While the garden had represented a level of beauty and opulence Valar had never truly seen before, it could have in no way prepared him for what waited for the trio when they stepped inside the mansion of house Livren.

  Everything, and he meant everything, was covered in either marble, expensive fabrics, silver or gold. There wasn’t a single speck of normalcy that he could find in the foyer they had just stepped in.

  “How rich are you?” Valar mumbled, mostly meant as a rhetorical question. That’s why he was surprised to get an actual answer.

  “Me?” Elaine asked. “My wealth is in the hundreds of golds, but that’s mostly due to an early retirement and extreme overspending. The house deals in onyx coins instead, and I can only estimate on the actual numbers. My best guess would be that they have around 8 or 9 onyx in their coffers at any given time.”

  “That tracks with what I’ve been taught,” Carla commented offhandedly. “At least that’s what my father used to say.”

  “Fineas?” Elaine raised one eyebrow. “I’m surprised the man even stooped so ‘low’ to speak about smaller houses like ours.”

  An insulted frown flashed on Carla’s face, but she corrected her expression to a more neutral one quickly. However, Elaine had already noticed.

  “Sorry, I spoke out of hand,” the older woman scratched the back of her head. “His team was a competing one back in the day… I’m way too tired for smalltalk.”

  “No, you’re entirely right,” Carla’s tone was steely. “Fineas Thorn is not a good man.”

  Both life mages’ eyebrows rose through the roof, but Elaine was the one to speak. “I’m not a mental health professional, but I’m still a healer. Talk to someone, Carla.”

  The only thing she got in return was a hesitant nod, but that was seemingly enough. Elaine shook his head. “What team did you land yourself in, Valar?”

  “All of the team members are really nice and-.”

  “It was a rhetorical question…” Elaine rubbed the bridge of her nose as she stopped in her tracks in front of a wooden door decorated with gold and silver. “Anyway... Kenneth is resting beyond this door. Please don’t make any loud noises. We can talk, but anything beyond that could disrupt his rest.”

  She waited until both Valar and Carla nodded in affirmation, then opened the door.

  Kenneth Livren’s bedroom was an impressive display of wealth just as the rest of the estate, but the carpeted floors and intricate artworks on the marble walls lost their luster in the face of the man resting on his bed. The room was dimly lit, an enchanted light shining near the ceiling, its light made warmer by the tinted glass surrounding it.

  The man, if he could even be called one, resembled one of the undead Valar had been told in scary children’s tales. His wrinkled skin was pale, bordering on gray, and his lips were cracked. That would have been a sight to behold already, but his eyes…

  Even though he was clearly asleep, or maybe in a state resembling sleep. His eyes were wide open. They were gray, just as the silver rank aura surrounding him.

  “Why are his eyes-” Valar started.

  “Gray?” Elaine looked at the old man slumbering within the silken bedding, a single tear running down her cheek. She didn’t seem to notice. “Just some minutes ago, I told you that this man had given up. This is what that looks like. Judging by your own turbulent aura, you inspected him just a moment ago too. That gray color signifies the weakening link between his soul and body, and the separation of those two always means death,” she let out a small, hopeless, chuckle. “His soul will be passing to wherever they go after death in mere days, and I can’t do anything to stop it.”

  “Healing spells won’t work, right?” Carla asked. “There’s nothing wrong with the body?”

  “Despite what it looks like, Kenneth’s body is in pristine condition,” Elaine finally wiped the tear flowing down her face, but it was quickly replaced by another. After that, they didn’t stop. “I cured the illness affecting his body the minute I came here over two weeks ago, but he hasn’t gotten better!”

  Elaine’s forlorn expression twisted to one of fury as countless intricate runes grew on her skin. Valar looked on in awe as the runes created complex pathways and designs on her skin, their brilliant green shine piercing the simple mage’s robe the woman was wearing. It was almost like they coalesced into a single symbol, drawn across the majority of Elaine’s body.

  She shook her head, the flowing tears falling around her as she marched to the dying man’s side. “The Touch of Freia!”

  The spectating boy’s eyes grew even wider as a colossal tide of life mana crashed out from Elaine. The woman herself slumped down to her knees next to the bed and wept, the tears soaking into the expensive silk.

  Valar turned his gaze towards Kenneth. He was unchanged, staring up at the ceiling with grey unseeing eyes. The grand invocation of life magic was dissipating in the air, the dying man left untouched.

  He’s dead. Valar was sure of it, but he wanted to confirm. “Can I…?”

  The only answer he got was Elaine’s sullen nod, her face hidden by her messy brown hair.

  Valar walked closer, his steps making soft thuds on the rich carpet. His hand extended towards Kenneth’s chest, and after a moment that seemed to last for an entire lifetime contacted the man’s chest. Without even realizing what he was doing, the boy looked, just as he did when he gazed at his own soul.

  He looked, and he saw nothing.

