I wake up with tears in my eyes. Vancea never cared cause everyone would just start anew. Elves are reborn and when they tier up they remember their previous lives. They simply think others races will too if they could tier up enough. They see life like a bleeding video game. It doesn't excuse her cruelty. I don't cry for her but for the sister she left behind. A sister who expects to see her in the next cycle, but won't. A sister I know and who taught me the skills that ultimately led to Vancea's end.

  I hear the others in the house, I don't pay attention to their conversations but it does prompt me to get moving. I put off my notifications for later. It's all a bit much right now. I put up my bun again, and make sure my ears are clear. Then I head to Barbain and her steady breathing. I smile, still not awake.

  I wake her and usher miss murmur to her chair. I brush her frustratingly straight hair and decide she can look twelve today. Her eyes flit up to her reflection then open wide. She turns her head and grabs the top of my ears.

  “Ow those are sensitive.”

  “Sara, are you speaking elvish, have you not noticed your ears.” She looking at me wide eyed.

  I look at my reflection and see Barbain grasping above where my ears should be. I reach and unlatch her grip and see my new pointed ears. Now I'm the one wide eyed. Then a familiar burn starts to form in my chest.

  You have gained the skill [Permanent Arcane Mana Core] Basic 1

  Permanent Arcane Mana Core - Permanent store of unaspected mana

  Basic - nascent mana core

  Gain 2 exp

  Barbain is beside me on the floor, then she shouts for help, she is incredibly loud, I hold my ears but I still hear footsteps heading our way. The burning is subsiding when Cecelia slams the door open. I yelp at the loudness. Marie and Bianca come in shortly after. Francis is last.

  “Sara, why do you have the ears of an elf.” Hearing the confirmation makes me babble.

  “Its not like I infused with one, Barbain noticed them first, but I think they been there since this morning, I didn't notice cause my previous life was just always loud and kind of became ingrained and she didn't care at all and Sencea going to hate me and what am I going to do this sort of thing causes elf feuds.”

  Cecelia hugging me trying to calm me.

  “Slow down, pick a language, you're all over the place.” I get a hug that isn't barred by a breastplate, my breathing steadies. Barbain talking softly to Grandma Bianca.

  “After she noticed, she fell to the floor grasping her chest.”

  I explain, raising my voice so they could hear. “Sorry Barbain, I grew a [Permanent Arcane Mana Core] and wasn't expecting it.”

  They both widen their eyes for a moment, Barbain mutters.

  "Bloody prodigy.”

  “Am not.”

  Her eyes widened again at being caught. Before she can say anything further Cecelia chimes in.

  “Its not just your ears, your ovaries and liver have changed as well.”

  Elf ears, elf ovaries, and elf liver, what does that even mean. My confusion on my face is answered by Cecelia shrugging.

  “I don't know hun, I will try to find a book about elf biology, but they tend to be a rather closed community. We could ask Sencea.”

  My eyes widen at the thought. “No, not her she um well to say she was…”

  “Out with it, [Junior Attendant] Sara.”

  “The soul I ate was Vancea, her sister.” In an even smaller voice. “I may have caused her true death.”

  Grandma Bianca's face is blank, she turns to Marie, she doesn't bother whispering, “Go get Sencea, Marie, we need to know more and she is the only one who can tell us.”

  “But but—”

  Cecelia comforts me, “You won't come to harm, mother may need to place a geas on Sencea though.”

  That's not very comforting. I hear Marie return with another in the foyer. They climb the stairs and I just feel dread, the footsteps are familiar. Marie leads Sencea into the room.

  2 ? Elf Barmaid

  She is tier two, she remembers more. She sees my ears and her eyes go wide, then they narrow.

  “Why does your tapestry have the feel of Vancea.”

  My eyes widen, everyone else is confused.

  “Knew it, how did she die?”

  Awww she used elvish to get a reaction out of me.

  “She threw herself down the stairs after she entered my aura, it made her not care about her current life and she decided to go for a rebirth. She didn't realize she was inside my aura until after she was dying.”

  “You speak as if you know her thoughts.” Her eyes are narrow again, Cecelia is positioning herself between us.

  “I've just spent the last night reliving her last life.”

  “You ate her soul, explains the fingers and ears.”

  My fingers? I look down at them, they are longer and more slender, not the pudgy ones that messed up so many knots.

  “Her liver and ovaries have changed too, is there anything you can tell us about those?”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Sencea looks at Marie, sighs and explains, “Her liver will process toxins easier, makes being a barmaid a breeze, no worries about intoxication, you said ovaries? Like more than one.”

  No intoxication, I've been cursed. Barbain nudges me.

  “...two ovaries, is that different from elvish women?” Cecelia is asking.

  “Ya, elves just get one, they release an egg yearly. They don't store a clutch like humans do, but make the egg over a year then release it. That she has two, well can you tell if they are both active.”

  Cecelia flicks a look to Marie then goes back to me and touches my side, her eyes green. Marie moves in Sencea blind spot, that elves rely more on her ears then eyes is something I'll have to tell her later.

  “It seems her left one is active right now, the other appears dormant.”

  “Does that mean I'll have yearly bleedings instead of monthly?”

  “Your uterus still seems human, so that will likely still follow the previous cycles, also it's probable that you will release an egg every half year, I will be monitoring to see when your other ovary activates.”

  Why the hell did I get bi-annual eggs but monthlies? It's obviously a curse. Sencea speaks up.

  “That will be to her advantage, elvish wombs are rather notorious for miscarriages. It took four years before Vancea could be reborn after I was.”

  “You don't seem upset.” I ask tentatively.

  She gives me a murderous glare, “Do not misread my patience, you have removed a portion of my sister tapestry and may of shattered the rest. That I have not attempted to end your life is that it was her foolishness and arrogance that led to this.”

