"Um, how do I draw blood?"
It's not that I wouldn't dare to poke my fingertips. I mean it freaked me out how casually they did it since I wasn't into that self-harm thing, but I found a much bigger issue. As the Goddess recently demonstrated, I was practically invulnerable. So doing this seemed impossible for me.
"Right. That's a good question, Nati." Omerta noted after dripping her blood over a pine cone. She didn't make a fuss cutting her entire palm across with a dagger, drew some blood, then licked it, and the wound already healed. Ember only pricked her finger and used a walnut for her would-be staff. "I didn't think about that."
And they waited for no one. We gathered near Gitaut's little forest hut and followed Lambert's and the crystal's instructions. They attempted to make a tree, or at least a branch grow from those seeds, using their blood as a catalyst. I had my original blue stone, but I looked on cluelessly. Emi glanced over my shoulders, expecting something to happen but she only managed to distract me even more.
"It's not even your body if you think about it, so the Goddess' blood might not even work for you." Ember pointed it out, once her walnut tree finally started to sprout. She had to take a break, sweating heavily from all the concentration, but she was the first to reach that point.
"I'm not even sure if I use my magic power, or hers when casting a spell." I shook my head, staring at the dagger in my hand. "If it's hers, then maybe I need to use her blood, but is that okay? Apart from having no idea what I'm doing, would she allow that?"
"I allow what?" I heard my voice, coming from behind me this time. Of course, Alex showed up at the most random moment. Except when we needed her the most. She abstained during the battle, but I guess I needed her guidance now too. My heart rate increased before I even looked at her though. How was I supposed to ask her questions like this?
"She is... We try to build a staff for each of us." Gitaut explained as the only one who didn't even make one for the time being. Shamans had no use for staff and in the first round, the girls got to play with the magic stones. Which in this case also included me. "But it involves drawing blood, to have the artifact attuned to its future user."
"Ooh, you guys use blood for that? I never actually made a staff, looks interesting." Alexandra said, and with that, I quickly lost all hope to get the answers I needed. "The emperor offered me a crystal like that, as a reward if I finished expanding the Gate system. Where did you get that?"
"Um, it's from Fenna," I confessed, without looking at her. I missed the fox girl who still seemed busy in her village, but that was all I knew. Between my morning runs and training, I didn't have time to visit her. I considered running to the beastfolk village as a workout, but it was too far. "She said her mother made it."
"Her mother? Could it be Anna the tailor? The Red Cat as they called her in the Academy." The Goddess pondered. "Yes, I remember being jealous of her when her lover brought the crystal. So it ended up in your hands, huh? What a small world."
"You knew her?" I asked, surprised. Even though I heard more and more about her backstory, and other people related to the Magic Academy, somehow I never managed to put the pieces together. I think she saw my confusion and decided to explain things properly.
"I used to sneak in, reading books about magic there, thanks to my master. When I demonstrated, that the Lesser Races can cast magic on our own, not just through the spirits, he became quite enthusiastic about it. He petitioned the emperor to allow our kind into the school properly." She started, glancing at Gitaut for a moment. "For the first class they assembled, they gathered some exceptional talents, from every corner of the Cranta Empire, including Anna, Alpha, Gamma, and Gitaut. I guess you could say, I was part of the class too."
"S-so you remember me!" The shaman yelled, his face turning a bit red. Yes, he told me something about the Academy before and was upset, that Alex didn't seem to recognize him.
"Of course I do, what did you think? You followed me everywhere, while the others complained, that you always chased them off." Alex shrugged, followed by a smile. "Anna especially. She loved to play the mother in that place. She enrolled on her own money too, one of the few beastfolk, that was free and rich."
"And who is Alpha and Gamma? Sounds like the letters of the alphabet." I asked curiously, and the answer came from Omerta this time.
"You heard about them before, maybe just not on these names." The orc witch explained. Her pine staff slowly grew roots, although it was still multiple times faster than nature intended. "The hobgoblin, called Alpha is better known today as the Demon Lord, and his close friend, Gamma was an ogre, that this master chef banished."
