Circles

Part 4 - Reyna

After his debacle with whatever lived in Milo's mind, Corym went straight to the library. Aside from a few students in the classics section, he didn't recognize anyone there, so slipped unnoticed into the section of the library filled with cursed books and crumbling pages- the section on dark magic. If any shelf held information about possessions, this would be it.

Necromancy 101, Blood healing, Moon Magic Mysteries... not one book title even suggested possession. Corym grabbed an array of books about demons, planes and telepathy, doubting they would lead anywhere.

Oh well, no harm in trying, right?

Leaving the shelves, he barely took a step before running directly into Reyna Vanyyir, glaring down at him.

Great...

"Well good afternoon, Rey, looking wonderful as -"

"Don't."

"And I wasn't going to. What's going on?"

Reyna looked down at the books "what's with these books?"

Corym laughed "yeah no that's not it, I don't see you monitoring other students. Did you see the geology section? People constantly defiling that area, I don't buy your game"

Reyna squinted. "Okay... fine. You're popular here. You're into magic. Looking up dark magic? Looking to do something fun for your little friends? Want to maybe get revenge for your people?" Reyna stumbled over her words, searching for other excuses.

Corym smiled sadly. "You don't trust me with Milo, do you Reyna?" He asked, not entirely surprised. "And this is the first time we are alone, so you're confronting me now while you can?"

"... you saw through me. No. I don't trust you. I've seen you break a heart before, and I've had to pick up the pieces you left behind. Milo is too good, he doesn't deserve that. Plus we all know you want to fight when the war reaches us. What if something happens to you? No matter what happens it'll end badly and I don't know if I can always be the one to pick up pieces".

Corym was stunned. "I- may I ask who it was?"

"Serra. My cousin? Shorter than me, brunette, giggles about literally everything?"

"But - that was literally one date! She called me an orphan and a bastard in the same sentence when asking what my family situation was!"

"The giggles were gone, Corym"

Corym winced. To be fair, making the laughs disappear was worthy of a medal, the task was impossible.

"So..." Reyna continued "if you are just messing around with Milo, it needs to stop. Now. Our relationship might not have worked out but he's still one of my best friends, and you're still the one with the reputation".

Corym groaned. "Reyna please. I-..." He put down the stack of books. "I don't intend to just use him. There's... feelings. I love him, I just need-"

"What?" Reyna said, gaping.

Corym felt heat rise to his face. That was the first time he used that word. "You tell him, or anyone, and you're dead, you understand?"

Reyna held her hands up in mock surrender, chuckling. "Wow, the physics nerd broke the popular kid, that's adorable"

"Ugh shut up. If you must know, these books are for him. Well, for me to help him. You dated him, you've seen his eyes turn red and he just zone out for a bit?"

"Yeah... yeah it happened a few times. But he said that that calmed down"

"Yeah well it didn't. Today was... bad. He hurt me"

Reyna made a face of disgust as he unbuttoned his shirt "ohgods nope I don't need to know- oh..."

Where Milo had shoved him was two red marks, in the shape of hands. One of his ribs felt broken, and there seemed to have been a rune etched into his chest.

"He can barely hurt a fly, Rey, but he managed to knock me to the ground. I am looking for information about possessions or spirits that can take over your mind".

Reyna stayed silent for a moment. She sighed and picked a very dusty book off of the shelf, and opened it to a page in one swift movement.

"I found this some time ago, but I've been needing a second opinion"

Kalashtar

A race of humanoids merged with spirits from the Realm of Dreams. These spirits, called Quori, either run from or serve their master. The latter use humanoids as vessels to learn about the world the Kalashtar inhabits, often influencing their thoughts and decisions through means of fear in the form of nightmares. While most Quori are friendly spirits who communicate with their host through sweet dreams, a small number use the nightmare method, proven to be just as effective.

The section about this race - Kalashtar - went on for some time. Corym and Reyna looked at each other, stood up and left the library. They needed the city archives for this.

Not human...?

Kalashtar.

No art yet rip I'm working on it