“Who′s “them” ?”, I ask. “What did they do?”

  “That's not important.”, Rebecca said, yet by the way her ears and tail drooped, it was clear that she was still upset.

  I stepped in and, in a moment of actions happening before my brain could process them, cupped her cheeks. “Clearly it's important to you.”, I said. “If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. But don't forget that we′re together in this. If there′s a problem with someone, and I could help you… I'd like to be able to help you, you know?”

  The cruel little voice in my head laughed. “Big words for someone who won't let himself be helped.”

  With closed eyes and a sigh, Rebecca nodded. “Ok.”, she whispered. She placed her hands on my wrists, her voice softening more and more as she seemed to shrink before me as the past returned to her mind. “Part of the reason I left home was due to me not being able to increase my [Water Core Technique]. My uncle was very harsh about it. Increased training difficulty. Told us to run off if we couldn't handle it. Told us that we′d be useless if we couldn't do it. Many, many more things. Of all the scars on my body, half maybe mo- no, to be honest, I don't want to count how many of them came from that training. My cousins did improve. My sibling and I couldn't.”

  Looking at the ground, she seemed utterly lost for a few moments, and I could see tears form in the corners of her eyes. “We were given the chance to come here to learn and grow. My brothers gave up, returned home, and I haven't seen them in years. I haven't seen any member of my family in years.” Her voice broke. “I miss my family.” The tear′s spilled over. “And now I'm finding out that no matter how hard we′d try, there was no chance of us ever improving the technique further on our own.”

  I put my arms around her. My fingers are barely touching each other as I tried to embrace her. Rebecca returned in kind, wrapping her powerful arms around me, her face pressed into my shoulders as the fabric absorbed her hot tears.

  “It's not fair.”, she whispered in a shaky voice. “It's not fair.” Her shoulders shivered under each breath as she tried to regain her composure.

  I stroked across her back, feeling unequipped to help her or even calm her down from this state.

  The cruel little voice in my head found my inability to help hilarious. “Wow, you′re incapable? Well, that's never happened before, now has it? Oh, wait-.”

  Letting my fingers slowly move up her back before encircling her neck, I pulled Rebecca closer, stroking the back of her head. In return, Rebecca pressed her face further into me, pulling me even closer, and for a short while, I found myself incapable of doing anything more but stroking her back in a manner I hoped was calming, while the twins watched us.

  “It's not your fault.”, I whispered. “From how it sounds, your uncle held you and your brothers back for some purpose.” Rebecca tensed up for a few seconds before relaxing into my arms. “Yeah….”, she said weakly. She stayed in my arms for a few more moments, and I couldn't help but notice my heart beating faster.

  Rebecca squeezed me a little tighter for a few moments. “Thank you.”, she whispered. I pulled a handkerchief out of a pocket in my tunic and handed it to her. Rebecca wiped her tears and blew her nose before pocketing it. “Thank you, Henry.”, she said. For a few moments, we looked into each other′s eyes before she leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. “Thank you.”, she whispered again. Then she got up.

  “I mean it.”, I said. “If you need to talk dont hesitate to go for it.”

  She leaned over me and said in a tone much gentler than usual, “Same goes if you need to talk about anything. I know you have that skill that's supposed to not make you feel bad, but- yeah. I'm not good at this kind of thing, but I'd try. If you needed me to, I'd try.” I could feel my heart beating even faster, and soon neither of us could look at each other anymore.

  Increase your disposition towards yourself in order to improve the skill [Behind every great person, there's their spouse] further.

  Lucky for our ability to exist near each other, Simon called for dinner at that time. When Rebecca and her Harpy twin left, my half of the twins nudged my shoulder and, when I faced them, gave me a thumbs up.

