Since the day she was rescued from the Goblins on that school, Silvia checked the soldier responsible for that daily for fear of letting him die even after such a noble sacrifice, not of her own volition, mind you, but because of obligation. The moment she saw his condition after the battle, everything in her instincts told her that he was already dead and there was nothing she could do to save him, but, when she felt an impure Presence on his body, she knew that was the reason he was not being able to heal himself. Warriors such as him could close their wounds unconsciously with very few of their Aura spent in the process, but, instead, his Aura was being expended and not recovering during the arduous battle against the vile monsters.

  After she removed the impurities from his body, sneakily and secretively because of her reasons, the man started recovering almost instantly, and, with her healing Magic, she stabilized him enough for him to be moved. Truth be told, she could not heal all of his wounds on the spot, even with her healing Magic, because broken bones such as his required stabilization, lest they would be healed on their broken positions and would require to be broken again for correction.

  The reasons for her not wanting to show that she could use magic was very simple: except for the four soldiers that rescued her and the other civilians, there wasn't any other person using Presence that she met, so, by using it without a reason for knowing how to use the Magic, she exposed herself and her secrets, and that was not a good thing to do. She was already risking herself enough by being in the presence of humans and using magic to hide her true features, so she shouldn't risk herself even more by showing off her healing capabilities. Silvia hid her features simply because she also didn't meet any human with silver hair and golden eyes, so, for now, she was stuck being deceptive.

  But the problem of the publicity of Magic was solved yesterday by Arturo Silva, the Sergeant of the quartet that helped rescue her. Now promoted to Lieutenant, and with help with the other two soldiers that could use Magic, he taught the soldiers and civilians on the base how to use Presence, explaining the differences between Aura and Mana and about Body Reinforcements and Magics. Now, almost everyone on the base could use some level of the techniques, with some showing more aptitude than others. So, using this excuse, Silvia 'discovered' that she could heal with her Magic, teaching it to anyone who showed aptitude and relieving the overcrowded medical bay of the base.

  Quickly after the discovery of Healing Magic, the medics and doctors, some who couldn't even use this type of Magic, began researching its uses on the human body, recording all results from the miracle treatment and applying the results promptly to the wounded. It was indeed miraculous, with the now empty field hospital being just an extra accommodation for the dislodged civilians.

  Silvia was now seated on an empty cot in the field hospital, talking to another nurse, the other civilian woman rescued with her, who went by the name of Marta, a simple mother of two who discovered her Healing Magic just yesterday, after an intense training. Martha had a black skin and curly hair held as a bun over the back of her head, with the beautiful features of a black woman still intact even at her age, that Silva guessed was a little over thirty years old.

  The two were the only nurses in the infirmary and were overlooking the only wounded, Corporal Tomás, who was pending an official promotion ceremony to become a Sergeant, with some saying that he would get a medal too. The man was sleeping deeply, with the occasional snore ad unintelligible sleep talk.

  Martha was looking at her hands, thinking deeply, and said "It's hard to think anyone could use this kind of thing. It is like a... fantasy."

  "What, all this Magic thing?", Silvia asked, faking surprise with what, for her, was a normal thing.

  "Yeah.", said Martha. "This is just miraculous for me; it almost doesn't make sense. But this catastrophe too, anyways. We barely survived that encounter with those vile things. If it wasn't for that man, we would be dead for sure, and I am not downplaying the other three that rescued us."

  "Yes, you're right.", Silvia said, suppressing a 'indeed' from leaving her mouth. She was trying to talk just like the rest of the people around her, so she was using a more common and simpler vocabulary. "It is incredible for many reasons. Look at how we emptied this infirmary in just one day, but we are just waiting the sleeping beauty there to wake up."

  The man snored just as if he was waiting for this cue. Martha and Silvia looked at each other and snickered at the unexpected humor of the situation. The man was with his left arm and leg immobilized by casts while metal pins put the broken bones in place, and the members were hung to the ceiling by cords, making him look like a smoked meat piece inside a smoking house. He should be awake by now, but he wasn’t in a coma anymore, just sleeping his wounds away, Silvia was sure, since he was recovering a lot faster than anyone else in the hospital, even if he was still in bed, so the doctors were just waiting for him to wake up to check on his broken bones and remove de casts.

