Ilya lowered herself to the ground. The way she moved down was slow and graceful, like a leaf floating in the wind. She twirled and tumbled and touched down with grace. As one of her feet touched the earth, the tornado above calmed perceptibly, and the sound of the wind that had been a roar turned into a hum.

  Ilya arched her back like a cat, moving side to side until her spine cracked. She sighed in pleasure.

  “Oh, I needed that.” She turned to look at me. “Thank you, brother. Whatever you did with that essence of yours helped me take in more mana than I could normally do”.

  “Hmm?” I responded without taking my eyes off the damned Baroness.

  Ilya stepped out of the circle and pointed at me. “Your turn”.

  I blinked and glanced at her. “What do you mean, my turn?”.

  She pointed at the circle with the three punishers. “Get in there. Start breathing in the mana and guiding it to your seeds”.

  I looked at my sister and then at the damned lady lying on the ground a few steps from me. “What about this one?”.

  “Voooss.” Ilya sang my name with a hint of irritation. “This is a chance you will not get again anytime soon. The mana density in this basin is never going to be the same again. You need to cultivate your mana right now”.

  I frowned.

  Ilya exhaled. “I am not going to let Enis go anywhere out of my sight”. She smiled, baring her teeth at the damned woman. “In fact, I am going to interrogate this Baroness. She is going to tell me everything about her people’s aims and goals. Only if I am satisfied will she carry the punishers out of here”.

  Enis looked from me to Ilya and back.

  “And if you are not?” I asked.

  “Then I am going to let you kill her.” Ilya smiled.

  “I don’t kill the damned. That just frees them to swim in the dark waters and hunt new souls”. I shook my head. “That allows them to consume those souls and take their bodies. No. I destroy them and take their essence. That’s how you keep the waters safe”.

  Enis gulped. “I will tell you everything. I have already said so”.

  Ilya looked at me. “Okay, that is... I don’t know what that is, but... good?”.

  “It is good.” I looked at Enis. “Already a predator, tell me this. How are you going to fight the wraith?”.

  “We are not. The thorgs will do that. They will also face the elemental revenant,” Enis answered quickly.

  “Elemental revenant?” Ilya asked.

  “That is what Shazed Voss is.” Enis turned to me. “But you already knew that, didn’t you, reaper?”.

  “I guessed that.” I pursed my lips. “But I needed to be sure”.

  “What is an elemental revenant?” Ilya asked.

  “A soul that has taken an element’s property to continue living”. I looked at Ilya. “That also means he is coming from the dead”.

  Enis sneered. “Of course not. That man wanted to be a god and now he is on his way to becoming one. But you won’t go after him. You will just reap us”.

  I frowned. “I need to get stronger if I have to face him”.

  Ilya clapped her hands. “Great! So get in the blighted circle”. She pushed me toward the circle. “It will help you become the dark cloud of death more easily”.

  I opened my mouth to explain that I wasn’t really a black cloud of death. I was....

  “Just get in there, Voss.” Ilya dragged me into the circle and threw a small bag of nuts and meat at me. “And eat something. We will need to fix your shoulder soon. Potions need food to rebuild your body”.

  I sighed and did as ordered. Mana had helped me in the battle to finish off the last damned. If I had to face a revenant, I would need as much mana and essence as I could gather.

  The process on paper was simple. Clear your mind, breathe in the mana, and guide it to your seeds. How you did the last part escaped me, so I concentrated on the first two parts of the process. I sat down next to the punishers and their glowing amulets.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Breathing in, holding my breath, and then slowly breathing out. With every breath I took, the amulets on the punishers' chests that had grown orange dimmed slightly and turned back to yellow. The whirlwind above me fed mana down toward me, filling me up with every breath.

  The veins on my skin began to itch as they filled up faster than I expected. I put the sensations out of my mind. I was used to clearing my mind because I was the Silent One, the Hunter, and hunters had patience. They did not move and they did not stray from their prey; they waited in the dark, mindful of their surroundings in silence.

  In and out. The amulets that protected the punishers dimmed even further. The more mana I took from the surroundings, the safer the punishers got, so I began to breathe deeper. These were my people and I needed to keep them safe.

  My arteries and veins started to bulge under my skin. They felt like overdrawn bowstrings humming with a tension that threatened to snap my very skin. My muscles were saturated with something foreign that wanted to explode out of me. Pain racked every movement of my body until every breath became a task.

  I felt like a water skin ready to burst, yet I did not move and I did not stop. I just breathed until my heart began to beat like a drum in my ears. To take my mind off the pain, I closed my eyes and focused inwards.

  It did not work. I needed to center myself and let go of my emotions, my feelings, and my sensations to delve into my soul, but the painful beating of my heart did not let me clear my mind.

  My heart. Why was it beating so loudly? What did it want to do?.