  “You liked that, huh?”, I found myself asking. I wasn't sure what I expected, but the twin nodded. “You′re Nico, right?”, I asked. A theory had formed in my head a few days ago, that I had been followed by the male twin and Rebecca by the female one. Something about the twins' individual characteristics had finally made me able to tell them somewhat apart, but I still wasn't quite sure who was who. Nico nodded and gave me another thumbs up. So this was Nico.

  “So, do I keep improving upon my basic technique as long as I keep the breathing correctly?” I asked.

  Nico half shrugged before giving a “So-so” gesture as an answer.

  “So the breathing is part of it, but I need more than just that.”

  Another thumbs up.

  Nico looked at me expectantly, as if waiting for more questions. “Wait here.”, I said. “I'll be back in a moment with our food, and then we can talk in peace.”

  Soon, each of us was holding a bowl of filling but monotonous stew. Between spoonfuls, I asked: ”Are you and your sister the norm for Corvids or outliers?”

  Nico stirred in his stew for a bit. In the short time it had taken Simon to ladle two bowls of stew, Robin had finished half her portion. I wasn't fond of the stew myself, but it was filling. Eventually, Nico pointed at himself and nodded, then at his sister over at the fire with the others, and shook his head.

  “You′re normal, but your sister is….. weaker?”

  With his head shaking, arms waving me off, Nico′s denial of the idea could not be any clearer.

  “Stronger than average?”

  More head shaking and another upwards gesture.

  “Way stronger than average?”

  Nico continued with his gestures.

  “Your sister is among the strongest?”

  More denial.

  “Your sister is the strongest?”

  Nico nodded.

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  If she really was, then I wondered how she and her brother could have been taken as slaves in the first place. Though that still depended on whether Nico told me the truth. But that raised another question.

  “So is Robin with Rebecca because Robin is the stronger one between you?”

  Nico gave a gesture of approval.

  “So Rebecca is important to you two?”

  Nico took a spoonful of stew before gesturing “higher” with his spoon and taking another bite.

  “Rebecca is important to more people than you two.”

  Nico gave a half nod before falling into thought. He extended one feathered arm and pointed towards the other one.

  “Rebecca is important to harpies in general?”

  More nodding by Nico

  I looked over at the group, Rebecca was telling the others some sort of story, pointing out scars on her arm. Robin sat close to her, looking around, scanning the area.

  “And you′re here with me because?” We looked at each other for a few moments. “Right, yes or no questions.”

  “Am I, for whatever reason, considered important by either of you?”

  I didn't assume that Rebecca had told him about me being a Rolander, but maybe she did make a comment that had allowed the two of them to figure it out via context clues or from how I acted.

  But Nico shook his head. I hadn't expected him to say yes, but somehow, having another reminder of how little I meant to the world at large, while confirming what I knew, hurt a bit.

  “Are you protecting me because I'm Rebecca′s husband?”

  Nico gave me a thumbs up. He ate some more of his stew.

  “Has she asked you to look out for me?”

  Nico nodded his head, and I was left wondering why she′d do that.

  “Does she trust you corvids that much, or does she think I couldn't do it on my own?” That wasn't a yes or no question, and frankly, a big part of me didn't want to know the answer. I knew well enough that I couldn't protect myself at all, but hearing it from someone else would′ve been painful.”

  “Do you think I should bring this up with her?”, I asked Nico. I didn't know if I wanted to bring it up; I wasn't sure of the answers I'd get or if I could handle them. As for the question on her own importance…. she had never brought up my status as a Rolander or really questioned me about it. The least I could do was give her the same courtesy. Maybe she′d bring it up at some point. Maybe it would become important. Either way, I thanked Nico and began eating my own stew.

  From then on, I continued the training with Rebecca and the twins during the morning and evening. For lunch, I had instead decided to finally add more of the spells from Henry′s grimoire to my repertoire.

  After going through the [Rite of True Death] with Rebecca again, the signifier (Taught Incorrectly) had vanished, though she wasn't sure what she HAD done wrong in the first place.

