Lexie felt better in the late afternoon, at least enough to help Dewie with his pathways.

They both sat cross-legged on the floor while Xena lounged on Lexie's bed. Lexie held Dewie's hands for several minutes, evaluating his pathways and trying to find what was so wrong with them. In the end, she got nothing. It felt very regular, though to be fair, she'd only done stuff like this with Cara and Urmas, so maybe there was something else she was missing.

It would have helped if she'd gotten to evaluate Tate's pathways too, to see exactly what the difference was, but that hadn't worked out.

"Yeah, I don't know," Lexie said, releasing his hands. "I'm not sure what's wrong because I can't sense it. Maybe I don't have enough experience with pathways to tell for sure."

Dewie took it like a champ, nodding despite the disappointment in his eyes. "It's okay. Are you still feeling sick? You don't look so good."

"Yeah, I'm fine." She shot him a smile. She also looked at Xena, who was oscillating between watching curiously while also watching an old AFC game on her black pad.

"Hey, Zee?" Lexie said.

"Yeah?"

"Do you mind if I get a feel of your pathways too?"

Xena met her gaze and blinked. "You mean to compare it to Dewie's? Sure."

Lexie didn't want to lie to her friend (any more than she had to anyway), so she said, "Actually, it's not just about that. I'm trying to help Jett…he's this kid in our class who's semi-possessed by an Eldritch creature, and I'm trying to help him deal with it better."

"Oh, I know Jett. We met once, but he tripped trying to get away from me," Xena said. "It was kinda funny until Lionel explained what happened to him. Then it was just sad."

"Yeah."

"Is that why you've been so interested in Eldritch stuff lately? Because of Jett?"

"Yeah, that and my Uncle."

Xena stewed on it. She shrugged. "I guess that's fine. I wanna help." She hopped off Lexie's bed and walked over to take Dewie's place as he shifted over for her.

When Lexie held her hand, Xena asked, "Am I supposed to do something?"

Lexie shrugged. "Not really. Unless you can somehow use your belief powers without it affecting us too badly."

"Absolutely not," Xena said instantly. "Lionel says that, for now, my powers are like a switch, not a dial. It's all or nothing."

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Lexie would have liked to know exactly how Xena's belief magic worked, but she would settle for just getting a general feel of her pathways, to see if she was made of 'light' and what that felt like.

She closed her eyes and focused.

"This is weird," Xena said.

"Shh. I'm focusing."

"Hurry up. Your hands are clammy."

"Yeah, well, your hands are sweaty."

"They are not. Creep."

"Dewie, note down that Xena called me a creep today. You know what that means?"

"Xena, you can't be mean to her when she's sick. It's against ADM rules," Dewie said.

"She just said she wasn't sick," Xena countered.

"I am sick...of hearing you talk. Now, shhh. Let me focus."

Xena grumbled but eventually fell into silence. Lexie started tracing her friend's pathways slowly, trying to see if they were made of light.

It was a strange, layered experience.

First, Lexie felt light, like a mild glow emanating from the pathways, even though Xena herself didn't glow. Her pathways were also far more malleable than any pathway Lexie had ever felt, courtesy of Xena's s-rank mana capacity.

There was something else that she felt, but it wasn't in Xena's pathways. It was an indescribable sensation, good but also a little discomforting. It unsettled something inside Lexie, and it took a second for her to realize that it was the Eldritch part of her that was moving around.

What is this? Eldritch-Lexie wanted to know. Real Lexie wanted to know too, and after tracing the pathway from one end to another, she still couldn't make sense of where that sensation was coming from.

And then it hit her…

In form, it felt parallel but opposite to the souls of the Eldritch creatures Lexie had interacted with.

Could it be?

Lexie reached out with a different sense, trying to connect to Xena's soul. Touching a human soul was different from touching an Eldritch soul. With the Eldritch, who were mostly made of soul, the soul was thicker and had form. Human souls were formless and harder to reach.

But Lexie knew the second she touched Xena's soul because the Eldritch inside her hissed, and she felt a little nauseous.

She yanked her psyche away, but she'd already proved one thing. The strange sensation, or power, that she felt was coming from Xena's soul.