  "Do you want to go see your kids?", asked Silvia, turning to look at Martha.

  "We have been assigned to this post.", Martha said, looking at her, unsure. "I don't think that is a good idea."

  "Look, come on, I am sure they wouldn't mind if you went to see them, it will only be for a couple of minutes.", Silvia said, reassuring the other woman with a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Besides, you are worried about them, right? Their names are Laura and Maria, right?"

  "Yes, Laura and Maria Clara.", the other woman said, pondering to herself. "I guess you're right, I'll go see them. Besides, this shift is almost over, anyways."

  "Yes, go give them a kiss for me.", Silvia said. She didn't even have to use her natural manipulation to convince the woman to go, a thing she disliked very much, she simply used her motherly worries to send her away, and, besides, she liked the children very much, and she herself was worried on their behalf. Martha turned to look back on the sleeping Tomás before going, so Silvia, noticing this, said "Don't worry, I will take care of him."

  In response to this, Martha simply made a sly smile to Silvia, the same one a friend would make when they suspected of love interest in their friends. Silvia simply blushed at the thought and stood up, saying "Ahh, just go already. Don't make me regret suggesting you to go."

  Martha laughed, waving her hand mockingly and said "Okay, okay, I will go. Enjoy taking 'care' of him."

  The emphasis on the word 'care' made Silvia throw a pillow at her, but Martha caught the thing and threw it back, laughing. Martha then turned and left the room, leaving the blushing Silvia alone.

  "The nerve on that woman.", said Silvia said, snorting at the remark. "Imagine me, a noble, with a mere...", she stopped what she was saying, remembering that this mere human saved her life and many others without even knowing them and entered harm’s way to save those who couldn’t save themselves. He deserved every bit of respect she could show him.

  Standing alone in the empty infirmary, Silvia finally got to be herself again. Allowing the Magic to go away, she displayed her hair and eyes in full colors, showing off their silver and golden hues without worrying about prying eyes. The trick didn’t cost her too much Mana, but she felt burdened by it, like warm clothing on a warm day: bearable but uncomfortable.

  Then Silvia got close to Tomás, checking his Presence while doing so. He was an odd case, even for her experience, such as having been able to accumulate Aura even before he woke up the day before, as he was emitting a faint cherry glow now, signalizing that he enhanced his body to a new stage of Aura. His body should also be fully healed by now, with incredible speed too, being almost in healthy condition just two days after entering a coma, with the only remaining procedure being the remotion of the metal pins on his broken leg and arm and the remotion of the casts. He should not face any long-lasting sequelae from his wounds, except for the wide range of scar and the loss of his right eye, things that even the Healing Magic could not heal.

  Silvia looked at the man’s face, watching his features carefully. She was taller than him by a small margin, although he was much bigger than her. His features were simple and one could call him an average man, but his black hair captivated her, with the only thing she could describe it being the color of the night sky. With her senses, Silvia closed her eyes, reaching Concentration and felt the Purest form of the man’s soul: it shone brightly, light a lit torch against a dark background, with warm and comforting rays of golden light emanating from it. It meant that he was alive and well but also that his soul was pure, even with all the acts of violence he performed just days before.

  Silvia opened her eyes and looked at the man’s right eye, lost in the bitter fight against a Goblin. The thing was unrecoverable, being completely destroyed by the monster’s weapon, and was now being covered by a simple dressing that made him look a little silly. The woman wished she could do something about it, but even her couldn’t grow back an organ that was lost.

  She reached her hand forward and stroked the man’s hair, even though she knew he could wake up at any moment, not resisting the urge to comfort him. She stayed like that for a moment, gently brushing the black hair while looking at the man’s sleeping face, but the realization hit her after she noticed what she was doing.

  “What was I thinking?”, Silvia said, out loud. “I am giving reason to the eloquences of Martha.”

