I coughed, pressing my hand to my burning head. My skin was burning once more, this time from the inside out. Cool water poured from the shower above, and washed off the black blood that poured from the cracks of my skin. My breaths came in hard and labored.

  After the rift, I’d decided to go ahead and take my next dose of Dew. I extracted myself as soon as possible from the CDF encirclement. It was difficult. Not only was it my promotion rift, but they kept trying to fly me up to Cathedral’s flying island and get seen by a healer. Then there was the whole fiasco with detonating one of their contamination sensors. Totally not my fault, by the way.

  I ended up having to sneak away with a week long ban on rift raids. I was way over the human limit for contamination or something… not that it mattered. I’d just run them as Nyx if I couldn’t as Moon. Contamination readings on me were a waste of time considering my condition.

  And that was how I found myself here, lying alone in the bathtub. Kali was out, so I took the opportunity for a little… healing. Yep, that was what we were calling this now. I was healing. More black blood leaked out of me like a fountain and hissed when it met the water. This—this was what healing looked like. I didn’t make the rules.

  ”Heugh-!” I coughed something out of my throat. It floated in the water, getting stuck on the drain. Huh—was that my lung? No wonder I was having a hard time breathing. Ebonshroud flowed out, dicing it into parts so small it just looked like more blood.

  My chest burned, and healed just as it was damaged. It was healing back to a ‘human’ standard though. Slowly but surely, I was becoming whole once more. It was a blessing, really it was. It was just such a damn hassle having to clean up-

  “Heugh-!” There went my other lung. Ebonshroud chased after it. Ugh—the blood was splattering everywhere. I’d have to buy a new tub at this rate. I’d have to buy a new one anyway. This one was starting to get pitted from acid burns

  [Nighteye forces herself to look away. It was disturbing how you could just sit there and calmly talk about your lung drifting down the bathtub’s drain.]

  Was I supposed to cry and scream in pain? It’d take more than just both my lungs being coughed out to make me cry… besides, I didn’t think I could even make those noises without lungs.

  Hmm… Was I suffocating? My head felt a little woozy, but that was probably just the Dew. I’d be fine soon regardless. Still… when did the bathroom become so colorful? Pretty colors.

  Elysia had repeatedly spent a kingdom’s fortune over centuries ensuring I wouldn’t fall back then, and my ability to stave off my condition was entirely thanks to her efforts. There were more ancient rituals and forbidden magic sustaining me than probably the entirety of Bastion.

  Elysia… I missed you. When were you going to come see me again? It’s been so long. What even happened to you? Surely it was time to call on your loyal knight once more, yep? Every time I think of you, my heart burned… or maybe that was just the Dew-

  “Aylin?! Are you alright?!” A worried voice called from just outside the door. Elysia—no, what was Lucia doing here? Did she hear? I must’ve really been out of it for her to get this close.

  “…!” I immediately turned up the shower to cover up any other noise I might make. I tried to call out, but my lungs weren’t quite regenerated. I just needed to wait till they regrew.

  ”A-Aylin! I—I’ll come in there if you d-don’t respond!” Lucia called through the door one more time.

  ”…” It was totally fine. No way a small girl like her could—

  Bang!

  My arms shot up to cover my chest just as she slammed through the door like a freight train. How—? Traces of ether clung to her body. Ether Physique! Oops. How’d I forget about that?

  There were a thousand things I could’ve done to hide that something was wrong. Something like block her with the Will Wire, make clothes, get out of the tub, or literally anything else. Puking up a malformed organ definitely wasn’t the best call. Good thing parts of my brain were most definitely too melted to process quickly.

  “Heugh—!” Something else popped out of my throat. Hard to tell what. Maybe my Spleen? Where was the Spleen again? Oh! It was right there!

  — — —

  “Are you—I’m going to be sick!” Lucia flinched away from the blood covered woman, missing Ebonshroud dice up yet another organ before it could get stopped at the drain.

