Reading Between the Lines

Chapter 13: Application

"So does everyone in this world have different abilities? Like, it doesn't repeat?"

He shakes his head. "They can! But it's really rare to find someone who has the same ability as you. There's all kinds of them. Not to be biased, but I think we have some pretty cool ones. My personal favorites are Sam's and Tushi's," he hints.

"Why? What do they have?" I ask, leaning forward in excitement and my eyes having imaginary stars in them.

"You'll see," he says evilly. "But the main gist is, our abilites are unique and defining of us. It's also what influences our tattoos as well," he gestures to the lifeline tattoo on his bicep.

I've never seen a such diverse blend of werewolves. I thought they'd all be the same, with identical abilities and appearances, but they have so much variety.

"Wait. Important question."

"Shoot."

"What the heck is with your pendants? You use them so much, but I have no idea what they actually do. And your tattoos?"

His eyes look at me amused, taking in my confusion for a second. But then he bursts out into ringing laughter, letting it take over the room. He's not laughing at me, I can tell. But something's suddenly funny, I guess.

"The way I just completely forgot to tell you about that. I'm sorry," he calms himself down before backtracking completely. He takes off his necklace and hands it to me so that I can observe it.

"Our Soulstones are literally responsible for everything a Netherworlder does. We get it made by professional magic welders once we meet our creature for the first time, and we use it all the time. It helps us activate portals, do magic, communicate with people, all kinds of stuff. It does a lot for us. Say this out loud for me: Every creature has a Soulstone."

"Every creature has a Soulstone," I do what he says. "Good job," he jokes as he watches me stare at his pendant.

"So what do the colors and shapes mean?" I wonder, rotating the pendant in my hands to see it in true depth. It has no imperfections or cracks; it's a perfect, beautiful wine-red claw, glittering under the sunlight peering through the windows.

He laughs a little, probably from seeing my intently focused face as I keep looking at his necklace. "You're adorable," he starts, making me look up at him and glare. He's telling that to the wrong girl, but I'm not telling him that.

"The shape of your Soulstone depends on what creature you are. All werewolves and lycans have a claw-shaped pendant. For every other creature, their shapes are different. Like, mermaids have a dolphin-tail. Sirens have a music note. Griffins have a wing. Vampires have a pair of fangs. Faeries have this cute little jar of pixie dust. That's personally my favorite," he whispers and chuckles cheekily. "But yeah, you get the point. We all have the same necklace because we're all werewolves! And as for the colors they don't mean anything. They literally are there to match your creatures' eye colors. In families though, colors tend to be pretty similar."

That must be why all the pendants I've seen had repeating shapes. It just helps clarify who is what whenever you can't obviously tell what they are by face. And that's why Aarav's wolf's eyes matched his lavender pendant. That must mean that Naish's wolf has wine red eyes.

Damn, I'm just getting everything answered today, aren't I? This is incredible!

"And your tattoos?"

"Our tattoos represent us. They're our identity just painted on our bodies for people to see. And they're not synthetic: they're powered by magic! It stays on forever, and it comes right after you shift for the first. This is mine. I got it when I was 14," he gestures to the sleeve tattoo on his left arm, a collection of stars and constellations. His name is spelled out in stars across his forearm.