  She retracted her hand, turning to go away and sit down to wait for the next shift of nurses to arrive, but something caught her hand and she was forced to turn back and see a woken Tomás gripping her hand tightly while looking deeply inside her eyes with his only good eye.

  “I do love a good cafuné, but now is not the time, miss.”, said the man with a serious look on his face and a fierceness on his eye. “More importantly: what are you? Because I am sure you are not human.”

  ----

  Silva, Olivia and Gustavo were sitting down on one of the many tables of the Provisional Base mess hall. They were eating a meager ration like everybody else thanks to the rationing protocol that the base was under right at the moment. The supplies that the logistical companies brought to the base, such as food, medical equipment, material, ammunition and many others, were beginning to dwindle to perilous levels, so something had to be done. But, after they shared the secret of Magic with the others civilians and soldiers, that shouldn’t be the case anymore.

  After the awakening of the Magic, just like happened with Silva's squad, the civilians and soldiers discovered if they could use Aura or Mana, and in the latter case, what kind of affinity they had. Some discovered affinity to fire, water and its states, wind and earth, those, more common, consisting of the more numerous types of magic, roughly consisting of ninety five percent of the overall Magic users. But, with some still waiting for sufficient tests to determine their real Maric, other Magic users awakened rarer types, such as metal, light, darkness, gravity, healing, and, more importantly, plant and threes manipulation. In the same topic, Olivia was the only one that awakened lightning up until now, so she was feeling a little smug.

  These last ones, the Green Mages, as the people already started calling them, were just three, but more numerous than all of other the rarer types. Their Magic could make plants grow in mere seconds if they wanted, but their real usefulness was the fact that they could apply that to vast numbers of crops and feed the entire base, the only real downside was the fact that the plants suck the nutrients out of the ground in the same speed they grow, leaving behind a baren and almost infertile land.

  Now, they were conducting research with Water and Earth Mages so they could produce food safely and in sufficient quantities for the inhabitants of the Provisional Base, but it would still take time. For now, the best bet some of the most skilled people in the handling of plants had been hydroponics, since the plants would suck all the water on the tanks and grow faster, the only question remaining being how to create a fertilizer.

  That said, Silva was stuck sadly eating the mess hall simple and small portion of food, which was beans with rice, a single fried egg, some lettuce and tomato salad, water to chew it down and a black bananada as dessert. Although he didn't like lettuce and bananada, he didn't afford to not eat it or throw it away, since sustenance was becoming harder to come by, with some saying that, if the Mages didn't solve the food problem soon, they would face starvation in no time.

  Gustavo and Olivia also ate their portions with crest fallen faces, playing boringly with their empty plates, trying to have some semblance of entertainment in this gloomy atmosphere. Trying to cheer them up, Silva said "What is it kids, didn't like your food?"

  Olivia and Gustavo side eyed him, with Olivia saying "No grandpa, just worried with Tomás."

  Gustavo smirked at the first remark but quickly returned to his saddened face. "The medics said he should be up by now, but he keeps sleeping.", he said.

  "He is alright, probably just extremely tired.", Silva said, looking at the two with fatherly eyes. "He will be here in no time, trust me."

  Just as Silva was saying this, a commotion started in the entrance to the mess hall. A man in patient clothing was entering the hall followed by a nurse that was trying to hold him back. The woman tried uselessly to stop him from moving forward but he, although shorter, was much stronger than her, so she was just sliding on the floor in front of him. Silva stood up and directed himself to the two, hoping to stop the man and send him back to the infirmary, but as he got closer, he noticed who the man was. He now could hear the contents of the nurse's complaints.

  "Officer Tomás, by medical order, return to your bed right now.", the nurse said, angrily and out of breath. "If you are hungry, you will receive it on your bed, no need to come down here."

  "And I said I am okay and I don't require any more medical attention, thank you.", Tomás said back. "Now, if you would let me take some food so I could get on with my day, that would be nice."

  "That is not possible, sir. They just removed the cast and pins from your broken members, you shouldn't put your leg down in any way.", the nurse protested. "Please, let's go back and-"

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  "Tomás!!", Silva screamed from the other side of the room.

  Tomás turned to the sound of the voice and saw Silva standing next to a corridor of tables. Without saying a word, he started heading to his friend direction.

