Ashen and Nari quickly finish off the remaining DireWolves as Lina trembles with both relief and exhaustion.

  Ashen walks over first, knowing how badly Lina had wanted to prove she isn’t dead weight. He says as he gently puts his hand on her shoulder,

  ”Thanks for the save.”

  Lina looks up and smiles as the trembling subsides. Not noticing Nari with a stern expression behind them as she looks to the dissipating thread.

  Later after they have gathered what they could from the fallen DireWolves, Lina is practicing her magic as she tries to form the thread more times though exhausting it may be.

  Ashen watches with curious interest as Lina forms the thread once more, he glances at Nari skeptically who is paying a lot of attention to it yet is saying nothing, but he keeps quiet as he promised not to speak on the matter.

  Lina however is overjoyed, she feels her mana drain at a rapid rate using the thread yet it makes her so energized at her own success. She turns to Ashen with the widest smile she could muster saying,

  ”Ashen look, it’s physical despite just being energy!”

  Ashen remains quiet but nods as his attention is focused elsewhere.

  Days pass with Lina happily practicing her magic as she learns to form the thread easier though it still takes quite a bit of energy.

  As Lina tries and succeeds in forming her golden thread to be wider at the cost of more mana, closer to that of a sheet of paper than string, she smiles wide once more saying,

  ”Ashen look, I can change it’s form after all, what if I could make swords out of my blessing’s energy?”

  Ashen turns his gaze from her lights dancing in her palm, to her as he responds saying,

  ”Maybe, but you’d probably have to expand your mana capacity first or find a way to make it use less energy.”

  Ashen nods to her golden paper now dissipating after only a few more seconds before it dissipates completely. But Lina won’t let that get her down,

  ”Come on you saw how well it worked against that DireWolf, try being a little positive.”

  Ashen looks like he’s about to speak for a moment before shaking his head as he decides against it.

  Lina gets annoyed that Ashen won’t see how powerful her new ability is so she turns her attention to Nari who is quietly eating some jerky by the campfire.

  Lina stands from the log she was sitting on as she moves to sit on the floor by Nari. Nari says nothing as her shy nature never permits her to speak first so Lina starts by saying,

  ”You see how good this is for us right?”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Nari pauses before taking a bite, she looks over to Lina and responds quietly saying,

  ”Yes, I think it’s good.”

  Lina smiles as she pets Nari’s head, Nari smiles softly as she does so. It’s a wonderful heartfelt moment between 2 friends but Lina’s hand slows as her gaze drifts to the heavy metal collar around Nari’s neck.

  Lina has always hated that Nari has had to deal with this collar, Ashen is suspicious of Nari because of it, Nari is shy because of it.

  Nari notices Lina’s hand pause atop her head, she starts breathing heavily worrying what she did to offend her before Lina speaks again,

  ”Nari, have you ever tried removing your collar?”

  Nari starts trembling and she pulls away from Lina’s hand. Nari covers her head with her hands trembling too much for a simple question.

  Lina wants to help her, Lina reaches down and touches the slave collar around Nari’s neck. Nari manages to gather her courage to speak up but quietly as she says,

  ”Please don’t, don’t touch it.”

  Lina knows Nari is afraid but that fear has been trapping her for far too long.

  As Lina watches Nari tremble in fear over the collar, Nari struggles and pulls away but Lina knows she’s just scared.

  Lina floods the collar with energy from her blessing. Nari starts wallowing in pain but Lina tries to comfort her by saying,

  ”Don’t worry I’ll have it off soon.”

  Lina’s energy gradually starts changing the color of the collar from dark grey to light grey. The lines from the runic etched into the metal start getting filled with golden mana as Lina continues smiling.

  This is it, She can remove the collar with her social gift, she can save everyone, she can be someone good.

  The collar heats up with the energy clashing with each other in the collar but Lina moves past it, she no longer feels her hands burning, the screams of Nari, all that she feels is confidence she can do this.

  As the collar seems to be close to the breaking point though, Lina is yanked away from Nari by Ashen. Lina turns to scream in anger at Ashen for she was so close to removing the collar.

  However as Lina turns to yell at Ashen, he slaps her across the face. Lina hesitantly brings her hand to her cheek which stings with pain, grounding her. This is the first time Ashen has raised a hand to her in anyway, but why?!

  She looks up into Ashen’s eyes which are not calm, they are like blizzards filled with rage yet contained eerily by the cold. She has never seen Ashen so angry before but she was just trying to help.

  Lina yells in anger and confusion,

  ”Why did you stop me? I was so close to removing that stupid collar!”

  Ashen’s eyes do not ease up, he responds coldly instilling a sense of fear upon Lina just by his voice similar to how the Reaper did,

  ”Take a good look at the so called person you were trying to help.”

  Lina is confused but obliges, she turns to see Nari but freezes as she sees her.

  Nari is on the floor retching and spasming in severe pain, burns on her neck, and bloodshot veins.

  Lina steps forward to help Nari but Nari through crying eyes pleads in terror towards Lina,

  ”Please….. Stay away.”

  Lina freezes, she was just trying to remove the collar from her, she didn’t mean for this to happen. She tries to defend herself to Ashen and Nari by saying,

  ”I was just trying to remove the collar from her!”

  Ashen’s voice still eerily similar to the Reaper as he is filled with rage speaks again,

  ”Did you take to consider the life you were risking in removing a stupid piece of metal?!”

  Lina stutters, Ashen has never cared much for Nari or others, so why is he acting up so much?

  Lina goes to argue but Ashen grabs her by the cloak and pulls her in close to face him, Ashen has never been this harsh with her as he speaks,

  ”You risked a life, a person dying, over a piece of metal! I will not let this slide so easily, Death should be avoided at all costs yet you treated it lightly and didn’t care about the life you were risking at all!”

  Lina looks once more to Nari still spasming in pain, tears flood Lina’s eyes as she moves past her preset motion of righteousness.

  Lina tries to apologize but nothing comes out as instead she starts trembling feeling sick. She just acted as all the other Bastards she hates, ignored Nari’s will as she was too focused on the collar.

  She looks once more to Ashen, their team always had fractures but now it feels it is falling apart completely.

  Heretics? What a joke, she just acted as nothing but a Monster.