  It wasn’t that he couldn’t see the souls of others. Sure, if the man had been conscious or even unconsciously resisted, delving so deep within his core would have been absolutely impossible. The issue was just the opposite. Valar looked where the soul should have been, but there was simply nothing to see. He could simply see a yawning void, an absence of something that was absolutely integral to every being’s life. Kenneth Livren had already been dead, his body and magic hadn’t just caught up yet.

  ***

  “He’s dead,” Valar’s voice rang out in the nearly silent room, and Elaine’s sobs stopped.

  “That’s not true…” her tone was desperate, looking for the falsehood in the iron rank boy’s monotone words. “What would you know? You’re at iron rank and-.”

  “There’s no soul left,” he spoke softly, but it still hit the same as he had been yelling. No, that can’t be true… I’ve been healing him for weeks!

  “I don’t know when,” Valar continued. “But his soul has left his body, that’s for sure.”

  “How do you know?” Carla asked.

  Right! How would Valar know? On some level, Elaine already knew the truth, but she just couldn’t accept it. The man was breathing, although it was incredibly slow. His heart was beating, blood was flowing and all signs of life were there, but…

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  “Sorry, Carla,” Valar turned his head towards his teammate and gave her a sad smile.”But I can’t answer that question. I can show you though… At least I think I can. Brynn taught us in the academy that higher ranked people could follow my aura, or something like that. I only came this close because my iron rank aura couldn’t reach from afar, but it's extended to his core right now. Just follow it, and look.”

  What is he speaking of? Is he looking at the man’s… soul? It was true that people of higher ranks could read other’s auras to a very high effect, even perceiving what they saw if they looked through their auras, but…

  How would he really know where the soul was? It isn’t something tangible, and it took the my whole time at iron rank for me to find even my own…

  Elaine looked at Valar, her eyes widening just slightly. The wound… He can sense his soul perfectly at iron rank, and others’ too?

  She extended her aura.

  No, this can’t be real…. She didn’t want to believe her own perception. The sight was just too much, too real, too soon…

  There, where Valar had extended his aura, she saw it. That bottomless pit, that endless void. A place that shouldn’t have been empty, made irrevocably worse by the emptiness surrounding it. Yes, a soul should have laid there, the gate pouring out mana and supplying the body with meaning. But there was nothing, and that meant that she… She had failed.

  Even a miracle wasn’t enough, huh?

  …

  That night, Elaine sat in the wooden pavilion once more. Her family members, Julie and people she didn’t even know were all mourning for Kenneth’s loss, but she had decided to spend the night alone. Staring into those sullen, gray, eyes was simply too much for her.

  It wasn’t even the fact that she hadn’t been able to heal him… Nobody could heal a soul nor could they bring one back from beyond the veil, and she was no different. She could blame herself no more than she could Valar, who had just pointed out the one thing she had been denying herself, but this death still felt different.

  Never before had she felt so helpless when healing a patient. Even worse, that patient had been one of her own blood. She could have done nothing, even the mightiest healing spell unable to affect his frail body. Life had left him, and now there was only death.

  Lastly, the void that boy had shown her had shocked her to her very core. Such wrongness… She never wanted to experience that again. But what can I do?

  That was the question indeed… What could she do? For Kenneth, the answer was obvious—nothing—but she wasn’t talking about Kenneth, was she?

  When I return to the academy with Julie, perhaps it’s time to talk with the headmaster. I don’t need much, but he can give me that push… Maybe it’s time to accept some truths and actually progress.

  Elaine chuckled to herself and put the cup of tea down. “I always found gold boring anyway.” She stood up, ready to go pack her bags and inform Julie of their departure. “Onyx is much more my style.”

  ***

  “Do you think she’ll be alright?” Carla asked. “She seemed pretty shaken when we left.”

  Honestly, Valar wasn’t sure. He had never seen Elaine so downtrodden, so it was hard to say. Still, he wanted to believe that the woman was strong enough to climb from her slump.

  “She’s a gold ranker,” he said. “I don’t know much about her past, but she must have experienced setbacks before, right?”

  “I guess so,” Carla nodded. “It’s just surreal to see a gold ranker so helpless. I’m not used to that.”

  “There was nothing she could have done,” Valar said flatly.

  “I know.. I know, but…”

  “It still must feel quite bad,” Valar finished Carla’s words for her. They smiled at each other, their eyes not quite as happy as their lips suggested. “Elaine was a big support for me at the academy. I don’t know how I should help her back when she clearly didn’t want any…”

  “She wanted to be alone,” Carla patted him on the shoulder. “Just as everyone does from time to time. Don’t take it as an insult.”

  Valar sighed. “It still feels shitty.”

  Carla let out a surprised laugh. “Don’t let Rodrick hear that. He’ll yell at me if he thinks I’ve taught you to swear…”

  “That came from the heart,” Valar sighed and looked up at the ceiling of the inn. “I hope she’ll get better.”

