"Look deeper. The second life force is hidden by the first one, like a faint melody can be easily covered by loud music." Lith said.

"Wait, are you saying that you can hear life forces as well? G.o.ds, that"s a relief. I was starting to think it was a sign of insanity." Quylla said with joy, having finally found a kindred spirit.

"What do you mean? I thought that every talented healer could."

"Manohar is the only one who has no problems admitting that he hears life forces and as you know, being like him is not considered a good thing." She chuckled, making a second attempt at Scanner.

"Good G.o.ds! This is amazing." Quylla said after finally finding Lith"s second life force. "It looks like that of an Emperor Beast, but theirs isn"t surrounded by a black sphere, nor do they appear to be battling. I"ve never seen anything like that before."

Nor she would ever be able to. Scanner required physical contact and usually, those who touched an Abomination wouldn"t live to tell the tale.

If the human life force looked like a mix of lego blocks and erector set pieces, while the Emperor Beast life force looked like a burning star, the Abomination"s looked like an empty black sphere.

"When exactly did you visit an Emperor Beast?" Lith asked. Even he had been able to make the a.n.a.logy only after treating Kalla"s failed attempt at Lichhood.

"Light magic is something most beasts are terrible at, so when they get injured, the Lord of the forest sends them to the academy to be treated. I always wanted to understand why magical beasts can use a different kind of magic and I think the answer lies in the difference between our life forces. They are nothing alike."

"That"s because we are two different species." Lith thought. "The difference lies in the beast being born partially Awakened but limited to two elements, whereas we humans can always use all elements but we have no innate affinity to them." Lith thought.

"Your condition is truly unique. Your two life forces complement and strengthen each other. This probably explains why you always recover so fast." Quylla said over his musings.

"Meaning?"

"Whenever you take damage, your human life force tries to fix it, like it happens to every other person. What makes you special, is that your other life force is capable of helping and nurturing the former by sharing part of its energy.

"Which means that, at least in theory, not only could it lead to fixing your human life force over time, but also that you might actually live as long as a normal human being. Twice the life force, twice the life span." She said.

"I"m sorry, Quylla, but I think that"s not the case. My life forces are intertwined, when one runs out the other will die as well. Also, if you take a good look at them, they share the same energy.

"I haven"t got double the amount of life force, it just flows from one form to another. Otherwise the crack I sustained while saving Protector would have already healed." Lith sighed.

Quylla used Scanner on him again, this time focusing less on the marvel that a patient with two life forces was and more on what the implications of such a thing could be.

"You"re right. It"s like two bottles sharing the same liquid. Yet it still makes no sense." Quylla was suddenly at a loss for words. She loved Lith like a brother, yet the fear of the unknown started to seep inside her heart.

If the second life force wasn"t a disease, nor a consequence of saving Protector, then it opened the question about what Lith was. At first, the fear of dying at the hand of the Odi hadn"t left any s.p.a.ce for doubts and then, once they returned home, her affection for him had trampled her caution.

But now that that Quylla was forced to face the bits of truth that Lith could offer her, she didn"t know how to react. On one hand, she was supposed to be scared of the unknown being sitting in front of her, but on the other hand Lith was always Lith.

His strange abilities didn"t change the fact that he was her first crush, or all the time they had spent together, or the several times he had risked his life to help her, just like against the Odi.

Yet she couldn"t just shrug everything off as if nothing had changed.

"Do your parents know?" She asked.

"No. It"s not the kind of thing that you can tell lightly. Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad. Do you remember when Orpal said all the time that I"m a monster? Well, guess what, he was right." Lith replied with a sad smile.

"That"s not true, you"re not a monster!" Quylla blurted out before she could think about her words, surprising even herself.

"You"re very kind, but we both know that most people would put me on a lab table just because I"m stronger than the average Joe, let alone if they knew I"m whatever this is." Lith waved at his body.

"Does Phloria know?"

"Of course she does. I would have never dragged her in a relations.h.i.+p without letting her know the mess she was walking into."

"It was really brave of you. Of both of you, I mean." Quylla wondered if she would be able to accept as a boyfriend a man-something hybrid.

"Nah, it wasn"t bravery, at least on my part. Once I realized that Phloria was falling in love with me, that things were getting serious, I revealed myself to her in the hope to scare her away."

"Wow, that"s a d.i.c.k move if I ever heard one. Almost as bad as breaking up with her with a letter." Quylla said with a chuckle. For a monster, Lith was pretty d.a.m.n human.

"You"re right, but you know me, d.i.c.k move is my middle name. She deserved someone better, someone normal. Yet she accepted me anyway and kept my secret for all this time. You have no idea how much it meant to me."

"Were you planning to tell me, sooner or later?"

"No. I didn"t want to risk one of my only four human friends. Beside you, Phloria, Friya, and Selia, I"ve no one. I didn"t tell my parents for the same reason, because I"m afraid of their reaction." Lith said.

"So, no one beside me and Phloria knows?" Quylla didn"t know whether to be scared of flattered by the burden she now had to carry.

"Protector knows about it too. As I told you, I"ve no control over the transformation. It also happened when I was trying to save his life, otherwise I don"t think I would"ve told him either. Why do you think I chose to work alone as a Ranger?

"It"s to stay away from people as much as I can."

"What about Kamila?" Curiosity was getting the better of Quylla.

"She doesn"t know it, yet. But since we"re almost together for a year, I think it"s time to break up or move up. With all that has happened between us, I can"t let her delude herself or make plans for the future without knowing anything about the real me."

Lith had no intention of making Protector"s mistakes nor to play with Kamila"s feelings. He had never planned to grow so fond of her and the idea of losing her hurt like h.e.l.l, but hiding the truth would have only delayed the inevitable.