Novel A Little Evil Makes Them Cuter (Ch. 1-20)

Thanks for the chapter

 

>.>
I dont think I make them cuter tho...

 

Spoiler: Chapter 8 - The cradle chamber - the goddess reasoning

Another attempt to connect with my sister made her stir inside the cocoon, she might have noticed my presence, just like I sensed hers, but that was all. Directly sending her a message failed. Not that I counted on it after all the previous failures.

That was why I instantly moved on to my other idea - using the plant as the intermediary between us to teach my sister how to make her body.

I established the Imaginary character creation screen, a simple one where each slider had a picture next to it explaining the way it worked. Prepared a set of base models to import, not so subtly pointing at how I would love her to look like. Guided the plant so that a lot of 'system messages' were left in the chat, they should cover more troublesome parts of the process as long as she could understand them. And tried to pass the leadership to my sister. She only had to realize my intentions and take it from there.

Nothing happened - it was possible that the plant didn't help to pass forward my imaginary character creation screen or shattered it into incomprehensible bits and pieces.

I tried again.

There was no reaction - Crea might be the reason why it didn't work.

And again.

The figure inside the cocoon turned this way as if wondering what I was doing.

Next to me, Crea snorted shortly in disregard.

'Strange, I was monitoring everything and sensed you working on a body, when suddenly the girl started doing the same. Even though I warned her repeatedly not to. A coincidence?'

'I can't make anything without the plant's help, and she's also connected to it.'

The original goal of plan B assumed creating a body together with my sister, right under the goddess nose. But this result was fine as well. If my sister started to work on her future appearance, then without us cooperating with each other there was a risk of mixing both my idea with hers which would most likely result in some kind of an abomination. Crea's intentions of forcing a body on her without any interferences shouldn't be possible now.

Crea sighed deeply, probably wondering if she should let it go or not. Judging by her squinted eyes, narrowed lips, and crossed arms, the 'not' was clearly winning. But then, as if recalling something, she changed her approach and relaxed.

'My previous behavior was inappropriate. But I want you to understand that each of those bodies costs a small fortune, and it's hard to accept that someone who just became an elf could handle them better than the person who made this place.' She started voicing every message she sent, which resulted in an interesting effect of hearing two Creas. One was talking directly in my mind, the other was probably saying the same content but in an unknown language.

I nodded, the tone of her verbal and telepathic messages matched. The irritation of someone who had his hard work easily surpassed by a random passerby was also understandable.

'The problem with elves is that we're too similar to each other. Everyone's pretty and more or less fits into one of the limited number of templates. We lack many of the flaws of other races, but without flaws, there's no variety. Which means that everyone's boringly good looking. There are pros and cons to that situation, but one of the negatives is that it's really hard for us to imagine an elf that's different from what we're used to. I didn't even believe that it was possible to have a truly unique appearance before seeing yours.' Crea made a short break to cast me another look full of recognition and envy. Then she gracefully sat down on one of the roots and gestured me to do the same opposite to her.

'In other words, I've got some flaws that make me unique? And you want my sister to be unique as well? How and why? And why you don't let us work on it together, simply pass a message or two between us?' I was starting to believe that my flaws were connected to the elven ears and those glistening scales, the only two things she had pointed out. But then, if she wanted my sister to be flawed as well, why did she ask for a change in those two features? Not to mention that Crea herself had those, so in what way I was different from her? Without a broader base of elven samples, I wasn't able to make the connection - It made no sense.

'Don't misunderstand. You're unique in a positive way, not a joke or a monster, neither I want your sister to become one. What I want for the two of you is to become the leaders of a new era of elven history, one tied to a revolution full of rapid changes. I was planning to make the two of you the flag bearers of change by introducing you as the first elven twins. Although just this is lacking and hard to recognize at first glance. That's why I was looking for something else… and then!' She made a pause to underline the importance of her following message.

I already realized what she was referring to, and eagerly waited for the following words. They were going to be like my first small victory. Though the question of why she picked this moment to start talking about this was also on my mind.

'You've created this body and showed me that changes could be way more drastic than I ever imagined, yet still deeply rooted in elven ancestry. Exactly what I needed.' She stopped for a moment, observed my reaction, and went with a final push. 'Are you capable of creating another suitable body, a perfectly flawed sister of your dreams with whom you could share all your joys and worries? If yes, then I will let you make the final check before ending the process, you will be able to freely modify the body your sister is designing. This is almost like working on it together, isn't it?' She shot a quick glance at the silhouette inside the cocoon.

All that talk about becoming a leader, a revolution full of changes, sister of my dreams walking the same path as me - it was all aimed to sway me to Crea's side. I realized that, yet smiled widely, dreaming of the glory to come.

Victor Yelvesfor, this name wasn't that bad.

This attempt to boost my ego and the feeling of importance was well received. Especially since I was wondering if there was going be a place for me in this unknown world and this seemed like a really interesting job offer. Actually, it was more than 'well received', it was super effective. She could easily win me over if only she gave me a satisfactory answer to the vital part of my question.

'And… why exactly I shouldn't ask my sister for an opinion in this matter? Changing the result of her work without her approval is not the 'working together' I'm familiar with.'

The goddess clicked her tongue and said a few thorny words without bothering to provide a translation. She shifted slightly as if preparing to stand up, but it turned out that she just wanted to smooth out her long black dress. Her new sitting position allowed her a better view of both myself and the cradle.

'So stubborn. Because that girl won't try to introduce flaws into the appearance of her long-awaited second body. Her own imagination and elven origins limit her, she won't be much different from any other pretty elven girl, just a silver version. I could forcibly modify it, but then that thorny ball of pride would start doing everything in her power to go against me out of sheer spite. You're the only one she can forgive for messing with her body. Also, if by any chance she decides to recreate the body she used to have, she will inherit its previous owner bad reputation. We wouldn't want that, would we?'

That was true. I was soul bonded with her, given enough time, some pain, and a lot of valuable gifts, she should forgive me for this one offense… even if it was a tad heavy. If I had done it earlier, without knowing anything, I could shield myself by telling her that I was forced into it. Now Crea gave me a new shield, one with engraved letters 'I did it for you'.

And 'messing with my sister's body' had a nice ring to it.

The problem with my new elven self was that every emotion was reflected outside. I just finished re-learning how to walk, taking hold of all the impulses and obvious signs of body language had to wait.

Luckily, Crea must have misunderstood my expression as she followed with:

'I can see that you care about your new sister, but I think that you also care about the dream of standing atop the others, you want to rule over them, be a pioneer of change. Of course, having your twin by your side would make it all even better, but she has to fit the role.' The elven goddess finished her message with a slightly mocking tone, wanting me to fill up the blanks by myself.

Was I willing to ignore my sister's will, just this one single time, in order to make our joint wish come true? A good question, but it wasn't one I had to answer anymore.

During our entire conversation, Crea was talking aloud and kept sending me the meaning behind her words telepathically, but it was neither a sign of her goodwill nor an attempt to make me familiar with the language. The few times when her attention slipped, and she shot a quick look at the cocoon, joined with the following shift in her sitting position, confirmed this. It was a calculated behavior, not a one fueled by kindness. Crea kept an eye on the cradle, ready to immediately stop any unexpected situations - like for example my sister starting the process without the final confirmation.

It looked that I wasn't the only one who switched to plan B after the initial problems. And I had to admit the goddess had good plans. In other words, there were two goals behind this long explanation. One, to indirectly convince the girl inside the cocoon, who heard Crea's words, to change her mind and allow for some flawed modifications or at least prepare her for them. Two, use me to make sure that my sister's body was going to be equally unique to mine.

The reason behind not allowing us to communicate was because the goddess thought it would be easier to handle each of us separately. Convince my sister - I would respect her will. Convince me - I would take the brunt of my sister's wrath. Letting us join forces would turn two matches 1vs1 into one 2vs1. At least she was reluctant to use force which meant that she was planning to create long-term cooperation. That was really important. It made her words and plans more believable, and unlocked additional options.

'Crea. There are a few things I would like to tell you.' I stood up and waited for the goddess to do the same. 'First, it's stupid.' She looked at me questioningly, while I started enumerating everything on the fingers of my outstretched hand. 'The whole scheming thing, if elves like to attach so many strings to simple matters, then I don't even want to know just how messy is your political situation.' She wasn't happy with my message but didn't deny it. 'Second, never try to use me without my knowledge, especially to scheme against my own little sister. This time nothing happened so I will forget about it.' Inwardly, I prayed that she wouldn't snap and that her no violence policy was a solid one. 'Third, I'm a simple guy. I guarantee, if you've told me 'make your little sister the best little sister in the entire world!' and allowed to talk with her, I would convince her to let me make her truly unique and one and only. No other elven girl could ever come close, and we would avoid this huge waste of time.'

'It's not hard to make a unique monster, but she still has to look like a silver elf.' Judging by the tone of her inner voice, I was really testing her patience.

'Do I look like a monster to you?' I pointed at my well-built elven body. 'I realize that it's hard to pass the control to someone who just popped out of nowhere and that you stand to lose a lot. But you're too paranoid, already entangled in the safety web you tried to create. What's the difference between us working on it together or me simply doing it on my own? Both options are equally risky to you. However, you've said it yourself, I'm exactly what you wanted and more. Let me just ask her for permission, that's all.' I skipped the part that she was looking down on me and probably didn't believe that I would be able to convince my sister, and a few other things that I wanted to say. Pointlessly risking everything just for the sake of my satisfaction? Sure, but I had to be able to overpower the other party first.

The goddess stood in silence, pondered over my words and again began to analyze my body. Then, out of nowhere, jerked her head in the direction of the cocoon and started spewing a long stream of elven insults. Each of them different, each of them filled with anger, each made me jump a little.

She pushed me away and went to the cradle. Then tried to do something by concentrating on it, but judging by her expression it didn't work. My sister turned out to be no less talented than me, or Crea's security measures were some kind of a free trial version that had long expired. No matter the reason, this result was a good one for me.

After a minute of futile attempts, Crea angrily turned my way, and I began preparing to face another beast made of air, or worse. Telling myself that this body was too important for her to gravely hurt it was the only thing shielding me from panic.

'Did you plan it out?!' She screamed inside my head. 'You had to! One short moment of inattention when you distracted me with words and gestures and your sister somehow finalized the process? Yeah right!' Crea closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm down. 'I swear, if she wasted my precious body to create something mundane… There are still a few souls left, I can try again.' She was serious, my shield began to crack.