  A thought slowly came to me. Why was Ilya so happy after cultivating mana?. How did mages use mana? It was through emotions. What had I been taught? Fire mages were short-tempered. Earth mages were stubborn. Light mages were temperamental. Wind mages were flighty. And ice mages.

  An image of Saha came to me. She was protective. She protected her family's Duchy even when everything was lost. She protected her family when there were only three members to protect. She even protected me when I was injured. Her protective instincts knew no bounds.

  Mana was tied to emotions. Right now the mana in my body was neutral and wanted to escape back into the basin because it wasn’t tied to any emotion. But tying the mana in my body would be tying myself to an emotion. That went against my reaper’s soul.

  Or did it?.

  Who was I? I was the Silent Hunter. And I had a duty. A duty my soul wouldn’t shirk. A duty to keep order. It was the conviction I lived with still. It was absolute. That wouldn’t change no matter how much this world tried to change me.

  Something ripped open inside me. I coughed and blood dripped down my chin. I cried out in pain, but with will alone, I didn’t slump down. I couldn’t.

  An unknown instinct guided me. I had to act faster. My body was breaking down on me. My heart thumped louder, its beats broken by something growing inside it. And yet it didn’t stop. It tried to push mana elsewhere. Into my other seed.

  If death was tied to my conviction, what would my ice be tied to?. I was the Silent Hunter. I....

  No. I was more than what I had been in the dark waters. I loved. I laughed. I felt. I couldn’t be an emotionless being drifting the waters anymore.

  One more time, Saha’s smiling face came to my mind. That smile. I needed to preserve that. I needed to preserve this world that allowed such a smile to exist. This world that allowed Ilya to fly. This empire that allowed Sage to flirt with women. This land that saved Grisslow orphans.

  I was Voss Truechild.

  My conviction to my unending duty would bring death to those who challenge order. And my ice would preserve those in need of protection.

  “Ah!”.

  My back arched. Something cracked in my spine and a cold chill crept up my back.

  “Breathe, Voss. Just breathe.” Ilya’s voice guided me. “Let mana do the rest”.

  I opened my eyes a slit and saw her looking at me with a fierce look.

  “What is... happening... to me?” I asked between pained grunts.

  “Look at your mana veins.” Ilya nodded down to my clenched hands.

  I looked. My dark mana veins had lightened. They were gray like they had been before I had started using death mana. And the blue veins? They were even lighter. So much so that I couldn’t even see them until I focused.

  “My veins, they are disappearing?” I asked in a pained whisper.

  “No, don’t look at your veins. Look at your nails. They are changing color”.

  I looked back down. She was right. My nails had started to take on a blue hue. They were still white but now had a blue sheen to them.

  “Your seeds are changing your body to suit your attunement. But your body is consuming mana faster than you can supply it. Keep breathing and focus on what ties your mana to you,” Ilya explained.

  “The emotions?” I coughed out a rattling cough with some blood.

  “Exactly.” Ilya nodded with a smile.

  I glared at her and, with a pained groan, muttered, “You could have told me”.

  Ilya shook her head. “No. Your emotions are yours. It would be wrong to influence them. Now just breathe and cultivate your mana until your seeds can’t take anymore”.

  I clenched my jaw. That was not what I meant, but fine. My eyes looked around for a moment. Something was wrong. Where were the punishers?. My eyes caught movement and fixed on three figures sitting in the distance. Next to them, the damned woman was lying on the ground, all tied up.

  Ilya looked at where my eyes had drifted. “Don’t worry. I will guide them out. And they will keep an eye on that creature. You just cultivate until I return”.

  I nodded.

  Ilya looked up and muttered, “I am going to increase the swirl of the wind to guide more mana to you”. The wind overhead began speeding up and mana started to reach me faster. My shoulders relaxed and the next breath I took was easier.

  “Before I leave, I must know—what emotions did you tie yourself to, to make you feel even scarier?”.

  I blinked at her. “What do you mean?”.

  “Our mana thread, Voss. I can sense you through it. Your attunement was supposed to balance you out. Instead...” Ilya stopped mid-word and looked at me.

  “What?”.

  “What did you tie your mana to?” Ilya glared down at me and growled. “It better not be something like revenge or vengeance”.

  “No.” I croaked and muttered, “Conviction and preservation”.

  Ilya gave me a baffled look. Her jaw flew open for a long moment. She closed it. “Blight, that makes my emotional tie to freedom feel inadequate”.

  “You can fly”.

  Ilya tuned the whirlwind overhead to speed up even further and shrugged. “Yes. It is still better than Sage’s torch of wisdom”.

  I looked at Ilya. “Wisdom? Sage?”.

  Ilya snorted. “Yes.” She flicked my forehead. “Now, enough talking. Just breathe. And welcome to the family, little brother”.