“How… How did you do that?” Donte asked. He looked pale as he approached me with hesitant steps.

In addition to the pain in my body, I felt a sudden headache. I had not noticed Donte following me, and I was not prepared to explain what just happened to the kid.

“Look, Donte, I overdid it with that little stunt. Can we talk later?” I said, trying to shake away the headache.”

“No!” Donte shouted, his body shaking as he clenched his fists. “I am not stupid. I have always known you are not normal since the very first day we met. At first, I just ignored it, but the more I see the more I don’t understand. I want you to tell me the truth. What are you?”

“I…” I froze as my headache intensified. Deep inside my body, hidden by the endless green flames, I felt something strange. A small flash of blue energy, something that should have been impossible. It was so small that under any other circumstances I would have missed it. However, the with the current state of my body, even the smallest use of energy caused my muscles to cramp once again.

In front of me, Donte’s expression changed in real time. His face switched from scared and determined to calm in a moment.

“I am sorry.” Donte said, hanging his head. “I don’t want to push you. I know everyone has their secrets. I just… I wish you would trust me.”

I clutched my head as words bubbled up without restraint. “I do trust you. I have never hidden what I can do from you. I wanted you to know. I just… never told you. I was worried that you would hate me.”

Donte put his hands on my shoulders, steadying me. “Without you, I would still be in the slums, alone. My family is gone. My home is gone. Everything I ever knew destroyed. You gave me a place I could call my own. You gave me a purpose. No matter what it is, I will not hate you.”

I took a deep breath as I smiled sweetly at Donte. “The truth is, there is more than one person rattling around in my head. There is me, but there is also someone old… ancient. The Immortal Empress reborn through me.”

“The Undead Tyrant!” Donte shouted, taking a step back.

Another flash of blue light emanated from inside me. This time it was even brighter than before. My muscles cramped again, nearly causing me to cry out in pain.

“That is incredible!” Donte shouted. “I knew you were different, but something like that is amazing. What is she like?”

“Cold.” I replied simply.

“That is so cool!” he said with a stupid grin. “Does your family know?”

I rolled my eyes at his attempt at a joke. “Yes, they have known for a while now.” I said, clutching my head again as another wave of pain passed through me.

“Yes, yes, it is just so exciting!” Donte shouted, raising both his hands in the air.

I shook my head as I unsteadily wobbled, on the verge of collapsing. I felt the unfamiliar strand of blue energy flowed through my body, trying to take form. My heartrate skyrocketed as I realized what was happening.

“Wren what is wrong?” Donte asked, as I nearly collapsed to the ground.

I did not have the energy to respond to him. All my focus was on the new wisp of energy as I attempted to contain it, but it was too late. The blue wisp of energy touched the green flames inside my body, and reacted violently.

An explosion of power tore through me body. Muscles tore and my bones creaked. Unable to continue standing, I collapsed. My body twitched violently as the two different energies fought for dominance. The world faded to black. The last thing I saw was Donte screaming my name.

Two figures faced each other in the empty void. One was a beautiful woman wrapped in a cloak of green flame. The other, a small child crying silently, surrounded by darkness.

“How much is real?” The child cried, tears streaming down her face. “Everyone that accepted me. My family. My grandma. Donte. Has all of it been a lie?”

The woman in green shook her head. “I do not know. You have an innate talent. A type of mental domination, or at least emotional manipulation. It is not fully awakened yet, but it is only a matter of time now.”

“I was so happy when my family accepted us… Did I do the same to them? Did I force them to like me?”

“You did not force Donte’s actions. You simply suppressed his negative emotions. Something like that is not permanent. With how weak that burst of power was, I doubt it can last more than an hour or two. If your family truly rejected us, your half-awakened talent would not be able to stop it. Though it does explain how they accepted our situation so easily. You were using the ability unconsciously when you experienced high stress. It does not mean you are forcing them to love you.”

Wren’s tear-stained face showed hope for a moment before darkening again. “This is bad for other reasons isn’t it.”

Aurielle nodded. “Two innate talents cannot exist in the same body. If your talent fully awakens It will tear us apart from the inside.”

“Then… what do we do?”

“You know my memories as well as I. Do you remember the story of Tressa? Her death?”

Wren nodded. “She was one of the first three to ever gain an innate talent. After sacrificing herself to save her son and countless others, her last act in life was to transfer the entirety of her power to an object. The Chronicle…”

“It was not just a transfer of power. A piece of her soul resides in the original copy of that book. The soul is the source of all innate talents. I have to break off a small piece of mine with every undead I create. Now you will have to do the same. If we succeed, any energy that would become your talent would instead flow to an object. It will be painful, but it is our best bet at survival.”

Wren shook her head. “You have memories of people trying that before. It was a failed experiment done by the Twelfth Division. We would have to keep whatever object we chose by our side at all times. If it left our hands for even a second, we would lose our connection and die.”

“You are right. That would be too much of a risk for too little reward. It could even mess up my reincarnation ability, since your talent would transfer with us. The solution is right, but the execution is wrong.”

“You have an idea?” Wren asked.

“Maybe… The reason the experiment always failed, was because the second innate talent did not belong to the individual. The body rejected the foreign power if it stayed there for too long, but this is different. It is still your power, your body. What if, rather than storing the power in an external object, we isolated a small piece of our body to hold your talent instead.”

“Will it work?”

“Not so long as we are separated like this.” Aurielle replied, holding out her hand. “For me to break off a piece of your soul, for at least a single moment, we need to truly be one person. We have to stop fighting each other for control and accept what we have become, faults and all.”

Wren hesitated for a moment. The indecision lingering in here gaze. “What will we become?”

Aurielle shook her head. “I do not know. Right now, every action we take is a jumbled mess, a clash between both our desires, but you know that was never meant to be permanent. The line between us blurs each and every day. Sooner or later, we will become one regardless of our desires.”

“Aurielle, I am scared.” Wren said, holding her knees to her chest as she sat quietly in the void. “There is so much more of you than me. My life was so short compared to yours. What if… what if I fade away… become just another drop of water in the ocean.”

“That will not happen. I will not allow it.”

“You don’t know that! You don’t know anything about any of this!” Wren screamed.

The flames dimmed and Aurielle moved next to Wren. The two sat side by side in the empty void.

“You are right.” Aurielle replied. “I have no idea what I am doing. The two of us together like this is unlike anything I have ever known. This is the price we paid to save your life, but I promise you this. You will never fade away.” Aurielle stood up and offered her hand to the crying child. “Do you trust me?”

Wren wiped away her tears and looked up at Aurielle. “If not you, who can I trust? I know every moment of your life, and you know every moment of mine.” Wren replied with a small smile and took the hand. A soft blue light radiated through the empty void. “You gave me a second chance at life when I had lost all hope. No matter what happens, I was able to live a life I never thought possible. You showed me a world beyond that little bedroom. I have no regrets.”

“And you never will.” Aurielle replied as light green flame poured from her hand. “After all the years of war I had forgotten what I was fighting for. The kindness of family. The joy of having friends. You reminded me of that. No matter what we become, I will protect that light of yours until the very end.”

The blue and green lights met as the two hands touched. A bright golden light radiated from the clash, filling the empty void. In that one moment, the two figures faded into one. The golden glow encompassed everything, leaving only one word in their mind.

Life.

For one moment everything felt perfect, but that moment could not last. The golden light started to shimmer and vibrate violently. The figure acted fast, trying to maintain the fusion, focusing everything on a single action.

The golden light burst apart as and the figure became two again. Green and blue once again filled the void, but in the center was a light that did not fade. A small golden strand where the two energies met.