For the next fifteen nerve-wrecking minutes we stood in silence. From time to time, she released the excess of anger in the form of incomprehensible insults. With her in this state, trying to explain anything would only sound like looking for a fight. Our entire debate had pretty much lost all its meaning. In the end, neither of us convinced the other, but it wasn't entirely pointless, I learned a few things.

When I felt a droplet of fluid hit my cheek, it was the sign that everything was ready. We both watched as the cocoon slowly opened and revealed the figure within which was...

... more than unique.

My sister probably created a whole new subspecies of the elven race. Both mine and Crea's reaction to it were silent, but the reasons behind them were diametrically different.

I was about to scream with joy, but stopped myself, not wanting to startle the kneeling naked girl.

Crea didn't say anything. She only helplessly sat down, probably to digest the sight in front of her. The fact that she didn't kill us yet was a good sign. But it could still happen as soon as the goddess restarted her brain.

 

Still, 'messing with my sister's body' had a nice ring to it.
....lmfao Thanks for the chapter!

 

Spoiler: Chapter 9 - The cradle chamber - striving for perfection

I still wasn't sure why Crea insisted that my body was one of a kind. But in the case of my sister, there was no need to think about it. That girl took a lot of little inspirations from my memories to improve her overall appearance but also included one big thing that overloaded Crea's mental circuits. It was also the reason why it was hard to treat my sister as a pure silver elf.

But before losing myself in marvel about that element, I took a good look at the rest of her body. Neither the term innocent nor seductive could be used to explain the first impression she made on me. If I had to describe her in one sentence, then all that would remain after including only the fundamental things was:

My sister looked extremely huggable and would perfectly fit inside my arms.

The petite girl was slim and small - barely reached to the middle of my chest. In comparison to Crea's mature adult charm, hers might never stray too far from the cute wickedness. Although, some signs of the former were present and made the term 'adorably alluring' fit her perfectly. She had shapely legs, ones that were going to look great in stockings or knee socks which would emphasize her springy calves and thighs. A pair of small perky apples was barely hidden by her arm - raising and descending to the rhythm of her breathing.

The main elven features - silver variant - were all present in top shape. Her skin was pale and easily tinted with red. It looked really smooth, she would probably never have to worry about depilation. The damp silver hair was long, up to her waist, in its most natural perfectly straight state. It was like a challenge to me, just how many beautiful hairstyles could that hair be possibly shaped into? Twintails were a given. The long and slim pointy elven ears made me want to touch them and check if they were as sensitive as they looked, discovering my sister weak points was going to be fun.

The bloody red eyes were slightly slanted and had this evil gleam to them. This together with her cold smile, somewhat sharp facial features, and the aura of pride she wore even in this vulnerable state made her look like an uncaring evil princess. I couldn't wait to melt this icy princess and lure out her rare sides, the ones I saw while scanning her mind. For example, the mischievous side who wore a constant small smile showcasing one of the sharp fang-like canines. Or the needy, childlike one that demanded attention and a lot of patting. Her body was different from the one she used to have, but those reactions should be the same.

But her most prominent elven feature was the silver underskin scales. She had them in the corners of her forehead; small patches were present on the sides of her slim waist; some were visible on the inner side of her thighs. However, instead of making her look like a shiny trinket, their glitter was toned down to elegantly merge with the skin without standing out.

All those features made her exceptionally enchanting, she might have been one of the prettiest elves, but that wouldn't be enough to call her truly unique.

The one big thing that made her special was actually split in two.

Growing out from the lower part of her back were two long and thin tails. They were currently coiled around her legs. Each of them was covered with dark silver scales that were utterly different from the underskin ones. Those were bigger, created a protective layer on top of the skin, and had a black metallic luster. The tails were about a meter and half long, and had a very sharp looking tips in the shape of an arrowhead. Something told me that in the eyes of my sister, they were more of a weapon than decoration - an external manifestation of her thorny character.

"Pass me that." Said my sister and jerked her chin at the nearby basket with clothes. Her pale skin was quickly changing colors, like the rising sun, while she tried to cover herself with one of the cocoon's big leafy petals.

"L-let me h-help you." I offered, but she shook her head, took the basket, and carefully, not allowing me to catch more than two or three accidental glimpses of her naked state, moved behind one of the remaining cocoons. My 'perfect plan' wasn't prepared for the option in which she would awkwardly hide behind an obstacle. But maybe that was for the better, I actually froze when giving her the basket, not knowing where to look or how to behave.

She was and wasn't a stranger at the same time, a very confusing situation.

We should probably take it slowly and get used to each other step by step. Nevertheless, those few glimpses were precious, and I burned them deeply into my glorious silver elf's brain - 32K resolution. The very first pictures inside the imaginary album titled 'my adorable little sister'.

Only when Crea started muttering something incomprehensible and stood up, I realized that my sister talked to me in the language I knew well. This also helped to remind me of the situation we were in. I would love nothing more than to slowly and deeply talk about a thousand and one things with my sister, but there was no time for that.

However, Crea didn't say anything. She was just standing with closed eyes, deep in thought, massaging her temples. Looked like we still had a moment for consultation after all.

"Should we escape?" I asked the hidden girl, trying to sound as casual as possible in the current situation. Not understanding the words, didn't equal not understanding the general meaning, a lesson the goddess involuntarily taught me.

"No point in running, we've got no chances." My sister responded in a similar manner.

"You've got any other ideas?"

"There are a lot of holes in my memory, but the goddess shouldn't hurt us, that would cost her too much. She didn't fish us out from the river for no reason. By the way… I'm glad you're a true silver elf now… but well… nevermind. I will respect that thing, it's your choice and the effect is surprisingly good." Her voice was melodic and playful, but there was a hoarse undertone to it that caused her to sound slightly wicked.

"What thing? And when did you learn this language?" I decided to follow her lead and change the topic to something lighter. She was right, Crea might seem dangerous, but if I looked at the actions alone, then she really helped us and had yet to do any actual harm.

"The long ears and fairy scales. As for the language, I learned it from you of course, I copied it from your memories. You didn't copy mine?"

"I had troubles with keeping myself in one piece, and you tell me to study a new language on top of that? And what's wrong with those two elements? I really don't get it."

"Heh, not study, simply copy everything. I've made copies of a lot of things from your memories. But don't worry, I will teach you this world's language and some basic elven common sense while at it *giggle*." She sounded really amused and even included small laughter, but then changed her tone back to a cold neutral one and said: "Don't talk to me now."

Since my elven ears easily caught every little noise that came from behind the cocoon, it wasn't hard to realize why she told me that. She struggled with putting the clothes on, not used to the new body, and had to concentrate solely on it to make any progress.

Watching her naked state had been too big of a hurdle for a beginner like me, but listening to the friction between the material and her skin was just right - this corrupted thought made me feel like trash. And the sleazy smile crawling on my face made me look like one as well.

On the one hand, I wanted to help her with every trouble she had. That what older brothers were for, to guide and protect their cute little sisters, and to tease them a lot but that was for later. On the other, I had troubles with stopping the influx of perverted ideas.

I had to correct myself and win her trust, so that next time she would accept my offer to help.

When my idealistic dreams were going through a harsh reality check due to the first face to face interaction with my new little sister, Crea reached some kind of a conclusion on her own. A small shudder ran down my spine, announcing that all three of us were now connected telepathically. Apparently, physical bodies weren't as much of an obstacle for her as she had told me.

'Obey or die.' This message was sent to us both 'Come out, now.' This was an order for my sister. No objections would be tolerated, and we both knew that. On top of that, the air around Crea started swirling threateningly.

Playtime was over.

A few seconds later my sister stood in front of us. She stood straight and proud despite the fact that she only managed to put on a pair of panties and a short-sleeved green blouse. She was also trembling slightly, either from cold as her long hair was still wet, or because she was pushing her new body too much. The previously coiled tails were now randomly swaying behind her. And I wasn't the only one unable to stop every emotion from being reflected outside. Her skin didn't go back to its natural pale color even once since she emerged from the cocoon. The angry expression clearly showed that this half-nude state was really hard to bear for her proud self.

'Go and stand next to her.' I carried out this order without a word. The fact that she bothered with making sure that we would all understand each other raised my spirit. She watched us in silence for a very long minute. 'We scrap the twins idea, there's no way you can pull it off. I don't care how you are going to call yourself in private, but in public, you're not related to each other. Understood?'

'No. He is my brother, and I'm his sister. That's important. You can't deny me this.' My sister's rejection was lightning fast and made me feel ashamed that I was actually considering Crea's words, and terrified - the temperature around the goddess was quickly rising. Clouds of vapor began to raise from my sister's damp hair.

'For heaven's sake! FINE! Just not twins, you look like thirteen years old, and he's around twenty! For a pair of silver elves, that's fucking thirty-five years of difference! Why did you even made yourself look so young? People won't treat you seriously, fuck.' For once, Crea included even the translation of the many swear words she used as soon as something didn't go according to her plans. Or just stopped filtering them out.

'I've got my reasons.' That was all my sister had to say in this matter.

'And this? The fuck is that?' Crea moved closer in an attempt to grab one of the swinging tails. She was about three meters away from us, and we were already sweating profusely. It wouldn't be strange if we got burned if she came any closer than that. My sister involuntarily took a step back but stumbled.

This time I was able to act.

I caught her small hand, helped to regain balance, and placed myself in between the goddess and my sister. Shielding the latter from heat.

It was hot.

Burning. Hot. Fuck.

Crea stood in front of me, waiting for me to move.

It hurt. Scorching hot. Shit.

No more. Too hot.

It hurt. Too much.

My skin was burning.

'T-that's a t-tail, a very c-charming one.' I answered the question instead, hoping that it would end this endurance contest.

An additional wave of hot air exploded from Crea, forcing me to release the grip on my sister's hand to shield my face. I was unable to stand the burning sensation any longer and moved aside. The temperature wasn't enough to peel off my skin or cause severe burns, but those damn elven senses made me feel as if I was thrown into a pot of boiling water.

'Those - things - are not the flaws I can accept. I'm going to cut them off.' The goddess didn't immediately push forward, an evil smile was present on her face after obtaining that small victory. She started to concentrate the entire heat around her left palm.