  Two weeks passed, and I experimented with 4 new spells, trying to figure out how to make them work, based purely on the order they had been in the book. Rebecca had, in the meanwhile, reached the third pearl around her core. Once she reached eight, they′d fuse into a ring, at which point she′d reach the second level of the [Basic Core Technique]. I had managed to acquire 1 pearl in the same time, but I was not as focused on it as she was. I was sure I'd gain more soon, especially as all my time spent studying the spells probably also didn't help.

  Not all the spells were useful per se. [Filth to Food] charged up to eight fist-sized balls of material with enough energy to keep going for a day and a night without feeling hungry, thirsty, or tired. However, it only worked on non-foods, as actual foods would reject the effect, and it would always taste like whatever material was used to cast the spell. Eating dirt, while an effective solution, wasn't pleasant, and all attempts to season it caused a rejection of the spell.

  [Ignite] could create a square foot worth of fire if a fuel were available, after which it would act as regular fire.

  [Basic Healing Magic] could treat some injuries, but nothing that couldn't be treated by regular first aid.

  A spell that could activate an effect when something happened to it, called [Trigger], seemed like the most interesting of the bunch to me. Once attached, it would only need to be recharged every couple of hundred uses. The spell attached would require a charge as normal. So I could set a fire trap for someone specific, create a plate that automatically activated the [Filth to Food] spell if material was laid onto it, or maybe even a tool to use basic healing magic if pressed on a wounded person. The grimoire called [Trigger] the second most important requirement in creating a magical item. The main problem was the charges. Any time I want to activate one of the spells, it would cost me a Moonstone charge.

  I wished I knew what the source of power was in the items that I already owned. My flickchain didn't need recharging, and the price hadn't been THAT high compared to even a small Moonstone, and the viper band worked continuously without the need for activation at all. “Should′ve asked Thost.”, I said.

  “There you are.”, Simon said. “There's a guy ahead who smells of trouble, and I need you and Rebecca to be there in case he actually is trouble. I pushed myself to my feet. “I hope it's nothing, cause that would mean we can reach town before nightfall.”

  My feet tingled as blood rushed back into them. Simon quickly packed up the remainders of our lunch as I pulled the chain from my waist, closed the padlock, and wrapped the long end around my arm. I joined up with Rebecca, who had still been in the middle of her training with Robin when I showed up.

  The man standing on the street didn't seem to be a physical threat. His face was gaunt with sunken eyes and yellow teeth, his skin white as paper, and if his arm were anything to go by, he was barely anything more than skin strapped over a bone frame. Despite his condition, he gave the two of us a smile. I wished hehadn'tt, his breath stank of rotting flesh even from the dozens of feet that we stood away from him. By all accounts he looked like the textbook image of what one would assume a necromancer to look like. But I didn't wanna assume just yet.

  “Hello, my friends.”, he said. He bit his thumb and squeezed some blood onto the ground. Rebecca gripped her sword, holding out an arm to keep me from coming closer.

  “I'd like to ask-”, he said slowly as bony hands broke through the ground, skeletons slowly making their way up “- what would be the price I′d need to pay you for your souls?”

  _________________________________________________________________________

  Current Status:

  Stats:

  Power: 2

  Agility: 1

  Toughness: 3

  Mental: 2

  Perception: 3

  Mana: N/A

  Effects:

  Night Vision  Lvl. 1

  Overlapping Protection  Lvl. 1

  Poisonous Blood  Lvl. 1

  Protection against Natural Poison and Venom Lvl. 1

  Skills:

  [Basic Core Technique]  Lvl. 1

  [Behind every great person, there's their spouse] Lvl. 2

  [Emperors Gaze]  Lvl. 2

  [New World Mental Block]  Lvl. N/A

  Known Ritual Spells:

  [Basic Healing Magic]

  [Determine Value]

  [Filth to Food]

  [Ignite]

  [Liquid Equilibrium]

  [Rite of True Death]

  [Simple Transportation Magic]

  [Trigger]