Did souls have mana?

Lexie had never heard of anything like that before, but then again, she'd never checked. She'd certainly felt mana pulsing from Xena's soul, lots of it. That was where the depth of her power was coming from, and not from her pathways.

So what on earth did that mean?

Lexie was interrupted by the sound of the door opening and closing.

"Dewie, you're not gonna believe what I just scored on our–" Jace's voice and footsteps paused. "Why are those two holding hands?"

"Because one of my best friends is a creep," Xena said.

"Dewie…" Lexie murmured.

"That's two strikes, Xena. According to the ADM rules, the third strike attracts a penalty."

"What's ADM?" Jace asked.

"Association of Dead Mothers," Dewie explained. "It's our club, 'cause all our moms are dead."

Lexie finally opened her eyes to find Jace looking so appalled and shocked that his jaw dropped.

"Oh my God. I'm so sorry," Jace sputtered, and his expression was so dismayed that they couldn't help it. The members of the ADM shared a look and promptly burst out into mad giggles.

***

Lexie took a break for the next few days from dream adventures with Naem.

The emotions of the Trechtl were still very much imprinted in her mind, and she needed to sort through that first. She wondered if every creature would have a backstory for her, or if that only happened because the Trechtl was a human-Eldritch variant. Also, would she be meeting other Eldritch variants, like a Fae-Eldritch or Orcan-Eldritch? Did those come about by the same mechanism as the Trechtl?

Additionally, how were regular, pure Eldritch made?

You have only just broken the surface of what it means to be truly Eldritch.

That was what Naem had told her during their last meeting. But what else was there to discover? Right now, essentially, what she understood was that being an Eldritch was a life of constant chaos and pain of some sort, an eternal darkness both physical and metaphysical.

And Lexie's soul line seemed to be focused on pain, anger, fear, and loss.

Was it because those reflected her strongest, negative emotions? Especially loss. As much as she tried to distract herself, she couldn't forget Logan, or Uncle Max, or even her mother sometimes. The poltergeist had lost far more than her, sure, but Lexie couldn't help but compare herself to the creature.

If her Eldritch essence continued to grow until it took over her body, would she become like that? Would she never feel happiness again?

There was no way Lexie would want to continue her existence as a hollow shell of rage and sadness. But she didn't want to die either.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Was there a less bad option? Was there a merciful option for her?

Lexie genuinely didn't know. She didn't know if Aiden also knew about all this or if he knew what it meant for her to become Eldritch. She didn't think so, given that he didn't seem super panicked about her slowly turning into one. Was Naem keeping it from Aiden? Why? How?

Or maybe there was more to this, like Naem said. A light at the end of the tunnel.

She hoped so.

Lexie was going to talk to her dad about it eventually, probably when she saw him again, but she wanted to sort through her own emotions first. She also threw herself into work and research, trying to suppress her Eldritch side and stop the growth somehow.

It all started with making that card for Jett.

Lexie spoke to Jett at length the next day to figure out exactly what the creature he'd summoned was.

"It called itself Albion when it spoke to me," he said.

"It spoke to you?" Lexie asked. "As in you could understand it?"

He nodded. "Yeah. After I did the ritual."

That must mean that it had shared a soul touch with Jett. Maybe it was bonded to his soul, which would certainly make things harder for him.

"Alright. Tell me what else you know about it?" Lexie asked.

"Not much. It can get really strong when it's threatened, but otherwise, it's just kinda there. Oh, and it likes to steal things and cause a mess sometimes. Just to piss people off."

"What has it stolen so far?"

He thought about it. "It likes jewels. Expensive ones like the SeaHeart. It hoards it under my bed."

"I see. And you said you found out about it from your dad's archaeology book?"

"Yup. An ancient civilization used to worship it, apparently, and believed it would make them richer."

Lexie nodded. She spent much of the rest of the day researching the creature, but a lot of that information was from fables and superstitions surrounding it.

Lexie decided to meet Naem in the dream realm and figure out if there was more to know about the creature.

Naem was understanding of her need to take a break from meeting other Eldritch, and he was also willing to answer questions about Albion.