Her words made me angry, and being angry from a safe distance was pretty much all I could do at the moment. I didn't even know how my sister reacted to this situation. I was too ashamed to look at her.

I turned my anger at myself, at Crea, at this entire situation into words:

'You're blind Crea. You call me unique and different, yet I see no difference between the two of you and me! Am I different just because there's something in me that you can accept?! Is that all your era of changes can achieve? A tiny change that I can't even notice? But when a truly unique being appears in front of you, you're unable to accept her! You said it yourself that it's hard for you to imagine an elf different than the others, and that you want to make one. Don't you realize that you're still bound by those shackles? How can you talk about starting an era of rapid changes when you're unable to accept a true change?! Now imagine that everyone's going to be like that. Rejecting the things that are new, different, and strange. You think you can conduct a revolution and convince them to change, while in reality, you're just one of the many who are unable to break through the life they're used to? Good luck with that.' I threw it out like a machine gun, worried that she was going to stop me if I made a single longer break.

To my surprise, Crea looked at me with eyes full of jealousy.

'That's the way of thinking of a short-lived race.' The goddess started sending in calm, tired manner. 'The elves are different, you see-'

'Are you going to give me the 'with a life spanning over the centuries, it's hard to make sudden, big changes' talk?' I interrupted her and immediately continued. 'It's you who doesn't understand. Change is a change no matter if you live for a ten, a hundred, or a thousand years. Something that used to be like that is now like this. Some changes are for the better, some are for the worse. That's all there is to change. You think humans accept revolutions with a single nod of their heads as if nothing ever happened and that's it? Hell no, everyone's afraid of change, fearing that the next change will be for the worse. The main role of a leader is to convince his people that the changes he wants to introduce are going to be for the better! It's equal to earning their trust.' I made a short stop to catch a breath and checked her reaction. I was sure that this speech could use a lot of polishing, after all, I made it on the spot, yet she was actually listening attentively.

However, her palm was still wrapped in a layer of burning hot red particles.

Luckily, I still had some more things to say.

'And why the hell are you jealous of being able to change? It's the human race who has all the rights to be jealous of you! Elven body and mind are superior, it's impossible to disagree with that after trying it out by myself. On top of that, the elven lifespan is so much longer, there are so many changes an elf can experience in his life! One revolution? Hah! I bet that you went through at least a dozen shocking and history changing events. If not, then just kill me now. Living for a thousand years without anything ever changing? That's the most boring thing I ever heard!'

Only after sending it, I realized that in the spur of the moment I went way too far with my last statement. But hell, it was too late to take it back. I closed my eyes and prepared myself, praying that Crea had an eventful life. Like always, it was easier to be brave with words than with-

The attack came from behind.

A small fist hit me in the kidney and cause to groan from pain.

"You foolish coward. Those tails may be more important than your life, but don't go and get yourself killed before I grow bored of you. And don't think I'm some kind of a weak maiden who needs your protection." The attack power of my sister's words was zero. She was behind me… which meant that when I moved to the side, she did the same and was still using me as her shield.

'Crea, isn't information and technology what you really want? It's one of your bad habits to get fixated on a single point and ignore the rest. Our bodies are more than acceptable. If you are going to get stuck every time when something's not perfect, then we won't get anywhere.' Sent the girl who slowly moved from behind and once again proudly stood by my side.

It was hard not to stare at her, but I somehow limited it to a minimum.

'You… you still remember his words?' Crea pointed her slightly shaking finger at my sister, and we held our breaths. If Crea still wanted to cut her tails off, there was nothing else I could do. But then, the burning aura wrapped around her left palm dissipated. '... finish putting on your clothes, or is that all you're going to wear? You get turned on by standing half-naked in front of your blood-related brother? Works fine for me hehe…' The goddess laughter was an empty one, she looked tired and mentally exhausted. 'When she's done, I will show you to your rooms. Let's rest for today, and tomorrow I will explain the situation outside.'

Against the combined power of my arguments, my sister's personal remark, and probably the price attached to those two bodies - Crea gave up. But we also suffered, I was red like a lobster due to light burns that hurt like hell, and it was getting worse with every minute. My sister was red like a thousand suns, Crea words dealt a heavy mental blow to her.

"Need help?" Once again I offered a hand to the silver-haired girl. This time my expression should be clouded by a grimace of pain.

She ignored it without a word.

I guess my timing was bad.

 

Thanks for the chapter on here too

 

Spoiler: Chapter 10 - Reality check - who am I?

Something was wrong. Both Crea and my sister were incredibly surprised when I walked into a wall and hissed with pain. For me, they were the strange ones for being able to navigate in total darkness easily. They exchanged a few words, ones that I wasn't able to understand since Crea had removed the constant telepathic connection, then the blonde goddess created a small ball of shining particles. It began to orbit around her lazily. The dim white light it produced was enough to avoid further collisions and give me a better understanding of this place.

It was a set of tight corridors carved in a rock. Occasional wooden doors, and rarely a more solid looking metal ones, could be found in irregular intervals. Except for a layer of dust, this place was rather clean, and there were many decorative elements such as marble statues, landscape paintings, and intricate wall engravings located in various niches together with carved benches and tables. For sure it didn't look like a dungeon, and I wasn't so sure about it being a castle's cellar anymore.

Behind one of the open door, I spotted something that looked like a dining room, behind other was a simple bedroom. Medieval cellars were mostly designed for such things like storing food and wine in a cool environment. Well, it also wouldn't be strange to find inside a little dirty secret or two. I bet most nobles had a secret tryst or torture chamber - possibly both, or in Crea's case the cradle room. But either Crea had a lot of secrets stuffed behind all those closed doors and liked to keep things pretty, or this place was designed as a pleasant underground living space.

However, except for us, there was no one in here, and that floating ball was the only source of light. There were no sconces attached to the walls to hold torches, no magical crystals, no signs of candlesticks as if providing light to this place was never taken into consideration.

But ventilation was. I could feel a draft coming from small holes drilled nearby every crossing. Either we weren't that deep, or there was some mechanism pumping air through those corridors to keep the atmosphere from going stale.

When I started wondering just how big was this place, Crea stopped in front of some door and broke the silence with a few sentences directed to my sister. The latter was breathing heavily, it took her a lot of effort to keep up with the goddess' quick pace, even I was slightly winded despite us walking no longer than ten minutes. A good night's rest should really help with acclimating to this body.

'Your rooms are here.' Sent Crea, and pointed at the door. 'Inside should be everything you need. I will come and fetch you tomorrow. Stick to the girl and don't make me look for you all over the place.' Without giving a chance to ask any questions, Crea extinguished the light and walked away.

For a moment we stood in silence, listening to the quickly fading footsteps. Even when they were gone, and my sister caught her breath, we still stood without a word. I didn't know what to say, or more like, I had so much to say that I didn't know where to start. It would help significantly if I could at least see her expression and judge my words based on it. Damn, someone had to make the first step, for example, I could ask her about… - blank -.

Why the difficulty went up so much just because we had bodies now, weren't in danger, and were alone?! Shouldn't it be the other way round?!

Hell, anything was better than this awkward silence. One thing, I needed just one thing to talk about, and the first one that came to my mind was… 'can I use you as a body pillow'? Yeah, good idea…

... almost as good as immediately starting to look for a new sister, cuz if I said that then this one would forever look at me with disgust.

I was inwardly panicking, to the point of completely forgetting about the stinging pain of my burns. What if I said something bad? What if I ruined everything? What if she would never open herself to me? What if I already was too far gone in her book? I sacrificed myself once for her and chickened out one time as well. Minus one and plus one equaled zero, right? But ultimately I kept defending her… with words… and would give up if Crea pushed one more time... not good.

It used to be so easy, one peek inside her mind, and I knew what exactly to say and how to behave. Now? Damn, I might as well start from the beginning.

Thank the heaven's she took the initiative. Her voice was slightly tense:

"Do you-"

"- have a name? Yes, my name is Victor Yelvesfor, have we met somewhere?"

Brain meltdown, her words triggered mine.

"- plan on moving? You're blocking the door." She finished her question with a confused tone. It also sounded as if there was some anger mixed within.

The temperature of my face went up by at least ten degrees. All the blood was rushing to it after all.

Right, move, I had to move, I was blocking her way. Why was I still standing here? Damn, another mistake.

I frantically started walking forward but was stopped by a small hand which suddenly grabbed mine.

"You want to smash your tomato face on a wall again?" Her voice sounded kind of worried and troubled, but it could also be interpreted as irritated and unhappy. I desperately kept looking for the true meaning behind her words, for her real thoughts, goddamn soul bond, why it didn't convey them anymore?!

"Calm down!" She pulled me a step closer to her.

I did exactly as she told me to - calmed down. Took a few deep breaths. Focused on the feeling of her warm and soft hand. Made sure that the soul bond between us was still there, it at least allowed me to sense her presence. Hoped that she would forget about my entirely out of place introduction.

"There are no pesky souls around… no irritable goddess… no damn river… no strange plants… so listen well, just this one time, ok?" Her voice was gradually losing its initial strength until it turned into a whisper. "B-brother… this sounds so nice, I'm so glad to finally have one." Her grasp around my hand tightened. "You're not the only one who doesn't know how to behave… but you made it easier for me, thank you."

Our connected hands and her words gave me the push I needed to stabilize myself. She showed me a glimpse of her honest side, and it made me realize that I was an idiot. Why was I even panicking so much? Because I couldn't peek inside her mind anymore? I should know better than anyone that her words and behavior were rarely going to match her real feelings, and that was precisely why I should treasure every single moment when they did.

On the other hand, I was still insecure. Unable to trust without proof. Worried that I would disappoint both her and myself if I started pushing my unrealistic ideal image of a little sister on her. The nasty residue of the person I used to be in previous life. Nevertheless, my goal was set. I was going to make her honest with herself when it was just the two of us.

First step - I had to achieve that myself.

"Sister, my own precious little sister." I whispered and felt her move, then something warm and soft hit me.

It took me a second to realize that it wasn't a strangely weak tackle attempt. This was the world's most awkward hug. Actually, it was even hard to call it a hug. She jumped in, collided her body with mine, jumped out. Didn't give me time to react, neither tried to embrace with hands.

"Wait." I stopped her tries to release her hand, she probably looked no less red than me. "I can't see anything. Please lead the way."

