The Astral soul system-Chapter 210: Natural

Theia rolled her eyes but didn’t say anything. This quest couldn’t be refused so it wasn’t a matter of choice to accept his help or not.

"How much exp would i need to unlock all his memories"

Theia snapped her fingers and a number appeared on the bottom of the quest screen. Zen took one glance and didn’t even bother reading it all. It seemed that extra long lifespan was going to be pretty useful.

Shifting to lie on his stomach he pulled up the blanket, covering himself up.

He didn’t need to sleep and honestly got no joy from it, considering he also had nightmares, but it was a good way to kill time, especially since classes continued as usual tomorrow.

"Good night"

Theia said ,her clothes shifting to a nightgown before she disappeared into the system.

********

Sable groaned, picking her head out of the pillow to look at her watch, the vibrations and beeping ticking her off, especially after what just happened.

She was about to just decline the call when she saw the name.

[Asher]

She gasped a bit, the exhaustion fading from her eyes . She stared at it for a while before taking a deep breath and answering.

A boys face popped up on the screen, he had brown eyes with dark hair that fell to his shoulders. The moment he saw her face, he smiled.

"Sabby. Nice to see you again, especially since you conveniently forgot how to call"

Sable gave him a small smile.

"Hello, Ash. Nice to see you again"

"Oh? Someone’s getting formal? Let me guess, the family head scolded you again?"

"..."

"Don’t worry about it. He just cares about you. He wouldn’t get so worked up whenever you’re involved if it wasn’t the case,"

"I wouldn’t exactly call it getting worked up..."

Sable said,her voice getting quieter and quieter.

"Don’t be dramatic. I’m sure you did fine. The stupid academy competition didn’t mean anything anyway. "

Asher was a close friend of Sable. He’d been with her since childhood and lived in her family’s compound. He was almost family to her, and in some cases,her only family.

"That doesn’t change the fact that i didn’t do anything throughout the whole fight "

"So? Heck,those damn aliens were lucky you got locked out. Too bad about your ring though."

"Yeah,too bad..."

Sable considered telling him she’d actually been in a fight. Whether by good or bad fortune,her entire situation had been missed,which was good since... well... she didn’t anyone to see her bite into a hand, but she also had no credit in the entire fight since the few wounds she gained had healed, and she was only a little out of breath when she returned, and to claim she’d taken down that many on her own was practically crazy, even with her ability, she was too weak to have done that.

Briefly thinking, Sable wondered if it even still counted as an ability anymore. The transformation she’d done was something similar to what the ability caused,yet she knew it was different. Her family’s ability allowed them to transform into a vampire like creature and use their powers,so obviously she’d been taught all about it since she was a child, but what she actually felt when she transformed was nothing like what she’d expected.

There was also one thing that scared her, something she worried her family would find out. Aether was the driving force of all abilities in this world, nothing could function without it and humans were born being able to hold and harness it. The problem was that although she could still feel aether in her body it was...thin, almost unnoticeable compared to before.

It was still there but it had become secondary to... something else. She didn’t know what to call it but it had taken the place of aether in her body, and she could still use her powers,in fact they were even more efficient,so efficient that she was able to completely ignore the original prediction of her family that she’d be able to transform by twenty and mastered it in the past few days.

She looked at the weak colored light of her watch, briefly forgetting about ash who was still talking. She’d been hiding it from others but her energy signature was so weak, you’d think it was a cripple’s diagnostic .

That was the real reason she’d put off communication with anyone who knew her outside the academy. They couldn’t see her like this, and some part of her was worried her father might be able to sense it through the call. It wouldn’t be the first unreasonable thing about him.

Ash who was speaking suddenly paused, noticing she seemed absent.

"Um...sabby. is something wrong?"

She quickly snapped out of her funk, flashing a smile.

"Yeah... sorry. Just a bit tired"

Ash didn’t reply for a few seconds before rolling his eyes.

"Oh, come on sabby. You’re good at hiding your emotions with people who don’t know you. Besides, I’m not a talking brick like the family head. I know you"

’You really don’t ’

Sable thought to herself, looking at the beast crystal she’d gotten from that damned lizard in her other hand just out of his field of vision.

