Valthar sat near Amber the metal mage.
She was curled in a barely conscious nap while he sat with his legs crossed.
In his energy sense he followed the foxes around.
When they stepped closer to the clearing he raised the whistle up to his mouth in tension, half of his heart worried the beasts would suddenly rush towards his location.
However moments later the beasts would go back to their posts and Valthar was left to chew on his worries in silence.
After an hour of this emotional seesaw Valthar slowly relaxed and while half his attention focused on the beasts the other part started to wander.
Ever since this energy sense awakened numerous questions started to nibble at him.
Was he affinityless? Obviously not!
But what the hell was he attuned to?
It clearly wasn't based on elemental mana, a very strange thing he hadn't even known to be possible.
Thankfully some characteristics of this energy were quite distinct.
For one, while mana is ever present in air, water or soil. This strange energy is barely present in these mediums.
With quantities on those being so minuscule they were insignificant.
For another any living thing he had seen till now had this energy within them, be it plants, beasts or humans.
Based on these traits Valthar had two guesses: soul energy or life energy.
Two obscure forces mentioned only in passing on some theoretical healer books or as side notes on a few forbidden spells descriptions.
Though confident in his guess with so little information it was hard to single out an answer, especially since both answers implied things that didn't quite fit his world view.
If his affinity was to soul energy that implied even non magical plants also had souls, a crazy idea that brought many other questions to his mind.
Like…
He knew some high level magical rocks and plants were confirmed to have consciousness, but if he could see the soul of grass and trees, why couldn't he see the soul in rocks and stones?
Plus if plants have souls would potion making be a kind of demonic sacrifice?
Cooking plant's souls to bring out magical effects? That sounded stupid.
Aaaaand it was incredibly blasphemous to the Church of Burning Light too!
After all they hated demons to their bones with the whole religion based on hunting those creatures down, and yet they too used potions on the daily.
On the other hand if he had a Life Energy affinity then he is even more confused.
All this time he thought Life Energy was just a metaphor used in healer books.
Something similar to a short hand for the complex interaction between elemental mana types that allowed things to be 'alive'.
A concept shared by the magical community and used to create numerous spells.
Needless to say Life energy being a literal energy he could sense and command threw a wrench on a lot of what he considered absolute truth about magical theory.
For a while he ponders the question, if he had a soul or a life affinity, but then a little grumble at his side pulls him back to the real world.
"Hmmm, just five more minutes Balthazar." Amber mumbled in half sleep, a name Valthar recognized as the fire mage of the caravan.
A moment later he shifts his attention to the foxes, only to confirm they haven't moved any closer to the clearing.
And at that moment he feels something brush against his leg, without having to even look he feels what it is through his energy sense.
An earth worm.
It too had a green light within it, just very small and weak.
A little bored he takes the worm in his hands, eyeing carefully.
His body reacts in an instant begging his mind to absorb the worm's little light.
I shouldn't pass out if it's just this little amount right?
It was very little, weak enough that a few minutes of meditation could help him convert mana into a similar quantity of energy.
I mean, I'm not even sure if I passed out because I absorbed the lights or because my body had to adapt to the new energy sense.
Valthar placed the worm in his palm and with a single thought the worm's light was sucked out of its body and into his.
Inside him the change in his energy ring was trivial, outside him the change to the earth worm was grave.
In a moment the worm's body went still and seconds later its body darkened from a dirt brown into a deep black color.
Valthar poked it with a finger but received no reaction.
"Dead? Or just soulless?" He mumbles quietly to himself, completely forgetting Amber lightly napped beside him.
To be honest he was a little weirded out by the result, but if he could answer that question he could deduce his affinity.
And he had a very simple way to find it out.
If it was a soul, putting it back should reanimate it right?
So he reversed the process and sent the energy back into the worm.
However Valthar was way too used to dealing with mana, that acted like deaf bastard every time he commanded it.
So when the obedient light received his forceful command a flood of energy tens of times larger than what he took out flowed into the little critter.
The blackened body squirmed in his palm and a series of sensations flooded Valthar's mind.
Pain, tightness, struggle and exhilaration.
The black skin pulsed like a heart beat, but with each beat pulsed its size bloated a little.
It grew and grew till with a pop, it burst.
Black liquid splashed out and Valthar's jaw fell open as he stared at his palm in shock.
Though the corpse of an earth worm had just burst, a new one stood in its place.
Larger and a different species all together.
It's alive again and it evolved!
Fascinated, he brought the worm closer to his eye.
Its dirt brown color had shifted to a blueish gray.
Its body that was thinner than his pinky was now thick as his thumb and its length still grew till it was double the initial size.
A stone worm.
He watched mesmerized as it gingerly slithered around his hand and circled itself around his pulse like a bracelet.
The worm was very happy!
A completely different sensation from the terror he felt very close to him.
It was like something beside him felt terrified…
No, not something… someone.
With a gulp Valthar's heart fell to the bottom of his stomach, he didn't need to look to know who it was.
"D- d- d- did you see it Amber?" Valthar stuttered in worry.
He knew very well how taboo what he just did was.
Her energy pulsed in fear at his side, even though a third ring metal mage could kill Valthar in a snap of fingers.
"no." She lied very badly.
"I swear I'm not a darkmage or demon, please believe in me." Valthar mumbled as his head turned slowly and his eyes locked on the poor girl.
"I- I I believe in you, I didn't see or hear anything about death or souls." She whimpered with tears growing in the corners of her eyes.
Her light however told another story, she was terrified for her life.
"Don't cry Amber, I'm not gonna hurt you." He spoke softly trying to show a soft smile.
But something between his nervousness and her overwhelming fear cracked her.
Despite being almost a decade older than Valthar she just shivered in place as the tears dripped to the ground.
"Please let me go, I didn't see anything…" Was all she could say before she started bawling like a child.