My sister stopped fighting against our physical connection, and a minute later said:

"... can't be helped. Follow me."

Being honest with her was impossible on a long run. Not yet at least. We were both relieved that I found a proper reason to keep holding our hands. But it was all I could manage to do, anything else was too much, and even that short exchange cost me my entire supply of courage.

The first step of the first step - try to talk with her like we did when Crea was around.

Yeah, that should be a good place to start.

"There's a short corridor and four more doors. Give me a moment, I will check what's behind each of them." We moved inside, and she happily described what she saw, firmly pulling me behind, unwilling to separate. "There's a small pantry and storage behind the first on the left… and there's a toilet behind the door opposite to it… and two identical bedrooms behind the second right and second left. I'm taking the left one." Once in a time, her tails smacked against my legs, their swinging movement must have been involuntary. But it was easy to ignore and tolerate… completely different to the pain of my burning face that came back in full force as soon as I relaxed.

"How can you even see anything?"

She didn't answer but took me to what should be my bedroom judging by the way in which we moved. Then she sat me down on a bed and unfortunately our excuse to hold hands was no longer valid. I heard her walk and sit on something about three meters from me.

"Alright." She started with a slightly sad tone, then cleared her throat and continued in her default cold one. I guess that was the end of our today's bonding session. It was time to talk business. "First, I want to talk about names."

"Oh?"

Bonding session bonus time?

"You've said you're Victor Yelvesfor. How come?" A little anger crept into her voice.

"I picked the name myself, kind of. The surname was forced on me by Crea. It's actually a simple wordplay that means-"

"Idiot." She interrupted. "That's not what I want to hear. What I want to know is why you're Victor Yelvesfor? You like it?" Her anger was more perceivable now, and I had no idea why. Just a minute ago everything was going smoothly.

"Are you angry because I asked if we've met somewhere before? That was just a little joke to relax and-"

"You don't get it! Who am I? Think."

Why was I suddenly thrown before a question that felt like a critical one? Who was she? That was simple, she was my little sister. But was that the answer she wanted? How else could I answer this question?

'Think Victor, think. Who is she? A silver elf? A little sister? The girl soul-bonded to me?' I started enumerating various options inside my mind, but none of them felt like the correct answer. She didn't have a name yet, and her past one was lost.

"Looks like I was the only one who wanted to seriously treat you as my sibling." The anger in her voice was still there, but it was being replaced by something grimmer.

I had a bad feeling. Somehow I was hurting her pride and effort, and I didn't know how and why, but I knew that if I allowed this to continue, then she was going to say something that was going to be like a thorn in our sides.

"Wait, please. Give me five minutes."

"..."

Did I like that name? Who was she? How not knowing the correct answer to those two questions made her feel that I wasn't treating our relation seriously? Did she want me to give her a name I liked? As a sign that I was thinking about her? Then I would be able to answer the question about her identity.

But she was wrong, I was thinking about a name for her since the time I picked mine.

Top five that were left after a lot of brainstorming were: Victoria, Argenti, Erica, Luna, and Circe. Victoria was obviously prepared since we were going to be twins, but that didn't apply any longer, and I crossed it out. Argenti and Luna were both connected with silver, but she was already silverish silver and giving her even more silver in her name would be an overkill. Circe was the Greek goddess of magic, a witch, enchantress, I would use it if she made herself look more mature. Erica was included simply because I liked it and it had the best short form out of them all.

Erica Yelvesfor… shit… so that was it.

I just realized why she was so mad. She was right, I was an idiot. An idiot who forgot to ask her for an opinion in this matter, even though I was so hellbent on stopping Crea from doing the same. There was no way she would accept that name now.

Once I stopped focusing on myself and included her into the equation, the pieces all fell into their place.

There were not two but three questions she asked. 'How come?' which could be understood as asking why I was treating the surname that was going to affect us both as something that was already set in stone since I had yet to talk about it with her - at this point, our names could be easily changed. 'You like it?' she wanted to avoid fighting with me with this simple question. I just had to answer 'yes' or 'no' and we would start debating about our shared surname. But I made a mistake and complicated everything, which led to the third question. 'Who am I?' was a critical one. If I had said something like 'you're Erica Yelvesfor' which meant that her own name, her identity, was also already decided entirely by me, then that was no different from treating her like a pretty doll.

"Sorry. Our surname is open to debate. Yelvesfor is just a placeholder."

"Hmmmmm…" I could literally feel the anger evaporating from her tone with that prolonged sound. "Who am I?"

"The little sister of Victor Yelvesfor. What do you think about Luna Yelvesfor? It would fit you nicely."

"You like it?"

"I do."

"I don't. It's actually a common elven name, heh even our world is called Erluna. I might have liked it more if you didn't take so long to answer. Anyway, Luna's rejected. What's that wordplay you mentioned connected with OUR surname?" Her mood was definitely improving I could hear the rhythmic sound of her tails hitting something in the background.

"Victor Yelvesfor, the harbinger of 'victory for elves'." I said in a theatrical manner.

Sitting in an unknown underground room, in total darkness, listening to slightly wicked young girl's laughter that was quickly gaining on strength, joined with a constant feeling of pain due to my toasted face - somehow, it wasn't as bad as it sounded.

*Pfff-hahaha!* "Brilliant!" *Hahaha*.

She continued laughing aloud for the next few minutes, whispering both the name and its meaning under the nose and inducting wave after wave of laughter. There was a short, loud, cracking noise mixed within.

"Hey, don't demolish my bedroom. I can't see them, but those tails just broke something, didn't they?"

"*giggle* One sec. *giggle* I'm ok now. It was just a vase or something, nothing important. I was going to reject that surname as well, but it's too good. Now I just need a good name for myself, but don't you dare to make a pun out of it. For sure not something like Victoria, it's too connected with yours, I don't want to overshadow your victory."

"Hoh? Why you're so sure that it won't be me who gains power and glory?"

"Glory? Why not, it's going to be shared between us after all. But power? It may shock you, but I'm already far ahead. You can't even activate your elven traits."

This one hurt. I guess previous elven experience gave her a nice head start. Not that I was going to give up, personal strength was important, and my position as older brother required me to be at least stronger than the little sister I wanted to protect.

"I will catch up to you soon."

"I'm counting on it. But it's going to be hard. There are two main reasons why my body looks like this…" She made a short pause as if wondering if she should share them with me, but in the end, decided against. "Anyway, gimme more names. I want something from your world, not connected with the elven ones I know."

Just as she wanted, I gave her a lot more dummy ones, and as expected she declined them all for one reason or another. Wouldn't be strange if she rejected everything I proposed only to teach me a lesson for that previous mistake and then picked one by herself. But more important than that was the fact that somewhere along the line we started talking normally. All we had to do was to stop actively thinking about how to behave or what to say. Maintaining physical distance and the quiet, private atmosphere helped as well. It was a delicate, unsteady balance, but it worked.

A small mental note appeared inside my mind, one that should constantly remind me that our soul bond wasn't created due to luck or by coincidence - we were compatible with each other.

"What about Argenti?"

"Meaning?"

"Silver."

"Ain't that like the fourth or fifth one connected with that color? Come on, give me something more original."

"Circe, the goddess of magic, a witch, enchantress, but you look too young to pull it off."

Was she going to take the bait?

"I guess… it has a Crea-like vibe to it. Give me something opposite to it. I like my young appearance, you know how many enemies can be fooled by it or will hesitate just because I'm a pretty little girl? And something tells me that Victor Yelvesfor is one of such fools."

And that something was right, but I wasn't going to admit it.

"I'm merciless like a machine."

"The merciless you has tears in his eyes... still hurts? Don't rub it, strange that it didn't heal already. But it's just a little burn, why do you act as if you've been doused with boiling oil?" She asked out of curiosity not contempt, her childlike side slowly taking over. A pity I couldn't see her. But it was just what I needed to push forward with the 'Eri-Eri' plan. I hoped that I would be able to pull it off without freezing in mid-word.

"Because it's Intense, really intense, the pain in my previous life was set to easy mode. Well, at the moment I've experienced mostly the downsides of superior senses, but there's also one excellent thing I'm extremely grateful for."

"What thing?"

"Without elven sight and senses, I would never be able to fully appreciate j-just how c-cute you are Eri."

That was it, I hit my limit and was able to say only one basic flattery instead of the flowery speech I was preparing on the side. I hoped that the lack of response was a good sign, then proceeded to the next part of the plan.

"Eri, what do you think about it? It's a short version of Erica. And has a youthful vibe to it, just as you wanted."

"Eri… Erica Yelvesfor." Her voice was barely a whisper, but hearing her test the way it sounded was akin to the trumpets of victory. However, the next sentence that came after keeping me waiting for a minute was said in an entirely different manner. "Eyes full of hope, sitting on the edge, carefully fishing for any sounds from my side, you're even biting your lips in anticipation." I was wrong, the only victory was the mocking one contained inside her voice. "A small lesson for you, don't compliment the elven beauty, there's no point. Telling an elf that she's pretty, cute or beautiful will only get you a roll of her eyes. It's only a given that those words can be applied to us. If you want to make an elven maiden blush then attack the point that makes her different from other elven girls, even if it's a tiny difference. Not to mention that your shy attempt and shaking voice were unsightly."

That would be it, 'Eri-Eri' plan failed. I was an idiot who forgot that my body reflected every emotion and in comparison to me she saw everything. Not to mention that her reaction was completely unexpected. Where was my younger sister who should happily accept her new name after I said that embarrassing line? Or was she just hiding her true feelings? If only I could see anything - irritating.

"Heh, it was worth giving a try, I really like that name."

"Hmm… Are you trying the 'I will be honest maybe then she will change her mind' approach now? Such a cruel fate, I'm not only more talented but also smarter than my older sibling. But you're lucky, you know? For a moment I was about to again get angry since it seemed that you didn't care what name I will end with. You were throwing them out without a second thought, like sheep to be slaughtered." She said it in a way as if I should be grateful to her. It was starting to be annoying, she was getting too full of herself.

"You were planning on rejecting them anyway." There was a sharp edge in my voice.

"That doesn't mean that they could be random ones. Erica's rejected. Continue, but give me only the ones that you really think will suit me." Her tone also gained in severity.

She was no longer trying to remove her pride and make an active effort to discuss everything together - her last sentence was an order.