  "Wait, you can't...", the nurse tried to say. Without what to do, she sighed and simply followed the man begrudgingly.

  The two soldiers got close to each other, now with Olivia and Gustavo turning to look at their short-lost comrade, and clasped their hands in a resounding handshake. Pulling the other man closer to a hug, Silva lifted the shorter man from the ground in a caring gesture of friendship, and said "Tomás, my guy, how are you? Feeling better?"

  A little red from the bear's hug he was getting, Tomás said "It is good to see you too, Sarge, but, no offense, I would be better if you let me down."

  Realizing the face of horror of the nurse and the problems of bear hugging a man who almost had all of his bones broken just days before, Silva let Tomás down and slapped his face. "Sorry, got a little carried away. I am so happy to see you my boy, you can't imagine.", he said. "But it is Lieutenant Silva now, mind you, although you are a Lieutenant now, too."

  "What?", asked Tomás, not comprehending, but he was cut short by

  Olivia and Gustavo also hugging him from the sides.

  "Corporal, I thought we lost you, man.", Gustavo said, tear in his eyes.

  "Yes, Tomás. Don't go doing things so reckless again, okay?", Olivia said, almost crying too.

  "Guys, let's not hug me right now, okay?", Tomás said, grunting with discomfort. "My bones are still a little fragile."

  "That's what I am trying to tell you, but you insisted on getting out of bed, your stubborn prick.", the nurse said, Silva now recognizing her as Silvia, one of the civilians they rescued three days before. She was as beautiful as he remembered.

  "Now, don't be like that, my dear nurse. I just want to eat something with a little more sustenance.", said Tomás.

  "Oh, leave that to me, sir, just sit down and I will get you some food.", said Gustavo, moving out to request a plate of food from the mess hall cooks.

  “Gus, while you are it, can you ask them for egg shells, please?”, Tomás said, prompting Gustavo to turn at him. He nodded with his head. “See if they could boil them in water and make a powder for me. It is for my bones.”, Tomás continued, with Gustavo giving a thumbs up and continuing on his way.

  The group sat down except for Silvia, who was still protesting for Tomás presence there. "Tomás, please, you are going to put me in trouble. Let's go back to the infirmary.", she said, getting close to Tomás.

  "Oh, I prefer not, my dear nurse.", Tomás said, slyly. "I would like to catch up with my folks here, they seem… battered, perhaps? I don’t know. Why don't you sit down too? You must stay close to me to assure my health, but you also have some explaining to do, don’t you?"

  Silva and Olivia turned to look at the woman with doubtful faces, for sure wanting to know why she would need to explain them something. The woman, annoyed and defeated, sat down next to Tomás and crossed her arms over, saying “So I sat down. Now what?”

  Silva was in a loss of words. Why would a nurse had something to explain to them? About what? Olivia had the same face as him, and the two looked at each other trying to decipher what was happening between the two in front of them. Olivia was the first to speak up.

  “I don’t understand, Tom.”, she said. “Why would she need to explain anything to us? She did anything wrong?”

  “I didn’t do anything- “, Silvia tried to say, but was cut by a raised hand from Tomás.

  “Now, about that, let’s wait for Gustavo to return with my food.”, Tomás said, standing up and serving himself a cup of water from a water fountain close by, the other three waiting in an awkward silence while he drank three cups and served another one. He sat back down, put the cup on the table, and continued. “Why don’t you two fill me in about everything that happened while I was blackened out?”

  Olivia looked at Silva, who nodded at her, and said “Well, me and Gus got a promotion to Seargent, so, yay me.”, she mockingly said the last part. “Silva got a promotion to Lieutenant, just like you, but they are waiting for you recovery so they can promote you and give you the Medal of Brazil’s Blood and the Combat Cross, or something, I can’t remember. By the way, we got a Combat Cross, too. Currently, we are conducting search and destroy missions in some Goblins’ Encampments across the city to try and regain territory, but we are not being successful. They hide in the sewers and the underground metros and go out during the night to hunt… us. They eat human flesh, Tom, a lot of human flesh. The civilians are scattered and are requesting help all the time, but we can’t rescue everyone, we are stretched too thin. The best we are being able to do is sending the instructions about Aura and Mana trough radio so they could defend themselves.”