  I shrink back. Cecelia is once again in a defensive position. Sencea sighs and takes off her earring clasps and throws them to my feet. My eyes widen.

  “You remember how to use those right, your [Identify] is listing you as a hybrid, you know what that means. I only have one request, to the one who devoured my sister.”

  I nod.

  “I want to die in your aura. I will lead my sister back into rebirth or join her in your tapestry.”

  Everyone is shocked by this, there are protests from Cecelia and Bianca. Only I understand what she wants, the relationship they had.

  “I'll do it.”

  Cecelia turns to me, “No Sara, why?”

  I give her a sad smile, “Elves hunt down hybrids, there was a catastrophe caused by some at one point that resulted in a general prohibition on letting them live. They believe that they will be rebirthed as full elves, so they don't hesitate when they find one. Sencea knows that I exist, she is obligated to report me, if she doesn't take care of the problem herself. She would buck any geas placed on her as it's a geas that is going to force her hand. Death would only delay her till her next rebirth and I doubt she will be in a forgiving mood if we don't accede to her request, only through my aura will this life be torn from her tapestry and she won't have these memories.” I leave out the ‘or she will simply cease to exist’.

  I put the earrings on and channel mana through them, the earrings shrink down, and disappear and my ears look human again, my [Identify] will list me as human.

  Biance intones to Sencea, “Sencea, you will not physically harm Sara in any way.”

  Sencea accepts the geas, Bianca nods to Cecelia to confirm. Cecelia backs away, trusting her mother's power. Sencea is standing in front of me.

  “Is there anything specific you must do for this.”

  “All I know is those who end their own lives in my aura cause me to relive their lives in my dreams.”

  “Simple enough, embrace me in my sister's doom, don't ever let them find you.”

  I give her a chance to back out, she simply glares at me. I pull my aura out so that it is just us two. Her chest convulses and water comes out her mouth, then blood. She collapses and is dead, the mana in the water releases and is no more, the blood remains.

  Gained 102 Exp from Sencea, Barmaid

  I kneel to the floor and cry for the death of a sister.

  -----

  I was relieved of my morning duties, despite my protests. Barbain sitting with me, we're watching Velner and Marie finish setting up for the garden party in the evening. It's all rather dull.

  “Want to talk about it?”

  I shake my head. Marie puts tablecloths on the tables. The same ones I had been working on for the last two days. I give a small smile to that.

  “What are you smiling about?”

  “The tablecloths grandmother is using, I embroidered them.”

  “When did you get [Embroidery]?”

  “It was grandmother's punishment for my foolishness, she told me they had to be perfect.”

  “That you're smiling about that means you're picking up more than maid training from mother.”

  I flick her in the forehead, showing her exactly what else I learned. After she finished rubbing her forehead she had another question.

  “So are your ears back to human or am I avoiding saying things I don't want you to hear like I do with mama.”

  Guess that's confirmation that grandma Bianca got super good hearing, would explain a few things.

  “My ears are the same as before, just a high level illusion that changes my [Identify] and their look. It's a known elf trinket.”

  “Does that mean they will know you are a hybrid?”

  I shake my head, “They can't see beyond the illusion, they will just assume I'm another elf.”

  “So how much can you hear?”

  Too much, my only saving grace is that I had thirty years of Vencea life to be used to hearing everyone's internal organs and chewing. Chewing got to be the worst.

  “Everything.”

  “Everything?” She looking at Marie.

  I pale at the thought. If I didn't know their relationship before I would have found out now.

  “So why did Sencea want to die?” She squirms at the asking.

  “Did you know her?”

  “Ya.”

  I look at the sky, I have my suspicions. “You heard my reasoning, I believe you gave Marie a rather forceful rebuke when she tried to usher you out in the end.”

  “That was only your reasoning for agreeing to it.”

  She gots me there, when I don't say anything more she nudges me.

  “She said she wanted to lead her sister into rebirth.”

  She just gives a small oh.

  “So what was the catastrophe that caused all elves to murder hybrids. Why does their actions paint every hybrid as being needed to be purged.”

  “It wasn't some grand action that condemned the rest, a hybrid birthed an elf soul. That child died before maturation and did not return to their tapestry.”

  “You keep saying tapestry.”

  “It's a soul thing, each life builds it, you see more and more of your tapestry as you tier up.”

  “And you have one now?”

  “If you believe the elves we all do, just that the other races never tier up enough to see it or make it last past their lives, though Sencea seemed pretty convinced that I had a visible one.”

  “Does that mean you'll be reborn as an elf?”

  “Dunno, I'll send you a memo if it happens.”

  She murmurs, “As if I'll outlive you.”

  The system is cruel in that regard, when you tier up could vastly change life expectancy, that I am on the cusp at ten just furthers that dismal prospect.

  “Just means you're going to have to buckle down and start cranking those levels Barbain.”

  I poke her, she gives me a flick to the forehead.

  “So because hybrids can bring an elf soul to rebirth they decide they all must die.”

  “They just think the hybrid will become a true elf.”

  “But you just said that the elf soul didn't make it to their tapestry."

  “Ya their beliefs don't match up, they fear a hybrid rebirth so they condemn all hybrids to a fate they fear themselves.” Song as old as time.

  “So because you could birth an elf soul they will kill you if they find you.”

  “Thats the crux of it, I'm clearly not a typical hybrid though, no telling what my children will be like.”

  “But it won't matter to them.”

  “Not at all.”

  “Sara time to make lunch.” Marie says softly to herself down in the garden, guess she is testing my hearing.

  “Duty calls, any request for lunch, my mistress.” I gave her a toothy grin to show I wasn't being serious.

  “Can we have pancakes again, you've been really making them exactly how I like them.”

  I smile, “Sure.”