"Hell no." I was about to add a few more harsh lines, but ultimately only clicked my tongue. Our conversation wasn't fun any longer, but there was no point in turning it into a fight. Instead, I lied down on the bed and turned my back to her. I could use a good night's sleep anyway.

She kept waiting for me to say something else, but all she got in return was silence.

"Have fun stumbling in darkness." She spat out and stomping loudly went out of the room, closing the door to it with a bang. Now I had to figure out how to see in darkness by myself. And we didn't even touch more pressing topics like where are we, what to do, Crea's plans, elven common sense and more.

Fuck, all I wanted was to hear one single 'sorry'.

This wasn't the way how I imagined our first extended conversation would end like. But it was her fault, she was being unreasonable. If she thought that I was going to jump around her and fulfill her every whim, then she was wrong. I wasn't going to be always afraid of saying or doing something only because it could anger my little sister. That definitely wasn't the way I wanted our relationship to look like. Why wasn't she more like the sister I imagined? Why it was me who had to wreck his brain on thinking how I wronged her, but she gave up in a heartbeat while it was her turn?

I cursed my elven ears for catching every little noise. There was this muffled sound coming from behind the door.

She shouldn't treat me like she was the better one, but I already knew that it was going to be hard to make her see us as equals. She should tease and get teased back in return, but I already realized that she wasn't used to it. She should have her own opinion, but ultimately always agree with mine, but that was no different from making her a slave. She should be more warm and considerate, but wasn't it me who thought that her wicked and selfish self was better? She should say what she was angry about without playing that little game of 'guess what', but I never told her that. She should treat me better, but wasn't I, in her eyes, already receiving special treatment?

Should and shouldn't, should and shouldn't - a lot more comparisons of my ideal to reality followed. However, I also realized that I was no less unreasonable than her. My values and expectations were contradicting each other. The anger and irritation quickly cooled down and were exchanged with a depressing feeling of not knowing what to do.

Additionally, to the ability to scan our minds, there was another thing I liked about the river of souls - any and all negative emotion could be erased before they matured in the background of our minds. It made accepting the other party flaws so much easier. Without it, I had to learn how to cope with them anew. We might have been compatible with each other, but it was easier said than done.

And I wasn't the only one who was disappointed by the result of this reality check. For a longer while now, Eri was walking in circles on the corridor. I bet the ideal brother in her mind should understand her without words and be an endless source of patience.

True… picking that surname for us was my fault, but that was why I tried to make up for it. Alright, maybe scheming to make her agree with the name I picked wasn't much different from trying to force my opinion on her, but she didn't have to react so badly to it. It was just a small game… no that was wrong. Would I be able to say the same if our roles were reversed? But for sure the moment when she stopped trying to 'talk' and started to 'order' was her fault.

The sounds she made were now joined by entirely new ones, damn silver loli was luring me outside. I guess it was her way of trying to make up for her mistake... This kaleidoscope of feelings wouldn't let me sleep anyway.

"A perfect one would be boring." I muttered silently and stood up from the bed. Then started stumbling in the darkness, looking for a way leading toward the source of those noises and a sweet smell I knew well.

It would be an eternal stain on my honor if instead of protecting my little sister like the older brother I always wanted to be, it would turn out that I was the first one who made her cry. However, if there was one thing I was sure, it was that this proud girl wasn't the type who would openly cry unless she was deeply hurt by someone she really cared about. And unfortunately, I had a long way to go before becoming a person capable of making her cry.

"Eri! Leave some wine for me!" I yelled to the girl who was probably in the process of pillaging our pantry.

"Shut up! Don't call me that!" She yelled back, made a few more loud gulping noises and added. "And come here already, or I will eat your portion!"

She also wasn't the type who would easily apologize, but it seemed that she had other means of doing that. Otherwise, she wouldn't start something that sounded and smelled like a picnic right under my door.

 

Thanks for the chapter! I am going to stop replying and checking here and just use Royalroadl

 

Sure, it would be great if you kept leaving a message over there, even a short one, if you liked the chapter. They're one of the things I'm looking forward to.

 

well if they mean that much to you I suppose I could sure

 

Spoiler: Chapter 11 - Reality check - finally honest

"Stop." Said the elven girl as soon as I opened the door. Seeing my still sour face, she quickly added: "That wasn't an order, I just don't want you to step on food."

"Why did you set up a picnic on the corridor?"

"Neutral ground, good for negotiations. There's a good spot to sit down, one step forward and half step to the left."

"It's fine to speak normally, the words aren't a problem. Just don't make them sound as if you're ordering a servant who has no right to refuse. I want to make up with you as well." I added the last sentence and made a small forced smile so she wouldn't mistake my words for patronizing ones.

While carefully sitting down I heard her mutter 'we're not making up, we're negotiating', followed by the sound of a healthy sip of wine. It reminded me how parched I was, and a little boost of courage wouldn't hurt.

As if reading my mind, or merely deducing it from my expression, she said:

"Thirsty? Stay still."

She moved closer, grabbed my hand and slowly guided to the prepared items that stood nearby. At the same time, she named each of them in her native language and wanted me to guess what it was, based on touch and smell. There was a jug of wine, a ceramic mug that was already filled, a small metal box, and a bowl of something.

"Some kind of jerky?" I wanted to take one and give it a taste, but her small hand was still holding mine. I would hate to ruin this unexpected pleasant situation by making her misunderstand my intentions.

"Kind of. The rations are made of dried venison mixed with herbs, and leave that for now." She finished explaining, took the metal box I was trying to open and went back to her own place.

A bit of skinship, free meal, and language lesson - all in one. Her way of saying sorry was way better than mine. But words were all I had at the moment.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have ignored you like that."

"You're right, you shouldn't. But… what was that you said a moment ago? 'The words aren't a problem. Just make sure to actually SAY where I made a mistake instead of silently turning your back to me', am I right?" Her tone was thorny, didn't match the message she tried to convey at all.

A tricky situation. On the one hand, I wanted to return those words right here and now, she also had me spinning wildly for a while by not saying straight what was the problem with the name. On the other, she had given me some hints and extra time to think. However, there was a way to prevent similar situations in the future without ruining our 'negotiations'.

I found the mug, drank the wine, poured myself a second serving since the taste was superb, and emptied the mug again. It wasn't strong, the alcohol was there mostly to help with storing it for extended periods of time, but it had a vibrant blackcurrant taste.

"Our minds are floating toward the ideals. Ideals that aren't us."

"Your point?" She asked coldly, unsure as to the goal behind my words. I heard her drink a few big sips.

"We're going to quarrel, that's an unavoidable part of the process of growing closer, but I want to have a safe line. A promise that will help us to make up every single time quickly. You can think of it as an official treaty signed and enforced by both parties, it's a crucial part of any negotiations."

I gave her some time to think and tasted the dry rations. Damn, long live elven palate, it was finger-licking good. I thought about stopping myself from eating everything at once to relish the taste, but chewing hurt. Those burns could chill out already.

"Hmm… interesting. State your demands."

"First, let me double check. Breaking a given promise is?"

"A death sentence!" Her response was wickedly enthusiastic and full of life.

We were in a complete agreement. A person who broke a verbal promise was as good as dead to us.

"After every fight, no matter who started it or whose fault it was, we…" I paused, searching for the right words, for a way to make it sound like a proper solution.

"We?"

"Remember it's only an idea, a proposal, don't throw anything at me or something, alright?"

"We?" She put more emphasis on it this time, and there was a full of hope undertone mixed within. Nevertheless, I bet she already had her own counterproposal.

I emptied the fifth mug of wine, there was no more left in the jug, a pity. Anyway, it was a 'do or die' situation.

"... after each quarrel, we will maintain some kind of physical contact, for example, hold hands, this way no one can't just walk away before we make up. No matter how long it takes, we will remain in close proximity."

"You shameless pig! In other words, you want to sleep with me in one bed, ain't you?!"

Her voice was strangely happy, and all mugs were still in one piece. It was a good sign, and I pushed onwards.

"Don't play this card now! You're not much different, this is a shared dream! We both want to fall asleep while using each other as pillows!"

"What if others will see us?! You're a perverted monkey. You know what kind of rumors that will start?"

"And I say, who cares about others!"

"I care! You horny dog~."

So happy in fact that I began to doubt myself.

"Then we will make sure no one finds out!"

"... but… but… no. We can't. You uhm… corrupted turtle?" At this point, she stopped even trying to sound serious, and I realized that it was all a farce - one that I began at the time when she emerged from the cocoon.

"We can. It's just sleeping and hugging, nothing more, completely normal for siblings."

"Is it? Oh, found a good one, you unethical horse!"

"It was in my previous world. Now stop using this situation to discover new ways of insulting me with animals and say what you really think."

"I'm happy. Really happy. You're still there. The incorrigible pervert. The person I bet my everything on."

That confirmed it. I had been too focused on making our relation normal, while in reality it was far removed from that word. It was time to put away the mask protecting my delicate inner sanctum and face her without it.

Still, I had to take a moment to rethink everything.

If I had just said the first thing that came to my mind back then: 'can I use you as a body pillow'. Then maybe I wouldn't try to unsuccessfully play the role of a nice brother that didn't suit me at all. It caused me to doubt my every move and walk in mental circles. On top of that, she responded to it with hiding behind her thorny wall, scared that I was no longer the person she created the soul bond with. Worried that the 'me' she shared her dreams with was destroyed during that episode with the red soul.

I should have realized it the moment I saw her new body. The fact that I found it extremely huggable wasn't a coincidence. It was a body tailored to my tastes, she wanted to be hugged every single minute when it was just the two of us - to make up for the entire previous life of being lonely.

"Don't tell me... if I had screamed with joy and tried to hug you as soon as I saw you emerge from the cocoon, we would have avoided this entire situation at a small cost of a bruise or two?"

"Exactly, I would have hurt you in front of Crea, but then made it up to you when she was gone. But what I got instead? You were treating me like some kind of a girl to conquer and tried to make yourself look good in my eyes! Screw you! Go conquer yourself!" She paused, redirected her raising anger to a few unlucky pieces of dried rations, gobbled them down, and continued in a calmer tone. "In the river of souls, I made sure to include my every emotion together with the messages I sent you and it worked so well. We accepted each other, right? All our good and bad sides. Then how the heck next time I saw you, you were thinking something along the lines of 'I have to make her slowly open up to me'? Goddamn idiot, as if there was any need for that! You've got a name for me? Say it! You want to hug me? Say it or do it! I will refuse or not, it's my right to do. But don't dare to scheme behind my back or play mind games with me, this I won't tolerate."

