A few flips in the air later, I was able to catch myself with a few sloped [Air Steps] as information about [Heartsight] flooded into my mind. The more intense a certain connection was, the more vibrant it would be, but the longer it had been there the wider its portion of the light mix would be. For example, a person you’ve known forever but didn’t have a particularly intense connection to would have a wide beam of light, but it would be pale with barely any color to it. The counterpoint was someone you just met who you viscerally hated, the line would be thin, but it would be very vibrant. There were a hundred or more colors and shades I’d need to learn eventually, but I initially limited my filters to the seven most common.

  Romantic love, something I’d long wondered if I’d ever find was bright pink, passionate, intense, and vibrant. Familial love and platonic love actually got different colors, which I found surprising as I fell, the prior was a warm, nurturing golden yellow, while the latter was a rich emerald. A professional or academic connection was a light indigo, while an adversarial or rivalry would show up fiery orange. The last two I picked to focus on were obligation/duty and shared trauma, a deep sapphire and a grey so dark as to almost be black. Lastly, I picked hatred, a deep crimson.

  Taking a moment to collect myself and fix the fit on my armor, I lightly stepped down on the balcony I’d seen Raiju dive through a while before. Inside, I found a room full of bedrolls with a purple “D” with a spiral in the center branded near the top, what I assumed was the symbol for the cult of the void. Curled up on a pile of said bedrolls was Raiju.

  Her knees were pressed up against her heaving chest as she sobbed. The sound cut me straight to my core, and I rushed over to her. The moment I laid a hand on her she recoiled.

  “No!” She sounded so…hurt. “Leave me alone!”

  [Heartsight] triggered unconsciously and I saw the connection between us was as far more complicated than I’d expected. The light stretching out from her toward me had a vibrant core of pink with thinner threads of gold and emerald wrapped around it, but right down the center of the beam was a thin core of sapphire more intense than any I’d ever witnessed.

  What does this mean? My mind raced as I triggered [Flash Focus] to buy myself more time to think. So much pink, but there’s gold and emerald there too! What does it all mean together? Then there’s the sapphire in the middle…I’m going to have to work my way out to figure this out. I really wish I could see what my line said, but I’ll have to ask Uncle Galloway later to have him tell me.

  The core is her sense of duty to me, maybe that’s from our connection as bonded partners, or maybe it’s because of how Dominus put her in my path, but that forms the core of our connection. Next is romantic love, or maybe lust, I’m not sure. She finds me attractive, that I can be sure of, and it’s her dominant feeling toward me if the quantity of light is to be believed. I’m still not comfortable with that, but I’ll have to look at the rest before I make a decision about it.

  The emerald and gold connections are basically interwoven, so maybe she’s confused about which she should be aiming for? One is platonic love and the other familial love, which I basically treat as the same thing, but I guess they’re different? That’s kind of interesting…

  My mind wandered for a moment before I caught it and mentally chided myself.

  Focus! Both [Heartsight] and [Flash Focus] chew through Mana, you don’t have time to let your scatterbrain work.

  Taking a second, I let myself calm down and looked more closely at the situation.

  Based on what I can see, Raiju is in love with me. That much is clear. Do I love her?

  Thinking back to her time as an evolved [Gale Wolf], I would have been able to honestly say no. Then she’d just been a member of my growing family as far as I was concerned, but based on the thickness of the pink in her heartline, she’d been in love with me for far longer than just today. Now though? I could honestly say I wasn’t sure how I felt.

  For the first time, barring the time Marie messed with my emotions and made me attracted to her and Mindy, I actually felt a desire for someone when I saw her. Her smell was damn near intoxicating, now that I’m remembering it…aw damnit. Is this what Dominus meant by finding the person for me?

  Thankfully, my patron goddess chose that time to reach out directly.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  ‘Hey, Artie. I can’t talk long, but since you sent me that delicious offering of corrupted souls, now purified by the way, I can talk to you while you’re using [Flash Focus]. Yes, Raiju was the person I knew was going to be the first person you could ever fall for. She’s not the only one, but…nope, not going there. Anyway, Raiju’s been in love with you since you cooked for her the first time, treating her like a queen when she was used to being alone and before that, being the runt of her litter. Her feelings are genuine, no manipulation from me, but you’ll need to come to grips with your guilt before anything can happen between the two of you.’

  I started to try and reply, but she beat me to it.