The girl he knew was straightforward with repressed emotions while still being empathetic and considerate, but in the past month she’d reached a level of detachedness and ruthlessness that rivaled even her father who at times was referred to as a demon.

She tried her best to keep her usual personality and even be a bit sunnier than she was before,at least around her friends but she slipped at times, not enough to be out of character, and that scared her, how natural it all felt.

She could definitely remember a time she wouldn’t be willing and even eager to consider drink human blood but right now,it was the only sustenance on her mind, and she couldn’t bring herself to find anything wrong with it.

"So do you wanna talk about it?"

Sable went quiet

Would it really be such a bad idea to tell someone what was going on with her? Even if it was her oldest friend?

She looked at the crystal again, gazing into it’s shiny surface as she considered.

"Alright,i was worried at first but the truth is...."

"Yeah?"

"I... did the blood clan ceremony... with someone "

Chicken

Ash froze for a good second before replying.

"You... have a blood sister now?"

"Brother, actually "

Ash sighed, pulling his hair a bit

"Well the family head definitely isn’t going to be happy about that. You’ve only been there about two months, but I don’t think it’s as bad as you made it out to be"

Sable didn’t know how to reply.

"You did the thing? All of them?"

Sable nodded.

"... Yeah...we drank each other’s blood and did the vow thing"

’Accidentally’

"And you did it properly?"

Sable honestly couldn’t even remember the specifics of the ceremony, but her grandpa had said all that was necessary was the parts she did, and if their hearts were true...or something like that,it was done.

"Yes"

She said, keeping a straight face.

"And you trust this guy?"

Sable went silent again.

"Sable?" 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

"I mean,yes... but logically I probably shouldn’t"

Ash looked like he was about to pull his hair out. What was with that unserious answer. Sable had always been straightforward so why was she now mincing words?

He sighed

"Okay,i want you to answer this yes or no. Do you think this guy would die for you?"

"No"

Sable said immediately this time.

"..."

"Or maybe yes? I don’t know,it depends on his eye color, and even then it’s a maybe "

".... Okay,i take it back, the family head is going to kill you"

Sable honestly didn’t know what to say.

Ash took a deep breath, letting go of his hair.

"Okay... this is still salvageable. The whole blood brother thing is just a stupid ritual the family’s ancestors used to do back when they were still just savages, it doesn’t mean anything serious "

Sable wasn’t so sure of that, and honestly neither was Zen. The way they smelled to each other,the fact that Sable could track them and they could do the same without a brand. There was definitely something special between them, and even the system acknowledged it, though neither of them knew what exactly it was.

"Just... don’t worry. I’ll find a way to get you out of this mess"

Sable realized, that Asher had misunderstood something, maybe because of how she worded it. Get her out? Why would he? She was honestly quite happy with what she had with Zen,or Zyro or Zaine,or whatever his or their real name was.

But it seemed to have given him something to talk about, diverting the topic from her change so she didn’t correct him, not yet, and she wasn’t sure if she ever would, not with how afraid she was.

"Alright, I think we should call it a day. It’s late, and I know how you get when you miss sleep"

’i’m not tired’

Sable thought. She could stay awake for days consecutively as long as she had blood with no physical or mental effects. That observation didn’t really help her, but she was panicking,her mind unconsciously bringing up more and more reasons why she wasn’t like him.

"You’re saying goodbye? What happened,Mr never hangs up first?"

Asher rolled his eyes

"Oh,I don’t know. It can’t be that I’m jealous or something like that,can it?"

Before she responded, he already hung up with a quick bye, leaving her staring at her watch.

She didn’t move for a few seconds,her mind still processing his final words.

"Yeah...I guess it... would’ve made sense if he was my blood brother"

Sable thought back to Zen, sighing as she went back and forth between the two.

"I’ve known Ash practically forever...so why did I never even consider it, and why did it feel so natural with you?"

She sighed, shaking her head to get rid of those thoughts and trying to focus on something else.

She brought the lizard’s crystal closer, looking at it deeply, feeling like she could still see the reflection of those despicable eyes in it.

The scene of Fallon ripping Jade’s armor of her replayed in her mind

"She loved that armor"

She muttered, remembering how she’d been rambling on about how it was her mum’s before they left

Then she remembered how she lost her bow as well, not to mention Zen had taken the sword

"I wonder what I can make out of this?"