"Sure, I will say it! You could have just said it straight. How was I supposed to know all that? What was the point of that 'who am I' question? I thought that you would break all your ties with me if I forced a name on you!"

"How? Don't you get it? That's the beauty of our relationship. It can't be broken even if we wanted to. Our souls are connected with soul bond, our bodies are connected with blood ties, we share the same dreams! You scanned my entire mind, you should know that I ain't perfect… there are times I may get angry and unreasonable, even regret everything, but in the end, there's no method that would allow me to end it all without a trace. Like it or not, something will always remain, something that will force us to negotiate. Yet you still said that our minds are floating in different directions? And I thought I have problems."

I was searching blindly for more wine, I needed it - so much effort was wasted on pointless worries and needles thoughts. Opposite to me, my sister filled her mug, drank from it, and passed the rest to me. I took both her mug and the jug she placed nearby.

"Of course you have problems. You can only say all that after making sure there are no pesky souls around, no irritable goddess, no persistent river, and no strange plants. You would never be able to open yourself to someone who didn't scan your mind first. But why you had to test me despite fulfilling that unreal requirement?" I asked, though I already knew the answer. But she wanted to release all her pent-up emotions and the least I could do was to help her with that.

Wait... was it a type of a mind game? Hmm.

Nope, it was just a pat on the back to help my little sister.

"Really now? You expected me to be true with myself? Even though all that time you were hiding as well? Before, I saw your perverted side in its full glory. You were protecting it like a chest full of diamonds, but then *poof* it was gone. Why? How? Where? Did that red trash damage you beyond repair? Who the hell was this guy who shyly turned his gaze away in front of the naked me? Where was the super joyful scream I was waiting for? Were the dreams we shared also gone? Did you forget about them all? For a moment I thought you became a different person, and it was sickening you know? Infuriating and terrifying. I didn't know how much of you was still there and had no easy way to check. If not for the soul bond that remains… It's just as you've said I can't be true with myself in public or with someone I don't trust…" Accusation, relief, honesty, happiness, anger, and expectation - all mixed together. She finally let them all out and cleared her mind.

There was the sound of jugs, mugs, and bowls being moved away. She removed the little physical obstacles on the road between us.

"Better now?" I asked in a kind tone. No more pretending, it was time to act accordingly with how I truly felt. Though her internal image of me could use some slight corrections. I wasn't that much of a pervert.

"Much better. I'm so glad you finally gave me the confirmation I needed. What took you so long? You should know well that I always wanted to fall asleep while holding hands with someone."

"Wrong assumption. I was convinced that you can only move from 'harsh' to 'meek' with nothing in between. Now I realized that the true you is a mix of those two."

"Of course it is. Both are me. I don't want to remove one mask just to put on another… not when it's just the two of us. What are you waiting for? Start patting already. I already wasted one life away, don't tell me to take it slowly in my second one."

After a moment of blindly scanning my surrounding, I found her way closer than expected.

She was sitting with her back to me, prepared to receive the anticipated caressing. However, despite her brave words she was tensed and shuddered each time my hand brushed her neck or touched her silky hair. For a moment I hesitated slightly, but then remembered her words. She wanted me to be true to myself, and I wanted a bit more than only to smooth out her hair. It would also help her with getting used to my touch.

I embraced her gently and pulled toward me in one swift move. It startled her, and she was trying to resist that sudden pull. But after realizing that if she wanted to, it wouldn't be hard to break out from my embrace, she understood my intentions and leaned against my chest. We were sitting on the floor, my arms locked around her petite body, hers were busily setting our legs in a comfortable position.

"I s-said p-patting…" She kept wiggling around, unable to relax.

"You don't like it?"

"M-maybe taking it a bit s-slower wouldn't be t-that bad..."

"Understood." I bend over her and slowly traced the outline of her long, smooth elven ear with my nose, enjoying both the pleasant sensation and her nice natural smell. The sense of achievement was enormous - to think that this proud girl who not so long ago refused to take my helpful hand was now drowning in my arms, and wanted me to pet her. As I explored her ear's every nook and cranny, she started trembling. A small cute sound escaped her mouth, but she wasn't going to let any more out - a set of sharp teeth dig into one of my arms. Her tails wrapped themselves around my waist, quickly increasing pressure on it. Those ears were more than sensitive, but I feared that she was going to snap my spine if I teased her any more than that. "Eri, that's how I'm going to call you, alright?" I whispered and moved back to hugging alone.

"Never in public, n-never. Got it? I'm Erica Yelvesfor. Eri's reserved j-just for w-when we're alone. You owe me a b-big one for accepting this name. And c-careful now, cross the line, and you will regret it."

Our hearts were beating wildly, I bet she was flushed red both from wine and the surge of new stimuli, but she had nothing to worry about. I was perfectly content with holding her close. That was more than enough, more intense than I could ever imagine. At last, my elven senses were working hard on refining something positive into a genuinely exquisite sensation. We might have skipped the beginning steps, but I wasn't going to rush things now. I wanted to make every single thing memorable and explore this area together, piece by piece. It was way more fun this way.

For the next few minutes, I sat with her snuggled close and enjoyed her warmth and softness. We finally said what we really wanted, stopped moving in the wrong direction, and found the way to interact that felt just right.

"Heey~" She started in a very satisfied voice. "That was on my mind since I saw you… but should I call you my brother… or sister? Which one do you want to be? I would prefer if you didn't take it any further and remained my brother."

"Huh?" Her words broke me out from the charm of the moment. "Where did that come from?"

"Well, male elves have short ears and no scales… if I have to put it in human terms, you've got a handsome face and a nice, well-toned body." She triumphantly rubbed her cheek on my nearby biceps. "But those long ears, they're like a pair of perfectly shaped breasts. And the fairy scales." She took my hand and guided it to trace the ones on her own forehead. The skin in that place was a lot colder and rougher compared to her smooth, burning cheek. "This, it's no different from using lipstick, makeup, and those other things girls in your world did to make themselves prettier."

"... wait. You want to tell me that in the elven eyes I look no different from a tranny?"

She turned back, placed her hands on my forehead, and traced the scales in its corners with fingertips. "A really good looking one..." But then took a look at my ghastly pale, shocked face, and sighed very deeply - my soul was about to depart from the wide open mouth. "You didn't know after all? Ok, that's enough skinship." Eri reluctantly released herself from my limp arms and moved away. "We need to fix your ignorance before it gets you killed. Let's talk business now."

The reason why Crea called me unique - was hard to swallow.

If I gave this body back and covered the production costs, would it be possible to get a new one?

 

Thanks for another great chapter!

 

Spoiler: Chapter 12 - Reality check - of elves, fairies, and doors

Eri's memory had a lot of holes, and she had only a vague idea of how much time passed since her previous life. When I told her that Crea had mentioned something about it being three hundred years, we decided that there was no point in discussing any of the probably already outdated matters such as the elven race status, technology level, or various aspects of everyday's life. We left those topics for the golden goddess to explain, she already indicated that things were bad.

"Crea's not a true deity." Interjected my sister, passed me one of the pillows she just brought from our bedrooms and sat nearby. We were still in the pitch black corridor, but now the cold, stone wall became a bit easier to lean my back on. "She's a golden elf, 'the goddess' is an exclusive title that was given to her ages ago."

"But you called her 'my goddess'?"

"Fish my soul from the river next time, and I may call you 'my god' in return. Her power is real, which is both good and bad for us. Let's stick with her, repay our debt, and work on earning profits for ourselves on the side." Eri's calculating tone touched upon the important topic of owning Crea a lot for the things she did for us.

This reincarnation didn't belong to the popular type that had no strings attached and came with a powerful cheat on top of that, but it could be worse. I was given a second chance at life, nice starting race, room to call my own, and someone to rely on. 'Good looks' benefit was currently suspended - conducting a further investigation was scheduled for the future.

"Any chance of getting away without paying her back?" I asked, curious if opportunistic options should be taken into consideration. "Just in case."

"I doubt it, wouldn't be strange if she had some means of tracking us down. But being a leader of change doesn't sound that bad." She said with a note of expectation, and I nodded in agreement.

After discussing our plans for the future some more, I asked about the underground place we found ourselves in. However, Eri insisted that first, I had to learn more about our race and its common sense. Apparently, it should make explaining how to use my elven traits easier. But she didn't hide that it was also because having a brother who was ignorant about his own prestigious ancestry was shameful to her.

In my opinion, elven ancestry was about as important as the progenitors of the plant which created our bodies. I would even say that our roots lied somewhere else, but that didn't seem like a good topic to joke with an elven supremacist like Erica.

The elven race consisted of three subraces - the common elves, the silver elves, and the golden elves. My assumption that since the last group was the most powerful, therefore the other two were its diminished descendants was wrong and earned me a punch on the arm. According to the elven mythology, all three of them appeared more or less at the same time in history, took the glorious title of the first civilized race in the known world, and were akin to half-siblings - the results of unions between a being called 'the forefather' and three different types of fairies. The three main arguments supporting this theory were:

One, the elven anatomy and physiology were similar. The three subraces shared physical and mental similarities - many of them, but not all. The clear division in power, and some specific traits like our pale skin, silver hair and red eyes, were said to be the result of the differences between the fairy ancestors.

Two, the elven subraces were capable of creating offsprings among themselves. But they didn't mix, the child would always take wholly after one of its parents - Eri warned me that it was a simplified version since she didn't remember the details. Moreover, sexual intercourse with other races would never bear fruits and was deemed taboo.

Three, the involved fairy types were still around. Although they didn't pay much attention to recording history, it was confirmed that each treated the corresponding elven subrace as the honorary member of their kind.

In the case of silver elves, our fairy ancestors were called Grimfey. They were a secretive and rarely seen type of fairy that lived in small colonies underground, usually close to a natural 'Erluna's eye' - a fancy term to say mana spot.