  “Those vile bastards are well organized, Tomás.”, Silva said, clenching his fist. “Even if we go at them with superior firepower, their numbers are simply too much for us to handle, and they are spreading fast. The other soldiers and new recruits are holding their ground with the new tricks we taught them, but morale is low. And, on top of that, just to make things worse, we are under a rationing protocol here because of low food supply.

  “Some of the mages who can deal with plants are trying to solve the problem, but we don’t have fertilizer, so, even if we had seeds for them to make grow faster, we don’t have the nutrients required for the plants to bear fruit and produce healthy food.”

  “There is a fertilizer problem?”, asked Tomás.

  “Well, yes. I just told you that.”, said Silva. Suddenly he looked at Tomás, remembering something. “Wait, you grew in Minas Gerais, right? In a farm? Don’t you know anything that we can use as fertilizer?”

  Tomás thought for a few seconds, and said “Well, it is not the most pleasant thing in the world, but when I was young and money was short to buy fertilizer from the store, my father built an outhouse in a way that he could harvest our waste for compost. If treated right, we can use human waste for that.”

  The other three looked at Tomás in disgust, an irk building on their faces just by hearing the proposition.

  “What? We were poor, for fucks sake.”, said a flabbergasted Tomás. “Right now, we could use animal waste, as it is more common method, but, guess what? We don’t have any animals around beside us. Just by putting the thing in a compost box is enough to sterilize some of the bad bacteria on the shit, so it is not too much of a hassle, and if we turn some earth with it, we can make fertile soil in no time. In the future, and with the proper setup, we could even make biogas and even some simple explosives out of it. You just have to take it or leave it.”

  Silva suppressed a gag while he absorbed all of the information in, regretting asking Tomás this question just after he was done eating. Olivia and Silvia didn’t fare any better, with Silvia releasing an audible gag after hearing the whole proposition.

  “I will…”, Silva tried to say, uncomfortable with the idea. “Why don’t you take the idea to the agriculture guys later? I am sure they will love it.”

  “Okay. I will do that.”, Tomás said, smirking at the scene.

  “Are you guys okay?”, said Gustavo, finally arriving with a tray containing Tomás’ food. “You seem a little unwell.”

  “It is because Arturo here asked me about fertilizers and I told him about using- “, Tomás began saying.

  “Leave the guy out of it, Tom.”, said Olivia. “It is already enough that you gave such a precise description to us.”

  “What did he told you?”, Gustavo asked, putting the tray down and sliding it to Tomás. “Today’s menu is rice, bean, fried egg, lettuce and tomato salad, and bananada as dessert. I got an extra egg for you, courtesy from the cook. Ah, they will bring your powdered eggshells later, they said.”

  “Thank you, Gus, you are a life saver.”, said Tomás, readying his fork to dig in. “Let’s not concern you with that, shall we? And Silva, food waste also can be used as fertilizer, just need a little time to compost to make it right.”, Tomás said, smirking again.

  Silva glared daggers at Tomás for the joke, but took it nicely for respect for his comrade. Tomás ate the simple meal with great joy, chewing the food carefully. While he was at it, he remembered why he made Silvia come down here anyways.

  “So, Silvia...”, Tomás said, finishing chewing before continuing. “Why don’t you tell our friends her about what you discovered about my wounds?”

  Silvia got anxious hearing the proposition, but the man encouraged her with his eyes.

  "Well, while I was healing Tomás I noticed something wrong with his Presence, so I investigated a little.", the woman said with a shy voice and her head low. "I removed some impurities from his Aura while he was sleeping and that increased his healing rate tenfold. And just now, after he woke up, he told me about you guys eating the Drake's blood and meat, especially you, Lieutenant Silva, who was grievously wounded."

  Silva nodded, remembering the incident. "But what about it? Is there a problem about it?", he said.