"Albion is not its real name," he said. "If it's who I think it is, then it is a Dyst-Ich. A gnome and an Eldritch hybrid. It is a distant relative, but not on your direct soul line."

"So like a cousin?"

Naem's lip twitched. "I suppose. Why do you need to know?"

"It's bothering a friend of mine. It's attached to him in some way. Do you think I can get rid of it? Or suppress its energy?"

"There are ways," Naem said. "But I'm not sure which would be best."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if my calculations are correct, you possess more authority than this creature in the general Eldritch sphere. You could simply dominate its soul and command it to leave, but then you might face issues if it were to seek assistance from an Eldritch on its soul line with more authority than you. Then, of course, I would have to step in, which might expose our association to the rest of the Eldritch world and probably even to the Fae."

"Yeah, I don't want that," Lexie said. "Also, I'm not sure if making it leave entirely will be the best thing. The heroes left it there, and it might have been for a reason. I just want my friend to have more control over it so it doesn't possess his body when he's asleep."

"Hmm. Typically, Dyst-Ichs are driven by greed. The flavor of greed is called *Kascht*. It's a whimsical avarice that takes particular pleasure in taking something valuable to someone else. It also loves to be envied."

"So that's their light." Now Lexie just had to find a way to kill it.

"Yes. Right now, it's enjoying its ownership of your friend's soul. You will need to tether it to something else it finds just as attractive as your friend's soul and siphon its mana out that way."

"Speaking of souls and mana…do souls have mana?"

He hesitated, then answered, "Yes. Back in the times of the Guardians, it was said that when they gave magic, it was sometimes imbued in the soul rather than the body. That way, magic could be passed on to descendants."

"I didn't know that," Lexie said.

"There are a lot of things you don't know."

Lexie didn't like that, so she frowned. "So this soul magic...that might have something to do with why only Lightlarks can use Light magic, right? Because their magic is passed on through the soul?"

"I think I'm not allowed to answer that question."

So that was a yes. "Okay, fine. Tell me more about this Albion creature, then."

Naem seemed content to get back to that topic. "If I were in your shoes...here's what I would do."

First, Naem took Lexie to the Albions' home on the Eldritch realm, a chaotic mess of a cave, filled to the brim with diamonds, rubies, and pearls. It was not on her soul line, but it was empty, so Lexie could Naem take dominance anyway.

Naem also had her crafting a card there, with a pathway she didn't quite understand. She noticed that part of it felt like the one she'd crafted for Urmas' card, where it constantly siphoned mana, but most of it was patterns she'd never seen.

She made Naem explain it to her, of course, and he told her that the pathway would attract and weaken the magic of the soul as long as the card was active.

"How?"

Naem thought about it. "It's too complicated to explain. And since it's a human-effective card, it won't work indefinitely, only when the eldritch soul is exuding too much mana, which means that it has increased its activity enough to take over your friend's body. So have the boy activate it when he's going to sleep."

"Wow." She stared down at it. "Thanks."

Naem thought about it. "It may not work, but if something were to work the way you've described it, it would be this."

"But it won't kill his light?"

"No." Naem shook his head. "That I cannot help you with."

Can't or won't? Lexie thought, then decided that she would let it go. After all, Naem was allowed to have his secrets, especially secrets that protected him.

Lexie made Naem assure her several times that the card would not harm Jett or work on any other soul except the Eldritch. His exact response was, "Human souls aren't strong enough to even be attracted to that card, and are not greedy enough to be trapped."

Still, after Lexie woke up from the dream, she shared the whole thing with her dad, and Aiden confirmed that the card probably wouldn't affect Jett's soul as long as it wasn't targeted there.

After looking at the pathways Naem had drawn, he thought that the card had been crafted with some illusion magic to lure the creature into a world that looked like his home. It might work, or the creature might be too smart for that, but it wouldn't hurt Jett.

"Just be careful not to touch the boy's soul," he said. "And monitor everything that's happening."

"Alright," Lexie said.

She added a single pathway to the beginning of the card to link this card to another one with a kill switch, just in case.

She needed one more component, though, before she saw Jett. Xena.

When everything was ready, Lexie texted Jett to come over to her lab. He arrived within five minutes of her text.