"Just remember, there are many different types of mana, you can't categorize them all with one word." Eri's words brought to mind the image of the wind wolf and the red-hot particles released by Crea. "Erluna's eye is a place that releases small amounts of origin mana. A pure type that has no clear properties except for serving as fuel to be absorbed by our internal mana cores." She paused, and a second later I felt her cold finger gently poke my forehead. "Minuscule amount of origin mana is all around us, and all living beings absorb it automatically to refuel the mana core that is located somewhere inside the head." She didn't go back to her previous position, but moved her pillow closer and leaned against my arm, searching for a warmer place to sit.

"In other words, to turn on the night vision, I need to move that origin mana to my eyes?"

"Not exactly, you need to circulate it, I will explain more in a moment. Oh, and after being absorbed, we don't call it origin mana anymore. It changes into life energy that can be used to strengthen your body and activate various racial traits. But once the mana core is full, then you stop absorbing more origin mana. Try to guess what's the fastest way to gain more power." The vicious undertone in her voice made it easy.

"Since I can't get more automatically, and everyone has a personal tank full of it then the answer is to take it from others."

"Exactly. After killing a living being, you gather its life energy into a specially prepared life stone, usually in the form of a necklace, and then you can try to absorb it. When used correctly, it should result in your mana core starting a process called 'overflow' that will permanently increase its capacity. More capacity equals more origin mana that can be absorbed, and that gives you more life energy to circulate through your body. Of course, a similar result can be achieved through training and meditation, but monster hunting is the way to go. Wars are great as well." My bloodthirsty sister happily talked about her hobbies. But I knew that she also liked board games, though never developed a true passion for them due to slaves being poor opponents. "Remember, I skipped a lot of details since there's no time to explain everything. And I'm unsure about a few aspects of it, like manipulating it outside of your body."

"You mean casting spells like Crea?" The perspective of doing the same got me excited.

"More or less, I'm confused about the mages myself."

Eri was sitting on her coiled tails and constantly shifted her pillow, unable to find a comfortable position to lean on my arm. And it was starting to be a bit irritating. Without a word, I carefully grabbed her, gently pulled away from the wall, moved her pillow down to create a barrier between her lower back and the source of cold, and wrapped my arm around her shoulders instead, snuggling her to my side.

"Better?"

"M-much better." She answered in a tiny voice, but then cleared her throat and tried to return to a more neutral tone. "Careful now, pillows don't move. I really like the warmness, and want to enjoy it, but that's it, nothing more, alright?"

"Sure, but I could use a second you, my left side is cold as well." This remark escaped my mouth before I thought it through.

"Hmm? Well, we can get ourselves a nice slave later. I don't mind if you pick a girl you like." Replied Eri as if it was the most natural thing in the world. In my ears, it was no different from a divine revelation.

"REALLY?!"

"Of course, I need someone to do washing and cleaning, slaves are unable to disobey so I can actually act freely around them, and you won't be able to do anything to that girl anyway."

"... that last part-"

"Shhh~." She impishly placed one finger on my mouth. "I can't wait to see your crestfallen face, but that's for later. Let's go back to the topic now."

This mistake might not have been devoid of consequences after all.

Then she really went back to the topic and started to remind me that I couldn't skip training. Personal experience, reaction time, fighting style, and even pure muscle power were equally, if not more important to life energy. The results of the various strengthening methods with the latter differed significantly depending on the body and mind.

Damn silver loli ignored all my attempts to learn anything else about that slave issue.

Then she went even further back to the previous topic and finally made clear how it was all connected with our subrace and this place. Eri's explanation shattered my image of silver elves living happily in tree houses and beautiful elven cities.

Pale skin, silver hair, bloody red eyes - those three features were the effect of low exposure to sun rays and our Grimfey legacy. In other words, we were the underground type of elves that had low tolerance against sunny days. Moreover, this place apparently looked like a district of silver elves, and those were usually situated right underneath big, old elven cities.

However, after 'the pact of tolerance' was issued by the grand king Tyren el Viore, all elves were forced to live together on the surface. Mostly to stop the political movements demanding further separation, and to strengthen the ties between the three groups. Eri said that as a result, there were no such underground districts in newer elven cities - most silver elves switched to building comfy cellars of their surface mansions.

The problem was that, three hundred years ago, during the time when Eri lived, the grand elven kingdom was already crumbling apart. All old elven cities with such underground districts had been long razed to the ground.

This place for sure didn't look pillaged or ruined.

Then where the heck we were right now? A good question to ask Crea later.

Long story short, being able to see in darkness should be as natural and easy to me as breathing. Other elves were also capable of that, but not without spending some time to learn how, and it would never be anything more than a weak darkvision - visibility of maximum two or three meters and seeing everything in shades of gray. While for us, it should be able to replace the need for light entirely. Erica said that she had no problems with distinguishing between colors and could even regulate the light's intensity.

Other perks of being a silver elf included the ability to heal faster when not exposed to sunlight, and increased sharpness of the senses required to survive underground. The last one was instinctual, and it was something that I already did without even realizing.

"Checking out the ventilation wasn't coincidental?"

"Yup." Eri confirmed my words, happy that at least one thing came to me naturally and without problems. "I also made sure that there was a sufficient air circulation. Don't be surprised if you detect underground streams, Elruna's eyes, some magical ore deposits, and a few more things. Noticing small changes in the air composition is also natural. We may not be as good at this as dwarves, but there's no need for that. And this is the only thing that this magically challenged race can beat us in."

Eri stopped nesting by my side and moved to sit opposite to me.

"I will teach you the basics, and then we go to sleep, ok? What's with that happy grin? We're sleeping separately, I'm tired and need some time to myself. Also don't get used to it, today was special and I allowed you for more than I should… our first day together… you e-even t-touched my e-ear..." Eri's voice started trembling at the end, somehow I had this feeling that she needed time for herself to hide in her room and roll in delight on the bed.

"Don't worry little sister, what happened between us, stays between us. And it's better to take it slowly, right?"

"Of course it stays between us! You're dead if you tell anyone." Together with her words, I heard as one of her tails swooshed sharply through the air and broke something ceramic. After a moment of silence, Eri provided a short justification. "Controlling them is hard… like an extra two limbs that do whatever they want."

I had enough of this darkness, it stripped me of the privilege to see her troubled face.

"So, what do I do to see?"

"Close your eyes, focus on your brain, scan it for anything that's different."

"Like an implant?"

"What's an 'implant'?

"An artificial object inserted into one's body."

"... hmm… it's not physical. Your internal mana core is more like a feeling, a place where life energy gathers."

Following her instructions, I closed my eyes, focused on the brain, imagined its every detail as if I held it in my hands like a part of an anatomical model. I took a look at it from every side, searching for anything that would seem different.

"It looks like a normal brain?"

"You fool, you're trying to look at it? That's wrong. You will automatically replace it with the image you know, and have you ever seen an elven brain before? Wait, that's not the point. Give me a sec, I never had to explain it before…"

While my sister was busy with brutally murdering all my confidence in her teaching methods, I tried to look for that 'internal mana core' on my own.

Luckily, Crea showed me how mana looked and felt like. I could still feel the effects of her demonstration on my face. I decided to put that ridiculously high spec brain of mine to good use and compare every sensation I remembered from my previous life to the current ones. Looking for anything that was reaching my brain now and hadn't before, or anything that was even a tad similar to Crea's magic.

To make the process easier to handle, I imagined myself floating in a black empty space, upgraded the blurred body appearance to the current one, and started to exclude every stimulus one by one, akin to sifting them through a sieve, hoping to find any trace of that 'life energy'.

Sight - better, but that wasn't it.

Hearing - improved, but no luck.

Taste - god's tongue, but nope.

Smell - tested on Eri, worked perfectly, but no mana signs.

Touch - worked in mystical ways, but not the ones I was looking for.

Balance - was getting better, no magic in here.

Acceleration - didn't really try this one, but that wasn't what I needed.

Temperature - sister was hot, wall was cold, mana was nope.

Pain - way too much of it, no mana spotted.

Hunger - … no.

I run through all the main ones. Surprisingly there was a whole bunch of others left, but proprioception was the only advanced sense I could put a name on. Moreover, it was disturbingly easy to cut myself from the outside, like flipping a switch. Well, maybe not entirely. Everything I already checked and excluded was still there, in the background, and some minor ripples caused by it were continually spreading around the black zone. Somehow, I had this feeling that it wasn't how true meditation should feel like.

Among the weaker sensations that were usually drowned by the rest were:

Proprioception - heh, that was the one Eri had to tame in order to use her tails. Focus, focus... negative.

The silver elf's underground bundle - excluded.

The sense of the passage of time - excluded.

The foreboding sense of... of murky something that was seeping from somewhere, which didn't explain much. But, entangled into it was a piece that felt a bit like Crea's mana. Bingo?

"...or!"

I focused on that murky one. It was strange, different from the rest. Was it coming from my mana core?

"...tor!"

But if it did, then why if felt so foreign? And it seemed to be fighting within itself.

"...diot!"

A sharp smack to my face rattled the insides of my skull and prevented from pinpointing the true nature of that something. All of the excluded senses came back without delay, putting a stop to my internal scan.

I saw a small fist en-route to my nose.

"Wake up already!"

"Eri sto-!"

Her punch had her entire weight behind it. She hit like a pro. On top of that, I reflexively tried to move my head away and collided its back with the wall behind.

"Ugh! Shit… it hurts…why did you do that?" I groaned from pain and stood up since my sister was already on her feet.

"Finally!" In front of me was Eri with an alarmed expression. The joyous hope that seeing her meant I somehow succeeded in turning on my night vision was cruelly torn to shreds after realizing that it was caused by the dim red light coming from five sources.

"What the hell is that…?"

"You tell me! First, you stopped reacting to everything, then those rusty doors literally replaced the wooden ones! Piece by piece! What's going on?! Ain't those letters from your world?!" She stood close to me and kept looking around nervously.

The door to my bedroom, the door to Eri's bedroom, the door to the pantry, the door to the bathroom, the door outside - every single one of those doors was replaced by a massive, rusty, red door.

Each of them was identical, fortified with three solid horizontal metal bars, and had a small flashing red lamp attached to the middle of the upper part. There was no visible way to open them, no handle, latch, or a keyhole. They looked like doors to an old factory or abandoned isolation ward. Each had a small welded metal plate with the same inscription made with letters from my previous world:

[We are sorry, the asylum is currently under construction.]

[Please provide the required building material.]

[Progress status: 1,25%]

 

Thanks for the chapter!!