  ‘Instead of telling her no, take the time it takes to get to Sunhome to make a decision. She’s used to waiting, but if you don’t deal with her feelings soon, she’ll leave and I’d hate for my two favorite people to be separated so soon.’

  ‘How long have you been planning this?’ A bit of heat leaked into my mental voice. ‘Were you always planning on her dying to get her a new body?’

  ‘No!’ She blurted. ‘I was going to bargain with the System for a way for her to shift over. This was far more traumatic for you, but was actually easier on her. She may have worried about displeasing you if she’d used the path through the System, but this way she didn’t have a choice. She got what she wanted, because she knew you’d never fall in love with her as a big ass wolf.’

  ‘I loved her as a wolf!’ I spat back before realizing what she’d said. ‘I guess I loved her but wasn’t in love with her, was I?’

  ‘Exactly, now focus back to the real world and cancel [Flash Focus], you’re bleeding from your nose again.’ Dominus sent waves of compassion and love through our connection. ‘Take it slow, she’ll understand. Oh, and tell her I say “Hi” and “Good Job” when you eventually tell her about this.’

  I bowed to her in my head, earning me a chuckle. ‘Talk to you soon.’

  Armed with a plan, I cancelled [Flash Focus] and knelt down next to Raiju where she remained curled up.

  “Can we talk?” I kept my voice calm, with what I hoped was a thread of affection running through it.

  She curled up tighter before whimpering. “You can talk.”

  Running my fingers through my hair, I sighed. “First off, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that.” She peeked an eye out, but didn’t speak, so I kept going. “I had no idea you felt that way…no, that’s not true.” I sat back on my heels. “I thought you might have feelings like that for me, but I never thought you’d act on them so soon in your new body.”

  “You weren’t attracted to my old body, I could smell it.” She sniffed the air before hiding her face once more behind her arms. “My nose isn’t quite as good as it was after losing nearly two hundred [Perception], but I can still smell it when someone’s attracted to someone else. You want me in my new body. Why not let me have what I want?” Her body shook with emotion.

  Before I could stop myself, I laid a hand on her shoulder and she stopped moving. When she didn’t freak out, I decided to leave it there for the moment.

  “You’re right, but here’s something you don’t know about me.” I tilted my head back and spoke to the ceiling to avoid seeing her reaction. “I’ve never been attracted to anyone without the effect of magic before. Not until you, just a few hours ago. I’ve wondered for years if I was asexual and aromantic, but it looks like that may be a more complicated scale than I once thought.”

  I shivered as she laid a hand on my thigh, but didn’t look down. “Really? Never?”

  “Never. I’ve been exposed to more beauties than any young man would ever expect to, but none of them ‘got me going’ so to speak. Not even Dominus’ avatar.” I chuckled and moved my hand from her shoulder to place it against hers. “You’re my first crush and I didn’t know what to do, so I lashed out verbally and that was wrong.”

  “Oh.” She half whispered, half chanted. “In that case–”

  I cut her off by gripping her hand tightly. “When I came in here, I panicked again and triggered [Flash Focus]. When I was like that, I talked to Dominus, she asked me to pass along ‘Hi’ and ‘Good job’ by the way.” I chuckled when Raiju yipped happily. “Anyway, she gave me some advice given our unique situation.”

  “What kind of advice?” She slowly maneuvered until she was sitting the same way I was, on her heels, though she didn’t remove her hand from mine.

  “She said we should let our relationship develop until we get to Sunhome, then make a decision as to what we want to be to each other.” I finally looked back from the ceiling and locked onto her brilliant cerulean orbs. “I’d like to give this a chance, but I don’t think I’m ready for anything too intimate right now. Can you give me the space I need to make this decision?”

  “The Great Mother is wise. I waited for so long just to meet you, I can wait another few months.” She opened her arms. “Can I still hug you?” Her voice warbled just a bit and I couldn’t help but smile.

  “Of course.”

  She lunged in and squeezed me tight before pulling back and staring into my own eyes. She was just too cute and I felt a bit impish, so I leaned in and gave her a peck on the cheek before leaping to my feet.

  “It’s time to go tell Ylsa we came to an agreement, or she’ll find some way to make me miserable.” I sprinted for the open door leading outside, leaving her gaping open mouthed on the bedroll. “Last one to my bedroom has to do dishes for a week!”

  She spent another second or two gaping before snapping her jaw shut and lurching for the doorway. “But I don’t know how to do dishes!”