The sight before her was actually worrisome.

Which surprised Aria. In a way.

Not what was in front of her, while still surprising it had been one of the possible outcomes in her planning; what she did not expect was the fact that she felt great worry as well as guilt for the girl. Because it was too much of a coincidence for this state to not be in correlation to her experiement last evening.

“Ariaa…” The sweaty red lump groaned from the bed.

Not that she regretted it per-sé, it was simply that this outcome didn’t really sit well with her, making her wish it had gone maybe a bit better. But those things were rather out of her hand... well she could do something.

However, not only was her knowledge in this area limited, she also wanted to avoid using her abilities more than necessary.

“Ariaaaaaaaa…” She grumbled out again, louder and more pressing then before.

“I’m here, don’t worry.” Aria said while she began to apply freshly wetted pieces of cloth to cool her roommate down, even if just a bit. Then she started to wipe away some of the sweat that covered practically her entire body.

Dawn was really not in a comfortable state right now. True, the fuchsia girl had seen much worse and this didn’t seem like anything even remotely life-threatening, but there was no denying that it was bad. Her friend’s body was burning, atleast it felt like that, which had warranted her to throw away both pyjama and covers as well as requiring cooling.

As unpleasent as this situation was for the both of them, although one had it exceedingly worse, Aria could not lie that it had provided her with a few more interesting pieces of knowledge.

Simple fact was, Dawn was not nearly as worse in a condition, as her temperature should put her in. Before she had realized this, Aria had almost, almost, panicked when she had tested her roommate’s temperature. Normally, these levels would be harmful and uncomfortably close to being lethal for the patient. But even with her own limited medical knowledge, Aria could safely say that Dawn was not at that state.

The only explanation was that the red-skinned girl was extremely resilient to either heat or sicknesses and afflictions in general. Some would maybe say that this would be unnatural, impossible even. But she knew better then that. Also it may even explain a few things, afterall Dawn had never really seemed to be bothered by the cold weather outside. No, she had been found completely naked and soaked in the cold, yet no frostbite, no problem. And the few other times that Aria had seen her in the snow, she had never seen Dawn complain over the cold or react to it, no matter how frosty it was.

“Mhrmm… waddeeer?” The subject of her fascination mumbled before her. Aria immediately complied with the request and carefully guided the filled glass and the straw to the appropriate position.

Dawn however had apparently no patience and simply turned in the bed, pressing herself upwards on one arm so she could try and take the glass with the other. Not that Aria would just let her do that, otherwise the chances were high that her impromptu patient would lose grip on the water. Or lose it again through mouth and nose.

Quickly, the unrelenting hold of the fuchsia girl emerged victories and Dawn had to content with the glass moving to her lips without her own guidance. She was incredibly thirsty, but Aria more or less forced her to take slow and measured sips of the cooling liquid, instead of gulping it all down in one go.

Her friend’s method was probably better, but she really did not have the mind to care about that, not when her brain felt like it wanted to boil itself into soup. Or maybe it was cooking itself soft and smooth like grill cheese.

Mhmm, grill cheese…

Aria had quickly left the room to get another full bottle of water, after the current one was now completely empty. When she returned though, she saw that her friend had simply fallen asleep on the bed.

Quietly putting the bottle down, safely out of reach and sight from the bed of course since she did not want Dawn to hurt herself by trying to get it, Aria immediately left the room again.

She would check in about half an hour. Right now she had to think about what she should do.

“Alright Dawn.”

“Hmmhrr…”

“Does something hurt?” Aria asked. She was kneeling on the bed, right beside her currently incapacitated friend. She had opted for a sleeveless shirt, simply because she wanted to have her arms completely free.

“Yeeeees!”

“Where are you hurting?”

“Everywhere is where I’m hurting.”

“Anywhere more specific? C’mon, give me something specific.”

Dawn just grumbled and flopped around in her bed so she presented Aria her backside. Twisting her arm she pointed it to an area around her spine. “There.”

Aria just rolled her eyes, not like the girl before her could even see her really. Reaching down her hands began to carefully prodd and rub the cardinal red skin right over the spine. Up and down she went, trying to find the specific spots where her friend’s flesh seemed to be especially sensitive.

“Is it here? Just give me a sign if it starts to hurt or gets uncomfortable.” She said, a softness creeping into her voice on its own. Dawn just gave a slight headshake, so she moved on.

