Sorcery - 18

Nicole was visibly uneasy with the response, even slowing her pace a bit, but forced to speed up again when Nancey tugged her forward. "Instead of seeing the sources I can feel where they are. It's actually harder to distinguish between them close up, unless I'm touching them. I can feel sources that I'm touching, or that other people are touching, but I don't have a clue what they look like." It made a bizarre sort of sense, but, Nicole wondered, what exactly was her connection to the Demon Wreath.

Nancey continued, "I can feel the clumps of Demon Wreath plants, I mean, I can feel the other plants too, less distinctly, but I can feel those Demon Wreath plants and I can get us pretty close to them without putting you in too much danger."

"So, you're probably getting pretty curious to know about my immunity and how I'm connected to the Demon Wreath and I will tell you, but I need to shift your aura now." Nancey stopped and looked back at Nicole.

"Now?" Nicole asked.

"Yeah, because we're in the middle of a clump and I can't take you any deeper without serious risk."

"How can that be?" Nicole asked. "I haven't seen anything other than the weaker variant of Demon Wreath this entire time."

Nancey's brow furrowed briefly, then she relaxed and started to explain. "I've heard it gets harder to see colors the longer you look at the sources-"

"What are you talking about, the sources are plenty colorful, and they certainly don't fade the longer I..." Nicole trailed off as she realize Nancey meant the colors in regular sight. It was true, the longer you watched the sources, the more muted regular colors became, but it was hard to notice it when the sources were so vibrant and colorful.

Nicole glanced down at the ground and noted that the grass was a mute gray color with a pulsing green source that absolutely throbbed with energy beneath it. She glanced up to the trees around them and noted the presence of Demon Wreath, but they were the weaker variant with a weaker aura, only really visible when you looked at the blue flowers. Except Nicole was noticing that the blue flowers were actually a muted gray that she imagined to be blue. She looked for the flowers to see their aura and realized that most of them were closed into tight little buds.

She searched around some more and then she spotted some open blooms. The auras were identical to Nancey's. The trees around here weren't the lesser variant. They were the more potent variety. The ones that were closest to her were barely exuding an aura, but the aura they exuded could not have been but the tiniest shade different from her own aura. Her breathing slowed, she widened her focus to all of the plants immediately around her.

Nancey noticed her change in posture and began to act in case Nicole panicked and tried to channel a source. "I'm doing it now, don't be alarmed, it's going to be mostly the same as when we were standing outside. It wont take that long, but you'll probably notice when it starts to feel a little different."

Nicole was watching Nancey's aura. The shift was faster this time. In a moment their aura's matched. She noticed this time that it was a bit like drinking an alcoholic beverage. Except the warm that spread over her began at her hand instead of in her throat. The vines around them appeared to visibly shake, but before Nicole had time to register it and panic, she felt another shift. She felt her own aura shift this time, and it made her feel oddly out of sorts.

"You'll quickly adjust to the different aura, but you'll still feel that it's different," Nancey explained.

Nancey met her eyes and for a brief moment and Nicole wondered what could have made Nancey so sad that she shed had shed a tear. She felt that she had plenty of time to weigh the implications of the aura shift. She had realized that while a compulsion might temporarily cause her to make poor decisions, ultimately, after the compulsion wore off, she would be able to recognize the choices she made as not having originated from her own volition. So anything that Nancey might attempt to coerce her into doing, she'd at least know after the fact.

"Remember," Nancey cautioned her, "Don't touch any sources. You're masked, but if you try to pull on a source, I don't know that I'll be able to hold it while we're moving."

Then a thought occurred to Nicole, "You made my aura match yours, instead of just making yours match mine. The compulsion before worked because my aura and will couldn't tell the difference between our auras. Voicing your thoughts was no different than me expressing my own thoughts."

Nancey turned away and continued to lead them through the forest, but nodded in agreement.

"Look at me for a moment?" Nicole asked. Nancey turned and looked at her briefly. She turned away as they continued to make their way through the forest. She smiled as the implications set in.

She weighed her choices and rolled the questions around in her mind. She realized she felt a little wan about the entire situation. It was a little intoxicating. To the point that while she acknowledged the danger of where she was, she was certain the aura trick, as long as it remained in effect, would keep her safe.