The Voidbreak Crisis: Part 2; The Rise Of Ak-Dovurak.

8. Reunion

Pulse was awoken by someone pulling gently at his whiskers, and then was jolted fully awake as whoever it was yanked one free from his face.
"FUCK!" Pulse shouted, rolling over and covering his mouth as Prism jolted awake next to him.
"What is wrong with you?" Pulse asked Morgana as she examined the whisker she'd ripped free.
"Do you want that alphabetically or chronologically?" Morgana asked, glancing over at him briefly.
"Why did you pull one of my whiskers off?" Pulse asked, still rubbing his face.
"I'm curious as to how you gained such a mastery over your powers. What caused you to separate from your sister?" Morgana asked.
"Why do you want to know?" Prism asked, helping Pulse to his feet.
"I'm detecting spacial and temporal anomalies in your bodies. Subtle, but present. What happened, exactly?" Morgana asked, holding the whisker above the embers of their campfire.
"We were caught in a voidstorm, and got sent to an alternate dimension. There's a lot to unpack, really," Prism said as Pulse began taking apart their makeshift camp.
"Well, we've got time, so let's unpack, shall we?" Morgana said.
"Why are you so interested?" Pulse asked, popping his knuckles and stretching.
"I'm a scholar. I want to know things. This specific thing that I want to know, is what effect the energies of the Void have on living creatures, and how I might manipulate that effect," Morgana explained, rolling a large rock over their fire with her foot.
"There have been previous examples of void energy producing unusual effects on wilderfolk, IE the Amelian Lineage. She was created by two Voidwalkers seven hundred years ago, as the histories say. And through her, and her many marriages, she produced a new breed of wilderfolk. I'm curious to see the effects of the void directly, rather than hereditarily," Morgana explained.
"Huh," Pulse said, a little overwhelmed by information at this point.
"And the temporal anomalies in our bodies, they're not harmful or anything, right?" Prism asked as they began walking out into the plains from their campsite.
"Well the effects vary wildly, from massive cellular degeneration, to widespread cancer, to subtle melanic tone changes," Morgana said.
"I knew about three of those words," Pulse said.

Morgana rolled her eyes and explained further as they walked through the low grasslands. As they walked, Pulse and Prism filled her in on what they had experienced on the alternate world. Morgana cast a variety of spells on them as they walked, making sure to tell them what the spell was doing, in order to avoid any suspicion on their part. She discerned that there was no reason she could tell as to why they had become so powerful. They seemed naturally attuned to their inborn powers, and the focuses given by The Forge only seemed to allow them to amplify their base mana levels. It was their use of their abilities that made them unique. Only a few days into their travels, Morgana found she was unable to procure genetic samples from them without knowing. It seemed that there was a limit to how many times she could pull whiskers from their face, and that limit was twice.

"What is Wrong with you!?" Prism yelled at her, holding her face as Pulse leapt to his feet. Morgana ignored her and examined the whisker closely.
"And why is always the whiskers? These things are sensitive, and they don't regrow very fast," Prism whined as she rubbed her lip.
"I chose the whiskers for exactly that reason. They allow the Wilderfolk to sense subtle mana shifts in the world around them, giving us a 'sixth sense' so to speak. Though we've got far more than six senses," Morgana said, still examining the whisker.
"As they grow, they develop clusters of what I like to call Mana residue, telling me what density of mana you were exposed to as they..." Morgana's voice trailed off as she looked at the whisker closer, and turned it over in the light of their campfire.

"What?" Prism asked.
"You were exposed to a massive amount of mana, not too long ago. Maybe a few weeks?" Morgana asked, looking up at them.
"I mean, we traveled through the void to get to the spire, so yeah," Pulse said, shrugging.
"No no no, the void leaves a different effect. Mana residue happens when mana passes over organic matter, like a spell of some sort. What kind of spell sent you through the void?" Morgana asked.
"A portal, I guess. Zavoyevatel created it, and then kinda threw us through it," Pulse said.
"That might explain this. I'd need a baseline to compare it to. Gods I miss my lab," Morgana said, sitting down on the rock near the fire and tossing the whisker in.
"Well that's what you get for sacrificing people to demons," Prism said, sitting next to Pulse as the fire popped.
"I don't regret it, knowledge is knowledge, regardless of how you obtain it," Morgana said, watching the embers dance.
"Don't you feel the least bit of empathy?" Pulse asked.
"Why would I? He tried to kill me, or worse. I believe my actions were warranted," Morgana said, holding her head high.
"Besides that, what did you do that got you banned from the underworld?" Pulse asked.
"Oh, a number of things," Morgana said, giggling softly and laying down on the grass next to the fire.