She nodded towards Lambert, whose face turned all pale. They said, he banished the other demon-class monster but never paired a name to that story.
"Why the letters though?" I wondered and they all shrugged at the same time. I guess, the Lesser Races could name themselves anything they wanted. I decided to return to my magic stone instead. "So it was a wedding gift from Fang to Anna, right?"
"Wedding gift? No, they were already married for half a century." Alex shook her head. "Even their daughter was thirty or forty? No, it was more of a... Celebratory gift, that she got accepted? I hadn't asked, but I know she wore it from pretty early on and never parted with it either. I'm surprised it's still here, to be honest."
"Why is that?" I asked but realized before her answer.
"Because Anna, the Academy, and the old capital disappeared not long after." The Goddess noted, glancing at the ground. I regretted my question. A long and awkward silence followed. It enabled us to hear how the magical trees started to grow though.
"So... Can't I make a staff with this crystal as its focus point?" I tried to change the topic since that's what we were here for in the first place. "If I can't draw blood... And maybe it's not even your blood that is needed. I have no idea what I'm doing."
"Blood? No, you need a fragment of your soul." Alexandra claimed, and everyone suddenly froze to stare at her. They made hilarious faces, but only Emi dared to laugh. "You see, the body can be replaced, or rebuilt. It's nothing more than a container for your souls, a material shell, that enables it to interact with this world."
I don't know how much the others understood from this. The only thing it said to me, was that I didn't need to prick my finger after all.
"But magic and the mana come from a different plane of existence." The Goddes continued after a little pause. It quickly turned into an academic presentation, she even summoned a few lights and floating shapes to demonstrate her point. "It is interwoven with this one, but the thing it interacts with when magic is being cast is your soul, not your body. So what you need to include in your staff is a fragment of that, to ensure it will grow as a literal extension of you."
"So, um, did we all do it wrong?" Omerta asked while shooting a glare toward Lambert. "The wizard boy said we need our blood to grow it. Did we waste all this time then?"
"T-that's what I read in the scriptures!" The human yelled, still pale ever since the Goddess mentioned his name, especially now, that he got accused of instructing us wrong. "The mages used their blood to grow their staff from a blessed seed. I don't know what else to say."
"Oh well, that's one way to do it if they didn't want to risk their soul. If done wrong, it might shatter." Alex shrugged, rearranging the picture she projected into the air. "In a sense, your blood goes through your heart, and that's the closest organ to the soul. So it can work. But why not use the real thing? Sure, it's not that simple, and I bet they decided it's too dangerous... I'm not surprised if they chose the less efficient method."
"Wait, how do I extract a piece of my soul then? Or should I even try if it's that risky?" I was too worried to ask, but we came all this way already. My soul lived in someone else's body, so using her blood was not an option anyway. I wanted a staff though. I needed every advantage to catch up with the witches at some point.
"I show you." The Goddess smiled, and before I flinched, she reached out, to touch my forehead.
Sensations I felt before and could not ever forget.
Our minds quickly came together, and I felt no regret.
Unable to resist all her beauty, charm, and power.
Lower I sunk subconsciously, lower, lower, lower.
Saw light so deep that I did not expect it to appear.
Passing by my old memories, all looking crystal clear.
"Listen to me carefully now" I heard her voice whisper.
"I don't want your soul to fracture, or grow out a blister."
Not knowing what it all meant, just following on a whim.
The lights that shone all around us slowly started to dim.
Ever the so easy to feel overwhelmed and dumb me.
Returned now from all the darkness, struggling again to see.
"W-what was that?" I asked once the voices no longer stunned my brain.
"I used the elven method, it's a lot clearer cut than what the humans developed," Alex explained as if it made any more sense.
I wanted to question her further but noticed a light floating ahead. It looked no more than a firefly, albeit behaved differently than a bug. I saw right through it, and once I reached out my hand passed right through. It floated above my palm next, and I couldn't help, but stare at it mesmerized. The others saw it too, mouths hanging open.
"That is your shard." The Goddess noted. "I randomly picked a few kind memories and helped you separate them from the rest. Here, a cherry seed, try and grow your tree with it."