Amelia stared at Obsidian for a moment longer after its light breathing signaled to her that he’d fallen asleep before turning to look back at Chadwick. Obsidian had done far better than she could ever have hoped for against the vampires. Its tails were something terrifying that she hoped she’d never be on the receiving end of.

She looked over at Chadwick and focused on the slightly glowing sword he still gripped, looking as though his life depended on it. He had far excelled her expectation, but it was more thanks to the sword he wielded. If it hadn’t been for that sword…

She looked back over at the chunks of vampire that floated in the swamp water and sighed, “Chadwick, you did really well. Are you hurt?”

She didn’t see any injury on his front, but the vampires had mostly tried to ambush him. She thought their wariness for the sword was absurd until he barely grazed the first vampire and it exploded.

“I-I’m fine. Just a little shook,” he said as he spun around at the sound of splashing water. “Okay, I’m scared out of my mind right now, but I’m uninjured.”

“Put your sword away and rest while we can. I’m sure going forward there won’t be much time to breathe. I think-” she started as he put the sword away, realizing that an unseen pressure lifted off her shoulders. She cleared her throat and spoke again. “I think the leeches here evolved into a vampire colony. I’ve definitely heard of stranger evolutions, but that makes our dive here far more dangerous.”

“Obviously!” he shouted back, startling Obsidian as he rested.

“Keep your voice down and calm yourself. They’re probably watching us, so you need to stay close.” She looked around and tried her best to ignore the feeling of being watched. “The vampires seemed pretty weak, and that would make sense. The lack of wildlife here shows that they’ve sustained themselves, but they’re more than likely starving.”

“Starving. We’re stuck in a den of vampires and they’ve been starved. Doesn’t that mean we’re doomed to die?” Chadwick looked up at her, tears forming in the corner of his eyes. “I don’t want to die.”

“It doesn’t mean we’ll die, no. It means they’re weakened. With your sword and Obsidian’s help, we’ll be able to make it out alive. My magic works against them, but it’s expensive to use. That fight refilled my Essence. I imagine you feel a strange energy inside yourself that you’ve never experienced before?”

“I thought I was just warm from the adrenaline. It feels like a raging liquid that I can’t control.” Chadwick clenched his chest and worriedly stared back at Amelia. “Wait, I still don’t know your name.”

“Amelia,” she said as she rubbed her temples, “and that raging liquid is the overflow of Essence you absorbed. You’ll need to take control of it.”

“Essence? Are you saying I might be able to use magic?” he asked with renewed excitement, all trace of tears and fear having dissolved into an afterthought.

She shook her head, “Not everyone’s Essence manifests the same way and it takes personal testing to figure out how you will use it personally.”

“Okay, so how do I do that?” he walked over to her and she hopped down from Obsidian’s back.

“It’s not that hard initially, but it does take a long time to get used to using it.” She took his hand and rested it on her chest, ignoring the perverted grin he gave her. “I’m going to channel my Essence and I want you to try and feel the paths that it takes in my body and then create the same in yourself. This is the easy part.”

Chadwick met Amelia’s gaze and then looked away quickly, the embarrassment clear as day with his quickly reddening cheeks. He sucked on the inside of his cheek, breathed in deeply, and then looked back at her. He released the breath. “I’m ready.”

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes before rapidly circulating her Essence throughout her body and into his hand. It stemmed from her chest, flowed out through her limbs to her toes and fingers, and then completed a circuit as it returned. It constantly flowed to her eyes and head, enhancing her vision and enabling her to understand the magic she used. Her body felt invigorated with each circuit that was completed.

She could feel him slowly begin to imitate her energy flow, but he breathed out in a huff. “This is hard. I don’t think I can do it.”

“That makes sense since my path won’t be the same for you. I’ve seen some people that only flow their Essence through a single limb, to their heads, or even keep it in their chests. What that does is empower your body to overcome inherent limitations in the physique. Many effects include improved vision, durability, reflexes, and mental comprehension,” she said, emphasizing the last effect.

“I- okay, but how do I use magic?” he said as he tried to hide his excitement. He reminded Amelia of a child that just got a new toy.

“It depends on how your pathways form, so focus on that first. Trying to use any kind of magic with an unstable circuit will just end up backfiring and blowing up in your face. Trust me. You don’t want that,” she lectured him sternly, hoping that the buffoon would have the decency to not blow himself up.

“Dangerous, got it.” He looked around and then back to Obsidian. “What now?”

“You go practice,” she rubbed her temples to assuage the forming headache. “If you can establish your circuits, you’ll be far more capable of dealing with the vampires.”

“Practice, got it.” He sat and closed his eyes.

Amelia looked around again out of habit and wariness before she laid back against Obsidian and closed her eyes. She spread her senses out in a small range around them and allowed herself to rest.

Her thoughts meandered to the past and the life she’d lived. She couldn’t remember the face of her mother anymore, but she could describe in absolute detail the stench of liquor that pervaded their rundown home. Her mother loved liquor and used it to drown out her sorrow.

She could vividly recall the details of the day that changed everything. The day she came home to find her brother and father hanging in their living room and the figure of her uncle sitting in a chair casually as if nothing happened.

She wasn’t supposed to be home.

Her uncle had attacked her and she was beaten, violated, and beaten again. She remembered his words clearly as the fat pig rolled off her, “Tell anyone and I’ll make you suffer a life worse than death.”

She had told her mom what happened and received a beating for lying. “He would never!” her mother had screamed, hitting her repeatedly.

She was alone in a cruel world, beaten and broken. She had nothing left to live for, but she found friends. She joined a special group, a dangerous group. She learned to fend for herself, and one day came forth with the truth of what had happened. She was scoffed at and ignored, but she remembered every face. She honed her skills until she made them pay. Made them suffer much like she had.

When her uncle got word, he came looking for her, but she wasn’t the same young girl. She smiled at the memory of his screams. His cries for help. The pain she made him feel. The humiliation, powerlessness, vulnerability.

Then she let him bleed to death as she executed every corrupt official that allowed people like him to exist. That enabled criminals to run free to pocket a little more coin here and there. When she gained her magic and established her circuit, she put her skills up for hire to those that wanted to see a better world and joined an organization that helped cleanse the filth.

She gained a reputation in time and eventually garnered enough reputation with the powers that be to receive a single request from them.

Her request was Obsidian. When she heard he would be executed for being born as a variant, she had redeemed her single-use request and demanded to be Contracted to the gryphon. She could sympathize with the gryphon and added into her request that a Heavenly Oath be conducted to bind them for life.

Her train of thought was broken when Chadwick shouted in excitement, “I did it!”

Obsidian woke and looked back at Chadwick, and Amelia took amusement as the man shrank away from the irritated gryphon. She grinned and then stood, “Time to move.”