Chapter 30: Blood Craft

"Before I decide, tell me about your ability."

By now, they were both leaning against the wall, as Ethan squatted in front of it sipping a drink.

After a few moments, Nora replied.

"As you already know, my ability is Blood Craft," she said simply. "I manipulate blood."

"That’s common knowledge..." Ethan said flatly, sipping his drink.

"I can sense it first," she continued. "Living bodies give off a clear signal. The stronger the heartbeat, the easier they are to track. Fear, injury, excitement... all of it is a factor that helps.. I don’t need to see someone to know they’re close if their blood is loud enough."

Ethan listened silently. What she said made a sneak attack sound impossible...

"I can also control it freely," Nora said. "Shape it, harden it, turn it into threads, needles, blades, restraints—Basically anything. The more blood I have to work with, the more options I have.". A pause. "Which means, a few drops are enough for precise work. A serious wound is enough to end a fight."

She paused, then looked down at him...

"Internal control is harder. Influencing blood still inside a person takes more focus and more energy. At my current level I can make it work but it will have it downsides. Full control over someone else’s body is possible in theory but I haven’t reached that point"

"Not yet at least..."

"I’m guessing it also has its downsides..."

"Using my own blood weakens me if I spend too much. Overuse brings backlash."

Ethan nodded, filing the information in his mind. The rumors about her being able to kill everyone in a room suddenly made more sense.

A quiet disruption of the heart or brain didn’t require flashy attacks. It only required skill and proximity.

Thats the thing with rumors though. Some times they’re are just made up and over exaggerated.

Other times, they are often true...

"That’s the gist of it," Nora said. "Now your turn."

He had expected that.

Ethan however, chose his words carefully. "Well, you already know basically everything about me... my storage function, my cleaner control and all that. You should also know that higher quality corpses give noticeably better results."

"Results like what?" Nora raised an eyebrow.

"Stronger bodies, faster response, more control. Recently, I found out that i can maintain more than one ranked undead at a time without the connection collapsing."

He stopped there.

Nora’s red eyes narrowed slightly, "No mention of limits no mention of what happens when you push past your current ceiling."

"I don’t know those answers yet," Ethan said, sipping his drink again.

"Or you know them and prefer not to share."

His mouth rested on his drink. He didn’t confirm or deny it.

Nora accepted the reply and looked at him before she replied:

"My brother used to talk the same way," she said. "He only revealed what he had confirmed to be true. Everything else stayed sealed behind his lips."

A faint roughness in her voice, "It didn’t save him."

"I’m not your brother."

"I’m aware." She looked at him. "That’s why I’m still talking to you instead of treating you like a lost cause."

"Ouch."

"You’re quieter than he was. Less interested in proving anything to people who already want to discard you. That might keep you alive longer, or it might just make you easier to isolate when the MCA decides to make you a target."

Ethan sipped his drink again. "You keep presenting this as some sort of cooperation. What do you actually get out of it?"

"Information, comparison, a living reference point." Nora answered without hesitationm "There aren’t many Necromancers and there are even fewer who are still progressing instead of locked down or dead. If I can understand how your ability develops, I can understand more about what happened to my brother," a pause, "and more about what the academy and the MCA do when they see that kind of growth."

"And in return I get warnings and restricted-class theory. Sure. Very profitable for me..."

"You get the things they don’t put in lectures," she corrected.

The offer was clear...

Ethan looked at her for a moment, then toward the direction of the main campus. Lila would be awake by now. The Beowolf was probably keeping her company...

"Limited exchange," he said at last. "If I have a question worth asking, I’ll find you. If you have information that actually matters, you can do the same. Everything else is optional."

Nora studied him for a long second. Then she gave an approving nod.

"That works," she said. "Very well. Limited exchange. Don’t pretend you aren’t interested, though. You asked about my ability first for a reason."

"I asked because walking into an agreement blind is stupid."

Nora slipped her hands back into her blazer pockets.

"One more thing," she said. "If your growth continues at the current pace, someone above the academy level will notice before the year is over. When that happens, the polite monitoring ends. You should decide before then whether you want any restricted class allies at all."

He stayed silent for a moment. For a brief second, he thought she was just worried about him...

Wait. Wait wait wait wait wait.

Care about him?

He was getting wayyyy in over his head...

Just because one girl confessed to him doesn’t mean another girl would think of him as even the tinest bit attractive.

Focus Ethan. Don’t be stupid. That version of you died the moment you opened your eyes in that auditorium.

He wasn’t going to enter a thought spiral now. This was an important discussion...

Ethan let the sentence hang in the air for a moment, then replied without looking up from his drink.

"I don’t care about the Academy, or the MCA. They can put me on all the tabs they want. I’ll bring it all to the ground."

Nora looked at him, then a small smile tugged at her lips.

Without saying another word, she turned and left.

’This probably won’t end well...’