  Aylin—she was just sitting there, profusely bleeding from her entire body. Her very naked body. If it was any other time, Lucia might’ve been embarrassed or shy or something about watching a woman shower. The state her Warden was in blew all of those petty emotions right out of the water.

  ”Shit!” Lucia moved for her phone. “I-I’ll call a healer—“

  ”S’nothing. Be fine. Few—“ Aylin’s head flicked to the side just as another wave of black blood came up. “M-minutes.”

  ”Th-this isn’t fine!” Although she said that, Lucia automatically believed what the blood-covered woman had to say. Her trust levels were off the charts. “W-what’s happening?”

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  ”M’not. Human.” Aylin leaned back. She forgot to leave her arms up, leaving them to flop to the side and completely expose herself. “Natural.”

  “No it isn’t!” Lucia tried to flick on Eyes of Providence to figure out what the best angle here was, but—oh—that’s fucking right! Aylin was immune to it. Because of course she was!

  The teenager had half a mind to pull her out of the tub. No way just sitting in the shower bleeding was the right call, right? She wasn’t the crazy one here! But was there a reason? Or if this really would be fine in a couple minutes, maybe this was just her way of reducing cleanup?

  Was this normal? How the hell could this even be normal?! No species she’d ever heard of went through something like—like this! No matter how she tossed and turned it over in her mind, nothing made sense.

  The teenager immediately started to pace. She reached out several times to—to help? To press the wounds? To rip the far too casual woman out of the bath and demand answers? To cry? Call the Cathedral Guild and beg for help? She wasn’t quite sure.

  Quite frankly, her head was overloading with the sights, scents, and noises. One thing was sure—Aylin just sitting there like nothing was happening really started to piss her off. “What am I even supposed to do about—about this?!”

  “Close door.” Aylin made a rubber ducky out of pure white Ivorshroud. Unsurprisingly, the drain was clogged again. The black acid-like blood and water were starting to back up, creating a layer for the ducky to float on. “Heh.”

  Lucia kicked the door with her foot, completely missing the implication that she was supposed to leave. Aylin, for her part, also missed the implication. Her mind kept being distracted by the pretty white ducky contrasting sharply against the black blood.

  The teenager, her gut churning with bile, took a deep breath. She wasn’t here, watching her strongest supporter play with a flipping rubber ducky in a pool of her own blood. This—this couldn’t be real. Surely this was some kind of poorly thought out joke, right? Or a nightmare?

  For the next several minutes, she just stood there and watched her Warden slowly mend back to health while playing with the ducky. It was several very, very awkward and unsettling minutes. Especially when the Dew hit Aylin’s brain full force.

  — — —

  I sat there trying to pierce together when everything started to go wrong. Or maybe this was a good development? I couldn’t quite say. Lucia stood just behind me, wringing my long black hair out with a towel. I could do it myself in a couple seconds with Ebonshroud, but she insisted like some kind of fussy parent. She took over when I kept trying with broken hands.

  Hmm… how was I going to explain the broken bathroom lock to Kali? Or the plumbing, for that matter. I sent a layer of Ebonshroud down to shred any clogs like I usually did. Water started to backup at some point though. Eh—it was probably fine.

  “Are we going to talk about that?” Lucia’s voice was eerily calm. She had that noble aura radiating from her again. Was it some kind of Skill?

  ”…” No way I wanted to bring it up. Not like I even knew where to begin.

  ”I’m not taking no for an answer.” Lucia finished up behind me and tossed the towel to the bathroom. She moved around, staring me dead in the eyes with her silver ones. “How often does—does that happen?”

  I looked away, weirdly feeling guilty all of a sudden. “Two weeks.”

  “And it's… normal?” She put that word weirdly for some reason.

  My voice sounded particularly husky when I replied. The hoarse edge to it had entirely faded. The OS must be speeding up my recovery time. ”Yep. Completely.”