 

Some pictures that may help with imagining how Erica's Yelvesfor different sides look like:

https://imgur.com/iFSZd9G
https://imgur.com/Ss0Palo
https://imgur.com/B24s5Ip
https://imgur.com/OS0l4WU

 

umm maybe don't use that last link...XD but yah other than that thanks for the images I mean thanks for the last one too but still

 

damn man, I came to learn about posting my own stuff, now I'm three chapters deep and struggling to get back to business. This is damn good. keep it up, I'll be reading the rest of this later.

 

Looks fun, and dark-ish, great combo.

 

Spoiler: Chapter 13 - Reality check - parasite

After I read that inscription, there was no time to investigate the metal doors further. From each of them, a concise and sharp sound of dissonance resounded, and things started to return to their original state. The rusty red intruders lost all semblance of reality and began to fall apart into pieces as if they never were anything more than a thin layer of falsehood painted over the previous wooden doors. The last thing I saw, was the broken piece with a red flashing light attached to it. It fell off the wooden surface like a chunk of metallic shell, turned into dust, and then the darkness returned.

Using my remaining senses I tried to ascertain the situation, but the uneasiness and fear strengthened by the pitch black surrounding weren't so easy to remove. However, it didn't seem as if we were in immediate danger.

"Eri, how does it look?"

"Don't call me that you blind fool. My name's Erica. They're gone without a trace, everything's back to how it was… almost, you smell it?" Her thorny correction meant that she had marked this place as no longer safe.

"Yeah, it still smells like rust. For a brief moment, those rusty doors were unmistakably here. And it's just as you've said, those letters were from my previous world. I was scanning for-"

"Wait." I heard her move. She picked up something metallic from the floor and opened it. Then she put a small, cold, round object in my hand. "Shake it hard."

After a few confused movements of my wrist, I realized her intentions. The marble ball sized crystal started emitting weak greenish light. The more intensely I shook, the more I could see - up to the point that it became akin to holding green candlelight. But the moment I tried to stop, the light went out immediately.

Intrigued, I shook it closer to my eyes. Inside the transparent crystal was some kind of fluid with little fragments of something that looked like moss. With the corner of my eye, I saw that Eri took out a second small ball from the metal box and pocketed it.

"Is this some kind of a magic item?" I asked, glad to obtain a light source, even if it was a hassle to use.

"You know what you are? A disgrace to our race. The only adult silver elf who's unable to see in darkness and is happily shaking a kid's toy." Her deprecatory voice joined with a disgusted expression, as if she bit on a juicy bug, was really hard to ignore. But being able to see how the charming scales in the corners of her forehead shifted in response to her frown; or the way her silky silver hair flowed down to her waist and was from time to time brushed away by an alarmed move of one of her slim scaly tails; or the domineering pose she pulled off so easily with arms crossed on her meager chest - the fact that this angry ice-princess had been snuggling to my side just a few minutes ago caused me to respond to her with a broad smile.

To my surprise, for a very brief moment, she showed me a smug smirk of her own. One that together with the evil gleam in her slanted red eyes, made her look as if she was pondering about the best way to make me suffer.

But why it also made her look so adorably wicked?

It might have been too late for me.

Nevertheless, this short exchange and the glorious return of vision helped to slow down my accelerated heart rate. It was way better than running in circles and repeatedly asking 'what was that?', 'what to do?', and so on. Eri's presence was like an anchor that stopped me from falling a victim of the eerie atmosphere and the foreboding sensation I found within myself. And since my sister wasn't moving more than two meters away from me - it worked both ways and kind of reminded me how we helped each other in the river of souls.

"Should we stay, remove all doors just in case, and wait for Crea?"

Bizarre doors replacing normal ones were about as coincidental as it happening right when I found something strange inside my brain.

"No. Let's go and look for her now. Tell me everything on the road, it's definitely connected to you."

I could understand her desire to start acting instead of passively waiting, but moving from here didn't seem like such a good idea.

"Do you know where to look? Or are you planning to check everywhere? This place seems rather big. I'm not sure what Crea told you, but I was warned not to wander around. Wouldn't it be better to talk, rest, and wait here since she's pretty much guaranteed to come to us? And, heh, since we agree that it's connected to me-"

"Shut up!" Eri reluctantly admitted that I was right and grabbed her pillow from the floor.

In the meantime, I took a closer look at the pantry door hinges. "Lifting them up should be sufficient."

"And then what? Smash them into splinters? The stone door frames as well? Leave it and follow me already." She snarked a little payback while standing close to the door of her bedroom and poking my pillow with the tip of her shoe.

Once inside, she pointed at a small square desk and gestured to use it to block the door. I put away the delicate vase that stood on it and started pushing the piece of furniture. Luckily the desk wasn't that heavy.

"You think this will help?" The improvised barricade seemed flimsy at most.

"No, and don't." She stopped me from trying to take place beside her on the bed. Then jerked her head in the direction of the only chair. "Sit there, let's talk... and put away that toy already, I can't tolerate watching you play with it any longer."

My anger against those stupid metal doors was slowly building deep inside. It wouldn't be strange if Eri didn't let herself relax for some time now.

While sitting in the chair, hugging my pillow close as a poor replacement, I started telling the silver girl everything. Though there wasn't much of the story to narrate. She was mildly surprised that the way I used to conduct the internal scan worked so effectively but had no idea what could be the nature, or the source, of that murky mana infused sensation. The only thing she was sure of, was that it wasn't coming from my mana core.

We discussed various options and solutions until our ideas began to repeat themselves. Additionally, I tested out a few proposals on how to activate my racial traits. Starting from various breathing techniques. Through more esoteric mental exercises. And when those didn't help, frustrated Eri even wanted to give me a few cuts with the sharp tip of her tail. She said that injuries might help to initialize the accelerated healing trait. Which in return would serve as a good example of how to use my internal life force reserves. Fortunately, I managed to talk her out of this idea by using as arguments the big bump on the back of my head, still visible effects of her own two hits, and the painful burns. In exchange, she told me to arrange a poem to elven ancestors so they would accept my otherworldly soul.

"Seriously? Right now?"

"Make a poem, or let me cut you."

Despite constant fishing for any strange noises and signs of danger, we were back on track to regain some peace of mind. And a little poetry seemed like a small price to appease the silver loli.

My knowledge of poems and everything connected to them had been purged as one of the first topics in the river. I had to think for a minute and make a new one from scratch.

"How do you do the fairies of old?
How's the forefather of whom I've been told?
Spare me a little of your magic dust,
Or a sharp tail through my chest will be thrust!

Victory for elves contained in the name,
I doubt there is a need to ask for my aim,
Just do not watch my actions too close,
Or my bare little sister will be exposed!"

"Fool!" A pillow missile. "Idiot!" A second pillow missile.

"Eri, that was a reference to your true character."

This excuse only made it worse.

"Scum!" She threw her shoe. "Trash!" And the second one.

She didn't understand my poetic soul, and since my visibility equaled zero, all missiles hit their target. Only after I heard a small giggle that she desperately tried to stifle, I realized that this whole 'make a poem' request's goal was to make fun of me and help to release some tension.

"Eri-Eri, my dear little sister, thank you. I was getting cold, and you gave me your pillows, such a nice gesture."

"Victor, don't make me stand from the bed, or I will run a sharp tail through your chest. Give me back my pillows."

I tossed one back, but instead of returning the other I threw the small crystal instead. It started producing light as soon as it left my hand, leaving a pretty green trail behind. The petite girl nimbly caught the incoming tiny falling star and threw it back.

"This is strange, really strange." Started Eri after returning the crystal a few more times. "Even the weakest elves I knew never had problems with at least finding their mana core, life energy should be chaotically flowing all over your body. I can't even imagine not being able to notice it."

"Unless there's none."

"... there can't be none, that would make you no different from a lifeless object. You've said it yourself that there was something that felt like it."

"Well, only a tiny bit." I caught the green crystal and gave it a nice spin on the way back. It bounced off Eri's palm, and she had to re-catch it twice before finally getting a firm grasp on it. She looked like a kitten chasing after a greenish ball of yarn.

"And that's exactly the problem. It shouldn't be like a grain of power hidden deep inside. I would blame the way Crea made those bodies, but there are no problems with mine. And those words inscribed on the doors…" She returned the crystal with a lot more force. I used the pillow as an improvised catcher's glove and wryly smiled once the green bullet fell into my hand.

"Yeah, progress status over one percent, the request for more building material, add to it that foreign feeling entangled with the only hint of mana I found inside… Hey Eri, how's your mana core? Full already?" I began to juggle the crystal marble between my hands, causing her to follow it with her eyes, the two tails behind her were also swaying from left to right.

"Full? Not even close. We're silver elves, a part of the most magically gifted race, that means our mana cores start way bigger than the others. There's barely a drop of life energy inside mine. To fill it up to the brims I will need at least forty to sixty years in a good environment. Usually, it gathers over the years from the time one's born, albeit our situation is rather unique and gives us more options."

"Then, if the inscribed percents will go up with time, it pretty much confirms that those doors are usurping my life energy. In other words, I can forget about using my racial traits until I get rid of that parasite, or see what happens when it eats its fill." I voiced the only conclusion that made sense to me and gently passed the crystal to her. However, she caught it and just held in place. The light quickly went out.

We sat in silence until she resumed talking in a grim voice.

"It's so humiliating. You're my brother, and yet I can't help you with the simplest matters. If… If you're right, then I should tell you to make those doors appear again, so I could crush them and give back what is rightfully yours. But I'm scared... That throw, the one you caught with a pillow. That was my all... my entire strength couldn't defeat a pillow. Ain't I pathetic?"

"Eri-"

"No. Please don't say anything. Let's sleep now."

Small wooden creaking sounds announced the end of our conversation.

Such ending of this eventful day was unacceptable.

'Don't say anything' didn't mean 'don't do anything'.

Without a word, I stood up holding the remaining two pillows, removed my shoes, and made my way to the bed. There was enough space left on it for one more to lie down. Eri sensed my presence and shifted a bit further away, creating a small space in the middle into which I put one of the pillows. Now each of us had own safe zone. Though mine was devoid of the natural quilt resources.

"Goodnight, my evil princess."

She didn't raise any objections when my hand almost immediately violated the unspoken rule and started to gently pat her head until we both fell asleep.

 

Thanks for another interesting chapter!
and the plot thickens....