“Hrghnnn!” As soon as Aria started to touch the flesh directly inbetween the other’s spine and left shoulder blade, she got a reaction from the other girl. Out of curiosity, she lifted her hands and touched the same spot on the other side of Dawn’s spine.

“Hrghnnnnnnnn!”

“Yep, looks like I found one of the problems. Hang on, please, I will try something.” Reaching over to the nightstand, she grasped one of the bottles she had brought into this room. Pressing some of its gel-like content into her hands she began to rub it onto the area between her friend’s shoulder blades, simultainiously massaging the sensitive skin carefully.

The effect was not really immediate, but Dawn’s strained groans started to melt into a more content sound. Kinda like a sort of purring. That was also why she did not complain about the discomfort she felt in those two spots, for to her it felt like Aria was rubbing over bone only barely covered by skin.

Her caretaker however took notice of these two bones nubs, noting them down in her own brain. Under the guise of massaging the tender spots she could feel how the bone strained the skin just a bit, which confirmed it as a recent development.

This would add possible transmutation as a side effect. Though she could not be certain just now.

“Alright, where else?” Aria asked when she finally finished.

“Head is boiling, hand and feet are itchy and weird. Throat’s dry.” Dawn mumbled halfway into her pillow. Her eyes were already threatening to close, it looked like she was about to fall asleep again.

Just to test it, Aria carefully took one of her friend’s red hands into her hand. They did feel a bit weird, she would have expected them to be swollen maybe, but they felt more hardened in a way; almost a leathery texture, though not quite as hard. Especially at the fingers. So, Aria started to slowly massage them as well, one hand at a time, while she looked for any other areas of discomfort, both to ease some of the pain and gather more valuable information.

Dawn was sleeping, thankfully. It made Aria’s work so much easier. Predominately because she would not have to clear any unwanted questions, or act against them.

One hand was hovering only a hairlength over the sweaty red skin of the sick girl. The other one though, that hand clutched the crimson gem on its long chain as it pulsated gently.

Aria’s lips were constantly moving to form words, though little sound escaped her mouth. Her eyes were sometimes closed, then they opened and darted around, taking in the body before her and focusing on specific sections.

When she had entered the room last time, Aria had immediately recognized the new sense in the air. That familiar energy was even now saturating the space around the bed and indeed Dawn was the new source of it.

While this spoke in favor for the house lady’s theories, it also created even more questions.

Magic emits from a being, object or location wielding it or where it has been used or when it has been stored. Aria recounted as her hand swept over the body again. So what of that is happening here?

As far as she could ascertain, Dawn’s current state was caused by the sudden influx of energy that she had received the previous day. This alone would not have worried Aria overly much, if the fact would not remain that this could have serious and permanent physical changes. And she had kept eyes, and fingers, open all day to spot any signs of such transformations, but there had been nothing concrete. Yet.

Sure, some areas had given the first signals of transmutation such as hands, feet and the spine, but she had not been able to make out anything significant.

This recent change had prompted her to finally make a more thorough inspection, something that Aria had to admit she should have done a bit early. Though, the results were both appeasing and confusing.

Dawn had not suffered any damages or undergone major physical changes, just slight variations. Everything was relativly healthy and her bodily functions all sounded as they should.

The only thing that Aria noted, and she was by far not the expert in this practice, was that Dawn’s body seemed a bit more unstable. Nowhere near enough to cause any problem, otherwise she would have noticed way sooner and be far more worried.

No, if she was right, then Dawn was simply more malleable in her biological structure. Someone like this could be essentially molded by a being with sufficient expertise and abilities in transmutation magic. Though the possibilities for such elluded Aria, since she had pretty much zero knowledge in that specific art, she could imagine a fair bit.

But as it stood right now, she had to continue observing, because otherwise there would be not a lot of changes.

Not that that was really a bad thing in her mind. She already felt partially guilty for bringing her friend in this state. And nothing else would happen; Dawn would simply get better while her body got familiar again with the new energy.

The only exception would be if an outside influence would reach and mess with her. And Aria would be damned to Tartarus and back if that happened.

Author's Note

Just a short one today.
But do not worry, next chapter will be longer and much more interesting.
Afterall, Aria may not let any influence from outside reach Dawn, but there are more sources for that that she cannot control.

Hope you enjoyed