A Relatively Powerful Mage

Emelia felt as if a mountain had been lifted when she saw the group walk into camp. They were immediately confronted by a mass of people, all shouting various questions. She spotted Imri, no longer wearing a robe, but more normal-looking clothing with jeans and a t-shirt. She pushed through the crowd, not wanting to wait for them to disperse.

She smiled as they reunited, and she wrapped him in a tight embrace. He winced in pain, having a number of injuries that were aggravated. However, when Emelia tried to apologize and break off the embrace, he just held her tight, ignoring the pain. Emelia smiled and continued the embrace, though she was a little more gentle with him.

“Don’t scare me like that,” Emelia demanded, tears streaming from down her cheeks.

“I’m sorry,” Imri said.

“You’re not allowed to die, I forbid it,” Emelia stated seriously.

“I’ll do my best,” Imri said.

“No, it’s not allowed,” she reiterated. “Now take your shirt off,” she demanded.

“In front of all these people?” he asked anxiously, a deep blush visible on his face.

“I need to take a look at your injury. I also learned a more conventional healing spell, so I should be able to at least partially heal you,” she explained.

“Oh,” he said, moving to comply.

“What did you think I meant?” she teased, causing Imri to blush an even deeper shade of red. While he had several minor injuries, the stab wound on his abdomen was by far the worst. Emelia poured most of her remaining mana into healing it.

Quest Updated Progress

Class Rank Up F to E 119/250

Emelia Fields has reached Level 5 in Empathic Healer (1F)

Emelia Fields has reached Level 5 in Human (1F)

Primary Stats Gained New Value

+1 Willpower 113

+1 Charisma 123

Secondary Stats Gained

+2 MP 125

+3 Mana Efficiency 152

Spell Name Tier/Rank Description

Compassionate Healing 1F Heal another target, restoring HP. Mana cost varies by the amount healed, distance from target to the caster, and compassion the caster has towards the target.

The wound wasn’t completely healed, but it looked far better than it had moments ago. This casting had been far more effective than the previous time she had used it, undoubtedly due to her greater compassion towards Imri. “What happened?” she asked as she reapplied a fresh bandage.

Imri went on to explain the creature called Azala, a mind-controlling parasite that slowly took over a person’s body. The thought of having something else in control of your body was terrifying, and Emelia wasn’t sure which was worse, the Azala or the Chixel. Either way, they had drawn the short straw, being near two vile races of aliens, both wanting human prisoners for different reasons.

“I might be able to fill in some details,” a woman interrupted. She was even shorter than Emelia, with naturally curly hair and a lithe physique. Unlike Emelia, she had managed to get actual clothing from before the integration, though they were much too tight for her. The woman leaned in towards Imri, giving him an obvious view of her cleavage. “There were more of us originally, in our group I mean. One of those who didn’t make it swore that some of the buildings downtown were covered in these giant growths. I had originally thought he wasn’t right in the head, but now I think he was right. These things, I think they're taking over the city, not just the people.”

“Thanks, that is good to know,” Imri said, a bit awkwardly after the woman had practically thrown herself at him. Even Imri wasn’t so oblivious as to miss that.

“My pleasure, if you ever need anything just ask for me, the name’s Teresa,” she said. Emelia glared at the shameless woman, who gave her a fake smile back. She sauntered off, already focused on the next man she thought she could win over. Emelia turned her glare to Imri, who was swirling in emotions. While he was lusting after the woman, Emelia was pleased that feelings of annoyance and confusion were also intertwined. She quickly changed her demeanor, grabbing his hand and reveling in his flush of emotion from the touch.

“Let’s go somewhere quieter,” Emelia suggested.

There wasn’t anywhere too private, they were in a large group for safety with no individual spaces. Still, they did their best to get away from the masses. As they were alone, Imri grew nervous, despite not showing any outward signs of it. She immediately felt guilty, how could she criticize him when she was constantly reading him, invading any private thought he might have. Not for the first time, she cursed her overly active empathy.

“I have a confession to make,” she said quietly, looking up at him.

“Whatever it is, I’m sure it's fine,” Imri encouraged her.

“You know I have an empathy skill, that I can read people's emotions?”

“Of course, I know you told me shortly after we met,” Imri said, radiating confusion. There was another long pause as Emelia hesitated, considering her words carefully.

“It’s more effective than what I let on,” she said with a nervous glance at him.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” he asked, still confused.

“It is and it isn’t,” she said. “I can feel and understand every emotion you feel,” she blurted out.

“Yeah, that’s what empathy is,” Imri said.

