Page 191 of A Soul to Touch

“Your soul has brightened,” Weldir chuckled. “I’m sure it’ll be nicer for him to eat when hot.”

“You’re planning to feed it to him? Wouldn’t that make me his bride, then?”

“You appear confused and hesitant,” Weldir said, his face forming to frown like she was. “Why?”

“Well,” Mayumi grumbled as she rubbed one of her elbows. “I already offered him my soul, and he said no because he didn’t want to doom me.”

“If he cares for you, as you do him, it will be fine.” His hand formed, hovering a mere inch from her sternum. “You must make your choice, or I will have to take him instead. Like I said, my time here runs short.”

By the time her gaze fell on Faunus, she’d already made her decision.

“Fine.” Her cheeks grew warm, almost like a bashful blush – which felt weird for someone who rarely did. “Just take it.”

Without warning, the hand shot forward into her chest, sinking beneath her flesh like one reaching into water. She felt nothing other than the heat that burst from her just as her soul was forced out of her body in his chalky, black hand.

Then the cloud of Weldir moved to stand in front of Faunus, who sniffed at the air. Weldir had been scentless, so Mayumi figured he was smelling her soul.

Weldir directed it one way, like someone teasing a ball to a dog, and Faunus’ skull followed it. It went the other way, Faunus following it before Welder tossed it at him.

His fangs opened and then clamped around it. He turned his head up and swallowed.

“While I am here, I might as well heal him of his wounds, so he does not have to bear them if this works,” Weldir said, just as black, glittering sand came from within his cloud to wrap around Faunus.

“If it’s like how Faunus heals me, won’t that hurt you?” Mayumi asked while cocking her head slightly.

She was surprised Weldir would care so much when Faunus would likely heal this on his own.

Maybe because he’s his father?Faunus had given her the impression that he’d rarely met him, if at all – which meant he’d been absent most his life. She wouldn’t expect him to care so much then.

The way Weldir grinned when his face formed momentarily, his eyes crinkled with deep humour, showed an underline of something else.

“You can’t hurt something that feelsnothing.”

So, that was it. There was no sacrifice in taking his wounds for himself.

Regardless of the reason, she watched the glittering sand fill his wounds to leave not even a scar. It also cleaned him, making his fur fluffy and glossy in the sunlight.

Watching it all happen, how unromantic it was to watch herself be bonded to Faunus this way rather than in some grand gesture, she couldn’t help silently laughing. It was fitting that it would be this way for her.

It’s too late to change my mind now.

Not that she had been planning to.

Mayumi knew by the way Weldir’s chalky face was forming and dispersing while pointed in Faunus’ direction that he was waiting to see if it worked.

The wait was long, and her heart raced in anticipation.

Come on...she mentally pleaded as she bounced impatiently on her feet. A soft gust of wind threw loose snowflakes into the air to dance.Come onnnnn.

“If this fails, you’ll have to take me as well?” she asked Weldir, filling the nerve-wracking silence.

“Your soul has been eaten, and it no longer belongs to you. With no living anchor, your body will turn incorporeal and remain that way. I would only be leaving you here to suffer as a Ghost, and eventually, you’d forget who you are or how you came to die.”

Her bottom lip cringed to the side before she lifted her arm and rubbed at the back of her neck. “He died to save me. I don’t think he would be happy if he learned I died giving him my soul.”

“What he does not know will not hurt him,” he answered with a blasé tone.

“What happens to the souls you purify and keep? What’sTenebris like?”

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