"Hey," he said with a small smile.

"Hey," she said back. "You're early."

"Well, when someone says they're going to take a demon out of you, you try to make it there as soon as possible. H-hey Xena."

"Hey," Xena waved at the boy from her spot on Lexie's desk. Lexie noticed that Jett was nervous and shifted his seat a little away from Xena before he sat. Her light energy bothered him. Good.

"Alright," Lexie said. "First things first, I need to explain to you that this won't exactly be an exorcism. I don't really have the tools or the knowledge for that yet, so at this point, what we can do is weaken him whenever you're going to sleep."

Oh." He looked a little disappointed by that, but he perked up and said. "How do we do that?"

"With this?" She materialized the card in her hand and said, "It's a soul-weakening card. What I can do is tether this card to the creature's soul, and you activate it whenever you're asleep. The card can then detect when the soul's activity is exceeding its threshold. When it does that, it will draw out the creature's mana, weakening it."

"Alright." He nodded. "So, how do we get it to tether to the card?

"You just hold it. Xena is also here, and she's gonna move closer to you and make the creature uncomfortable. It's gonna wanna jump out of your skin and seek solace in the card. Then we'll tether it to the card; that way, the card will have its magical signature."

"I don't get it."

"It's hard to explain. Bottom line, Eldritch energy goes into the card, and there's less of it to bother you. Final warning, though: This might not work. It won't hurt you, but it might not work. But if it doesn't, we'll try something else. It's just one of the many ideas I had."

"Okay. I'm willing to try." He paused. "Although you should know that one time I went to a priest for a seance, and Albion really didn't like that. He possessed me for a whole week until he was tired, and he made life hell for the priest, too. Basically, he robbed the parish dry and framed the priest. They thought he was an elderly cat burglar."

Lexie and Xena shared a look.

Xena shrugged. "I'm still willing to try if you are. Worst case scenario, I get Lionel."

"I'm fine too." Lexie had authority over Albion, so she could establish it, and if it came down to it, Naem could step in for Lexie, too. "Although I really hope that doesn't happen. I'm too young to go to jail."

"Yeah, me too." Jett swallowed. "Alright. I'm ready. What do you have to do?"

"Just hold it," Lexie said. "Close your eyes and breathe, and don't move away from Xena when she moves closer to you."

"Okay."

Lexie gestured with her head to Xena to do it, and she did.

"He really doesn't like her," Jett said nervously. "What if he goes crazy and breaks stuff? My dad doesn't make that much money, and I can't afford to replace these tools."

"It's okay. The Academy is paying for it. Or they will be once I shield the research under a totally normal pretext."

"Spoken like a true evil scientist, Lexie of the Villain Alliance," Xena said.

Lexie gave her the rare middle finger, and Xena smiled proudly.

"Alright. Let's try." Jett shut his eyes and inhaled. Xena shifted closer.

At the same time, Lexie closed her eyes and reached out to sense Jett's soul. She materialized her kill-switch card now, ready to activate in case anything went wrong.

She sensed the Eldritch energy and could tell when the creature's soul separated from Jett's and reached out to his hand, trying to activate the card.

Then the card shattered.

Lexie's eyes shot open. Something went wrong. That happened too fast.

Jett opened his eyes.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I don't know. What did you feel?"

"I think…" His face was twisted in confusion. "I think maybe it worked for a little bit, but then–"

He cut off when his head suddenly slumped forward, eyes closed.

Lexie was instantly alarmed and ran to him. "Jett? Jett, can you hear me?"

Jett didn't respond. He was passed out.

"You said it wouldn't hurt him!" Xena said.

"My dad told me it wouldn't." She turned back to Xena in panic. "Get someone."

"I'll get Lionel." Xena ran out hurriedly, so much so that she didn't close the door all the way.

Lexie got off her feet to close it, already pulling up her system screen to call her dad...

But then she heard Jett's voice behind her.

"Ah, that's better. I thought she would never leave."

Lexie spun around.

Jett was wide awake, but he looked different. He sat straighter, his eyes brighter and his smile more sinister.

"Nice to meet you," he said. "Cousin."

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