“My baby hates me.” Shao sniffled.


    “She doesn’t hate you.” I chuckled.


    “Then why does she cry whenever I hold her?”


    As soon as I took our baby, she immediately quieted down. After just a bit of bobbing up and down, she slipped off to sleep and was now happily unconscious. Her mother, who was at her wit’s end, was now sobbing hysterically.


    “You’ll get the hang of this. You know you can call on the other girls. Raissa, Miki, Eliana, and Carmine have all been through this. Carmine had twins! You can do this.”


    “I-it’s the blood on my hands, isn’t it?” She asked. “She can smell the evil on me.”


    “Not exactly. I know that there is miasmic, shadow, and darkness magic. Each one, while similar, is also different.”


    She nodded. “It’s true... I use shadow magic, where someone like Salicia uses darkness magic, and Astria is miasmic. Miasmic magic involves controlling miasma and corrupting mana. It’s like an infection that tries to eat mana and create miasma. Darkness is a direct inverse to light. It attempts to counter mana by destroying it. It’s the absence of mana. Shadow magic is different though. Without light, there are no shadows. Without a soul, there is nobody. Shadow magic is about blocking mana and using the product of the hindrance to producing an illusion of darkness. It uses mana against itself. Does Master understand?”


    “I think so.” I frowned. “But what does this have to do with summoning my soul?”


    “One of the main tenants of shadow magic is the separation of the body and the soul. The way I can slip into shadows and disappear is because my body and my soul aren’t necessarily in the same place at the same time. My soul becomes a conduit for my body, and my body becomes a conduit for my soul.”


    “And you’re saying I could master shadow magic?”


    “I’m saying if Master this aspect of shadow magic, you’d be able to use your soul in ways you never dreamed!”