New Body

serial killer and a favor

Canren met us at the doors and gave us each a room key. Xin Ai walked us to our room and put away my sword in a corner before heading off to his own room. Turns out, First years are all in the same building. Somehow we'd gotten neighboring rooms. I suspected it was due to something Canren had done.

Both of us were all smiles until we closed the door behind Xin Ai. I turned around to seet hat Canren was already sitting on the bed. She was grasping her hands together, clutching them with a serious expression on her face.

"When you live so long... being despised and feared... it's hard to break free of the assumptions that everyone is going to treat you like that once they find out.

"I know you told me all about yourself... and you felt betrayed when I didn't open up... But i just didn't want you to look at me that way." She took a breath, "Tomorrow, go to the library, ask around. Get all the information you can about the Eidolon. Once you hear the stories, you'll know."

I plopped down in front of the door. "Tell me."

She looked up at me a moment. "Do you remember when I first used the illusion technique on you?"

It was the night my sister disappeared; of course I remembered.

"I didn't show you my real form. My kind don't actually have one. Even less than an apparition, we are more like a fog or smoke. The thing is..." She avoided my eyes, "In our original form, we suck magic out of any and every being. We can't help it; it's like we have a choice. You are just floating, without mind, without consciousness, you just move with the wind. You don't notice that wherever you go..." Her lips were pulled into disgust. Her eyes were torn between crying and laughing.

She was having an inner war with herself. I could tell she didn't want to tell me. I could tell she'd done something horrible and unforgivable.

"If you knew what I'd done... hundreds, even thousands of lives, human and magical alike. It... It was my fault the war began."

I got up without a word and left.

She can only think about the people in the past that she's killed, those that have died in the purge all those years ago. Does she even understand what is going on now because of her? All due to this 'mindless' time of hers? My mother and sister... Does she see it at all?

I knocked on Xin Ai's door. He opened it a moment later, looking like he had just come out of the bath and was trying to pull a shirt over his head. I couldn't even laugh at how ridiculous he looked. He was still wet yet he was trying to put clothes on. Of course I wouldn't work. He tries to ask me to wait.

I stepped inside and closed the door behind me. He was trying to put his arm through while at the same time hopping to get his pants on. His underwear was on crooked. His abs glistened, still dripping wet. His hair clung to his embarrassed face, still smiling. "Sorry, wait just a second?"

I reached up and grabbed his shirt... Than pulled it off in one tug. I reached towards his back, "No." I grabbed the towel. Than I began wiping him down. "I... have a favor."