[Veilon.]
——
On a bench by a crystal-clear pond sat two: a girl with long, silvery-golden hair and a boy, large for his age. Though they were peers, the boy looked a couple of years older.
"Apolline, why does Arthur hide his gender?" the boy asked, tossing a pebble across the water's surface.
"So you know? Since when?" The girl's eyes widened in surprise.
"I've known from the start, by scent. You think a werewolf can't tell a boy from a girl?"
"So why haven't you asked him? He still thinks you don't know anything."
"If he's hiding it, he must have a reason. And you know…" The boy grinned, and Apolline scooted closer, curiosity lighting her face. "Watching his expression when someone calls him a girl is hilarious. Like he just bit into a lemon."
"Haha! You haven't seen his face when he's invited to the communal bath! Like a cat whose cream was stolen." The girl's melodious laughter mingled with the boy's rougher chuckle, echoing across the lake.
***
[April 17, 1966.]
Almost a year later, I sat in early spring on that same clearing in the forest where I'd once scattered my organs during transgression training, still meditating with yogic practices. It was slow, tedious work, and I'd even considered giving up yoga altogether — the results seemed so meager for the time invested. But then something happened that changed everything. Of course, I didn't know it at the time.
"Hey, Gray," I greeted a little rabbit that limped up to me, favoring his right paw. "Hurt yourself again?"
As I've said, I love animals. They're more honest than most people — help them once, and they never forget. I'd once rescued this cross-eyed fellow from a tangle of bindweed, and ever since, he'd come to nuzzle me whenever I was in the forest.
Of course, my prematurely awakened veela aura played a part — it was really just empathy turned inside out, radiating not lust but love and sympathy. Others add the lust themselves. If it were otherwise, people would be walking around with wet pants and trying to gang-rape veelas, but that doesn't happen.
So, love magic practices had apparently entered into synergy with my innate abilities. No one in Veilon noticed, though — the aura's strength and the resistance of other veelas were so great that my powers were like a breeze against a hurricane.
Ariel and Apolline, of course, noticed immediately, feeling the change in my presence. That's why I'd spent two months at home, learning to control the ability. Fortunately, my fears were unfounded — I attracted only girls. I even tried spending a night with a beauty who was already interested, but under the influence of my charms, she nearly lost her mind.
I had to erase her memory, or she would have gone mad for me. Good thing a mind-magic-boosted Obliviate can do that cleanly. I'd tested it on drug dealers — I don't pity them.
So, this aura can be used for more than just sex. With training, you can evoke all sorts of feelings — anger, fear, apathy, joy, sorrow, even lust (though I don't recommend it). The last time I tried, every animal within three hundred meters had an orgy, regardless of species or gender. I had to transgress away from the scene. Brr.
So, when I'm in the forest, I broadcast a kind of joyful peace. It's pleasant for me, and the animals don't go crazy or try to attack. While I healed the rabbit's paw, infusing it with a bit of prana, a wolf lay beside me, exposing his neck, ignoring the tasty rabbit nearby. On the other side, a fawn grazed peacefully. I felt like a druid.
Finishing the treatment, I was about to slip back into trance when I heard a voice in my head.
"Why do you meditate so strangely?" I nearly blasted fire in all directions, honestly. I hadn't sensed anyone approach, and whoever it was had bypassed my carefully built mental defenses as if they weren't there. And in aura sight, I saw nothing — though the voice was clearly female.
"In what way, strangely?" I replied, deciding it was better not to argue with such beings. I opened my eyes and saw a girl, about twenty in appearance, her clothing woven from vines, leaves, and flowers that didn't bother to hide her charms. Her skin was green, her hair like a cascade of tiny tree roots. A nymph, I realized — more precisely, a dryad.
I hadn't read everything yet, but I knew enough. Nymphs are nearly immortal, semi-spiritual beings bound to a tree or forest. Nearly, because if the tree from which a nymph is born dies, so does she. So the girl before me could be twenty years old or twenty centuries. They're not exactly rare, but they really don't like showing themselves to strangers.
"Am I meditating wrong?"
"I said strangely. There are no wrong meditations, only wrong goals. You desire strength, and you get it, right?" She looked at me, and I nodded.
She sat beside me, taking the drowsy rabbit into her arms. "But yoga isn't meant for that."
"Then what is it for?" I couldn't hide my curiosity. Had I misunderstood Lerach's records? Or had he misunderstood yoga? After all, the artificer himself wasn't a yogi and left no explanations.
"No, no, no. You didn't think I'd just tell you, did you?" The girl laughed, and the whole forest seemed to echo her — leaves rustled, birds sang, a brook babbled. Maybe it really did.
"How do you people say it? You to me, I to you? I haven't spoken with other intelligent beings in a long time."
"Then why did you approach me?" I asked, genuinely puzzled.
"I've been watching you for a long time. You're kind to animals, you don't kill them, you treat them with care. I haven't seen that in ages. You did throw fire at the lake a few times, and caused a bit of chaos once, but let's chalk that up to youth. Especially since, after the last time, the animal population actually increased." I blushed — that had happened.
"So what do you want me to do for your help?" I asked.
"You don't owe me anything. It's your choice whether to fulfill my request or not, just as it's my choice whether to help you with yoga. My request is simple: help the forest, and I'll help you. You can decide how — plant saplings, heal animals or sick trees, punish those who come to the forest out of greed, not need. Freedom of choice is one of the greatest gifts of the intelligent. It's a sin not to use it." She stretched, released the rabbit, and stood.
"Is this a test?" I asked.
"How strange you people are. You invent words but don't listen to them. I said it's a request. When you're done, call me, and I'll come." And with that, she simply… vanished.
It wasn't spatial magic. She just seemed to dissolve into the forest itself. And in that moment, I realized how little I truly knew about magic.
***
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