  "Well, yes.", the woman said, now awkwardly messing with her own hair. "That thing is not natural for your body so I fear that it can cause problems in the long run. Hell, it caused problems in the short space of time since Tomás used it, imagine in the long run. So, our wounded and stubborn friend here asked me to take the thing out from you three. What do you say?"

  "Well, if it is that bad, I don't mind.", said Gustavo. "It's better for us anyways, right?"

  "Yeah, I agree.", said Olivia, looking back and forth from Gustavo and Silva, waiting their reactions. "So, how do you take it out?"

  "Oh, it's simple.", Silvia said, raising a finger in an explanatory way. "You give me your hand and I check your energy so I can isolate the impurities. After that I simply take it out from you and free it in the air around. Don't worry, from what I saw, the environment can deal just fine with the impurities."

  "Okay. You can start with me.", said Olivia, extending her hand forwards. Silvia took it and closed her eyes.

  For everyone else, the two were simply touching each other, but, for Olivia, the woman was agitating her Presence around her body like a gold seeker would mess with a river bank to find a single gold nugget, and, for Silvia, it was like putting her arm inside an electrified bucket of water and search for a single metal pin while her body went numb with the electricity. Both were exhibiting uncomfortable faces, but, after some two minutes at best, Silvia broke touch and retracted her hand.

  "I didn't find anything,", she said, looking perplexed, "but let me check in your comrade here before I can give you a verdict."

  Extending her hand to touch Gustavo, the woman repeated the process with the young man. Felling the same discomfort from having his Presence searched, Gustavo recoiled and almost broke contact initially, but was able to endure. Just like with Olivia, delving inside Gustavo's Presence was an uncomfortable experience, one like getting her whole body inside an extremely hot bath and search for a single rice grain while she cooked alive with the thing. In even less time than with Olivia, Silvia broke contact and opened her eyes, some sweat building up on his brow and face.

  "You two are okay, I guess.", she said after a long sigh. "You probably transformed the impurities in Mana inside your bodies before it could do you any harm, but I don't think you should eat the thing again, just to be sure."

  After slapping Gustavo on the shoulder, Olivia said "Yay, Gus, we are not poisoned."

  The young man smiled and looked at Silva, saying "Now you, sir."

  Silva looked at Silvia with worry in his eyes, not wanting to touch the woman in front of him in no way, shape or form. He feared what she might uncover inside him.

  "You don't have to worry, Silva.", said Tomás, noticing the uneasy in his friend. "She doesn't bite."

  Silva extended his hand reluctantly, letting the woman touch him with the uttermost care. Silvia reached her hand and pressed her Presence inside the man, immediately felling his whole being with her own Presence. Differently from Magic users, an Aura user enhanced his presence in the real world, while the other reached out to the immaterial mana and used esoteric manipulation. For this reason, the feeling Silvia had when entered Silva's body was probably the same a drill would have when drilling a hollow iron sphere to see its contents: an arduous task that left both the intruder and the intruded under stress. But, exploiting Silva's amateurism, Silvia reached his core and was able to sense his Aura in its wholeness, revealing that the man had successfully absorbed the impurities inside his core and was now in the process of assimilating the Drake's residual Presence for his own use, turning the Aura he produced in a mix of Drake and human. While she did it, she noticed the predatory gaze from the new side of Silva looking through her Presence, sensing her.

  Silvia retracted her touch and opened her eyes, moving her hand away from the man and recoiling a little. She looked at him.

  "You shouldn’t have done that, Lieutenant.", Silvia said, horror in her voice "Those creatures are evil, one must not mess with their energies without knowing the consequences. If you could absorb it, you could have spelled it out, too, but now it is a part of your being forever. When did you learn how to absorb external energies, anyways?"

  Silva's face was red and he was probably a little angry. "That's none of your business. Why do you know any of this information, anyways, huh?"

  Silvia was about to respond an unruly retort, but the one who spoke was Tomás.

  "If you won't explain, she won't explain, Silva.", he said, eying his friend cautiously. He knew exactly how Silvia knew about any of this, but he was definitely more worried about his friend now. "Is he alright, nurse?"

