Soul Forging.

'Survival… That's why we had to get strong… The difference is that he actually did it.'

I had spent time with Finlo before, but I never would have called us close. In fact, other than our time in the stable, I couldn't think of a time where we were alone together. Of course, given we were the same age, that might have been intentional.

Thinking about it, there were actually a number of times he had been called away, or where someone else would take his place doing certain chores.

'He was born weak?' It was hard for me to imagine. Sure, he wasn't larger than life like my brothers, but he was still strong, and incredibly agile. "How'd you do it anyway?"

"What, get strong?" He chuckled. "I'm afraid it won't work on you. You would need training in magic and alchemy, or someone who had a lot of it. That's a pipe dream in this country."

"Oh. Well, in that case can you make me taller too?"

He squinted at me, confused.

I rolled my eyes and relaxed again. "You said it was a dream right? If it's a dream, I want to be taller. Oh and give me lots of muscles and curves too. I want to be just one inch taller than Lu at all times so I can rub it in."

He snorted, covering his mouth with a fist. "Siya you look fine, don't worry about any of that stuff. It's all overrated anyway."

I shrank against the wall, trying to hide my face as I felt it turning red again. 'So… He doesn't think I look like a kid?'

"Come on, what are you embarrassed about now?"

"Nothing." I said, turning away.

"Oh. Sorry." He cleared his throat. "You should really get that poison checked out, its making your face turn all red."

It was obvious he was teasing me.

"That's not funny…" My voice was muffled by his cloak as I continued hiding, hoping he wouldn't tease me any further.

He let out a small laugh. "It's kind of funny."

I stayed turned away, huddled up under his cloak. "Ok… maybe a little bit."

He let out a long sigh. "So you really want to know about half elves?" The serious tone in his voice from when he first mentioned it had completely left, and even as he approached the topic the mood still seemed lighter somehow.

I slowly turned around, making sure it wasn't a trap so that he could tease me again. "Only if you don't mind talking about it…"

"He clasped his hands behind his head as he looked up at the dome ceiling. "Let's see. I don't have pointy ears, that's true. It's actually not that uncommon for half elves to look human, of course, some look more human than others."

His speech was slow and gentle, easy to understand, and it had a wispy air about it, like he was about to start weaving an epic tale.

"Normally we age at about one third that of a human. I'm a special case though, because of the amount of stress put on my body my life span was shortened by two thirds. Can you guess why?"

'If people really don't like half elves then…' "Was it to make you more human?"

"I'm sure that was part of it. It's actually a lot more complicated though. Half elves are special because their human blood allows for this procedure to work. Anyone that's fully one species would either die, or end up aging so fast they might as well have."

"What about humans?"

"Same result, my elven blood is what helped the aging speed increase to the limit of that of a human."

"Interesting." I was sure any further explanation would have gone straight over my head since I didn't know much about magic or alchemy. "Seems like I was right, you really are special."

For a brief moment, I thought I saw him turn a little red. 'No, I must just be imagining things.'

"Right, well at any rate, that's why I look so old."

"So that procedure that made you strong, it also made you age faster?"

"Yea, It's called soul forging. The basic Idea is that they force a ton of manna into your body and that causes you to either die, or have a sudden massive increase in strength and dexterity."

"Wow…" 'and he survived?..."

"Don't you ever think about trying it ok… You're not a half elf."

"Please, if I wanted too kill myself I wouldn't go through all that trouble, I would just get some rope… No, actually it might be faster if I just stabbed myself in the neck." I ran my finger across my neck with a half hearted grin.

His eyes narrowed as all semblance of a smile instantly vanished from his face. "That's not funny."

My blood ran cold and chills covered my body. 'He actually said it?' I didn't know for sure, but I had a feeling even my father would have laughed at that joke. From what I knew, he had the same dark sense of humor Mara did. "It's… Not?" I muttered, quiet as a mouse.

"Promise you won't actually do any of those things ok." His eyes were deadly serious, angry even…

"O-ok, I promise."

He let out another sigh, leaning back against the wall, seemingly getting lost in his own thoughts.

I did the same, my mind going almost completely blank. I was always the one that made jokes about me killing myself, or dying, but I had always secretly hoped someone would tell me to stop… That it wasn't funny…

Out of everyone though, I never expected it to be Finlo… I always thought he was just as dark as I was. Nobody ever said it, but it was pretty obvious the so-called circus he was a part of was more like a ring of assassins, or at least something similar.

"It… wasn't even a little funny?" I mumbled, my voice getting even smaller as my mind continued to drift off. 'I should feel bad, I made him angry… So why… am I smiling?'

He didn't turn, or even so much as open his eyes. "No."

The abrupt response made me feel on edge, like the conversation had not actually ended.

I awkwardly tried to keep talking, only managing to get out a single word. "O-oh…" My voice was still shy, and it echoed some of the sadness I felt from having made him look at me the way he did. Despite all that I felt a wide smile on my face.