As I dart from table to table, I wonder how Yuna was so good at it. It’s not like it’s hard to give people food, but it’s surprising how much it’s not just that..

  Taking orders, giving them to Lumi, cleaning tables, noticing when tables are out of water, or when they’re ready to pay, or noticing right away when someone else sits down, the table numbers… I mean sure I can do it, but it doesn’t mean it’s easy.

  Yuna made it look easy. I almost wish I could do it just as so.

  Finally, the amount of customers slow, and I can take a few minute break in the kitchen with Lumi.

  But the moment I step back there, I’m helping her without even thinking.

  “Sal, isn’t it supposed to be your break?”

  Chuckling, I continue helping her. “Eh… this is a lot easier than working the front, so I’ll gladly do this for my break. I mean, I get to spend time with you.”

  Shaking her head with a little laugh, we continue working together, our tails swaying a bit higher in each other’s company.

  …that is, before I notice the solemn mood on her face, and her tail lowering a bit.

  Taking the donuts out of the fryer, I give her a concerned look… well, as concerned as I tend to look anyways. She can read my subdued expressions regardless. “What’s wrong?”

  As she sets up the donuts in a to-go box, she speaks. “It’s just… Yuna, again. I know it’s stupid, to worry about if she could be in danger of the arcane and stuff… I mean, she has Oraxia. She’s arcane, that should help keep her safe, right?”

  Frowning, I don’t respond. No, it’s not like that, I know it. It could mark her as a target for the Queen, my old boss, but it could also backfire in a more tragic way.

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  Noticing my hesitation and frown, she turns to look at me. “...right?”

  Looking away, I pace around the kitchen, hands idle but tapping. “No, not at all. Having Oraxia with her could be dangerous alone, by making her a target for people like the Queen… my old boss who killed Reta… or others like cults dedicated to the spiders themselves.”

  Still unwilling to face her, my tail flicks back and forth very quickly, as fast as a hand on a keyboard. “But Oraxia herself is a danger. She’s a juvenile Soul Weaver. If she were to fully develop, and mess with her soul, she’d be changed. Soul damage does more than hurt, it changes who you are fundamentally. It’s like the DNA of your personality, of your mind.”

  More and more concerned looking, she steps up to me and stands in the way of my pacing, arms crossed. “But it’s Oraxia, we raised her, she’d never hurt any of us, especially Yuna!”

  Sighing at her naivety, I just shake my head. “You don’t get it. Things like that… aren’t human. They just aren’t. Put it this way; she knows what we are, what we want, and wants to help us assimilate as well as possible. If she thought our depression was an issue, and she could weave souls, she might just weave the depression out of us.”

  “So? That’s great, no risks of hurting yourself!”

  Glaring at her, I step a bit closer, making her crane her head up to look at me. “Is it? If she did that to me, I’d remember my brother’s death, Reta, everyone, but feel nothing. No guilt, no sadness, I’d go crazy just on that alone.”

  My heart pounds in my chest, this conversation reminding me of exactly how I used to feel about spells and the arcane and Mirja. “Or maybe she cuts a bit too much off, suddenly I can’t feel sad ever. And maybe she intentionally does that, thinking like a child that sadness should never be felt, and just removes it from us, only for us to kill ourselves out of the pain of not feeling pain!”

  Panting from getting so… upset at the woman I love, she just looks up at me with a look of fear and apprehension.

  Gritting my teeth, I step away from her. “...sorry for blowing up on you. You hit a sensitive spot.” Before waiting for her response, I walk out to continue my job.

  And not seeing Lumi’s distant, regretful expression as she watches me go.

  ___

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