Page 108 of A Soul to Guide

“We already have a sunflower, and it doesn’t glow, Raewyn,” Merikh answered with an exasperated tone. “None of our plants glow, and only some animals do.”

“I glow,” Raewyn stated, catching him off-guard. “Biofluorescence happens in Elysians during certain spells, depending on how powerful they are. That’s why our hair is white and no longer dark like our ancestors. We’ve lost all our colouring, and it’s technically transparent now.”

He lifted his head up to her. “What are you going on about?”

“When we use certain spells, only the symbols that relate to them will glow. When I do earth magic with my feet, my feet markings will glow, but if I do them with my hands, my hands markings will glow. However, if I do spirit magic, like fire and other things that come from within and don’t require a source, my hair will glow along with my markings. I can use a few strands of my hair to teach any kind of flower to harness magic, and then I use the flower to teach the stone. It just needs to be a flower large enough to encompass it completely.”

“Bloody hell, that sounds complicated,” he grated, shaking his head. “Are you sure this will even work?”

Her lips tightened and pulled to the side. “I guess it is, but what else can I do? I have to teach the stone, and if I don’t have all the ingredients, then I will have to try other things. I’ve only had to use my hair once, because I can usually use another plant to obtain my goal. It worked, though. My hair is not just dead cells; its lack of colouring comes from years of exposing ourselves to magic – sapping the pigment through evolution. It’s technically a negative by-product of magic use, and instead of it toxifying us, we’ve adapted to using it.”

Merikh waved his hand in annoyance, not liking the way his gut twisted in uncertainty. “If your point was to reassure me, you haven’t.”

Just the opposite, in fact.Shit. If she fails, then we’re both screwed. Me, more so.He didn’t want to go back to living the way he had before, not after he’d obtained the humanity he currently had.

He’d go mad, he just knew it.

He dug at the ground more forcefully before almost snapping a poor tomato plant he yanked from a burlap sack. He put it in the hole he’d dug.

“Why a flower? Wouldn’t any plant do?”

She shook her head, her drying hair bouncing around her head. “The plant must be alive. Would you be able to source one with its roots intact and then plant it in a pot? I need to be able to move it around in the sun.”

He had to add a pot to his list of items to get.

Merikh turned his skull towards the sky, noting the hour. The sun was going down, but he thought he’d be able to make it to the closest town if he ran on all fours before they closed their gates.

Her stomach chose that moment to gurgle loudly. She covered it with both arms, her shoulders lifting bashfully.

“Sorry,” she laughed. “I ate when I woke up, but I didn’t actually have a lot of food left.”

“I grabbed you plenty to eat, and these plants still have vegetables and fruits on them. They aren’t fully ripe yet, so that’ll give them time to grow.” Merikh sighed as he looked down at the plant in front of him. “Do you know how to garden? I’ve never done it before.”

“Not really, but I’m sure we can figure it out together.” Raewyn offered him a warm smile, and he averted his gaze completely. “Speaking of figuring it out together... could you help me cook?”

“Me? Why would I know how to cook? I’ve never cooked a thing in my life. If it wasn’t obvious to you, everything I’ve eaten is usually so fresh, it’s still screaming.”

Raewyn rolled her eyes at him, but he noticed how she shuddered as well. Perhaps he was a little graphic, but he just couldn’t fathom how she wouldn’t understand that by now.

“Can you at least cut a potato, or is that too hard for your Duskwalker butt?”

Merikh grunted. “Of course.”

“I don’t actually need you to cook. I can do that myself. I have tastebuds,” she said, more curt than usual. “It will just be easier if you give me the food rather than me figuring out where or what everything is right now. Your home is new to me, and I’ll end up spending hours trying to find what I need when you know where it is.”

She had a good point, and the bags of food he’d brought were all mixed together.

“Fine,” he answered. “Just let me plant these and then I’ll come inside.”

He expected Raewyn to leave his side and give him some peace, but she didn’t.

She began explaining a whole bunch of math. He didn’t know if it was complicated or not. He may be decent at reading and writing, but his mathematical skills were subpar.

There was something about calculating the absorption rate of the mana stone, explaining that each stone was of different quality. Then, she would have to feed it more spirit magic, which, apparently, would give him a demonstration of her hair colour change. She needed to give the right amount, or the thing would shatter.

Then, there was calculating how much radiation, heat, and light it absorbed from the sun, and each one needed to be balanced or it would fail. Her face had turned crestfallen when she explained this to him, and he figured it was one of the reasons why her sight was the way it was.

Despite only understanding half of her mathematics and procedures, Merikh’s faith in the whole process was waning. They hadn’t even started yet, and he was worried.

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