  Silvia was red and puffed air from her nostrils, demonstrating her own bottled rage, but, in the end, she sighed and spoke.

  "He is alright, for now, but the Lieutenant will have to watch his temper now and control his new draconic part with great care, lest he will lose his sense of self.", she said, looking directly at Silva's eyes. "It was an extremely reckless thing what he did, tempering with something he doesn’t understand, now he will be forever cursed to quell down the urges inside his mind. You heard a voice, right? You shouldn’t have listened to its sweet words.”

  Olivia was looking back and forth between the woman and Silva, sensing the tension building up. She was now worried about what the two could do to each other, since the aggression was palpable in the air. She didn’t understand half the things said, but she knew Silva had done something wrong by absorbing the blood of the Drake they ate a few days back, but the why of it was still unclear to her.

  But, as she took a look at Silva’s eyes, she finally understood what Silvia said: the man’s eyes had the characteristics of a reptilian, with the vertical iris being the most predominant one. Olivia slowly got away from her superior officer, as did Gustavo, noticing the same thing in his eyes. The two stood around the man, getting spells ready in case he tried something.

  Silvia glared back at the officer, herself red with rage, but she didn’t transpire any other sign that she would resort to violence, she simply stood there, her arms on the table, looking firmly at the man in front of her.

  A snap of finger came from Tomás and Silva looked at him, making the standoff break. By now, he was finished with his food and was solely focusing on the man in front of him with a neutral expression.

  “Firstly, sir, I don’t recommend giving in to your rage and doing something funny, alright?”, Tomás said, clenching his fist, a subtle reminder of his destructive capabilities. “Secondly. Remember when I used this thing on you guys and I told I was not sure it would be safe for any of us, but the four us agreed and used it nonetheless? For that I am sorry, but I was desperate, we were desperate. Because of this, sir, know that I will understand anything you throw at me and I will help you deal with whatever is going on inside your mind right now, you just have to tell me, sir. So, do you need help, Arturo?”

  Silva looked at Tomás, his draconic eyes full of rage, but after some seconds, they turned back to normal and started becoming watery with tears.

  “It… it came to me in my sleep.”, he said, tears rolling down his face. “At first, I was able to resist, but, after we got into that battle and I saw how wounded you was, I craved for strength to protect the people, so I gave in. It promised me power like I never held and I foolishly believed that I could control this power, but I was wrong. Just now, it was screaming for me to kill Silvia and I don’t know why. I don’t want to feel this way anymore and I know I fucked up, but, believe me, I don’t want to hurt anyone. So how? How do I control this thing inside of me?”

  The man said the last part looking at Silvia, who was still looking a little angry. All of this was beginning to draw attention from the other bystanders in the mess hall, who were looking at the small group with curious eyes. Olivia, noticing this, shooed the away, telling them to get on with their lives and leave the crying man alone.

  Silvia didn’t say anything for some seconds, instead, she just closed her eyes and breathed deeply. After some seconds, she opened he eyes back up and said “If you are willing to trust me, I am willing to trust you. The first thing you need to know is that you will have to be strong minded because that urge will follow you for the rest of your days, and I am sorry to tell you that. As for how to control it, come see me regularly and we will work out how to deal with it, okay?”

  The man was crying copiously now, but nodded with his head. Tomás stood up, crossed to the other side of the table, put a hand over his friend shoulder and looked him in the eyes. He then hugged the man, who reciprocated the gesture, and so did Olivia and Gustavo, all the while the three giving small slaps on the man’s back. They remained like that for some minutes, with Silva trying to regain himself.

  “Uh-huh.”, Silvia cleared her throat from across the table, looking to one of the side entrances of the mess hall, and Tomás quickly picked the hint up, turning to look to where she was gesturing.

  From across the mess hall, a Major was walking down the rows of tables and approaching the five the five together with a compact guard of honor made from four other soldiers. When he got close to them, he stopped.

  “Loving scene, but am I interrupting something?”, he said, looking down on the people in front of him. “Corporal Tomás, is it? Shouldn’t you be in the infirmary?”

  Silvia wanted to kick Tomás under the table, but, unable to, she cursed him silently.