“Not really. Normal empathy is feeling a small fraction of what someone else feels when they have strong emotions. I can tell how someone feels about the meal they just ate, when someone is annoyed or mad at me even when they show no outward sign. I can tell when someone is lusting after someone when a pair of tits comes into view.”

“You know how I felt about Teresa,” he said nervously.

“Yes, and I’m not mad, I think any straight man would have the same reaction. I just don’t think you realize what I’m doing. I know all your emotions when you're around me, it feels closer to mind reading than normal empathy.”

“Then you already know I’m not mad about that either,” he pointed out.

“Yes, but I don’t understand why. Aren’t you mad that I know you think Teresa is attractive?”

“You already said you can’t control it, so it would be irrational for me to be mad at you for it. While I might not want you to know exactly how I feel about everything, I’d rather have you know everything than not know how I feel at all.”

“It still feels wrong. All my exes would have hated me for this, they hated it when I tried to get them to open up emotionally. This feels like taking a hammer and forcing it open.”

“Good thing I’m not your ex,” Imri said with a grin. “In all seriousness though, I think this could be amazing. For me, emotions have always been hard to express, so as long as you don’t hold them against me too much, I think it's a great thing. If you still feel guilty, you can make it up to me.”

“How would I do that?” Emelia asked.

“Pretend I’m the opposite, that I can’t pick up on other people’s emotions at all. Don’t assume I can understand how you're feeling, tell me instead,” Imri requested.

“Pretend?” Emelia asked skeptically, teasing Imri.

“And stop teasing me so much,” he added.

“Never,” she said, kissing Imri on the lips.

“Don’t stop doing that either,” he whispered between kisses.

“How many requests are you going to have?” she asked in mock indignation.

“I can think of a few more,” he said.

“I bet you can,” Emelia said, grinning and kissing him again.

They made out for a while, though unfortunately nothing further happened even though Emelia knew they both wanted more. She smiled at him as they cuddled on the ground together, his arms wrapped around her.

“Does it bother you that we’ve never had a proper date?” he asked.

“Imri, I don’t think anything is open,” Emelia pointed out sarcastically.

“I know that, I just wish things were different. That we had found each other before the integration, and before I had gotten sick,” he said.

“We could still have a normal date,” Emelia realized. She got up, motioning for Imri to stay there. She went into the camp and started going through the supplies they had brought back, focusing on the food items. There wasn’t much to choose from, most items were simple freeze-dried camping meals or military MREs. She eventually settled for two of the freeze-dried meals and started boiling some water for them.

“Tuscan soup or beef stroganoff?” she asked as she brought the prepared meals back and sat beside him.

“You made me dinner,” he said, staring at her in disbelief.

“All I did was boil some water,” she said sheepishly. “But when we have a proper setup I’ll make you something more elaborate,” she added more confidently.

“No, this is great, I love it. Thank you,” He said, taking the beef stroganoff. Emelia felt herself flush at his words.

“So what did you do, before the integration and your illness I mean?” Emelia asked awkwardly, finding it a bit silly to be asking first-date questions when they had already been through life and death situations together.

“I was a software engineer,” he replied a bit awkwardly.

“How did you pick that?” She asked, trying to get him to elaborate.

“I didn’t go to school for it or anything like that. My life was kind of a mess, I had barely graduated college and was working a dead end job. I wanted to change so I was researching how to code online, teaching myself. I took to it, and eventually, I got invited to take a coding challenge and interview for a large tech company. It changed my life. What about you, why did you become a nurse?”

“I know it’s cliche, but I always wanted to help people. Nothing was anywhere as rewarding as nursing, especially when you know exactly how people feel,” She explained.

“But why hospice care? Being an empath around so much death and suffering couldn’t have been easy,” Imri pointed out.

“It wasn’t easy. There were definitely hard days, but when I made a difference I could feel it. Even though they were dying, nothing was more rewarding than making their day, even if it was something small.”

“That’s amazing,” Imri said.

“It’s not that big of a deal,” Emelia said, feeling embarrassed. “What are your plans? What do you want to accomplish in this new reality?” She asked to change the subject.

“I want to make a place where people can be safe, a safe haven for all. Somewhere where magic and technology are woven together, greater than the sum of their parts.”

“You don’t want to reclaim Minneapolis? You want to build something new?”

“Those Azala are no joke, and we haven’t gotten that far from those Chixel temples. We need somewhere defensible, not some vestige of our past,” Imri explained.

Emelia shuddered, though she didn’t disagree, it felt strange to call their lives of only a few days past a vestige. Hopefully, they could continue to find moments like these, moments that felt normal and right. For a few hours, all was right with the world.