  “She will,” Carla gave Valar a hug. “She will… Now, I don’t think it’s strictly appropriate, but do you want a beer?”

  “You know what… I think I do.”

  …

  Ouch… Valar’s head hurt. The sunlight streaming through the window… Wait, sunlight?

  The unfortunate boy opened his eyes wide despite the pulsing pain in the back of his head. The full brunt of the morning sun seeping into his eyes through the inn’s windows didn’t help either.

  “What happened… Ugh…” Valar felt a lurch in his stomach and rushed outside. That had been a good move, as his guts decided to empty themselves right on the pavement in front of the door. It didn’t stop there either, as he threw up over and over again, his hand on the inn’s wall the only protection between him and his bile on the ground.

  That continued for quite a while, Valar losing track of exactly how many times he threw up. He was certain it was over twenty, but he lost count after that.

  It was not fun.

  Nor was the pulsing headache threatening to split his head in two. Valar didn’t remember much from last night, other than the first beer. There was a second, and a third, and a… Right, there was a lot of beer.

  “First time getting drunk, kid?” a chipper voice coming from the inn’s entrance broke Valar out of his thoughts. He thought he recognized her from somewhere, but…

  “I’ll save you from your misery. I’m Emma, the barmaid you met a couple months ago when you had just awakened!”

  “Oh, right, Emma! Weren’t you at a different inn?” Valar raised his hand in greeting, almost falling into his own vomit because he used the hand that was against the wall. Luckily, he managed to catch himself at the last moment.

  “I heard that you had quite a lot to drink last night,” Emma giggled. “Ten tankards of beer is a mighty feat for one as young as you.”

  “Ten tankards?” Valar asked in shock. “I remember only four!”

  He pushed himself off the wall, stabilized himself, and went to shake the young woman’s hand. She dashed backwards, avoiding him like the plague.

  “I’m not shaking your hand before you’ve washed yourself thoroughly, you oaf,” Emma declared. “Let’s get you into the baths, shall we?”

  Despite her declaration, the kind barmaid supported him by holding his shoulder as he stumbled back up the stairs, through the dining hall and into the bathing area. There, she assisted him in undressing and prepared a bath for the boy. She left after that, considerate enough to not ogle, even though his scars were a sight to behold.

  Valar got swept up in the storm of action, his drunken mind unable to keep up with Emma’s work. When she left, his head was still spinning and his ability to focus was only just beginning to return.

  Blessedly, the warm water he was submerged in helped the boy relax. It felt like a soothing embrace, healing his addled mind and tired body.

  Healing? I could be healing this, right?

  It was true. A life mage’s healing spells did not discriminate. Alcohol was a poison, and a spell like Lesser Restoration would heal its effects just as it did with other damage to the body. There was only one problem though…

  It isn’t working… I can’t focus!

  Valar felt himself getting more frustrated by the second as his attempts to cast the simple healing spell failed again and again. He had enough presence of mind to cancel it properly each time, but the spell never seemed to go through.

  Wait… Why am I using the version of the spell I can use on others? The self healing version is much easier!

  After the drunken boy realized what to do, he managed to cast the spell on his third try. The soothing mana flowing into his body and infusing him with new lifeforce. His headache melted away, his thoughts cleared and he could move his body once more. The difference was such a drastic one that it left Valar gasping for breath.

  He sat there, his tired body submerged in water, and looked at the ceiling. It was not spinning anymore…

  That meager fact was enough to make the boy weep.

  He cried, lamenting his own loss of control. It had been a surprisingly traumatic experience. He didn’t remember most of last night, his hands and feet hadn’t obeyed him and even his insides had rebelled against him. It was by no means the most traumatic experience of his short life, but it had been more unexpected than most.

  The drink, used by adults to have fun and spice up their life, had ruined him for a single night. He despised it.

  The door to the bathing area opened after only a couple of minutes and Emma walked in, a worried frown on her face. Valar turned his head to the young woman and gave her a shy smile.

  “Thanks for helping me,” he mumbled. “I’m better now, I think.”

  “Better?” Emma crossed her arms and raised her eyebrow. “You got better this fast? You were a total wreck just half an hour ago. People as drunk as you don’t ‘get better’ quickly.”

  “I’m a healer,” Valar mumbled shyly. “It took quite a long while, but I managed to eventually cast a spell. I’m by no means in top shape, but I think I’m at least not drunk anymore.”

  “Yeah, you look like a real ray of sunshine,” Emma jabbed. “I cleaned your vomit from the street, but please don’t do it again. I have to do it from time to time, but please don’t do it again. It’s one of the reasons I swapped to a better inn in the first place…”

  Valar nodded firmly, his disheveled black hair spraying water all over himself. He looked at Emma with a firm gaze, and made a declaration that many a drinker had made before.

  “I’m never drinking again!”