“Hey hey, how was the day?” Thera greeted him brightly when he returned, seeming to be positively vibrating with excitement on her own part.

“From the looks of it, nowhere near as good as yours. What’s the good news?”

“I made some progress on the little project Uliel and Vasta gave me.”

With her having gone to sleep early the other day and Ben having left early that morning, she’d never gotten the chance to tell him about the progress she’d made for her magic, nor the discoveries that had led to.

She could equip spells to passively cast with her soul, with all of the potential of such a thing to follow. Not just the charm and fear she’d tried at first, when it came to her dark magic she could also cast debuffs and other options in the same way.

Of course, that wasn’t going to be the most helpful thing out during the next wave. The issue with passive magics was that they spread out uncontrollably after all, meaning she’d be affecting friend and foe alike, but it did lead to a few other discoveries to go with it.

She could operate beyond just the dark affinity, binding general healing spells to herself that she’d be able to make use of in any clinic setting, both letting those who happened to be around her passively heal their smaller injuries while at the same time making it easier for the other healers around to do more while spending less mana, with other applications from there.

While casting buffs that way would have the same problem as dark effects and the uses of earth and non-affinity both seemed a lot more limited, at least under the scope of what she could find out in the span of two days of practice, there was something else she’d use her mana for that she’d found immediate success with. Mana empowering.

“Oh sweet, so you can let them just take your ambient mana now without needing to consciously think about it?”

“Yeah, after I figured it out I spread the word that I’ll be equipping it while I’m asleep so we might end up slightly more swarmed than usual, but the benefits for the spirits are going to be huge!”

Her excitement was palpable and Ben didn’t blame her. She’d just figured something huge out for herself, and from the sounds of it, her paternal race as a whole. If the spirits weren’t going to need to wait for her to transfer over her mana but could now take advantage of her effects by simply being around her then their numbers were sure to explode even more than they already had been doing which was going to be a healthy plus for the planet on top of everything else.

And they already love her, I wonder if Thera’s sheer presence is getting to the point for them that they won’t just immediately turn tail and leave if things get too rough here for us? At the very least, it might mean they stay longer than they otherwise would to help.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

“But anyway, what’s going on with you?” She asked him. Once her own excitement was out of the way, it was a lot easier to notice that something seemed to be on his many minds, that while not obviously negative, was enough to weigh on him in a way that lightly touched his expression.

“Ah, it’s this whole thing. The gods are worried about my weird blessing and after looking into it a bit, so am I if I’m being honest.”

“Okay, anything that’s enough to worry you worries me. What’s happening?”

“It looks like witness of chaos is having some sort of effect on my mind.”

Thera sat in silence for a moment, waiting for more and only speaking up when it seemed like that was the end of it.

“So the problem is…?”

“That I’m afraid I’m going to go insane?”

“What, is that all?”

“Is that not enough?”

“Your mind does change pretty frequently, Ben.”

“Yeah, but not like this. I’m being serious, Thera. Witness of chaos, whatever it does… I still feel the things I’ve seen clawing at my mind. I literally just discovered that I can suddenly interpret a pretty huge swath of the summoning spell for no reason other than it’s the part for traveling between universes. I have no clue what else this is doing to me either.”

Even though he wasn’t trying to show it, there was worry in his voice. He’d at least understood every other change his mind had gone through to one extent or another, but not that one. It was a mystery to him even after plunging the depths of the system on it and that made it more worrying than anything else.

Seeing that, Thera placed a gentle hand on his cheek, trying to calm him down.

“Ben, since I’ve known you the way you’ve thoughts only become weirder and weirder, you know that? Your mind has changed and split and been torn to shreds multiple times, and that’s not even mentioning the level of control you have over the way you think. Who else on the planet can deconstruct their consciousness and have it merge into other peoples or any of the other crazy things you do?”

“Thera-”

“Ben, despite all of that, despite every ridiculous change that’s gone through your head, in the end it’s always still you,” She told him. “It doesn’t matter if you think with your brain or your soul, with one mind or thousands, you’re still the same man I've known for years. Whatever’s going on, you’ll get through it and I’ll be here for you the entire time, so if it’s a problem, don’t stress on it. You’ll figure it out.”

When she put it like that, it was reassuring. She was right. Sure, he’d undergone changes to the way he’d think, but they’d never changed who he was, not really, and with the state of his mind, he could keep examining himself to make sure that was still the case. Even reflecting on his thoughts and actions from before and after he’d gained the new blessing, no change seemed as though it hadn’t come from within himself or been an appropriate product of his environment. He had the mental facilities to examine himself for changes and from there decide what they meant for him, for good or ill.

“You know, I think the gods could learn a thing or two from you about reassuring people,” He told her with a smile, feeling a little less worried that he had been coming back from the library.

“What can I say, I’m wonderful,” She smiled back, leaning into him. “You can show me how much you appreciate what a light I am in your life if you’d like.”

Happy to show her all the appreciation she wanted for easing her thoughts in the bit of privacy they had, Ben kissed her, more than pleased to go on and enjoy the night.