrapped it around her overnight, presumably she had soaked up all the magic in it or something. Which would also explain why she seemed to be healthier and more alert, she was getting more energy.

  Question was, could she survive off his energy? It didn't seem to come packaged with impurities. Maybe her body would eventually get rid of the accumulation if she didn't have to keep adding more to survive? From the way her body processed the flower, it didn't seem that she needed the tea specifically. Just a source of energy.

  Caius realized that he had been silent for a long time as he thought. "I think I might be able to help."

  It took until long after the sun had set for him to walk Idunnir through everything he had learned, how he had learned it and what he had concluded. For someone with no formal education, she managed to follow the somewhat abstract reasoning well.

  "Caius, why are you spending this much effort making sure I understand? I can guess why, but I want to hear you say it." Idunnir asked when he was finished. He had his answer ready: "Because I want you to understand and make an informed decision, not go along with what I say just because you trust me."

  She squeezed his hand. Their hands had actually given Caius an idea. Halfway through his explanation he had examined them, and noticed that some of his golden light was being drawn into her through the point of contact.

  "Thank you, Caius. I do understand why you think we should try this, and I'm willing to try it."

  The plan was for her to stop drinking the tea for a bit, to test whether she could survive off Caius' energy. They would keep some tea on hand at all times just in case the plan didn't work. It was risky, but Caius fully believed it would work and Idunnir could apparently feel his emotions and thus believed him.

  He really hoped he could live up to this responsibility. Idunnir had helped him so much in just a few days, and he wanted to give something back.

  Is the story description bad?