It didn't take running far to lose sight of the edge of the woods and soon after we did I felt my energy slowing once again to something that felt more normal. The raw and powerful emotions started to bleed away along with whatever excess power I drew from killing those noblemen. Soon the weight of both A’seri and Elsie became too much for me to continue carrying.

  Hoping that we were safe from any potential pursuers, I placed my passengers next to the base of a thick tree and collapsed beside them. A’seri quickly hurried to her guardian’s side and inspected Elsie. The once-guard captain was covered in bruises and small cuts besides the jagged gash that pierced her side. A’seri ripped fabric from her dress to bind and bandage whatever she could but the wounds were extensive. I didnt feel anything particular after the escape, only relieved that A’seri was safe at last, yet small droplets of A’seri’s worry dripped into my mind as Elsie’s wounds refused to close. Looking towards me, A’seri pleaded, “I know you only just saved us… But please, do you know any way to stop the bleeding? I dont know what to do!”

  “I don’t know anything about medicine, I am not sure how I would help.” I responded bluntly.

  “You were able to heal me before, when I was bitten by the fiend outside the cave. Can you do that again?”

  I could indeed stitch the wound back together again, I remembered the words I used vividly, yet “The process takes a great deal of energy from me… I am hesitant to use it on her.” I said, feeling no particular reason to further help the guardswoman.

  “Please…” A’seri pleaded again, “Save her, the bleeding won't stop!”

  I felt no reason to care for the guardswomen, she hadn't done anything for me to deserve such in my mind. I cared for A’seri and I knew the worry and love she felt towards her dying friend, whatever link between us continued to siphon her emotions into me, yet now that I could tell the difference between our perspectives I could resist her worries. But somehow, when A’seri muttered the words ‘Save her’ I felt my body resist my own intentions. I moved without any prior thought and knelt next to the bleeding guardswoman. Some other presence controlled my body and words as I slowly began to enchant power into my speech against my will. I struggled to speak the words I had used before, “Recall… Thy… Flesh…” my voice chanted despite my conscious mind’s protest.

  I watched as flesh knitted against itself and sinew rebound into tight stitches. The blood soaking the woman’s body coalesced around her wounds and forced its way back where it had come, sealing the openings behind. Her bruises twisted under my care but didn't seem to heal, along with smaller wounds that would bind together but quickly fall loose once more. Yet, to A’seri’s relief, the large dagger-gash knit itself closed and the bleeding seemed to stop around both large wounds and small. Elsie twisted and squirmed under my mage’s touch, but soon the process finished and she was left to sleep with less labored breaths.

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  I looked down at myself, expecting my body to collapse in exhaustion from the effort, but I seemed fine. My energies felt just as normal as they were moments before. As I looked up from my work I heard a thud against the tree we sat near. Turning, I saw A’seri had grown incredibly pale and fallen against the side of the tree. My debt to her paid by this point, but against my logic and reason I still felt some obligation to her. Unsure what was wrong with her, and worried about what had forced me to use magic, I placed a hand on A’seri unsure what else to do. “What happened to you? Were you hurt when we fled the city?” I asked.

  A’seri struggled to speak, “I… I didn’t think I was. After you started healing Elsie… my body started to get tired. I can barely keep my eyes awake now, I don’t know why… But I am glad she is…” her voice trailed off as she closed her eyes.

  What had just happened? I wondered to myself. I felt fine after using, what I thought was, powerful magic. Yet I was compelled against my will to do so. It didn't seem too strange for A’seri to become tired after the ordeal she went through, but my own anomaly preoccupied my thoughts. The link between A’seri and I slowly faded until it was completely unnoticeable, and it was then I knew she was fully asleep. When the echoed emotions from A’seri finally snapped and drained away, some part of me realized; had A’seri commanded me to do something, and I did it without any choice? The bond between us was already strange enough, but my actions aligned with what she wanted me to do. Yet despite being forced to use magic I felt fine, while A’seri collapsed from a sudden wave of exhaustion. Thoughts and ideas swirled as I tried to understand what I couldn't rightly comprehend.

  Despite the strangeness of my situation, I was strangely intrigued by the entire event. To use magic without my own body being drained, without risk of falling into a disrepaired eternal sleep, was intriguing. Yet I wouldn’t be able to learn any more without A’seri, it seemed. For whatever reason she was a key in this puzzle, one that would need to be watched and studied to better understand myself and what I am capable of.

  I wondered to myself what these two would do next, but I had a new mind to follow them. Where before I was only self-interested in A’seri’s protection out of a sense of guilt or duty, a new interest was born from the strangeness that bound us together. I watched the young woman sleep. So frail and small she seemed in her rest, what secrets might be held between us to be discovered?

  A magic fluttered in the air, I could taste it. I didn’t know where from, if it were from me or A’seri, or something else. Yet the tantalizing promise of discovery hovered around our haphazard resting site. If I could unlock these secrets, the power I could wield… I paused, realizing my own thoughts. Strange… I thought to myself, interrupting my own train of thought. The thought of power and magic seemed to be something I should naturally pursue, yet there was no direct purpose beyond power for its own sake. I wondered if some part of my past still lurked somewhere within me, these thoughts and ideas coming so naturally that it seemed almost like the foreign emotions that I felt flow from A’seri. Interesting. I decided. My circumstances, these powers, magic, and all inbetween. They were all interesting for the first time.