When I first saw the young boy at the market, he was wearing a worn out shirt and ripped pants.

One of his boots was missing a lace, and his hair was dusty from dirt. I assumed he was a commoner, living close to the marketplace.

I only realized something was off when we walked past the markets and into a small forest.

“Young master Harry y- your clothes!”

We had arrived at a grand villa hidden within the trees, and at the gates we were stopped by a well dressed butler.

He was looking at Harry with concern.

The boy scratched the back of his head.

“Don’t worry Sam, I’m fine. Are mother and father home yet?”

The butler had a sad expression on his face. 

“I’m afraid not, young master...but they should be back shortly.”

“...” 

Harry looked down at the ground while gripping his fists tightly.

“I’m going to check on Sara.”

“Of course. However…” 

The butler looked up at me with suspicion. His hair and beard were already white from age, but his eyes were still sharp. 

“Who might this be?”

“He’s my guest.”

Harry said, as he grabbed the corner of my shirt and started making his way into the villa.

I could still feel the cold stare of the butler behind my head. 

While making our way through the beautiful lobby and halls of the villa, I turned to Harry.

“I’m sure there was a better way to get a potion for your sister… Why did you buy the one in the marketplace?” 

Nobles often had their own physician, and many ways to get their hands on high quality potions.

The ones sold at the marketplace were the affordable ones sold to the commoners. 

“...”

Harry furrowed his brows as his eyes watered up. 

“I’m the only one who cares now… Mom and dad are never home, and our physician only tells lies.”

“...”

“That’s why I have to help Sara. I heard from a friend that the potions being sold in the marketplace sometimes have greater effects than the potions that nobles use. At first I was also unsure-”

Harry looked up and faced me. 

“But I knew when you tested it for me, that my friend was right. I had never heard of a low quality potion healing a cut that fast…” 

Harry looked at the small bottle in his hands.

Faye floated around Harry. It was feeling sad for him.

“This is the room that Sara’s in.” 

Harry said, as he opened the doors into a bedroom.

Inside I could see that the curtains on the walls were halfway closed.

Only a little bit of sunlight came through. In the center was a bed where a little girl lay.

Her breathing was weak, and her face was flushed from a high fever. 

“Sara, I’m here.” Harry said as he walked over to her side. 

“I brought you a potion. If you drink this-” 

As Harry pulled out the potion, I put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

Harry looked up at me, but I was looking at the room.

“What’s wrong Vyn?”

I wasn’t sure myself.

Something about this room made me feel dizzy.

Everything was shifting slightly, without staying still as if I was drunk.

Faye was glowing and also looking around the room.

“Give me a second Harry. I think… I think there’s a spell in this room.”

“....? What do you mean?”

The shifting was becoming more intense in my eyes.

The room was changing back and forth from the sunlit room to something dark.

Sara was also shifting from the flushed girl with a fever, to a girl with gray skin. 

Then suddenly, Faye started to glow with a beam of light.

Fluttering its pages, and stopping at a blank page.

The book started to suck up the entire room around us.

I could see the sunlight and the flushed girl slowly disappearing into the book, leaving a red magic circle on the blank page.

The room was now dark with the curtains completely closed.

On the bed lay Sara with her skin as gray as ash, and black lines that covered her entire body and face like spiderwebs.

I had read about this before in the story.

“…Dark mana…”

Harry jumped as he heard me say those words. 

Dark mana was the after effects from black magic used by those who worshiped demons.

There was a reason they were so hated by the world, and it wasn’t just because they caused harm to others.

Dark mana decays all nature once it starts to spread.

If a human were to come in contact with it, it would slowly eat away at their body until they died. 

The only way to get rid of dark mana was to purify it with light magic, which only the church bishops or of higher status were able to use.

Even then, some dark mana was too powerful for even the church to remove. Especially when it was already rooted deep inside a human body.

“I- I thought it was just a fever..!”

Harry cried as he knelt down next to his sister's bed.

Slam!

The door swung open behind us.

“Harry, what are you doing!” 

A woman rushed into the room and grabbed Harry away from the bed. 

“How did the spell...”

“Ma’am, first let me purify the dark mana.”

A young bishop dressed in white was holding a cross in his hands as he came into the room. Right behind him was an older man wearing a noble’s suit. 

I made eye contact for a second with the young bishop, but he turned his head and stood next to the bed. 

He brought his hands together in the form of a prayer, with the cross laying in between his fingers.

“Goddess Theia, lend me your strength and free this soul from the lingering evil. Abiit Maligni spirits!”

From the bishop’s closed hands a white light came out. It slowly covered the girl’s gray body. 

“KEEEEAHH!!”

The girl’s mouth stretched open, and I heard a screech coming from within.

The voice wasn’t that of a man's or a woman’s, but a distorted mix of both.

Two red sparks that formed into eyes burned from within the darkness of the girl’s mouth.  

“KAHHH!!!”

As the light from the bishop shined brighter and slowly covered the girl’s body, the screeching grew louder.

Everywhere the light had touched, the girl’s skin had turned back to normal.

Now only her face and neck remained gray, with black lines growing out from the edges of her eyes. 

I looked at the bishop who was frowning with a pale face and glistening from sweat.

He stepped closer to the bed, with both of his palms now facing the girl.

He slowly took his hands and closed them together in a tight grip. As if to squeeze the life out of anything inside. 

“KEEEEAHHHAHAHHA”

The screeching started to laugh as the light dimmed, and the girl’s face had turned completely normal.

There was just a small black dot left on the center of her forehead. It was so small making it barely noticeable.

The girl was now breathing normally with a peaceful expression on her face.

While the bishop loomed over her with a clenched jaw so tight I could see a line of blood dripping down from the corner of his mouth.