  ”Why? What even are you? You definitely look human, but… no human I know can throw up all of their internal organs, including your fucking-“ She coughed lightly, restraining the sudden spike of emotion. “Including your heart.”

  ”Curse.” I shrugged. No easy way to put it. Not without diving into a very deep history lesson. One that I’d rather not have to dredge up from beyond the fog of my memories. Better I left most of those memories long forgotten like I usually did.

  Lucia nodded along like it was the most natural thing in the world. Her golden hair bobbed along with the motion. “Right, right, just a curse… was that Dew? I assume it gets worse if the curse starts to take a stronger hold on you.”

  ”Yep.” How—? Right, the bottle. I’d left the bottle just laying there. Must’ve read the label or recognized it somehow.

  As for the curse… that was part of it. The entire situation was entirely too complicated to begin with. Honestly, letting myself fall into it would probably give me a massive strength boost if I really needed it. I healed really quick like that, among other benefits. Just wasn’t worth losing even more parts of my mind or dealing with the temptations and demands.

  “Ugh-“ She ran a hand down her face, flopping back onto the couch. “What am I going to do with you? You’re only seventeen! We’re the same age!”

  “Centuries.” Couldn’t forget that part. She must’ve looked up my SIGIL. Running background checks was a normal thing for employers, yep?

  Lucia bolted upright. “Seventeen centuries?! That actually makes a lot of sense… Is anything on your SIGIL even true?”

  ”Aylin Io.” The rest… Well, there were some other true bits in there. Couldn’t really remember what all was on it off the top of my head.

  ”I feel like I don’t even know you.” She let out a mirthless laugh and curled over, covering her head with her hands. “Though I guess we’ve only known each other for a little over a couple weeks."

  I lightly patted her hand. “Best weeks. Long time.”

  ”Thanks…” A small smile toyed on her lips. It pulled back into a thin line shortly after. “What are we going to do about this?”

  “Hide better. Next time.”

  “That is so not the point of what I just said!” She threw her hands up into the air. “Ugh- call me next time. I want to be there just in case something goes wrong. It’s crazy you don’t already have Kali or someone watch over you.”

  ”It’s disgusting.” I shrugged. Even I could admit watching someone puke up their insides wasn’t exactly appealing. That, and there was no point worrying her unnecessarily. Pursius was really the only one that knew about my condition, and even then…

  ”Promise you’ll call me next time?” Lucia stared at me. With the regal aura radiating from her and her silver eyes, it was hard to refuse anything she demanded of me.

  ”F-fine.” I stared at the floor, not daring to refuse. Nothing could go wrong in the first place. Completely unnecessary, but if it’d make her feel better, I guess. I waved at the apartment. “…?”

  ”Are you asking how I knew you were here?” Lucia stood up and started pacing again. The regal aura dropped, and she was back to normal. “I went to the rift to pick you up… imagine my surprise when they told me you ran off while heavily injured.”

  “Sorry.”

  ”It’s fine.” Lucia collapsed back onto the couch again. “Congrats on officially hitting D-rank, by the way.”

  ”Thanks.” The Ebonshroud towel I’d been wearing flowed up over my body, covering me in proper clothes. Just a baggy white T-shirt and black short-shorts. I was back home. No reason to sacrifice comfort.

  “I’ll, uh, I might have something for you in a couple days… are you sure you’re fine?” The worry hadn’t completely faded from her eyes.

  “Yep.” A couple days would be fine. I was kicked out of rifts for a time anyway thanks to my contamination levels. Oh, and Blazing should be sending over my payment for the rift soon.

  Outside of that… maybe ask Pursius for a job? And go talk to OuroSec. They’ve been brought up too much recently for me to remain idle. They offered five thousand Nytes for just a hour, didn’t they? Maybe even hit Lotus for a bounty? This wasn’t like the past. I had all sorts of things to do. Kinda tiring, to be honest.